Here are some of the best questions for a teacher survey about workload and planning time, along with tips for how to create them. If you're ready to build a survey faster, you can generate your own teacher workload and planning time survey using Specific in seconds.

Best open-ended questions for teacher survey about workload and planning time

Open-ended questions help us unlock authentic feedback and deeper context. They're perfect when you want to go beyond “yes/no” data, especially for understanding the complexities of teachers’ daily work and personal perceptions.

Below are 10 of the most valuable open-ended questions to include in a teacher survey about workload and planning time:

1. What are your main challenges related to workload during a typical week?

2. How does your current planning time help—or hinder—your ability to prepare lessons?

3. When do you find yourself working outside of contracted hours, and what are you typically doing?

4. Which administrative tasks take up the most time, and how do they affect your teaching?

5. Describe any strategies you use to manage your workload and stay organized.

6. Can you share a recent example of a stressful workweek? What contributed most to your stress?

7. What changes would have the biggest impact on your work-life balance?

8. How do collaborative tasks (like planning with colleagues) fit into your schedule?

9. In what ways does limited planning time affect your interactions with students or classroom outcomes?

10. What support or resources could help make your workload more manageable?

The data shows why this is crucial: teachers in the U.S. average 54 hours per week, much of it on administrative chores, with up to 65% reporting workload as their major stressor [1][3]. With open questions, we can surface root causes and actionable suggestions, not just numbers.

Best single-select multiple-choice questions for teacher survey about workload and planning time

Single-select multiple-choice questions are useful when you want quick, comparable data or to quantify trends. They can also jump-start the conversation—respondents are often more comfortable picking a predefined option before digging deeper later with open-ended or follow-up questions.

Sample single-select questions with response options:

Question: How often do you feel you have enough planning time during your regular workday?

• Always

• Often

• Sometimes

• Rarely

• Never

Question: Which aspect of your workload is most challenging?

• Lesson planning

• Administrative tasks

• Grading

• Meetings

• Other

Question: How satisfied are you with your current work-life balance?

• Very satisfied

• Somewhat satisfied

• Neutral

• Somewhat dissatisfied

• Very dissatisfied

When to follow up with “why?” If someone selects “rarely” has enough planning time, that’s your cue to dig deeper. The best follow-up: “Why do you feel your planning time is insufficient?” This often uncovers barriers that might otherwise go unnoticed.

When and why to add the “Other” choice? Always offer an “Other” option when you can’t be sure your list covers every possibility. Follow up with, “Can you describe what ‘Other’ means for you?” These responses often bring out unique, unanticipated pain points or insights.

NPS survey question for teacher workload and planning time

Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for customer loyalty—it’s surprisingly powerful for workplace satisfaction, too. By asking, “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend teaching at our school/district to a colleague?” and following up with “why,” we learn about workload, planning time, and broader satisfaction in a way that’s easy to benchmark and track over time.

You can instantly create an NPS survey for teachers about workload and planning time—tailored for actionable feedback.

The power of follow-up questions

Great teacher surveys don’t just ask one question and move on. The real gold appears when you follow up based on previous answers. Read more about automatic AI follow-up questions to see how dynamic probing reveals true context.

Specific uses AI to deliver smart, in-the-moment follow-ups, just like a live interviewer. This saves everyone time: no more endless email clarifications, and much richer feedback, all inside a single conversational survey. Here’s how it could play out without follow-ups:

• Teacher: “I’m overwhelmed with paperwork.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you give an example of paperwork that takes the most time?”

With this extra nudge, you go from a vague problem to actionable specifics.

How many follow-ups to ask? For each main question, 2–3 follow-ups usually deliver full context, but it’s smart to let respondents skip to the next topic once you’ve got a clear answer. Specific’s settings let you customize this exactly.

This makes it a conversational survey— not just a form, but a dynamic, two-way dialogue that feels personal and boosts response quality.

AI survey analysis, qualitative insights, text response summaries— analyzing open-ended and follow-up responses is easy with AI—Specific lets you instantly review and synthesize teacher feedback no matter how much text you collect.

Try generating a survey just to see how much these follow-up questions level up your research.

How to prompt AI for generating great teacher workload and planning time survey questions

Want to use ChatGPT or a similar AI to come up with great survey questions? It’s easier than you might think. Start with an open-ended, clear prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Teacher survey about Workload and Planning Time.

But you’ll get even better results when you add more context. For example, describe your school, your goals, or the challenges your staff faces:

Our school serves grades 6–12 in a diverse urban district. We want to understand why teachers feel overworked and how we can improve planning time. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Teacher survey about Workload and Planning Time.

After you have a question list, ask the AI to organize them by theme for easier review:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then explore your highest-priority topics using another targeted prompt. For example, if you want to dig into “administrative workload” and “lesson planning,” you’d write:

Generate 10 questions for categories Administrative Workload and Lesson Planning.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys harness AI to create a smooth, chat-like feedback session. Instead of a rigid form, teachers respond to questions and instantly get conversational follow-ups that feel natural, clarifying, and personalized. The difference between traditional and AI-powered survey creation is huge:

Why use AI for teacher surveys? With an AI survey generator like Specific, you skip the guesswork—surveys are instantly tailored, follow-ups are smart and automatic, and analysis takes seconds, even with hundreds of open-text replies. See how to create a teacher survey easily in our guide. If you want to start from scratch, try the AI survey generator for any topic or audience.

Specific delivers the smoothest conversational survey experience available—both for survey creators and for teacher respondents. Feedback sessions become more engaging, insightful, and actionable.

See this workload and planning time survey example now

Get actionable teacher insights faster—see how a conversational AI survey brings deeper feedback, context, and clarity to all your workload and planning time questions. Elevate your survey with instant follow-ups and fast, AI-powered analysis.