By Ian Fagan and Julian Fagan
For many years, teachers rewarded quiet, well-behaved students and discouraged chatter during lessons. In a busy classroom this made practical sense: interruptions disrupt learning and teachers need to manage time effectively. But in trying to suppress disruptive noise, schools can unintentionally teach students to stay silent about what matters. When young people stop speaking up, teachers miss the chance to build meaningful relationships and to notice when a student needs support. That silence makes it harder to identify and help students who are struggling with their wellbeing, learning, or personal challenges.
Open, honest communication is difficult for everyone, and it can be especially intimidating in a school setting or a crowded online classroom. Many students worry about being judged, looking foolish, wasting others’ time, or asking a question that seems trivial. Despite repeated encouragement to share, a persistent silence often remains around emotions, confusion about lessons, fears, vulnerabilities, achievements, hopes and dreams.
If students regularly told teachers how things really were, school communities would look very different. Teachers should welcome opportunities to get to know their students personally. The central question is how to begin and sustain that dialogue across a whole school.
Social media may hold a key piece to the student voice puzzle
Social media offers an important lesson: young people will express themselves if they have an engaging, easy-to-use platform. While social media has many well-documented harms, including amplifying anxiety and enabling harmful behavior, it also demonstrates students’ readiness to share personal stories and be heard. The challenge for schools is to borrow the positive aspects of social media—accessibility, low-friction expression and regular engagement—while protecting students from the risks that public platforms can create.
Instead of broadcasting to a large, unpredictable audience, schools benefit from creating safe channels that are designed for listening. Regular, anonymous or private online check-ins can serve as a listening tool for teachers and school leaders. These brief, recurring surveys allow students to reflect on how they feel and give staff timely information about patterns in student wellbeing, engagement and learning.
Design questions that encourage honest Student Voice
When schools adopt regular check-ins, the way questions are written matters. Question design influences the depth and authenticity of responses. Open-ended questions in particular give students space to share thoughts and emotions in their own words, which helps teachers understand context and respond with targeted support. Below are 26 open-ended prompts that schools can use to amplify student voice and make check-ins meaningful.
- Is there anything your teacher doesn’t know about you that you would like them to know?
- If you could be any historical figure, who would it be and why?
- Describe a quality you admire in your best friend.
- What are you grateful to your parents or friends for?
- Who is your idol and why?
- What is your biggest challenge right now, and how can I help?
- If you were the principal, what would you change about the school?
- If you were the principal, what would you have done differently during an important event (for example, during COVID-19)?
- What lesson have you learned that you would like to share with others?
- What is one quality you like about yourself?
- When was the last time you felt really frustrated, and what triggered it?
- How do you feel about making new friends?
- When was the last time you felt really anxious or worried, and why? (For younger students, consider using the word “worried” instead of “anxious.”)
- Do you feel the world is a fair place? Why or why not?
- How do you cope with failure?
- What don’t you like about school?
- What, if anything, concerns you about your future?
- What is one thing you wish you were better at?
- How do you feel about your life outside school?
- Why do you go to school?
- What haven’t you tried yet that you would like to try?
- Do you feel it is easier, the same, or tougher to grow up in today’s world? Why?
- What is one thing you regret?
- How do you feel about what you are learning at school?
- What is something you have changed about yourself this year?
- Do you feel social media has made us more connected or more disconnected? Why?
Careful question design is only one piece of an effective check-in system. Frequency, confidentiality, response processes and follow-up actions are all essential to turn student responses into meaningful support. Regular check-ins work best when staff know how to interpret answers, when there are clear protocols for following up with at-risk students, and when students see that their voices lead to concrete responses.
About the authors
Julian Fagan reflects that academic achievement means little if a student struggles internally. With his twin brother Ian, he co-founded a wellbeing software company aimed at giving every student a voice that is heard and acted upon. Their platform is used by schools to check in with students regularly and inform timely support.
Ian Fagan is an entrepreneur focused on education and youth mental health. After launching his first business shortly after high school, he turned his attention to student wellbeing based on both personal experience and the growing need for early intervention. Together with Julian, he developed a software solution that helps educators monitor student wellbeing and respond to students who need extra support.
This article originally appeared on edCircuit.