Performance-Focused Learner Surveys: Using Distinctive Questioning to Get Actionable Data and Guide Learning Effectiveness

by Will Thalheimer

The Book
Performance-Focused Learner Surveys provides a research-inspired approach to surveying learners, gathering meaningful data, and reporting results with clarity. Based on years of practical experience, this second-edition expands on the original classic. It shows how to achieve three goals in (1) measuring learning effectiveness, (2) producing actionable results, and (3) sending messages that nudge action.

The Second Edition
The second edition includes improved question wording, double the number of candidate questions, and additional chapters on comment questions, stealth messaging, improving survey response rates, tailoring questions and more.

The Benefits
Based on wisdom from the science of learning, Dr. Will Thalheimer has created the first book on surveying learners that aligns learner surveys to the learning research. With optimism, humor, and great writing, Thalheimer provides a complete and rigorous guide for surveying learners. This second edition will help trainers, instructional designers, teachers, professors, elearning developers, and chief learning officers build virtuous cycles of continuous improvement—while convincing organizational stakeholders of the benefits of improved survey methods. Evaluation and survey experts will benefit as well by considering the practical benefits of Thalheimer’s distinctive questioning approach.

Testimonials from Thought Leaders

Quite simply, the BEST book on learner survey creation and utilization (even better than the first edition), Period!
-- Karl M. Kapp, Professor of Instructional Technology, Bloomsburg University

With this book, Will Thalheimer provides an important contribution, particularly in showing how to ensure that learner feedback provides a true gauge of on-the-job success. The book is research-based, comprehensive, and based on real world experiences.
-- Jack J. Phillips, Chairman, ROI Institute

This is evidence-based practice at the master level.
-- Julie Dirksen, Author of Design For How People Learn

Will Thalheimer does a great job of telling us why the current practice doesn’t work and replaces it with thoughtful and sensible advice for feedback tools that will provide valid and actionable data.
-- Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Director, Brinkerhoff Evaluation Institute

The insightful (and inciteful) work that aptly skewered current approaches now provides an even more valuable alternative that both helps us now and educates us to do better going forward. A valuable contribution indeed!
-- Dr. Clark Quinn, Author of Learning Science for Instructional Designers

Will Thalheimer, PhD, is one of the definitive myth busters in our field, and he does it with great precision but also humor. It’s good that he’s explaining the things we need to know about learner surveys, because there are just too many fairytales. We must be held to a higher standard.
-- Patti Shank, PhD, Author of Write Better Multiple-Choice Questions to Assess Learning

In the second edition of his paradigm-busting book, Performance-Focused Learner Surveys, Will Thalheimer continues his quest to help learning professionals make training evaluation more valuable—not just for proving training’s value, but as decision support for continuous improvement.

Genres: Nonfiction

334 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 7, 2022

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a pretty niche book but it has completely transformed the way I construct and think about learner surveys. This book + Thalheimer’s LTEM framework for evaluation have radically changed the way I think about my work.

[Priya Tanwar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book introduces a new framework but heavily criticizes the Kirkpatrick model, even though it draws significant inspiration from it. Almost every chapter focuses on the drawbacks of smile sheets, repeating the same criticisms across all 16 chapters, which becomes quite repetitive. If the author had emphasized more on the innovations and benefits of the LTEM model rather than solely highlighting the flaws of the existing one, the book would have been more compelling. Despite this, the LTEM model seems promising and could potentially provide better insights into learner data. Therefore, I give it 3 stars.

[Anthony Reisinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make better learner surveys!

This is a fantastic and research-based guide on making more effective performance-focused learner surveys. Thalheimer provides practical guidance and many examples to help you get started. I highly recommend this book to all L&D professionals.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable, conversation style of delivery. For me it felt that sometimes there was padding to make the book longer but the nuggets within were well worth it.

[Barb. D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, there are interesting ideas in this book that I'm taking away for consideration, but the style of writing...
Let's start with the interesting ideas. Good food for thought was;
* The idea of using descriptive answer options on an acceptability scale rather than a Likert scale. I'd like to see how this can be transformed into corporate metrics, but I suppose it's doable.
* The idea that the content of the questions might also be used to send stealth messages to learners and stakeholders about what's important.
* Some good sample questions that can be adapted to different organizational contexts.
* The overall idea that survey questions can reveal more than just plain liked/didn't like sort of reactions.

Now the real bone I have to pick with this book is the author's extremely annoying writing style. For a book that presents itself as "research based", it reads an awful lot as self-promotion. For goodness' sake, don't call the model you created yourself "revolutionary" when it hasn't really been studied that much. Don't refer to yourself in the text so much and don't try to be funny when, one, you're not funny, two, the jokes just don't land in this sort of book. Yes, a professional text can still be witty, but this was so over the top that I simply felt irritated.