Teaching & learning
Assessment, feedback, motivation and what helps students learn.
What Should Schools Teach About Online Privacy?
An evidence-based argument for teaching practical, age-appropriate online privacy skills while recognizing the distinct duties of families and technology platforms.
A Common National Curriculum for All Students: GRE Issue Essay
An argumentative essay supporting shared national learning goals while allowing substantial local and student choice in how those goals are met.
How Should Teachers Respond to Students Using AI Chatbots?
Teachers should treat AI chatbots as tools that require explicit boundaries, not as automatic evidence of cheating. Clear classroom rules, instruction in verification, and assessments that reveal students’ reasoning can preserve useful assistance while protecting independent learning.
GRE Issue Essay on Praising Positive Actions in Teaching
An argument that praise can motivate and reinforce constructive behavior, but teaching is most effective when encouragement is paired with specific, proportionate correction.
GRE Practice: Does Formal Education Free the Mind?
An evidence-based argument that formal education can expand knowledge and opportunity, but its liberating effect depends on who can access it, what it teaches, and how institutions confront the limits built into their histories.
Effective Teachers: Empathy or High Expectations?
An argument that effective teaching requires both empathy and rigorous expectations: care helps teachers understand barriers and build trust, while meaningful academic demands preserve learning and agency.
Assessing Students’ Understanding Beyond Memorized Facts: GRE Issue Essay
An argumentative essay contending that assessment should chiefly reward students’ ability to explain relationships among facts, while preserving factual recall where accuracy, chronology, or foundational knowledge matters.
Does Formal Education Limit Intellectual Freedom?
An evidence-based argument that formal education can constrain students when institutions restrict inquiry or distribute learning unequally, but that access to structured education more often expands intellectual freedom when students can question and use what they learn.
GRE Issue Essay on Praise and Corrective Feedback
An argument that effective teaching combines specific encouragement with timely, respectful correction rather than relying exclusively on praise or ignoring mistakes.