GRE Sample Essay 1

Some people believe that the most important qualities of an effective teacher are understanding and empathy. Others believe that it is more important for teachers to be rigorous and demanding in their expectations for students.

Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely aligns with your own position and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should address both of the views presented.

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Response for GRE Sample Essay 1

Every teacher has her own approach to teaching. She can be either understanding or empathetic or follow a rigorous and demanding regime. Without any hesitation, I prefer the former to the latter. I personally believe, understanding and empathy are essential to teaching students of all age groups.  By being rigorous and demanding, the teacher fails to draw the attention and interest of the majority of the students.

Learn the kids

The idea of teaching is to make the student come in terms with concepts, understand them, and being able to apply them. In the case of kids, it is quite the reverse. Instead of making them learn stuff, we need to learn the kids. Understanding their personalities is important, before choosing what is right of them. More often than not, a kid's favorite subject is the one taught by the favorite teacher. This is exactly where empathy, one of the prime teaching skills comes handy.

The case of teens and adults

Adults and teen students have their own set of issues. The teens’ language or ‘lingo’ isn’t the regular one. Their ‘fine’ and ‘okay’ communicates a lot more than that. On the other hand, adults have their own inhibitions and reservations to approaching teachers. Without understanding and empathy, you get nowhere close to your students. Nothing matters more than addressing the thinking and learning differences in students. Hence, going the extra mile is pretty much the norm in effective teaching.

Breaking barriers

Rigor adds a right structure to the whole learning process. Hence, schools wish to hire teachers who are just content experts. In this age and era, you need much more than that. Students already have access to so much information and they can even learn from leading content experts themselves. What’s expected of teachers is their ability to learn. Simply put, they need to understand that the students can face a whole lot of issues which may hinder their progress. They need to be empathetic towards their situations and help them overcome it.

Listen, not hear

What makes good teachers great is their ability to listen. Good teachers put in the time to hear students out, but they don’t listen. For instance, when a kid says ‘I’ll try’, he/she may not be giving you attitude. There could be issues at home, preventing the kid from doing schoolwork. A great teacher understands that every student has a life outside school. Rigorous and demanding teaching has no place for hearing students out.

Power of empathy

Empathy is a tool to connect with people by understanding what they are going through. It’s a way of acknowledging that the other person is experiencing something meaningful. You cannot understand student behavior, if you are not acting with empathy. In effect, acting with empathy involves keeping aside judgment and putting things into perspective. In addition, you have to understand student’s feelings and communicate that you understand. Ultimately, students learn better when they feel understood and supported. Moreover, it helps combat learning and thinking differences in students.

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GRE Essay Score

This article scores a 4 because: 

The article exhibits general grammatical correctness and good development of ideas. It provides a well-organized analysis of the argument and supports it with examples (surveys and percentages). It addresses the assumptions made in the argument insightfully. For more topics, visit: GRE Essay Topics with Answers

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