How to write an essay about teaching that will not be published in the NYT, Chronicle, IHE, or anywhere else

1) There are many pedagogical techniques.

2) These techniques vary in usefulness, depending on the discipline, class size, role in the major/GE program, level of instruction, content, classroom layout, time of day, available technology, instructor's skill set, the university/college environment, and student demographics.  

3) Depending on changes to any or all of these variables, these techniques may or may not work from one course to the next.  They may or may not even work across two sections of the identical course taught during the same semester/quarter.

4) Not all techniques are suited to all instructors.  

5) The instructor's perception of a technique's efficacy may or may not match the students', and vice-versa.

6) The instructor's perception of a technique's "enlightening," "liberatory," or other X quality may or may not match the students', and vice-versa.  

7) Students may or may not agree with what pedagogical theorists think is helpful for them.

Short version: All instructors have to assemble their own pedagogical toolkit from the many resources out there and restock it (and recreate it) as necessary.  There is no one single way of being effective.  There is no magic spell (previous post on this blog to the contrary) that will make all pedagogical techniques effective all the time.  It is very difficult to generalize from one instructor's experience to the next.  One gets on with it.