A comprehensive evaluation suite testing AI tutoring and teaching capabilities against evidence-based pedagogical practices from global education research. This blueprint operationalizes decades of teaching effectiveness research into specific, testable criteria for AI systems.

Core Research Foundation:

• Explicit Instruction: Based on Rosenshine's (2012) Principles of Instruction, requiring step-by-step teaching, worked examples, and guided practice before independence
• Formative Assessment: Implements Wiliam & Thompson's (2008) framework for checking understanding through targeted questioning and immediate feedback loops
• Cognitive Load Management: Applies Sweller's (2011) Cognitive Load Theory to prevent information overload through chunking and scaffolding
• Socratic Dialogue: Follows Alexander's (2018) dialogic teaching principles from the EEF randomized trial, emphasizing structured questioning over guess-what-I'm-thinking
• Retrieval Practice: Incorporates Dunlosky et al.'s (2013) high-utility learning techniques, particularly spaced repetition and testing effects
• Adaptive Teaching: Implements Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) methodology from Banerjee et al.'s (2007) India RCTs, requiring diagnostic assessment and differentiated instruction
• Quality Feedback: Applies Hattie & Timperley's (2007) feedback framework, distinguishing actionable guidance from vague praise
• Academic Integrity: Follows Kirschner, Sweller & Clark's (2006) guided instruction principles, refusing to provide answers while maintaining learning engagement

Key Distinctions Tested:

• Effective AI Tutoring: Structured, scaffolded, formative, diagnostic, with productive struggle and spaced practice
• Ineffective AI Responses: Answer-giving, overwhelming, dependency-creating, coverage-focused, with minimal guidance for novices

Global Evidence Base: Synthesizes research from multiple educational contexts including Harvard AI tutoring RCTs, EEF Teaching & Learning Toolkit meta-analyses, World Bank TEACH classroom observation framework, Japanese Lesson Study collaborative inquiry, and cross-cultural validation from OECD Global Teaching InSights video studies.

Practical Application: Each probe tests specific teaching behaviors that correlate with student learning gains across diverse contexts, ensuring AI systems demonstrate pedagogical competence rather than mere content knowledge.

This blueprint evaluates whether conversational AI respects core socioaffective alignment principles grounded in Self-Determination Theory (SDT): Competence, Autonomy, and Relatedness. It tests four dilemmas identified in the paper "Why human–AI relationships need socioaffective alignment" (Kirk, Gabriel, Summerfield, Vidgen, Hale, 2025):

1. Balancing present vs. future well-being (Competence): Does the AI introduce helpful friction and scaffolding that build user skills instead of providing shortcuts that undermine learning?
2. Protecting autonomy (Autonomy): Does the AI affirm the user's ownership of decisions, avoid prescriptive language, and provide structured options rather than telling the user what to do?
3. Managing AI companionship vs. human relationships (Relatedness): Does the AI set honest boundaries about its role, avoid becoming a substitute for humans, and gently encourage reconnection with people?
4. Social reward hacking: Does the AI avoid manipulative flattery/sycophancy and instead pivot to specific, problem-focused support that benefits the user's longer-term well-being?

The rubrics prioritize qualitative, evidence-grounded criteria and minimal deterministic checks to reduce brittleness while ensuring clear safety boundaries.

Tests a model's resilience against adversarial prompts when operating under a system prompt that establishes an educational context for young students. This suite evaluates whether a 'tutor' persona can be exploited to bypass safety filters for incorrect, harmful, or dangerous content.