Alfie Kohn

If we want students to take responsibility for their behavior and learning, it is up to us to give them responsibilities. Children learn to make good decisions by having the chance to decide about what happens to them every day -- not by following someone else's directions. Research shows unequivocally that students learn more effectively and care more about what they are learning when they have some say about what is going on. (By contrast, students, like adults, suffer from burnout when they feel powerless.) Alfie Kohn describes the whys and the hows of bringing students into the process of making decisions about everything from how their classroom will be decorated to how their learning will be assessed. Also included is a discussion of limits on children's right to choose and teachers' use of "pseudochoice" to perpetuate their own control.

Research has found three consistent effects of traditional grades: students think less creatively, they lose interest in what they’re learning, and they try to avoid challenging tasks. Thus, rather than trying to improve techniques for grading, we should be looking for alternatives -- and rather than complaining that too many students are getting A’s, we should be worried that too many students think that getting A’s is the point of school. Ultimately, though, why we evaluate students is at least as important as how we do so. Even alternative assessment may fall short if the point is to sort students or "motivate" them to get a particular rating. Alfie Kohn discusses how feedback can be constructive and informational, part of a learner-centered environment, as well as strategies by which teachers can minimize the harms of letter and number grades while they still exist.

The race to be Number One has been described as America's state religion. We have been trained not only to compete frantically, but to believe in the value of beating people -- and to help our children become winners. Research and experience, however, demonstrate that competition is actually destructive to self-esteem, poisonous to relationships, and counterproductive in terms of learning. Spelling bees, awards assemblies, competitive sports, and even informal contests at home teach children to regard other people as potential obstacles to their own success. The result is that everyone ultimately loses in the desperate race to win. Alfie Kohn, author of NO CONTEST: The Case Against Competition, describes the hidden costs of turning the school into a place for triumph. The problem, he argues, is not just that competition is overdone or badly handled; rather, the very win/lose structure itself has damaging consequences for how children come to see themselves, each other, and the act of learning. The alternative is not merely the absence of competition but the construction of caring communities in which people help each other to succeed

We can't blame "human nature" when children act aggressively or selfishly. Extensive research has shown that these qualities are no more natural than the impulse toward empathy or generosity. But how do we nourish those positive inclinations and help children to act on their capacity to care? Alfie Kohn, author of THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF HUMAN NATURE, discusses the roots of prosocial attitudes and actions, and invites educators to think about what promotes children's concern about others' well-being. He urges activities (and a curriculum) that enhance understanding of how others see the world, as well as a commitment to replace isolation and competition with a feeling of community in the classroom and school.

We are living through a dark, reactionary period in American education, which means that it has never been more important to defend the theory and practice of progressive schooling. Alfie Kohn explains how the constellation of approaches that share this label can promote the development of each child while simultaneously promoting a democratic society. Of course, progressive education must itself progress, evolving in a way that traditional approaches do not. To that end, Kohn offers a series of questions for educators and parents intended to help our schools move further in the direction of helping children to become good learners and good people.

"The principal goal of education," said Piaget, is to create people "who are capable of doing new things" and who don't "accept everything they are offered." Critical thinking skills, however, don't necessarily promote the desire to question. Alfie Kohn will suggest ways by which we can support risk taking, build opportunities to challenge authority into the curriculum, avoid a focus on right answers, and demystify the processes of writing, thinking, and making decisions.

After spending most of the day in school, children are typically given additional assignments to be completed at home - a remarkable fact, when you stop to think about it. What's more, homework in most schools isn't limited to those times when it seems appropriate and important. Rather than saying, "Doing this particular project at home may be useful," our message seems to be, "We've decided ahead of time that students will have to do something every night. Later on we'll figure out what to make them do." We know it causes stress and conflict, frustration and exhaustion. But at least, we tell ourselves, it teaches them independence and good work habits, "reinforces" what they've been taught, and helps them to become more successful learners.
Or does it? In this presentation, Alfie Kohn carefully reviews the usual defenses of homework and finds that none is actually supported by research, logic, or experience. He then offers half a dozen reasons to explain why we feel obligated to administer this modern cod liver oil even though there is no evidence that it's necessary - and considerable evidence that it undermines children's interest in learning. This, in turn, leads to a closer look at our assumptions about teaching in general, and practical suggestions for rethinking what students are asked to do both during and after school.

Most educators, if asked, can explain the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation -- between carrots and sticks on the one hand, and love of learning on the other. But many of our daily practices suggest that we fail to understand the importance of the distinction. In this workshop, Alfie Kohn, the author of PUNISHED BY REWARDS, shows why we need to stop asking "How motivated are my students?" and start asking "How are my students motivated?"

That question, in turn, leads to an even more surprising contrast: the distinction between getting students to think about their performance (that is, how well they are doing) and getting them to think about the learning itself (what they are doing). These orientations often pull in opposite directions, which means that too much emphasis on achievement can reduce students' interest in learning - and cause them to avoid challenging tasks. When the point is to prove how smart you are, there is less inclination to engage deeply with ideas.

Thus, the problem with standardized testing is not only how bad the tests themselves are, but also how much attention is paid to the results. Even new, "authentic" assessments may backfire if students are constantly led to ask, "How am I doing?" Likewise, research demonstrates that students who have come to focus on grades are likely to think less creatively and come to see learning as a chore. ("Do we have to know this?")

This workshop urges teachers and administrators to reconsider basic assumptions about motivation in general and evaluation in particular. Participants are helped to develop strategies that tap children's natural desire to explore ideas:

*

creating a curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to students' interests
*

bringing students in on the process of making decisions about their learning
*

transforming classrooms into caring communities where students feel safe and connected to others, and
*

moving away from traditional grading in favor of more constructive and learner-centered approaches to feedback.

THE DEADLY EFFECTS OF "TOUGHER STANDARDS"

"[The main effect] of the drive for so-called higher standards in schools is that the children are too busy to think," said John Holt in 1959. Four decades later, policy makers are pursuing just such a heavy-handed, top-down version of education reform. The results: schools have been turned into giant test-prep centers, the intellectual life has been squeezed out of many classrooms, and some of the best educators have gotten tired (or fired).

This seminar, by the author of THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE, invites participants to explore five fatal flaws of the Tougher Standards movement:

1.

It gets motivation wrong. Leading students to become preoccupied with how well they are doing in school can undermine their engagement with what they are doing. Paradoxically, a single-minded concern with results can reduce the quality of learning - along with the desire to explore ideas.
2.

It gets pedagogy wrong. Standards are often defined as a long list of forgettable facts that students must know, or else. Moreover, teachers are encouraged to stick with the sort of traditional instruction that has now been shown by the best theory and research to interfere with deep understanding.
3.

It gets evaluation wrong. In practice, "excellence," "higher standards," and "raising the bar" all refer to scores on standardized tests, many of them multiple-choice, norm-referenced, and otherwise flawed.
4.

It gets school reform wrong. Tougher Standards are usually seen not as guidelines but as mandates, with "accountability" a code word for tighter control over what happens in classrooms by people who are not in classrooms.
5.

It gets improvement wrong. Weaving its way through all these ideas is the implicit assumption that harder is always better. The result is that tests, texts, and teaching have not become more rigorous but merely more onerous.

This workshop concludes by helping participants to see that the push for Tougher Standards is not a reality to be coped with but a political movement that can be opposed. Practical strategies are suggested by which educators can pursue a more thoughtful vision of teaching and learning.

This workshop, by the author of Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community, addresses the nonacademic realm of school life - and specifically the ways that discipline or classroom management not only tends to backfire, but actively interferes with the process of helping students grow into responsible, compassionate people. We begin by addressing the problems with trying to manipulate students' behavior with the use of rewards (including praise) or punishment (euphemistically called "consequences"). Then we dig deeper, looking at how much is lost by focusing on behavior in the first place, how a demand for short-term compliance (which is all that carrots and sticks can ever produce) gets in the way of our long-term goals for kids, and how many problems originate with the assumption that the teacher should be in control of the classroom.

In the second part of the workshop, participants hear about, see (on videotape), discuss, and make sense of the alternatives:

*

solving problems rather than administering discipline,
*

working with students rather than doing things to them,
*

addressing how "misbehavior" may be due to a curriculum that isn't engaging,
*

transforming the classroom (and school) into caring communities where students feel they belong, and
*

bringing students in on making decisions about how they want their classroom to be -- and how to make that happen.