Kohn, Alfie
From WikEd
[edit] Descriptions, definitions, synonyms, organizer terms, types of
Alfie Kohn was born on October 15, 1957. He earned a BA from Brown University and a Masters degree from the University of Chicago. Kohn is an author of books and articles on human behavior, education, and social theory and is a former teacher. Kohn is a speaker at major conferences across North America and abroad.(AlfieKohn, 2005)
http://www.beacon.org/k-12/images/Kohn-Alfie.jpg
[edit] Published works
Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason, Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2005.
What Does it Mean to be Well Educated?: And More Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies, Beacon, 2004.
Education, Inc.: Turning Learning into a Business, revised edition: Heinemann, 2002.
The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools, Heinemann, 2000.
The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards", Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
What to Look for in a Classroom ... and Other Essays, Jossey-Bass, 1998.
Beyong Discipline: From Compliance to Community, Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 1996.
Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes, Houghton Mifflin, 1993/1999.
"Choices for Children," in Phi Delta Kappan, September, 1993.
No Contest: The Case Against Competition, Houghton Mifflin, 1986/1992
"Caring Kids," in Phi Delta Kappan, March, 1991.
The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life, Basic Books, 1990.
You Know What They Say. . .: The Truth About Popular Beliefs, HarperCollins, 1990.
See further listings of other published work at www.AlfieKohn.org
[edit] Application in classrooms and similar settings
[edit] Theory of value
The following in the "Theory of Value" from "The Educational Theory of Alfie Kohn by analyst Joseph Milnes. (Milnes, 2002) Other theories such as "Theory of Knowledge" and "Theory of Learning" are also available.
- "Alfie Kohn firmly believes that students need to be taught how to be responsible and respectful. Once this is accomplished, all other "content" can be learned at a more "reasonable" rate, with a greater threshold of proficiency. "Adults who are respectful of children are not just modeling a skill or behavior, they are meeting the emotional needs of those children, thereby helping to create the psychological conditions for children to treat others respectfully" (Kohn 1997a). The goal of education is to help students realize that they can think, learn, act, and change things."
[edit] Effects of Standardized Testing
Kohn argues that the growth of standardized testing does more harm than good for students and educators. Under the guise of "accountability" and "tougher standards," schools are punished for thought-provoking and innovative educational practices. In order to be considered succesful schools are becoming test-prep centers. "Assessment should be focused on students' learning over time by the person in the best position to judge the quality of that learning. There's an inherent problem with any one-shot test that's designed and then scored by somebody far away." (O'Neil and Tell 19) Additionaly, "as a rule, it appears that standardized-test results are positively correlated with a shallow approach to learning." (Kohn 2000)
[edit] Assessment
Kohn sees current assessment standards (letter grades)as detrimental to education. When assessed in such a fashion, "students think less creatively, they lose interest in what they’re learning, and they try to avoid challenging tasks." (http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/topics.htm#six)Instead, assessment should be more individualized and, optimially, "students will play a big role in figuring out how to assess the success of what they've been up to." (O'Neil and Tell 20)
[edit] Rewards/Praise
Kohn is a staunch opponent of rewards and punishments as reinforcers of education and behavior. In his book Punished by Rewards, "Kohn demonstrates, through examples and research, how rewards can punish those who do not receive them, how rewards can rupture relationships between students and between students and teachers, how rewards ignore the reasons for a desired behavior, and how rewards can discourage risk taking. But the single most devastating conclusion he draws from his research is that rewards can actually discourage desired behaviors." (Johnson 1999) Instead of a rewards-based system, students should be intrinsically motivated to learn and teachers should foster their desire to learn. Kohn asserts that the use of praise will turn students into 'praise junkies,' will cause students to lose interest, and will reduce student acheivment. (Kohn 1997).
[edit] Evidence of effectiveness
[edit] Critics and their rationale
"The poor quality of the average student admitted to our colleges and universities today can be traced mainly to the trends of the past two decades in K-12 education, particularly to the emergence of the self-indulgent, nonjudgmental, nonhierarchical classroom that -- in fusing a radical libertarianism with a radical egalitarianism -- has resulted in the near total collapse of standards." (Rochester 167)
"He [Kohn]...apparently thinks you can put kids whose I.Q.s range from 70 to 130 in the same classroom, when some are reading Plato and others Pluto, and not miss a beat in terms of the level of education going on." (Rochester 165)
[edit] Alternative explanations due to Diversity considerations
[edit] Regarding standardized testing and the use of extrinsic rewards:
"Tests damage low-income students by reducing their education to test prep - and even leading these kids to consider dropping out. But the tests also destroy innovative curriculum in more affluent schools... " (http://www.teachers.net/gazette/NOV00/kohn.html)
[edit] Signed �?life experiences�?, testimonies and stories
Rewards can definitely be a dangerous thing in a classroom. Setting up a reinforcement schedule that gives kids a sticker or piece of candy or other reward for every good thing done is not an acceptable strategy, especially if the goal is for students to internalize behaviors and be intrinsically motivated. Ruling out all rewards, however, is not realistic either. As Sharon pointed out below, adults are very often rewarded, just not always. I think this is a good model for rewarding children. Trying to make rewards natural consequences of students' actions and limiting rewards mimics the real situation they will face as adults. - R. Foley
I think I agree with Kohn about the consequences of rewarding children. I definitely think it leads to a decrease of intrinsic motivation. I especially have problems with giving food rewards. I feel that with the current obesity problems in America, using food as a reward sends the wrong signal and encourages bad habits. -L. Weinstein
I understand what Kohn is trying to convey when he advocates not to reward students, but is it unrealistic to think that adults would work without the reward of a paycheck. I used rewards in my classroom for both the individual and the whole class. I use to think just the "grade" should be the incentive, but once I thought about it, I felt some type of reward would/should be justified. I received better discipline when I rewarded the class after they had worked hard to change any bad behaviors. Sharon Morrisette
I agree with Kohn's comments on standardized testing. However, I do not see it going away any time soon. I wonder what he would suggest to replace standardized testing and his response to the No Child Left Behind Law. Lily Jimenez
Quote from Alfie Kohn. (Gurteen, 2005)
- "If You Want to Kill Innovation, Reward It!"
Quote from Alfie Kohn. (Gurteen, 2005)
- "Many of the familiar principles of Quality management amount to an elaboration of this simple truth: an innovative, healthy organization requires that we work with people rather than do things to them."
Quote from Alfie Kohn. (Gurteen, 2005)
- "Trying to do well and trying to beat others are two different things."
I am rather conflicted when it comes to the use of rewards in school. I do agree that rewards tend to foster too much of the extrinsic desire in us to accomplish goals and do not nurture our intrinsic values to do our best and accomplish our goals. But on the other hand, sometimes rewards are just nice; they make our situation, whether it be at work or school just a little bit more pleasant. Although I do not make giving rewards a routine in my classroom, I do like to surprise my students every so often with a reward that lets them know I have noticed how hard they have worked. - E. Remington
[edit] References and other links of interest
Links
Standford Graduate School of Business - Research: The Knowing-Doing Gap (November 1999)
References
Guteen, David. "Alfie Kohn". The Gurteen Knowledge Website. Retrieved March 23, 2005 from http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/alfie-kohn
Milnes, Joseph (analyst). (June, 2002). "The Educational Theory of Alfie Kohn". 2001 New Foundations. Retrieved March 23, 2005 from http://www.newfoundations.com/GALLERY/Kohn.html
"www.AflieKohn.org." Retrieved March 23, 2005 from http://www.alfiekohn.org
O'Neil and Tell. (1999) Why Students Lose When "Tougher Standards" Win: A Conversation with Alfie Kohn Educational Leadership v57 18-22.
Rochester (1998) What's It All About, Alfie? A parent/educator's response to Alfie Kohn. Phi Delta Kappan v80 165-9.
Johnson (1999) Creating Fat Kids Who Don't Like to Read. Book Report v18 96.
Kohn (2000) High-Stakes Testing as Educational Ethnic Cleansing. The Education Digest v66 13-18.
Kohn (1997) Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes. Houghton Mifflin. New York.
"http://www.teachers.net/gazette/NOV00/kohn.html" Retreived April 21, 2005.
