Product Description

"Alfie Kohn has a knack for bursting the bubbles that surround just about every school topic imaginable, from putting kids into uniforms to make them behave better to raising kids' self-esteem by rewarding them with stickers and pizza for reading books and doing homework. This collection of previously published essays reminds us that many schools have veered off course in their day-to-day business. And it's a primer that, if taken seriously, can put schools back on the right track."

--Educational LeadershipThrough his writings and speeches, Alfie Kohn has been stirring up controversy for years, demonstrating how the conventional wisdom about education often isn't supported by the available research, and illuminating gaps between our long-term goals for students and what actually goes on in schools. Now What to Look for in a Classroom brings together his most popular articles from Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, and Education Week--and also from The Atlantic Monthly, the Boston Globe, and other publications.

From self-esteem to school uniforms, from grade inflation to character education, Kohn raises a series of provocative questions about the status quo in this collection of incisive essays. He challenges us to reconsider some of our most basic assumptions about children and education. Can good values really be instilled
in students? What, if anything, lies behind the label of attention deficit disorder? Are there solid data to support our skepticism about watching TV? Might such allegedly enlightened practices as authentic assessment,
logical consequences,
and Total Quality education
turn out to be detrimental? Whether he is explaining why cooperative learning can be so threatening or why detracking is so fiercely opposed, Kohn offers a fresh, informed, and frequently disconcerting perspective on the major issues in education.

In the And, his critical examination of current practice is complemented by a vision of what schooling ought to be. Kohn argues for giving children more opportunity to participate in their own schooling, for transforming classrooms into caring communities, and for providing the kind of education that taps and nourishes children's curiosity. Through all these essays, Kohn calls us back to our own ideals, showing us how we can be more effective at helping students to become good learners and good people.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #209453 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.com
Full of ideas and impossible to pigeonhole, Alfie Kohn has become an essential ingredient in educational debates, and his previous books--including No Contest: The Case Against Competition and Punished by Rewards--are a reliable barometer of his wit, pugnacity, and general contrariness. This is a collection of (mostly) previously published essays, but Kohn writes so well that these pieces remain fresh, vivid, and challenging. Few people will agree with him about everything, and many will be left with steam coming out of their ears. Kohn pulls no punches: the cases for school uniforms and School Choice programs are beneath his contempt; well-off white liberal parents are so routinely obsessed with competitive advantage ("the segregation of the gifted and talented") that their actions amount to a more polite form of racism; most critics of television are hysterics who don't know the research and haven't thought hard about what they are saying. A taste of his combat-ready style: "There is no national organization called Rich Parents Against School Reform, in part because there doesn't need to be." Kohn is essential reading, however, on the destructiveness of grading, the foolishness of mainstream ideas about motivation, and a score of other topics--especially if you disagree with him. --Richard Farr

From Publishers Weekly
Renowned educator Kohn delivers an important, comprehensive collection of essays built around one central message: respect children and allow them to learn. Within these 19 pieces he discusses a variety of popular concepts. Character education, he dares announce, is usually designed "to drill students in specific behaviors rather than to engage them in deep, critical reflection about certain ways of being." Kohn abhors behavior modification of any kind, and such accepted tenets as star charts for acceptable behavior or pizza parties to entice readers are logically deflated in his attack on the whole range of extrinsic rewards. In his essay "Students Don't 'Work'AThey Learn," he urges us to encourage intrinsic motivation through the passion for knowledge. "In factory-like schools, you will often hear words like performance and achievement, rarely words like discovery or exploration or curiosity." In contrast, Kohn insists, "a learning-oriented classroom is more likely to be characterized by the thoughtful exploration of complicated issues than by a curriculum based on memorizing right answers." At the conclusion of his title essay, which ends the collection, he offers a simple chart about classroom appearance that could in itself arm parents in America with enough information to change the course of their child's education. Kohn's message, if heeded, could inspire a productive revolution in America's fatigued regime of public education.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Of the dozens of 'experts' on what's wrong (and right) in U.S. schools, only a handful are truly worth reading; Kohn has long been one of the soundest." --Booklist

"Kohn's message, if heeded, could inspire a productive revolution in America's fatigued regime of public education." --Publisher's Weekly

"This collection...reminds us that many schools have veered off course in their day-to-day business. And it's a primer that, if taken seriously, can put schools back on the right track." --Educational Leadership

"Informative, inspiring, and thought-provoking." --Library Journal

Customer Reviews

Lots of complaints, not much advice.
If you're not already a fan of Kohn, don't get this book. The title essay comprises exact 4 pages at the back of the book.

I give this book 2 stars instead of 1 because there is -some- practical advice, although it is incredibly sparse. The chapter on ADHD, for example, spends about 20 pages describing how ADHD is overdiagnosed. There are two paragraphs on actual techniques that are useful for people, like me, who are looking into actual ways to teach ADHD kids. (Yes, they exist.)

He spends a lot of time attacking his enemies. "It is common knowledge that the Christian Right has opposed all manner of progressive reforms." I'm not a Republican, but he's ready for that, because if I go against him I'm just as bad as them. "They may be pro-choice and avid recyclers, with nothing good to say about the likes of Pay Robertson and Rush Limbaugh; yet on educational issues they are, perhaps unwittingly, making common cause with, and further the agenda of, the Far Right." Go google up 'seven warnings signs up a cult' and you'll see why this kind of mongering is so scary.

I knew some people who were big fans of Kohn. This was the only book of his my library had in stock so I got it. I'll give another book or two from Kohn a try, but this is a very bad first book, probably only meant for people who are already his fans.

What Do Our Classroom Practices Communicate
Alfie Kohn's book, What To Look For In A Classroom...and Other Essays is a collection of nineteen essays that were previously published in professional journals and newspapers. The essays are divided into five sections: Classroom Mismanagement, American Ideology Goes to School, Unquestioned Assumptions About Children, Business as Usual, and Lessons Learned. I will review the six essays that were particularly meaningful and insightful to me in my role of elementary principal. Kohn cites research and poses questions on the skills approach, discipline, character education, Cooperative Learning, grading, and businesses' influence in education. He examines the "why" behind the practices and "what" we as educators are communicating as we support it.
In the essay titled "The Limits of Teaching Skills" Kohn discussed the preoccupation in schools with teaching isolated skills and losing sight of students' motivation. When educators focus on the skills approach, the need to preserve and enrich kids' desire to learn may be lost. Children, who are motivated and excited to learn, will acquire the skills through immersion in the topic. A good example of this is teaching children to read through the whole language or the phonetic approach. In whole language, students are naturally excited to read so when they are immersed in the printed word the skills develop naturally; as opposed to the phonetic approach, where students learn the basic phonetic skills before they interact with the literature and as a result motivation to read may be lost. The current concern in education is that the standards movement is focused on attainment of skills and not on the big picture of learning.
In "Beyond Discipline," Kohn talked about Lee Canter's Assertive Discipline program and how it and many other behavior programs dangle rewards in front of children so they act the way we as educators want them to act. When the teacher is not concerned with being in charge, students are less likely to misbehave. In classrooms where the curriculum is insufficiently engaging, student behavior problems are more evident. To help students in becoming ethical people we must help them figure out, for themselves and with each other, what to do not just merely "tell" them what to do.
In "How Not to Teach Values" Kohn talked about the isolated and detached set of skills incorporated in character education programs. He states that many educators realize that the skills approach or rote memorization is not the most effective method to teach math and reading; however, the same people believe it is effective to teach character skills in that format. Instead, through the use of literature, class meetings, and adult modeling, educators empower students to think for themselves.
The essay titled "Resistance to Cooperative Learning" reviewed the social and intellectual advantages for students when working collaboratively with others. Students learn from their peers and at the same time learn teamwork and tolerance of others. Opponents of Cooperative Learning argue for grading on the curve and the winner/loser mentality in schools, where others are seen as obstacles to success. The goal is for all students to improve and move forward in their learning, which is what the Cooperative Learning model promotes.
"Grading: The Issue Is Not Why But How" detailed the three rationales for grade-sorting, motivation, and feedback. When students are sorted by grades, is the data we are using to sort even valid? In regard to motivation, when extrinsic rewards are given, intrinsic satisfaction diminishes. When a student is promised a reward for completing an activity or attainment of a grade, he/she does not work as hard as those who were promised nothing. It is important to give feedback to students regarding their performance; however, grades focus on the success/failure component instead of clear feedback for the sake of improvement.
"The Five-Hundred Pound Gorilla" covers businesses' influence and power in education. Businesses strive to be number one, just as politically our nation strives to be number one internationally. Influence from business and political leaders is pushing schools to compete to be at the top or number one as evidenced in the standards movement. It is the "scientific management" paradigm that is evident in factories and drives the corporate view of educational standards. Kohn suggests by keeping standards narrow or specific is not a commitment to excellence but an outmoded, top down approach to controlling production. Instead, he suggests by keeping standards "as vague as possible" it allows educators the freedom to individualize and be responsive to the needs of individual learners.
In this review, I pulled in some of Kohn's main points that were meaningful to me. As an elementary principal, Kohn's research and review of the skills approach, discipline, character education, Cooperative Learning, grading, and businesses' influence gave me insight into "why" we do the things we do in schools. It is clear we have paradigms from the past that are still at work in the schools today and I found his collection of essays insightful and extremely thought provoking! It concerns me that we may be doing some things in the schools that appear beneficial for students in the areas of discipline, grading, character education; yet, when analyzing what we are actually teaching students, the practices may be detrimental to their success. Our strategies or techniques may be short-term solutions to motivate or control behavior, which may have negative long-term effects.

Rethink our assumptions
Featured in Time, over two hundred appearances on television and radio
programmes, including two on "Oprah" (Cf. Independent
School, Fall 1999), Alfie Kohn is someone that every educator, student
teacher and parent should be acquainted with. He has tirelessly
campaigned for a truly democratic education based on a much more
positive trust in human nature. He wants schools to steer away from
tests and grading, punishment and rewards. In his vision of the
classroom, "students play an active role in decisions, teachers
work WITH students rather than doing things TO them, and the learners'
interests and questions drive much of the curriculum." (p. 277)
This theme runs through the 19 articles, mostly written since 1995,
collected here in this volume. He candidly owns up to having
something of a contrarian streak. He has used that gift well to
provoke people to rethink their conventional wisdom. I won't give any
key points since other reviews have already done a great job. I wish
he himself can write a more succinct summary of his philosophy of
education and all the basic proposals.