What to Look for in a Classroom: ...and Other Essays - Hardcover

Kohn, Alfie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 078794453X ISBN 13: 9780787944537

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 1998

Synopsis

"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.

About this title

About the Author

ALFIE KOHN is a former teacher who now writes and speaks widely on education, human behavior, and social theory. His five previous books include Punished by Rewards and Beyond Discipline. In addition to working with educators across the country and abroad, he lectures to researchers, parents, and managers.

Reviews

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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 078794453X
• ISBN 13: 9780787944537
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304