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Kate Tabor

Alfie Kohn Rejects National Standards : Constructing Modern Knowledge - 36 views

constructingmodernknowledge.com/cmk08

kohn alfie national standards

shared by Kate Tabor on 11 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Kate Tabor on 11 Jan 10
     
    Brian Silverman says, "It should be required reading for anyone concerned with democracy and long-term viability of public education. I've often said that national standards, even those thinly disguised under mischievous pseudonyms like "common core standards" are not only a destructive force, but a solution in search of a problem. Alfie Kohn makes the case quite effectively. Mr. Kohn once again demonstrates his courage, tenacity and chutzpah by publishing his new article in Education Week's special "Quality Counts" issue. "Quality Counts" is the annual issue sponsored by standardized testing companies who rank each state's educational quality as a function of their reliance on high-stakes testing, teacher-bashing, punitive and anti-democratic education policies. The more draconian the state, the higher their "quality," according to Education Week."
Jason Schmidt

School Would Be Great If It Weren't for the Damn Kids - 95 views

www.alfiekohn.org/...damnkids.htm

school alfie kohn students edreform education interest current commentary

shared by Jason Schmidt on 17 Nov 10 - No Cached
  • It simply doesn’t make sense to try to “purge ‘ineffective’ teachers and principals.”  His listener, almost giddy with gratitude now, prepares to chime in, as Samuelson, without pausing, delivers the punch line:  That’s right, it’s time to stop blaming teachers and start . . . blaming students!
  • His focus is not on students’ achievements (the intellectual accomplishments of individual kids) but only on “student achievement” (the aggregate results of standardized tests)
  • As I’ve noted elsewhere, we have reason to worry when schooling is discussed primarily in the context of “global competitiveness” rather than in terms of what children need or what contributes to a democratic culture
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Upon hearing someone castigate students for being insufficiently motivated, a noneconomist might be inclined to ask two questions.  The first is:  “Motivated to do what, exactly”?  Anything they’re told, no matter how unengaging, inappropriate, or, well, demotivating? 
  • Whenever I see students made to cram facts into their short-term memories for a test, practice a series of decontextualized skills on yet another worksheet, listen passively to a lecture, or inch their way through the insipid prose of a corporate-produced textbook, I find myself thinking of a comment made by Frederick Herzberg, a critic of traditional workplace management:  “Idleness, indifference, and irresponsibility,” he said, “are healthy responses to absurd work.”
  • The more you reward people for doing something, or for doing it well, the less interest they typically come to have in whatever they had to do to get the reward. 
  • People who blame students for not being “motivated” tend to think educational success mean little more than higher scores on bad tests and they’re apt to see education itself as a means to making sure our corporations will beat their corporations.  The sort of schooling that results is the type almost guaranteed to . . . kill students’ motivation.
  • one thing that’s happened is a concatenation of rewards and punishments, including grades, which teach students that learning is just a means to an end.
  • Another thing that’s happened is teaching that’s meant primarily to raise test scores.
  • inner-city kids get the worst of the sort of schooling that’s not about exploring and discovering and questioning but only about working hard (often at rote tasks) and being nice (read: obedient).
  • “Motivation is weak because more students…don't like school, don't work hard and don't do well.”  But why don’t they like school (which is the key to understanding why, assuming his premise is correct, they don’t succeed)?  What has happened to their desire to figure out how things work, the hunger to make sense of things, with which all children start out? 
  • if you want to see (intrinsically) motivated kids, you need to visit classrooms or schools that take a nontraditional approach to education, places where students are more likely to be absorbed and frequently delighted, where what they’re doing is not merely “rigorous” (a word often applied to very difficult busywork) but meaningful.
  • Jason Schmidt on 17 Nov 10
     
    Alfie Kohn's commentary on an article written by Robert J. Samuelson. Samuelson argues in his article that the problem with education reform is not the usual suspects like ineffective teachers, but kids who are lazy and unmotivated. Interesting read with thoughtful information about student motivation.
Jeremy Inscho

From Degrading to De-Grading - 105 views

www.alfiekohn.org/...fdtd-g.htm

assessment grading kohn grades alfie kohn

shared by Jeremy Inscho on 13 Aug 12 - Cached
  • Jeremy Inscho on 13 Aug 12
     
    "Thus, anyone who wan"
Chema Falcó

Progressive Labels for Regressive Practices - Alfie Kohn - 19 views

www.alfiekohn.org/...regressive

co-opt renovacion-metodologica

shared by Chema Falcó on 26 Jun 16 - No Cached
  • Chema Falcó on 26 Jun 16
     
    Términos de renovación metodológica neutralizados al apropiárselos las metodologías de siempre
anonymous

for the love of learning: Grading without Grading - 18 views

www.joebower.org/...grading-without-grading.html

shared by anonymous on 17 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Eric Arbetter on 17 Dec 11
     
    Joe Bower, a 6th grade teacher in Canada, shares the email and response from Alfie Kohn he sent in 2006 describing how he grades without grades.  In the comments at the bottom, many others share their approaches and struggles.
Roland Gesthuizen

The Wejr Board » Power of a Student-Designed Curriculum - 61 views

chriswejr.com/...-a-student-designed-curriculum

curriculum student ownership

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 08 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • “Children should be given a voice not only about the means of learning but also the ends, the why as well as the what.” — Alfie Kohn
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 08 Nov 11
     
    In an education world dominated by mandated curricula and standardized testing, it is often difficult to imagine the effectiveness of a student-designed curriculum.
Kate Tabor

Trouble with Rubrics - 2 views

www.alfiekohn.org/...rubrics.htm

rubrics review assessment

shared by Kate Tabor on 03 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Kate Tabor on 03 Sep 09
     
    A 2006 article by Alfie Kohn in the English Jouranl that looks at the dangers of leaning on rubrics to jsutify grades or make grading easy. Compelling agrument.
Steve Ransom

Alfie Kohn News and Comments - 37 views

www.alfiekohn.org/...news.php

tedsizer geraldbracey alfiekohn blogpost

shared by Steve Ransom on 24 Oct 09 - Cached
  • “façade of orderly purposefulness”
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 24 Oct 09
       
      Great metaphor here!
  • “Tell me the incomes of your students’ families,” he wrote, “and I’ll describe to you your school.”
    • Steve Ransom
      Steve Ransom on 24 Oct 09
       
      A sad but true reality.
  • Steve Ransom on 24 Oct 09
     
    Nice tribute to Ted Sizer and Gerald Bracey
Drew Rosenshine

Does Teaching Kids To Get 'Gritty' Help Them Get Ahead? : NPR Ed : NPR - 49 views

www.npr.org/...get-gritty-help-them-get-ahead

grit mindset kids teaching dissertation

shared by Drew Rosenshine on 14 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • they need to have a "growth mindset" — the belief that success comes from effort — and not a "fixed mindset" — the notion that people succeed because they are born with a "gift" of intelligence or talent.
  • ducators say they see it all the time: Kids with fixed mindsets who think they just don't have the "gift" don't bother applying themselves. Conversely, kids with fixed mindsets who were always told they were "gifted" and skated through school tend to crumble when they hit their first challenge; rather than risk looking like a loser, they just quit.
  • We don't use the word 'gifted' — ever," Giamportone says. "In our school, you will never hear it." " 'Smart' is like a curse," adds social studies teacher June Davenport.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • Instead, the school is plastered with signs and handmade posters promoting a "growth mindset."
  • The focus is always more on putting out effort than on getting the right answers. Teachers have been trained to change the way they see students, and how they speak to them.
  • praise students for their focus and determination.
  • "If I was an outsider and I was hearing this conversation, I might think that this was some kind of hippie-dippy love fest," concedes the teacher, Nathan Cearley. "But what you see is actually a more rigorous and risky learning environment."
  • In three years, Cearley says, he's seen kids grow less afraid of making mistakes, and more willing to ask for help. Test scores at Lenox have jumped 10 to 15 points.
  • The number of schools using Brainology is expected to double this year, from 500 to 1,000.
  • A limited intervention, she says, if not consistently reinforced in and out of school, can only have limited results. "We don't know whether we've had any effect — the jury's out," says Duckworth. "It just seems to me extremely implausible that that's going to permanently and impressively change a child."
  • "Grit as a goal seems to be multiply flawed and very disturbing," says education writer Alfie Kohn. For starters, he says, "the benefits of failure are vastly overstated, and the assumption that kids will pick themselves up and try even harder next time, darn it — that's wishful thinking."
  • if there's a problem with how kids are learning, the onus should be on schools to get better at how they teach — not on kids to get better at enduring more of the same.
    • Drew Rosenshine
      Drew Rosenshine on 15 Jul 14
       
      Yes, but once again this is not an either/or situation.
  • I don't think people can become truly gritty and great at things they don't love," Duckworth says. "So when we try to develop grit in kids, we also need to find and help them cultivate their passions. That's as much a part of the equation here as the hard work and the persistence."
  • But now, three years into the growth-mindset training at Lenox Academy, Blaze says, she believes "you can teach old dogs new tricks."
  • Does Teaching Kids To Get 'Gritty' Help Them Get Ahead?
  • After years of focusing on the theory known as "multiple intelligences" and trying to teach kids in their own style, Hoerr says he's now pulling kids out of their comfort zones intentionally.
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