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choice-response thinking—that they need not be victims—may be one of the most valuable thinking patterns we can give them.

Rewards can serve as effective incentives only if the person is interested in that reward.

rewards for expected standards of behavior are counterproductive

the student’s task in such classrooms is “comprehending how the teacher has integrated or applied the ideas… and [then] reconstruct[ing] the teacher’s thinking.”

f your criteria are more ambitious — long-term retention of what’s been taught, the capacity to understand ideas and apply them to new kinds of problems, a desire to continue learning — the relative benefits of progressive education are even greater.[5]

projects in which they took a high degree of initiative

If I felt there might be something on a cellphone, I’d invite parents to go through it with me.”

Formspring

Formspring

What a teacher can do – all a teacher can do – is work with students to create a classroom culture, a climate, a curriculum that will nourish and sustain the fundamental inclinations that everyone starts out with:  to make sense of oneself and the world, to become increasingly competent at tasks that are regarded as consequential, to connect with (and express oneself to) other people.  Motivation – at least intrinsic motivation -- is something to be supported, or if necessary revived.

a few specific suggestions for bringing students in on making decisions, offered here in the hope that they will spark you to think of others in the same spirit:

Bring students in on the process of assessment by asking them to join you in thinking about alternatives to conventional tests.  “How can you show me what you understood, where you still need help, and what I may need to rethink about how I taught the unit?”  Beyond the format of the assessment, invite them as a class to suggest criteria by which someone’s work might be evaluated – and, later, have them apply those criteria to what they’ve done.

Will what I am about to do or say bring me closer to the person with whom I am communicating—or will it push me further away?"

Is what I am doing (or about to do) going to connect to the student's self-interest?

Who's doing the work?"