Quote

In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they are graduated, at which point we assume they have a house. What they have is a pile of bricks, and they don't have it for long.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Give
Pieces
Followed
Ideas
Learning
Assume
Whole
Information
Assuming
Giving
Break
Tiny
Long
Word
Bear
Graduated
Point
Relation
Brick
House
Bears
Pile
Another
Students
Bricks

More quotes by Alfie Kohn

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We learn most readily, most naturally, most effectively, when we start with the big picture - precisely when the basics don't come first.
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When was the last time you spent the entire day with only 42 year olds?
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In outstanding classrooms, teachers do more listening than talking, and students do more talking than listening. Terrific teachers often have teeth marks on their tongues.
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Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.
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If rewards do not work, what does? I recommend that employers pay workers well and fairly and then do everything possible to help them forget about money. A preoccupation with money distracts everyone - employers and employees - from the issues that really matter.
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Standardized testing has swelled and mutated, like a creature in one of those old horror movies, to the point that it now threatens to swallow our schools whole.
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Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
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Learning is something students do, NOT something done to students.
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To be well-educated is to have the desire as well as the means to make sure that learning never ends.
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Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.
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We have so much to cover and so little time to cover it. Howard Gardner refers to curriculum coverage as the single greatest enemy of understanding. Think instead about ideas to be discovered.
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Most of us would protest that of course we love our children without any strings attached. But what counts is how things look from the perspective of the children
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When test scores go up, we should worry, because of how poor a measure they are of what matters, and what you typically sacrifice in a desperate effort to raise scores.
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If unconditional love and genuine enthusiasm are present, praise isn't necessary. If they're absent, praise won't help.
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The overwhelming number of teachers ...are unable to name or describe a theory of learning that underlies what they do.
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A preoccupation with achievement is not only different from, but often detrimental to, a focus on learning. Thoughts and emotions while performing an action are more important in determining subsequent engagement than the actual outcome of that action.
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You have to give them unconditional love. They need to know that even if they screw up, you love them. You don't want them to grow up and resent you or, even worse, parent the way you parented them.
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In education, parody is obsolete.
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Contrary to what you think, your company will be a lot more productive if you refuse to tolerate competition among your employees.
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Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
Alfie Kohn