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John Dewey reminded us that the value of what students do 'resides in its connection with a stimulation of greater thoughtfulness, not in the greater strain it imposes.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Connections
Thoughtfulness
Students
Imposes
Value
Resides
Greater
Stimulation
Values
Reminded
Strain
Connection
John
Dewey

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If I offered you a thousand dollars to take off your shoes, you'd very likely accept--and then I could triumphantly announce that 'rewards work.' But as with punishments, they can never help someone develop a *commitment* to a task or action, a reason to keep doing it when there's no longer a payoff.
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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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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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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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Very few things are as dangerous as a bunch of incentive-driven individuals trying to play it safe.
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Social psychology has found the more you reward people for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward.
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Saying you taught it but the student didn't learn it is like saying you sold it but the customer didn't buy it.
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If faculty would relax their emphasis on grades, this might serve not to lower standards but to encourage an orientation toward learning.
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In education, parody is obsolete.
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To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
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Maximum difficulty isn't the same as optimal difficulty.
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Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
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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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There are different kinds of motivation, and the kind matters more than the amount.
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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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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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The race to win turns us all into losers.
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Those who know they're valued irrespective of their accomplishments often end up accomplishing quite a lot. It's the experience of being accepted without conditions that helps people develop a healthy confidence in themselves, a belief that it's safe to take risks and try new things.
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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.
Alfie Kohn
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Being a team player should not imply a demand for simple obedience and conformity.
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