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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.

Alfie Kohn

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Alfie Kohn
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: October 15
Author
Teacher
Writer
Miami Beach
Florida
Often
Teachers
Teeth
Tongue
Classrooms
Mark
Tongues
Students
Marks
Listening
Outstanding
Teacher
Terrific
Talking
Classroom

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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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Punishments and rewards are two sides of the same coin and that coin doesn't buy you much.
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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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Don't let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered.
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Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.
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To control students is to force them to accommodate to a preestablished curriculum.
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If a child is off-task...mayb e the problem is not the child...maybe it's the task.
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Trying to be number one and trying to do a task well are two different things.
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Independence is useful, but caring attitudes and behaviors shrivel up in a culture where each person is responsible only for himself.
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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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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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The Legacy of Behaviorism: Do this and you'll get that.
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Grades dilute the pleasure that a student experiences on successfully completing a task.
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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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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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There are different kinds of motivation, and the kind matters more than the amount.
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Punishment and reward proceed from basically the same psychological model, one that conceives of motivation as nothing more than the manipulation of behavior.
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Punishments erode relationships and moral growth.
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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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Educators remind us that what counts in a classroom is not what the teacher teaches it’s what the learner learns.
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