March 4, 2024 Cognitive Load Theory An Unpersuasive Attempt to Justify Direct Instruction By Alfie Kohn A remarkable body of research over many years has demonstrated that the sort of teaching in which students are provided with answers or shown the correct way to do something — where they’re basically seen as empty receptacles to be filled with facts or … Read More
Aggressive Nostalgia
October 25, 2023 Aggressive Nostalgia The Dark Side of Pining for the Good Old Days By Alfie Kohn “Time was when parents had their own authority about the rearing of children….There was no back talk and no nonsense….Today we have the child- centered home. In it there is little peace and quiet, and certainly not much respect for, or fear … Read More
Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget
April 20, 2023 Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget By Alfie Kohn A.P. European History was the best-reviewed class in my old high school. The teacher was a kindly man with an admirable devotion to his subject. Despite his skills, however, and despite the fact that I received an A, all that remained in my … Read More
The Caring Subversion of Nel Noddings: An Appreciation
March 13, 2023 The Caring Subversion of Nel Noddings: An Appreciation By Alfie Kohn My undergraduate mentor had a life-changing impact, both as a teacher and a human being, on innumerable students he taught over the course of nearly three decades.1 So on his 95th birthday about a hundred of us took a full day to tell him so. We … Read More
How to Prevent Social Change: A Handy Guide for Educators and Parents
February 28, 2023 How to Prevent Social Change: A Handy Guide for Educators and Parents By Alfie Kohn If you’re the sort of person who prefers to perpetuate rather than challenge the status quo — or maybe just a fan of inequity — I have good news for you. Certain ways of raising and teaching children are actually much more … Read More
The Times Deeply Regrets These Errors
December 23, 2022 The Times Deeply Regrets These Errors By Alfie Kohn Due to an editing error, an obituary on Saturday incorrectly described Thomas R. McKeown as having lived in Longfield, NJ. He actually lived in East Longfield. Additionally, Mr. McKeown has not yet died. An account in Sunday’s Vows section of Elizabeth “Tipsy” Wagglesworth’s wedding to Maria … Read More
“Eduspeak” Reconsidered
November 3, 2022 “Eduspeak” Reconsidered When, Why, and to Whom Is Educational Jargon Annoying? By Alfie Kohn Over the years I’ve heard a lot of people complain — sometimes good-naturedly, sometimes with remarkable venom — about our field’s use of jargon. Eventually I began to wonder why “eduspeak” or “edspeak” (or, less charitably, “edu-babble”) vexes people so, and to what … Read More
Is It Enough for Learners to Be “Engaged”?
September 30, 2022 Is It Enough for Learners to Be “Engaged”? By Alfie Kohn “To enhance achievement, one must first learn how to engage students.” That challenge by Fred Newmann, emeritus professor of education at the University of Wisconsin,1 could serve as the motto for an entire movement by thoughtful theorists, researchers, and practitioners in the field. And it makes … Read More
When the Myth of Progress Unravels
May 16, 2022 When the Myth of Progress Unravels By Alfie Kohn The arc of history is long, but it bends toward catastrophic annihilation. — Barbara Ehrenreich The fact that five religious Supreme Court justices have eliminated women’s right to terminate a pregnancy — a protection representing “a half-century of progress toward a more equal society” — has … Read More
Last Time, the Religious Right Told Us Not Only What We Can Teach but How
April 29, 2022 Last Time, the Religious Right Told Us Not Only What We Can Teach but How to Teach It By Alfie Kohn Christian conservatives are banning books and censoring school curricula — and not for the first time. Materials dealing with sexuality and sexual orientation have always been popular targets for them; indeed, researchers have found that literally … Read More