EDUCATION WEEK October 2, 2024 Less and Less Curious By Alfie Kohn When Susan Engel, a developmental psychologist and teacher-educator at Williams College, decided to spend a few months observing suburban elementary schools, she had a specific goal in mind: to study variations in rates of children’s curiosity. Which kids asked lots of questions? Which classrooms tended to encourage that? … Read More
The Siren Song of “Evidence-Based” Instruction
May 23, 2024 The Siren Song of “Evidence-Based” Instruction By Alfie Kohn I’m geeky enough to get a little excited each time a psychology or education journal lands in my mailbox.1 Indeed, I’ve spent a fair portion of my life sorting through, critically analyzing, and writing about social science research. Even my books that are intended for general readers contain, … Read More
Cognitive Load Theory: An Unpersuasive Attempt to Justify Direct Instruction
March 4, 2024 Cognitive Load Theory An Unpersuasive Attempt to Justify Direct Instruction By Alfie Kohn [For a half-hour interview and discussion with Kohn about this essay, see this video.] 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 … 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
The Sneaky Conservativism of Ed Tech
EDUCATION WEEK September 27, 2023 The Sneaky Conservatism of Ed Tech By Alfie Kohn Have you ever noticed that people in positions of power who earnestly exhort us to “think outside the box” are likely to resist any effort to change the box itself? Take the folks in Silicon Valley. Their basic mission, as technology critic Evgeny Morozov argued recently, … 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