COOPERATIVE LEARNING MAGAZINE 1993 – vol. 13, no. 3 Is Competition Ever Appropriate in a Cooperative Classroom? By Alfie Kohn Of the numerous benefits of cooperative learning (CL), the one that first appealed to many of us was its status as an alternative to competition. Some combination of observation, personal experience, and research has made it painfully clear that setting … Read More
A Closer Look at Reading Incentive Programs
Excerpts from Punished by Rewards (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993/1999/2018) A Closer Look at Reading Incentive Programs By Alfie Kohn All those reading incentive campaigns inflicted on elementary school children across the country provide sobering evidence of just how many parents and educators are trapped by Skinnerian thinking. They also illustrate the consequences of extrinsic motivators more generally. Asked about the likely … Read More
The Case Against Gold Stars
PARENTS MAGAZINE October 1993 The Case Against Gold Stars By Alfie Kohn Call it the “gold-star syndrome.” Sometimes we paste stars on a chart. At other times we offer toys or extra TV, candy or cash, pizza or special privileges. We reward kids for doing what we want instead of punishing them for disobeying. Pull out a child-care book at … Read More
For Best Results, Forget the Bonus
NEW YORK TIMES October 17, 1993 For Best Results, Forget the Bonus By Alfie Kohn “Do this and you’ll get that.” These six words sum up the most popular way in which American business strives to improve performance in the workplace. And it is very popular. At least three of four American corporations rely on some sort of incentive program. … Read More
Turning Learning Into A Business: Concerns About ‘Quality Management’ at School (*)
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP September 1993 Turning Learning Into A Business Concerns About “Quality Management” at School By Alfie Kohn Every few years a new idea captures the imagination of educators and suddenly seems to be everywhere at once. The journals are filled with breathless accounts of its importance, a cadre of consultants materializes to offer workshops and trainings, and a new … Read More
Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide (*)
PHI DELTA KAPPAN September 1993 Choices for Children Why and How to Let Students Decide By Alfie Kohn The essence of the demand for freedom is the need of conditions which will enable an individual to make his own special contribution to a group interest, and to partake of its activities in such ways that social guidance shall be a … Read More
Why We Should Avoid Rewards Even for Boring Tasks
From Chapter 5: “Cutting the Interest Rate” of Punished by Rewards (Houghton Mifflin, 1993/2018) Why We Should Avoid Rewards Even for Boring Tasks By Alfie Kohn . . . . “If we’re worried about reducing intrinsic motivation, then what’s the problem with giving people rewards for doing things they don’t find interesting?” It is true that rewards are most likely … Read More
Changing Education from the Inside Out
May 1993 Changing Education from the Inside Out Four Books from the 1990s Illuminate Progressive Schooling By Alfie Kohn [NOTE: This review-essay was never published. You may judge for yourself whether it – and the books under review – are still relevant several decades later.] EDUCATION AS ADVENTURE: Lessons from the Second Grade. By John G. Nicholls and Susan … Read More
School Choice Myths (*)
BOSTON GLOBE April 24, 1993 School Choice Myths By Alfie Kohn Most critics of school choice proposals, in which students shop for an education and school districts must compete for their business, have emphasized the inequity of such plans, contending that they are recipes for making the rich districts richer and the poor poorer. This argument needs to be taken … Read More
Back to Nurture
AMERICAN HEALTH April 1993 Back to Nurture By Alfie Kohn Neckties narrow and then widen again as the years go by; today’s hot hairstyle will soon be painfully passe. Chances are such phases do not faze you. But in the field of science, including the study of human behavior, you may prefer to think there are no passing fads, no … Read More