Alfie Kohn

Alfie Kohn is one the leaders in the area of improving learning and education. The following is Alfie Kohn's suggested reading list. The online Curious Cat Management Improvement Library includes many articles by Alfie. You can also find information and articles on AlfieKohn.org

RECOMMENDED READINGS

I   What Helps

CONSTRUCTIVISM and PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION

• John Dewey, Experience and Education; Interest and Effort in Education (excellent but hard to find); The School and Society; Democracy and Education (longer and more academic)
• Jean Piaget, The Moral Judgment of the Child and other works
• Writings of latter-day constructivists such as Constance Kamii, Rheta DeVries, Carolyn Edwards, Eleanor Duckworth
• Jacqueline Grennon Brooks and Martin G. Brooks, In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms (a good introduction)
• Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde, Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America's Schools
• Alfie Kohn, "Choices for Children" in Phi Delta Kappan, Sept. 1993; and Punished by Rewards (ch. 11, 12)
• Thomas Lickona and Muffy Paradise, "Democracy in the Elementary School" in Ralph Mosher, ed., Moral Education: A First Generation of Research and Development
• Regie Routman, Invitations: Changing as Teachers and Learners (on whole language)
• Publications by Foxfire Teacher Outreach (PO Box 541, Mountain City, GA 30562)
• Publications by the Institute for Democracy in Education (McCracken Hall, Ohio Univ., Athens, OH 45701)

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES

learner-centered classrooms where students make decisions and explore important ideas in caring communities:

• George H. Wood, Schools That Work
• Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem
• Carolyn Edwards et al., eds., The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education
• John G. Nicholls and Susan P. Hazzard, Education as Adventure: Lessons from the Second Grade

GENEROSITY, ALTRUISM, and PERSPECTIVE TAKING

• Alfie Kohn, The Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life (theory and research)
• Norma Feshbach et al., Learning to Care (perspective taking exercises)
• Various writings by Martin Hoffman, Nancy Eisenberg, Ervin Staub, Marian Radke-Yarrow, and Robert Selman

PROSOCIAL EDUCATION and THE CLASSROOM AS CARING COMMUNITY

• Materials from the Child Development Project -- e.g., At Home in Our Schools: A Guide to Schoolwide Activities that Build Community, and Reading, Thinking, and Caring [lit. curriculum to promote caring] (available from Developmental Studies Center, 2000 Embarcadero, Suite 305, Oakland, CA 94606; 800-666-7270)
• Alfie Kohn, "Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, March 1991, pp. 496-506
• Rheta DeVries and Betty Zan, Moral Classrooms, Moral Children: Creating a Constructivist Atmosphere in Early Education
• Catherine C. Lewis, Educating Hearts and Minds: Reflections on Japanese Preschool and Elementary Education
• Thomas Lickona, Educating for Character
• Nel Noddings, The Challenge to Care in Schools
• Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Building Community in Schools
Vivian Gussin Paley, You Can't Say You Can't Play and other books
• Materials from Educators for Social Responsibility, 23 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (emphasis on connecting prosocial values to the world outside the classroom)
• Bob Blue, "Starting Small," a tape featuring songs written for -- and sung by -- children that deal with various social issues (available for $10 from B. Blue, 54 Walnut St., Apt. B2, Waltham, MA 02154)

CLASS MEETINGS

• Child Development Project, Ways We Want Our Class to Be: Class Meetings that Build Commitment to Kindness and Learning (see CDP address above)
• Thomas Lickona, Educating for Character (ch. 8)
• William Glasser, Schools Without Failure (ch. 10-12)
• Thomas Gordon, T.E.T.: Teacher Effectiveness Training (ch. 8, 9)
• Jane Nelsen, Lynn Lott, and H. Stephen Glenn, Positive Discipline in the Classroom

COOPERATIVE LEARNING (other voices)

• Cooperative Learning Magazine ($25/year). Box 1582, Santa Cruz, CA 95061; 408/426-7926
• Alfie Kohn, No Contest: The Case Against Competition, ch. 10 (critical overview)
• Yael and Shlomo Sharan, Expanding Cooperative Learning through Group Investigation (learner-centered approach)
• Mark Brubacher et al., eds., Perspectives on Small Group Learning (constructivist approach)
• Elizabeth Cohen, Designing Groupwork (reducing status differences in the classroom)
• Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson, Cooperative Learning, Cooperative Lives (coop. as a subject of study)
• Kohn, "Group Grade Grubbing vs. Cooperative Learning," Educational Leadership, March 1991, pp. 83-87
rewards and cooperative learning
• Alfie Kohn, "Resistance to Cooperative Learning: Making Sense of Its Deletion and Dilution," Journal of Education, vol. 174, no. 2, 1992, pp. 38-56

COOPERATIVE GAMES

• Terry Orlick, The Cooperative Sports and Games Book and The Second Cooperative Sports and Games Book
• Family Pastimes, R.R. 4, Perth, Ontario, K7H 3C6 Canada (board games)

II   What Hurts

DISCIPLINE and CONTROL; PUNISHMENT AND REWARDS - What Hurts

• Alfie Kohn, Beyond Discipline: From Compliance to Community
• Linda M. McNeil, Contradictions of Control: School Structure and School Knowledge
• Edward L. Deci et al., "Effects of Performance Standards on Teaching Styles: Behavior of Controlling Teachers,"
• Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 74, 1982, pp. 852-59
• Cheryl Flink et al., Controlling Teaching Strategies: Undermining Children’s Self-Determination and Performance, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol.. 59, 1990, pp. 916-24
• William Glasser, Schools Without Failure and The Quality School
• Thomas Gordon, T.E.T.: Teacher Effectiveness Training and other books
• Irwin A. Hyman, Reading, Writing, and the Hickory Stick: The Appalling Story of Physical and Psychological Abuse in American Schools
• Murray A. Straus, Beating the Devil Out of Them: Corporal Punishment in American Families
• Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

COMPETITION - What Hurts

• Alfie Kohn, No Contest: The Case Against Competition
• John Nicholls, The Competitive Ethos and Democratic Education

GRADES - What Hurts

• Howard Kirschenbaum et al., Wad-Ja-Get?: The Grading Game in American Education
• Ohmer Milton et al., Making Sense of College Grades
• Alfie Kohn, "Grading: The Issue Is Not How but Why," Educational Leadership, October 1994
• Ruth Butler and Mordecai Nisan, "Effects of No Feedback, Task-Related Comments, and Grades on Intrinsic Motivation and Performance," Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 78, 1986, pp. 210-16.
• Also see the work of Dweck, Ames, and Nicholls cited below on overemphasizing evaluation of performance.

STANDARDIZED TESTING - What Hurts

• Scott G. Paris et al., “A Developmental Perspective on Standardized Achievement Testing,” Educational Researcher, June-July 1991, pp. 12-20
• D. Monty Neill and Noe J. Medina, "Standardized Testing: Harmful to Educational Health," Phi Delta Kappan, May 1989, pp. 688-97
• Center for the Study of Testing, "The Influence of Testing on Teaching Math and Science in Grades 4-12" (order from CSTEEP, 323 Campion Hall, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167)
• Various reports and quarterly newsletter from FAIRTEST, 342 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139

TRACKING & GIFTED EDUCATION - What Hurts

• Jeannie Oakes, Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality
• Anne Wheelock, Crossing the Tracks: How Untracking Can Save America's Schools
• Mara Sapon-Shevin, Playing Favorites: Gifted Education and the Disruption of Community

III   Critical Perspectives on Selected Topics

MOTIVATION RECONSIDERED

• Martin L. Maehr and Carol Midgley, "Enhancing Student Motivation: A Schoolwide Approach," Educational Psychologist, vol. 26, 1991, pp. 399-427
• Carole Ames, "Classrooms: Goals, Structures, and Student Motivation," Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 84, 1992, pp. 261-71
• Carol S. Dweck, "Motivational Processes Affecting Learning," American Psychologist, vol. 41, 1986, pp. 1040-48
• John G. Nicholls, The Competitive Ethos and Democratic Education
• Martin V. Covington, Making the Grade: A Self-Worth Perspective on Motivation and School Reform
• Deborah J. Stipek, Motivation to Learn: From Theory to Practice (2d ed.)

SPECIAL EDUCATION

• Herbert Lovett, Cognitive Counseling and Persons with Special Needs and Learning to Listen: Positive Approaches and People with Difficult Behavior (alternatives to behavioral manipulation)
• Joan F. Goodman, When Slow Is Fast Enough (rethinking skills-based programs & IEPs)
• Jane Knitzer et al., At the Schoolhouse Door: An Examination of Programs and Policies for Children with Behavioral and Emotional Problems (from Bank St. College of Ed.)
• Gerald Coles, The Learning Mystique: A Critical Look at "Learning Disabilities"
• Thomas Armstrong, The Myth of the A.D.D. Child
• Alfie Kohn, "Suffer the Restless Children," Atlantic Monthly, Nov. 1989, pp. 90-100 (attn. deficit hyperact. disorder)

SELF-ESTEEM

• Alfie Kohn, "The Truth About Self-Esteem," Phi Delta Kappan, December 1994
• James A. Beane, "Sorting Out the Self-Esteem Controversy," Educational Leadership, September 1991, pp. 25-30
• Lilian G. Katz, "All About Me," American Educator, Summer 1993, pp. 18-23

BUSINESS INFLUENCE IN SCHOOLS

• Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America
• Alfie Kohn, "Turning Learning into a Business: Concerns About Total Quality," Educational Leadership, Sept. 1993, pp. 58-61
• James Moffett, "On to the Past: Wrong-Headed School Reform," Phi Delta Kappan, April 1994, pp. 585-90
• Alex Molnar, Giving Kids the Business: The Commercialization of America’s Schools
• Alfie Kohn, ed., Education, Inc.: Turning Learning into a Business
• George R. Kaplan, Profits R Us, Phi Delta Kappan, November 1996

MAKING CHANGE

• Michael G. Fullan and Matthew B. Miles, "Getting Reform Right," Phi Delta Kappan, June 1992, pp. 745-52
• Various publications by Milbrey McLaughlin on the significance of collaboration among faculty (School of Education, CERAS Building, Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA 94305)
• Selma Wassermann, "Children Working in Groups? It Doesn't Work!" Childhood Education, Summer 1989, pp. 201-5 (one teacher's perspective)