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Original Title: Alfie Kohn - Teaching/Parenting - Biography
Biography
Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. His eight books include PUNISHED BY REWARDS (1993), NO CONTEST: The Case Against Competition (1986), THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and “Tougher Standards” (1999), and THE CASE AGAINST STANDARDIZED TESTING (2000). His next book, to be published in the spring, is WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WELL EDUCATED? And More Essays on Standards, Grading, and Other Follies (2004).
Kohn has been described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country´s most outspoken critic of education´s fixation on grades [and] test scores.” His criticisms of competition and rewards have helped to shape the thinking of educators — as well as parents and managers — across the country and abroad. Kohn has been featured on hundreds of TV and radio programs, including the “Today” show and two appearances on “Oprah”; he has been profiled in the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, while his work has been described and debated in many other leading publications.
Kohn lectures widely at universities and to school faculties, parent groups, and corporations. In addition to speaking at staff development seminars and keynoting national education conferences on a regular basis, he conducts workshops for teachers and administrators on various topics. Among them: “Motivation from the Inside Out: Rethinking Rewards, Assessment, and Learning” and “Beyond Bribes and Threats: Realistic Alternatives to Controlling Students´ Behavior.” The latter corresponds to his book BEYOND DISCIPLINE: From Compliance to Community (ASCD, 1996), which he describes as “a modest attempt to overthrow the entire field of classroom management.”
Kohn´s various books have been translated into Japanese, Korean, German, Swedish, Dutch, Portuguese, Hebrew, Thai, and Italian. He has also contributed to publications ranging from the Journal of Education to Ladies Home Journal, and from the Nation to the Harvard Business Review (”Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work”). His efforts to make research in human behavior accessible to a general audience have also been published in the Atlantic Monthly, Parents, and Psychology Today.
His many articles on education include seven widely reprinted cover essays in Phi Delta Kappan: “Caring Kids: The Role of the Schools” (March 1991), “Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide” (Sept. 1993), “The Truth About Self-Esteem” (Dec. 1994), “How Not to Teach Values: A Critical Look at Character Education” (Feb. 1997), “Only for My Kid: How Privileged Parents Undermine School Reform” (April 1998), “Fighting the Tests” (Jan. 2001), and “The 500-Pound Gorilla” (Oct. 2002). (These are all available on-line.)
Educated at Brown University and the University of Chicago, Kohn lives (actually) in the Boston area with his wife and two children, and (virtually) at www.alfiekohn.org. |
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