Category Archives: Education and Schools

Mar 30

Moron Alfie Kohn – Punished By Rewards

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From 2001

I wrote:

On 8 Aug 01, at 16:56, Julian  wrote:

>
> Hello
>
> Is anyone familiar with Alfie Kohn’s book ‘Punished by Rewards’ or his
> general thesis that “extrinsic motivators in the workplace are not only
> ineffective but often positively counterproductive”. Generally speaking
> the idea is if you offer incentives this will demotivate and stifle
> creativity. There are other authors who agree with Kohnyet the
> prevailing thought appears to be swinging away from such a view.

Julian, here’s the deal. Kohn is a writer, and has no training in research
or the interpretation of research. He over-extends his conclusions beyond
the data. I took the liberty of looking at some of the studies he cited to
support his contention. Several I looked at could actually be interpreted
as disproving some of his contentions. Others simple weren’t relevant or
were badly designed.

Continue reading →

Mar 10

Ackoff and Greenberg: Turning Learning Right Side Up Book Talk Part 1 (Video)

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This will resonate with many people, and in particular old hippies and the new generation of fanatics who believe that social networking will replace schools, and who want to dismantle the existing school system. Ackoff and Greenberg are the real deal, smart, great to listen to, personable.

Here is the problem. What they have to say is no different than what was said in the ’60′s by people like A.S. Neill (Summerhill) and other reformists including Illich (Deschooling), and in general the comments are both as valid and as useless as they were then, and will have the same impact. They demonstrate the problems that happen when people who have little understanding of history and sociology of mass education jump in. As a final note, there have always been, and always will be very small scale examples of forms of schooling that “make more sense” and that have been demonstrated as successful with a small number of students, and when those students are selected (rather than having to take everyone). In fact I used to hang out at just such a school to help out. Continue reading →