Alfie Kohn'S Motivational Theories

“Kohn’s Motivational Theory”

Kohn's Ideas About Education
                                                     Kohn's ideas on education have been influenced by the works of John Dewey and Jean Piaget. He believes in a constructivist account of learning in which the learner is seen as actively making meaning, rather than absorbing information, He has written that learning should be organized around "problems, projects, and questions – rather than around lists of facts, skills, and separate disciplines. “

KOHN THEORY OF MOTIVATION

    Kohn theories are based on intrinsic motivation               

“Extrinsic Rewards Reduce Intrinsic Motivation”

Alfie Kohn’s work critiques many aspects of traditional education, namely the use of competition or external factors as motivation. Kohn maintains that societies based on extrinsic motivation always become inefficient over time. He argues that positive reinforcement only encourages students to seek out more positive enforcement, rather than truly learn.

He believes that the ideal classroom emphasizes curiosity and cooperation above all and that the student’s curiosity should determine what is taught. Fundamentally Kohn; and many other advocates against extrinsic motivators, view the use of rewards (or punishments) as “Do this and you’ll get 

that!”

Punishment by Reward (1986)

“Do this and you’ll get that”

This is the method of "Carrot and Stick" used by our parents to train the children, by the teachers to educate the students and by our leaders to manage their employees.

Kohn demonstrates that people do inferior work when they are enticed with money, grades, or other incentives. Rewards and punishments are just two sides of the same coin — and the coin doesn’t buy very much. Kohn explains, is an alternative to both ways of controlling people.

Kohn’s Factors to Build Intrinsic Motivation

·       

  Collaboration requires that the members of the group or classroom rally around the true concept of working together for the success of the group.

·         Content requires that the task, job, or learning experience cover a fulfilling and rewarding role. (this might be called Meaningfulness)

·         People must be afforded the maximum amount of Choice in what and how they perform their tasks or work. This facilitates buy-in and participation.

Strategies

Alfie Kohn develop strategies that tap children’s natural desire to explore ideas:

·         Creating A curriculum that is meaningful and relevant to students’ interests

·         Bringing students in on the process of making decisions about their learning

·         Transforming classrooms into caring communities where students feel safe and connected to others, and moving away from traditional grading in favour of more constructive and learner-centred approaches

Kohn’s Approaches in The Classroom

• 
  
• To implement Kohn’s approaches in the classroom, teachers can allow students to explore the topics that interest them most. Students “should be able to think and write and explore without worrying about how good they are,”
• ·         Multiple activity centres with various classroom structures for group work
• ·         Displays of student projects
• ·         Students exchanging ideas
• ·         A respectful teacher mingling with students
• ·         Students excited about learning and actively asking questions
• ·         Multiple activities occurring at the same time

Kohn explains that rewards fail for five reasons:

1. Rewards punish

2. Rewards rupture relationships

3. Rewards ignore reasons

4. Rewards discourage risk-taking

5. Rewards destroy intrinsic motivation for the things we do                                                           

      Fundamentally Kohn; and many other advocates against extrinsic motivators, view the use of rewards (or punishments) as “Do this and you’ll get that!”

Various issues in the process of curriculum development and change

Various issues in the process of curriculum development and change

Psychomotor Domain Objectives In Curriculum Development

Role of a teacher in Curriculum Development at various Level

Affective Domain

Creativity vs School

 

We are born creative and geniuses, but  the education system dumbs us down, according to NASA scientists:

Our natural creative genius is muted from the time we are born.

At TEDxTucson, Dr. George Land dropped a bombshell when he told his audience about the shocking results of a creative test developed for NASA but subsequently used to test school children

NASA had contacted Dr. George Land and Beth Jarman to develop a highly specialized test that would give them the means to effectively measure the creative potential of NASA’s rocket scientists and engineers. The test turned out to be very successful for NASA’s purposes, but the scientists were left with a few questions: where does creativity come from? Are some people born with it or is it learned? Or does it come from our experience?

The scientists then gave the test to 1,600 children between the ages of 4 and 5. What they found shocked them.

A full 98 percent!

It gets more interesting

But this is not the real story. The scientists were so astonished that they decided to make it a longitudinal study and tested the children again five years later when they were ten years old.

The result? Only 30 percent of children now fall into the genius category of imagination.

When the kids were tested 15 years ago, the figure had dropped to 12 percent!

What about us adults? How many of us are still in contact with our creative genius after years of schooling?

Sadly, only 2 percent.

And for those who question the consistency of these results — or think they may be isolated incidence — these results have been replicated more than a million times, reports Gavin Nascimento whose article first alerts me to this amazing study and its shocking implication: that the school system, our education, robs us of our creative genius.

“The reasoning for this is not too difficult to capture; school, as we plainly call it, is an institution that has historically been put in place to ultimately serve the wants of the ruling class, not the common people.

What now? Can we recover our creativity?

Land says we have the ability to be at 98 percent if we want to. From what they found from the studies with children and from how brains work, there are two kinds of thinking that take place in the brain. Both use different parts of the brain and it’s a totally different kind of example in the sense of how it forms something in our minds.

One is called divergent — that’s imagination, used for generating new possibilities. The other is called convergent — that’s when you’re making a judgment, you’re making a decision, you’re testing something, you’re criticizing, you’re evaluating.

So divergent thinking works like an accelerator and convergent thinking puts a brake on our best efforts.

“We found that what happens to these children, as we educate them, we teach them to do both kinds of thinking at the same time”, says Land.

When someone asks you to come up with new ideas, as you come up with them what you mostly learn at school is to immediately look and see: “We tried that before”, “That’s a dumb idea”, “It won’t work” and so onward.

This is the point and this is what we must stop doing:

“When we actually looking inside the brain we find that neurons are fighting each other and diminishing the power of the brain because we’re constantly judging, criticizing and censoring,” says Land.

“If we operate under fear we use a smaller part of the brain, but when we use creative thinking the brain just lights up.”

for more information

https://ideapod.com/born-creative-geniuses-education-system-dumbs-us-according-nasa-scientists/?utm_source=catalyst&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=uplift

Handwriting

What your handwriting actually says about your personality?

Ever wondered if there's any rhyme or reason behind the fact that your handwriting is so unique?

The study of the written word is actually called graphology - and experts have been making all sorts of connections about how a person puts pen to paper and their defining characteristics.

Size of letters

Ever noticed that the most popular person in school had large, loopy letters that were probably dotted with love-hearts and could genuinely have earned them a scholarship on a calligraphy course?

People with large handwriting tend to be outspoken, enjoy attention, and give off an aura of confidence - or at the very least - the appearance of confidence. Those with smaller letters tend to be shyer and more withdrawn characters, but are generally thought to be careful workers. 

Spacing

It turns out the blank space between words is just as important as the way in which your pen glides across the paper. People who leave wide spaces between their words enjoy a freedom and tend to give themselves time to think through an issue before tackling it. Those who immediately jump on the next word without leaving even 5mm of space are more intrusive personalities and dislike being left with their own thoughts for too long.

Slanting

 People with letters that go straight up-and-down are logical, practical, and well-balanced individuals. Those whose handwriting slants to the right are open-minded and thrive in social settings. On the other hand, people who slope their letters to the left are typically introverts – with experts claiming that the left-slanters are conscientious, guarded with their emotions, and rarely express their true thoughts.

Shape of letters

People in creative fields tend to have rounded letters, while those who write with pointed edges are thought to be less artistic - but highly intelligent, curious, intense, and occasionally aggressive. Yikes.

Pressure

A heavier pressure indicates that a person is good with commitment and sticks by their decisions, but this also suggests intensity and is said to be spotted in individuals who take badly to criticism.

On the other hand, those who write with a light pressure are sensitive, empathetic, and generally more adaptable to difficult situations or changes in plans.

Speed

People who write at 50mph are impatient in all aspects of life, and dislike anybody wasting their time. Though fast writing is also associated with intelligence, it's worth mentioning that slow writers are generally considered to be much more organized and careful workers.

Signature

On to pretty much the only piece of handwriting that anyone ever does in 2018. A signature reflects a great deal about the way a person sees themselves. Those with legible penmanships are confident, assertive, and comfortable in their own skin.

Those with a not qualified illegible writing are more private and dislike sharing their personalities with strangers. 

The Alphabetic Principle Effective Strategies For Early Readers. - ppt download

The Alphabetic Principle Effective Strategies For Early Readers. - ppt download