Blog Posts

Note: I have not published blog posts about my academic papers over the past few years. To ensure that my blog contains a more comprehensive record of my published papers and to surface these for folks who missed them, I will be periodically (re)publishing blog posts about some “older” published projects. This post is closely …

Continue reading "What do people do when they edit Wikipedia through Tor?"

Note: I have not published blog posts about my academic papers over the past few years. To ensure that my blog contains a more comprehensive record of my published papers and to surface these for folks who missed them, I will be periodically (re)publishing blog posts about some “older” published projects. This particular post is …

Continue reading "Effects of Algorithmic Flagging on Fairness: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Wikipedia"

April 7, 2015 Evidence? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Evidence! By Alfie Kohn Have you ever suspected that much of what you do for a living is an extended exercise in missing the point? I’ve spent many years challenging claims about the benefits of rewarding or praising children (when they act the way we want) and punishing them (when they ... Read More

April 23, 2015 The Grass Moment Helping Kids to Become Reflective Rebels By Alfie Kohn For the last several years I’ve been hacking away at a tangle of deeply conservative beliefs about children and parenting that have somehow come to be accepted as the conventional wisdom in our culture: that parents are too permissive and yet, at the same time, ... Read More

May 12, 2015 The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing By Alfie Kohn   [This essay is adapted from The Brighter Side of Human Nature, which contains the complete references to research cited here.] Our culture may sing the praises of the heroically selfless, yet it also seems to disdain the very idea of helping. We ... Read More

June 2, 2015 Learning as a Sandwich Revisiting the Ingenuity (and Radicalism) of K-W-L By Alfie Kohn I believe it was Dale Carnegie who first counseled public speakers to “tell the audience what you’re going to say . . . say it . . . then tell them what you’ve said.” This advice, which presumably appeared in his book How ... Read More

June 25, 2015 What’s the Real Purpose of Classroom Management? By Alfie Kohn   Everyone knows why classroom management skills are considered a critical part of teacher training. The reason we need to minimize “misbehavior” and get students to show up, sit down, and pay attention is so we can teach them stuff. That proposition is so obvious that it’s ... Read More

July 11, 2015 Cheerful to a Fault “Positive” Practices with Negative Implications By Alfie Kohn We live in a smiley-face, keep-your-chin-up, look-on-the-bright-side culture. At the risk of being labeled a professional party pooper, I’d like to suggest that accentuating the positive isn’t always a wise course of action where children are concerned. I say that not because I’ve joined the ... Read More

October 4, 2015 The Back-to-School-Night Speech We’d Like to Hear* By Alfie Kohn This imagined presentation by a principal is also the first episode of the podcast Kohn’s Zone. You can listen to it here.   Is this working? [taps microphone]  I do believe it is! OK, if everyone can please find a seat, we’d like to get started. Thanks ... Read More

October 31, 2015 All Aboard the LeaderShip Reflections on Goals and Catchphrases By Alfie Kohn If you’re going to lead a school or other organization, it might be smart to give some thought to what it means to be a good leader. But that fact doesn’t explain why some schools proudly announce that they train their students — every last ... Read More