Twitter Book Club: @alfiekohn (2004) What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? - Five:18

Five: School Reform and the Study of Education
18. Professors Who Profess: making a Difference as Scholar-Activist

"The attempt to bask in the reflected glory of the hard sciences helps to explain why many professors refuse to profess." Kohnless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
anderscj

"Some scholars have slipped so far into the stylized talk—excuse me, discourse—of academia that important ideas are... http://tl.gd/9t4t32less than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
anderscj

@anderscj Re: stylized talk So much written in such a way only few understand.Can u believe there's a breakdown between research & practice?less than a minute ago via TweetDeck Favorite Retweet ReplyJennifer Elliott
JB_Elliott

"Why are there Methods courses in schools of education, buy no Goals courses?" Kohnless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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@anderscj Perhaps goals are too scary?less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyRon Amundson
mnphysicist

@mnphysicist or too.....political?less than a minute ago via Twitterrific Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
anderscj

@anderscj Perhaps... it could be goals lead to competition though tooless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyRon Amundson
mnphysicist

Twitter Book Club: @alfiekohn (2004) What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? - Five:17

Five: School Reform and the Study of Education
17. The Folly of Merit Pay

"When people are asked what's most important to them, financial concerns show up well behind such factors as intere... http://tl.gd/9t466mless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"Even those teachers likely to receive a bonus realized that everyone loses—especially the students—when educators ... http://tl.gd/9t49pmless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"The premise of merit pay, and indeed of all rewards, is that people could be doing a better job but for some reaso... http://tl.gd/9t4bf6less than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
anderscj

Now, I hate to take an oppositional view to what Kohn says here especially when I do agree with him for the most part, however, I do see some truth in this premise he describes. Now, if our schools were truly places for learning and people were rewarded with truly interesting work and good people to work with all the follies of merit pay would be true. However, where merit pay does work, where an extrinsic motivator like more money can be effective is in getting people to do things they would not otherwise feel intrinsically motivated and/or be resistant to doing. Do you suppose most SS officers in concentration camps in Nazi Germany carried out atrocities against the Jews without an extrinsic motivator? Do you think a factory worker screwing nobs into widgets all day would continue to do their work without an extrinsic motivator? Extrinsic motivators work very well at getting people to do things they otherwise would not want to do.

How does this apply to teaching? Why is it relevant and effective now? It is a relevant and necessary component of a school system over-run by standardized assessment, standardized curriculum, scripted teaching, narrowed scope of what constitutes learning, and the exploitation of children to use their test scores to drive a data-driven industry of standards-based curriculum and testing. If you are intrinsically motivated by feeding this beast then there is either something wrong with your moral compass or you have been misled. The rest of us who see these mandates as repressive and exploitative need this merit pay to motivate us to keep feeding the beast. Eliminate the stupidity and tears and you eliminate the need for merit pay.

Twitter Book Club: @alfiekohn (2004) What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? - Five:16

Five: School Reform and the Study of Education
16. Education's Rotten Apples

"when practices that might be called, for lack of better labels, progressive and traditional are used at the same t... http://tl.gd/9t3emuless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
anderscj

"The reason for cooperative learning, students infer, is to defeat another bunch of students learning together. Coo... http://tl.gd/9t3kgcless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
anderscj

I think teachers often set this up as well. Every time a teacher tries to motivate students by making some kind of learning activity into a game this happens. Every time the products of their group's learning are compared and jurried this happens. Whenever any kind of praise is given to groups for their "good work" this happens.

"Even when the assessment is performance-based, teaching to the test is (a) possible, (b) undesirable, and (c) done... http://tl.gd/9t3ps8less than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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"The current accountability fad—which was launched for political, not educational, reasons—inexorably dumbs down as... http://tl.gd/9t3roeless than a minute ago via Twittelator Favorite Retweet Replyanderscj
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