Alfie Kohn - THE SCHOOLS OUR CHILDREN DESERVE: Rescuing Learning from Grades, Tests, and "Data"

Most educators would agree with the late Dr. Deming that a primary goal of schooling is to help students acquire or avoid losing a sense of joy in learning. Unfortunately, many traditional practices in our schools diminish that joy and also undermine deep thinking. Those practices includes grades, competition, tests (both standardized and teacher devised), and the current corporate styled version of school reform that imposes one size fits all standards and a preoccupation with data that values quantity over quality. In his keynote address, Alfie Kohn will invite us to rethink the nature of motivation and explore authentic alternatives to conventional assessment and instruction.