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What’s it all about, Alfie?
Joanne Jacobs — Education writer Alfie Kohn Is Bad for You and Dangerous For Your Children , writes cognitive scientist Dan Willingham on Britannica Blog. The headline parodies Kohn’s penchant to overstate his case. Kohn has made a virtual industry out of finding interesting and provocative insights in the psychological literature and following them off the edge of a cliff. In books and speeches, Kohn has argued against the usefulness of assigning homework, praising and rewarding students and teaching self-discipline. Kohn specializes in attacking conventional wisdom in education. . .  Most ...

Followup on Alfie Kohn and Content Knowledge
The Buck Stops Here — Dan Willingham, a cognitive psychologist, has a critique of Alfie Kohn's educational writings; Kohn responds here. In an earlier post, Willingham explains why content knowledge can't be separated from critical thinking skills, and Robert Pondiscio follows up on that point with a hilarious discussion of an experiment in which children were unable to figure out that a "tree octopus" website was fake.