Hosted by Alfie Kohn · 🇺🇸 US · EN-US · 25 episodes
Established thought leaders with verified media credentials.
Over more than a third of a century, Alfie Kohn has offered a multifaceted defense of progressive education as well as research-based critiques of rewards and punishments, grades, standardized testing, homework, competition, and other aspects of traditional schooling (and parenting). Each episode of Kohn’s Zone will offer 20-30 minutes of provocative reflections on a topic having to do with teaching and learning — or with human behavior more generally; occasional longer segments will feature conversations with leading experts in education. Watch this space for new episodes, which will appear as if by magic every two weeks or so. You can listen here, or, better yet, on the podcast’s home, AlfieKohn.org/podcasts, which offers other resources. And to support us, please visit https://coff.ee/kohnszone. PRODUCTION SUPPORT: Ultraviolet Audio. ART: Abi Kohn.
Alfie Kohn hosts Kohn's Zone, a science show with 25 episodes published.
June 15, 2026 Fun Without Winning or Losing We have been raised – and, in turn, raise our children – to take on faith that recreation requires competition, that half the people playing a game must try to defe
June 1, 2026 “PROGRESSIVE HIGH SCHOOL” IS NOT AN OXYMORON Listen to the episode here. In theory, the fact that all but a handful of states have eliminated do-or-die exit exams allows high schools to finally do right by t
May 15, 2026 Grade Inflation Is Not the Problem When you look at student transcripts (rather than at self-reports), it’s less clear that average grades are rising over time. And even if some grades are higher, that doesn
May 1, 2026 Beneath the What and the How Is the Why In the absence of an affirmative definition of mental health, psychology doesn’t become value-free; its values – and the goals of therapy – are just driven underground.
April 15, 2026 The Best Classroom Discussions, Hands Down In traditional classrooms, students may contribute to a discussion only by raising their hands and waiting for the teacher to call on them. In even more controlli
April 1, 2026 The Assault on Public Education: A Conversation with Jennifer Berkshire Public schools, says Jennifer Berkshire, are the places “where we start to solve problems together” and from which no child can be exc
March 15, 2026 Friendly Excursions into Disequilibrium Enforced harmony is counterproductive. Pushing students (or employees) to come to agreement prematurely tends to undermine learning (or produce bad decisions). Somet
March 1, 2026 Who’s Cheating Whom? We’re often warned about an “epidemic” of academic cheating and urged to do more to deter and punish the devious culprits. But we’ve had a century of research showing that the frequency
February 15, 2026 The Whole Point Is That There’s No Point Early-childhood educators remind us how vital it is for kids to have plentiful opportunities to engage in free play – which, sadly, is often denied to them as ac
February 1, 2026 Beyond “Electronic Flashcards”: A Conversation with Gary Stager Computers in classrooms may have the potential to radically enrich and democratize student learning, but the reality of ed tech typically l
January 15, 2026 How to Kill Kids’ Interest in Reading Surveys reveal that fewer children and adults are reading for pleasure. This might be due partly to social media, but certain classroom strategies and school policie
January 1, 2026 Who Gets to Decide? – Part 2 Intellectually vibrant classrooms are distinguished by teachers who do a lot more asking than telling. Their motto when confronting challenges or planning lessons is “Bring th
December 15, 2025 Who Gets to Decide? – Part 1 An impressive body of research shows that people of all ages – including students in classrooms – are happier, healthier, and more productive when they have some say about w
December 1, 2025 The Curious Case of the Incurious Children A Conversation with Susan Engel Everyone agrees that it’s good to be curious, but that doesn’t mean schools are committed to fostering children’s curiosity. Thi
November 15, 2025 It’s Not Just You The most popular initiatives in education tend to be strategies for “fixing the kids.” A focus on the deficits of individual students, rather than a critical analysis of systemic issue
November 1, 2025 Making Kids Work a Second Shift Too often the debate over homework is restricted to its quantity — or, at best, its quality. But such discussions take for granted the need for some homework, as if it wer
October 15, 2025 A.I., as in Anti-Intellectual People who express concern about the use of AI in schools often focus on how it allows students to get away with something (by using OpenAI to write their essays). But shoul
October 1, 2025 Death by Civics A Conversation with Joel Westheimer About the Role of Education in Democratic Life Suppose you wanted young people to develop a commitment to democracy, particularly at a time when it’s un
September 15, 2025 The Failure of Failure The notion that kids today have it too easy and would benefit from more experiences with failure is no longer a surprising, contrarian claim; it has become the conventional wisdo
September 1, 2025 Bad Signs The posters and signs adorning school walls speak volumes about the people who put them there, revealing a surprising amount about their views of children, their assumptions about learning, an
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Kohn's Zone is hosted by Alfie Kohn. The show is categorised under science (social) and has published 25 episodes.
Kohn's Zone has published 25 episodes.
Kohn's Zone regularly covers science, social, kids. It sits in the science category, with a social focus.
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