Colleen Roberts

Review of Alfie Khon’s Theory

EDI 310
April 2018

Alfie Khon created a classroom management plan focusing on building relationships and
community with the students and in the classroom. There are many ways to do this and
depending on the grade level that you are working with, there are many different levels you can
take classroom community. There are many things about Khon’s research that I agree with, yet
there is some of his work that I disagree with. My classroom management plan will consist of
many different theories and research, although Alfie Khon contributed a lot to my classroom
management plan.
The three main ideas of Alfie Khon’s are as follows: teachers should provide an ongoing
and engaging curriculum and caring community, the purpose of education is to produce not just
good learners but good people, emphasis on curbing negative behaviors to an emphasis on
promoting positive behaviors - not through rewards and praise - but through learning
opportunities. Having students help with their rules and procedures at the beginning of the
year, as well as implementing them throughout the year, can help the classroom culture and
community flow in a better sense. Students creating the rules and procedures can help them to
feel as if they own them, this can help students to follow their own rules and procedures and
help their peers as well.
Building community takes not only the work of the teacher, but the work of all of the
students and the entire school. Community can help with over safety of schools and classrooms
as well, students, and people in general, can focus and work harder in an environment that they
feel safe in. “The pursuit of safety in particular, or community more general, is a project best
pursued on four levels at once: strengthening the adult’s relationship with each student;
building students’ connections with each other, one dyad at a time; providing for numerous
class wide and school wide activities in which students work together toward a common end;
and weaving the goal of community through academic instruction.” (Khon, A. 2008. Pg. 111)
Having a strong community throughout the entire school is very important for this type
of classroom management. “Where those communities do exist, teachers always seem to be in
and out of each other’s rooms-not as part of a formal (and intimidating) observation process bit
in order to give and receive feedback voluntarily. Teachers feel safe enough to acknowledge
they need help with a problem instead of pretending they have everything under control.”
(Khon, A. 2008. pg. 110) There is so much people can learn from their peers, this goes for
students and for teachers. Teachers in a community can grow as educators, picking up ideas
from one another, making the school a better place for both them and the students.
Having relationships with the students helps learning opportunities grow in and out of
the classroom. As I stated earlier, one of Khon’s big ideas is that education should not only
create good students, but also good people. “Kohn maintains that the more teachers control
their students through reward systems, the more difficult it is for students to become moral
people who think for themselves and care about each other.” (Hardin, C. J. 2012, pg. 140)
Students should be able to think and control themselves throughout their education, because
they spend most of their day in schools. Giving students more independence can help students
become more independent and moral people.
 Works Cited
Hardin, C. J. (2014). Effective classroom management: Models and strategies. Harlow: Pearson
Education.
Khon, A. (2008). Beyond discipline: From compliance to community. Alexandria, Va: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
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Alfie Khon
“Communication - not punishment and rewards - is the key to effective classroom
discipline.”

Key concepts
1. Teachers should provide an ongoing and engaging curriculum and caring
community
2. The purpose of education is to produce not just good learners but good people
3. Emphasis on curbing negative behaviors to an emphasis on promoting positive
behaviors - not through rewards and praise - but through learning opportunities.
No Grades + No Homework = Better Learning by Alfie Kohn
Building community
 Pros
o Teacher to consider interactions with students
o Talk to/with students is important
o Positive rapport with youth
o Self-responsibility and self-discipline
 Cons
o Unrealistic for handling certain discipline issues
o Many strategies too broad to be applied to the daily issues encountered in
the classroom
o Not appropriate for younger students