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Kagan structures is a good idea overall, but some teachers spend more time on learning to use them, than actually teaching anything. I also agree about the social problem it presents. Assigning partners is a much better way and teaches students how to work with someone else effectively.
I teach 5th grade and my school invested in it and we've recently had Level 1 & 2 trainings. I'm a veteran teacher, so a lot of the principles of the program are things I already do in a different form (choose students to respond randomly, design group work in such a way that all students must participate, provide brain breaks & get kids moving around the room periodically, provide regular opportunities for small-group discussion, use soothing music to help kids focus, etc.) If you already have methods of your own to do that, the program will be kind of a waste for you. I also found the trainers a bit evangelical, contrasting their golden Kagan methods against "traditional" education techniques that don't resemble anything I've seen in any of the schools I've taught in over the last 18 years. But if you're a new teacher, I think it can be helpful. And they have so many techniques, even veterans can get a few new ones. I'm just not a fan of gimmicky package programs like this, so...
What Kagan absolutely will not do is turn around a school's poor academic performance or reduce serious behavior problems.
Just attended a Kagan training. My problem, other than the taxpayers spending tens of thousands of dollars on just the training, is that they claim it's based on research. However, when I looked through the research they cite, it's mainly all theoretical. I don't see any peer-reviewed, controlled studies using any of the Kagan structures. I understand the link with Social Learning Theory, but I was not convinced that this is an appropriate implementation of SLT. Even if I'm wrong, the students smell coercion from a mile away, even if the activity is "fun." There are just too many IDKs here to make me want to use this in my classroom. Some things are good sometimes but was it worth all of the taxpayers money? I don't think so.
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