"Why are we studying this?" This statement can be heard often in the classrooms of today's American schools. In order to look at how teachers motivate students, Perkins suggests one must review the cognitive economy of a classroom. The cognitive economy refers to the gains and costs that students encounter day to day. Yet to look at these, one must also review the gains and costs of the teacher. The question "Why are we studying this?" is just as rational as the teacher who says " I don't have the time [to pursue a wonderful innovative teaching method or lesson plan]."

Even though both rational, the thoughts and actions of such agents can turn the cognitive economy either 'cool' or 'hot.' A cool cognitive economy is typical in today's classrooms. In such environments, complex cognition results in intrinsic student interest, yet puts the student at a much higher risk of failure. In such a classroom, it is more difficult to connect kids to their environment and prepare them for life outside of school. Often teachers teach from the typical textbook, resulting in boredom and little cognitive insight. The same high cost and little gain goes for teachers also. They are highly motivated to see their student's learn, yet end up demanding little from their students due to pressure from schools, parents and students so that the students are not held back. The token investment strategy describes how teachers have such a long agenda that only a little effort goes in each direction. Teachers are also pressured to cover the curriculum; thus they only give students an opportunity to learn something instead of pursuing their higher order knowledge of the subject.

A hot cognitive economy has a much different outlook. Perkins stresses that such an economy has high gains and minimally increased costs--to both the teacher and the student. Teachers must implement strategies that include: fostering a thoughtful environment, giving students more choice, helping students learn by providing an interactive style, empowering students as thinkers and learners, and increasing the transfer of knowledge outside of the classroom. Students benefit by an increased intrinsic motivation due to less risk of failure through group support in learning, peer tutoring and cooperative learning. Also stressed is authentic assessment: student assessment by engaging them in examples of target performances as true to real life as possible.

Hot cognitive classrooms are the ideal for teaching students how to think independently. Such environments foster more learning, retention and much higher thinking skills than typical classrooms of today. All teachers wanting to further benefit themselves and their students need to know about and how to pursue the hot cognitive classroom. Unfortunately, there are school districts, parents and even other teachers standing in the way. Even so, our students are the future of our nation. They deserve the best education that we as educators can give them.