Punished by Rewards

As we offer our students more and more rewards in school, we ask the very simple question......Why?

This doesn't need to be a very long blog entry, its sole purpose is just to get people questioning why schools are so keen to offer so many rewards in school. Rewards for behaving in an appropriate way in class, rewards for bringing the right equipment, rewards for getting the highest grade in a test. One school we have seen bases its whole rewards policy on a points system to control student behaviour by linking it to whether or not students should go to the end of year ball. How can we expect our students to be intrinsically motivated if we are surrounding them with extrinsic rewards. There is too much research out there which shows how extrinsic rewards stifle intrinsic motivation (see earlier blog post) yet we continue to 'bribe' our students into learning.

Should we not be promoting ways of learning which allow intrinsic motivation to flourish, where the reward comes from within and is generated by the fact that they have explored learning and actually learnt. We must remember that young people are like balls of clay which can be moulded into many different forms. Is it time to change the form of our young people?

I want to end this posting with two wonderful examples which we can learn a lot from. The first one comes from Mark Twain; he writes of a boy who has been told to paint a very long fence and as a result does not want to do it. A second boy comes along and sees what he is doing and freely asks to have ago. The first boy refuses to let him, telling him it is the best job he has ever done and that he wants to do it, the more he refuses the more the second boy wants to paint that fence, in the end he lets him. With time a third and then a fourth boy come along and ask to have a go at painting, so he lets them and soon the fence is painted!! How can you relate this to what we do in schools and what we should be doing?

The second example comes where a Father asks his son if he would take the rubbish out for him, as the son knows it will help his Dad he does so without any fuss. A second Father asks his son to take the rubbish out, but this time offers £5 for doing so. Despite the money, the boy refuses and asks the question.....why are you offering to pay me for this, is it because you know it is a bad job and you don't want to do it!! Extrinsic rewards remove Intrinsic Motivation.