Rewards are not the Answer to Motivating Students

Teachers have different techniques for maintaining discipline and motivating students. Rewards are arguably the most popular, but they may discourage intrinsic motivation.

Rewards are used in virtually every school in the nation in one form or another. They may be offered as a piece of candy to reinforce a good act by a student or as awards in ceremonies at the end of the school year for a variety of student superlatives. Teachers love to use them to improve discipline, and rewards often form the cornerstones of classroom management plans. Rewards are so accepted that few people are aware that they have a potential “dark side.” The research on rewards in the classroom is not encouraging.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

As motivators, rewards may present the false appearance of being positive and effective, but rewards motivate children to seek more rewards, not necessarily more knowledge. When the reward becomes the objective, learning goes out the window, and rewards become a manipulative way of getting children to simply perform or comply. Dr. Marvin Marshall, a renowned expert on motivation writes, "External controls are manipulators that set up students to be dependent upon external agents."

As time passes, rewards lose their effectiveness and the ante must be increased. What was motivating a week ago is suddenly ordinary. Therefore, students with discipline problems will return to their old behavior once they tire of the reward. They have learned only to “perform” for a specific prize. The National Literacy Trust maintains a rich list of abstracts emphasizing then importance of intrinsic motivation.

Another negative aspect of rewards is that they are extrinsic motivators, and do little to encourage intrinsic values. Students come to understand that they need to please the giver of the reward. Once again the manipulative feature is apparent. Teachers and adults generally should reflect on how rewards affect their behavior. Do they obey laws because the laws are part of their value system or because they receive tangible rewards? One must not assume that what is rewarding to one student is equally motivating to another. To find equally motivating rewards is very difficult. The typical reward generally isn’t equal to all recipients, and that creates a time-consuming problem of individualizing one system of motivation. If better discipline is the goal, rewards will have to be changed periodically as the reinforcing value of things decrease with use.

Teachers are taught that their effort should be made create interest in the subject they teach, and while dispensing candy or privileges might be fun, it does little to make the subject matter more interesting. Teachers may get a false impression that student like the subject but they are, in reality, reacting positively on to the reward. This is bribery, not classroom management.

Rewards and Values

Whether used to motivate or for classroom management, rewards do little to enhance positive values. People who contribute the most prized things to society do so out of an internalized value system. They have well-develop intrinsic beliefs about right and wrong, work ethics, and other positive traits. Indeed, it is not uncommon for people to express that to be happy in one’s work is more important than the salary. Public officials who were looking for material gain often turn out to be criminals.

Volunteerism is important in any society, and people who volunteer expect little in return except a feeling that they have do a good thing. Still, schools commonly have charity events like food drives and reward the homeroom that collects the most food with a pizza party or some similar event. Charity needs to reflect an inner goodness, not a desire for an extrinsic payback. Fund raising efforts at school would likely be miserable failure in the material world we have created, because students are involved in “training sessions” which emphasize the acquisition of rewards to those who sell the most.

Awards are Overplayed

Awards are simply trophies or certificates that offer extrinsic rewards for the recognition of specific achievements. Very few school awards have standards which can be accurately measured. Some schools get carried away with the practice and give rewards for categories that are highly questionable. Excellence can be and often should be validated by recognition, but for children of lesser ability or indifferent parents to sit quietly in an award ceremony while classmates receive awards is cruel. Einstein know it when he said, "If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed."

If schools are truly interested in the development of character they must get on with the task of expecting students to do right things because they are right. The perception that students can be disciplined or taught only when they get something tangible is a pretty negative view. Instill values in people that hard work, good acts, and helping others have intrinsic value and that students will seek these things because they are intrinsically rewarding, not because there is a pay off in the material realm.

Decent, successful people are influenced by the way other decent, successful made them feel. They are motivated by the validation and love of important people with positive values. Love of friends and family are powerful rewards.

Copyright Harvey Craft. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.