Awards for achievements in education - is it a good idea?
Giving some benefits or awards for definite success in studying is a very popular idea. It's used in kindergartens, schools, kids centers and by private teachers or parents.
Learn these letters, and you'll get a candy!
Study reading rules and you'll play a computer game!
Write these words, and get an award - a stick or a small toy.
Teachers and parents use awards like motivation for studying. But what is the effect of this method?
I started to think about it when I heard advice from my friend:
- If he doesn't want to do something, promise to give him a chocolate. I always do it with my kid! It works!
Well... I can believe it does work, but...does it mean a kid really want to do it, or he is just interested in the award? Of course, the 2nd variant.
And I am absolutely shocked when kids are used to help parents or to clean their own room just to get pocket money or candies.
they will do nothing Without candies???
I started to doscover this topic, and it turns out that many psychologists and teachers agree with me. Ising sawards like motivation leads to the change of inner motivation (interest to do something) by outer motivation (a desire to get smth).
So it means all awards just kill kids' wish to study! They don't wanna learn something new, they are waiting for candies or toys in the end of this "torture". That's it.
I think it's much better to make the process of studying interesting , not the award in the end of it.
Yes, it can be more complicated than just buying candies as awards, but it's worth it.
I trialled an "end of year award" thing this year purely because I needed them to produce more work and our usual methods weren't available. Oldest was uninterested, the younger two did enough work to get their "awards" which will be dealt with when we return from vacation. The younger two asked if we could do it again last year so I guess I will actually have to make a record tracker (I just kind of did it by did they do their work that week or not last year as I only had to keep track for 1.5 terms) XD
We do also pay them pocket money for chores because we wanted to teach them about budgeting and the like and it was infinitely easier to do with an actual income. Their rooms are their problem (middle child is normally pretty good, sometimes I have to nag the boys to JUST CLEAN YOUR BLOODY ROOM BEFORE I CUT OFF YOUR INTERNET IT'S DISGUSTING), they each have an area of the house that they have to clean which they're currently getting paid for but the pay will stop (the need to do the rooms however will not XD) once they start getting decent income from elsewhere.
So there are situations where it can work.
Generally though as you've suggested and I agree with; if you have to constantly bribe people to do things that is a very strong indication that whatever system you're using isn't working.
nice examples, thank you!
yes,it can work, but it's matter of responsibility and explanation what is more important - the award or the process itself and goals of it
!ENGAGE 35
thank you!!
ENGAGEtokens.Our son is just starting to get into this a little bit. He got a wallet a few months ago and he’s been stealing our dollar bills to fill it so we figure let’s reward him with a little money to do that which he wants to do anyways. It’s been mostly good except the days where he’s not even interested in the reward lol. I don’t think that rewarding kids with things like sweets is anything valid. You need to reward them with something much different because sugar also has a very addictive component to it so we absolutely refuse to do that with our son.
Good points talked about here though! It works well in moderation I think, and only in certain scenarios.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Agreed. Reward as motivation does not work, unless the reward is the result of the completion of the the task anyway. I tried this with my girls and ultimately they reach a point where they would refuse the reward rather than do something they really didn't want to do. A better approach was to find a way to achieve the learning goal that they found fun or enjoyable. We regularly changed our learning approaches as they got bored with the ones they were doing. Once they find something they love, they will put their all into it, because they want to, not because there is a reward at the end that has nothing to do with it.
exactly! you've got what I wanted to explain;)
when they see by themselves they really need to do it (to get what they want, or just because it's fun for them), there will be no problem with motivation, and awards are senseless.
I only wish I'd realised this sooner! 😅
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Yeah I think this sounds like a good method. We are getting to a little bit of the boundaries right now with our son. Interesting to see his behavior change a little bit with rewards versus no rewards. It’s not too bad because it’s not engrained yet but we are hoping to have a balance.
I've featured your post in the @HomeEdders weekly curation and you've been selected as the recipient of this week's beneficiary.
Curated by @minismallholding on behalf of @HomeEdders.
Supporting home education and educational content. If you're a home educator, home educated or are thinking about home education, find out what we're about HERE.
You can join the community by clicking the subscribe button on Hive or Peakd.
please feel free to join us on discord.
woow! thank you soso much, friends!
<3