I got a 9.6, what do you give me?

The use of rewards in the school environment is frequent. But are they really effective? Do they affect the day to day of students? Let’s look at the pros and cons.

This situation may be familiar to us: a primary school child comes home with a 9.6 and asks his parents what he will receive in return. Most likely, the parents, although they may wonder where the idea came from if they have not raised it previously, agree to give them a prize or reward.

Many times, the idea is extrapolated by the children themselves from the work-reward dynamics of school. The rewards are elements that are used in recognition of a job well done: they can be extra points in the final grade, or, when they are smaller, gold stars, positives, and even sweets.

With methodologies such as gamification, where each step forward is a reward, many times the mere fact of participating or completing a task becomes something extra, although carrying out tasks in the classroom is part of the school obligations.

Motivation and dependency

But this dynamic can affect the intrinsic motivation of students, and even affect their performance. If rewards become a regular part of the learning process, students will depend on them to keep working.

At the moment in which the focus of the learning process is placed on the reward, and not on the content or the acquired skill or the process by which they are acquired, we enter into a dynamic of overjustification. Suddenly, learning is only valuable if it is rewarded with something tangible. This can act contrary to the innate motivation that humans have to learn.

Comparisons and competitiveness

There are other types of rewards that can be even more pernicious. The rewards for standing out, the prize for being the best. With an inappropriate approach, we may be inciting unhealthy competition between peers. Competitiveness can lead to a lack of collaboration and diminished ability to work as a team.

When competing for a reward, the focus is on winning. We are teaching them to work with a single focus on personal achievement no matter who they hurt. So, learning and developing skills are in the background.

This is especially important in early stages of cognitive and social development. By instilling competition from the preschool stage we influence future affective and social relationships.

self esteem and boredom

Not getting a reward also affects students’ self-esteem. The least advantaged give up and resign themselves. In the worst case, finding themselves unable to catch up with the rest of the group.

On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that the interest in the reward is difficult to maintain in the long term. The effect of the novelty is temporary and, when the interest disappears, the positive effects will stop being felt.

In this vicious cycle, the sudden withdrawal of rewards can lead to a rebound effect. The students are now disenchanted because we have taught them to move through the material and not through the cognitive. The teacher realizes that it was necessary to invest more time in fostering interest in the subject than in thinking of new prizes.

How to reverse it

The negative can become positive if we know how to act according to the needs of the group. Thus, a good reward is one that brings out the good of the learning process and highlights the knowledge acquired: picking the fruits of the tomato plant that they have planted to see the cycle of the plants, using their knowledge of English to talk to a foreigner or, simply, add the points of the Pokémon cards.

Rewards can also encourage healthy competition among students. Promote fair play and the spirit of improvement without undermining the effort of their peers to gain social skills. To do this, they have to be oriented towards achievement and not towards the reward itself, and they can help establish short- and long-term goals. It allows us to measure progress and the feeling of achievement when reaching them helps self-esteem.

a positive incentive

Consider also those students who may have difficulty sustaining their attention and concentration for extended periods of time. A reward can help them order their learning process. For example, a student with autism spectrum disorder can use his collection of gold stars to visualize if its progression is appropriate in the short, medium, or long term.

On the other hand, good reward management can foster self-discipline and perseverance. Students can know they are on the right track and feel more motivated to keep learning and moving forward. This reinforcement helps create a positive learning environment and foster a culture of academic excellence in the classroom.

Tailor-made rewards

The most important thing when considering rewards, both at home and in the classroom, is to consider the individual’s abilities and assess the effort made. The admiration towards the child who finally manages to carry out a two-digit division must be equal to or greater than the one we profess towards the one who has always gotten tens.

The ideal is to turn rewards into a source of motivation: teach our student or our son that the greatest reward is everything they can do thanks to what they have learned; carefully consider the repercussions that those prizes that we sometimes promise without thinking may bring about; and look for effective ways to motivate without sacrificing their innate interest in learning.

The rewards are not harmful, you just have to know how to direct them.

Milagros Torrado Cespón, Teacher and researcher. English language and its didactics, UNIR – International University of La Rioja and Joel Manuel Prieto Andreu, University Professor. Physical Education Specialty, UNIR – International University of La Rioja

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original.