"The improvement was the goal.
The medal was simply the ultimate reward for achieving that goal." - Sebastian Coe
In the lead up to the Rio Olympics I have been following the inspirational stories of the athletes who will be competing in a few days time. Their descriptions of years of often fruitless human effort and frequent failure have led me to question what motivates and drives them on. There are so many athletes and so few opportunities to achieve gold medal success. What are their rewards? What prevents them from giving up? If they achieve the impossible dream what motivates them to go back and do it all over again? Could this 'eye on the prize' level of intrinsic motivation be fostered in my classroom?
A year ago we were told in a staff meeting that we would no longer be operating a whole school reward system. Gone were the merits and the house points. As a head of year, I wondered how I was going to be able to celebrate success. How would I know which form was working well and who was flying the flag for our year group? As a classroom teacher, I looked forward to the opportunity to experiment and began to research and plan out my year.
Pupils in my classroom had become accustomed to receiving reward tokens, merits and stickers. The merit totals for my classes were sky high and rewards were easy to achieve. If pupils knew an answer, they collected a token. There was a market place buzz in my classroom which I believed meant that my learners were engaged and motivated. Now I realise that the competition to achieve the most tokens was the motivating factor and not a sense of pride in a job well done.
I was convinced that I had created a level playing field in my classroom. I worked hard to ensure that all pupils regardless of ability had easy access to reward tokens during lessons and I did not even consider raising my expectations or reducing the number of tokens available. With the best of intentions I had created classes of extrinsically motivated learners who gravitated towards easier tasks and who expected to receive tangible rewards for the minimal amount of effort. A 'what's in it for me?' transactional culture was emerging and pupil initiative was decreasing. It was definitely time for a change!
In September I selected two year seven classes. One class (class X)would continue to receive reward tokens and stickers on a regular basis. The other (class Y) would be expected to work a lot harder for rewards. I also planned to introduce GCSE level challenges to both classes by the end of the first term.
The difference between the behaviour for learning of the two classes was apparent to me by the end of the first month. Class X was enthusiastic and engaged. Hands were up every lesson and competition for tokens was strong. The boys were particularly motivated by this approach and most of the girls seemed to want to join in anyway. They were listening well, completing work and behaving as they should. It was a pleasure to teach them.
Class Y, however, was quite a challenge to teach. I realised that I had been bribing pupils into good behaviour using rewards and now that I didn't have this tool I was a bit lost. My classroom management was a bit of a mess and many of the pupils did not seem to be interested at all. In desperation one day, I gave specific verbal feedback to one pupil. She smiled and thanked me for the lesson as she left that day. She then came to see me two days before a homework deadline to show me her work. I decided to try to praise effort and celebrate classroom behaviour that I wanted to encourage. I made a conscious effort to be sincere and timely with my praise and the pupils began to respond to this. I also made a homework display board for work that had really impressed me and I made sure that these pupils received rewards in the form of positive messages home.
After a couple of months, things began to change. One pupil in class X started to become difficult to manage and one or two others followed him. Homework deadlines were not always met and the detentions increased. In the past I might have excused this as year 7 pupils 'finding their feet' but now I think that things were too predictable in my lessons. For fun, they would take tokens from other pupils which led to disruption and punishments. Pupils soon got fed up of this and refused to take the tokens. A change of seating plan and a more cooperative way of working for rewards temporarily improved the situation.
Class Y pupils on the whole were calm and reliable. A few pupils had done some extra research at home before my lesson and one had even learnt the words of a French song off by heart. Pupils knew that I would never accept their first drafts as their best work and it became normal for them to correct mistakes and to redraft up to three times before submitting their work. As a reward I told the pupils that I felt that they were ready to tackle a GCSE level piece of work. They were actually excited about this opportunity and it was wonderful to see them using the skills cooperatively that we had practised in class.
Most pupils in class X rose to this challenge too but a few predictably tried to get away with doing nothing. This class needed greater levels of coaching and motivating but in the end most managed to achieve the task. One pupil in class asked 'what do we get if we manage to do it, Miss?' my reply 'the knowledge that you have done something well' made him laugh.
After the first term, I put the tokens away in my cupboard and I haven't used them since.
My observations are purely anecdotal and motivation is personal to all pupils, but I feel that I have learnt the following lessons:
1. Some pupils are intrinsically motivated. They prefer challenging tasks and completing them is their reward
2. Tangible rewards can encourage good behaviour for learning
3. Easy and immediate rewards might devalue learning and reduce initiative and self-discipline
4. Sincere verbal feedback/praise can be very rewarding as can high levels of challenge
5. Teachers should try to make it increasingly difficult to achieve rewards as knowledge improves
6. Pupils should be given opportunities to collaborate and to take the lead
7. Whole class rewards could be used to encourage a sense of community
8. Parental pride is highly motivating
9. Marginal gains or improvement should be acknowledged and celebrated, but rewards should be reserved for completion of the most challenging learning tasks
The most important lesson that I have learnt is that it is my job as a classroom teacher to try to develop intrinsic motivation in my learners. I need to hold the stickers and stars back sometimes but some genuine praise and encouragement every now and again when a personal best is achieved is valued and appreciated by us all.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on twitter if you like but please don't send me a sticker. I won't appreciate it!!
@BexK06
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