rewards

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Home : 2002 : July : 24

rewards
By Beth

Interesting question... do only intrinsic rewards keep YOU going? I'd love to say that I teach only for intrinsic reward, but in all honesty, that paycheck (however small) is what motivates me to give up the lazy days of
summer and go back to work. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching... but the extrinsic payoff is what motivates me in addition to the intrinsic rewards (there are alot of them).
So why should we expect kids to do things simply for the satisfaction of a job well done? I agree that I hate bribing kids with candy and trinkets. But the payoff for them is so far down the road ("when you grow

up, you'll have a good job") it's hard to keep them motivated. I'd love to hear from some teachers who have found how to motivate students without rewards. I don't know how you could do it.

I would just say trying to find rewards that are educational (like playing a game), sugar-free (extra socialization time), and motivating would be the way to go. I agree that after awhile... it becomes "What will you give me if I ____?" I think your rewards need to be very random so that kids aren't trained like Pavlovs dogs to expect a payoff after everything they do. I would love to be idealistic enough (or lucky enough) to find an approach that works simply based on the instrinsic. What theories have you been reading up on? I'm intrested.