For regular education classroom teachers, giving rewards in exchange for good behavior is a mistake.
It’s true that “do this and get that” type rewards can improve behavior in the short term. As in, “Sit up straight and give me your attention, and I will give you each a sticker.”
Or, “John, if you can go the whole day without bothering your tablemates, I have a surprise for you after school.”
But incentives of this nature, which include earning class pizza parties, extra recess, free time, and the like, don’t benefit students in the long run and make classroom management more difficult.
This applies to individual students as well as entire classrooms.
For real, lasting behavior improvement, focus instead on creating a classroom that nurtures intrinsic motivation.
And leave the bribery to the trainers at Sea World.
Here’s why:
1. Rewards turn good behavior into work.
Rewarding good behavior sends the message to your students that if they have to be paid for it, then it must be work. They logically conclude that being well behaved must be something difficult or noteworthy. Otherwise, why would they be rewarded for it?
This effectively makes good behavior less desirable… and more like an effort your students deserve to be paid for.
2. Rewards lead to entitlement.
When you offer rewards in return for good behavior, you create in your students a peculiar sense of entitlement. They’ll feel entitled to receive something for merely doing what is expected.
It leads them to believe that they’re behaving and following rules for you, and thus are owed something from you. After all, if they’re getting a reward for it, there must not be anything in it for them.
3. Rewards cheapen the intrinsic motivation to behave.
Being rewarded to behave cheapens the intrinsic merit of being a valued citizen of your class. In other words, it puts a price tag on the priceless.
Have you ever had a student who was uncomfortable or less than thrilled with public recognition, drummed up awards, or excessive praise? This is a person with already strong, deep-rooted intrinsic motivation who would prefer that you didn’t barter with it.
4. Rewards lead to more and more and more.
When you put a price tag on good behavior by offering rewards, your students will demand higher and more frequent payments. Rewards, you see, are not only ineffective in the long term, but they weaken over time.
If you’ve used rewards in the past, you’ve experienced this. What is exciting and fun at first, like extra recess, becomes boring and not a big deal after awhile. Therefore, you have to continue to increase the payment or the frequency of the reward.
The Ultimate Reward
Good behavior is its own reward because it offers students self-respect, confidence, and the wonderful feeling of belonging to a classroom that needs and appreciates them.
To deepen these feelings, and to get your students to want to behave–for themselves and for the betterment of your classroom–stop rewarding them for good behavior. Stop interfering with the awesome power of intrinsic motivation.
Instead, support it, encourage it, and feed it by creating a classroom your students love coming to every day.
It’s the best reward you could ever give them.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Mike, thank you for the very interesting and informative article. It definitely makes sense. Is receiving awards like a drug, in which you build a tolerance for it and then need even more to be satisfied?
I agree with you wholeheartedly about the excess of awards. Kids know if they really deserve it or not.
Can you please give some quotes you would tell a class?
Thanks,
Bryan
Hi Bryan,
I think your analogy suits the fourth item on the above list–that rewards weaken over time. I’m not sure what you mean by giving quotes. Please email me with more details. I’m happy to help.
Michael
I appreciate your specifying that this is for reg ed – I’ve found that students receiving special ed often need the extra extrinsic motivators.
PS Can you change your RSS feed so I can read it in full in google reader?
I understand what you are saying. I believe that positive reinforcement builds self-esteem and ENCOURAGES students who may not be recognized for their hardwork. Think about it…do we work, show up on time, dress, research, study,seek out our professional education for free? Do we not expect jobs, bonuses or raises for our hard work? I can certainly understand not going overboard, but I have to disagree with you on this one…being recognized for good behavior is a GOOD thing! You may not get a “prize” but special acknowledgement does in fact work long term…I’m living proof!
Hi Cheri,
I appreciate your comments, but I think you’re confusing apples with oranges. The recommendation is about improving behavior. It isn’t about personal goals–academic, professional, or otherwise–or the rewards one receives pursuing them. Behaving in a way that doesn’t interfere with the rights of others to learn and enjoy school is an expectation. Students do much better when not directly bribed to behave in a way that is expected and required for success in school. Good behavior is a bit of a misnomer. It should read, “expected behavior.”
Michael
Hi Michael, thank you for the fantastic articles on classroom management.
I agree with your statement that rewards and other external motivators don’t work in the long term and that it is the intrinsic motivators we need to build.
My problem is that the school I work in hands out ‘behavior credits’ to students who are displaying good behavior traits on a consistent basis. These credits accumulate to badges etc that are awarded to students so they quite a big deal within the school. If I wasn’t to give out any of these credits – then I feel I am disadvantaging my students in some way.
Should I change the focus from using the credits for behavior to ‘random acts of kindness’ and then award them out on that basis? Do you have any suggestions on how I can use the system — but perhaps for a different purpose? Thanks in advance for your response.
PS. I teach 10 and 11 year old children.
Hi Shalinee,
I think you should be straight with your class that you’re not going to give them out to individuals for expected behavior. However, given that it’s school-wide, I agree with you that it’s probably best to give them out in some small way. You might say to your class every so often, “Hey, good day today. We got a lot done. I have these credits here. Anybody who wants one come on up and I’ll give you one.” Using them class-wide and announcing it unexpectantly is probably the best solution.
What about students who have zero respect for themselves or others? What about students who come from broken communities and households where traditional family values are neglected and maladaptive behaviors are ignored or often times reinforced? How do you motivate a student and teach him/her that the reward for behaving well is just simply doing the right thing because it “feels good?” How do you motivate a student that has zero motivation?
The answer is rewards. Rewarding students has its place, I think the older and more skillful the student gets the more we teach them about these intrisic values and transition them to adulthood, and yes, ween them off of a rewards system. But you may have a student for 6 hours a day, while the other 18 hours in a day that student may be engaging in the very opposite of what you are teaching him/her in a classroom. To say that rewards have no place universally is a big mistake, it highly depends on the demographic of students you are working with, their surrounding environment and peer influences. Mr. Linsin has a good point in that sometimes good behavior can feel like work, and sometimes kids will feel entitled to something each time they do the right thing. But some students need to have motivation other than “feel good.” Of course rewards system should be managed, but It actually feels good for students to receive rewards in return for their hard work, why is this such a crazy concept?
This is an important article, especially because many public schools now mandate PBIS, which translates to schoolwide reward systems/cash-type systems that promote rewards for good behavior.
I understand what you mean by a reward system losing its impact and becoming stressful. For the first half of the year, I used a marble jar to promote good behavior for the class, and only a couple classes have gotten a reward such as a homework pass (middle school). However, I find that using the jar is more work than it is worth. How would you suggest I wean the class off something like this? Am I able to “ditch” the jars in exchange for something more intrinsically motivating such as class games to promote learning? How do I do this without resentment for going back on something I had planned to do?
Thank you for your help. I just found your website yesterday, and I have been hooked!
-Mitchell
2nd year teacher
Hi Mitchell,
You just walk in and say, “I’ve made a decision to get rid of the marble jar and here’s what we’re doing instead.” Your students will understand, particularly if you replace it with math jeopardy, vocabulary basketball, or other fun learning game you make up to fit your class.
Michael
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