The problem with rewards
is that they are addictive and kids become very dependent on them. The only reason why kids d or do not do
things is to get a reward or avoid punishment. Because kids are so unmotivated
we repeatedly need to offer rewards which again reduces interest in the task. The
problem is also that when rewards co-opt intrinsic motivation and preclude
intrinsic satisfaction , the extrinsic needs become stronger in themselves. Thus
, people develop stronger extrinsic needs as substitutes for more basic , unsatisfied needs….
They end up behaving as if they were addicted to extrinsic rewards. The claim
that we need to use rewards because a
task is uninteresting or kids are unmotivated is just fueling the situation and
the last thing we should be doing is giving rewards because they undermine
interest. Promising a reward to someone who is unmotivated or demotivated is
like offering salt water to someone who is thirsty, it's not the solution it's
the problem. Rewards , do motivate.
Rewards motivate kids to get more rewards.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
The reasons why Rewards Fail
In his book Punished by RewardsAlfie Kohn explains why rewards fail.
The are 2 major reasons why rewards fail.
A When anything is presented as a prerequisite for something else - do this task and you can get that – the task
comes to be seen as less desirable
B Rewards are usually experienced as controlling and we tend to recoil
from situations where our autonomy is diminished even if we wanted the 'goody'.
here are links to problems caused by rewards taken from AK's book , PBR , an idea from Dan Ariely on social and econmic norms and from my spiritual world an idea on spiritual development and rewards
here are links to problems caused by rewards taken from AK's book , PBR , an idea from Dan Ariely on social and econmic norms and from my spiritual world an idea on spiritual development and rewards
Rewards reduce interest in tasks
Rewards are Addictive
Rewards interfere with Moral and Spiritual development and Learning
Rewards and Achievement - Rewards undermine the quality of work
Rewards Punish
Rewards rupture relationships
Rewards ignore Reasons
Rewards reduce interest in tasks
.
When
some task is presented as prerequisite for something else- that is, a means
towards some other end- the task comes to be seen as less desirable. It also
conveys the message to the kid, that if teachers have to bribe him to do this,
it must be something that he wouldn't want to do, and/ or the activity itself
is not worth doing for its own sake. The only reason he is doing it is for the
reward.
Kids who were invited to play with another
child so that they could get access to his toys or were offered cookies for
playing with the child, were less interested in playing with the other child on
future occasions.
In one representative
study, young children were introduced to an unfamiliar beverage called kefir.
Some were just asked to drink it; others were praised Those children who
received either verbal or tangible rewards consumed more of the beverage than
other children, as one might predict. But a week later these children found it
significantly less appealing than they did before, whereas children who were
offered no rewards liked it just as much as, if not more than, they had earlier.
There is a story of an elderly man who was
harassed and insulted by a crowd of 10 year olds as they passed his house on
their way home from school. One afternoon after listening to their insults –
how stupid, bald and ugly he was , he came up with a plan. He announced to the
kids that if they came back tomorrow he would pay them a dollar each for their
efforts. Amazed and excited they arrived even earlier and began throwing
insults with much fervor. The old man , true to his word paid everyone his
dollar. He then announced – do the same tomorrow and you will get 25 cents for your trouble. The
kids thought that it was still worth their while and came back the following
day to taunt him .At the first catcall, he walked over with his quarters paid
off his hecklers. From now on, he announced I can only give you a penny for
doing this. The kids looked at each
other in disbelief. ' A penny – forget it ' and they never came back.
Two groups of kids were asked to evaluate and
give their opinions about a collection of puzzles after playing with them for
half an hour. One group was paid by the company for their time. When the half
an hour was up , all but one of the kids from the reward group stopped playing
with the puzzles . Kids from the non-reward group had to be pulled away from
the puzzles. Rewards got in the way of the kids developing any interest and
intrinsic reward in doing the puzzles.
Rewards and Achievement.
Rewards are very powerful in the short-term in
getting people to behave in the way, you want them to act. People may actually
feel more focused, but the focus is typically more narrow than when no
rewards are involved. This helps only in doing manual jobs where little
thinking is involved. However rewards change in a negative manner the way we
engage in a given behavior. We do exactly what is necessary to get the reward
and reach the desired goal and no more. So we are less likely to notice or
remember things that are not immediately relevant to what we are doing. Kids
were given different colored cards and had to memorize all the words. The kids
were unexpectedly asked to recall the color of the card that corresponds to
each word. Kids who were promised a prize had more difficulty in remembering as
rewards undermine this 'incidental learning '. In another experiment ,one group
of people were asked to do a task , and another group were promised
a reward for doing the same task well.
The group that was not promised a reward did much better. Also people who were
promised bigger sums of money did worse than those who were promised small sums
of money. The explanation is that problem solving and non-manual tasks need
more exploratory and creative thinking and so need a wider focus.A salary is not a reward but ' compensation' for
work put in. And still if employers want to promote creativity and excellence
that must pay well and then do their best to take their employees minds off
money.
Rewards narrow our focus. Creativity is stifled because people need to feel self-directed and autonomous and people experience rewards as controlling. The objective is to succeed in obtaining the reward with as little effort as possible. So people will choose easier tasks avoid risk taking and challenging ones and spend the least amount of time as possible. Rewards are problematic even when used with tasks that are less interesting than others. Not only do they reduce interest in the task itself but also in strategies for reconfiguring a dull task and brightening it up.
Rewards narrow our focus. Creativity is stifled because people need to feel self-directed and autonomous and people experience rewards as controlling. The objective is to succeed in obtaining the reward with as little effort as possible. So people will choose easier tasks avoid risk taking and challenging ones and spend the least amount of time as possible. Rewards are problematic even when used with tasks that are less interesting than others. Not only do they reduce interest in the task itself but also in strategies for reconfiguring a dull task and brightening it up.
Rewards Punish
Rewards are used to elicit behaviors which would
not naturally occur. The message is Do this and you'll get that, which is not
much different – Do this and this is what will happen to you. Rewards punish
because they are controlling .Even if the kid wants the rewards but they
experience it as controlling, the experience assumes a punitive quality. The
carrot becomes the stick when kids do not get rewards that they were hoping
for. And when everything a kid gets is either a reward or a privilege when he
does not behave he is punished by losing his privilege or reward.
Rewards rupture relationships.
.
They focus on individualism; create
competition and conflict between kids where complaints of unequal treatment and
playing favorites are common. It interferes with efforts to promote
collaboration, cooperative learning and a sense of community which improves the
quality of learning.
Rewards also interfere with a genuine and
trusting relationship with a teacher where a kid feels safe to be open, expose
his vulnerability, admit mistakes and ask for help when problems develop. It is
the judgmental nature of rewards and praise that encourages kids to try and
impress and curry favor with the person handing out the rewards. Rewards are a
tool for ' doing to ' kids, control and manipulation through seduction, rather
than ' working with ' kids in an unconditional way. Kids feel valued and
accepted only if they behave as they are told and do well in school.
Rewards ignore reasons.
The traditional approach to problems with
behavior and learning is to make the kid 'wanna behave and put more effort into
learning by giving rewards and incentives. Rewards are appealing because they
are simple to use and don't require any attention to the reasons why the
trouble developed in the first place. Dr Ross Greene, the originator of
the CPS collaborative problem solving approach says kids are already motivated,
they would rather do well, be flexible and adaptive than are failures. We need
to ask not how to motivate them, but what's getting in their way. The research
shows that rewards caused more stress and anxiety and caused the very problems
they were supposed to treat. Instead we need to address the underlying
problems, the lagging skills and unmet emotional needs of the kid etc...
Rewards interfere with moral and spiritual development and learning
Rewards interfere with moral and spiritual
development, commitment to values and a love of learning.
When a teacher reminds a class of the ' worth
' of an assignment towards a grade – instead of 'worth in terms of its meaning
' or a parent asks a child what he ' got' on a paper – rather than what he got
from the act of writing it , kids are taught they go to school to get grades
and not to become long-life learners
.
When discipline is achieved by using rewards
and consequences kids are not taught to reflect on how their behavior impacts
on others and the community but ask what will I get or what will be done to me
if I behave in a certain way. Also rewards are used in character education and
promoting religious values.
If our goal is to teach them , that the reward
of a good deed is the deed itself why give rewards ? Rewards might change
behavior in the short-term, but this is without any change or an emotional
commitment to the underlying value behind the behavior.
. A child promised a treat
for learning or acting responsibly has been given every reason to stop doing so
when there is no longer a reward to be gained. Children whose parents make frequent use of
rewards tend to be less generous than their peers. .
A school tried to encourage kids to return lost articles or money found in
school or on the playground by rewarding them. All of a sudden , kids were
finding so many coins on the playground. So we see how rewards promote immoral
behavior.
Dan Ariely explains that when we use rewards
we change social norms – pro-social reasons for behaving in a certain way and
doing good deeds into economic norms. Not only is the reward presented to kids
as the desired object , but kids learn
to convert social and spiritual norms into economic terms. We should be
educating children to convert money and goods into spiritual deeds. We can use '
goodies' not as incentives but to give learning and pro-social activities an
association of joy and happiness.
We should be helping kids to think in the following way.
A man who was about to go overseas for while approached his
neighbor's 10 year old son. He asked him to look after his dog, take him
for walks etc while he was away on holiday.
He asked the kid - How much ? The
kid - I am willing to pay $15
Instead of rewards, grades and competition, we can create an environment which focuses on making learning intrinsically valuable in the context of a caring family or community of learners by adopting the 4 Cs of intrinsic motivation – Community- Cooperative learning, Choice- autonomy ,Content- engaging curriculum and Competence. Here the reward for a good deed is the deed itself and how it contributes to the community. The reward for cooperative - learning is how it gives us more understanding, richness and meaning to our lives and those of our peers.
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