To reward or not to reward – a reflection on the use of extrinsic motivation.

I have yet to establish some form of systematic extrinsic motivation in my classroom. I hesitated because I was seeing if I could do without one. I was wondering if intrinsic motivation could be nurtured without the use of extrinsic motivation. I was taught to reward the well-behaved rather than to penalize the misbehaved. The logic is: If you reward the well-behaved (with praises), others will see and emulate the good behaviours. If you penalize the misbehaved, you are giving them the attention that they do not deserve, even if it is to punish them. Play up the praises for the well-behaved! The books say. If the misbehaviour is serious enough however, you will probably need to model justice. Some things cannot be condoned and the children must know that. The children probably need to see justice being served. While some may argue that life is never fair, it is precisely why we need to make it a little fairer, to make the gap a littler smaller. According to Kohlberg’s theory of moral development, most children up to the age of ten are at level 1: Preconventional Ethics. At this level, children are incapable of thinking beyond the self. They learn right and wrong from the consequences of their acts. This level is typical of children who believe in “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. Maybe it is time to put in a system, a system that rewards the well-behaved and pupils with good attitude. Maybe the reward could be something that each pupil in the class could look forward to. Maybe each reward accumulates to a class reward. Let me think.