Written by Paul Dix
Scenario
The parents are muttering again. The children have been in open revolt for some time. As Easter approaches the wall chart shows the token economy of the classroom has its winners and losers. Despite your best efforts to even out points /stickers/smileys the children out in the lead are not those who work hardest. In fact of the top 10 is dominated with the trickiest children who are being showered with rewards every time they take a 5-minute break from their busy schedule to glance at the work. They are joined by the most attention-seeking children who are academically gifted yet seem to need constant reassurance. The hardest working children who do everything that is asked of them without fuss are being forgotten. You begin to wish that the wall chart you spent most of a weekend glittering and laminating wasn't so prominent. Parents who have long experience with ‘rewards races' peer through the window and mutter their disapproval. If you don't take some action the mutters about fairness will develop into chat, which is a short hop from a baying mob waiting outside with lighted torches! Besides, most of the children became disinterested in the points system when they realised they were not going to win.
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1. Bite the Bullet
Scrap the current system entirely. Apologise to the children and especially those who have amassed the most points. Replace the points system with positive notes and positive phone calls. Only reward children whose behaviour is above and beyond what is expected.
2. Up the ante
Stick with the token economy and increase the value of rewards to increase interest. Link the points with prizes. Try harder to balance out the winners and losers.
3. Sparkly boxes and lovely chats
Leave the wall chart alone for a while. Divert attention. Make a thoroughly tempting sparkly lucky dip box as a class reward to be given when children meet a specific learning expectation.
1. Bite the Bullet
Scrapping the points system doesn't go down well with children or parents. The certificates softened the blow a little and at least everyone got a record of their points total. But you begin to worry that you have caused a schism in daily routines. A few parents have told you (very) directly how they feel about this. You hold firm to your purpose and by the end of the first week the class seem to have come down from their sticker addiction. Many children still ask for them and you feel pangs of guilt when you refuse the most deserving. The flip side is that your praise and personal feedback have taken on more significance. The children seem much more interested in the feedback that you write on their work: coming to talk to you about it with more frequency.
Revealing the positive notes and your desire to increase positive phone calls home sends a ripple of excitement through the class. The new focus on recognizing conduct that is ‘over and above' clearly makes some children feel that they will never get one but you have a plan for them too. When the first three children receive their notes and one child has a phone call, the children see the benefits of home contact. You ask the children to talk to the class about what mum said when she got the note and the glow of pride is unmistakable.
For the children who find it difficult to sustain great conduct for more than a day at a time you decide to cut up a positive note and reward it gradually over weeks not days. Both children and parents can sense a new fairness about recognizing great behaviour. A new status quo is established. There is still a longing for sparkly stickers but you hope that this will fade over time as your role becomes to recognize the behaviour and parents' role is to reward it in the way they see fit.
Questions
- How could you change system without causing an uproar with the parents?
- What do you do with children whose parents simply ignore positive notes?
- Why is the positive phone call home so effective?
2. Up the ante
As you explain that the points are now linked to actual prizes you can see eyes light up. However the children's dreams of a new x box/ipad/holiday in Florida are soon dashed as you reveal a winners gallery that you gathered from the 49p shop. Unperturbed, the children enter the game with renewed enthusiasm as the garden gnome toothpick holder is quickly identified as the most desirable bit of tat.
It's game on.
Unfortunately the girls have become over excited and pester you constantly trying to earn more points. They show you their work every five minutes and dance around asking if there are more jobs to do. The trickier customers know that they have a far easier way of earning points and proceed to kick off. They know that there will be trouble but the rewards will come on the other side. For now the game is to cause just enough pandemonium to get everyone's attention but not enough to get sent home.
As you fend off the points seeking monsters you realize that you have simply refueled a bad strategy. Instead of creating a mechanism to encourage personal discipline you have simply stimulated more greed, jealousy more selfishness. When a fight breaks between the girls breaks out over a Mutant Ninja toothbrush (circa 1993) you know things have gone too far.
Questions:
- Does offering more material reward ever result in long term improvements in motivation?
- How do you ensure any system you choose doesn't favour those with most ‘pester power'?
- How will the parents know when to celebrate achievements at home?
3. Sparkly boxes and lovely chats
Only a few of the most eager children realise that you have stopped giving out points. Covering the chart with the new signed poster from their favourite author was a cunning move. Out of sight and out of mind. Of course the children were already distracted away from the chart by the appearance of a very lovely and highly tempting sparkly box. With the children in their working groups you explain that the group can be awarded a dip if they either help another group get unstuck or ask an astonishingly good question. After some initial over attempts to curry personal favour the children realise that they are not going to be awarded individually. Some are disappointed with this but understand that there is a new focus: interdependence over independence. More collaborative work begins to blossom, albeit slight falsely at first.
Each day you change the focus. Sometimes you use it to recognise group achievement, sometimes the collaborative skills of the whole class. Some days time the box loses its sparkle and is not needed as the routine of working with a single expectation embeds. Some days the box is a cause of positive tension as the children realise that there are more forfeits than treats left in the box. Some children ask if they can put forfeit questions in the box, if they can draw their homework tasks from the box and even if they can take ownership of the box. You start to see the potential for both group recognition and giving children some autonomy over how the box will be used. The points and stickers are beaten hands down by the dipping and delving into the box. You just need to work out how to sustain the curiosity and teamwork when the newness of a sparkly strategy starts, as they all do, to fade.
Questions:
- How do you make sure that everyone gets a chance to delve?
- Are the opportunities for each group to nominate another at the end of the lesson?
- What might an appropriate and non disruptive forfeit be?
Your style
1. Responsive Rita
The sudden withdrawal of a reward system that everyone has relied on for feedback is risky. Demotivating the best scholars and the most tricky customers at the same time can have unintended consequences at school and at home. You might have caused less friction by fazing out the wall chart and writing to parents explaining why. Nevertheless the cold turkey seems to have worked and the positive notes and positive phone calls have seeded a new culture of recognition rather than reward.
Points systems work brilliantly for children who demand your attention. It is not just the scattering of rewards on children who choose to behave for 5 minutes that is irritating
2. Two Wrongs Theresa
Packaging bribes up as rewards still makes them bribes. Children want recognition, pride, purpose and to make real progress. If their motivation for learning is dependent on game with prizes then how will they cope with the game is taken away. Children need to be taught self-discipline not advanced carrot dangling. The teacher's job is not to reward children with token, money and stuff. It is to recognise behaviour that is over and above minimum standards while reporting this to parents personally.
3. Balanced Bertha
Balancing individual praise and class rewards means that it is not ‘every man for himself', in your lessons. Your class rewards encourage reliance on others not simply a reliance on being better at playing the rewards game. The excitement of the sparkly box won't last forever, but you have reshaped the system to get more of the behaviour they need for success. Their interest in taking over the running of the box will need to be well managed but you seem to have hooked them into the idea that what we can achieve together is more important that what we can achieve alone.