R6: Reinforcement and Rewards

Quotes:

“Possibly no goal of education is more important - or more neglected - than self-understanding. . . . Unexamined lives may well be valuable and worth living, but an education that does not invite such examination may not be worthy of the label education” (Noddings, 2006, p. 10).

“We need to ask not only what we believe but why we believe it” (Noddings, 2006, p. 10).

“This is, of course, self-discipline, but what is self-discipline other than discovering and employing one's own motivation?” (Noddings, 2006, p. 20).

“I am convinced that one of the primary obligations of educators and parents who want to promote a lasting commitment to learning is to do everything in their power to help students forget that grades exist” (Kohn, 1993, p. 124).

Question: My question comes from this quote from Noddings, “Students today need help in working through the meaning of achievement” (p. 17).  What do you deem as achievement in school?  Is earning an “A” achievement?  Is passing the class achievement?  Is earning a scholarship achievement?  Or is learning a new concept, a new way of thinking about something achievement?  Is the ability to think critically and examine all sides of an argument achievement?  I would venture, that for me, achievement is the latter of these questions.  Achievement deals more with learning and critical thinking, than it does grades and scores.  Achievement, for me personally, is more about interest in a topic, introspection and reflection however achieving these things in each course can be impossible.  I think though that for many people, including parents, achievement is measured by the grade earned at the end of a course.

Direct Experience: Reading the Chance & Kohn articles concerning rewards in the classroom as a way to advance (or inhibit) learning made me think about our annual performance evaluations which were due at work last week.  The annual performance evaluation is an example of performance-contingent rewards as they are directly linked to the raise an employee expects to receive annually.  I would not classify it as a success-contingent reward as the employee does not have to reach a certain goal or show a certain amount of progress to earn the monetary raise which is based on the performance evaluation.  In reading these two author’s differing viewpoints in the power of rewards I could not help but think about the long-term effect of tying performance evaluations to employee’s raises since I have not received a raise in three years.  Not receiving a raise has had nothing to do with my work performance, but rather the fiscal status of the university.  In fact, my annual performance evaluations are always excellent and indicate motivation for doing my job well.  This motivation to continuing doing well in my job is internal; it has nothing to do with the prospect of a raise.  I state this since the reinforcement/reward of a raise has been lacking for a long time, the prospect for one this year is slim and yet I continue to be motivated to do my job well.  This lack of motivation based on the prospect of an external reward aligns with Kohn’s argument that using rewards as an incentive to learn (or in my case to work harder) is faulty.

Indirect Experience: All the readings this week focused on questions of motivation and outside influences (rewards) for motivating learning.  Noddings encouraged teachers to reflect upon which theory of motivation they prescribe to, how it influences their teaching style and to ask themselves if they are motivated by test scores.  Motivation from test scores seems to be an all-too-prevalent theme in today’s American education system.  Teachers’ abilities are directly linked to their students’ test scores.  It has even gotten to the point where test scores are the only item analyzed when rating teachers’ effectivity or ineffectivity as noted in Ravitch’s editorial on CNN.com.  Chance (1993) concludes the article, “Sticking up for rewards,” with the quote, “This view of education places responsibility for learning squarely on the teacher's shoulders. Perhaps that is why there is so much opposition to it” (p. 128).  However I believe this narrow approach to gauging teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom is unfair to teachers.  I believe responsibility for learning begins before the student enters the classroom; the responsibility for learning must begin with the student (and therefore the parents of the student).  Ravitch states, “There are many reasons why students do well or poorly on tests, and teachers felt they were being unfairly blamed when students got low scores, while the crucial role of families and the students themselves was overlooked” (2011).  The students and their families do play crucial roles in learning; it is not solely up to the teacher to have responsibility for learning in the classroom.

References

Chance, P. (1992). The rewards of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 74, 200-207.

Chance, P. (1993). Sticking up for rewards. Phi Delta Kappan, 75, 787-790.

Kohn, A. (1993). Rewards versus learning: A response to Paul Chance. Phi Delta Kappan, 75, 783-787.

Ravitch, D. (2011). Why America's teachers are enraged. CNN.com at http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/20/ravitch.teachers.blamed/index.html?hpt=P1&iref=NS1

Noddings, N. (2006). Critical lessons: What our schools should teach. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 10-35.