Is a “Well done!” sticker an “acknowledgment” or a “reward?”
QUESTION:
I’ve been really working with my students to take pride in their work and do do their best at things. Many are really messy and sloppy and I know they can do better. Would putting a sticker or stamp that says “Well done,” “Neat work” or “Your best work!” be an acknowledgment as opposed to a reward? Is it counterproductive?
RESPONSE:
In thinking about how I might respond to your question, I re-read sections of Alfie Kohn’s book that Marv was referring to in a recent post. Although in the following excerpt, Kohn is talking about verbal praise (in a section comparing praise to “words of encouragement,”) I think his suggestions apply to situations involving tangible rewards as well.
On page 106-107 of Punished by Rewards, Kohn says:
I propose… keeping in mind two general principles that might be thought of as the standards against which all praise should be measured. The first principle is self-determination. With every comment we make — and specifically, every compliment we give — we need to ask whether we are helping that individual to feel a sense of control over his life. Are we encouraging him to make his own judgments about what constitutes a good performance (or a desirable action)? Are we contributing to, or at least preserving, his ability to choose what kind of person to be? Or are we attempting to manipulate his behavior by getting him to think about whether he has met our criteria?
The other principle is intrinsic motivation. Are our comments creating the conditions for the person we are praising to become more deeply involved in what she is doing? Or are they turning the task into something she does to win our approval?
To determine the likely effect of praise with respect o these two guidelines, we need to examine, first our own motives. Are we trying to control someone’s behavior for our own convenience, or saying nice things just to have something to say, or hoping to get that person to like us more? Second, we need to think about how our comments sound to the individual who hears them. Our intent, for example, may be to offer useful feedback about the quality of someone’s work, but he may interpret what we say as limiting his autonomy…. people of any age can be observed for signs of resistance, dependency, or reduced interest.
Although I do think it is important to help students develop a desire to print with neatness and work with care, personally I choose not to give out stickers in recognition of neat work — for a couple of reasons.
I find that giving out stickers to only a portion of the students goes against the spirit of creating a special feeling of community in the classroom. I have found that a portion of the class usually become quite competitive whenever rewards are used as a way to encourage certain work habits. I find that whenever competition takes over in the class, the overall sense of community suffers and so does the quality of learning that can occur. I often have stickers in my room but when I hand them out, everyone gets one and it’s not connected to behavior in any way. I simply incorporate them into the lesson or give them to the students for fun, for free time art work or to to use in the decoration of a project.
If I put myself into the shoes of the children, I can imagine several different reactions when stickers are offered as an incentive:
- Some kids might care very little for stickers and think that there’s no need to write neatly simply because they don’t want a sticker.
- Some of the more sensitive kids might be hurt or discouraged. Does discouragement lead to better work in the future?
- Some may feel that they have already done the best job of which they are capable and so feel that it is impossible for them to ever get a sticker– why bother trying?
- Some may feel that they are “superior” to others in the class–because of being awarded a sticker. To me, this is fostering a sense of pseudo self-esteem which makes me feel very uncomfortable.
- Some may feel motivated to do a better job next time because they are wanting a sticker rather than the focus the teacher was hoping to create — a sense of pride in their work.
As many researchers have pointed out, rewards change motivation. With the DWS Hierarchy it is very easy to understand why this happens:
When students are focused on improving their work in order to feel a sense of pride in their accomplishments, then they are operating on Level D — the highest level of personal development. When students are focused on improving their work in order to get a sticker from the teacher, their operation is at Level C. If I hope to influence my students to aim for the highest level of operation, would it be productive to offer them an external incentive? For me, the answer is very clear–offering stickers can actually limit many of my students, by encouraging them to aim for Level C.
Although rewards can motivate people to do what you want them to do, they motivate only in the short term — in other words they motivate only as long as the reward is forthcoming. I’m sure that all teachers want to help their students gain lasting positive work habits. In my experience such goals can’t be accomplished by taking shortcuts–it takes diligence, patience and persistence on the part of the teacher. I want my students to write neatly and work carefully––whether or not I am handing out stickers.
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Posted In: Acknowledgement, Rewarding
posted On: April 11, 2009: 10:22 am: By Kerry Weisner
Comments: 2 Comments
October 10th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
This is more of a follow-up question than a comment:
I have been working on implementing DWS for a few years now, and feel I am getting closer to deeply internalizing the methods and having greater success. I think one of the reasons it has taken me awhile to be completely successful is because of my reluctance to get rid of rewards and incentives. While I understand the harm they can do, for some reason, I have had a hard time letting go of them 100%, because somehow I have it in my head that these are the things that make a 3rd grade class feel “fun” and exciting! Anyway, this year, I decided to try something a little different, which I borrowed from Rick Morris, classroom management “guru.” It is called Credit Cards. Basically, I gave each student an index card onto which they wrote their name. It is each child’s responsibility to keep their card safe but accessible. Whenever I want to acknowledge a student for displaying positive behavior or making a better choice, I stamp their card. I made it clear to the students from the beginning (as Morris suggests) that they won’t be “rewarded” for every positive behavior (as that would be impossible for me to do) and that “credits” will never be given “upon request.” Then, I set a date (about 4 weeks after the cards were first given out) for a class lunch with any student who had 15 credits by that date. At the lunch, I provided drinks and dessert. Any student who didn’t have 15 credits by lunch day just kept their card, and continued building credits until the next date (which I set for about 2 weeks later). The first lunch date has come and gone and now we are working until date #2. I have found this little “acknowledgement system” to be much simpler and less stressful than any other I tried in the past. I tend to give out credits during independent work time, when I see several students getting right to task but others are still chatting or lingering to get their books out. I have also given credits to students after I “catch them” doing a good deed without any prompting (I suppose, when they are doing a level C or D act). Kids do NOT (seem to) compete for credits or brag about credits. Credits are not a huge part of our day. Whole days have gone by where we were too busy and I didn’t bother to give out a single credit, yet I have never heard anyone complain about this. My idea is to continue until everyone in the class has had a chance to have a lunch, and then, possibly, pull the cards for a while, just to have a break from it.
But the obvious question is this: Am I kidding myself to think that this system is not equally detrimental as the other types of reward systems that DWS or Alfie Kohn discuss? What do you think?
October 12th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Hi Monica,
Hi, Monica,
Thanks for taking the time to respond! Nice to meet you!
I can certainly relate to many things you said! Like you, after reading Alfie Kohn and Marvin Marshall, I began to question many of my own teaching practices. I started to analyze specific activities more closely and ask myself questions such as:
What are my real reasons for doing this?
What message does this activity send to my students?
Will this take me to where I say I really want to go?
Will this encourage my students to aim for Level D rather than Level C?
Would I do this in my own family, with my own children?
Is this helping me strengthen my relationships with each one of my students? etc.
In some cases I had to admit that a number of my regular practices, which appeared fun and exciting on the surface, weren’t really so positive after all. That’s when I had to confront my own fears––which basically boiled down to this: Did I really believe that internal rewards could be, as––or more––satisfying than incentives offered by another person? In the end, personal experience with the results of being internally motivated in my own life gave me the courage to leave academic rewards and incentives behind in the classroom too–eventually, without regrets and with a definite sense of freedom and peacefulness.
I spent a long time reflecting on all the effort I had always put into my own teaching and all the resulting satisfaction I had received from being creative in the classroom and doing my best for my students. Could any type of external reward have convinced me to do the same for all those years–-with an equal amount of drive and determination? I realized that the answer was “No.” For me, being internally motivated was always a far more powerful driving force than my monthly paycheck or spoken recognition from my administrators. If this was true for me, could this not also be true for other people and even young children (who, after all have the same innate human characteristics as adults?) Was it not worth finding out? Would my students not be better off in the long run, if I headed in a Level D direction? I took the scary plunge!
I began to focus my efforts on motivating students to do their best by encouraging them to understand the real reasons for doing so and by discovering the real benefits that could be found by putting forth effort to do well in school––or any other arena of life. Marvin Marshall’s Hierarchy provided the concepts and language that allowed me to do that easily, and classroom experience with my students taught me that I was only sidetracking young people from valuable goals if I introduced Level C treats/privileges to entice them.
To my delight, I found that kids were willing to work towards Level D goals with as much, or more enthusiasm as they were for a Level C treat. I found I could be an “effective Level D salesperson” simply because I genuinely believed in the value of my “product.” And besides, I no longer ran into any negative problems such as worrying that I wasn’t evenly or fairly “catching them at being good.” Why not aim for the high level instead of something lower?
However, one stumbling block did remain for me. I found I had a well-engrained “teaching mindset” with regard to fun and treats. Somehow I felt that I could only legitimately offer fun or treats if they had been “earned” or were “well deserved” in some way. At one point, I even packed up many wonderful bags of fun prizes that I had collected to be used as reading incentives and donated them to the public library. I was convinced that they couldn’t be of any use to a teacher who wanted to promote internal motivation.
I think that extreme gesture of “making a break with rewards” was necessary in my journey because the very next day I snapped to attention with the realization that I didn’t have to use fun or treats in a manipulative way. I could simply offer fun and treats generously, as gifts to EVERY child, no strings attached! I could still make my classroom fun. I could still have parties. I could still use food or stickers in connection with my academic program. I suddenly got it! A classroom based on internal motivation doesn’t have to be dreary or completely serious! In fact, how could I motivate students to be excited about learning at school if we never had any fun? That’s when I really felt joyful about my new direction.
These days, my partner and I plan for a lot of fun in the classroom with our students, all the while knowing that when we seek to motivate the kids to stay on task, to do their best performance, or stop idle chatting and pay attention at lesson time, we do it in a way that leads to Level D motivation rather than Level C. We use treats in a different way than we did many years ago. Whereas before we might have had an after school party only for those who had completed all homework assignments in a term, these days we have parties as culminating events to academic themes. For instance, at the end of our Castle and Fairy Tale Theme, we host a special medieval feast and tournament and when we study Nursery Rhymes we make food treats connected to the jingles. Instead of giving a star to only those students who have printed neatly, we give all kids an entire strip of star stickers as part of a lesson highlighting words that contain the “ar” reading chunk (as in the word, “star.”) Instead of promising a piece of candy to those who who get a high mark on their math worksheet, we make candy crafts that look like Thanksgiving turkeys, Halloween ghosts and Valentine mice. If we find tiny toys at a great price we find some way to incorporate them into a phonics or math lesson. Every ten days Zero the Hero arrives in our classroom mailbox with a “zero treat” such as a ring or a lifesaver candy.
The fun and treats are still present of our classroom but the manipulative aspect is completely gone. Fun is for everyone. No child is ever left out and no one has to earn the right to part of treat experience. We feel each child deserves to be part of our classroom fun simply because they are a member of our class. Not only do we feel very good about this switch but the kids are all happy too.
So, rather than tell you how I might feel about Rick Morris’ “credit card program,” I think you will find more valuable answers to your questions by reflecting on your own goals for your teaching and for your students. If you’re anything like me though, you may find that it takes some personal courage to implement your answers! Best wishes!