Rewards and Consequences

How effective are they, really?

I heard a lot of discussion this week about teachers' reward-based motivational strategies. You know, "Get a 100 on the quiz and get some candy." Teachers either love it or hate it. I can't decide. I doubt that I hate it - it's not something I am inclined to feel that strongly about either way. But it brings me back to an idea I have wrestled with all year: how the heck do we motivate these people??

To me, these extrinsic rewards only confuse kids; they make the students assume that anything worth doing in life will have an immediate, gratifying, and tasty reward at the end of it. Not to mention that I think it kind of borders on bribing them to make you look good as a teacher. (Don't get me wrong - I have definitely bribed kids when observations, etc... are on the line; I'm not THAT far above it.) However, this type of motivation is so temporary, I fear that they will become dependent on it.

I haven't found a solution to this problem...and if I do, I'll write a book and some curriculum on it, make my first few millions doing workshops and PD for schools, and move to Tahiti to be philosophical...or maybe just tan.

It does bother me, though. I can teach fantastically all day long and if my students aren't motivated to learn, it's a one-way exchange. Yet, the consequences of employing the most obvious motivational techniques seem far more dangerous than they are helpful.