Posts Tagged disadvantage of rewards

Rewards and Motivation

On February 11, 2016 / Effectiveness

We know that rewarding fosters competition to see who gets the most number of rewards. We also know that using rewards as incentives to young people fosters feelings of punishments to those in school who believe they should have received a reward, but didn’t.

Recently a teacher relayed a story to me that perfectly sums up the pitfalls of relying on rewards. Her story is a perfect illustration of how external manipulators (giving rewards as reinforcers) do not do what adults would like them to do, namely, transfer the desired motivation.

“I have a cute story about rewards in the classroom. I teach first grade, and sometimes just getting the kids to remember their folders and to sharpen pencils is … >>>

Disadvantages of Punishments and Rewards

On July 9, 2012 / Learning, Parenting

I received an e-mail stating, ” I Googled ‘disadvantages of punishment and rewards’ and found your website.”

My website was the 28th website listed on Google. Needless to say, I was grateful for the person’s finding me and subscribing to my free, monthly newsletter, “Promoting Responsibility & Learning.”

In the future, there will be more and more sites devoted to the disadvantages of using punishments and rewards for teaching and parenting. The reason is that the more these external approaches are used, the more obvious they are seen as being coercive and ineffective in changing people’s long-term motivation.

Rewards ask, “What will I get for doing it?” and punishments ask, “What will you do to me if I don’t?” These … >>>