Ms. Kijowski's Classroom Website
Rewards and consequences are important for classroom management. Rewards can help to reinforce good behaviors in students. Consequences are needed to ensure that students know that there are certain behaviors that will not be tolerated. The rewards and consequences I will use in my classroom are listed below.
Social Emotional Standards
3A.4b. Evaluate how social norms and the expectations of authority influence personal decisions and actions.
3B.4a. Evaluate personal abilities to gather information, generate alternatives, and anticipate the consequences of decisions.
Consequences
I agree with theorist, Barbara Coloroso, that students need to be treated with respect and dignity. Consequences are there to help students learn from what they have done wrong. I also agree that students should be given power and allowed to make decisions. With guidance from teachers, I think that students can eventually learn self-discipline and learn how to solve their own problems that they have.
The consequences that are given to students for their bad behaviors need to be "actual consequences." If the consequence for a bad behavior is something that the student likes, then the student will continue doing the bad behavior. Coloroso has four useful criteria for consequnces: reasonable, simple, valuable, and practical. When consequences follow these criteria, they will be fair. The consequences will "match" the bad behavior; not being too large or too small. Consequences should be something that the student could actually do and that the teacher could actually observe. When the consequence is valuable, the student will actually learn from this experience because he or she will no longer want to experience the consequence again.
I think that it is important that teachers and the student should meet when deciding on a consequence. Consequences will be different for each student if they are going to be valuable. I will need to know my students well in order to be able to choose consequences that will meet Coloroso's criteria. I think that students should be part of the discussion on what consequence to give because they need to be given some power, but also be guided so that they can develop self-disipline. The student should be asked what kind of consequence they deserve for their behavior. The teacher and student should discuss consequences, but the final decision will be decided by the teacher.
Rewards
While rewards can be useful in the classroom to reinforce good behaviors, I think that it is important that students are instrinsically motivated, and not just extrinsically motivated by rewards.
According to Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (2001), extrinsic rewards can undermine students' intrinsic motivation. More specifically, when students expect a tangible reward for something they have done, this can negatively affect their intrinsic motivation. If students are given rewards for each activity they do, they will begin to expect to get rewards. Eventually, when no reward is given, the students will not want to do the activity.
There are some rewards that Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (2001) mention that do not undermine intrinsic motivation. For example, unexpected tangible rewards did not affect intrinsic motivation. If a student received a reward that he or she did not expect, this would not change the fact that the student already had an interest in or was intrinsically motivated to do the activity. Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (2001) also found that verbal rewards increase intrinsic motivation.
In my classroom, I will not be giving out rewards to get my students to complete their homework assignments or to do activities. I want my students to be intrinsically motivated; to want to do something because they enjoy it. The kinds of rewards I will give are verbal rewards and unexpected rewards. I will give students positive feedback in class in order to encourage them. I also will dignify students answers and questions so that they feel that what they say is important. I also will bring rewards for students when they do not expect it. This does not mean that I will never give students a tangible reward for doing something. I will sometimes give rewards for completing an assignment or project, but I will not be giving out tangible rewards all the time.
Rewards and Consequences
References
Coloroso, B. (2002). Kids are worth it! Giving your child the gift of inner discipline. New York: Quill HarperResource.
Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., Ryan, R. M. (2001). Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation in Education: Reconsidered Once Again. Review of Educational Research, 71(1), 1-27.