Voice has a great piece up about getting support for the School of Visual and Performing Arts. In the comments for that post, one of our regular readers asked why a particular student was not being praised for brilliant work while other students were being praised for mediocre work. I tried to respond in the best way I know in a few paragraphs, but this is an important issue in education I have yet to address. It is one of the more challenging things a teacher, counselor, or administrator does on a regular basis. I'll split motivational theories into a few schools of thought to give you some idea.
The Old School Approach
How many times have you heard people complain about leagues where every kid gets a trophy and every kid in school gets an award? These are your old school motivators. Believe it or not, there is actually solid psychology behind it. Psychologists tell us their is intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The former is the most powerful and the most difficult to cultivate. It is the motivation that comes from within. When you think about it, very few people are truly intrinsically motivated. Most of us want something for our efforts (money, recognition, reciprocity).
The old school believes in limiting praise because kids (and adults) can be conditioned into expecting praise. So, if you only praise the great achievements of students then you avoid over praising the very good kids and you teach the mediocre to below average kids what it takes to get praise. In other words, it really means something when it comes.
The Token System
These folks believe in praising everyone. They are aware of the problem with students getting addicted to praise, so they either dish it out occasionally or they taper off as time goes on. The general idea with both is that the student will grow not to expect it every time, but they will get enough of them to keep them afloat.
The token system grew out of the old school system, but changed when adults noticed that some students were disengaged because they grew to understand that they would never be praised. So, if you praise small achievements occasionally you can coach them up to reaching the big goals. This system generally works if you strike the balance between over praise and the old school format.
The Triage System
This is more or less what is happening now. Triage was invented by the French as a way to deal with wounded soldiers. Those that are going to survive are largely ignored in favor of the ones that might die. Those that will die are comforted but not treated. It's a vulgar term, but it is practical in some settings. Essentially, you take the good kids that get support at home and you allow that home support to satiate them.
Therefore, praise is heaped on students considered "at-risk" in efforts to coax them through. This is particularly important in elementary when no one is considered a lost cause. In middle school and high school many of those same students are written off if we can not save them in elementary school. The unintended result is that kids obviously figure out what is happening. Some of them are savvy enough to figure out why they did not get an award even though their work is superior. Others cry about the unfairness.
The Group Theory
These are the so-called class awards. They are used primarily to inspire teamwork and accountability to a group larger than yourself. I have a problem with these because some groups are at an inherent disadvantage because of a smaller group within the class. We have class attendance awards at school. We are having an inherent clash of philosophies because the classes are largely segregated. Therefore, some classes have natural advantages.
So, when those classes with natural advantages win consistently what should be done? One option is to do nothing and teach the disadvantaged class to pick up the pace. Another is to alter the rules of the game to give them a chance to win. Interesting how this dilemma mirrors life. Of course, you probably could figure out where I stand on this one, but I'll leave it at that.
The Gap
Each of these plans has one group they leave out. They are the forgotten group in just about all of our schools. Above average students usually get the shaft in the praise game. Their stuff is good, but not good enough to factor into the old school format. They get intermittent praise in the token system, but are seen as just fine in the triage system. Essentially, in all things attention they get the least of it. This is why seemingly intelligent (but not brilliant) kids sometimes slip through the cracks. We spend most of our time fawning over brilliance or at risk.
I generally find myself tip toeing through all of these methods. They all have their good points and bad points. Kids are smart enough to see through all of them. but if you are genuine they will work. For whatever reason, I am extremely sensitive to fairness. So, the group approach bothers me more often than not.
Alien,
I was joking about the same village part. Just making fun of those who say that Obama was born in Kenya. But...my fiancee's home village, is actually not that far from where Obama's dad was from.
I guess the teacher is simply the holder of the class's award. I'm not a huge fan of group awards in general when teamwork is not involved. Your teaching a kid that they are responsible for a classmate's absenteeism. My original question is whether motivation is killed when I realize my class will never win? Yet, I also understand that changing the rules to accomodate those classes waters down the achievement.
wow...same village. How big is the village...they might be related.
What do you think Scott of the awards being given the teachers for good attendance on the part of the students? It seems to me kind of misplaced. I doubt the teachers have a lot to do with the attendance rate, and secondly, it seems unfair to the poor kids who do not have good attendance because their parents don't get them to school at that high of a rate. It's not their fault. I bet some of them end up feeling responsible if there teacher does not win the award.
Excellent point on racial stereotypes. It is not so much a black problem as the nature of our particular community. When I speak of the community it is of only that particular community. As for the awards, it is a class award so the teacher gets it, but the kids know what it is for.
Hey Alien,
I'm sure with High School age kids it's not on the parents as much whether they actually get and stay in school throughout the day, but for younger than that it should be mostly on the parents probably? My fiancee is from Kenya. Just like our president. In fact they were born in the same village (wink)!
I just noticed the mention of sub-sahara. Which country specifically...just curious. I have a couple of friends from Nigeria (unknown to each other) that are needless to say...interesting.
...understand that I had a stepbrother that was an A student through high school and college. It didn't mean nuthin' to me...I knew I was smarter than he was. I continued to think that until I realized what a waste my life was.
Doug,
I gotta tell you that when I was in high school it wasn't until after I was suspended that my dad and stepmother realized I was not attending like I should.
My dad had a rule...if we wanted a ride to school we had to be up and ready to go when he had to leave for work. On the days, though they were actually few in number, when my dad in frustration would leave for work without me I was ecstatic. He was taken completely by surprise when he learned he was dropping me off at school at the front door and I was leaving through the back door.
I thought it was kinda hilarious AFTER he exhausted all his steam.
Scott,
Are the group awards given to the students, and do they know why they are getting them? Isn't it basically out of their control whether they get to school or not? If so, why are they getting rewarded or not, for something that is in the control of their parents? Just wondering.
In this discussion I've noticed a lot of comments mentioning racial groups and characteristics that are perceived as being associated with them. I think a lot of that is in the eye of the beholder, and given our history as a nation, it can be very dangerous to associate various traits with racial/ethnic groups. We see what we want to see a lot of times. When we realize that we are all one, and that "race" is arbitrary, we will be much the better for it when thinking about group dynamics I think. I'm going to be fully fully immersed in this stuff, being a white American man who is soon marrying a woman from Sub Saharan Africa. I'm going to be dealing with cultural as well as "racial" differences.
:0)
Syould be "proficiency".
Should be "should"
There may be a dangling participle there too.
You are right as usual. Very well put. That last sentence (I had to call my friend from high school who teaches English at St. Thomas to have her explain it to me) was....well...very profound.
I am, personally, glad to see the Asian immigration, mostly. They are helping our national IQ level. They hel the economy by buying lots of eye glasses, and, OTOH, I LIVE in Alief. So, not only do I work with Asians, I am surrounded by them. Some of their women are downright gorgeous. My only gripe with them has to do with their lack of lawn maintenance skills and their general inability to operate a motor vehicle with any degree of efficiency. It bears mentioning, the three most dangerous intersections in Houston, as determined by the number of accidents are ALL in Houston's SW Chinatown/Alief area.
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:-)
yeah, I can see the dilemma...
It takes me back to my high school days when Hispanic & African American 'groups' were the 'happening' thing.
In a joint meeting we had a discussion whether or not we should proceed as a single organization or two separate entities. I remember I was one of the few votes in favor of a combined effort.
My realization at the time was that it was African-American activists that had done the heavy lifting for furthering minority causes and as such deserved the recognition from us in deference to a somewhat subordinate role. In my opinion Hispanics were a late comer (and not very creative) entry into the 'cause'.
The African-Americans, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with us and in retrospect I don't really blame them but still I thought that it was a selfish position to hold and very counter-productive.
Hispanics for the most part just didn't care about anything (my generation) other than lunch and sex but they knew they didn't want to be associated with African-Americans.
In the end...nothing happened!
In this case it is perfect attendance (number of days the class got perfect attendance). Our school is fairly segregated so you have classes of Hispanic kids and classes of African American kids. The former groups win all the awards. Attendance at the elementary level is all about parents. The latter classes always have three to five kids that just don't make it to school regularly. The parents usually don't work (welfare) but they just aren't committed to school. So the question is whether you keep the awards as is knowing those classes will never win or do you offer two awards and highlight the segregation. To be honest with you, I don't have the right answer.
Scott,
My thing is that I believe inherent in the group award is that personal prejudices/perspectives take a back seat and 'everyone' is awarded for whatever effort they put into the end result. If a bad performer within the group is perceived to be getting undeserved reward there is a self-regulating mechanism that will almost certainly come into play. His/Her teammates will kick their ass. And they will learn a valuable lesson in the process...In the real world people are not going to willingly carry a worthless carcass.
Hi Carguy,
The asian parent, in my experience, is a 'success' authoritarian. A good friend of mine says that the tradeoff is that Asian kids are very narrow in their social interaction. The current parent generation have learned one lesson from their home countries. You either excel or become a castoff. There is no middle ground for them. Success in a less entrepeneurial culture channels talent into academics and the competition is fierce.
"Pinnacle" means "top", right????
"Pinnacle" means "top", right????
WOW!!! That's complicated. My son is 32 or 33 years old. I was involved in his sports/athletics but not so much in school. I guess he turned out OK. I DO understand that much has happend in the past 10-15 years and IS happening today. I trust you, Scott, to keep me informed.
When I was a kid, back in the 60's, we had two very simple motivational "avenues", if you will. If you did well in school, you got praise from the teacher and she "liked" you. There were some intrinsic or extrinsic or hypertrinsic whatevers, that went with that. At home, if you did well you didn't get hit, yelled at, or otherwise punished. Your folks would cut you some slack in the "war of the vegetables". In our house that was usually green peas or okra. My sisters LIKED okra, so I suppose, they derived less benefit from that than I did. That "motivational philosophy" seemed to work pretty well.
I work with a bunch, I mean a BUNCH of Chinese here. I don't know what they do, but their kids NEED no motivation or reward. They all WANT to learn. Education is placed at the pinnacle of the pyramid. Let's fund a study to determine what exactly they are doing and try to modify whatever "that" is for American kids.
There you go Scott. Another problem solved by carguy.