Research
Find out more about the impact of rewards on pupils motivation in schoolCarrot Rewards aims to provide the best tool for teachers to motivate their pupils. As a part of that effort we are working with a number of university experts and leading teachers in the area of pupil motivation in school.
In particular we are working with Dr Nathanson (PhD and Yale Researcher in social and emotional learning) who has contributed a number of articles here to assist teachers.
Dr Nathanson (a Research Fellow at Yale University) has been retained by Carrot Rewards to look into the latest thinking on the use of rewards and their impact on pupils work and behaviour
Dr Nathanson, who specialises in the impact of social and emotional interventions on students, is reporting on the theory behind the use of rewards, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivation of pupils. She will also be talking directly to teachers to discover their views on the use of incentives in the classroom.
Dr Nathanson's findings are available here to all teachers, enabling you to make your own decisions about what is right for your pupils and your school, based on her independent research.
"I am delighted to be helping School Stickers conduct research that is both interesting and extremely relevant. How to improve standards of work and behaviour is one of the most important issues in education, and the use of reward schemes attracts much debate. I want to help teachers make an informed decision about the use of rewards in schools. There are some interesting theories on the use of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in schools and I aim to bring together the latest thinking and best practice to help teachers decide how to motivate their pupils. Students, just like adults, need to be motivated to work hard and push themselves, and we want to help teachers to make this happen."
PUBLICATIONS
Nathanson, L. (in press). A tale of two schools: A Case study in implementation challenges for researchers. Advances in SEL Research, AERA.
Nathanson, L., Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., & Brock, L.L. (2009). Kindergarten adjustment difficulty: The Contribution of children's effortful control and parental control. Early Education and Development, 20(5), 775-798.
Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., Grimm, K., Curby, T., Nathanson, L., & Brock. L.L. (2009). The Contribution of children's self-regulation and classroom quality to children's adaptive behaviors in the kindergarten classroom. Developmental Psychology, 45(4), 958-972.
Brock, L.L., Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., Nathanson, L., and Grimm, K.J. (2009). The contributions of 'hot' and 'cool' executive function to children's academic achievement, learning-related behaviors, and engagement in kindergarten. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 24(3), 337-349.
Ponitz, C.C., Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., Brock, L.L., & Nathanson, L. (2009). Early adjustment, gender differences, and classroom organizational climate in first grade. The Elementary School Journal, 110(2).
TECHNICAL REPORTS
Nathanson, L. (2009, June). Differential Item Functioning in College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) College Level Mathematics Assessment. Report prepared for the College Board.
Nathanson, L. (2008, June). Factor Models and Item Response Theory Differential Item Functioning for ACCUPLACER Subject Tests. Report prepared for the College Board.
Nathanson, L. Lang, N., Than, V., Ketchie, E.A., Brush, L., & Kirshstein, R. Recommended Cognitive Assessment Instrument for the ECLS-B Preschool Battery: Results of the 2003 Pilot Test. (2004, January). Report prepared for the National Center for Educational Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.
Oppler, S.H., Davies, S.A., Lyons, B.D., Nathanson, L., & Chen, W. (2003, June). An Investigation of the Speededness of the Verbal Reasoning and Physical Sciences Sections of the Medical College Admission Test. Report prepared for the Association of American Medical Colleges.
PRESENTATIONS
Holtzer, A.A., Reyes, M.R., Rivers, S.E., Nathanson, L., & Brackett, M.A. (2010, April). Defining Fidelity Using a Holistic Approach. Symposium conducted at the American Educational Research Association Conference, Denver, CO.
Rimm-Kaufman, S.E. & Schmidt, K.M. (2009, June). Developing a Fidelity of Implementation Measure for the Responsive Classroom Approach. Poster presented at the Institute for Education Sciences Research Conference, Washington, DC.
Nathanson, L. & Schmidt, K.M. (2008, June). Do College-Level Mathematics Test Items Operate Differently by Gender or Ethnicity? Applying IRT and DIF Analyses to Better Understand Test Items and Participants. Poster presented at the Institute for Education Sciences Research Conference, Washington, DC.
Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., Curby, T.W., Grimm, K.J., Nathanson, L., & Brock, L.L. (2007, April). The relative contribution of children's self-regulatory abilities and classroom quality in predicting engagement in kindergarten. In C. Li-Grining (Chair), Views from the field: Studying young children's self-regulation in socioeconomic and educational contexts. Symposium conducted at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Boston, MA.
Nathanson, L. & Rimm-Kaufman, S.E. (2007, March). The Contribution of Student-Teacher Relationships and Child Shyness to Contingent Interactions between Students and Teachers in Kindergarten. Poster presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, MA.
Nathanson, L., Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., Brock, L.L., Kim, H., & Klass, A. (2006, June). Transition to kindergarten: Parent-Reported self-regulation and parenting style as predictors of teacher-reported transition difficulty. Poster presented at the Institute for Education Sciences Research Conference, Washington, DC.
Nathanson, L., Rimm-Kaufman, S.E., & Fuller, S.M. (2006, June). Home Initiated family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten. Poster presented at the Institute for Education Sciences Research Conference, Washington, DC.
Costigan, T.E., Power, T.J., Leff, S.S., Nathanson L., & Fisher, E.S. (2004, August). Peer-directed versus adult-directed aggression: The BASC-TRS as a screening tool. Poster presented at the 77th Annual American Psychological Association Convention, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Oppler, S.H., Davies, S.A., Lyons, B.D., Nathanson, L., & Chen, W. (2004, April). The effect of speededness on MCAT scores: An initial examination. Poster presented at the 19th Annual Conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Chicago, Illinois.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Education Research Association (AERA)
American Psychological Association (APA)
Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)
Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)
Information: This article is written by Dr Nathanson (a Yale researcher focusing on social and emotional learning). Dr Nathanson has been retained by Carrot Rewards to provide information to teacher’s considering rewards.
By definition, rewards are external, something that is given in return for a successful action or behaviour. In a school context, rewards may include a good grade or a sticker for a creative essay. What about the things a person experiences after a success that come from within instead of from an outside source? Feelings such as self-confidence and hubris may arise after completing that same creative essay. Those feelings may also arise after receiving the sticker for the essay. Internal or external, feelings or rewards that occur after a desired behaviour relate to motivation.
Shifting the conversation to motivation; researchers Ryan and Deci’s theory (Self-Determination Theory) conceptualise a motivation continuum that includes both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Self-Determination Theory acknowledges that intrinsic motivation is not the only desired outcome. In many cases, and especially in education, rewards that foster extrinsic motivation serve as a catalyst for action. When you place rewards systems in the context of this theory, some clear guidelines emerge.
Guidelines for Effective Rewards Systems
Teachers can do several things to establish an effective rewards system in their classrooms or schools:
- Use rewards as part of a system. Establish a plan and use rewards consistently. Teachers may surprise students but the ‘surprise’ needs to be strategic and fit into the overall system.
- Set clear criteria for earning rewards. Rewards work best when they are used for meaningful accomplishments, which vary depending on your students. Teachers know their students best and can associate rewards with goals that challenge their students.
- Use rewards progressively, in ways that build students’ intrinsic motivation. Students become more self-regulated as opposed to externally regulated (by means of rewards). Learning becomes the primary focus and external rewards become less important to students’ engagement in school.
For more information about Self-Determination Theory, Ryan, and Deci, visit http://www.psych.rochester.edu/SDT/.
Rewards programs that use financial incentives to improve student achievement are increasingly common in schools in the US. One Harvard University researcher, Roland Fryer, studies financial incentive reward programs in over 250 urban schools across America. Preliminary findings from Dr. Fryer's school-based experiments show different types of rewards programs have different impacts. Rewards increased student achievement in two cities where students received financial incentives for reading books (Dallas, TX) and for attendance, completing homework assignments, and other learning experience-related behaviours (Washington, DC).
In cities using incentive programs that rewarded students for learning experiences such as book reading or high attendance rates, students receiving rewards outperform peers whose schools did not participate in rewards programs. However, in two other cities, schools using incentive programs had similar student achievement to schools not using incentives; in these cities, students received rewards for achievement test results, not for the processes which promote improved achievement.
Dr. Fryer wants to study student rewards systems over time to discover whether rewards systems can impact long-term student outcomes such as high school completion, but what can teachers learn from these preliminary findings about turning rewards into student success? Based on these findings, teachers can try linking rewards with tangible behaviours that they know improve student achievement.
Learn more about Dr. Fryer's study: http://www.edlabs.harvard.edu/pdf/studentincentives.pdf
As part of a research study at Harvard University, the Washington, DC school district used rewards to motivate students to improve their attendance and behaviour in school. Ultimately, the goal of the program was to improve student achievement. Teachers awarded points each day to students for attendance, behaviour, wearing a school uniform, turning in homework, and completing class work. Students received incentive checks at the end of each two week period. The average student earned $40 every two weeks out of a possible $100 ($2 per point, 50 possible points).
To test the effects of rewards on students' reading and math test scores, researchers tested the differences in student achievement between schools randomly assigned to either implement the rewards program or act as a control school. For students in rewards schools, reading achievement increased between .152 and .179 standard deviations. Some students improved more than others; boys made greater achievement gains than girls. For students who had extremely poor behaviour the year prior to the study, the effects were greatest – these students gained .40 standard deviations in reading.
These results are based on only one year's data but these preliminary findings offer some suggestions for successful rewards programs. Reward students for working hard (improving attendance, behaviour), not just for being smart (scoring high on standardised tests) and in the end, they may still improve their achievement. A rewards scheme based on improving daily behaviours works especially well for boys and for students who struggle with behaviour issues.
(Based on Roland Fryer's 2010 report, Financial Incentives and Student Achievement: Evidence from Randomized Trials.)
This Times Article reports on a Cornell University study on prize based rewards. To quote the article:
"Jackson found that pupils who benefited from the Texas high school programme not only went to college in greater numbers, but also continued to improve their grades and remained in college longer."
His 46-page report finds "no evidence of worse outcomes and concludes that incentive programmes may have lasting positive effects even after rewards are no longer provided. Providing monetary incentives to both students and teachers can lead to meaningfully improved student outcomes"
The article also pulls information about the debate on prizes where some consider it de facto bribery leading to a dependence on rewards and others consider it a stepping stone to an intrinsic and long term love of learning. We all know that every school and every pupil is different. This research, and this article, provide some more colour in the motivation debate.