http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/world/middleeast/21iht-educLede21.html?pagewanted=1&ref=education
Motivating students seems to be a common frustration among teachers. How exactly do you get a student who doesn't care about school to care about getting good grades? When I first saw this, I thought, "An A=$$$," and wondered where all that money would come from. Our country is making education cuts as it is, so how are we going to afford to PAY students? In the United States now students are rewarded with scholarships to college for good grades. This fails to cover all exceptional students however, and straight up cash payments have been proposed. Say there was an endless pool of cash, would this even work? Consider the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc ...it says that money motivators don't work for cognitive thinking. Surprised?
Beyond that, I don't think it would be a good idea to motivate students with money incentives. It would really change the way society worked. Students are reliant on their parents financially, but if students started getting paid, could this reliance reverse?
It's true that students need more motivation these days, but money doesn't seem to be the answer.
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Further, would paying teachers more money for better results (merit pay) lead to better results? According to the video, it is unlikely. Plus, would anyone want to teach in a struggling school, knowing they could make more money in a stronger school? Would this have negative consequences as well? Merit pay and pay for students seems like a false assumption to me.
ReplyDeleteOne major problem that may result from the application of money to reward grades is the tension that may result. There are many students that may try very hard in school but are still not able to achieve these higher grades. They may see these kids making money for less effort while they are left with nothing to show for their hard work. The only thing that could result from this is a rift between students in a school system, which cannot be good for the educational environment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the three of you, as much as students need an incentive to improve their productivity in school, money isn't the answer. And although praise should be enough, it isn't. We don't have the money to hand out to students and the amount of cheating students did would probably increase by a lot.
ReplyDeleteStudents being paid for good grades does not make sence to me at all. When students are paid for good grades, they lose the sense of striving to do good just for the merit of success and pride. With this loss, people start to not take pride in their work.
ReplyDeleteAlso, how do you charaterize what is considered good grades and how much to pay for every grade. Where would the money come from anyway? We are already cutting education so how could this be funded?
I don't see how having money rewards for good academics can really help anything, other than everyone in our class being rich (haha). I agree with Billy in that the people who try hard and still can't achieve good grades would be discouraged by the system and still not try hard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Josh, it doesn't make sense. And, as Bill said, there would be increased tensions between students. I think that by paying students, there would be more incentive for those who struggle in school to cheat. Another problem with this program is where would the money come from? The U.S. goverment can't supply it, especially not in the current economic times. I doubt paying students for good grades would be beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI think its pretty sad that kids lack intrensic motivation to do well in school. I think this is because kids are too used to having things handed to them, getting instant reward for their work. But this is kinda pathetic.
ReplyDeleteRewarding students with for getting good grades and encouraging them wiht money for motivation might work for a short period of time but many problems would rise form this. People are already selfish enough and giving money to students to do schoolwork would just increase this. I think that we have statred relying to much on resources like the internet to do all of or work for us and we are forgetting how important education really is. Rewarding students with moeny would just have the same problems that we do now. Students would just disagree the same way they do now about grades as they would the money. So paying students to do their work like I said might work for a shot period of time I think the problems that we already see today would increase.
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt that a school district would pay students enough to allow their parents to become financially dependent on them. In regards to incentive I doubt that the cash for grades incentive would work because as far as I can see a large potion of that money would go towards drugs and alcohol. I also am not comfortable with using taxpayer money to "motivate" a bunch of deadbeats
ReplyDeleteI like the comment about children perhaps being used to support families, rewards being taken by parents.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a third grader bringing home twenty dollars because of a good report card, and the parents take that money to buy food, to pay the rent, or to buy drugs or alcohol, the situation becomes dangerously close to modern child labor. Children work at school, get paid for their success, and then take the money home for the family. It reminds me of the kids working at the textile mills during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I think maybe a non-cash incentive would help, but paying money does not seem like a viable option at this time.