1. I kept on getting confused with what types of praise/rewards are bad...it seems to me that the differentiation between the two is negligible. Mostly I'm confused about the difference between task-contingent rewards and performance-contingent rewards...i understand what I read ( i think!)...I guess I'm just confused because I never differentiated between the two types before. I've never divided rewards into different groups.
2. Extrinsic motivation is beneficial in some cases. For example, performance-contingent rewards can sometimes encourage intrinsic motivation. When performance-contingent rewards are given, the student is getting solid feedback- you did well on this assignment-you understand the concept. The student then feels more able, and their confidence is strengthened. Performance-contingent rewards are preferred to task-contingent rewards. This is because with task-contingent rewards, the student sees the reward as more controlling; the student is simply doing what the teacher asked to receive the reward. There is no personal or individual quality that is valued and is the reason for the reward.
3. There are many negative effects of praise. One of them is that, when teachers use it excessively and praise students after they have done a relatively simple task, it makes the student feel stupid. They feel like the teacher is impressed by their successful completion of a simple task. Another problem with praise is that many students become dependent upon it, and they soon think that making any mistakes at all is not ok. It also can affect students in the opposite way, making them think that they are naturally smart and therefore don't need to work at all and are better than others.
You seem to understand the distinctions here. I will let others comment on your question, since those were the instructions, but what you have here looks good. If you value the ends, the task, you're rewarding something very objective that all students complete or not. If you value the process, or how the students performed when competing that task, it does create a more individualized aspect to that. A student can control their performance, but imagine how unhelpful feedback can be if it's 'you passed' or 'you failed' and nothing else. Also, if you reward only the task, then the student will take the quickest most efficient way to appear to have completed the task.
ReplyDeleteTask-contingent rewards and performance-contingent rewards can be similar things, so I can see where is can be confusing, because they both focus on doing a task and obtaining a reward. Task-contingent rewards are when the student gets rewarded for doing a task and getting the answer right. Performance-contingent rewards though, are being rewarded for attempting the task but getting it wrong. This can be if students are working on spelling and have a competition. If the student spells the word right, they get a sticker (task-contingent) and get to move on. If the student spells the word wrong, they have to sit out of the competition. However, they will still receive a sticker for their attempt and to help them not feel bad about being wrong (performance-contingent).
ReplyDeleteI agree with your negative effects of praise. I think that making children think that mistakes are bad leads to some terrible results. One result that I know all too well is when one stops putting effort into harder tasks, and instead puts minimal effort into excessively easy tasks. When I was younger, this was all too apparent when I practiced piano. I would not practice the hardest sections, because I didn't want to hear the same part messed up over and over again. Instead I would simply play through my pieces, and I would never get meaningful practice done.
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