Ever since education watchdogs Ofsted was created to scrutinise schools, teachers all over Britain have been raising the stakes in an effort to motivate pupils to achieve top grades and meet tough Government targets. Prizes such as computers, iPods, free cinema tickets, BMXs and trips to watch premiership football are examples of some of the incentive packages pupils can expect to win if they gain top scores in their exams. There are also the Government incentives of money for older pupils who stay on in school plus bonuses for good report and attendance.
Some educators question such practices while others view them as positive investment in schoolchildren’s future. One teacher, who has mixed views on this, is Andrew Asante of Furze Platt Secondary School in Berkshire. He describes the practice as ‘dangling financial carrots’.
‘More money should go into engaging non-academic pupils in more practical work,’ says Andrew. ‘When you start to introduce pupils to other areas that do not fit into the traditional educational frameworks as SATs, GCSEs and A levels they are seen as failures, which is absurd. I believe that it’s more important that the Government use the financial incentive packages to create a multi-pronged education system.’
One of the various Government-funded incentives, the Education Maintenance Award (EMA), is a financial package designed to keep young people in schools, so in effect, children are also being paid to stay on – but does it work?
‘What I think the Government needs to do is to invest in proper vocational pathways for students who have not got the academic ability,’ Andrew responds. ‘They should be encouraged vocationally. You also have disaffected young people and those students have to be high priority. One of the reasons why they are disruptive is because they are being put on an academic pathway rather than on a vocational pathway. Education should not be one-tiered but multi-tiered. From that point you are able to plan for their future.’
The incentives approach of motivating children may well be relatively new in some schools but for many children this has been a way of life, having grown up on being told by their parents that if they get top marks at school they will earn a treat or get a present.
Wendy Petrie a mother and secondary school teacher, who now runs an independent school in south London, believes that incentives are a good idea but could be interpreted as a form of bribery. ‘In all of this you need to be careful that kids don’t end up seeing learning as a way of getting stuff they want,’ she said.
‘Incentives are a good idea, but I think small incentives are more effective, for example, a trip to the park, merit stars, days out and so forth. If the incentives are too large this will be a child's only motive and they will not want to work just for themselves.’
She added: ‘I think there is far too much emphasis on incentives. Years ago how many incentives did children have, but they still did well? Personally I think lots of praise and encouragement from teachers, but more importantly, parents, is enough. I'm not sure if pupils really care about the material rewards anyway; I think they are more interested in what their parents think of their performances.’
Psychologist, Michelle David, also has mixed views although in principle she thinks incentives are not a bad idea.
‘I'm a big believer in rewarding children’s efforts to behave better and to achieve more, and if it benefits children to achieve better grades then it is worth it,’ she says.
‘But then again some children don’t even need incentives,’ she added. ‘Some children have a natural ability and drive so their academic achievements will be consequently high due to that fact. So I don’t think they would need as much incentive as maybe a child of average ability. Children of average ability and underachievers would naturally benefit from incentives more.’
Similarly, there are some children who will not even try to work hard as they may have little confidence in themselves. And what about children who may have learning difficulties – they will feel that they have lost before they have even started as there are many other children who they know are brighter than they are and who may walk off with all the prize money.
On one side of the argument in the long-term it could be that the average ability children always feel the need to be competitive whereas with the high IQ children they may feel the need to play down their ability as they just want to fit in with everyone else.
Given the pressures on teachers and pupils to make the grade it is little wonder that motivational incentives play a major part in educating schoolchildren.
William Atkinson, head of Phoenix High School, Shepherds Bush, west London, hopes an annual school-wide celebration for his students who do well provides a sense of achievement and pride for their efforts. Their American-style annual school graduation publicly awards pupils who have made the grade, who in turn invite their family and friends to the celebration of their achievements.
The public celebrations are an open acknowledgement in front of teachers and parents and sits better with some as it’s not about material incentives such as a bike or an Ipod.
On the question of tackling underachievement William said: ‘Technically excellent teachers who are passionate about their work and students are as crucial as is an exciting and challenging curriculum.’
The school makes use of extra curricular learning. William says, ‘This provides the opportunity for extra teaching to help prepare students for their national tests and GCSE examinations.’
William Atkinson has been featured on Channel 4 as one of the super teachers in the documentary, the Unteachables. He has also widely featured on BBC TV and radio networks and Sky TV on programmes such as Question Time, Panorama, Any Questions, You and Yours and Just William.
