financial incentives in schools for good behaviour? | Vital Football

financial incentives in schools for good behaviour?

James06

Vital Football Legend
Settle an argument for me please.

A woman at work has a duaghter who gets rewarded by credits into an account at school which can be used for school trips or in the tuckshop/canteen. This is for attaining targets set and/or for good behaviour.

What is your opinion of this?

Personally I think good behaviour is to be expected and bad behaviour should be punished. As for results or reaching targets, this is also an expectation in keeping with standards of effort that reap their own benefits over time for the individual. In no way whatsoever should the school be offering these sorts of rewards IMO.

It should be instilled that a sense of achievement and pride should be gained form doing well at school, and the knowledge that the better you do, the greater chance you give yourself of success in the future. Also, we shouldn't be teaching children that money is the biggest achievement/reward. I think it's short sighted and an easy option of the school and also the parents if they think money is positive motivator.

Each to their own when it comes to parenting of course, but I remember mine saying to me that they wouldnt reward me financially for passing exams because that wasnt what it was about. It was about achieving results that would help me as an individual in life.
 
The need and method of motivating varies from individual to individual. I can see the concept of a group incentive with the reward being some for of trip but to bring it down to an individual level would be too complicated, either things become unfair or it becomes demotivating for those that can't make the grade.

As for using the canteen as a reward........have people learned nothing, we already have a huge youth obesity problem so the concept of associating food with reward will only exacerbate the problem - pure stupidity imo.
 
Crazy idea...If pupils are misbehaving then it is usually due to attached issues. It could be a case that the child is in need of attention and uses bad behaviour to gain such. It could be a child with problems at home - a child misbehaving is a child calling out.

Why reward the kids that do well? The lucky ones that have no issues get all the sweets...Dosnt seem fair to me.

A good teacher would spot a misbehaving child and should reach out to him/her. A private chat after class to see if there are any inlying problems can work well.
 
The behaviourists believe that positive reinforcement is more effective than negative.

Negative reinforcement tells you what you shouldn't do rather than what you should.

Of course, the massive irony is, that if you tell schoolteachers that they only do the job because of the good salary and long holidays, they tend to give you a long lecture on their higher motives, self-sacrifice and altruism.

Actions speak louder than words.
 
Dont be absurd GT, keeping a child behind after their contracted hours? a private chat without a legal representative? or another person in attendance to ensure the child is not sexually abused? Imagine the paperwork and legal requirements that would need to be met? It would take weeks of planning and months of work to follow up.

What a crazy idea!
 
James06 - 17/10/2013 11:42

Dont be absurd GT, keeping a child behind after their contracted hours? a private chat without a legal representative? or another person in attendance to ensure the child is not sexually abused? Imagine the paperwork and legal requirements that would need to be met? It would take weeks of planning and months of work to follow up.

What a crazy idea!

Ah so detention isn't used as a deterrent anymore then
 
James there is nothing wrong with a teacher saying "James can I have a quick word please" as the class is walking out. A simple "is everything ok? as ive noticed your behaviour can be very disruptive to the class" can be good enough to get the pupil to think/talk.

Or when the child is misbehaving, instead of teacher shouting at him/her - just walk over and say.."I would like a quick word after class please"...Then ask if everything is ok, when the class has left.

A good teacher can get a misbehaving pupil to like him/her and respect him/her if the same is shown in return..The concept is to get the misbehaving child to think, or have a teacher to reach out to if needed. You dont need any legal representation at this stage. But if the child comes forward where abuse at home is taking place, the teacher is in a good position to know where to go next to help the child.
 
I totally agree with you mate, infact I think you're being a bit soft TBH.

In my day, forget the 'quiet word', just as you where at the peak of pisisng about in class there was nothing wrong with a board rubber bouncing off your desk and a cloud of chalk dust to scare the shit out of you and jolt you back into concentrating work mode. 9 times out of 10 there isn't an issue at home, or a undiagnosed developing mental health issue, or any other 'reason.' Its just kids being kids.

But the 'authorities' dont tend to like that approach to discipline nowadays.
 
You are describing the action the child is trying to get though..You getting angry and throwing a rubber then the child has achieved his/her objective - he/she has gained the attention(whether good or really bad) it was trying to get. For that split moment he/she was famous, he/she was in the spotlight.

This is why it's important to have a "quiet word after the class has left" - no one to look at him/her, no centre of attention.
 
Rewards for if someone excels would be ok. But not just for doing what you are meant to do, obey the rules.

That seems a bit mental to me! But then again, the world seems mental to me these days.
 
Every teacher uses some form of a reward every now and then anyway...
I remember loads of different ways they tried: sweets, no homework, extra pe class, small trip somewhere, a guest and when we were 7 I remember one use to give the 3 best kids a little bit of aftershave...
 
Teachers get financial incentives by ensuring pupils pass exams. How many here get a bonus for merely doing their jobs correctly?
 
Vivos by any chance? Seems the majority of schools use them now or are planning on introducing them.

Seems a step on from 'gold stars' and 'stickers' but possibly came about from the backlash of 'treating' unruly pupils years back to try and get them on side, so we've gone the other way and seem to reward now for what should be expected anyway.

I know our eldest's school has them, but I'm not sure it's for general behaviour, but hitting targets is included, as well as doing jobs for teachers and things like that.

Kids can build up points to buy things - but not in the café or tuckshop or whatever they call it - the list of things they can buy from having a look at them are all education stuff, books, equipment and so on, so on that score and if kept to that and kids are rewarded not for doing what's expected but going above that, I have no problem.

As said above it's positive reinforcement and there's nowt wrong with that.

But the same token though I'm not sure why kiddies these days can't clean gum off the bottom of tables, or pick up litter around the school and things like that that were relatively simple punishments that nobody liked.

Hardly breaches their human rights.

But Skeg has a good point, it seems to be the nature now where in work (if lucky enough lol) you do get a bonus for simply doing your job, and the bonus isn't often related to achieving more, outstanding performance, it is simply for turning up and doing what's expected.

In a culture like that, no more than epitomised by bankers, MP's etc, it's no surprise to see it creep into our education system.

As above the shock value of the board rubber across your head, where everybody else laughed at you and not with you, can't be achieved these days because now little Johnny will go home and mum and dad will try and get a holiday out of it.

Back then, you'd get an equal clip round the back of the head by mum or dad or both simply for misbehaving.

And yes agree with GT as well, this thread is weird, the great teachers get you onside and on board without you even realising it, because they don't treat you like a mug (but they let you know you're behaving like one) and you build up some mutual respect because they stay calm and funny, but give you an air of 'I really don't want to piss them off again in case they lose it'.

Sadly there aren't enough of those teachers around anymore it seems, but the ones that are, and the ones who do deserve the rewards are more often than not bogged down by beaurocracy and red tape and the politics.

But James is also right, there is an over tendency to want to diagnose things these days and get them some medication or look at home life.

Kids will be kids ultimately, and they will piss about, it's part of growing up.
 
Well ( talking about the initial thread topic) I cannot see any problem with it.

What is wrong with giving an incentive to the kids to behave well. I know that is what they should be doing, but some don't. Why not reward someone.

It happens all the time in one way or another. lets take the Villa, the Villa give tickets to schools don't they. I presume the schools don't take the kids who have misbehaved to the games - so the Villa are rewarding good behaviour.

My kids have always had outstanding reports / results. So what do I do when I get it and they get A1 in every subject - I take them out for a meal and the pictures to say well done - whats the problem ?

In most schools now, part of the 5th year (or Yr 11 as it is now called) prom invite is that you must have good behaviour throughout the year and if you have X amount of referrals, you cannot go to the Prom - thus rewarding your good behaviour for a year with a bloody good night out.

Punish bad behaviour - who gets what - good kids get nowt, bad kids get punished.

It's about time the good kids were rewarded for a change.

Personally, I think the fact people don't agree with it, shows the world has gone bloody mad !
 
I think its bullshit. I was good at school and the teachers don't care but then the kids who always get into trouble get rewarded when they go a week without doing anything.

Maybe my school was just shit, all they cared about was getting 5 C's and didn't care about the kids who could have got A's in every subject or care about the future of the kids i.e. shit GCSE's like travel and tourism, ASDAN, and this ICT thing which somehow counted as 3 GCSE's (in fact a teacher moaned at me once for not doing an extra module to make it worth 4 GCSE's), so crap I was embarrassed to put them on my CV