HIT: Punished by rewars

["Pame Spencer, Librarian" <pamespen@tenet.edu>]

>For those people who requested a HIT on this topic, below is the one reply I 
>received.


> Pame Spencer wrote:
> PUNISHED BY REWARDS: WHAT MOTIVATES KIDS TO READ
> >
> > Did anyone attend this symposium? If so, what did you think of the ideas
> > presented? I would like to hear from you, your take on meeting.
> >


> Pam, I attended the seminar.  Sorry it's taken so long to get back to
> you -- no time to read email!  Alfie Kohn was great, and very
> entertaining.  His theory is that rewards are the other side of the
> coin, so to speak, of punishments.  Both are ways to exert control.  If
> I place a glass of water in front of you and say I'll give you $100 to
> drink it, your first question would be, what's wrong with it?  His point
> is that when we bribe children to read, the unspoken message is that
> reading is not a worthy activity in its own right.  Also, rewards focus
> the child's attention, not on the task, but on himself, i.e. <what's in
> it for me, when will I get it, will it be worth it, can I get more>
> etc.  He said that over 70 studies have shown that when two groups are
> given the same task to perform (children or adults, it doesn't matter),
> where one group is simply asked to to the job and the other group is
> offered a reward for doing it, invariably the group WITHOUT the reward
> does a better job -- especially on tasks involving critical thinking
> skills.  Those are some of the most important points that I got from his
> talk, and I intend to read his book this fall.  The rest of the seminar
> was pleasant, but perhaps not as thought provoking as Kohn's keynote
> speech.  Hope this helps!
>

--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Pame Spencer
Librarian
Winship Elementary - Spring, TX
PreK-5th
 "Life is an inside job."   Wally "Famous" Amos
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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