The beginning of a new year with school kicking back into gear soon. We launch our 1 to 1 program in a number of year levels this year and head towards a new and hopefully exciting change in our classrooms.
Over the break I have been doing some reading of parenting books (as you do with two kids under two) and found great interest in the thoughts of Alfie Kohn in his book “Unconditional Parenting.” Many of you may know Alfie Kohn not only for his work in the areas of parenting and raising children but also his extensive publications around issues in schools and education. He has a very skillful way to make a reader look at issues from different perspectives and to question concepts that we have probably always accepted to be a particular way. Alfie (and a number of other educators) questions the value in traditional reward systems and the concept of dangling the carrot in front of someone. The concepts that we clearly see rooted in a behaviourist approach. With the ultimate question too often being…. How do I get you to do what I want?
As a teacher I have started to wonder (as I have as a parent) what benefit I am giving my students by constantly offering a reward or incentive to perform. In essence we want students to perform so we feel like we are successful educators. Somehow we have lowered our own professional standards to a meaningless pursuit of recognition. As educators we dangle carrots in front of kids all day long, so they will do what we want them to do. We want them to get the best marks – because it is good for our school’s image. While we may say it is good for the student; I struggle to understand how making someone do something with no real purpose or learning experience is worth while.
As we roll out laptops to students, is it possible that this will become yet another carrot. Will we hear threats like – “Perform well or you lose the laptop?” Or apparent reward schemes like one I have heard from another school “The best improved class this semester will be the next laptop class.” Sound strange? Well as a child I vividly remember being told that if I made my handwriting neater then I would get a fancy pencil from the teacher’s gift box. I also remember thinking – whoopdedo… Something I can use to write more…. Something a child punished for poor handwriting wasn’t that keen on anyway!! In younger years I can see the laptop being used as the carrot to finish your work… ”Finish your creative writing and then you can go play maths games on the computer” Because this could possibly make the world of difference to a child’s ability to write?
The resources we give a student to assist with learning should never be used as a reward or incentive to make them do something we want. In a blessed and resourced country like mine, I believe these resources are a right. Often in planning meetings I hear colleauges announce clearly that “these kids” must learn that the laptop is a privledge not a right. As if it were some sort of way to make sure they know they must do what we want! Obviously, if a student uses the device to harm another then yes their behaviour is inappropriate – this does not mean I would in any way use a learning tool as a carrot or reward for their changed behaviour. I would hope that a laptop would be something that opens new areas of the world for a child to learn and experience something new. It should be another part of the student “tool kit” that allows them to find joy in what they do as a part of their school studies. I have never seen an incentive scheme do more than create short term compliance. The unfortunate thing is that short term compliance is often what schools see as success. As I heard a teacher tell me early last year… “Laptop programs are great for behavioural issue kids as they will do anything to make sure they get to keep their laptop.”
As the push for more absurdity in the realms of national testing persists, I fear the laptop will be used to bribe kids into colouring in the correct bubble on a test. Let’s hope I am wrong, or find some folk to help stop this happening.