Korean Job Discussion Forums

bosintang · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 4:34 am Post subject: Sticks and Carrots

When someone has a discipline problem with their classes and are looking for advice here, the advice people give them is often the sticks and carrots approach. The stick is punishment for bad behaviour, the carrot is the reward for good behaviour.

Although I first used this approach when I first started teaching, (a little bit anyways), I no longer use it.

Although I give out cheap stickers sometimes to my youngest children that I teach, I never give it as a reward. With my older kids I will have a class party once or twice every 6month session, but I do it for a class-bonding opportunity rather than again, as a reward. I never give out candy or anything else to the kids on a regular basis.

Personally, I believe that most kids eat too much candy as it is. It's not healthy for them, and maybe their parents don't want them eating it. As well, I think giving out rewards based on behaviour or performance, although might work well in the short-term, over the longer term will promote a bad attitude towards their motivation for learning.

guangho · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 4:38 am Post subject:

I agree----do you have some class control strategies/ideas with 1st graders? The other kids are okay but that bunch...

bosintang · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 5:11 am Post subject:

First off, I'm by no means an expert on this, and like most people, I have a couple of classes I don't particularly enjoy teaching. I definitely don't want to come across as an authority or a know-it-all.

peppermint · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 6:10 am Post subject:

something I'm experimenting with is group rewards. Right now, if a class behaves, they get a sticker on their chart. When they get a page full (17 stickers- or about 2.5 months of classes) they will get to watch a movie for English class).

so far this is working pretty well for some classes and not at all for others. Mind you, I'll be showing the first movie this or next week, so I expect it to be more effective after that.

bosintang · Posted: Sun May 22, 2005 6:27 am Post subject:

turtlepi1 · Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE

pavlov's dogs...

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

peppermint,

As you know, it's doubtful if any strategy works perfectly with every group. Kudos to the classes that are cooperating. Maybe for the ones not meeting the standard, the reward is too distant in the future or just not rewarding enough for that mix of kids.

What is your plan for the classes that didn't earn the stickers? My suggestion is to go ahead with the plan and reward the deserving classes and give a regular lesson to the others, but let them know they have X more stickers to get before they get the movie.

Anyway, good luck.

the eye · Joined: 29 Jan 2004

candy is very bad.
don't be a pusher.

matthewwoodford · Joined: 01 Oct 2003 Location: Location, location, location.

Stickers work just as well as candy, if not better. Give them sticker sheets to keep the stickers on. They love to compare and see who has the most.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

marisaw · Joined: 19 May 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA

I think that rewards do work. Right now I work at an after-school program in the US and I have a star chart that works wonders. Every kid has their own row of stars and at the end of the week they can buy prizes like pencils, erasers, pencil cases, puzzles, etc. The prizes are all worth a different amount of stars so if the kids really want a better prize like a pencil case they save their stars for a few weeks and then buy the pencil case. I know that this works because before I had it the kids were crazy. Now if someone's doing something bad all I have to say is "I'll take 2 (or however many)stars away if you keep doing that." then the whole class gasps and the offender stops doing whatever it was. Even if I spend a little of my own money I highly recommend it.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

There is nothing wrong with giving kids a reward if they've done a good job. One of the schools that i spent some time at when I was studying at university worked on the dollar system for kids with severe behavioral problems (this school is the last stop before prision). While the school took a systems approach to behavior management, looking at their family arrangements etc. the kids still had a reward system in place for good behavior. And it really made an important difference with helping the kids manage their own behavior.

While fostering intrinsic montivation is important, it's not the be all and end all.

peppermint · Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 9:56 pm Post subject:

my sticker reward thing is actually pretty complicated-

within a class, the kids are grouped in teams and teams earn stickers too, for things like helping eachother, finishing worksheets quickly and winning games. That's been effective in every class, probably because they only have to earn five stickers to get a reward.

as for the class stickers- I think it works as extra motivation for good kids right now, and hopefully when less motivated classes see good behaviour paying off, they'll straighten out a bit.