TOPIC 1: Rewards in the English class (My own observation task)

During this Practicum I have observed that my school mentor (which gives lessons to all the grades of Primary Education) used rewards with the middle cycle. Every week, she prized third graders with the “sciencientist medal”. In the back part of the medal she always wrote a comment explaining the reasons why that person was obtaining the medal. It was usually a mixture of having had a good behaviour in class,doing the activities with a proactive attitude, and having interest when doing science. The medal was given once per week. At the end of the term all the students had a medal because she normally does not give the same medal to the same children twice; she tries to encourage the other children to have it.

In my teaching sequence, I was going to use Class Dojo as a classroom management strategy and also to encourage children to talk in English, to motivate them with points and so on. Therefore, I would be using Gamification, a trend in education.

 

At the end I did not have time to use it  when doing the class, so my teacher suggested me to do the same, but instead of using an online tool, doing it manually. And that is exactly what I did. During the period of one month, every time we did science we gave points to the groups of tables. This strategy is something she also uses occasionally. MUY PRESENTE SINO

With fourth graders she has something called “Super English”. She poses a cardboard with the list of names of all the pupils. “Super English” starts empty and the teacher sticks a sticker when students speaks in English, so little by little there are more stickers. At the end of the semester there is a prize for those students who have talked more in English.

 

These strategies of recognition of good behaviour and prizes (including the time I used it in both, my teaching sequence and co-teaching) functioned really well, at least, in the classes where I was. At the beginning, I was not sure about prizes. All I had heard from it was not particularly positive . Yet, when I saw that it was really useful both for students and for the teacher, I decided to give it an opportunity.

Now that the school experience has finished, I decided that it was an interesting topic to investigate because I consider that particularly in English, it is fundamental that children are motivated to learn and to speak.  It is already difficult in subjects that are taught in Catalan or Spanish. Let alone when they are taught in English because is not children’s first language.

 

The reason why I decided to carry out a little research on this topic was to decide what I want to do when I have my own class. I think that it is a very interesting topic for everybody, so feel free to let me know your opinion at the end of this entry!

 

As Garcia (2007) says: “Motivation is an internal impulse that brings us to complete an action. Without motivation, there is no action.” In addition, she also says that there are “Some innate motives that we are born with and allow us to stay alive and that then, there are secondary motives keep us motivated to do activities and learn, which depend on each person’s culture.”

 

In this case, when we talk about learning, it is situated in secondary motives, something that is not innate. However, motivation is fundamental  in education because with it, children have more initiative and are more interested in doing something, they make greater efforts and so on. Therefore, motivation is fundamental so as to learn in a better way. Fundamentally, there are two types of motivations; intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

 

Intrinsic motivation is the interest you have for something not caused by anything from the outside. Some examples include reading because you like it, practicing tennis because you enjoy it or learning a language because you enjoy learning about the the language’s culture. All these actions come naturally and there is nothing that pushes you to do them, nor are you doing them for any specific reason.

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Extrinsic motivation is the interest you have, caused by an external agent, normally to avoid a punishment or to get a prize. Therefore, it is not something that you are not doing naturally, because you like, but because you want to obtain something in return. For instance, when you go to the gym because you want to lose weight, not because you enjoy doing it or when you study a language because you obtain a certificate. In all these cases when you reach your goal, you are most likely not going to continue doing it; you will not have that motivation unless you have found an intrinsic motivation in it.  

 

At that point I ask myself, did I do the right thing when using these prizes with my students? What I should do?

Intrinsic motivation is one of the best ones but sometimes it is not possible to have this intrinsic motivation. Moreover, extrinsic motivation is not a bad for education. Cherry (2018) says that with extrinsic motivation you can create the interest that students do not have towards a  specific topic. When this interest is created the students are more likely to be more motivated with the topic. With extrinsic motivation you can also give feedback. In her opinion, you only have to avoid extrinsic motivation when students are already motivated. You have to avoid a lot of rewards for daily tasks because it decreases intrinsic motivation. 

 

Therefore, it could be a good idea to give a reward every now and then with the aspects the children struggle the most with, for instance what my teacher did with the “Super English” to talk in English. However, maybe it is not a good idea to give rewards for having a good behaviour or finishing a task because it is something that students have to learn to do with nothing in return. 

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WEBGRAPHY

Cherry, K. (2018). Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation: What's the Difference?. Retrived from: https://www.verywellmind.com/differences-between-extrinsic-and-intrinsic-motivation-2795384

 

Pedraz, P. (2016). Teoría RAMP: gamificación, reconocimiento y recompensa. Retrieved from: https://www.realinfluencers.es/2016/04/06/reconocimiento-recompensa-las-dos-motivaciones/

 

Garcia, A (2017). The Importance of Motivation: What Is It and Tips to Promote It. Retrieved from: https://blog.cognifit.com/importance-of-motivation-learning-tips/

 

Warmuth, K. (2014). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://sites.nd.edu/kaneb/2014/11/03/intrinsic-and-extrinsic-motivation-in-the-classroom/

Cicerchia, M. (2016). The importance for motivation for kids. Retrieved from:https://www.readandspell.com/us/importance-of-motivation-for-kids

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