Activity 7.5

In the article, Seven Reasons Carrots and Sticks (Often) Don’t Work, Pink discusses the negative effects of rewards and punishments. In her opinion, giving rewards and punishments often “give rise to cheating, addicting, and dangerously myopic thinking” and in fact, “they can give us less of what we want-and more of what we don’t want.” (p. 2) Pink’s explanation for rewards having an ill effect is that they diminish intrinsic motivation and transforms an interesting task into drudgery.  On the flip side, Pink does explain that rewards can be effective when the activity is routine and uninteresting. (p. 62)

I can see how Pink’s opinion about rewards and punishments aligns with the social cognitive perspective. This theory focuses on the impact that self-efficacy plays on students’ motivation to learn. Instead of providing rewards or punishments to improve motivation and self-efficacy, Pajares discusses the teacher’s role to “improve the competence and confidence of the students in their charge. They can accomplish this by working to improve their students’ emotional states and to correct their faulty self-beliefs and habits of thinking (personal factors), improve students’ academic skills and self-regulatory practices (behavior), and alter the school and classroom structures that may work to undermine student success (environmental factors).” (p. 340-341) In addition, Pink advises, “praise and positive feedback are much less corrosive than cash and trophies.” (p. 67   ), Therefore, teachers should value and consider nontangible rewards.

 

Pink’s article doesn’t align with the Behaviorists Theory which argues that through reinforcements we can modify behavior and motivation. Pink discusses an experiment which looks at the effects of rewards on performance. In this study, researchers found that “higher incentives led to worse performance.” (p. 40) This is contrary to the Behaviors idea of behavior modification.

I believe that Pink would say that failure to learn is due to failure to motivate students. Failed motivation is done by making learning boring, redundant, and providing rewards for activities that students already enjoy. Each theorists would say that failure to learn is due to a different foundational component of their learning theory.

In my opinion, the recipe for success differs with every student. But teachers should learn their student’s personal, environmental and behavior factors. Determine each individual student’s interests and dislikes. Aim to cultivate a relationship with the student and strengthen their self-efficacy. Provide meaningful rewards to students for routine activities and take time to offer non-tangible rewards.  Just like any recipe, you can add to or leave out any ingredient to adjust the flavor of success.
Questions I still have:
1. What causes a person to have a fixed or growth mindset and what role does nature and nurture play in this?
2. Can a person's mindset be changed? For example, can a person with a growth mindset develop a fixed mindset or would this only be considered a moment of weakness or defeat? On the other hand, can a person with a fixed mindset develop a growth mindset? I think a lot of people have fear of failure. What happens when a person gets over their fears of failing in a particular area? Could they then be considered to have a growth mindset?
3. Can students have high self-efficacy despite certain environmental factors such as parents that are negative, unsupportive and emotionally abusive?