My parents used a reward system to encourage me to study better. They used to buy me treats for good grades or let me do some of my favorite leisure activities. So, whenever I did maths homework well, I could go and spend some time with my friends, and whenever my piece of writing received a high grade, I could invite friends over. There were hundreds of small rewards for every little success of mine. I liked it a lot, until the time I got into college.
The idea behind the rewards is to form an association between one-time rewards for finishing small fragments of work and long-term big achievements after the successful completion of certain stages of life. This comes from behavioral psychology and the concept of reinforcement, which is when a desired result is facilitated by a promise of a reward. It has been widely used in therapy, pedagogics, animal training, and other areas. A lot of schools use rewards to provide encouragement for their students and introduce some competition into the educational process. While I didn’t attend schools that practice a reward system, I got mine from my parents.
Over time, I got used to the treats for my little achievements, and I wanted more of them. I knew that, in order to get a big LEGO construction set, I needed to get a good grade for my science class. So, an A was my goal. I could use my grades as a method of manipulation over my parents; I promised them to get an A if I could just hope for another toy. The problem is that I didn’t care much about the class itself; I just did what I needed to do without giving it much thought. I didn’t have much choice either; I didn’t want to choose between letting go of my LEGO and dedicating more time to another course which I may have liked better. I was a “finisher”, not a learner, and I didn’t understand all the vices back then.
As a student who lives apart from my parents, I have learned to live without rewards. However, there is a different kind of encouragement from instructors and professors. Every grade you get affects the general score in the end, and there will be no toys for achieving the high result. Rather, there will be a career which I need to choose in advance. The better my performance is, the better relationships I can have with professors, and the better recommendations they will write for me. This is not about some external rewards, but rather about the student’s own motivation. To be a learner and a real achiever, you need to have the urge to do something from the inside.While reward systems may seem fun to students (especially if they are kids), they do not encourage young people towards learning. Instead, they help students learn how to finish things without giving much thought to them. This is what I did in my earlier school years. I am grateful to my parents for this experience, which made me face the real world with a bit of shock and frustration when the rewards ended. However, when you start seeing the real and true rewards behind things and deeds, you understand that they are priceless.