The use of rewards: a whole-school audit

Author

Blanche Rabbits, Cheney School

Summary

Blanche investigated reward procedures in a school and linked this to motivation. Noting that the literature presents two polar opposites – for and against the use of rewards – she administered a survey to the various departments in a school, finding that: 1) HODs place high importance on the use of rewards in the classroom; 2) the rewards need to be varied and scaled to encourage students to reach the next step; 3) there is inconsistency across the school (but is this essential?); 4) any whole school policy needs to not be time consuming for teachers and easy to use; 5) teachers sometimes lack funding needed for appropriate rewards; and 6) rewards are often used as a form of behaviour management, but there is an under-emphasis on the use of rewards as a motivator.