PERSPECTIVES

A boy came home from school with a certificate that his teacher had awarded him.
“What’s it for?” asked his mother.
“Having a good idea and sharing it,” he replied.
“So, what was the good idea?”
“I don’t know!”

That is a true story.
Rewards, awards, certificates and verbal praise are given freely to children.
In some schools, teachers have been instructed to give every child an award each term - regardless of worth.

Of course, children need support and encouragement and to feel good about themselves. But praise without thought or value can backfire and be negative in the long term.

An overabundance of rewards and praise has strange effects on not just children, but all of us. The many recent studies in this field have revealed unseen effects of too much, or misplaced praise.

Suppose you give praise to a child to reinforce behaviour such as putting away the things they have been using. The person who benefits from this praise is not the child.

This sort of praise is a way of controlling the child and making your own life easier - referred to as ... ‘sugar-coated control.’ It is working on the child to get them to behave in a particular way.

This appears to be sensible and effective until you look at long term effects.

Children can come to feel manipulated by this praise, even if they can't say why.
It has been discovered that rather than helping children feel successful and positive about themselves, praise can actually make them more dependent on us.

When you tell a child...

“Well done” or “I really like the way you drew that tree” you are handing down an evaluation, or judgment, rather than allowing them to form their own judgments.

University of Florida studies showed that students who are praised lavishly by their teachers become more tentative in their responses, back off as soon as an adult disagrees with them, and are less likely to persist with difficult tasks, or share ideas with other students.

There is a great danger of creating a vicious circle here.
The more praise we give, the more is needed and so we give more.

Where will it end?
Some large secondary schools in the UK are offering students iPads, pizza parties and trips to discourage truancy.

One school was giving out vouchers in daily prize draws.  They were given out at the end of each day, and on Fridays the voucher value was higher. They were aimed at encouraging good attendance.

As well as a growing number of adults whose constant cry is ‘What’s in it for me?’ there are more and more adults who demand constant praise for just turning up to do the work they are paid to do.

By way of contrast, 60 years ago, at the end of the year assembly, an eleven-year-old girl was given her one and only certificate from school.

She received this because she had never been absent from the day she first started school.

She just happily accepted it - she never regarded it as an exceptional achievement and certainly hadn’t expected to get any acknowledgment for simply going to school.

Children need to feel good about the things they achieve or create. But they need to make their own judgment on this.

Whenever you say ... “Amazing!” or “Awesome!” you are telling the child how they should feel.

BUT as well-intentioned as you may be, this is a negative when it becomes a constant stream of praise, as the child is being judged all the time.

You don’t have to say “Well done” every time a child does something or performs in the way you want them to.

They need to have an intrinsic feeling of a job well done, to find their own level of satisfaction and pleasure.

One result of the tests may be considered to be quite surprising.

Lilian Katz*, a leading authority on early childhood education warns that praise may keep children going on an activity as long as we keep watching and praising, but ‘once attention is withdrawn, many kids won't touch the activity again.’

There is much research which shows clearly that the more we reward people, they more they lose interest in doing what they did to get the reward.

The aim of the activity becomes secondary to getting the reward, or recognition.

A study at the University of Toronto found that young children who were praised frequently for being generous, for sharing, tended to be less generous when the generosity was not being noticed.

The more they were told “I'm proud of you for sharing,” the less interested they became in sharing and helping others.

They did not share as a valuable social activity in its own right – only to gain the praise from an adult.

This is not generosity at all. It is a sad need.

A stream of praise:
- undermines independence
- undermines pleasure and interest
- reduces intrinsic motivation
- undermines students' ability to learn

The research also found that the children who are praised for doing well at a creative task tend to not do so well at the next task. And, importantly, they don’t do as well as the children who weren't praised in the beginning.

The praise creates pressure – a benchmark has been set by the adult and the child feels that they must do at least as well in the next task.

When everything is awesome, nothing is!

*Dr Lilian Katz is Professor Emerita of Early Childhood education at the University of Illinois

According to a new study in Psychological Science, a negative side effect of praise is that young students who are praised for their ability at school are more likely to cheat. Their aim is to maintain the perception of their ability. They feel pressured to meet expectations.

Praising Young Children for Being Smart Promotes Cheating Li Zhao, Gail D Heyman, Lulu Chen and Kang lee. Psychological Science 2017

Researchers Claudia Mueller and Carol Dweck (Dept of Psychology, Columbia University) coined the terms growth mindset and fixed mindset.

Growth mindset is where students believe that intelligence or talent can be developed through study and hard work. They see mistakes as part of learning and are more resilient, willing to work at solving problems.

Fixed mindset is where student believe that intelligence or ability are fixed traits and challenging problems are often beyond them. They avoid making mistakes as they feel failure would make them appear less intelligent. They feel that it is talent, rather than effort that leads to success.

It is not always necessary, or wise, to give praise, even though it is well-intentioned.

But changing is not easy. We tend to hold on strongly to existing beliefs and convictions.

Our acceptance of the way praise is delivered by our social or professional groups has a major impact on the way we act. This can affect our ability or willingness to consider and adopt different viewpoints. We can be hindered by uncertainty.

You should only give praise when it is truly earned. A smile will often be enough.

RATHER THAN SAYING: “That's a brilliant painting.” (if you feel compelled to comment)
YOU COULD SAY: “Tell me how you did this.” (The child is then involved.)

RATHER THAN SAYING: “Thank you for sharing with Jake.”
YOU COULD SAY: “Jake enjoyed playing with your Lego.”

This reinforces the action in a positive way:
highlighting the effect of that action on the other person.

ASK CHILDREN TO TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY HAVE DONE
Make comments or ask questions that are likely to encourage interest in an activity
“Was it hard to draw all those leaves?”
Comments such as: “Great stuff!” are more likely to discourage interest.

Think about your motives for complimenting and rewarding children.
Are you helping children to feel in charge of their own lives,
or are you encouraging them to constantly look to you for approval?
Do the children want to do something for its own sake,
or do they do it for the personal recognition?

'People have lost the idea of doing anything because it is intrinsically worthwhile - you can only work when something has an external reward.  It is anti-educational.
This has all taken on such a life of its own that children are being rewarded for doing something that should come naturally.  This simply takes away children’s natural curiosity - it is giving them something for nothing.'

The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education  (Ecclestone & Hayes)

REFERENCES
Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards -The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise & Other Bribes
Bednar, Wells & Peterson, Self Esteem - Paradoxes and Innovations in Clinical Theory & Practise
Kathryn Ecclestone & Dennis Hayes - The Dangerous Rise in Therapeutic Education

Change Don't Come Easy - song by Mama, Delray, Gator And Bobby