Many educators are acutely aware that punishment and threats are counter productive. Making children suffer in order to alter their future behavior can often elicit temporary compliance, but this strategy is unlikely to help children become ethical, compassionate .

 

Of those teachers and parents who make a point of not punishing children, a significant proportion turn instead to the use of rewards. Studies over many years have found that behavior modification programs are rarely successful at producing lasting changes in attitudes or even behavior. When the rewards stop, people usually return to the way they acted before.

 

Rewards are no more helpful at enhancing achievement than they are fostering good values. Studies have shown that people expecting to receive a reward for completing a task, simply do not perform as well as those who expect nothing.

 

People offered a reward , generally choose the easiest possible task. In the absence of rewards, by contrast, children are inclined to pick tasks that are just beyond their current level of ability.

 

By: Carmina F. Gloria | Teacher I | Wawa Elementary School | Abucay, Bataan