De flesta av oss är nog överens om att det finns baksidor av belöningspedagogik. Men om det fungerar och dessutom innebär att du får en löneförhöjning?
But isn’t that backwards? When I was pulling all-nighters to finish my dissertation, it wasn’t the warm glow of earning £15,000 a year more than the girl I sat next to in form time that kept me going. When I battled through Paradise Lost, it wasn’t even because I enjoyed it (no-one did). I liked the feeling of being befuddled by Milton. And I loved the feeling of finally getting it. To put it simply, I enjoyed understanding stuff.
Ultimately, we’re setting a grim precedent; the repercussions of raising a generation to be driven solely by rewards will be felt far beyond the school gates. Why do something for nothing if the only measure of success is material? Unless we can internalise the incentive to learn – to make our students love that sense of achievement in its own right – we’re teaching self-interest and short-termism above all else.
And with the promise of performance-related pay looming over us all, isn’t this what we’re being trained to think too? Why come to work every day? For the intrinsic enjoyment of teaching and developing young characters? Of course. Well, that and an extra five grand a year if you can get them to exceed their target grades
Tysta tankar 