We had an interesting class period on Monday. We listened to Aaron talk about Chapters 4 and 5 and then we discussed the different learning principles. I thought I agreed with 99.9% of the chapters but I thought it was cool how people disagreed and they made very valuable points.
I liked when we talked about the 'Anticipation of Reward' principle. I thought I really liked that idea and that there was nothing negative about the principle. When I thought about it further I realized there are HUGE loop holes in the idea. I can only think of times when I experienced the reward concept. As I said in the class I am not very skilled in the area of math. I know my brain does not work that way. I think, even to this day, a very skilled teacher would have to attempt to teach it to me because I have built up such animosity towards the subject. To continue with the reward concept, my 4th grade teacher rewarded people that did well on their math tests and made the results public. I can still see that chart and I did not have any stickers next to my name or received any candy. This further drove home the feeling that I could NOT do math. Looking back I realize I was not understanding the material in class and did not want to try very hard because I would get extremely frustrated.
To fix the reward method I think it would be a good idea to individually sit down with students and set realistic goals. Maybe my teacher could have set goals for each of us. For example, she could have talked to me and see what I wanted to gain and from there said if you reach goal 'a' then you are on your way to goal 'b' which is a reward in itself. Also, sporadic rewards of actual tangible objects is probably better.
What I do like about the reward method is the idea of praising students for effort.
Later in class we made lesson plans. I had never made one and I learned a lot about how they should be constructed.
The class flew by and I think it was because I was learning a lot about myself as a learner and keeping in mind what I think good teaching principles are.
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Coincidentally, your experience with Math is very much similar to mine. First i must admit I am hopeless at Math and it is the only subject that i would never want to re-take after i finished high school. In class I rarely received any complimentary from my Math teachers because by the time i found the solution to a Math problem most of my friends had finished it before me. I would say the philosophy of my Math class is "The early solvers get the praises" (as opposed to "The early birds catch the worms"). Therefore i can't agree with you more that as teachers we should not only give rewards to students who do well, but we also have to keep in mind that it is those who struggle to produce the language and eventually manage to do it that need our encouraging feedback most.
Yes! Rewards CAN go both ways, and since you know that, your teaching skills will be greatly enhanced, since you know how it can backfire.
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