Education experts and pedagogues interpret the reward given to children in the form of bargaining or promises as a hidden punishment, and state that constantly rewarding a behavior may lead to a decrease in the child's success.
With the end of the first half of the school year just days away, children are looking forward to the excitement of going on vacation, while at the same time looking forward to the report card gifts they will receive from their parents. This selection of rewards and gifts varies for each age group in every report card period. Considering the long years of education, children's expectations for gifts and rewards increase with each passing year.
Starting with toys in childhood, the selection of rewards can progress to phones, computers, tablets, game consoles, and depending on the economic situation of the family, to buying a vacation or a car. While experts interpret the reward given in the form of bargaining or promises as a hidden punishment, they state that making a behavior constantly with a reward can lead to a decrease in the child's success.
Negotiated Rewards are Not Right
Clinical Psychologist and Pedagogue Mehmet Teber, President of the Pedagogical Association, said that there are different schools of thought and currents in pedagogy, as in every field, and that according to the behaviorist movement, rewards increase the frequency of the emergence of the expected behavior. However, according to some schools of thought, rewards and punishment should not be used at all, Teber said:
"I am in favor of a more moderate approach. An education system based on rewards harms the child, but I do not find it right if there is no reward at all. Therefore, it is not possible for me to agree with a generalization that because we gave a small reward to the child's report card, we did great harm to the child.
Rewards can encourage the child when used correctly. For this reason, families can give a small surprise to their children with good report cards. They can give them small rewards by saying 'You woke up early in the morning every day this semester, went to school, took many written exams and got tired, so you deserve this little surprise'. But pre-set bargain rewards such as 'if you get this grade on your report card, I will buy you this' are not right."
Reward should be used spontaneously
Explaining that after the report card comes, the family should see the child's performance during the year and surprise him/her by appreciating him/her, Teber emphasized that a pre-announced contractual report card-reward relationship is not correct. Teber stated that if a family constantly makes a behavior with a reward, the general pattern of this family will harm the child and the child will become unable to do anything without a reward, and therefore the success will decrease. Teber added that rewards should be used spontaneously, randomly and sometimes.
Reward Creates Anxiety
Educational Scientist and Author Dr. Özgür Bolat said that while children are rewarded by their families when they receive report cards, they are actually punished and there are many reasons for this.
"First of all, the moment families promise a reward to the child, they actually give a secret punishment. Because if the child does not get that reward, they feel punished. The child lives with this anxiety throughout the semester. The reward creates anxiety," Bolat said and continued his words as follows:
"Secondly, the report card gift gives a message to the child that being successful in school is not valuable on its own. Learning ceases to be the main goal and turns into a tool that leads to the report card gift, that is, the reward. Thus, the main goal becomes reaching the gift and learning is devalued. The child should learn only to learn, but the report card gift changes this purpose and real learning is put on the back burner. This leads to negative situations. For example, the child does not choose difficult tasks to learn because of the fear of failure, but chooses easy tasks and prefers success to development."
A child who thinks that he/she cannot reach the prize stops working
Explaining that although the report card gift motivates some children for the wrong reason, it also creates helplessness in others, Bolat continued as follows:
"Because children who think that they cannot reach the prize stop studying after a while. They say, 'No matter what I do, I cannot reach the prize anyway'. In this case, they don't even get upset because the report card gift gives the child the right to get a bad grade. The family cannot say anything to the child in this situation because the child says, 'You said you would give me a gift if I get good grades. I don't want a gift, so I can get a bad grade. So, the right to get a bad grade is automatically legitimized."
Stating that the report card gift is a kind of artificial love mechanism, Bolat said, "If the family promises a report card gift and the child does not get good grades, the family does not buy a gift. In this case, it gives the child the following message; 'I know you want this gift very much and I should buy it because I love you, to make you happy, but I don't buy it because you didn't do what I wanted.' Thus, the child begins to feel worthless because he cannot reach the reward."
If Gift Demands are Increasing, This Reward Replaces Punishment
Üsküdar University NP İSTANBUL Brain Hospital Child Adolescent Psychiatry Specialist Assist. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mine Elagöz Yüksel said that the child should know that he/she did not work for the gift, and that a small reward can be motivating. Stating that giving report card gifts has become a tradition and would not be considered a punishment, Yüksel said, "However, if the child thinks that he/she is only working for the gift and the demands for gifts are increasing, this reward is a punishment." Yüksel stated that good evaluations about the child should be appreciated, but emphasized that expensive and exaggerated rewards should be avoided. Yüksel emphasized that although report card gifts are a habit, it is important to make the child feel that he/she is working with a sense of responsibility, not for a gift.