Combine monetary inducements with group-based competition for cash rewards to motivate lower-class adolescents¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description¶

The paper proposes dividing students into groups of three, four, or five, constituted by teacher assignment or student preference, competing for cash rewards against one another or against a uniform standard, with payments disbursed by each group's average attainment. It argues this arrangement "would identify the interests of the peer group [with those] of the individual student", so peer pressure encourages attainment and mutual assistance. Internal allocation of winnings could be left partly to the group's discretion.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• School grades must first be made salient to the children by linking academic achievement to monetary rewards, since the assumption that grades carry intrinsic value cannot be made in lower-class schools.

Constraints¶

• The paper states the motivational problem applies from the middle primary grades to the second year of high school; before fifth grade peer group control is modest, and after the second high-school year other extrinsic rewards are expected to operate.
• Many design parameters (frequency of reinforcement, group size, group constitution, reward amount, evaluation mechanics, reward criterion, proportion of groups rewarded) are stated to require experimental investigation.

Target Learners¶

• Lower-class adolescents, middle primary through early high school grades

Target Learning Goals¶

• Academic achievement and motivation toward academic goals

Claims¶

• In one experiment with undergraduate business majors in asynchronous online small groups, reward interdependence raised agreement that group work was beneficial and generated better ideas [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Cooperative Classroom Activities

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Spilerman, Seymour. (1970). Raising Academic Motivation in Lower Class Adolescents: A Convergence of Two Research Traditions. Discussion Papers 75-70. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED133396