Ditching Awards and Assemblies to focus on Kids and Learning

abundant research showing that awards, rewards and other external incentives undermine intrinsic motivation

“To say ‘do this, and you’ll get that’ makes people lose interest in ‘this,’ ” said Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards. 

Awards are that much worse than rewards, Kohn added, because they are simply prizes made artificially limited.

“A key takeaway here is that awards aren’t bad just because the losers are disappointed; everyone (including the winners) ultimately lose when schooling is turned into a scramble to defeat one’s peers,” Kohn said.

In May of 2017, Gosal told parents in her weekly newsletter that the June awards ceremony was off. Instead, the school would be hosting a success showcase for all students. 

‘We hope that they continue to develop their best selves for their own benefit—not because someone tells them to or because there’s an award at the end of the year.’

“Every single person in school has strengths, skills and talents, and it’s our job to bring them out more,” Wejr said.

“It’s not an award at the end of the year that drives achievement,” Wejr said. Excellence comes from a school culture that fosters collaboration and provides opportunities for students to lead, especially in those areas where children have special talents and skills, he added.

Teaching as Inquiry

Inquiry grows the professional practice of teachers by facilitating deep and personal reflection. Deep and personal reflection of the Information gathered during a rigorous inquiry process allows teachers to draw valid conclusions as to their impact on students learning which energises teachers to keep making changes that may lead to improved student learning. Inquiry contributes to the process of heightened responsiveness to students needs and deeper reflections by teachers. When teachers responsiveness to the learning needs of their students is heightened, inquiry practice and the measured impacts that result contribute to deeper teacher reflection about the impact of their teaching actions on students learning.

inquiry results in professional growth by changing practice and informing as to the impact teachers are having on students learning. Inquiry makes the connection between actions - impacts and resulting reflections. Inquiry practice facilitates the connection between the measurement of the impacts of teachers actions on students learning and deep reflection of these impacts. Inquiry WILL change your practice. Through planning a change when undertaking an inquiry, teachers inevitably change their practice.

Four Types of Mistakes

If we’re more precise in our own understanding of mistakes and in our communication with students, it will increase their understanding, buy-in, and efficacy as learners.

Stretch mistakes are positive. If we never made stretch mistakes, it would mean that we never truly challenged ourselves to learn new knowledge or skills.

We can gain more aha moments from mistakes by being reflective. We can ask ourselves What was unexpected? Why did that result occur? What went well and what didn’t? Is there anything I could try differently next time? We can also ask people around us for information we may not be aware of, or for ideas for improvement.

If we make a mistake because we’re not focused on the task at hand, or we’re too tired, or something distracted us, upon reflection we can gain aha-moments on how to improve

In a high-stakes event, if we don’t achieve our goal of a high test score or winning the championship, let’s reflect on the progress we’ve made through time, on the approaches that have and haven’t helped us grow, and on what we can do to grow more effectively. Then let’s go back to spending most of our time practicing, challenging ourselves, and seeking stretch mistakes and learning from those mistakes.

Letting Go Of School

What I have come to understand, however, is that we will not achieve better education systems or outcomes without stepping back from the constraints of “school thinking.” I need to let go of what I know and think about school - its structures, history, and influence - in order to be able to think more openly about education and its possibilities. And in order to do that it feels necessary to break some rules, to upset some conventions, to seize authority rather than wait for it to be granted.

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