• Question: My question is related to reward. I find myself hesitating to give rewards at times as I don’t want to give too many and devalue them. Is there any evidence that this is can be the case?

    Asked by jamesallen1705 to Yana, Victoria, Richard, Mike, Lucía, Iroise, Gaia on 28 Feb 2018.
    • Photo: Mike Hobbiss

      Mike Hobbiss answered on 28 Feb 2018:

      Hi. Yes this is certainly a feature of rewards, that they become less rewarding if given too often. One way around this might be to make the reward uncertain, in the sense that there is an element of luck or randomness about getting a reward. There seem to be stronger brain responses to uncertain rewards than predictable ones, and there are projects going on now to try to harness this for educational purposes. e.g. see http://www.bristol.ac.uk/education/people/academicStaff/edpahj/publications/mbe_1108.pdf

Comments

  • Photo: ellieerussell

    ellieerussell commented on :

    We took part in EEF pilot study of ‘reward’ and learning 2 years ago. Interesting to see the motivation of students to get MCQ’s correct with the chance to ‘win’ the spin of a wheel. They certainly were more keen to get the right answer (so I thought more carefully about asking better questions!)

  • Photo: Mike

    Mike commented on :

    This project will have been the one run by the guy who wrote the article I linked to – so very relevant. How did you enjoy being a part of it Ellie?

  • Photo: ellieerussell

    ellieerussell commented on :

    The ‘game’ aspect was a huge motivator for some previously unenthusiastic students… and if they lost overall they could blame bad luck at the spin of the wheel. As a teacher, it made me consider very carefully what my MCQs would be and I saw how those were considered the most important parts of ‘learning’ of the lesson….So it helped clarify my planning! After piloting it I continued to use the resource the following year with classes. Particularly as we were timetabled to be in a computer room once a week!

    What I liked about the gaming was the students were clearly getting a buzz out of scoring more when the wheel randomly spun to ‘win’ ( It was 50 50!). Obviously I bribe/motivate students at other times with key word bingo and the winner gets a lollipop…. I like to try to make it part skill and part luck so they all feel they are in with a ‘fair’ chance.

  • Photo: Mike

    Mike commented on :

    Sounds interesting. I’ve been reading about the many possibilities of MCQs as well recently. A very powerful tool when used right!

  • modsu commented on :

    Really interesting – can you just explain what MCQs are please?