How do you motivate a student who simply does not care? Gaining leverage over student motivation is one of the most vexing issues of classroom management that any teacher faces. The question underlying the topic of motivation in the student’s mind is, “Why should I?”

Answers to the question, “Why should I?” have a collective and generic name: incentives. A successful teacher must be a skillful manager of classroom incentives. An incentive is a reinforcer; by definition, it generates work. Incentive is not to be confused with “reward.” Depending on a given student’s willingness to work for it, a reward might or might not function as a reinforcer in the classroom. During the past three decades, education has been guilty of the profligate use of rewards in the classroom — to the point that they have gotten a bad name. But, you cannot turn your back on incentives. One way or another, you must deal with the question, “Why should I?”

Incentives Are Everywhere

Almost any social interaction has incentive properties. If, for example, you have students work until the bell rings, you have created a dawdling incentive. Why should students knock themselves out doing the assignment? If no other goal than endless work is in sight, many students will slow down and expand the work to fill the time. The only students who will work hard are the ones with an internalized work ethic that is impervious to your classroom management practices.

If, on the other hand, you provide as a goal a reinforcing activity that students receive upon completion of the assignment — but before the work is checked — you have created a speed incentive. Many students will say to themselves, “the quicker I finish this stuff, the sooner I can have some fun.” Once again, the only students who will work conscientiously are the ones with an internalized work ethic that is impervious to your classroom management practices.

If you want to train students to work hard while being conscientious, you must check the work as it is being done, so students only receive the incentive when they work to your standards. For that reason, the technology of incentive management for classroom assignments hinges upon contemporaneous work check.

Now, imagine yourself working the crowd with an answer key in hand, checking work as it is being done. You are, in effect, moving paper grading forward in time from this evening to now.  The larger benefit, however, is your ability to employ a Criterion of Mastery.

Criterion of Mastery

A lesson is simply a learning experiment with teaching as the independent variable and learning as the dependent variable. Every learning experiment must have a Criterion of Mastery — an operational definition of success at learning. When you reach the Criterion of Mastery, you can terminate the learning experiment.

A Criterion of Mastery is stated in terms of consecutive correct performances, it is not stated as a percentage. Keep in mind that an 80 percent success rate is, in fact, a 20 percent error rate — a level of performance that is incompatible with any meaningful definition of excellence or mastery. A Criterion of Mastery should be a sensible and practical number of consecutive correct performances. Most criteria of mastery for classroom assignments fall between four and ten. The number of repetitions of a skill that are useful before you start “beating it to death” is a judgment call on your part.

My teachers were big on projects. We always had an art project or a science project to work on if we finished early. In addition to being “sponge activities,” they functioned as incentives. My sixth grade teacher, Miss Bakey, had us bring from home shoeboxes with our names printed on them. We spent one whole class period choosing a science project and collecting the supplies and materials we needed for it. We placed the materials in our “project boxes” and lined them up on the shelf that ran above the radiators by the window. I knew that, as soon as I knocked off those five problems in a row, it was project time! I also knew that if I became sloppy by trying to work too fast, I would have to work longer to get five in a row correct.

No Joy, No Work

Let’s add to the question “Why should I?,” the adage “No work, no joy.” If you want kids who have no great internalized work ethic to get on the ball and work, you must give them a reason. Since those kids do not work well for delayed reinforcers, you must provide reinforcers soon – immediately upon completion of the task, if possible. Attempting to answer the question, “Why should I?” in a meaningful fashion will push you toward structuring enjoyment as the counterpoint to work in every lesson. Chances are, you will have your students doing more than a few projects. You might even use Miss Bakey’s project box.

For more information about Dr. Fred Jones and his book Tools for Teaching, please visit http://www.fredjones.com