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How do you motivate students? Detention for bad behavior? Noteshome for bad grades? What if you started to reward students withsuperior performance and behavior instead? One Birmingham school is trying such a program:at the Selly Oak Trust School, 180 students out of the 410 enrolled aregiven "platinum award cards" that allow them entry into a lounge wherethe can play the Nintendo Wii, as well as other console games. The top20 students even get to wear special uniforms, showing their elitestatus.
The Principal claims the program has halved the time teachers spend ondiscipline, a big problem in a school where teachers spent 90 percentof their non-teaching time on behavior issues.
This is certainly an interesting idea, although elite uniforms andspecial lounges may not appeal to everyone. The students who don'tthrive in such an environment may not want to work harder to get in;they may simply rebel harder or decide to punish those involved withthe program. I know in my old schools, if someone were to wear aspecial uniform that designated them as a good student with superiorperformance records, he would become a target for all sorts ofnastiness.
Of course, Selly Oak is a school that specializes in students withspecial needs, and in that environment the ability to be recognized forstrong performance and having incentives for doing well—instead ofpunishments for doing poorly—may find a very receptive audience indeed.
Quote:
A Birmingham school has found a novel way to motivate pupils to staydisciplined - by giving well-behaved pupils a range of executive perks,including access to a computer-games room and the right to wear aspecial uniform.
Selly Oak School has benefited 180 students with a platinum award card,which gives them access to a games lounge, where they can play NintendoWii, Xbox and other console games.
The rest of the 410 students can see from outside what they are missing.
An elite cadre of 20 exceptionally good students are excused fromwearing the school's regular uniform and are allowed instead to wear adistinctive maroon and gold one.
Graham Ridley, the principal of the school, said that he had got theidea for the special jumpers from the yellow jersey awarded to theleading cyclist in each leg of the Tour de France.
Ridley said that the idea is neither elitist nor divisive, insistingthat it provides students with a powerful motivation to toe the line.
Previously, about a third of his pupils have shown behavioural problemsor mild learning difficulties. Many of the remainder are what theprincipal calls tough, streetwise kids.
"We're like a hospital, we cure them. We take confrontation out of theclassroom through motivation," Times Online quoted Ridley, as saying.
Many schools have a system of house points for good behaviour, but Ridley's idea is altogether more ambitious.
"We thought we would have rewards that were more relevant to the children's lives than house points," he said.
Before introducing the perks scheme, teachers were spending 90 per centof their non-teaching time dealing with problem behaviour.
"Now we have more than halved the time devoted to discipline," he said. (ANI)
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