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Case Study 2: When Rewards Backfire

Lataiva Balmer

Bloomfield College

Educational Psychology

Dr. Torres

November 26, 2022

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Case Study 2: When Rewards Backfire

Section 1: Effective Use of External Rewards

A. Mr.Bennett misuse of extrinsic rewards caused students to regress in work activity. If he used

the rewards in an appropriate manner his students would be more excited to learn than receive

rewards for earning 90% of a grade.

D. Children should be rewarded for wanting to learn and are actually working towards learning.

When you add the rewards you are basically given them a reason to learn instead of learning to

actually understand what is being taught. Take the case for example, when Mr. Bennet eased the

students off of the rewards they began to decrease in grade point average and that is because they

no longer had an objective to actually learn what he was teaching, which ultimately lost their

attention. So, if Mr. Bennet rewarded those who were doing exceptionally well without the

notation that there will be an award, then many of his students would put in extra time to learn

more to also get rewarded.

E. Homework passes should be used as a reward but not as an overuse. The reward is exciting

but too many become boring and children lose interest in gaining them but they are beneficial to

their progression.

Section 2: Intrinsic Motivation

A. Yes there were lost opportunities on the teachers' part. Instead of jumping right into the next

subject, he should have proposed a quick trivia game about the continents since many students

were interested. Also, instead of passing out the same homework pass he should have introduced

the students to games to increase their intrinsic motivation.

C. Humor, personal experiences and anecdotes show the human side of academic content and

foster intrinsic motivation by allowing children to have fun and enjoy their education.
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E. Teachers can allow student choice in their learning given curriculum constraints by listening

to what the students prefer and what their expectations are to better their academic outcome.

Section 3: Goal Orientations

A. The mastery and performance goals are performing at 90% and receiving a homework pass.

B. The difference between performance-approach goals and performance-avoidance goals is

Performance-approach goals are focused on the demonstration of competence relative to others

while performance-avoidance is the desire to avoid performing more poorly than others do.

C. The difference between mastery-approach goals and mastery-avoidance goals is The

mastery-avoidance goal is defined as engaging in a task to avoid losing knowledge or skills that

have already been acquired and mastery-avoidance and mastery-approach goals focus on the

development of competence for its own sake.

Section 4: Classroom Management

C. Extrinsic rewards could be utilized in a more comprehensive classroom management

approach in Mr. Bennet’s classroom by allowing the students to behave in a manner where

Mr.Bennet is the sole attraction and the curriculum.

Section 5: Parent Involvement

A. Home School Communication benefits this case because students are able to understand how

their parents feel about what they are doing in the classroom and it gives the teacher an insight

on how to improve.

D. Teachers could increase parents’ involvement in their child schooling by sending daily reports

home to notify the parents of their children's progress.