Desk Report: It’s the back-to-school season – and many young people may be feeling reluctant about returning for the start of another academic year.
And in many schools there are deliberate attempts to boost attendance by giving rewards, school prizes and commendations to those who have the best records for not missing any lessons.But do such prizes really change behaviour?
According to a large-scale study of secondary school students in California in the US, awards for good school attendance seem to make no significant difference – and in some circumstances, could make absenteeism worse.
The study, published by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in Massachusetts, examined the effect of rewards schemes on more than 15,000 students in 14 school districts in California.
Researchers found that if prizes were promised in advance, it made no difference to whether pupils attended. If the rewards were retrospective, in recognition of high levels of attendance, it seemed to have a negative impact on the winners’ future school attendance.
This was completely opposite to what was expected by teachers and education officials. The study found only 2% of staff expected the award schemes not to have a positive impact.It’s also official policy in California to support such reward schemes, so why is there such a big gap between the good intentions and the outcome?
The researchers, from Harvard University, Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, said that such awards seemed to send “unintended messages” which could have a “demotivating” effect.Students winning awards could get the “inadvertent signal” that their attendance had been much higher than expected – and so they could take a more relaxed approach in future.It could tell youngsters that their behaviour had been exceptional, rather than what was required. In response, they might feel they could try less hard next time.
“The award may have resulted in recipients feeling allowed to miss a future day of school,” said the study, which included students from a representative range of incomes, ethnicities, inner-city, suburban, rural and English and Spanish-speaking families.
There is also strong social pressure among teenagers to conform and such prizes could make unusually high attendance seem to be outside the norm for their peer group.