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Persuasive Paper Part 1: A Problem Exists

Curtis Taylor

Dr. Jacquot

November 16, 2015

 

 

 

Problem Faced by American Education

According to Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Science and Math, the main agenda is to increase the number of students who get into the Advanced Placement classes. There are people who believe that paying students in order to perform well is a good idea (Scott-Norman, 2011). There are cases of people who could have wasted their AP exams in entirety if they did not find the promise of gold on the other side. To high school students, money has become a big motivation and this holds great potential for a failed education system. The question concerning as to whether students should be awarded with incentive for good performance has controversy. American high school students need no financial incentives when they perform well in standardized examination. High school education is very important to American students and it should help in their social development as teenagers.

Over years, the American society has been looking out for the most cost effective means of improving the education system especially at the elementary level. Recently one strategy, which has gained significant attention, is the use of short-term financial strategy to students in order to improve their performance. Between the year 2007 and 2011 there have been several studies carried out to determine how incentive is important when it comes to changes in the education system and improvement of performance.

When offering financial incentive to students, the results will take three possible ways. The first direction is that if the student lacks sufficient motivation, then providing incentives will yield positive results for the students (Fryer, 2010). The second direction could be that if the individual does not have structural resources to convert the efforts to achievements that are measurable, or that performance relies upon factors that are beyond their control then incentives will have very little impact. The third argument, which forms the basis of this paper, is that external reward will undermine intrinsic motivation and create negative outcomes.

First the use of incentive will shift the purpose of education, which is teaching curricula and methods. Research has established that when people are enjoying one thing, paying them will make the activity less enjoyable (Fryer, 2010). When students are taking their education seriously, paying them will make the entire education process less enjoyable. It could be very foolish to pay students who are already happy and engaged in their education program. The problem of paying students who do not find learning enjoyable is that the students will not work hard in any case they are not able to receive that payment. It is an indication that once the government has started to pay students, it has to keep doing so unless they want to lose the performance at one point. Basic research indicates that the moment the payment stops, the performance and working hard also stops.

This system of motivating students requires close monitoring. This makes it very difficult for teachers to implement such policies (Fryer, 2010). This makes it unattractive to pay students in order to take part in school related activities. The most important thing should be creation of instructional methods, which motivate students.  

Secondly we already have students and teachers who are well motivated, teachers who can engage and motivate students are in existence and making use of money as the main form of motivation is acting in a manner that suggest doubts by administrators on the teacher’s ability. There are researches, which indicate that incentives lead to better performance but it is only in environments that are diverse. For student’s incentives to work properly there is need to have common sense designs. The incentives would work best when they are in simple means that students can understand easily. The most important means through which the education system will end up being better is through targeting school attendance and not poorly understood goals in test scores.

Finally, according to Beth Hennessey of Wellesley College when we make use of financial motivation, intrinsically motivated students may end up suffering. Motivation is a complex and ephemeral entity that need not to be limited to money value. It is the environment that we are in which determines our motivational levels (Fryer, 2010). According to psychologists, it is understood that intrinsic motivation is that desire to do something out of interest and this could involve the fact that students would want to perform better through the internal interest to learn. If we introduce money, we will be killing that desire to achieve more through self-learning.

Several policy makers have understood that use of financial incentives could lead to better grades. The most worrying thing is that such increased reliance on money could lead to detrimental effects to general development of a student. Though math score in most schools have increased through such policies, it is not generally an effective policy in developing of students socially.

References

Fryer, R. G. (2010). Financial incentives and student achievement: evidence from randomized trials. NBER working paper

Kremer, M, Miguel, E & Thornton, R (2009). “Incentives to Learn,” Review of Economics and Statistics.

Scott-Norman, F. (2011). Don't peak at high school. Mulgrave, Vic.: Affirm Press.

Research memorandum on education in the depression,. (2010). New York, N.Y.: Social Science Research Council.