Conducting assessment that justifies presentation of rewards

At the beginning of each year when schools admit new learners, they send them the school prospectus which details all the requirements including the school uniform.

It is believed that by prescribing something that will make learners uniform, will help them concentrate on learning than competing. Although competition is sometimes healthy, it is generally undesirable in learning.

Notwithstanding the need to discourage competition, schools hold prize giving ceremonies at the end of the year to award individual ‘ best performers’ for their efforts. But effort has to do with how much work is put into something, that is, how hard one is trying.

Understood in this way, it is therefore not merely the learner with the highest marks who always deserves the prize at the end of the day. One therefore wonders if awards are directed to the deserving learners – those who have put more effort than others, so as to motivate them to do more!

Prizes are physical rewards which sometimes create an environment where learners look for a tangible reward constantly. Although prizes are particularly motivating for learners, those who have developed intimacy for rewards often struggle with intrinsic motivation and often look to external factors to get them going.

Because of the excessive dependency on extrinsic motivation, once eliminated, learners end up losing control of their learning.

The aftermaths of the reward system are not only endured during school days, but go on to haunt them in their adult life as the seeds for materialism has been entrenched.

Adults who thrived as learners under reward system can’t resist physical rewards as they symbolise recognition and status. This heralds the start of corruption which destroys work ethics and the rule of law.

Prize giving ceremony should be an event that all learners are looking forward to. However, only a small fraction of learners receives prizes during this occasion, making it attractive to minority of learners.

Undoubtedly the intended message is to motivate non- recipients of prizes. But have we ever paused and wondered what effect prize- giving has on them? I feel a lot of injustice is being done to them as they are sometimes forced to attend the ceremony.

It does not require rocket science to prove their disinterest in the proceedings of the day. Just ask all learners in the school to write a composition or engage in a debate about whether prize giving should be discontinued or not.

Majority if not all would argue in favour of its discontinuation. This requires a survey so that decisions made are based on concrete evidence.

It is indisputable that every learner deserves a prize given the different intelligences and the levels of intelligences that they have. Learners express their intelligences through various ways, such as writing, performance, or speaking.

In recognisance of these differences, learners have to be assessed using different formats and methods. Assessment should not always be of paper- and- pencil, but could be in some other formats. For example, a learner gifted in speaking cannot be assessed in writing because you cannot ‘’ see’’ the speaking in writing.

The use of inappropriate methods and tools of assessment can lead to mis- quantification of leaners’ knowledge and skills resulting in incorrect labelling. This is akin to judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree.

Thus all learners can achieve and be given awards if they are allowed to learn at their own rate and style and assessed appropriately. It matters not who achieved what first and how. But most importantly, that all learners should succeed.

In the 21st century, learning is not only concentrated on technical or hard skills. Rather, soft skills are regarded as equally important. Collaboration in education is one of such soft skills.

According to the World Economic Forum report, the future jobs will require more of the application of soft skills, hence the time is now that learning and assessment should be geared towards imparting such, and discouraging activities that seek to work against this.

Surely learners cannot be taught and trained to compete and upon completion of their studies, expected to be effective team players in their respective work places.

Yes, it is possible!

The Author holds PhD in ‘ Assessment & Quality Assurance and writes as a Psychometric Researcher. Contact/ WhatsApp: 71713446 or masoletm@ gmail. com or facebook page: Trust Mbako Masole