Rewarding pupils for going to school leads to more truancy

TEACHERS know only too well that children can be unpredictable and contrary. But even classroom veterans may be surprised to hear that the supposedly harmless practice of rewarding pupils for turning up to school makes them more likely to play truant.

But those are the findings of a new study by Harvard University, which examined the controversial practice of giving out so-called “attendance awards”.

Researchers examined data from around 15,000 secondary school chil- dren in 14 parts of California, where such schemes are official policy, and found the award schemes did alter overall behaviour – but for the worse.

Far from encouraging greater attendance, rewarding children for attending school was in some circumstances completely useless, while in others it exacerbated truancy.

The experts say the study should make headteachers think twice before adopting such a scheme.

The practice is thought to be widely used in British schools, although reliable data is scant.

Published by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the study found that where attendance prizes were promised in advance, it made no difference as to whether pupils turned up for class.

However, where the prizes were retrospective, in recognition of a child’s past attendance, they appeared to reduce attendance rates in the future.

The researchers believe their findings are explained by an unintended “demotivating” effect.

Students winning awards got the message that simply arriving for lessons somehow exceeded expectations, which meant they put less pressure on themselves to do so in future.

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.

“These findings have implications for when and how awards should be used to motivate desirable behaviours – and when they may backfire,” the study said.

The new Harvard study referenced previous research into “employee of the month” awards, noting that their ability to incentivise better performance has been shown to be mixed.

Many staff “gamed” the system, and the award schemes had the effect of demotivating those who had been responsible workers previously.