[CALIBK12] [CSLA Research Update] Reading reward study

[Lesley Farmer]

"This is a remarkable study that presents evidenceagainst the use of
rewards. Subjects were thirdgraders, classified as “average” readers.
All childrenwere asked to read about 250 words of a storybook,written
one year below their reading level, and weretold that the experimenter
wanted their opinion of thebook (design similar to McLoyd, 1979).
Theexperimenter told them a little about the availablebooks and the
students choose what they wanted toread.After the reading, the
experimenter told the childthat they had some free time and could stay
in thesame room for a few minutes. The available activitieswere reading
more, doing a math game, or a jigsawpuzzle. The basic conditions were:
children were offered areward of a book for doing the activity, a
“token”(e.g. friendship bracelet, Nerf ball, key chain, Pezdispenser),
or no reward. (I am simplifying a bit;Some children were given a choice
of what book ortoken, some not. This had no effect on the results.
Ipresent here the results only for groups given achoice.)The
investigator observed their behavior for these fewminutes and noted
whether the children selectedreading or a token as their first choice,
how manyminutes they spent reading (some children who selecteda token
at first did some reading later) and how manywords they read.The
results: Children given a reward of a book or noreward overwhelmingly
choose a book as their firstactivity (13/15 of the book group, 11/15 of
the noreward group). Only two out of 15 of token-rewardgroup choose a
book. Those in the book-reward and no reward groups alsospent much more
time reading, and read far more words.An important point is that all
the children liked toread: At the end of the study all children were
asked,"If your best friend asked you what was the best ormost fun thing
to do in this room, what would you tellthem?" All participants agreed
that reading was the“most fun” activity in the room. Using books as a
reward did no harm: Apparently,using books sends the message that
reading is aworthwhile thing to do. But using tokens as rewardshad a
profoundly negative effect. These results agreewith those of McLoyd
(1979)."McLoyd, V. (1979). The effects of extrinsic rewards
ofdifferential value on high and lowintrinsic interest. Child
Development, 50, 636-644.THANKS TO STEPHEN KRASHEN FOR THIS REPORT

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Posted By Lesley Farmer to CSLA Research Update at 10/09/2007 06:17:00
PM
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