stickers and certificates

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I've seen it mentioned a few times that people don't approve of stickers and certificates as rewards. Can anyone explain why?

There's a long discussion about it in Unconditional Parenting

Or here is an article by Alfie Kohn.

But basically the argument goes that you want a child to be 'intrinsically motivate', ie doing something for the pleasure of doing it, rather than 'extrinsically motivated', ie doing something for a reward.

And even if a child starts off intrinsically motivated, by rewarding them you can turn them into being extrinsically motivated.

Being extrinsically motivated is no fun. You don't get pleasure from the task, only from the reward. The task turns into a chore....

For example say a child enjoys drawing, and draws you a lovely picture. And then you say 'well done'. Next time they might do a picture in order to hear 'well done', instead of because they like drawing...

However if instead of saying 'well done', you say 'whats the picture about? Why did you choose purple for the tree?....' and have a discussion about it, then hopefully they can keep up their interest in drawing because they like it....

Plus, if you give, say, a fussy eater a sticker for finishing their lunch, the other children who always finish their lunch wonder why they never get a sticker for it. Same with sitting still on the carpet or whatever.

You actually end up rewarding the kids who don't often do the right thing far more than the ones who are always "good".

@squidgy - I'm a primary teacher and I would have to say, probably, yes!

I have tried to do away with stickers altogether but parents have requested I give out more, so I do end up randomly peppering the kids. I try to focus on something each child can improve on and then reward it when I see the improvement but I would say that the "good" kids can get a bit left out unfortunately.....

DS1 never gets them. Don't get me wrong he's no angel but he is above average in his school work and relatively well behaved in class. He used to get upset about it but one day he came home from school and said that he didn't mind not getting stars and certificates because they were to help the naughty children not be naughty anymore .....and he'd worked that out for himself!

I've never used sticker charts at home for the simple reason they don't work ...not in the long term anyway

This is really interesting and it's not something I've really thought about.

So far DD is very enthusiastic about these things, she loves learning and drawing and tidying up etc... I will endeavour to keep it that way :)

And I reckon my DD will be one of those not getting stickers - she is an absolute angel at school and always has been... If only she were the same at home!

hmmm... I didn't think DS1 was naughty (teacher's never mentioned it) but he does come home with stickers quite a bit. At least once a week. They're usually for good reading or good writing. And he's so proud of himself. Today he got sent to the headteacher to show her some writing he'd done (Three sentences, not a masterpiece of literary genius - but he is in reception) and she gave him a sticker as well as the one from his class teacher. He had such a big grin on his face when he came out of school.

So for us, at the moment, it doesn't seem to be a bad thing. Interesting to see all the different opinion on this.

DD1 said in reception that to maximize her stickers she needed to be naughty in the morning and good in the afternoon.
DD2 commented one time that certificates/stickers weren't for being good at something, but for being bad most of the time.
They've both had times where the reward system of stickers/certificates has been demotivating for them.
I remember hearing dd1 discussing with her friends whether it was worth being naughty to try and get the star of the day teddy. Luckily for me they decided it wasn't, but it was a close run thing.
Don't know how you get round this though. Have often wondered how you can make these rewards motivational for all children.

You get round this by not using rewards and instead expecting good behaviour all of the time. ( Just like you would at home....)

FlyingOnion - I am really shocked that parents ask you to give out stickers. And quite surprised that you listened to them.

In the school where I work stickers are an intrinsical part of our behaviour system and can't be done away with by an individual teacher. My approach is a blanket stickerage at key points. So my sticker monitors hand out stickers to every child who sits nicely on the carpet, every child working sensibly gets a sticker and so on.

I do lots of little certificates of my own volition though as they are a nice way of communicating home as well and the children love keeping them.
I do think , that sometimes when you work with children who are completely lacking in motivation, an outer reward can be useful. It's a tangible recognition of success, in particular for those children who can't deal with verbal praise or public recognition.

"In the school where I work stickers are an intrinsical part of our behaviour system and can't be done away with by an individual teacher"

pretty much the same in mine, hence why I agreed....

also it is a new job, I'm an NQT, I arrived mid year with the previous teacher's rules already in situ and my parents can be a bit of a nightmare. I plan to raise the sticker issue with my HoD before next year though and start afresh with the new class.

doesn't blanket coverage become a bit meaningless? (not to mention expensive...!)

I don't think that it is important-people do what works for them and DCs are very adaptable.

DD is another one who doesn't understand them (she's in reception): she presumes that she hasn't done anything good because she hasn't had a certificate for anything; which is not really what the teachers intend, I'm sure.

I agree with flyingonion about blanket coverage being meaningless (not criticising you sassyfrassy at all, just intersted in the reasons behind it).
My ds1 is in reception, and is happy, usually well behaved etc. etc. and they have a 'star learner' system - a card is handed out occasionally saying something like:
x has been given a star learner for doing some lovely writing (or whatever!)
After 3 star learners they get a 'colour card'.
It's never been explained to me what a colour card signifies other than that they have recieved 3 star learner cards. Also it seems like blanket coverage as all the kids come out with the same star learner cards, and as they are hand written I feel for the amount of time the poor teacher spends writing out 23 cards.
Ds came home with a big 'bronze certificate' just before Christmas so I tried to make a fuss and said I was proud of him and asked what he did to earn the certificate (I've no idea what a bronze certificate is for). Ds's reply was "I don't know why I got it mummy, we all just got given one".
It doesn't mean anything to him as as far as ds is concerned they all get these cards automatically.

Couldn't agree more, I have watched my child's motivation and behaviour plummet since starting reception where every thing is graded with stickers. It's really depressing and no teachers seem to be able to think outside it.

I find that whole-group rewards work much better, so I have a table tally, where the table who has collected the most plus points at the end of the week gets a special sticker (stickers again!), and a whole class tally where the children can gain an extra five minutes play on a Friday afternoon if they gain over a certain amount. I make sure I play silly games with them as a treat and they love me to play tag with them.

Each child can win a tally for their table or for the class, or the table or class can win one as a whole.

They can of course be taken away again (it certainly gets threatened!)

They work depending on whether you believe in them! If you do, they work-if you don't they won't-like anything really.

I should have said-and the DC just fits in.

Not quite exotic, because it can work in the short term, yet be damaging in the long term, which means that even if they work you still shouldn't use them.

I don't use them because I don't believe in them ,but they will work for someone who does and it won't hurt long term. People should realise that they do things that suit them and they are never the answer for everyone.
People suit their own situation, own DC and own situation-there isn't the way. (parenting would be lovely and easy if there was-and more importantly the DCs realised it!)

Sorry-own personality, DC and situation.

My DS, now yr 3, got very few stickers and certificates when in KS1. My DD, now in yr R regularly comes homes plastered in stickers and gets certificates more than once a week (for "being helpful", "good number work", "knowing lots about The Three Little Pigs" and once for "really enjoying herself" which has to be my all time favourite.)

She boasts to DS and he gets upset, he knows he didn't get so many, and this goes on night in, night out. He was always well behaved and is attaining relatively well, but I don't think he can have attracted stickers in the same way. No idea why but I feel it isn't a level playing field.

Same school, same teachers. I'm not a fan of stickers or certificates.

My dd (now in yr 3) will do anything for a sticker. She has gone to the extremes of deliberately grazing her knee or bumping her head to get the "I have had first aid" stickers!
In reception, she used to do things like put her own bag away/eat all of her lunch to get stickers, but then stop doing these things when she stopped getting the stickers. There was a period of time in year 1 when she stopped eating her lunch at school because she wasn't getting stickers for it any more. I spoke to the school about it and their solution was to start giving her stickers again
She seems to have grown out of it now though. But it does seem to be the case that the children who do the worst at school get all of the rewards. This year there is this whole thing about getting your "pen license" so that you can use a pen rather than a pencil. The kids who get the pen licenses seem to be the kids who have improved significantly rather than those who had good writing to start with.
The current rewards system in the class is that they get a "golden grid" when they do good work and then put their initials in a 7x7 square grid. When the grid has been filled up, the teacher pulls a grid reference out of a "hat" and then the child with their initials in that square wins a crappy prize. I quite like that idea but at the same time, dd won it first time round despite the fact that she had only got one golden grid, and other kids had a handful of them!