Know What Your Point System Does (and doesn't) Do

During a recent Q & A following a presentation with teachers, I was asked a question about using point systems in classrooms. I was asked, “Why do you think point systems don’t work?” This is why opportunities to ask questions are essential to good professional learning. Whether I meant to or not, I had left the impression that using a point system in a classroom or school is a bad thing. This question gave me an opportunity to clarify: point systems are not necessarily bad or useless as an intervention. My point was that often, in practice, many educators believe that students internalize learning as a result of having points earned or deducted. This is not what is really happening for students.

In this presentation, I used point systems in a discussion of motivation as an example of external regulation. I had commented that the only thing a teacher should expect students to learn from using a point system (or any system of rewards and punishments) is that students will learn to be compliant. As Edward Deci and Richard Ryan discuss in many publications, there is a motivation continuum with amotivation (a lack of motivation) on one end and intrinsic motivation on the other. As educators we highly desire for students to reach a point where they are intrinsically motivated and they are acting based on their own inner discipline. But, there is an area in between, the region of the continuum where students are extrinsically motivated. One way that we motivate students extrinsically is the use of tokens, points, or other other external (and often unnatural) rewards.

As a colleague, Steve Van Bockern, recently reminded me: schools are artificial environments in that humans did not really evolve to learn in typical classroom. Because we developed these artificial organizations we often need external mechanisms to make schools work. Classrooms and schools are filled with large groups of students and relatively few adults requiring some systems to regulate student behaviors. The problem is not that people use point systems (or some other consequence system), the problem is that many educators incorrectly believe that these systems motivate and teach. We need to understand that a point system is just a tool for compliance, youth are actually motivated by having trusting, meaningful relationships with mentoring adults. There is nothing wrong with having a point system, but understand that the purpose is of any external consequence is a limited and transient intervention used to develop compliance. Implementing a point system is only an intermediate step while meaningful relationships with students are developed.

Notes

For more on the self-determination (or motivation) continuum mentioned above see Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2002). The Handbook of Self-Determination Research. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press or visit https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/

For my complete conversation with Steve Van Bockern you can listen to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast from the 2023 season, episode 3; https://www.thoughtfulteacherpodcast.com/