Positive Contivation And Academic Success For Students

Alfie Kohn’s Article “How Not to get into College” analyses many key factors of how the current school system does not work and how we as members of society need to work together extensively to remodel the system to ensure the success of future students by valuing education over grades. By looking at how students only join clubs and and worship numerical grades only to impress colleges; students facing pressure from parents, teachers, and society to get good grades and succeed in life; and how students live through many mental health implications due to a multitude of factors surrounding their educational life, we can determine that systemic factors of this society have turned students of this generation into grade grubbers.

Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a

Positive reinforcement is rewarding a behavior with a consequence that is pleasant to the recipient in order to encourage the behavior. An example of this in The Breakfast Club

Understanding how students are motivated can help educators engage students in learning activities and ultimately improve their academic performance. Researchers Mandy Sedden and Kevin Clark summarizes students’ and instructors’ perspectives on motivation and explores instructional strategies educators can use to motivate college students (Sedden & Clark, 2016). This journal article discusses the impact student motivation or lack of motivation has on the overall outcome of their educational experience. Sedden and Clark noted that many students of the millennial generation view education as an acquisition rather than a process of learning (Sedden & Clark, 2016). In other words, the thought of the high-paying job or improved intellectual status that awaits after completing school is more alluring than the process of attaining knowledge. According to the research students are intrinsically motivated when the instructor is motivated themselves, the lessons are interactive, the atmosphere is positive and well-organized, and the instructor demonstrates they care about the students.

Historically, letter grades have served as a tool to rate educational intelligence. By looking at the progression of a student’s grades over time, people are able to determine whether or not the students are developing skills in certain areas. Using a one letter grade to determine progress has received many critiques as a common system used in America’s education. Critics claim letter grades cause students motivation and creativity to decrease because grades shift students focus from learning the material to obtaining a good grade.

Positive reinforcement is utilized in the classroom by a teacher to strengthen a desired behavior and to increase its likelyhood to occur again. An example, would be giving out a candy bar everytime a student sits in their corresponding seat. A second example, of positive reinforcement in a classroom would be praising a student with a “good job” or “excellent” stamp after a student gets the correct answer to a problem. Positive reinforcement can not only strengthen good behavior amongst students but also cause extinction of dispruptive behaviors. Students will notice the postive behaviors reinforced by rewards while negative behaviors

In college, predicting academic success is a difficult challenge facing institutions of higher education. Unfortunately, before completing degrees, majority of students leave. Andrew Carnegie once said, “Anything in life worth having is worth working for.” High academic achievement in college certainly requires a great deal of effort over an extended period of time and is undoubtedly worth having. However, students who have high levels of frustration intolerance are at particular risk of falling into patterns of procrastination. But those who are more willing to tolerate frustration in pursuit of academic achievement tend to have higher GPA’s. In most students, studying for exams, writing for papers, and engaging in other academic behaviors

The true value of education is lost as grades and numbers become top priority. In a spoken word, Suli Breaks shares that students have becomes zombies in schools that run everything in a routine. They lose sleep to hand in assignments and meet the dead-line yet by that time the students are also half dead. The grade is all that the student starts to care about because that is what the school is directing their efforts towards. With all of their focus on the grade no one remembers to remember what they learned and apply it in life. Thus, it is in one semester and out the next. In one study teachers witnessed “unprecedented levels of school-related anxiety, stress, and mental health amongst pupils, particularly at exam time”. People may think that only college students do all nighters but it actually is not surprising to find high school and sometimes even middle schools staying up late nights trying to finish up assignments. All of this leads to sleep deprivation which affects the student’s health and in turn propels their stress as time virtually elapses out of existence. Likewise, the school system runs in such a way that mistakes become feared in an unhealthy manner. It is fine to have the fear of failure but one must learn to accept it because once it is accepted, children are not afraid to take a chance at trying something new. Ken Robinson makes the point that “we

Positive reinforcement is a very compelling and efficient tool to help form and change habits. Positive reinforcement works by imparting a motivating item to the individual after the preferred behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen sooner than later. An instance of this tactic would be Jimmy getting $10 for each A he earned on his report card. The definition

Mr. Higginbotham uses the idea of operant conditioning and continuous reinforcement throughout his classroom. Operant conditioning is the behavior in which voluntary behavior are strengthened or weakened by consequences, while continuous reinforcement deals with giving a reinforcer after every response. These reinforcers can be either positive or negative, strengthening or weakening the behavior that occurred. Positive reinforcements are there to increase the opportunity of a specific behavior reoccurring and negative reinforcement is strengthening behavior that results in a negative action. (Woolfolk, 2014, pgs. 277-278). An example in Mr. Higginbotham’s class of positive reinforcement would be during the point in time when he decides to announce that his progress checks can each be earned towards bonus points on their project and once ten complete progress checks have occurred the children can also receive a homework pass. Another positive reinforcement is the three highest scoring students will receive twenty-five dollars to their class trip fund for their senior year. A negative reinforcement is demonstrated in Mr. Higginbotham’s class when Susan shows disrespectful behavior and earns four detentions. These four detentions equal a day of indoor, in-school suspension. So even when students do not want to do their homework the progress report check will help the students work towards that one homework pass. Both positive and negative reinforcement as continuous

The United States of America is known for being a country filled with people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, the student population in schools is just as diverse as it continues to grow. Lynch (2015) notes that schools are expected to teach their students “how to synthesize cultural differences into their knowledge base” as this will help “facilitate students’ personal and professional success in a diverse world” (para. 8). Educators must be able to provide for the diverse needs of students and are expected to equip students with skills that can lead to healthy development as it can affect higher levels of student achievement and students have more opportunities of success in their future. Providing students with tools and skills requires an awareness and acceptance of their ethnic identity. Once students have developed self-acceptance about their ethnic identity, they can begin to feel empowered and motivated to do well. Through cultural empowerment, students of color can develop intrinsic motivation and achieve academic success.

As a student, school is probably the most stressful part of every day. Sometimes, it is all you can think about. “Will I get this homework finished”, “Oh no, we have a project due tomorrow”, and the dreaded “I forgot to study for my test!.” If you have ever said that last one, you probably ended up cramming a full chapter’s worth of material into one night or even that morning. You begin worrying about your grade because you

In their seminal piece, How College Affects Students, Pascarella & Terrenzeni (1991), states that “students’ grades are probably the single most revealing indicator of his or her successful adjustment to the intellectual demands of a particular college’s course of study" (388). Grades are significantly influenced by study habits, motivation, organization, and level of effort as seen in (Capella, Wagner & Kusmierz, 1982; Culler & Holahan, 1980; Astin, 1971b, 1975b). Grades tend to “reflect not only requisite intellectual skills but also desirable personal work and attitudes” (Pascarella, et. al, 388). There is evidence to support grades of undergraduates success will lead to the student earning a bachelor’s degree and future graduate degrees.

Adults tell us the American Dream is not achieved without our hard work in school. The countless hours slaving over what seems to be pointless work, this must be the meaning of life. Students, once hopeful and brimming with aspirations such as CEO or astronaut, are pitted against each other in this war zone of education. This war zone is not about the importance of garnering knowledge, it is all about class ranking and a GPA. Oh, what a thing this GPA represents. Educators grade our assignments on how much we “understand” and then average them. This average is translated to another number, bonus points if the class preludes with AP or ends with “H”. The GPA coupled with the ACT or SAT, standardized tests that students take to measure their

“Try not to worry too much about your grades” – this is the classic line our professors spoon-feed to us in the name of education. “To know thyself”, as the Ancient Greeks once said, is infinitely more valuable than academic praise or the material payoff of an undergraduate degree. However, what happens when this belief is extended too far? What happens when well-meaning professors and faculty members undermine the importance of grades, only to leave their students struggling to get into graduate school or to secure a post-graduate job? What happens when students sacrifice their health and happiness for grades they didn’t earn, all while being prompted to become more “mindful?” Unfortunately, this is a problem I believe has plagued the F&M community.