THE ROLE OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENT ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFROMANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL EDUCATION

Abstract

Reinforcement or motivation is a term of very complex dimensions. It is known to include the rewards and punishments among many other interacting drives, forces and incentives which affect or influence student’s learning. ‘Extrinsic’ forms of motivation like rewards and punishments have always been used by teachers/educators to correct or stimulate certain forms of behaviours. Yet, what their effects and consequences are, whether they facilitate or hinder learning and to what extent, how they operate to increase, if at all, the efficiency of learning and many such allied questions have remained largely unanswered. Or, their answers have generally been improvised, for the most part, from intuition, conjecture or just intelligent guess- work rather than on research findings. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine these questions in order to discover (uncover, to be more specific) the role which rewards and punishment seem to play in motivating school learning. For purposes of analysis, rewards will include material and symbolic rewards like praise and marks, and punishment will include physical punishments, blame, sarcasm and ridicule.