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Teachers' use and children's preferences of rewards in elementary school
Author(s) -
Fantuzzo John W.,
Rohrbeck Cynthia A.,
Hightower A. Dirk,
Work William C.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6807(199104)28:2<175::aid-pits2310280213>3.0.co;2-k
Subject(s) - psychology , preference , intervention (counseling) , developmental psychology , variety (cybernetics) , reinforcement , primary education , mathematics education , social psychology , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , computer science , economics , microeconomics
This study examined teacher reports of reward use and students' preferences for rewards across elementary school grades. Forty‐eight urban elementary school teachers indicated which of four basic categories of rewards (edible, tangible, activity, and social rewards) they use in their classrooms and their evaluation of the effectiveness of these rewards for their age group of students. Ninety‐eight second through fifth graders randomly selected to represent the students assigned to these teachers were individually administered a reward preference survey. Findings revealed high reward use by teachers. Children reported a wide variety of reward preferences, with no significant gender or age differences found. Additionally, there was no clear relationship between teacher use and children's preferences. Implications for intervention programming are discussed.