Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition

Motivated by Tech (2013) by W. Ferriter on Flickr

Motivation, engagement and effort are key terms to success. However, the methods to "reward" students to reinforce these emotions can be challenging.  

Teachers should include recognition and effort as part of the effective formative feedback loop in their teaching strategies to raise student awareness and efficacy intrinsically.

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Reinforcing Effort

Effort in your classroom, the following recommendations should be considered (Pitler, Hubble & Kuhn, 2012):
1.  Teach students about the relationship between effort and achievement
2.  Be explicit in what "effort" means
3.  Give opportunity for students track their effort and achievement

Technology assists with reinforcing effort by providing a means to track and provide immediate feedback to students.  Data Collection and Analysis Tools are especially effective for this.

Providing Recognition

Recognition is often a controversial topic, and depends highly on the focus of the recognition to ensure it has positive impact on student self-determination, effort, and motivation.

Pitler, Hubble and Kuhn (2012) recommend these strategies to reinforce recognition:
1.  Promote mastery as a goal set by the individual with clear targets for mastery
2.  Provide specific praise based on the task or performance
3.  Use concrete symbols for recognition

Data Collection and Analysis

Whenever possible, include effort rubrics on tasks, skills or processes to help students understand what a exemplary effort "looks like" compared to unsatisfactory effort.  Be explicit in the skills or actions related to effort.  Label and track their effort scores with their achievement scores.  Never reward or punish for lack of effort  - the connection will likely be made by looking at the difference between the effort and achievement.

Global Collaboration Projects

After posting student work online, a great opportunity to celebrate and recognize work is to provide real conversations with a broader audience.  Skype and other similar collaborative places will allow you to share and connect with other teachers, including the MimioConnect networking community and the Partners in Learning Microsoft community.

Feedback Ideas

All feedback ideas relate back to recognition...with the recognition focus being the celebration of reaching the set goal.

• Audio Recordings with the built in Sound Recorder can provide quick recognition for effort.  This can be found on the Android Tablets.
• Record and post students completing a difficult problem using Mimio as reward for meeting a goal.  Post it for others to view in a library of student work.
• Electronic badges can be generated for students once a goal is accomplished to be posted to their personal blog or an a class webpage.
• Class Dojo works for providing recognition as goals are accomplished individually or as a class  - providing the visual recognition.  

Classroom Webpages

Authentic audience can also be provided, along with reflections on effort and achievement, through class or individual blogs and webpages.