[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 6 | February 15, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Many empirical studies have shown that excessive control from strict, negative rules and punishments and extrinsic rewards for doing the “right thing” can achieve short-term compliance.
But there are costs: It undermines intrinsic motivation, it decreases the overall quality of performance, and it connects continued performance to the availability and delivery of rewards.
This is the conundrum when education takes place in a pressured environment in which the teachers’ own sense of autonomy has been eroded. Fast compliance is needed so external controls are used, which seem to “work.” This success can become addictive, especially since it takes a bit of time to wean students off of extrinsic rewards. It becomes seemingly easier to continue to use external controls for short-term compliance.
Seeking Ideas From Colleagues
The solution for this is a shared philosophy and commitment to developing student autonomy in a developmental sensitive and ongoing way — from the moment a student enters a school to the moment they depart. Everyone can’t simply do their own thing; when people run into disciplinary and organizational trouble, the answer is not to revert to excessive controls. One answer is to reach out to colleagues and get ideas about how to have order and continuity while still supporting student autonomy