Using rewards and sanctions in the classroom: pupils’ perceptions of their own responses to current behaviour management strategies

Abstract

The use of systems of rewards and sanctions within behaviour policies has now been adopted formally in UK schools. Such systems potentially represent competing theoretical ideas when considered alongside current approaches to teaching and learning. There is also opportunity for inconsistent use of rewards and sanctions resulting from the absence of a distinction between incentives and punishments and again between pupils’ task-based work and their social behaviour. This case study comprises one of three questionnaire surveys completed by UK secondary school pupils in Year 7 and Year 11. The findings show a complex range of pupil responses to different behaviour management strategies, as well as highlighting changes in pupil responses across the age groups. Some sanctions for classroom behaviour are also found to lead pupils to stay quiet, potentially affecting their ability to engage in all learning activities. Sanctions such as asking pupils to miss break, or giving detentions, are seen to be counter-productive in encouraging pupils to work hard in class. Some rewards, such as the giving of “stamps” work well in relation to how much pupils like the teacher, but they are not found to promote hard work in older pupils. The incentive of the school reward trip is universally effective, as is contact with home. These findings offer insight into the ways in which pupils respond to rewards and sanctions and therefore contribute to our understanding of how such systems might best be used.

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