Rewards for uni students

15 comments

1. I dislkike this idea. I dont like treating university students as children. They are old enough to take responsibility for their own learning, they shouldn’t be bribed with candy into speaking English.

2. “good job”

3. Swap out candy for strongs, vapes, and Tenga and you’ll have them reciting Shakespeare in no time

4. Stamps, like pokemon or summiko gurashi or whatever daiso has. Been teaching uni here a long time, they are also the participation points for their grade (just put them in their namecard that i collect every week). They get stamps for speaking up, doing their textbook work, etc. They are crazy for them. Lord help me if i forget one theyll ask me after class lol. I don’t think it’s childish at all, and the general maturity level is pretty low here anyway. Idk about games, though, might not be fair if its just random chance.

5. While I was away for two weeks another teacher used stickers they could put on their name cards for their desks and they seemed to like it. I might consider doing it next year, but at the same time, as others have mentioned, they are now 18 and in university. Our English department is at least trying to get them to treat university as a meaningful learning experience, e.g., yes you can fail, no you just don’t get to do one makeup test for not submitting any work in semester, no you can’t plagiarise. We are a pretty low level uni, but if you keep dropping the bar, you are only compounding the problem.

   Getting stickers and treats as rewards for basically doing what you are meant to be doing anyway rubs me the wrong way. We expect them to start acting more like adults at uni, and treating them exactly how they were treated in JHS and SHS sends mixed message.

   Edit: one other factor to consider, whether it is coupons, stickers, candy, etc with rewards is that you are potentially setting yourself up for work / costs / expectations that you continue with this “tradition”. That can be good or bad, depending on how much work you want to put in. When I was in Junior High, I made fake money with variations of my face in the middle. Each year would be different themes; hairstyles, hats, beards/moustaches etc. There would be maybe 6-8 designs and kids could collect them if they wanted. Some of the lower level kids were very motivated to try and get them. You got them by trying activities, speaking in class, helping your classmates, and basically just having a go, even if you didn’t get the answer.

   When I was doing my self-introduction for 1st graders one year I asked if they had any questions and one girl aske “How do I get TheBrickWithEyes money?” I hadn’t mentioned it as I wasn’t going to do it that year, so I asked her how she knew about it. “My big sister told me about it.” That was pretty cool. As it turns out, I didn’t do it that year, but at the end of the year I made a wholly custom one-off note design just for her.

6. The reward is they are learning and improving at a skill that they can use in the real world.

7. For people saying “uni students aren’t children” and going off about rewards being silly
   I would absolutely do extra for a fuckin kitkat
   Signed, a 4th year university student

8. At first, I thought, Wait, what?! At the university level you give treats? And then I remembered two of my profs at university in Canada threw end of term house parties to reward students.

   Anybody else remember TUJ MA TESOL Pizza Man?

   Okay, so socials are off the calendar thanks to Korona Matsuri, so I can imagine treating your students.

   I teach in a private high school now. Kahoot, Quizlet Live, etc. are treats we do at the end of units and terms.

   I’ve considered emailing the students to say the first 20 who show up at the staff room get treats. It confirms they aren’t just binning my messages without reading them!

9. Minutes to leave class early.

   On a more serious note, even today, I might appreciate candy here and there as a reward for something. I probably don’t care much about stickers.

10. As others have said, stickers are good.

11. There’s some really dumb comments here about giving rewards to uni students. It’s a sticker or 5 cent candy guys. Come on now, inject a bit of fun into your classes. Your students will appreciate it

12. Stickers are crack.

13. Ignore all the comments saying this is treating them like children. However, don’t ignore all the actual SLA research that has shown that such rewards actually have a negative effect on student’s motivation.

14. Being a teacher who’s not dedicating their life to fuck students lives is already a pretty big reward for students, if we’re talking about Japanese universities.

15. Are you not in charge of their grades? I actually don’t know how universities in Japan work. But getting a 2.99 GPA vs a 3.0 would determine weather or not I could get accepted into the masters program back home. There were also several classes where if you failed that class (below 70%) 2 times you were forced to pick a new major.

    So anecdotally, i think serious students will only be motivated by grades. Students who go only because their parents force them are going to be hard to motivate in any way imo.