Pay-To-Learn Schemes Shortchange Kids Summary

Authors, Wendy Grolnick and Kathy Seal in their argumentative article, “Pay-to-Learn Schemes Shortchange Kids”, claim that rewards cause students to lose interest in school and their education. They support their claim by first introducing a captivating study performed on preschoolers with magic markers and construction paper, then including an engaging activity that required undergraduates, to solve and complete puzzles, and finally explaining the lengthy experiment tested on sixth grade students that allowed them to graduate at the top of their class. Grolnick’s and Seal’s purpose is to argue in order to persuade school districts to invest in programs that build student’s intrinsic motivation. They establish an argumentative tone for schools so that they begin to take the steps necessary to increase student’s effort in school, without constantly
Washingtn Univeristy psychologist, Richard DeCharms, held a yearlong study on sixth grade students that were recieving a new type of teaching method that was taught to their teachers. Teachers were instructed to “de-emphasize grades and time limit--lowering the pressure on kids—and distributed workbooks and other materials that prompted learning for its own sake”. In the same district other sixth grade students were taught with the usual methods. When spring test scores came in, according to the Iowa Test of Bsic Skill Scores, the students that participated in the study were a year and a half ahead then their peers. “Six years later, a follow-up study found that the “intrinsically motivated group” also graduated from high school at a higher rate”. The purpose for incorporating this study is to show that with built-in motivation students can achieve greater goals with new methods. Throught the appeal to logos they hope that these test results will encorage school districts to establish similar