In one of my books that I am reading, called Motivation to Learn, they discuss psychological theories on motivation. Reinforcement theorists believe that behavior is caused by events external to the person and refer to the law of effect, which states that behavior is determined by its consequences. The chapter goes on to discuss how in many classrooms positive reinforcement strategies are used and can be very effective in influencing students behavior and can be used to motivate students when they may not have interest in doing something. However, it also mentions the negative effects it can cause. Students learn at different paces, if rewards are based on the teachers observation, a kid could be pretending to work hard and reminiscing about the home run he hit the night before. Also, if they get rewards for reading a book, they might pick easy reads, and they may become negative and demanding.
If the positive reinforcement doesn't work, it says that many people turn to punishment. However, with some students, it says the humiliation of having a failing grade will turn them around to want to bring up the grade, where for others it just causes anxiety and alienation, which hinder their learning.
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I think you need to follow up on these readings about motivation, track them to their source so that you can see more clearly kind of theory rewards and punishments are nested in, i.e. a behavioral theory. I have nothing in principal against behavioral theories, but it's important to get a sense of other ways of thinking about this. I strongly urge you to read Saul Bandura, who started as a behaviorist but moved toward a social-cognitive mode of explanation that has continued to be very influential.
Im reading about Bandura now... I'll post about him next week.
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