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Patrick Bigsby is an alumnus, former employee, and lifelong wrestling fan of the University of Iowa. Sometimes, he tweets.
Not long ago I happened to catch two graduate student instructors, whom I’ll refer to as Ethan and James, in the middle of a discussion about their pedagogical approaches. Ethan was explaining his justification for routinely bringing in cupcakes, doughnuts, and other treats for his discussion section students. Essentially, he said he wanted to reward the students’ work and demonstrate his appreciation for them. James audibly scoffed at this explanation.
“You’re just bribing them!” he said, clearly exasperated that a general education course’s discussion sections were being debased with pastries.
I have known Ethan and James for several years and know them both to be excellent teachers, despite their diametric opposition on what sorts of positive reinforcement are appropriate for undergraduates. James is in the mold of Mark Thackery from To Sir, with Love: a no-nonsense, tough-love type who leads by example and believes his students should be treated like the capable, intelligent adults they are. Ethan is a little more John Keating from Dead Poets Society: equally enthusiastic about ensuring his students’ success but with somewhat softer, more approachable edges. Whereas Ethan would gladly wait around an extra hour for a student who failed to appear for an office hours appointment, James might consider that an opportunity for the student to learn about time management and personal responsibility. While James believes students should get the experience of preparing their own final exam study outline, Ethan designs elaborate review games to be played in class. Judging from their students’ successes, these are both meritorious approaches.
No teacher, including the mega-geniuses who write for this site, can possibly believe they hold all the pedagogical answers or that their approach is always the best option for every student. If they did, we wouldn’t spend so much time exploring all these different techniques at GradHacker HQ. But listening to Ethan and James and knowing that they have both succeeded as teachers, I have to wonder: how, if at all, should we be bribing our students?
I should note: I consider a ‘bribe’ to be any positive reinforcement apart from a good grade and the attendant praise. Sure, it feels good to earn an A and sure, mastering the subjunctive in French or diagramming the nitrogen cycle or whatever act of knowledge acquisition and self-improvement you’re trying to spur freshmen into performing is its own reward. But, even if true, that’s a tough attitude to maintain several months into a semester of difficult material, particularly at age 19.
For the above reason, I think bribery – be it in the form of cupcakes, extra credit, early dismissal or any other alternative – has a place in your pedagogical toolbox. However, like any tool, it should be used only in well-lit, well-ventilated classrooms by a trained professional.
Above all, only bribe in moderation. On a practical level, this means keeping a careful eye on the time, energy, and money you devote to devising bribes. If I had to guess, I would guess that one of James’s primary objections to Ethan’s bribes is that they very plainly represented a significant outlay of cash – two or three dozen cupcakes from the gourmet bakery downtown don’t come cheap. Money management is, with good reason, a pressing concern for grad students. While it isn’t my job to tell you how to spend your money, spending more doesn’t translate to greater educational benefits. Like they say, it’s the thought that counts. I try to keep the cash value of any bribe to less than $5.
That said, there’s plenty of bribery options that can’t be reduced to filthy lucre. For example, if everyone turns in their reading responses Thursday night, we’ll hold Friday’s class outside. Earn an A on the midterm and you can have the option of skipping class on the day we’ll review for the final exam. Anyone who takes on three extra peer editing assignments will get three extra points added to their own term paper. And so on. If you think your students would benefit from a little extra motivation, you can incentivize just about anything.
More generally, moderation means that no matter how much you end up spending (if anything), you should make sure your bribes are special occasions rather than regular occurrences. Culinary wisdom dictates that it is always easier to add more of a potent ingredient than try to remove it later and this principle is likewise appropriate for teachers. No matter what your reward of choice is, it’s always easier to offer more of it where applicable than to try to dial it back from students who might come to expect it. This is particularly true if you offer extra credit as a motivator; students could disregard otherwise essential assignments and material if they have a reason to anticipate an extra credit opportunity.
To avoid any such habit forming, I like to use unannounced contests as a way to mete out bribes. I learned this from a professor (and also from Captain Ahab) who, at the end of the course, would give out “Big Dog Awards” to the top term papers without giving students prior notice of this sweepstakes. Big Dog Awards were simply small ceramic dog statues of various breeds that had been his closet for, presumably, several decades. As a bribe, they were deeply strange, essentially devoid of value, and completely irrelevant to the course but also unfailingly effective in inspiring applause, cheers, and genuine pride in the winners’ achievement. I chalk the Big Dog Awards’s sheer surprise factor; they transformed a regular day into an impromptu ceremony involving dog tchotchkes.
Finally, don’t underestimate the ability of bribes to undermine your authority. Cultivating authority is another pressing concern for grad student instructors and we’ve discussed the various means by which we might do so. Too frequent, too elaborate, or too indulgent bribes risk coming across as pandering. You can and should recognize and reward hard-working students but it’s tough to rebuild your carefully crafted gender-specific authority if students suspect you’re desperate for their approval.
Do you ever use bribes in your classroom? What sorts of positive motivation do you recommend? Or do you think teachers should simply let hard work be its own reward? Let us know in the comments or @GradHacker!
[Image by Flickr user Ballookey Klugeypop and used under a Creative Commons license.]
