Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The WOW Factor in Education, Part IV





TANGIBLE BENEFITS vs. INTRINSIC BENEFITS

Tangible benefits are the quantifiable aspects of your Rewards-based program, they appeal to the left brain. Tangible benefits include field trips, gadgets, cash rewards, new books, and gift cards. 

Intrinsic benefit are the emotional aspects of your Rewards-based program, they appeal to the right brain. Offering recognition, special privileges, and exclusive access and experiences creates an emotional connection. 


Think of platinum-level frequent-fliers whose miles earned become secondary to the frequent-flier perks: seat upgrades, recognition, expedited check-ins, higher levels of service. 

With respect to intrinsic values, I offer "coaching" sessions to my students whereby they can schedule blocks of time with me (1-hour or 90-minute sessions) to ask my advice on any given topic. 

In these sessions, we work together to better understand a problem. They know beforehand that if we cannot solve the "problem" or "issue" in that session, that we'll continue working on it until we reach an acceptable solution. 

If they are coming to me with a "problem", I ask that they bring with them "two possible solutions" to save me time and to ensure that they are thinking through issues. Often times, they solve the problem on their own without my intervention, which in our Rewards-based program is worthy of a reward. 

When students can demonstrate that they had a problem and solved it, this is an example of critical analysis skills in action. 

My kids pride themselves on their critical thinking abilities, and value them because they've been taught that critical thinking is of far greater value than rote learning. Our rewards are in alignment with the effort expended in any given task. Understanding the difference in effort expended for tasks also helps to maintain balance in rewarding students for their achievement, while simultaneously keeping the parent or teacher within budget (financial or perceived) for rewards they wish to extend. 



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