Outline

I. Using Rewards to Teach Students with Disabilities

a. The area of behavior intervention gets more attention than many other components of teaching.

i. In special education students behavior is especially important for minimizing distractions.

ii. Low self esteem in special ed. often leads to bad behavior.

iii. Improving the performance of the students involves teaching adaptive skills that can be generalized to student environments in and out of the class.

b. Motivation- can be either intrinsic or extrinsic

i. Beginning teachers use more extrinsic motivation.

ii. Special ed. Teachers also use more frequent extrinsic motivation, with the hope that someday as the students mature they will establish their own intrinsic motivation.

iii. The ultimate goal of motivation is for student’s success by performing tasks that facilitate future growth through intrinsic motivation.

c. Rewards

i. Researchers are against extrinsic rewards.

ii. Rewards should be positive reinforcement, however, they usually are not.

iii. Arguments about rewards

1. Not all reinforcement requires tangible rewards.

2. Long term dependency on rewards may have long term negative effect on intrinsic motivation.

iv. The extrinsic rewards – intrinsic rewards motivational conflict

1. Extrinsic rewards ruin the chance at children becoming intrinsically motivated.

2. Verbal praise demonstrates higher intrinsic motivation.

d. How rewards need to be delivered

i. Deliver reward along a continuum.

ii. Use verbal praise with other rewards

iii. Use equitable rewards