Does the naughty step work?

Last updated on: May 21, 2015 at 7:09 pm by Gill Robins

Does the naughty step work? 2015-05-21T19:09:43+00:00 Gill Robins

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Stick or carrot: which is the more powerful motivator? The balance between reward and punishment has swung like a pendulum for centuries, influencing parenting styles and behaviour management as it goes. Is there a definitive answer?

What happens when we praise children was the focus of my Masters research, so I was interested to read that researchers at Washington University have concluded that a stick, even a very small one, is more effective than a carrot, even if said carrot is supersized. The naughty step, it seems, really does work. But what is working, and why?

First, some background to the debate. As early as the 11th century, Anselm of Canterbury opposed the use of coercion in education, suggesting instead that children should be nurtured. He understood that a child’s character is formed by social environment and the quality of care within it, and that the future of the adult is also shaped by this early experience. Jump forward to the 17th century, when John Locke opposed the use of reward on the basis that it focused attention on achieving the reward itself and so stifled natural curiosity, while Rousseau’s fictitious 18th century pupil Emile, freed from the trammels of a transmission model of learning, developed the skill of thinking things out for himself. The early educational theorists would have fitted comfortably into The Govian Blob.

But then along came the behaviourists: John B Watson, Edward Lee Thorndike and that nemesis of creative learning, B F Skinner. They argued that the consistent application of praise could condition social and learning behaviours and thus behaviourism became the holy grail of behaviour management for decades. Enter stage left: star charts, certificates, reward assemblies and, ultimately, the bribery of the Vivo Miles fulfilment centre. The pendulum was pulled only partially the other way during the last century by the constructivist thinkers Piaget, Vygotsky, Rogers and Bruner, so now our schools mostly have a hybrid of two philosophies, neither of which provides the complete answer.

With Ed Deci and Richard Ryan, research into learning motivation took on a whole new momentum, followed by Carol Dweck’s formulation of growth and fixed mindset learning theory. Coming right up to date, Steve Reiss of Ohio State University has defined 16 intrinsic motivators and he warns against assuming that we can motivate others without understanding their value systems. He uses the example of the sports coach telling his team that their next match will be a test of character. Reiss assessed thousands of athletes in the course of his research and found ‘that, as a group, they do not care much about their character. They care about winning’. To motivate others, we have to appeal to their values, rather than assuming that ours necessarily the better ones.

So is there a Christian perspective on the use of praise? I think so. My research suggests that children are very quick to see through the sort of phoney praise that is designed to boost their self-esteem. They also place little value on praise or rewards given to them by adults whom they either don’t know or don’t respect. Time after time, conversations showed that what they valued was their relationship with the giver, usually regardless of what was being given. In a classroom context, they valued privacy, fairness, sincerity, honesty, and praise which acted as some sort of communication, either about learning or behaviour. Mostly, they valued being noticed. At home, they valued treats out of the ordinary that made them feel loved and special. When praise was part of a trusting, mutually respectful relationship, children described outcomes of joy; encouragement; motivation to do better or to keep trying; hope, and understanding – of the person praising them as well as of themselves.

I have written elsewhere about our role as pedagogues and also as encouragers just as Barnabas was an encourager. The Bible is full of examples of encouragement: Hebrews 3:13 tells us to ‘encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today”’. 1Thessalonians 5:11 says ‘Therefore encourage one another and build one another up’. Acts 20:1-2 recounts how the apostle Paul ‘sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. He travelled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people’.

But on the flip side of the praise coin is sanction – Titus 2:15 tells us that we should both ‘encourage and rebuke with authority’. It’s not a case of either stick or carrot; more a matter of the balance between the two. If we have built a loving, trusting and mutually respectful relationship with a child, either as a parent or a teacher, we are in a position to administer loving discipline. And this is where the research is absolutely right – a small stick is quite enough. The naughty step works just fine, because it’s reflecting on and understanding the disappointment or distress that misbehaviour causes that effects repentance and change.

So in answer to the perennial question of whether the stick or the carrot is better, the answer is actually neither. It’s all about both, in the context of relationship. Without a strong relationship, either is pretty limited in effectiveness. As Christians living in relationship with God, that makes complete sense.

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