Incentivos y ejecución de los estudiantes

Me encontré hoy con los trabajos de Roland Fryer, un economista de Harvard,  interesado en el estudio de las  causas y las consecuencias de la desigualdad en los EU. Tiene un proyecto  que ha sido muy exitoso  basado en pagarle a los estudiantes que obtengan buenas notas. Y aparentemente esto se está convirtiendo en moda en los EU. Soy de los que creen en la motivación intrínseca y que condicionar a los estudiantes de esta manera tendrá consecuencias negativas en el futuro pero pienso  que el problema principal de muchos de nuestros estudiantes es que no ven en la escuela ningún tipo de incentivo. El asunto central es cómo los motivamos  a estudiar y a salir bien en la escuela cuando el mero hecho de sacar A o llegar a la universidad no es una recompensa que les interesa. El asunto es realmente complejo …

Para conocer más los proyectos de Fryer puede visitar:

The New York Times > Magazine > Toward a Unified Theory of Black America

• His most ambitious project, which grew out of his belief in the power of environment, is an experiment designed to see if incentives can inspire minority students to improve their grades. For all the talk about education reform, Fryer says, he feels that one party is being overlooked: the students themselves. »I’m troubled by the fact we’re treating kids as inanimate objects,» he says. »They have behavior, too. They respond to incentives, too.»

• if we start paying students to test well, aren’t we sending the message that learning is not its own reward?

For ‘A’ Students in Some Brooklyn Schools, a Cellphone and 130 Free Minutes – New York Times

Controversial Plan Would Give Students Free Cell Phones, Minutes, Text Messages – Videos – WNBC

Next Question: Can Students Be Paid to Excel? – New York Times

• School districts nationwide have seized on the idea that a key to improving schools is to pay for performance, whether through bonuses for teachers and principals, or rewards like cash prizes for students.

• Critics of these efforts say that children should be inspired to learn for knowledge’s sake, not to earn money, and question whether prizes will ultimately lift achievement. Anticipating this kind of argument, New York City was careful to start the student experiment with private donations, not taxpayer money, avoiding some of the controversy that has followed the Baltimore program, which uses public money.

Cash incentive programmes boost black pupils – Times Online

• Critics have complained that by offering children cash if they get good grades, Fryer is merely replacing teaching with bribery. The scheme is still in its first year, but previously sceptical teachers have already begun to report marked improvements in their children’s attendance and attention.