A small number of studies did suggest that a combination of feedback
with external incentives, like cost savings, could be effective, but there was not enough research to help the researchers understand its effectiveness.
This statebuilding coalition emerged and stabilized as a result
of external incentives provided by outside powers, primarily the USA and Turkey.
Perhaps the same thing is happening when we haphazardly apply gamification elements that act
as external incentives.
Fink: Someone visiting the school over time should see an orderly learning environment characterized by intrinsic motivation,
not external incentives oriented toward student compliance.
But the somewhat better attention to merit incentives in colleges has helped make our higher education system the envy of the world, while our K — 12 public schools, almost entirely
lacking external incentives, are not.
In psychology, this is called the Over Justification Effect —
when external incentives that have nothing to do with an activity, like points for completion, can actually decrease a person's motivation to participate.
Poor Black and Brown students get sub-standard teachers not because the teacher doesn't know how to teach well, but because there is no internal or
external incentive for them to do so!
He contrasts his emphasis on selectivity and placement with a less successful approach that relies
on external incentives to spur motivation.
Accordingly, there is much research about how such survey data can be gamed and manipulated by instructors (e.g., via the use
of external incentives / disincentives), can be biased by respondent or student background variables (e.g., charisma, attractiveness, gender and race as compared to the gender and race of the teacher or instructor, grade expected or earned in the class, overall grade point average, perceived course difficulty or the lack thereof), and the like.
It's harder because in most places they're free, with
no external incentive to avoid using them.
The Protestant work ethic may be the most effective way to promote a renewed sense of responsibility, because it emphasizes the inner resources of faith rather than
any external incentives that our employers may offer.