I personally believe it’s a good idea.

What do you think?

It all depends on what you mean by “incentive”.

Strictly speaking, an incentive is an extrinsic and artificial motivator.
“If you get good marks, I will buy you candy …. or a car”
It is something that moves B to do what A wants under the assumption that it is for B’s benefit.

“Sticks and carrots” are effective only on the short run and are never efficient.
An incentive is a manipulative device, and should not be used by civilized people.
Not even on donkeys and camels.

Now …. if by incentive you mean recognition and support, I’m all for it.

Yes. Definitely. I told my students that i want them to work hard. They would have to do exercises. Every exercise they do grants them 1 pt. When they accumulate a number of points (quite high figure), i buy them a book on Japanese/Japan culture.

Sounds reasonable …. they are working for something that will help them learn more and better.

I would write that under recognition and support.

Although i am conducting free lessons, i think this will really help them to learn. Every 3-4 months, when i visit Japan, i will take time to go to the temple to pray for them, that they will “grow” to be able to speak Japanese

I think the praying is a good idea Mamoru, but not the book. You are already giving the gift of learning – it is enough :-)

thanks Mair, but i personally would like to also give them the recognition which i feel that they deserve.

you must do what you think is right :-)

I just feel a little uneasy that the students are on the receiving end of so much generosity – perhaps you will find a way to let them be generous too.

I think recognition is great, I used to give out candy when I was a traditional classroom teacher. The kids loved it.

I think that verbal praise and helping a student’s self confidence on edufire does wonders for them. A “keep up the good work” goes a long way.

I actually read that if someone is getting intrinsic motivation, satisfaction and gratification from something they do, then external, especially monetary rewards decreases motivation and satisfaction!! In short if you want to motivate a student, you want to guide them and encourage them to nurture an intrinsic desire to achieve rather than give them a prized object! Counter-intuitive in ways, but you could dampen a student’s intrinsic motivation by giving them “stuff”. I think your encouragement and acknowledgment on their efforts and achievements are plenty as well. Externally motivated learners, that is a different story – but again, I’d like to see us teachers to inspire students to become intrinsically motivated to learn, don’t you agree?