Incentives can decrease performance by undermining intrinsic motivation. How such an interplay of external reinforcers and internal self-regulation influences memory processes, however, is less known. Here, we investigated their interaction on memory performance while learning the meaning of new-words from their context. Specifically, participants…

The inequitable distribution of principal effectiveness raises concern among policymakers. Principal sorting likely contributes to wider achievement and opportunity gaps between low- and high-need schools. As a possible policy tool, policymakers proposed performance-based compensation systems (PBCS). Tennessee was one of the states that supported…

Since at least 2015, public education has experienced declining numbers in the quality of students' education as well as educator and student retention (Finn, 2019; Joubert, 2020). The problem is that due to limited financial resources, school districts need nonmonetary options to incentivize teachers and campus administrators to improve job…

Motivation: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial disruption to K-12 schooling and students learning (Kuhfeld, Soland, & Lewis, 2021). Policymakers and educators have pointed to the potential of tutoring to support students' learning recovery, given that tutoring is one of the most effective educational strategies to help students…

Software installation is an early barrier to success for graduate students in our online statistics class. To help them overcome this potential barrier, our instructional team created the SPSS Early Adopter Program (SEAP). The SEAP gamified the installation task with a discussion badge and bonus point; these external motivators encouraged students…

Motivationally attractive cues can draw in behavior in a phenomenon termed incentive salience. Incentive cue attraction is an important model for animal models of drug seeking and relapse. One question of interest is the extent to which the pursuit of motivationally attractive cues is related to the value of the paired outcome or can become…

High school chemistry is essential. Every citizen needs basic chemistry background to understand current events, and millions more can benefit from further study. Nevertheless, students do not always continue learning chemistry, even when they could do so. The loss of potential learning is significantly more common for girls, economically…

Teachers use traditional incentive and reward systems with the best of intentions. We're trying to support students' positive behavior and learning. We're hoping to motivate and inspire students to work hard and do well in school. "If everyone behaves, we'll have a pizza party. The more books you read, the more stickers you'll receive."…

Supporting professional development plays an instrumental role in the use of research-based programs to work successfully for student gains. The purpose of this study was to discover if teachers who learn to use an incentive-based reading program, Accelerated Reader, would use it to promote reading motivation for students and assist them in…

Primary students who struggle to read need incentive to redirect their mindset back onto the productive path of daily reading. Reading is daunting to the youngest readers who experience difficulties because the act of reading is difficult and tiresome. Effective reading engagement programs motivate these readers to read on a daily basis and…

The purpose of this study is to examine the motivation type preferences of students in kindergartens and second, fourth, sixth, and eighth grades and the underlying reasons thereof after successfully completing a mathematics task. The students in the study solved an easy mathematics question. After they solved the problem, they were presented with…

This article tackles the question whether it is a viable strategy to conduct online surveys among university students in developing countries. By documenting the methodology of the National Service Scheme Survey conducted in Ghana, we set out to answer three questions: (1) How can a sample of university students be obtained? (2) How can students…

Teacher turnover and retention has been a challenge within schools for many years. However, schools in low-performing urban settings experience teacher turnover at a much higher rate than schools in higher socioeconomic statuses. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive qualitative study was to determine the reasons why effective teachers at…

Executive skills are the cognitive abilities that make it possible for people to set goals, regulate impulses, and complete the steps necessary to achieve their objectives. Examples of these skills include time management, emotional control, and organization. Richard Guare and Peggy Dawson have developed a coaching strategy based on executive…

While it may seem almost intuitive that offering rewards to students will yield better results, that is not how it works; the result often is the opposite. The paradox of rewards is that their effect often has a limited impact on students, who then will lose curiosity; it also makes them feel as if they are being controlled--a negative motivating…