Rewards ARE COERCIVE. They ARE MANIPULATIVE. They ARE CONTROLLING.

Giving contingent rewards is not compassionate, kind, or a loving action. Kids understand this fact, and they fight against it. So when a child accuses me of manipulating them, they are right.

I have been through my approach before. I will refer you here and here to learn what I recommend regarding PBIS and here for behavior management in general. Overall, what I wholeheartedly believe is that we need to stop using external motivation as a way of getting kids to engage. We are depriving them of learning for themselves how to act and behave because they want to be good and because they like how they feel when they do the right thing. We are teaching them that, at least in school, their primary motivation to complete work should be to receive a reward from teachers and other adults. We teach them to distrust their intrinsic motivations and desires. We are robbing them of the ability to develop their socioemotional sense of self on their terms.

Source: External Incentives DECREASE Intrinsic Motivation: Implications for Classroom Management – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?

Dr. Hunsaker is a behavioral neuroscientist and special education teacher. I’ve shared his work before. Some of my favorites:

• Defining Reinforcement and Punishment for Educators – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• PBIS is Broken: How Do We Fix It? – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• We Need to Re-Evaluate School-Wide PBIS – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• We Need to Approach Behavioral Management Differently – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• We Can Prevent Behavior/Emotional Disorders by Teaching Communication Skills – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• Moving Beyond Planned Ignore and Proximity Prase: Strategies to Address Challenging Behaviors – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• Kids Think: Behaviorism Will Fail Until It Accepts This Fact – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• Most of What We Call Autism-Behaviors Really Are Not Unique to Autism – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• Behavioral management in my classroom – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• Students Do Not Deserve Your Sarcasm – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?
• Behavioral Management – Why Haven’t They Done That Yet?

See also,

• Opinion | Science Confirms It: People Are Not Pets – The New York Times
• Rewards Are Still Bad News 25 Years Later – Alfie Kohn
• It’s Not About Behavior – Alfie Kohn
• The Overselling of Gratitude – Alfie Kohn
• The Risks of Rewards – Alfie Kohn
• Explaining the Why of Your Ed-tech Choices – Ryan Boren 
• Mindset Marketing, Behaviorism, and Deficit Ideology – Ryan Boren
• Persuasion and Operant Conditioning: The Influence of B. F. Skinner in Big Tech and Ed-tech – Ryan Boren