It's this writer's firm opinion that young pupils should be given rewards for their scholarly efforts during tutoring, and not completely depend on getting good grades from their teachers as their only means of compensation. Adults receive rewards for their efforts mainly in the manner of money to assure their effort will be persevered, and children need a similar form of stimulation to assure that their academic victory will also be continued. Rewards, however, are only as good and convincing as the value that the recipient holds for that reward. When the reward has little value to the beneficiary, effort will be nominal. When the reward, however, has considerable value to the receiver, effort will be high.

Reward Method for Tutors

Tutoring has been shown to be highly effective to the pupil with anticipated fulfillment for the parents. However, it's the pupil who has to do all the work. The tutor is rewarded with money, and the parents are rewarded with their child's great results. But the student has to rely entirely on the success of obtaining better grades, which as discussed, isn't much of a reward for a young child.

As a result, the student needs a reward that is highly valued by that pupil specifically, and a method to reward the student during tutoring will prove to be effective. Not only does the reward motivate the student to achieve better scholarly results, but it also gives the student understanding of obtaining rewards for brilliance.

Studies suggest that positive reinforcement is more powerful than negative reinforcement in most behavior modification situations. Basically, positive reinforcement is a reward that's given out for favorable performance, and negative reinforcement is punishment or reward denial that's given out for unfavorable performance.

There are times, however, when negative reinforcement is necessary such as in conditions where a child behaves opposite to what's expected of him or her. For example, rewarding a child for not making an entire mess of the kitchen area is not a very good idea. The child will expect a reward every time he or she makes a mess. Rather than apply positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement is the most appropriate method. For example, not cleaning up after making a mess in the kitchen area could result to being denied something that the child holds as being very worthwhile such as being denied a long awaited outing or being denied a sleep over at a friend's house.

Maximum effort is not something that we can expect our children to provide all the time, but using a reward strategy during tutoring can secure that the pupil provides maximum effort most of the time.