Incentives

In economics, there is theory of incentives on solving social and economic issues like giving incentives to small size families to alleviate population problem, giving free green bags to shopping center customers to promote environment protection, and deduction on taxes to taxpayers who pay on time.

Incentives do not only work in economics. These are very effective in enhancing the academic performance of the students in class. When teachers give extra points for students with no late and perfect attendance, the students will be encouraged to comply to these requirements. In attending seminars and fora, without bonus points, there will only be few students who will have the willingness to attend such events. in that way, they will not only earn bonus points, they will also learn new insights and acquire more knowledge aside from what they learn inside the classroom. If the teacher announces beforehand about the forthcoming exam, more students will be prepared and their grades are better than the unannounced exam. However, there are times that these incentives are not good like when the student knows that the teacher will give bonus points, he will not study more because he depends on the incentives, that he will pass the exam because of the bonus points. Other teachers also give bonus problems related to the topics and those can not just be mere bonus problems because those need some effort. Another teacher, for the bonus questions, asked what is her full name, age, room number, and address.

Lastly, incentives are also useful at home. When parents motivate their children to do well in school, they use positive reinforcement rather than punishments. They will reward their children to inspire them to do well and to do more so that they will receive more and more benefits. An example of this is the parents will promise to their child that they will give her the doll she wants to have if she will get a high score in her exam. Or if the child is an adolescent, the parents may offer him for a new phone if he is among the top students in class.

Incentives are very useful. However, these must be use in a right way and right time for these to be effective.