The academic educational system has been in existence so long that at a point we were taught that it was the key to succeed in life. However, seeing the number of poor professors in our society, we can agree that isn't the case. Today there are a lot of approaches to learning both in academics and other areas of life, and a lot of teachers love to improve the value of learning by using different methods to arouse student's interests in learning. While some of these methods are healthy, there are however other methods that aren't too healthy and would mislead students if they get too comfortable with those methods.
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One of such methods is creating a reward system around learning. Students need to understand that new knowledge in itself is the first reward for learning. Any other reward can be gotten in the long run if they use the knowledge they acquired wisely. Learning isn't a job, it shouldn't even be. It should instead be a lifestyle one must cultivate as a character value. Therefore when teachers put a reward system in place, the students would only learn to the extent they can be sure of getting the reward for. This would mean too many things; they will either learn the context without understanding the idea, or they would learn only to the extent they feel they need to, which could be limiting in regards to what the idea of that knowledge requires.
It's just like what a lot of students in Nigerian schools do today. I did it too when I was in school and that is learning as much as is required to pass an exam. Passing the exam became my goal and not really learning to understand. At a point the rate I wanted to pass with limited me as I stopped looking to pass with an “A”. Statistics show that the majority of students who graduate top of their class have limited knowledge in handling real life situations. This is mainly because the only thing they did and knew throughout the years of their academic education was how to excel in academics and thus never knew life outside the academic sector.
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Creating the reward system might make the student read to qualify for the reward, but what happens when they get the reward… it shows they were never pursuing knowledge but rather the reward which is bad for learning. The job of teachers is to help the students learn and not pass. When a student has learned enough, passing is certain. But the true test and exam the student would have to face is in the real world outside the academic sector. And if that student hasn't learned how to learn, it will be hard for them to survive in real life because true learning is continuous. Learning how to learn is the major job of every teacher who really wants to impact their students, so instead of creating a reward system around learning, create the value of learning and imbibe it in the hearts of the children.
