Rewards and Punishments in the Primary School: Pupils’ Perceptions and Teachers’ Usage

Summary The pupils and the teachers of years 5 and 6 in two primary schools were presented with a list of rewards and a list of punishments. The pupils ranked each list in terms of effectiveness and the teachers ranked in terms of usefulness. The results showed virtually zero correlations between the rankings of the pupils and the teachers. A close examination of the results suggests that whilst some discrepancies may be attributable to the difference in the task set to the two groups, other discrepancies indicate that the teachers should reappraise their practices.