This Times Article reports on a Cornell University study on prize based rewards. To quote the article:
“Jackson found that pupils who benefited from the Texas high school programme not only went to college in greater numbers, but also continued to improve their grades and remained in college longer.
His 46-page report finds “no evidence of worse outcomes” and concludes “that incentive programmes may have lasting positive effects even after rewards are no longer provided. Providing monetary incentives to both students and teachers … can lead to meaningfully improved student outcomes”.”
The article also pulls information about the debate on prizes where some consider if defacto bribery leading to a dependence on rewards and others consider it a stepping stone to an intrinsic and long term love of learning. We all know that every school, every pupil is different. This research, and this article, provide some more colour in the motivation debate.