In August, school communities across Australia will learn the results from the annual NAPLAN tests, which students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sat earlier this year.
While NAPLAN is widely promoted as a marker of student progress and are used to inform decisions about what is needed in Australian schools, there has been increasing concern about students’ performance in these tests.
Last year’s results found just two-thirds of Australia’s students are meeting the national standards, with headlines of “failed NAPLAN expectations”.
‘A proven method of motivation’
While rewarding students to do better on tests is not a new concept, two researchers - Jayanta Sarkar and Dipanwita Sarkar, Associate professors of economics the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) - sought to explore this to better understand students’ motivation and effort while taking a test.
In their study, the researchers used data on real students doing NAPLAN tests and looked at three groups of Year 7 students, in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The students, enrolled at a coeducational public high school in South East Queensland, mostly came from socio-educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.
If the students reached personalised goals in their NAPLAN tests, they would receive small ‘financial’ rewards.
“The rewards were school tuck-shop vouchers redeemable for food items only. However, these rewards had specific monetary values – hence they were called financial reward,” the researchers told The Educator.
“Rewards offered in this form instead of the standard items such as a wristband or pencil case, allowed them the freedom of when and what tuck-shop items to choose as their reward. It is well-known that design of incentives – popularly called choice architecture – can influence their effectiveness in eliciting desirable behaviours.”
The researchers said the monetary value of these rewards was modest compared to the evidence available in the literature.
“More importantly, the overall expenditure on these rewards was minimal relative to their impact, making them highly cost-effective in improving test performance,” they said.
“Offering substantial rewards is a proven method to motivate individuals to exert their best effort, which is why many employers provide significant bonuses to high-performing employees.”
However, the researchers said the monetary rewards should be carefully considered based on specific contexts.
“Although large financial rewards might have a greater short-term impact, they could lead to unwanted spillover effects, such as reduced motivation when rewards are not offered,” they said.
“Additionally, the cost of providing large rewards could be substantial, and these resources might be better spent on improving teaching methods or school facilities. Hence, we chose to focus on modest rewards.”
How the rewards were allocated – and the results they produced
For the proportional incentive, the students got a $4 voucher for every percentage point over and above their target score, up to a maximum of $20. For the social incentive, students were organised into groups of about 25, each getting a $20 voucher if their group had the highest average gain in scores between Year 5 and Year 7 of all the groups.
“To make sure any improvement in test scores could only occur through increased effort (and not increased preparation), the incentives were announced by the school principal in a prerecorded message, just minutes before the start of each test,” the researchers explained.
The rewards were handed out by the school 12 weeks after the exams, once results were released.
When the researchers examined the data, they were met with several surprises.
The biggest gain was in students’ writing – an area where Australian students’ performance has dropped over the past decade, with a “pronounced” drop in high school.
“It is also surprising that students’ individual efforts still increased when the reward depended on other students’ performances,” the researchers said.
“All the test takers were new to high school and would not have had long to establish the kind of group cohesion that typically makes group rewards effective.”
Another surprise, said the researchers, was the fact the rewards had an impact even when they came with a delay of 12 weeks.
“Previous research suggests rewards would need to be given to students immediately or soon after their efforts in order to have an effect.”
What schools can take away from the research
The researchers say this intervention “adds to a policymaker's toolkit for overcoming barriers to improvement in academic outcomes” but note that there are several barriers to achieving this.
“Students may lack the motivation to put in the necessary effort to enhance their academic performance, possibly due to a lack of interest in the subject matter or an understanding of the importance of education,” they said.
“Students may overvalue the immediate cost of effort and undervalue the long-term rewards of education, leading to underperformance. Additionally, adverse financial and family circumstances can prevent students from performing their best.”
The researchers said their research aligns with existing studies, showing a positive correlation between incentives and improvement in test performance.
“Schools could use our findings to design effective reward systems for low-stakes tests, such as the NAPLAN,” the researchers said.
“Incentives are not to be considered as the silver bullet for improving test performances.”
The researchers said incentives would work only if the reason for underperformance is due to a lack of engagement with tests, and not due to other barriers such as lack of learning opportunity or resources.
“In our study, the rewards were based on personalised goals, which means each student had a target tailored to their previous performance. This approach encourages self-improvement rather than competition among peers,” they said.
“For example, a student who struggled previously might feel more motivated to improve if they know they have a specific, achievable target. So, the weaker students are also uplifted by this approach.”
Showing students that hard work pays off
The researchers said rewards should ultimately act as positive reinforcement.
“By rewarding effort and achievement, students learn that hard work and dedication are valued, thereby building a positive attitude towards learning and testing,” they said.
“Additionally, for students from socio-educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, achieving personalised goals and receiving rewards can boost their confidence.”
The researchers said this shows students that their efforts can lead to tangible results, which can be empowering and encouraging.
“In the real world, effort and achievement are often rewarded. By introducing this concept early, students can learn about the relationship between effort and reward, preparing them for future academic and professional environments,” they said.
“If there are concerns about offering financial rewards, schools might consider non-financial incentives.”
The researchers said these incentives can include commendations, recognition in newsletters or announcements, certificates, and badges, some of which are already offered for high-stakes tests that determine official report card results.
“We aim to conduct further research to investigate if the effect of rewards are short-lived or persist over the longer horizon.”
*Editors note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the researchers gave the Year 7 students in the study small financial rewards if they reached personalised goals in their NAPLAN tests. The school that ran the experiment - not the researchers - provided the students with the rewards. This error has since been corrected in the body copy of the article.