Incentives: The effects on the reading motivation of fourth‐grade students

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of various incentives on the reading motivation of fourth‐grade students. The students involved in the study attended an elementary school in a mid‐size town in the South. Results were based on the participation of 28 students in the control group who received no incentives, 27 students in the treatment group who received books as incentives, and 36 students in the treatment group who received non‐reading related rewards as incentives. Each student's level of reading motivation was measured at the beginning and end of the study using the Reading Survey portion of the Motivation to Read Profile (Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, & Mazzoni, 1996), which was completed by each student, and the Parent Survey, which was completed by the guardian of each student participating in the study. Book logs were also used in the study to measure the students’ motivation to read based on the number of books read. The findings of the study indicated that there were no significant differences in reading motivation between students who received incentives and those who did not as measured by the Motivation to Read Profile and the numbers of books read.