There is an ongoing debate over whether giving prizes only for achievement is a proper way to educate students. While some people argue that rewarding high performance is the true meaning of prizes, it seems evident to me that rewarding students’ efforts is educationally beneficial. The fundamental reason is that prizes based on efforts not only motivate students to try harder, but also teach them the importance of the process.
First of all, giving awards for students endeavor promotes students to study enthusiastically. This is largely because students can feel a strong sense of accomplishment when getting a prize. Especially for low-ranking students, there is almost no incentive for them to study hard. However, if they receive a prize praising their efforts, students with lower academic grades can also get motivated. Therefore, prizes or awards can function as stimuli for students. For example, when I was volunteering at an elementary school for an afterschool English program, I saw a lot of low-ranking students who did not study hard nor participate in the class activities. The students knew that they had no talents, so they had no reason to make an effort. However, when they were informed that there would be prizes based on participation and efforts, the students got motivated and tried a lot harder than before. This example proves that giving prizes according to the efforts motivate students to study harder.
Furthermore, bestowing prizes for hard work enables students to know the importance of the process. In a modern society where only results are considered important, people often overlook the importance of process and numerous inappropriate ways like cheating exist to get a good result. Needless to say, students do not have many chances to learn that the process is as much important as the result is. Therefore, giving prizes based on efforts as well as achievement can be a valuable lesson for young students to realize that their hard work can be paid off even though the result does not come to good.
In conclusion, without any doubt, I firmly believe that granting prizes for their efforts will be highly beneficial to students. The reasons are that those awards can motivate students to try their best and allow them to know that the process is also important.