CREATING A TOKEN ECONOMY IN THE CLASSROOM

a paper submitted for a class taken at universalclass.com

Creating a TOKEN ECONOMY is to create a very flexible reinforcement for an educational setting. It is a system that works within the framework of the desired behaviors that you want to achieve with your subject. We can call their behaviors focused behaviors. In this brief essay, I am going to state some of the purposes of using a Token Economy System. First, it encourages appropriate student behavior and decreases the undesired behaviors. Desired behaviors could include responding appropriately to stimuli, developing desired behaviors towards others and circumstances. Undesired behaviors could include eliminating inappropriate responses. Secondly, it provides a consistent reminder of goals obtained or successes. Since a token is awarded each time a desired behavior is demonstrated or removed after a negative respons, the student receives an immediate response to their positive or negative behavior. Third, there is both an immediate and cumulative reward for desired behaviors that are consistently demonstrated. The receive tokens each and every time the behavior is performed. As an option, a cost response componant can be added so that tokens are taken away for undesired behavior. To encourage more consistency, it is good to increase the requirements along as the student progresses through this behavior modification journey. Fourth, if it is done right, the end goal with be of high value. Usually this reward will be selected in conference with the subject. If the end goal/reward is something that the student is definitely interested in working towards, they will have the incentive to work towards it as long as the floor and ceiling are where they ought to be so that the end goal is reasonably achievable. I like this token economy concept and look forward to going into further detail in the next couple lessons.