Token Economies.
Please review the following website and read about the steps involved in setting
up a token economy using the LRBI Checklist:
http://www.iseesam.com/teachall/text/behavior/LRBIpdfs/Token.pdf
Next read the following link about the Poyer Purple Paw tokens and respond
to the questions listed at that link. http://www.psychologicalscience.com/bmod/2011/10/poyner-purple-paw-tokens.html
You can post your response either here or on the link above.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
--Dr. M
What is this program?
- Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
How did it come about?
- Waterloo School District established the program idea
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
- Behavioral classes (which are behaviors that lead to the same general outcome) they are trying to elicit are those behaviors that fall under the categories of trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
- Helping others, turning homework in on time, saying please and thank you, being quiet when others are speaking.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
- Reinforcement.
Is it positive or negative?
- Positive reinforcement; they are rewarded with a desirable stimulus for a positive behavior they emit.
What are the tokens used in this program?
- Tickets given out for good behavior (“T.R.R.C. behaviors”) and then a golden ticket as a backup reinforcer after 10 tickets are collected.
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
- Some pros are that many are needed to achieve a gold ticket, but at the same time this could be hard to reward each individual student.
What is the delivery system?
- The delivery system is 1 ticket for every 1 good behavior, and then 10 tickets are converted to one golden ticket.
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
- Some pros are that they have to receive multiple (10) in order to receive the golden ticket, so it isn’t so easy to receive the tickets. However, this could also be a con because it is hard for a child to get 10 tickets when there are probably twenty-some other kids in the class all trying to do good deeds.
How are the tokens banked?
- It does not specify how these particular tokens/tickets are banked, but usually a tally system or records are kept in order to verify that kids have enough or haven’t lost or stole any. It does specify that 10 are needed to trade for a gold ticket and to obtain higher prizes.
What are the pro's and con's?
- Some pros are that they try to keep a running total of the number of tickets they have; a con is that they did not mention anything about a bank or tallying system in order to keep track and make sure the kids aren’t cheating gin any way.
What are the back up reinforcers?
- Sonic ice cream, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and head teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
- The backup reinforcers are chosen based off of things that the teachers believe that the kids will enjoy, such as popcorn and ice cream cones.
Are they effective reinforcers?
- I think that these are very effective reinforcers because they are all things that the kids would enjoy; however, the only one that I don’t think would be an effective reinforcer is helping the custodian. I am not sure if that is something that would necessarily motivate the kids.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
- Students gain access to the reinforcers by performing “character counts” acts (acts of respect, responsibility, caring, and trustworthy”); from there if they collect 10 tickets they exchange them for a golden ticket, which is the backup reinforcer.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
- Have the children give responses to questions asking if they enjoy the reinforcers; record number of good deeds that occurred before the system is implemented and then the number that occur afterwards; record the number of times class is interrupted for bad behavior before and after the system is implemented
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
- Only says in newsletter that they are encouraging them in school and watching out for good behaviors in the halls, classroom and assemblies as well.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
- It just says in the newsletter the rules of it and encourages parents to encourage their children about it.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
- Not specified at all in the newsletter
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
- I think that the kids would buy into the system because it seems like it is fairly easy to get kids to behave well and get them motivated when there are fun incentives involved; I also think that teachers will buy in to it as well. However, there are always difficult parents that may have some sort of problem with buying into the system completely.
What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
- There are no set guidelines as to what counts as a good character act (trustworthy, respectful, responsible, caring) and kids could focus too much on trying to get tickets and get distracted with that over their schoolwork.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
- How do you record (bank) the number of tickets? What specifically counts as “respectful” or “trustworthy” behavior? Are the teachers the only ones who monitor for these behaviors?
Token Economy
What is this program?
Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
How did it come about?
The Waterloo school district suggested the idea
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to get students to emit behaviors relating to being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Helping a student on the playground, helping a student with homework, bringing the necessary materials to class, bringing back homework that is completed, doing what the teacher asks them to do, or not talking out loud when the teacher is talking
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because the students receive a purple ticket every time they are caught emitting the desired behaviors
Is it positive or negative?
It is positive because they are getting a consequence that is pleasurable.
What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are the purple tickets. For every ten purple tickets, they receive a gold ticket which they can exchange for a prize that they would enjoy
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro's are that 10 tickets are required to earn a golden ticket, this would be motivation for the students to emit the desired behaviors. The con's may be it is hard to catch every student emitting these behaviors and if they aren't constantly reinforced extinction may occur
What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is one purple ticket awarded to students when they emit one good behavior then one golden ticket for every ten purple tickets
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Like I said before, it may be difficult to catch every student emitting the desired behaviors
How are the tokens banked?
It doesn't say how the tickets are specifically banked, just that after a student acquires 10 purple tickets they can cash them in for 1 gold ticket which they can cash in for a prize
What are the pro's and con's?
They may not be able to tell if the student has stolen the tickets, lost them, or found them somewhere
What are the back up reinforcers?
Ice cream, extra recess, a bag of popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They are chosen based on what kids their age would typically enjoy
Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, because they are pleasurable reinforcers which will motivate the students to continue to emit desired behaviors
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
After the students earn 10 purple tickets they take them to the teacher who gives them a golden ticket, they then take that to the teacher and exchange it for a prize
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Take a survey of what types of reinforcers the children would enjoy, mark down how many good deeds they see before and after the idea is suggested.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think they are being effective because they let the kids know what behaviors they are supposed to emit by reinforcing them when they see them doing what they want them to do.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
By putting all of the information in the newsletter they are being effective in letting the parents know what is going on.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It does not say anything about that in the newsletter
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think the system is easy to understand and they seemed to have informed the students and parents pretty well on what the goal is.
What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Since they are constantly being reinforced, they may get bored with earning so many tickets and not worry about emitting the desired behaviors, the target behaviors are broad; breaking them down to be more specific may help in making the idea more successful, and children may not focus on their schoolwork because they are so worried about getting tickets
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How are you sure that you are reinforcing every child's behavior ever time they emit the desired behavior? Are you sure that the parents and other staff members understand what is going on?
What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How is everything recorded to ensure that the students aren't cheating? How do you keep the children focused on schoolwork and not just getting tickets? Should their behaviors be monitored outside of the school environment?
What is this program? It is a Positive Behavior Interventions System, encouraging and rewarding children for being Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible and Caring.
How did it come about? It is not documented how the program came about. It could be assumed that in general teachers are responsible for not only teaching children but enforcing good behavior to nurture well-behaved citizens of the future. Thus a system that looks to elicit good behavior would be welcomed into a school, such as the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The system aims to emit positive behavior from students, such as helping behavior, respectful behaviors and caring behaviors.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Possible target behaviors would be picking up oneself, both books and rubbish; helping each other with projects; prepared for class; ready for class as soon as the bell rings; wearing the correct uniform etc.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement.
Is it positive or negative? The system uses positive reinforcing. To reinforce behaviors children receive a purple paw ticket when a desired behavior is elicited.
What are the tokens used in this program? Children initially are frequently reinforced with purple paw tickets to encourage small desired behaviors. When enough purple paws are received children can exchange them for a golden ticket, a larger more rewarding reinforcement encouraging long-term behavior change.
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Pro’s for the tokens would be the eliciting of positive competition between students, along with the general increase of the program’s desired behavior. Con’s may involve fading-the loss of desired behavior because children were reinforced too frequently at the beginning of the program thus subsequent lack of reinforcement results in the decrease of desired behavior.
What is the delivery system? The delivery system is the speed to which tokens and reinforcement are given to a child with the display of desired behavior. With the delivery system praise must always be given when children are rewarded with tokens and the tokens must be delivered immediately upon the display of desired behavior. For new behaviors tokens must be delivered frequently, but with the development of skills, tokens can be delivered on an intermittent schedule.
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Pro’s for the delivery system are the benefits associated with reinforcing children’s behavior over the long term-resulting in well-behaved citizens. Con’s would be lack of intervention when children’s motivation begins o fade. Prices must be adjusted, like the difficulty of acquiring a token so that children remain motivated to work for the tokens.
How are the tokens banked? The tokens in this example are banked by the student. The student must collect 10 purple paws tor receive 1 golden ticket, thus it is the students responsibility to bank his purple paws accordingly so that he may reach the golden ticket.
What are the pro's and con's? A pro would be encouraging students to be organized enough to collect, save and eventually receive the golden ticket. Con’s would be that with the responsibility of banking the tokens in children’s hands, those that are not responsible could lose their paws and lose motivation, which would render the program ineffective.
What are the back up reinforcers? Back up reinforcers act as long term reinforcers. Whilst students are rewarding frequently for small behavior changes, over the long term they will receive back up reinforcers if they can maintain the behavior change.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen? Back up reinforcers are chosen depending on the difficulty of the desired behavior change. IF the desired behavior change is difficult to acquire, back up reinforcers will be reinforced more frequently, whilst with easier behaviors they will be reinforcers over the long term.
Are they effective reinforcers? They are effective reinforcers for eliciting long term behavior change.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? Children gain access to the reinforcers by eliciting the desired behavior the system has been implemented to elicit. In this example, children gain access to the reinforcers by eliciting behaviors of responsibility, care, trust and respect.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The outcome measures of this example
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? For the system to be successful, the teachers must instructionally inform students how the program is going to work. As such, it can be assumed that the teachers will effectively inform students if they are serious about the program.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? A key element of enforcing token economies if informing parents their children are being exposed to such a system. The newsletter of Poyner Elementary School has done by publishing the system in the school newsletter.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Obviously, to enforce a token economy teachers must be aware of what the system requires, thus the administrators must have effectively taught teachers about the system for it to be exposed in the newsletter.
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes there is, some students and parents may not be interested in this system because they reinforce spate behaviors and values outside the school in the child’s home.
What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Fading may occur, children are not reinforced accordingly, either to easily or not frequently enough decreasing desired behaviors. Children may find a way to counterfeit the tokens, buy the panther stickers from the panther school store.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How long is the system being enforced for? Is it short term or being introduced to school policy.
What additional information might you want to know about the system? None.
What is this program?
Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
How did it come about?
I’m assuming somehow it got suggested to the Waterloo School District because it’s helped other school systems.
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The school is trying to increase the likelihood of the students being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. They are using positive reinforcement to reward the students with good behavior.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors that could be emitted would be acts of kindness, helping students with their homework, respectful to one another and to staff, responsible for own behavior etc.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is heavily based on reinforcement.
Is it positive or negative?
They are implementing positive reinforcement.
What are the tokens used in this program?
They are using purple tickets to reward positive behavior. Once the student gets 10 purple tickets they can trade it in for a golden ticket. A golden ticket is good for an extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal (bad idea), and helping with custodial duties and so on. Something that is desirable to the student.
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
There could be a way when the students token get stolen or lost. Maybe the student doesn’t care about the rewards.
What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is the amount of time it takes for the student to get 10 purple tickets and turns it into 1 golden ticket. If the delivery system is quick and easy then the reinforcement loses its power. If that happens, the students lose interest in wanting to receive the purple tickets. If the delivery system is too slow then the students may become frustrated and give up.
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pros of the delivery system would be watching the kind behavioral acts happen at the beginning. However, not every act will be seen and students might get frustrated with that as well.
How are the tokens banked?
I’m not sure. All I read was that after receiving 10 purple tickets, they can cash it in for 1 golden ticket and then cash that in for a prize.
What are the pro's and con's?
A pro would be that this system would teach the students responsibility and other beneficial behavioral characteristics. A con would be that the students might lose interest if the delivery system is off or the reinforcer isn’t something desirable.
What are the backup reinforcers?
A bag of movie popcorn, an extra recess, extra computer time, lunch with the principal, helping the custodians
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen on what the students enjoyed to do at their particular age. It would vary for different age students.
Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe so. They would have to be for this program to work successfully.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students need to be caught doing one of the T.R.R.C. acts by a staff member, they must receive 10 purple tickets, turn the 1o purple tickets in for 1 golden ticket and then turn the golden ticket into the teacher for a prize.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The teachers will need to find out what the students enjoy doing and incorporate that into their reward system to make the token economy effective. If the reward isn’t desirable enough to make the students want to change their behavior then the system’s not going to work.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I personally don’t know how effectively the administrators are teaching the students about the system but I would assume that they would teach them everything they know about the system because they want their children to be successful. They also need to inform the parents of the system an answer any questions they may have as well, because the parents influence the students more than anyone.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I believe the article said they are sending home information about the token economy and are able to answer any questions that may arise. They are making an effort to educate the parents even in the monthly newsletter.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would assume they are effectively teaching the teachers about the token economy because they are the ones using the system the most. They need to know everything about it.
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, there is always a possibility that the students and parents may not have a completey buy in this system. There will always be those kids and parents who don’t care about any of the rewards because they are being rebellious or something like that. You can’t please everyone.
What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some kids may become bored with the idea. Some kids do the target behaviors anyways, whether they are being reinforced or not. I’m sure problems will come up especially if they are using it in every grade. I would imagine that if every grade uses it the students will begin to fade away from the idea and don’t care anymore.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
None at this time. I think it’s a good idea.
What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Has it worked for the Waterloo School district? Have they been using it since 2010?? What grade use it?
• What is this program?
This program is a token economy used to positively reinforce students to emit trustworthy, responsible, respectable, and caring behaviors. Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
• How did it come about?
This token economy may have come about after students continue to show undesirable behavior. The school could have hired a behavior psychologist or read about the system and decided to implement it to reinforce desirable behaviors.
• What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The administrators are trying to elicit behaviors from students that fall under the categories of trustworthy, responsible, respectable, and caring.
• What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors the faulty may want the children to emit include: raising their hands before answering a question the teacher asks, sharing toys, food, ect. with their classmates, students turning in their completed homework on time, and more.
• Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement by providing students with something desirable (tickets) to increase the frequency of behaviors that are trustworthy, responsible, respectable, and caring.
• Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because it involves the addition of something desirable (tickets).
• What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are tickets.
• What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros to these tokens include: eliciting target behaviors, lead to desirable consequences (prizes), makes students happy. Cons: students may give tickets away to others who do not emit the target behaviors, may not be desirable to some students.
• What is the delivery system? What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The delivery system in this context includes the administrators handing out tickets to students who emit a target behavior. The pros include: there is a lot of faculty in the school therefore behaviors can be monitored more effectively, faulty members are authority figures therefore giving out tickets helps distinguish that authority. Cons: target behaviors not specific enough, students could display behaviors ONLY when faculty is around, teachers may favor students therefore giving them more tickets.
• How are the tokens banked? What are the pro's and con's?
The tokens are banked by the students trading in 10 tickets for a golden one. I assume the teachers are the ones whom the students give their tickets to. Eventually after a certain amount of golden tickets students can trade them for prizes. The pros: students cannot lie about how many tickets they have, tickets are split up in value (golden tickets worth more) it makes them emit the desired behaviors more frequent. Cons: students may steal others’ tickets, it may be difficult (schedule wise) for a student to bank his or her tickets, could easily misplace tickets.
• What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers include: sonic ice cream, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian
• How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were most likely chosen by the faulty as reasonable and affordable prizes. Once students collect enough golden tickets they may choose which ever backup reinforcer they please.
• Are they effective reinforcers?
How effective the reinforcers are depends on the students receiving them. Some students may find popcorn desirable thus reinforcing while others may not. I find having lunch with the principle and helping the custodian more of a punishment however some students may find it desirable.
• How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by trading their tickets for the reinforcer prizes. The flyer does not explain when and where this takes place unfortunately.
• What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
There are many ways administrators may measure the token economy’s effectiveness. The flyer does not specifically state how they intend to measure the effectiveness but one way could be by keeping track of the amount golden tickets exchanged per month or week.
• How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The flyer does not explain how the system is explained to the students. Hopefully the target behaviors are more specific when it was explained.
• How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are not effectively teaching the parents about the system. They provide the general idea however they are not very specific. The target behaviors are very broad and the administrators do not reveal truly how effect the system is.
• How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Again the flyer is not explicit in describing how the administrators taught the teachers about the system but hopefully the target behaviors were better defined.
• Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is a possibility that not everyone bought into the system. Some students may have thought they were too “cool” to follow the rules of the system or did not like the prizes. The behavior of handing out tickets may become extinct among the teachers as the year progressed. Parents may have considered the tickets as bribes to elicit behaviors that students should already be emitting.
• What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The reinforcers may stop being reinforcing. If the faulty does not change the prizes students may become bored of emitting desirable behaviors for tickets. If teachers slowly stop using the system thus infrequently providing tickets, students may not try thus extinction occurs.
• What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Some questions I would have for the administrators include: Please be more specific in the target behaviors you are reinforcing. Can you show me a graph or information proving that the system is effective in eliciting those behaviors. What rewards are most popular among the students? How many golden tickets do students need for each prize?
• What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Will this token economy be implemented in the next few years? What changes will need to be made if so? What problems have occurred?
Terms: reinforcement, punishment, target behavior, backup reinforcers, extinction, token economy, emit, elicit, frequency, delivery system, behavioral classes
The T.R.R.C is a behavior modification program used by the Poyner Panther Elementary School trying in order get students to emit respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors since that is what T.R.R.C stands for. This alone seems a little broad, no exact target behaviors were defined. Some of the behaviors they might want the children to emit may include helping put away equipment (jump ropes, basketballs etc) after gym or recess, coming to class on time, helping other students with any problems (personal or academic), telling authority when something harmful is occurring, hand raising and so on. The system is based on positive reinforcement because something is added (tokens and I would hope praise) and the behavior is more likely to occur in the future. There was no talk of punishment in this token economy, as punishment is aversive, and I think they are more focused on rewarding than punishing, however there is always the possibility that they are taking away tickets for behaviors that they want to decrease. The reinforcement is purple paw tickets because as soon as the target behavior is emitted a purple paw is given that lets the student know it was a desired behavior. The pro’s with these tokens are that they are relatively cheap to implement for a large number of people and practical for a budget, like an elementary school would have. Also if ten paws are needed for a golden ticket they are promoting everyone to want to emit these behaviors multiple times, rather than just a couple. The cons would be that they may be too easy to forge, to steal, to hoard, or to lose. They are given throughout the hallways, classrooms, anywhere the target behaviors are displayed. They didn’t say by whom but I am assuming by faculty members. The downside to this is that unless all the faculty agree on what constitutes as a target behavior the children may become confused. Once ten purple paw tickets are acquired they can be traded for a golden ticket. Golden tickets are supposed to be valuable because they can be redeemed for ice cream, extra recess, lunch with the principle and so on. Another con I can identify with this program may be that students hoard the purple tickets. If there is no way to keep track of who has used tickets, who acquired tickets and when, students may end up giving their tickets to a student for something they find more valuable, they may use them all at once if there is no expiration date, or prizes may not be that effective at all. Honestly, lunch with a faculty member? That would have seemed more punishing to me as a child than rewarding…The flyer to the parents was a good idea. It got a message out about the program but I feel as though it was very lacking in detail. The faculty at this Waterloo Elementary School might want to explain it in detail at parent-teacher conferences or in an additional take home letter. If I were a parent I would want to know exactly what target behaviors were being reinforced, who had the responsibility of administering tickets, how tickets were being accounted for, when the program started, and I would also like to know if the program was working. I would have no problem the T.R.R.C program if it was thoroughly planned, monitored, evaluated, and if I got perhaps monthly feedback on the progress or lack of. They could measure the effectiveness by noting if there was a decreased amount of detentions administered by faculty, or if they noticed an overall more productive atmosphere in the classroom (frequency of behavior). I'd be curious to know since it's 2013 if the program started in 2010 is still in use, if they had to make any changes to it, and if it's not what they would do differently in the future.
Terms: behavior, behavior modification, elicit, emit, target behavior, positive reinforcement, reinforcement, punishment, aversive, token economy, frequency.
This program, Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C, is rewarding students for positive behavior that is being displayed throughout the school day. It came about through the greater Waterloo School Districts initiative to become a PBIS district, one that displays Positive Behavior Initiative system. Poyner elementary made their own version of the initiative focusing on areas of Trustworthy, Respect, Responsible, and Caring, using these areas as the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit from their students. Specific behavior they may be looking for children to emit may be not pushing in the lunch line, helping a teacher in the classroom hand out papers or clean up after an activity, asking someone to join in a game of tag at recess who is playing by themselves, and so on. This system is defiantly set up using positive reinforcement by reinforcing children with incentives for their positive behaviors by adding something that is desirable to children like more computer time. The tokens in this program include the purple and gold tokens the children receive. For each time a child is seen doing something that falls into the four criteria levels, they are given a purple token. After receiving 5 purple tokens, they student receives a gold token that can be traded in for rewards/incentives. One pro with these tokens is the fact that it may elicit more positive behavior from the students and potentially create new positive behaviors both in the school setting and outside of school. A potential con to this system may come from students who are maybe too old for such incentives, or who rebel against the system thinking it is ‘stupid’ or ‘dumb’. The delivery system is on a variable schedule of reinforcement for the fact that students are only being reinforced when a teacher actually sees them emitting the behavior. A student may do something polite for someone else but it may not be seen by a teacher and they will not be reinforced for the appropriate behavior. A pro to this system of reinforcement is the fact students maybe more likely to continue positive behavior in hopes of being seen emitting that specific behavior. A con maybe for the fact that because the students are not being reinforced for each time they emit a behavior, they may not improve their behaviors due to lack of reinforcement. After banking 5 purple tokens, students can exchange those tokens to receive a gold token which gives them access to rewards such as more computer time or time spent with friends, lunch with the principle ect. Through this system, students gain access to the reinforcement through the purple and gold tokens they earn based on their positive behaviors.
Outcome measures that administration can use to see if the program is affective is by observing a baseline behavior or students, even pinpointing students who may have behavioral issues within the classroom, then measuring behavior after the reinforcement is introduced to students to see if there is a change in behavior due to the reinforcement. Administrators are taking action to inform students of the system by informing parents about it as well. By letting the parents know to ‘help encourage your children to be Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C’ the students are receiving the information about the behavioral system from more than one source and in more than one setting. This also reflects on administration teaching parents of the program by letting them know the initiative the school is trying to make through the monthly news letter that is sent to all parent in the district (I am assuming). Based on the information given in the news letter, it is hard to determine the measures administration is taking to inform teachers of the systems but there is a chance that not all teachers, parents, or students but into the who system, which is probably one of the biggest problems that exist with a token economy, especially this one.
Additional questions and information I would like to have from the administration is how they will determine what is seen as ‘good behavior’ that reflects on their four pillars, and how they will administer to students based on the fact they cant see everything every child is doing 24/7. Another question is in regards to the fact if a child is doing the opposite of what the four pillars stand for, are they punished? Can tokens be taken away? Ect.
The new program that was implemented into the Waterloo School District is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C., which is a positive behavior interventions system. This program focuses on being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring students. Waterloo School District has a district-wide initiative being a PBIS district. It is to promote the increase frequency of its students emitting positive behaviors, such as being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring students. Some specific target behaviors they might want children to emit would be raising their hands when they want to talk. Being respectful and paying attention in class. Sharing with other students. Not cheating on assignments.
This is based on positive reinforcement, because students are receiving purple paw tickets and golden tickets. With these tickets they are able to purchase a variety of different prizes, such as popcorn, ice cream or lunch with the principal.
Pro’s would be they’re very tangible items that kids can hold and see. Another would be they have two different levels to get to the prizes which will keep their behavior up. A con could be they are easily lost; children tend to lose papers, especially little ones often. They would also be easy to take from another student. There is no, or not one that was listed of specific behaviors that children can emit to receive the reward. In the article it wasn’t listed if there was a bank for the students. If there were a place that would keep track of them after the student received them it would decrease the likelihood of the children losing them.
Adults at the school are able to give them to the students when they see the behavior being emitted. There are times when students are being directly watched when the behavior could be overlooked and not reinforced. There is no back up system, it’s just up to the teachers to be always ready to reinforce when needed. It could be helpful if students were able to tell teachers about good behavior of another student. A pro is that teachers are supposed to be supervising students all the time and able to monitor their behavior. It was not listed in the article if the tokens were banked or just up to the students to monitor.
The backup reinforcers seem to be items that students would like such as ice cream, popcorn, a longer recess or lunch with the principal. It wasn’t stated how they were chosen, but they are all things children like or at least that I would have liked when I was younger. It would have to be implemented to see if they were or not. It’s important that every student could find something they would like; otherwise they will have little motivation to receive the purple paw tickets. They receive the reinforcer when they have collected 10 purple paw tickets, then they can get a golden ticket. Once a golden ticket is obtained they are able to trade it in for a prize.
The number of golden tickets given to students would be a way to measure the effectiveness of the program. It would also be important to make sure there are a variety of different students receiving the tickets. If there was a particular class that was receiving too many or not enough something should be changed about the delivery method. The criteria for administer tickets could be explained to teachers better. Also the reinforcers could be assessed. Was there one that was more desirable for students? Less desirable? This would help to increase the likelihood of students participating in the program. That’s unknown from the article. It would be best to discuss it with the children to see how much they understand about it. I would hope that more information that a little burp in a newsletter was given to them. It’s very important to have strong communication between parents and the school. Parents can actively reinforce their children as home in a similar way to the schools to better implement it also they can continue to praise their children when they bring one home. The training of the faculty is unknown, but it would be assumed that they had a meeting to explain the guidelines so it would be standardized across the board.
Yes, definitely. Some parents have other ways of improving their child’s behavior that they have found to be more effective. From the article we read there are clearly problems with this system, just as in any other system that could be implemented. Token economies are very complex and if not done appropriately they can fail. All faculty and staff have to be committed to the implementation and support of it. If backup reinforcers are too hard or easy for students to get, causing the behavior modification to fail. Also all students must be clearly aware and reminded of how the system works and what they need to do to receive reinforcement. Behavior also deteriorates after fading which means that if they are on a continuous reinforcement schedule and then it is changed to an intermittent schedule, students can get confused and frustrated. Personally if I were a parent, I would want to know more specifics about the program. How the children are being reinforced, what behaviors are they reinforcing, how are students storing them and how the school is keeping track of them.
What is this program?
Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C (Trustworthy, Repectful, Responsible, and Caring)—a reward system used to manage classroom behvairos as a part of the Positive Behavior Intervention Systems.
How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District implemented the Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C as part of the Positive Behavior Intervention Systems.
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behaviors exhibited by the Character Pillars—especially focusing on trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Behaviors that students can emit that would earn them a purple ticket would include raising their hand in class, walking in the hallways, using their inside voices, sharing toys and food during lunch and playtime, etc.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is most definitely based on a reinforcement system.
Is it positive or negative?
This is a positive reinforcement system due to the introduction of a desirable reinforcer.
What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens in this program are initially purple tickets and once ten purple tickets have been collected, the student can trade them in for a golden ticket.
What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
A pro for this program would be the drive it instills in the students to elicit positive behaviors. Because the purple tickets have to be traded in for golden tickets and then can be used to get a prize, students can feel a sense of pride when receiving these golden tickets. A con however, is that there will undoubtedly be some students that do not want to partake in the positive behaviors but do want the prizes so they may steal these tickets both purple and gold—also students may lose them.
What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is set up and run by the administrators and teachers that hand out the tokens and back up reinforcers.
What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
A pro for this delivery system would be that the teachers and administrators, by having control over the tickets, assert themselves as the authority in the school. A con however would be that the tickets are only handed out by teachers so if a positive behavior happens while a teacher or administrator is not around the student does not get a token or praise for said behavior.
How are the tokens banked?
The ten purple tickets are taken to the teachers and then traded out for a golden ticket. Then I assume the teacher keeps track of how many each student has as well as hands out the back up reinforcers.
What are the pros and cons?
A pro would be that the teachers are in control of the tickets and therefore cannot be bought out to hand out tickets that are not earned. A con is that unless they have a record of how many tickets each student has earned, students who do not wish to emit positive behaviors may steal tickets.
What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers include: Sonic Ice Cream Cones, Extra recess, Bag of movie popcorn, Lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen based on activities that students of that age group found fun to do as well as being positive activities.
Are they effective reinforcers?
To be a successful program, the reinforcers would most definelty have to be effective. They would also have to have enough choices that way to appeal to a different range of students.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Firstly they must be ‘caught in the act’ of emitting behaviors that fall under the previously mentioned behavioral classes. Then the teachers must give out the purple tickets for those said behaviors. After the student receives ten purple tickets for positive behaviors, they can trade in those tickets for one golden ticket. Once a golden ticket is received, the student can either trade it in right away for the reinforcers or can wait and gather more to trade in.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The teachers could hand out surveys or questionnaires that would ask the students to distinguish whether they like the reinforcers or not and as to what they think should be added. The teachers may also want to do a baseline review—looking at the good deeds before the implementation of the program and after the implementation.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
To be effective, the administrators need to be clear on what qualifies as a positive behavior that can resort in a ticket as well as be clear on what can be done with the tickets—i.e. expiration dates, limited hoarding, etc. So far, the newsletter and encouragement from teachers at school seem to be the only was of teaching them about the program.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Other then the newsletter, and perhaps the student coming home and telling the parents about what is going on, I feel that they could teach the parents a little bit more about a system such as this one.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
In order for this program to even have a chance at being effectively successful, the teachers must have the proper instruction. The teachers are the forefront of this program and without them, it would not happen.
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is definitely a possibility. Some students get discouraged when it comes to competitions as well as do not care about anything that remotely involves school. Then there are also those parents that encourage such behavior because they themselves may not believe in a program such as this or in anything that will separate their child from another.
What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Token hoarding may be an issue if the students are not forced to use their golden tickets at a certain time or if there are not expirations dates put on them. The behaviors may not last after the initial one to one token behavior ratio. There also may be some extinction if the behaviors that are supposed to receive tickets do not get reinforced with the token because no one is around to see it.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Do you have a plan to deter students from stealing other tickets? Will there be a record of tickets in case any are lost or stolen? Are the teachers fully aware of the role they play in this program? Are there rewards that are appealing to a range of students?
What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Does it work with all ages? What ages are you targeting? Will this be continued all year or just for a certain amount of time? What if a parent refuses to let a child participate? How do you distinguish trustworthy and respectful behavior?
What is this program?
- Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
How did it come about?
- Waterloo School District introduced the program idea
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
- They are trying to elicit are those behaviors that fall under the categories of trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
- Turning homework in on time without cheating, saying excuse me and taking turns, being quiet when others are speaking, and helping others when they are in need.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
- Reinforcement.
Is it positive or negative?
- Positive reinforcement because it involves the addition of a desirable stimulus to increase the likilhood that the positive behavior they emit will happen again.
What are the tokens used in this program?
- Tickets that are given out for good behavior such as taking turns and then receiving a golden ticket as a another reinforce after 10 tickets are collected.
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
- Some pros are that many may take this system seriously because they want to eat lunch with the principle but yet others may not see any value or reward in that.
What is the delivery system?
- The delivery system is receiving 1 ticket for every good behavior, and then once 10 tickets are gained they can then be converted to one golden ticket.
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
- Some pros are that they have to receive 10 tickets in order to receive the golden ticket so it increasing the amount of good behaviors that are needed to be emitted. However this could also work against the system as well because children may lose interest after receiving 5 tickets.
How are the tokens banked?
- 10 tickets are presented in order to receive the golden ticket. The students are responsible for keeping track of their tickets im assuming.
What are the pro's and con's?
- Some pros are that the students are being taught responsibility to hold on to their own tickets. Cons are that if they are anything like I was when I was younger they’ll cheat and trade tickets in order to gain that golden ticket.
What are the back up reinforcers?
- Sonic ice cream, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and head teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
- The backup reinforcers were probably chosen because it is what faculty thought the children valued.
Are they effective reinforcers?
- In my opinion I think that some of these things are like popcorn, ice cream and such because most kids really like junk food. However I know that me personally would not have like to eat lunch with the principle because it was viewed as a really lame thing to do when I was growing up. I think they really need to re-evaluate that one.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
- Students gain access to the reinforcers by emitting the target behaviors listed within the character counts guidelines.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
- Take a survey of what types of reinforcers the children would enjoy as well as mark down how many target behaviors are emitted before and after the idea was suggested.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
- The newsletter that was distributed to parents says that they are encouraging the students in school and watching out for good behaviors in the halls, classroom and assemblies
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
- Not really, the newsletter just asks parents to encourage them at home as well. However I know personally that a lot of parents probably don’t even read those things and don’t do that stuff at home with their kids anyways.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
- Not specified in the newsletter
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have completely bought into the system?
- I think that there are, just like with any idea, people who do not completely buy into the token system.
What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
- The target behaviors are not specified into what counts as emitting a good character act (trustworthy, respectful, responsible, caring. Also kids might be so enveloped in to gathering tickets, they might lose track of what the purpose behind the tickets is. The target behavior is then changed to gathering tickets versus acting with good character.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
- How do you record the number of tickets each child is given? How do you define respectful, trustworthy, and caring behavior? How are you monitoring for these behaviors? How did you come up with reinforcement ideas?
1. The On Track program is intended to make children trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. It’s a positive reinforcement program brought to Waterloo in 2010.
2. It originated from the Waterloo School District in 2010 to make the district a positive behavior interventions system.
3. They tried to elicit behavior that fits the descriptions of being T. R. R. C.
4. Some target behaviors might be following safety rules on campus, getting in lines in groups, and keeping orders in classrooms.
5. The system is based on reinforcements.
6. It is a positive reinforcement system.
7. The tokens are purple tickets and golden tickets.
8. The tickets are easy to dispense and safe to use. The difficulty to counterfeit depends on the method to produce these tickets. It could be fairly easy to very difficult.
9. Tickets are delivered almost everywhere on campus.
10. The advantage is that reinforcement is contingent on the immediate occurrence of desired behavior. The disadvantage is that the observer may run out of tickets or have them stolen.
11. The purple tickets seem to be returned and recorded at the end of the day. Students keep the golden tickets themselves.
12. If the tickets are returned and individual balances are recorded, then only a limited number of physical tickets are needed. If the tickets are brought home, students might lose them or have opportunities to produce fake ones.
13. They are rewards such as food, recess, lunch with principal and teacher, and computer access.
14. They were probably chosen according to the demands and preferences of students.
15. They should be effective, but no empirical evidence is presented in the newsletter.
16. They trade their golden tickets for the rewards.
17. Administrators can measure the amount and frequency of golden ticket redemption. They can also observe the distribution of golden tickets among students.
18. From the newsletter we can tell that purple tickets are distributed more often, but there is little evidence of how students are learning the subsequent process. Therefore, more information is needed to determine the effectiveness of the program.
19. The newsletter provides enough details for parents to understand the program.
20. I am not sure exactly who "the other teacher" refers to, but from the newsletter we can tell that teachers were actively giving away purple tickets. Again, there is limited evidence of how teachers execute the rest of the program.
21. There are various reasons why students or teachers may not accept the program, and there are some parents who do not pay enough attention to the education of their children. In some cases people may not actively participate in the program.
22. Students may lose the tickets, try to counterfeit the tickets, or trade tickets outside the supervision of administrators.
23. I would like to know why the district wants to become a positive behavior interventions system, and whether the administrators have developed plans to meet such necessity in the long term.
24. I would like to see why the tickets are given out from teacher to teacher. I also would like to see some numbers or statistics of the program results, such as average amount of golden ticket redemption or frequency of receiving tickets.
What is this program?
Poyner Pathers on T.R.R.C.
How did it come about?
The Waterloo school district implemented it.
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Trustworthy, respectful, responsible, caring
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Being respectful to other classmates. Going out of the way to help a classmate. Being on time and ready to learn when the bell rings.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Is it positive or negative?
It is based on positive reinforcement because they receive a desired stimuli when they emit the target behaviors.
What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple and Gold tickets
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
It will reinforce correct behavior, which is a pro. However, it would be hard to award these every time a target behavior is emitted. The student is not reinforced every time. Depending on how often they are rewarded would change the time it took to fully reinforce these behaviors.
What is the delivery system?
Given by teachers
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
You can provide immediate reinforcement so that the child knows what the target behavior is. Again, it would be hard to reinforce every time they emitted this behavior. Another pro is giving praise along with the ticket to further reinforce the target behavior.
How are the tokens banked?
Every 10 purple tickets makes 1 gold ticket. Only gold tickets can be used to obtain prizes.
What are the pro's and con's?
One pro is that it is not too easy or too hard. It is a pretty good schedule or reinforcement. A con may be that they can easily be lost or ripped/ruined.
What are the back up reinforcers?
Extra recess, lunch with teacher, bag of popcorn.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
By the student
Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, because they are different interests for different students.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Save the tickets and cash in for prizes.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Analyze the behavior of students. You could do this by looking at things such as office visits for discipline before and after the system.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I believe very well because the initials are the target behaviors. You will never forget the behaviors they are looking for.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Very well because it is in the newsletter.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The same because of the same reason.
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I could see parents of some not well behaved students being upset with the system. They may think it is another way the school is favoring smarter children. Although the majority may like the prizes, some students may see little interest in some of them.
What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The teachers must constantly be aware of these behaviors and be ready to immediately reinforce the behavior. Some students may coast when they have a lot of gold tickets. Also, diminishing the system would take a lot of time and patience.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How long are you going to implement the system? Did you collect any baseline data? How did you come up with the prizes?
What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How are they informing the students other than the name? How many students are in the program and how are they identified?
1. What is this program?
This program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. It is pronounced “track.” They aim to reinforce positive behaviors relating to being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. They give out purple tickets in order to reinforce these behaviors. Ten purple tickets gets you one gold ticket. Gold tickets can get prizes.
2. How did it come about?
It was started through the Positive Behavior Interventions System because the school is a part of the PBIS District. Some group must have gone through all the trouble of designing the token economy system being used as explained in the first article. It doesn’t explicitly state who designed it.
3. What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are those under the categories of trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. These are all considered positive behaviors in the school district. An example of a behavior in the caring behavioral class might be helping up a classmate who falls down on the playground.
4. What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
As I stated above, they might want one child to help up another who falls on the playground, fitting the caring behavioral class. They would also want the students to be quiet while the teacher is speaking, which might fall under the respectful behavioral class.
5. Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because it doesn’t explicitly say that students are ever punished for poor behavior. Rather, they are reinforced with these purple tickets, which act as secondary reinforcers to obtain prizes. This increases the frequency of the students emitting the desired behaviors within the behavioral classes mentioned earlier.
6. Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because the tickets and prizes are being ADDED, nothing is being taken away. In negative reinforcement, you would remove something undesirable. Clearly, this is not occurring here.
7. What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens in this program are the purple tickets as well as the gold tickets.
8. What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
One con might be unequal pricing of backup reinforcers as discussed in the previous article. If the kids are given the purple tickets too often (because they have to do very little to earn one), it might reduce motivation over time. However, a pro would be that they have set up a more complex system, where you can’t actually obtain prizes at all with purple tickets. You have to earn a minimum of 10 purple ticket for 1 gold ticket, and you need several gold tickets to get a prize. I think this overcomes the “easiness” of obtaining the purple tickets.
9. What is the delivery system?
It doesn’t explicitly state in the article. It implies that teachers and other adults in the school system would be the ones delivering the secondary reinforcers. It says that children whom are “caught” emitting these behaviors receive tickets.
10. What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
One con I see in this system is that some children might emit more desirable behaviors than others, but receive fewer tickets because the teachers didn’t SEE them doing it. This might lead to a feeling of helplessness and the child may quit trying to earn tickets. A pro that I see is getting praise and attention from the teacher for good behavior. Students, especially young students, are very likely to look up to their teachers. We are taught to try to please our teachers, so they will keep emitting the behavior. The praise acts as an immediate and continuous reinforcer.
11. How are the tokens banked?
It doesn’t say explicitly, but from the reading I would assume that the students are responsible for holding onto their tickets and trading them in for gold tickets or gold tickets for prizes.
12. What are the pro's and con's?
A con might be that children are often prone to losing things… especially little pieces of paper. A child might not get their prizes because they misplaced their gold tickets, so they might give up on trying to emit those behaviors. A pro might be that the children learn to be more responsible by holding onto their own tickets, which is one of the criteria for T.R.R.C.
13. What are the backup reinforcers?
The reinforcers are things like Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14. How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It doesn’t explicitly say how these were chosen. I’m assuming that all of the classes talked with the children about what kinds of prizes they would like to have, but there is no way I could know this from the reading.
15. Are they effective reinforcers?
I am assuming that the children get to pick their prizes. If so, I would think that at least one of the options would be reinforcing for that student. For example, a particular student might not want to eat with the principal or help the custodian, but they might like extra recess!
16. How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They obtain purple tickets by emitting desired behaviors covered earlier. Then they turn 10 of these purple tickets in for 1 gold ticket. They save their gold tickets and trade those in for prizes. It doesn’t say how many gold tickets are required for prizes or if different prizes have different prices.
17. What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
This is not covered at all in the article. I guess you could interview teachers and ask them how the students’ behaviors have changed since the implementation of the token economy. However, to my knowledge from reading this article, no steps have been taken to measure the effectiveness of this system as of yet.
18. How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It’s hard to tell from the article, but it seems like the students understand that it is desirable to get the purple and gold tickets to get prizes. I’m not sure if they understand fully what behaviors they are expected to emit in order to receive tickets, though. I doubt that they have a list of specific target behaviors that earn a student a ticket. This might be useful.
19. How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I have no idea. If the parents have no other information other than this article, not very well at all. They should have had a meeting with all parents BEFORE implementing the system. Some parents might have had suggestions or questions to better the system before it became active. From the article, it sounds like they completely blindsided the parents.
20. How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Once again, I have no idea as it does not explicitly state this in the article. I would assume that the administration would be required to be well educated on the system before they implement it in their school.
21. Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Absolutely, from answering all these questions even I can see some problems with this token economy system.
22. What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Depending on what these tickets actually look like, they might be easily counterfeited. If they are just little pieces of purple and gold paper, for example, the students can probably make those on their own. Students might also eat the paper tickets, or steal them from other children. If the teachers aren’t praising students in addition to giving them the tickets, their behavior might fade once the ticket giving slows down.
23. What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Why would you implement this system without adequately explaining it to the parents?
Do you have a specific list of target behaviors that will gain a student tickets, or is it just by the judgment of whichever teacher is awarding tickets?
24. What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Everything from all of the questions above that weren’t addressed in the article. For example, how well were the parents, students, teachers, and administrators educated on this system?
What is this program?
T.R.R.C. is a program that is encouraging kids to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. If they are seen doing one of these four things they will be rewarded with a purple ticket. 10 purple tickets can buy one gold ticket then gold tickets can be traded in for fun things/prizes.
How did it come about?
The PBIS(positive behavior intervention system) is now apart of the waterloo school district and is trying to get more positive behavior out of students.
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The school is trying to get the kids to elicit all positive behaviors but specifically trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
The specific target behaviors that the school wants to see are trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring. Examples would be helping a fellow student that fell down, being quiet when the teacher is talking, making sure homework is done on time, obeying, etc.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Is it positive or negative?
This system is based on positive reinforcement. If the student gets gold tickets for good behavior they are able to trade them in for prizes or special activities.
What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple and gold tickets. 10 purple tickets equal 1 gold ticket.
What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro could be that a student wants to elicit the good behaviors more often because he can physically hold the tickets in his hand and know that he can later trade it in for something good. A con might be that a student loses the tickets or the tickets get stolen by someone else.
What is the delivery system?
The teachers will give these tickets to students that are seen doing one of the T.R.R.C. behaviors.
What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro might be that the student gets a secondary reinforcement by the teacher giving the ticket. I see more cons in this delivery system though. A kid might help another kid right in front of the teacher but then 5 minutes later when the teacher isn't looking the same kid that helped might kick another kid. Also, if a student elicits one of these good behaviors and expects to be reinforced with a ticket and the teacher doesn't see then the student might be discouraged and give up on trying hard for the tickets.
How are the tokens banked?
It doesn't really say but i'm guessing that since they are trying to teach responsibility to the students that the students themselves are responsible for holding on to their own tickets.
What are the pro's and con's?
Pro: teaches responsibility Con: Student might lose them or get them stolen.
What are the back up reinforcers?
Sonic ice cream cone, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with principal, extra computer time, helping the custodian.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
These reinforcers were probably chosen because the kids value these small things and work hard to get them.
Are they effective reinforcers?
I think they can be very effective. As an elementary student getting something as small as a sonic ice cream cone can cause the student to try to elicit the good behavior that is wanted.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students get purple tickets and can trade in 10 purple tickets for 1 gold ticket. It doesn't say how many gold tickets are needed for the prizes.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The article doesn't say but the teachers would probably know if the system is effective just by how the students have changed their behaviors. So having the teachers fill out a survey would probably be ideal.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Article does not say but i'm sure the teachers and administrators have made it clear what they expect to see to receive a ticket.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think the parents were informed corrected about the system. The school gave out that sheet that had plenty of information on it and if the parents had anymore questions that need more detailed answers i'm sure the administrator would be happy to answer them.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Does not say. I'm sure the teachers were given instructions on when and how to give the students tickets so that the system will be as effective as possible.
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course. Some students may think that the prizes or extra activities are dumb and they would rather not put forth all that effort to get a small prize. there are many holes in the system but its new. If it doesn't work then they could "upgrade" the system.
What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The tickets can probably be easily stolen from other students, the teachers can't see every single good behavior a student does and could cause the student to become discouraged and stop trying, some students might just simply not be interested.
What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What will you change in the system if you don't start seeing the results that you would like to see? Why did you start this system? was bad behavior a problem before? What makes you think this will work?
What additional information might you want to know about the system?
The information given was very basic but I have a pretty good idea of how the system will work by just reading the short article that was sent home to the parents.
What is this program? It is a district wide initiative to be a PBIS- Positive Behavior Interventions System at a Waterloo School. It is rewarding students for displaying good character- such as trustworthy, respectful, responsibility, and caring. If students are seen displaying good character they are rewarded a purple paw. 10 Purple paws= 1 golden ticket and golden tickets can be traded for prizes. The staff is trying to elicit good behavior such as being kind to others, being understanding and showing empathy, being responsible, being respectful to teachers and other students, keeping promises, being trustworthy. Some specific target behaviors would be helping another student when they fall down, helping another student with homework, showing up on time, doing their homework before the due date, raising their hand, waiting patiently in line, obeying the teacher, respecting other student’s and teacher’s property, carrying a student’ schoolwork when they are injured.
This system is based on positive reinforcement. The tokens have both pros and cons. Pros: Encourages kids to act kindly towards one another by reinforcing them with ice-cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with teacher/principal, extra computer time, helping custodian. Cons: Encourages good behavior solely to receive something in return- not particularly because they think or want to do the right thing. The delivery system also has pros and cons. Pros: Reinforcement schedule doesn’t change- it is consistent. Cons: Doesn’t specify a number of golden paws that a student must get to exchange for a prize.
It doesn’t specify how the tokens are banked in this article however I’m going to assume it is the staff of the school.The back up reinforcers are the prizes- icecream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with teacher/principal, extra computer time, helping custodian. I think these are effective reinforcers because these are things that I would’ve enjoyed as a student in elementary school.
By sending this out in the newsletter it is informing both students, staff, community members, and parents about the system. Some problems might occur such as: the backup reinforcers are too high so students might give up or they could hoard them.
Some questions I would ask the administrators would be: How long are they planning on doing this system? Are all the staff members aware this is happening? How are the teachers recording the “paws” given out to students?
1. What is the program? Poyner Panther T.R.R.C.
2. How did it come about? The Waterloo School District
3. What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Behaviors that fall under the categories of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4. What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Behaviors such as turning homework in on time, helping others with their homework, helping children pick things up if they drop them, do what they are told by their teachers, and not talking at the same time as the teacher.
5. Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement
6. Is it positive or negative? Positive
7. What are the token used in this program? The tokens are the purple tickets, when they receive ten purple paw tickets they are able to trade them in for a golden ticket and these golden tickets are saved and then used towards a bigger prize.
8. What might be pro’s and con’s associated with using these tokens? Some pro’s would be that the purple paw tickets are motivation to show behaviors of trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring so that they can get a golden ticket which will get them a pretty sweet prize. Some cons may be that the same kids get seen doing the behaviors in the behavioral class and that not everyone is going to be seen emitting these behaviors.
9. What is the delivery system? The delivery system is a purple paw ticket is given to children when they emit one of the four behaviors. Then they are able to turn 10 purple tickets in for a golden ticket which have good prizes to choose from.
10. What are some pro’s and con’s associated with the delivery system? Not all students may be seen emitting the good behaviors.
11. How are the tokens banked? They are banked by the amount of purple tickets or the golden tickets.
12. What are the pros and cons? They may not be able to tell if the child fairly earned the tickets or if they took them from someone else so it’s hard to account for the tickets and what the child has done to receive them.
13. What are backup reinforcers? The backup reinforcers could be what you receive from the golden tickets which would be the extra recess, ice cream, movie theater popcorn, extra computer time, lunch with the principle and head teacher, and helping the custodian.
14. How were the backup reinforcers chosen? They were probably chosen by recognizing what the children and their age groups enjoy doing.
15. Are they effective reinforcers? They are reinforcing for the children because they are all things that they really enjoy doing.
16. How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They gain access to the reinforcers by earning 10 purple tickets and exchanging them for a golden ticket which is the big reinforcer of a bigger and better prize the children will ultimately enjoy.
17. What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? By the amount of purple tickets and or golden tickets given to see if they are working and how many children are emitting the good behaviors.
18. How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? They are teaching the students by telling them about the system with giving them tickets when they emit one of the four behaviors and they also let the parents know about the program by putting it in the newsletter and to have them let their children know about it.
19. How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? They are effectively teaching the parents about the system by putting information about the program in the school newsletter. How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system? There is nothing in the newsletter talking about this.
20. Is there the possibility of not everyone may not have complete buy in with the system? Everyone is different and the program may not work for every child but I feel that it can be successful for mostly everyone because it is easy to understand and has a lot of positive reinforcers.
21. What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? The problem that may come up is that having the same reinforcers may get boring for some children so they might not see the program as fun or reinforcing after awhile.
22. What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How could the parent’s help reinforce these behaviors when they are at home as well so that the children are more likely to perform them when at school as well.
23. What additional information might you want to know about the system? There isn’t really anything that I want to know about the system I think everything makes sense and is easy to understand.