Token Economies.
Please review the following
website and read about the steps involved in setting up a token economy using
the LRBI Checklist:
http://165.139.150.129/intervention/Token.pdf
Next read the following link
about the Poyer Purple Paw tokens http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) What is this program?
2) How did it come about?
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to
emit?
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
6) Is it positive or negative?
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
9) What is the delivery system?
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
11) How are the tokens banked?
12) What are the pro's and con's?
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system
is effective?
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the
system?
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the
system?
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the
system?
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents)
may not have complete buy in with the system?
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a
problem here?
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the
system?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Please let us know if you have
any questions.
--Dr. M
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring), and it is a system to increase a few target behaviors in their district.
2) How did it come about?
It came about as a district-wide positive behavioral intervention system to increase the eliciting of the character pillars that are important to the district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring behavioral classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A specific target behavior they might want the children to emit may be putting their supplies away when done with them or saying a kind word to another student.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement of the target behaviors or approximations when shaping.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system is based on positive reinforcement because they are adding pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away the aversives.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and golden tickets. Ten purple tickets is worth one golden ticket.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
The tokens must be salient enough to elicit the target behaviors, additionally this system is only salient and effective within the classroom or school setting, so the children may discriminate and elicit these behaviors in the classroom or at school, but not in other settings. The classroom/school will act as a discriminate stimulus for which behaviors will be reinforced.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is a system that incorporates the continuous reinforcement of the target behaviors through purple tickets with the fixed ratio reinforcement of the golden tickets. These golden tickets are then exchanged for the reinforcers, with each reinforcer being worth a specific number of golden tickets.
10) What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
The fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement will only work if the reinforcers are set as a reasonable value of golden tickets. If the prices are set too high, students may get discouraged and the target behaviors will be extinguished. The pros of this system is that it combines a number of different reinforcement schedules, which keeps it interesting and reinforces students more continuous for their behaviors while still maintaining a reasonable cost for the reinforcer. The continuous reinforcement of the purple tickets combined with the fixed ratio reinforcement of the trade from purple to gold tickets will keep reinforcing good behaviors in the students. The cons of this system is that putting extra steps in between the emitting of the behavior and attaining the reinforcer may make it too difficult for the students to obtain the reinforcer and the behaviors may experience extinction.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are banked by earning 10 purple paw tickets, which are then exchanged for one golden ticket. These golden tickets can then be saved up and exchanged for the reinforcers.
12) What are the pros and cons?
The pros of the bank are that it will increase incentive to emit the target behaviors to attain the reinforcers, it will serve as a guideline to determine how many more target behaviors will need to be emitted before the reinforcer is delivered, and it will make sure that the behaviors are not being reinforced too quickly that the reinforcers become satiated. The cons of this is that it may also extinguish the behaviors in some children that have not obtained as many golden tickets.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess time, 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?
The backup reinforcers should be chosen based on what the children already find reinforcing. This may include activities that the children like to engage in prior to the implementation of the program. It was not specifically stated how the reinforcers were chosen in the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. program.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are only effective reinforcers if they succeed in eliciting the target behaviors at higher rates than the baseline from before the program is implemented. I imagine that some of these reinforcers would be effective, such as the ice cream cones and extra recess time, but others such as lunch with the principal and helping out the custodian may be less effective if they are not desired by and salient for the children.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in their purple tickets for golden tickets and their golden tickets for the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures may be a record of how many purple tickets were given out and/or traded in for golden tickets, or how many golden tickets were traded in for reinforcers. This can be compared to the baseline that was recorded prior to implementation to determine how much, if at all, the behaviors have been increased due to the program.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems as though the administrators are effectively teaching the students about the system because the behaviors are being emitted “EVERYWHERE!!!”, such as in the hallway, cafeteria, on the playground, in the classrooms, and in assemblies. However, as to how often these behaviors are being emitted and by what percentage of the students is unknown to us.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are trying to teach the parents about the system through this little excerpt in the school newsletter, but this description is very short and leaves a lot of questions.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
It seems like the administrators may have taught the teachers about the system, but it is not clear how effectively this teaching was done or how extensive the lesson concerning this behavioral intervention was.
21) Is there the possibility that not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may have complete buy in with the system?
It is very possible that not everyone may have complete buy in with the system. Some students may be more motivated than others by the reinforcers to emit the behaviors, additionally, some teachers may be more deliberate about reinforcing these behaviors with purple tickets than others.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The classroom/school setting may be a discriminate stimulus for these behaviors to occur in, but may not be emitted outside of this setting. The reinforcers may not be salient for the students or for not enough of the students. The token economy may decrease in effectiveness as time goes on due to satiation.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How extensively were the teachers taught about the system? How extensively were the students taught about the system?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What was the baseline for these behaviors prior to implementation? How were the reinforcers chosen? How effective has this program been in increasing the frequency of these behavioral classes? What were specific target behaviors that were reinforced for each of the behavioral classes?
Terms used in this post: target behaviors, behavioral intervention, eliciting, elicit, behavioral classes, emit, reinforcement, shaping, positive reinforcement, pleasurable, aversives, salient, discriminate, discriminate stimulus, reinforced, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, reinforcer, extinguished, reinforcement schedules, reinforces, emitting, extinction, satiated, extinguish, reinforcing, baseline, outcome measures, satiation
1) This program is a token economy that is trying to elicit good behaviors from students.
2) This came about most likely because teachers and other faculty members were noticing disrespectful and uncaring behaviors and decided to do something about it.
3) I would say that the specific behavioral class that this school is trying to get the children to elicit would be good behavior.
4) Specific target behaviors that the schools and faculty are trying to get the children to emit could be seen as raising your hand until called on, waiting patiently, using an inside voice, following directions, and other behaviors that are usually normal in an elementary school environment
5) This is a system that is based on reinforcement.
6) This would be positive reinforcement because the faculty and staff are trying to increase the behavioral class of good behaviors.
7) The tokens in this economy are purple paw tickets which can be collected to get a golden ticket, which can then be saved turned in for prizes.
8) The pros for an economy like this is that it would be easy to administer and for students to understand. It would be cheap and faculty and staff would not have to spend a lot of their own income on it. Cons could be that it would definitely be hard to keep track of which student performed which good behavior and how to administer the tickets. Also, students could take tickets from other students which could become a problem as well.
9) The delivery system is not really discussed, but it appears to be that when a child is caught performing a good behavior, something that is trustworthy, responsible, respectful, or caring, that they are then given a purple paw ticket.
10) One of the cons of the delivery system is that it is unclear and that it also appears to be inconsistent. If a child is not seen acting in good behavior or if the definition of the good behavior is not defined well enough the delivery will be very inconsistent. A pro is that it would be easy to just hand out the tickets when a good behavior is happening.
11) The tokens are banked in that after 10 purple paw tickets have been collected they can be turned in for 1 golden ticket and the golden tickets can be turned in for prizes.
12) The pros of this is that the children have to work up to a prize or reinforcement so then they will not be satiated quickly, but I also feel that it is a good amount because it keeps them motivated. A con of this banking system could be that to elementary children, especially first and kindergarteners, it could be a confusing concept and a hard one for them to do without assistance.
13) The backup reinforcers are the prizes at the end once the children turn in their gold tickets.
14) The backup reinforcers were chosen most likely as something that faculty and stuff knew that the children would find reinforcing from observing previous behaviors.
15) They are effective because they are activities and items that the children find pleasing and enjoyable.
16) The students gain access to the rewards by performing acts of good behavior and collecting 10 purple paw tickets. Once a student has 10 purple paw tickets they can be turned in for a gold ticket which can then be turned in for a prize.
17) The administrators could keep track of how many purple tickets they are giving out or how many golden tickets they are collecting for prizes. Administrators could also keep track of behaviors before starting the behavioral intervention system and then at the end of the intervention see if behaviors have changed at all.
18) The information in the handout implies that the children were informed of the new token economy at school and that they must understand it well if they are informing parents about it.
19) Since administrators and faculty are putting it in the school newsletter to inform parents it seems they are doing a decent job of informing parents of what is going on.
20) Administrators seem to have taught other teachers the information necessary about the token economy.
21) There is a possibility that not everyone may have a buy in. If the students in fact do not find the reinforcer to be rewarding or motivating they may not buy into the token economy.
22) A problem that exists with token economies that may exist here is consistency. Consistency is very important in token economies and especially with young children. If consistency is not evident the token economy will be very hard to enforce. Another problem may be that this token economy is not visual. It is important for token economies to be visual with younger group because if they are not they may be constantly asked about which is not effective or conducive to a learning environment.
23) When will students be able to turn in golden tickets for prizes? How will you make this token economy consistent? How will teachers and faculty keep track of tickets that students have in order to make sure they are not stealing or using other students tickets?
24) Additional information that would be useful to know is how exactly the behavioral class of good behavior is going to be defined and what it looks like.
Terms: behavior, behavioral class, reinforcer, reinforcement, target behavior, elicit, emit, token economies, motivating, satiated, delivery system, positive reinforcement
1) This program is a token economy by the name of Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. designed to increase positive behavior from elementary students.
2) This program came about by a district-wide positive behavior program in an attempt to get students to emit respectful behavior.
3) The behavioral classes the district is attempting to have students elicit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) Some specific target behaviors they would want students to emit would be actively being prepared for class with all materials needed before the bell rings.
5) This system is based upon reinforcement because it involves the addition of something, which in this case are the tickets.
6) This is a positive reinforcement because the tickets are given when the student does something the administration wants them to do.
7) The tokens are purple paw tickets that can be exchanged for gold tickets when they have ten.
8) The pros are that it will reward students for their good behavior in the class setting but the negative side to this system is it could cause jealousy among other students who do not have as many tickets. Also, the students are responsible for trading the tickets themselves as well as maintaining them for an extended period of time which may diminish the likelihood of the target behaviors being emitted.
9) The delivery system is set up by the faculty and those on staff administer the tickets when they believe a student has acted positively in a way that fits T.R.R.C.
10) The positive side of having all faculty involved with the delivery of the positive reinforcement is that it can be done at the time the target behavior is produced. The problem with this system is that the “good behavior” is completely subjective to the person who is giving the tickets out.
11) The tokens are banked by the students.
12) The nice part about allowing students to be responsible of their own tickets is they are able to see their progress on a daily basis but this is also a bad thing because they may begin to give up if they realize they have enough tickets.
13) The back up reinforcers are a free ice cream, popcorn, lunch with a faculty member, and helping a janitor.
14) The reinforcers were more than likely determined by the administrators in charge of this program.
15) I do not believe these reinforcers will be very affective because a student must collect a lot of gold tickets to be reinforced for something as small like an ice cream cone.
16) They emit the target behaviors.
17) The outcome measurements can be logged by the number of purple tickets a student receives and how frequently they trade ten in for a gold ticket.
18) The administration seems to being an adequate job teaching the students about the system because the behaviors are being noticed in the hall, cafeteria, and classrooms.
19) It does not appear the administration had mentioned the program to parents until the end of the year so parents would have little information about what was going on.
20) Administration has done a very good informing the teachers because they are in charge of rewarding the tokens when target behaviors are seen.
21) There is a possibility that some students are not able to completely buy into the system for some students are more motivated to emit these behaviors than others. Also, it seems to target the students who are already willing to display these types of behaviors.
22) One of the biggest problems is that the students are responsible for their own tickets and have the potential to lose them and also there is a large amount of time they are holding onto them. If enough time goes by without being reinforced a student may lose interest altogether.
23) Where the parents informed of the program at the beginning of the year? Are tickets taken away for bad behavior that does not meet T.R.R.C standards?
24) Does each ticket system end at semester or does it go through the whole year?
25) Terms: token economy, positive behavior, emit, behavior, elicit, behavioral classes, target behaviors, reinforcement, and positive reinforcement
1)What is this program?
This is a program that uses a Positive Behavior Interventions System. It is a behavior modification program that focuses on positive behaviors. They reward based on acts of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring. I’m not sure how specific they have made these actions and how well the teachers and administrators have been trained to distribute the tickets but it does sound like an effective plan.
2)How did it come about?
This plan came about in order to elicit more behaviors that involve being caring, trustworthy, respectful and responsible. This is a district wide movement that they have attempted to start.
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
I think that the behavioral classes that they want the kids to elicit overall is good behavior, but more specifically as I mentioned earlier, to be more trustworthy, caring, respectful, and responsible.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A target behavior they may want the children to emit could be raising their hands in class, helping someone carry their books, assisting another peer with homework, or participating in class by answering questions without having to be called on.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on positive reinforcement. They are looking at positive behaviors and reinforcing them by giving out tickets that eventually result in prizes. They have completely steered clear of any aversive consequences.
6)Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement. It includes only pleasurable stimuli and does not punish negative behaviors.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
They hand out purple tickets, and after you receive 10 of those you receive a golden ticket. You are able to “cash in” your tickets for prizes and other rewards.
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros of this system could be that it has steps and goals to work towards before they are immediately rewarded. The kids get to collect these tickets and see firsthand the progress they are making. It is extremely important though that the tokens be salient enough to actually have an effect on the children’s behaviors. A con for this system is that the kids are a bit younger and they may lose the tickets. They might also become upset when not rewarded for something they felt was worth a ticket. There may also be a problem with the children having better behaviors at school but not at home due to knowing they won’t receive tokens while at home. School might become a discriminative stimulus.
9)What is the delivery system?
The delivery system appears to be a continuous reinforcement system but it is a bit unclear because a child may emit a positive behavior but if it goes unnoticed it will not be reinforced. There is also a fixed ratio system in place as far as the 10 purple tickets equaling 1 golden ticket. This is unchanging and the kids can count on this happening.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
One immediate con I see is that the continuous reinforcement isn’t going to be perfect. It is almost impossible for every positive behavior to be noticed and awarded. There is also going to be some differences between the people giving out the tickets and that could determine whether a child receives a ticket for their positive behavior. The good side of this type of continuous reinforcement is that the kids can better see their progress and have something to work towards. I really like the idea of the fixed ratio system but it is important that teachers are being aware of good behaviors so that the kids are rewarded and don’t get discouraged. I think they would need to see how easy/hard it is for the kids to get 10 purple tickets and possible change that variable if needed.
11)How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tickets is equivalent to 1 golden ticket and the golden ticket can be exchanged for a reinforcer such as eating lunch with the principal or earning coupons for restaurants.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
The pros of this system is that it is pretty straightforward and seems rather easy to handle. It gives the kids something to work towards and makes it hard enough that they have to continue to work on their behaviors in order to earn rewards. It is important at this level that it not be too easy for kids to earn rewards or they will begin just doing enough to earn the reward and not understanding the actual point. In behavioral terms the reinforcements may become satiated if they are too easy to come by. But it is also important not to make it too hard or it may cause some students to not even try.
13)What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time or helping the custodian.
14)How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I believe that the administrators probably thought of things that children enjoy doing. Almost any kid will be excited over food or getting special one-on-one time with an authority figure. After thinking about what already reinforces good behaviors in the children, they probably pooled those ideas together to give the kids options that way every kid would have something to work towards.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe these would be effective reinforcers because there is a wide variety of them which means that they would hopefully reach every child. In order to really decide if they are effective we would need to create a baseline and then study the behaviors and compare it. If the children don’t enjoy a certain reinforce then it will be highly ineffective in helping to elicit the same positive behaviors.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students have to trade in their purple tickets to get a golden ticket and then they are able to give their golden ticket for a reinforcer of their choice.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think that it will be helpful for the administrators to keep track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are actually cashed into golden tickets. They should keep track of the reinforcers the kids receive, which one’s are requested more, etc. Then I think they need to have some kind of way to measure the differences in kids’ behaviors before the system was implemented compared to after the reinforcers were introduced. They could do this by comparing how many detentions were handed out or trips to the principal’s office.
18)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would guess that they are pretty effective at teaching the students about the system because they make it sound like it has caught on pretty fast and that the kids are excited and interested in being involved. However, I don’t think the small article gives us enough information to truly judge how well it is being taught to the students.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think this article, which is to the parents, is a very helpful way to communicate the information. It has enough detail and in simple enough terms that it seems very easy to understand. It explains the process well but could probably include more information. I think it would be nice if they did weekly updates in this newsletter so that the parents could continue to hear and learn about it.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
This article does not really share how effectively the administrators taught the teachers the system but I would assume they know it pretty well because it sounds like everyone is on board with it.
21)Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think this is a really good possibility because some children are less motivated than others as well as parents, and some teachers may be better at noticing and handing out tickets than others.
22)What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The first problem with this token economy is that school is a discriminant stimulus, like I stated earlier, and the positive behaviors may not spill over into different settings. The children may also become satiated with the reinforcers if they are too easy to obtain. It is also going to be highly important that the reinforcers be salient enough for the children to care about changing their behaviors.
23)What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would like to know how they trained everyone involved in handing out tickets and how they are dealing with observer biases. I would also like to know how they plan on measuring the data.
24)What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know the outcome of this system and how effective it has been. I would want to know what flaws they find in the system and if they are actively fixing it as they go.
25)Terminology: salient, satiated, fixed ratio, positive reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, elicit, emit, discriminant stimulus, response, consequence, punishment, aversive, pleasurable, baseline, Positive Behavioral Intervention Systems, behavioral class, target behavior, stimuli, variable
1) What is this program?The program is a token economy Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about? it was designed to elicit positive behavior from elementary students that where previously emitting negative behavior
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavior class would be good behavior
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Raising hand, listening to adults, getting homework done
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program? tickets that can be exchanged for prizes
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
pros gets the kids to continually emit the desired behavior with earning the purple tickets in order to exchange them for a gold cons the tickets could get lost, or copied.
9) What is the delivery system? fixed ratio reinforcement- when a child is emitting a good behavior they are given a ticket
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
it encourages the kids to always be on there best behavior so that they can earn the tickets. Some cons are who is watching for these behaviors and if a child gets over looked or feels they should have earned more tickets they may stop emitting good behaviors
11) How are the tokens banked? by the student
12) What are the pro's and con's? pros student knows how many tickets they have cons student could lose the tickets or make copies of the tickets
13) What are the back up reinforcers? the prizes that are earned with gold tickets
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?By the facultiy and staff.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? i dont think it will be effective because the kids have to collect so many tickets
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
they emit good behavior
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
how many tickets are given out and how many are traded in
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
fairly well since the students are talking about it and getting tickets
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
good, they mention the program in the school news letter
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Very good because they are the ones handing out the tickets
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, if a student doesn't want or like the reinforcer they will be less likely to buy into the system
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
If consistency is not evident the token economy will be very hard to enforce. Another problem may be that this token economy is not visual.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
where the parents informed, do you lose tickets if you are bad
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Can the tickets be copied, what if a student loses there tickets or someone else steals them
25)token economy, positive behavior, emit, behavior, elicit, behavioral classes, target behaviors, reinforcement,positive reinforcement, punishment
1) What is this program?
Poyner Panthers TRRC
2) How did it come about?
This came about as part of a district wide positive behavior intervention system
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
respectfulness, trustworthiness, caring,responsibility
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
sharing, not talking out of turn, telling the truth
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
gold and purple tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
pro- cost effective
con- tickets could be lost or stolen
9) What is the delivery system?
teachers give tickets to students exhibits the correct behaviors
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
pro- easy to hand out, instant reward
con- inconsistent delivery
11) How are the tokens banked?
ten purple tokens is worth one gold, the gold token can be exchanged for prizes
12) What are the pro's and con's?
pro- need to work for prize, not easily attained
con- unclear, inconsistent
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
prizes for gold tickets
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
by the teachers, principle, etc
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
yes, because the kids can pick a prize that they want from a number of options
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
by getting 10 purple tickets and exchanging them for a gold one, which they can exchange for a prize
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
they could keep all the returned gold tickets and make sure that the rate of exchanges is holding steady or increasing
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It is unsure based on the handout given to the parents how well the children are being taught about it, but I would assume that everything has been laid out clearly for them
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
pretty well, but it would be better to know specific behaviors that would be reinforced, how frequently this will occur, and exactly what prizes are available
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
we can't be sure of this, but I would assume that they have been taught well, but probably a little too vaguely.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes. Some teachers may want to reinforce students in a different way, some kids may not want the prizes offered or care enough to put in the effort.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
the consistency of rewarding the students may be an issue, as could motivating the students. Ten tickets could take a long time to acquire, and children may forget why they wanted them in the first place
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask how they will keep this consistent, when they will reward students, do all gold tokens get an equal prize
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would just want to know what exact behaviors are being looked for and how long this program will be going on
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
behavior, intervention, elicit, behavioral classes, target, emit, positive reinforcement, reward, inconsistency
1) The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. which stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Students who are caught emitting any of these behaviors will be rewarded with purple paw tickets. Those tickets can be traded in for prizes at the end of each week if they have enough for a gold ticket which is only 10 purple tickets.
2) The school district is trying to become a PBIS district which is a positive behavior interventions system.
3) The behavioral classes the district is trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4) Some behaviors the children could emit might be helping someone carry things, hold the door for others, or being quiet when asked to be.
5) This system would be based on reinforcement since the kids are praised for their actions and given small tokens.
6) This would be positive reinforcement since it is the addition of something desirable instead of the subtraction of something aversive.
7) The tokens used in this program were purple paw tickets as well as golden tickets that could be exchanged for prizes.
8) The con to using tickets is that they could be copied and a pro would be that the children can see how much they are getting.
9) The delivery system would be variable ratio because students are not giving a ticket every time they emit the selected behaviors but only when they are caught or seen by a teacher.
10) A pro of this kind of system is that students will never know when they are being caught but also this can be a con because some students may only emit those behaviors when teachers are around.
11) The purple tickets are banked by the students themselves and can turn them in for gold tickets in the office which can then be turned in for prizes whenever they please.
12) A pro would be that teachers do not need to take extra time tracking each student’s tickets but a con would be not knowing if they are real tickets or fake ones.
13) They did not state backup reinforcers unless the back-up is helping the janitor, ice cream, and etc.
14) These were chosen by the staff and school since they are inexpensive.
15) I think the ice cream and popcorn is but I do not know many students who would turn in tickets to help the janitor.
16) The students have to report to the office to receive the reinforcers after they have received ten purple tickets.
17) The staff could keep track of the amount of tickets earned by the students and have in located outside of the office. They could have the students take a survey about how they liked the system as well.
18) The administrators should have it announced in classrooms as well as the newsletter since not a lot of people read the newsletter.
19) The parents are sort of left out of the group since they cannot see the system hands on and just have to read about it.
20) I think they need to set up better explanations about when to give out the tickets as well as how often and all the teachers need to be on the same page.
21) Yes there is a possibility that some people will not like the system and ignore it.
22) Problems with token economies are behavior deteriorates after fading which may happen in this school where teachers are not rewarding as often which leads the students to emitting the behaviors less. Another problem could be token hoarding where students turn their tickets in all at once which will be a problem for the office.
23) How are they going to keep track of the system? Does it need to be altered in anyway?
24) Has the system been effective in other schools? Are we the first school to try it?
25)TERMS: emitting, behaviors, positive, elicit, reinforcement, desirable, aversive, token, variable ratio, emit, reinforcers, token economies, rewarding,
1. This program is a type of token economy, with a claim to fame called Positive Behavior Intervention System. They focus on trust, respect, responsibility and care. If a student is seen demonstrating one of these character pillars then they are given a purple paw ticket. Once a student receives 10 they can then trade them in for a golden ticket, which can be traded for prizes once a student has enough saved up.
2. The Waterloo School District has a district-wide initiative being a PBIS District, which as stated before stands for Positive Behavior Interventions Systems.
3. They focus on Trustworthiness, respectfulness, care, and responsibility, so generally good behavior.
4. Holding a door for someone, help a child if they dropped his/her things, turning in something valuable, being honest, etc.
5. Reinforcement
6. Positive because it’s the addition of something desirable
7. The token used in this program are “purple paw tickets” then once a student receives 10 they can trade them in for a golden ticket, which can be saved and used for a bigger prize
8.
a. Pros:
i. Children would act better
ii. Easier time for teachers,
b. Cons:
i. Children would do things they think are good
ii. Their focus could be taken away from school and on prizes
iii. The potential to steal others tickets arises
iv. Children could fight over them
v. If a child receives a lot they could “coast” and misbehave
9. An employee of the school can give children tickets anytime throughout the day when they are caught demonstrating one of the appropriate behaviors.
10.
a. Pros:
i. Mad respect for a teacher that gives out a lot
ii. The way to earn a ticket is very clear
b. Cons:
i. Not pairing the behavior with receiving the ticket
ii. Behavior Deterioration:
11. Children are given the tickets to take home or do with whatever they please
12.
a. Pros:
i. Immediate rewards
ii. Can show off to family and friends for praise
iii. Parents can know when their child is doing well
b. Cons:
i. Can be easily lost
ii. Can be easily stolen
iii. Ticket hoarding
13. Activities, privileges, objects, edibles, anything that a child may desire. It is best to ask the students what they would like to earn as a consequence of good behavior.
14. The back up reinforcers are chosen by the teacher individually depending on what they think is best at that moment.
15. They are effective because they are based off what the children prefer, which would seem to be more efficient considering it’s based off what the children want.
16. They gain them by saving up and turning in their purple tickets for golden tickets then trading those in for prizes in during an auction or just for pizza, extra recess.
17. The school could keep a log of how many tickets were handed out as well as how many golden tickets those were exchanged for, then compare that to how many write-ups and/or detentions there were before and after the system was put in place.
18. When it comes to elementary students, there’s only so much of a behavior modification system that they can grasp. It seems that they have discussed it as much as they can with the students and in the token economy handout it seems that they have attempted to include the children’s input as much as possible. I think the children will better grasp the idea as time goes on and they get a more hands on learning experience.
19. I feel as though the administration hasn’t really informed the parents to well of the new system. I feel this way because it was just mentioned in what looked to be like an end of the year news letter. I think that they could have better informed parents, which in turn could help the students follow the system better.
20. If the token economy was handed out to all the teachers as well as discussed, I think that the teachers should be well informed, partially because the first handout goes over almost every detail as well as answers almost any question a teacher could have.
21. I think that there is a possibility that not everyone agree with the system, that’s like saying everyone loves ice cream. Yes many love ice cream, but there are a few who do not like it. Also not all students might like the consequences of good behavior, so it may not be as efficient as anticipated.
22. If children were to connect the praise with lack of tokens, as you are to do once the behavior becomes more prevalent, the children may begin to act out again. I think it would be hard to decipher when it is time to diminish the tokens for the targeted behavior.
23. Some questions I may have for the administration is that what changes do they plan to make if it doesn’t work as well as anticipated, what if there are some teachers who secretly do not participate in this system, because then consistency diminishes, and consistency is extremely important when it comes to behavior modification of children.
24. ^^^See above^^^
25. targeted behavior, behavior modification, token economy, stimulus, reinforcer, positive reinforcement,
1) What is this program?
This is a token economy program called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
This is a district wide behavioral intervention program trying to promote good behavior in school aged children.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to get the students to elicit responsibility, respectfulness, trustworthiness, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors they might want children to emit are putting toys and activities away, helping other children with a difficult math problem, involving all children in games at recess, and apologizing and saying please and thank you.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because the school district is trying to increase these behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because the children are rewarded once their behavior increases.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are purple paw tickets. Once the students get 10 tickets, they can exchange them for 1 golden ticket, which can be used to redeem a variety of prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some cons associated with these tokens would be keeping track of how many each kid has, they might lose their tokens, or they might elicit appropriate behavior without being reinforced. Some pros are the different levels of tokens and that some of the reinforcers are free, such as being line leader and eating lunch with the teacher.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system appears to be a continuous reinforcement schedule. Every time a child emits a behavior demonstrating respect, trust, responsibility, or caring, they receive a token. This can get confusing though, as a child may elicit good behavior without the teacher noticing, and therefore not be reinforced that time.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pros to this delivery system is that the children will be more likely to often emit good behaviors as they are always hoping for more tickets. The cons would be, as I said before, not being reinforced each and every time.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by the children, until they get 10, at which time they can turn them into the office for a gold ticket which can be redeemed for prizes whenever they like.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros are that the children can take them home to their parents and show them how many they got. Another pro would be that the parents could continue this token economy at home with a similar system. The cons to this might be them losing their tickets or not keeping track of how many they have.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes for the gold tickets such as ice cream, helping the janitor, leading the line, and eating lunch with the principal.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It did not say how the backup reinforcers were chosen, but I am assuming they went by what has been most reinforcing to the children in the past. They might have also asked the children themselves, which is a good idea to make the reinforcers more reinforcing.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They have not started implementing the token economy yet, but i assume they will be effective.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by eliciting the target behaviors and earning enough tickets for prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some outcome measurements could be less incidents of bullying at recess, less mess in the classroom, and grade improvements.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
They are teaching the students effectively, as I assume they are going to explain in more detail than the flyer announcement. The fact that they are telling the parents about this plan is very effective.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They are teaching the parents effectively by making this announcement. The parents will come to learn more as the student becomes a part of the token economy as well.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
If all of the teachers are aware of this system and the specific target behaviors along with what info was in the handout, then they should be well knowledgeable about the system.
21) 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 of this within a token economy. Some teachers or parents might be unclear about what behaviors should constitute for a token. Some children may not find the reinforcements that reinforcing.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One problem that is common and could be common here is the lack of immediate reinforcement. Student have to build up a lot of tokens to receive the actual prize. Another potential problem could be the unevenness of the reinforcers. One student may feel that getting ice cream is a much better reinforcement than leading the line. Another problem could be the fading of the economy. Teachers may not reinforce as often as they should which could cause students to lose interest.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Some questions I would have for administrators is how are they going to get all teachers to participate equally, what are the specific target behaviors, and what are they planning on implementing if this strategy does not work?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know what specific behaviors the students should be working on to receive their tokens.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Token economy, elicit, emit, target behavior, positive reinforcement, continuous reinforcement schedule, reinforcer more reinforcing, banked, delivery system, behavioral class.
1)What is this program?
It is the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2)How did it come about?
It came about due to a district wide initiative to be a positive behavior interventions system.
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behavioral classes of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Helping someone who falls on the playground, raising your hand to speak in class.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6)Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because they are adding tokens for emitting the target behaviors.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pro’s would be that they are cheap and easy to get, they are easy to hand out, and are safe to use. Some con’s would be they could easily be lost or stolen, and they could be faked.
9)What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is a teacher or someone who works at the school giving the student the ticket.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pro’s are they would be hard to steal from a teacher or other adult who works at the school, it is immediate, and praise can easily be giving when the reinforcers are handed out.
11)How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are giving to the students to keep track of until they turn them in.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
Some pro’s are that school faculty doesn’t have to keep track of everyone’s tickets. Some con’s are that some kids could cheat the system by stealing tickets, and it would be easy for the students to lose the tickets and then not be able to get the reward.
13)What are the back up reinforcers?
Sonic ice cream cone, extra recess, lunch with the principal, bag of movie popcorn, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14)How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I would guess the administrators and teachers chose the backup reinforcers based on what the students liked.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
I think the reinforcers would be effective if they based them on what the kids want.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They turn in 10 purple paw tickets for 1 golden ticket and then turn golden tickets in for prizes.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could keep track of the tickets given out to see if they increase each week.
18)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would say that they did a good job teaching the students because they are giving out tickets everywhere.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators put this token economy in a newsletter that the parents will see. It could have been more detailed as to the costs of the rewards but they did inform the parents that this was going on.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
They did a good job of teaching the other teachers about the system because they are the ones giving out tickets are it seems like they know the system.
21)Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes because some kids might not find the rewards to be reinforcing.
22)What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Token hoarding and then students not behaving because they have enough tickets that it doesn’t matter to them. The price of the backup reinforcers might be too high or too low and would have to be adjusted.
23)What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would want to know the exact cost of each prize. I would also want to know if the tickets expire after a certain amount of time. What happens if I have extra tickets, do they just go to waste. Can other students report someone emitting the target behaviors? What happens if my tickets are lost or stolen.
24)What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know if they still have the system in place, how effective it is and what changes they have made since they first implemented the token economy.
Terms used: reinforcement, positive reinforcement, emit, target behavior, backup reinforce, token economy, behavioral classed, elicit, behavioral interventions system.
1) What is this program? poyner panther or TRRC, a behavioral intervention project
2) How did it come about? The school district is trying to engage in being a PBIS School district, promoting positive behavior
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring,
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? things like putting toys away, helping other kids, holding a door open ect.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive because they are adding something desirable (tickets that eventually get you prizes
7) What are the tokens used in this program? purple tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? cons might be that they lose the tickets and the teacher might not keep track of everyone, pros might be it is something tangible they have to see exactly how many they have, motivates them because tickets are exciting for kids
9) What is the delivery system? Teachers give them out if students are caught doing something good throughout the day
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? may not see the behavior being done, if they are somewhere where they cannot put it away right away they might forget where they put it
11) How are the tokens banked? once you have 10 tickets you can trade them in for a golden ticket and receive prizes
12) What are the pro's and con's? it may take awhile for some kids to get 10 tickets and other kids might be discouraged because of that. Pro might be that they finally built up 10 tickets so they are excited to get an actual prize
13) What are the back up reinforcers? the prizes, ice cream ect
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? by teachers and faculty members
15) Are they effective reinforcers? I think they are effective reinforcers, but they are just starting the program, so I don't know if their program is working out yet or not
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? Trade them in to the teacher
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? increased helping behaviors, increased in raising hand and cleaning up, administrators keeping track of how many tickets were given out and how many were converted to golden tickets
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? I think it is effected and they are letting the parents know so that they can talk to their kids about it and possibly have the parents checking up at home on how many tickets the kids are getting
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? The parents may feel like they need more information if this is the only flyer that has been passed out, but the flyer is very good about explaining the program
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? It is not clear just from the information given if the administration is being effective about teaching the token economy, but I assume they are well informed if they want the program to go well
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? yes, some teachers may have their own way of reinforcing their students and may not want to implement another system
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? losing the tickets, parents wanting to know how many their kids have, tickets may not seem like an immediate reinforcer and kids may just want a prize right away, are all students going to have an equal chance to receive tickets
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How were the teachers taught about the program and how are they going to keep track of the students tickets, especially if they were given by another teacher at recess or something
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would want to know maybe a list of behaviors that the teachers should be watching for so that they know exactly what to give tickets for
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. token economy, reinforcer, reinforcement, behavior, helping behaviors, behavioral intervention project
1.) It is an example of a token economy to elicit good behavior from their students and reinforced for the behavior that was emitted. The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. in Waterloo. The school district has a district-wide initiative being a Positive Behavior Interventions System. If a child emits a behavior based on certain behavior characteristic pillars, they are rewarded with a purple ticket, and then once they have received 10 of them, they can trade it in for a golden ticket that is an even greater reward.
2.) It came about because of the Waterloo school district's district-wide Positive Behavior Intervention System district in the schools to elicit good behavior characteristics.
3.) They are trying to elicit being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors.
4.) Some target behaviors they want the children to emit can be like if they will play with someone who is lonely at recess, follow classroom rules, and respect the faculty members and other students.
5.) It is reinforcement, since it is increasing the frequency of the target behavior.
6.) It is positive reinforcement, something pleasurable (tickets) is being added.
7.) There are purple tickets for emitting the target behavior. Once they have reached 10 purple tickets, they then get a golden ticket which allows them a special reward.
8.) This program is a pro since more children will elicit the characteristic pillars of T.R.R.C. This program can motivate parents or day-cares to also engage in the program in their environment. The cons of the program is that it is a discriminate stimulus since the program only happens at the school, and not in other environments. Another con of this is that it can make other children feel inferior to the others that receive tickets, and sometimes those children may only fake the good behavior to be rewarded, but are not sincere in their action.
9.) The delivery system is when a faculty member notices T.R.R.C. being emitted by a student and then given purple tickets to them through continuous reinforcement, but the golden tickets are through fixed ratio reinforcement that are exchanged later on for reinforcers.
10.) It is inconsistent which will make the children not always want to emit the target behavior if they know they always won't be rewarded. A good thing about the delivery system is that the purple tickets are usually through continuous reinforcement.
11.) Tokens are banked by earning 10 purple tickets. They then are exchanged for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be saved and exchanged for the reinforcers like extra recess, ice cream, popcorn, extra computer time, and eating lunch with the principal.
12.) It is good that it takes 10 purple tickets to receive one golden ticket since it makes them try harder to achieve that goal. It also is an aversive thing if the faculty were to run out of tickets.
13.) The backup reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess time, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time and helping the custodian.
14.) This was not really stated in the article, but they probably selected these backup reinforcers because they assumed or maybe asked what kind of reward the children would like.
15.) They are probably effective since what child does not want ice cream, popcorn, or extra recess or computer time. Eating with the principal, or helping a custodian clean, that does not seem like to much fun for kids to engage in and may be considered aversive rather than pleasurable rewards, which can become salient.
16.) By the children exchanging ten purple paw tickets for one golden ticket to the teacher.
17.) They can keep a record in their computer systems for how many purple and golden tickets are given out. They can compare it to when there was a baseline, and then to its intervention program's statistics.
18.) I think they are making it known to not just the children, but to the parents as well by sending out the school newsletter, and may let the community know it as well. It is also effective since the kids who receive the tickets are seen "everywhere" at the schools.
19.) Like I said before, they put it in the newsletter for the parents, but it was rather small and not on the first page. It was informative to a point, but there could have been some extra information that would have been more helpful, and some parents may have many questions or see it as making the children feel superior, or inferior to one another since kids are competitive and like to brag.
20.) Clearly they taught the teachers about the program, but to what extent and all the specific details is unclear. Some teachers may thing T.R.R.C. behaviors are different then some other teacher's opinion if the child deserved the ticket or not.
21.) Some kids just may not care to make the effort to be rewarded, and so they won't emit the behavior if they cannot be persuaded by the reinforcer. Some teachers may not think some kids deserve tickets each time, especially if they only did it for a reward and not out of being sincere. Some parents may think it will make kids think they are better than others if they have more tickets than someone else.
22.) Some problems are stated in my answer in question 21, and also it is not always consistent.
23.) How were the teachers taught what behavior elicits the desired target behavior, because everyone has different opinions on manners. Has this caused self-esteem problems for children who are not as special since they are not always rewarded for their good behavior? Did you ask the parents' permission first prior to implementing the program? Did you ask the children what rewards they would want to be reinforced with?
24.) Is there a specific definition and examples for the kids to know how to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Some kids may not know the meaning of those words, or how to elicit that behavioral class.
Terms-token economy, elicit, emit, behavior class, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, reinforcers, target behavior, salient, frequency, pleasurable, aversive, motivate, discriminant stimulus, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, backup reinforcers, baseline, and intervention
1) What is this program?
This program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. It is a token economy in order to reinforce positive behavior.
2) How did it come about?
It came about as a district-wide PBIS program (Positive behavior intervention system) for Waterloo. It is being implemented in order to elicit respectful behavior from students in the district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
I think that the behavioral classes that they are trying to elicit is overall positive behavior. This program is specifically targeting trustworthiness, respect, responsibility and careful behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
There are plenty of behaviors that fall into these behavior classes, but some might be to listen quietly in class, help classmates with assignments, raise hands to answer questions, include classmates in games at recess, and eat politely in the cafeteria.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on positive reinforcement. They are reinforcing good behavior by handing out purple tickets when it is witnessed by faculty and staff.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This reinforcement is positive because it involves the addition of something desirable – a purple ticket. Only good behaviors get purple tickets, and bad behavior is not being punished through this program.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are the purple and gold tickets. After getting ten purple tickets, they can trade them in for a golden ticket, which can then be redeemed for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro for this token economy is that the children can see their own progress as they collect the tickets. The program is simple and easy for the children to understand. It is also not very cost effective. Cons would be that the children could easily lose these tickets, just as they tend to lose their homework. Tickets may be stolen as well. Students might also become upset if they feel as though they deserve a ticket but do not get reinforced for the behavior emitted. It would also be a con if the positive behaviors are only emitted at school and not applied into the home setting.
9) What is the delivery system?
Although the delivery system isn’t discussed in depth, it is pretty clear how it will work. When the students emit a behavior that fits into the T.R.R.C category, he or she is administered a purple paw ticket by staff or faculty that witnessed it.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The problem with the delivery system is that the behaviors which are being reinforced are subjective to each individual. Unless they have specific guidelines for which behaviors should be rewarded and which should not, some children may miss out on tickets depending on who is delivering them. However, having faculty involved in the delivery system means that more behaviors will be reinforced at the time of the act.
11) How are the tokens banked?
By collecting 10 purple paw tickets, children can receive one golden ticket. These golden tickets can be saved and later redeemed for other prizes and privileges.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
This system seems very easy for the children to understand and seems salient enough to make the children want to participate to earn the rewards that come along with it. The students will want to work towards the end goals, which won’t happen right away. There is enough time in between the first purple ticket and the last back up reinforcer for the child to understand the point of the system. It may even become a small competition between classmates to see who can earn the most tickets. The only cons that come to mind are that because it takes some time for the end back up reinforcer, children may become bored or lose interest in the system. That’s if they don’t lose their tickets, first.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are the prizes given after the students redeem their golden tickets. These prizes include ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I’m going to assume that they were chosen based off of what the children like and enjoy doing. Kids seem to like snacks, like popcorn and ice cream, and are always excited for extra recess and computer time. The kids also like to engage in activities and privileges that aren’t always offered to them, like eating lunch with the principal and helping the custodian. These activities will elicit the behaviors that they want from the kids so that they can claim these reinforcers.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe they are effective reinforcers for elementary students. Like I said in the previous question, some of these back-up reinforcers aren’t available to students all of the time. They aren’t offered to help the custodian or have lunch with the principal rarely ever (like they might with ice cream) so knowing that the possibility is there with the right amount of tickets will be effective as reinforcers. But let’s be honest, ice cream and popcorn are still effective reinforcers as well because they are delicious! Having such a variety of different reinforcers to choose from will make the whole program relevant to all of the students.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
After a student is caught emitting good behavior ten times, thus earning ten purple tickets, they are able to trade them in for a golden ticket. The golden tickets are then saved and traded in for the other prizes, or back-up reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
While the article didn’t talk much about the outcome measures used, I think that it is important that they have a way of measuring the good behavior. One way they could do this is by keeping track of how many tickets are being handed out and redeemed. On the other hand, the ultimate goal is not to see how many tickets can be given out, but how much the behavior has really changed. They could keep track of how many times the students are sent to the principal’s office or how many times the students were kept after school for bad behavior before the program and compare that to after the program has been implemented for a while.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I don’t think that this article gives us a lot of information about how well the administrators are teaching the students about the system, but I would guess they are doing a decent job about it. I only say this because the article starts out asking the parents if their children are mentioning it at home. I would guess that the program has caught on and is working at school if the students would take the concepts home and talk about it with their parents. If not, I don’t think they would mention it in a newsletter.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think that the administrators did a decent job with teaching the parents about the system. The whole article, while short, was packed with information about the system to inform the parents about what is happening with the program and how it works.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Again, this article doesn’t give a lot of information about how well the administrators have taught the other teachers about the program. If I had to guess, I would assume that they did a good job at effectively communicating the ins and outs of the system because it seems as though the program is working pretty well.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think that it is very possible that some students and teachers may not be as motivated as others to participate in this system. This also goes for administrators, for some may not hand out the tickets as often as others will.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
I think that one of the problems here that is also a problem with other token economies can be the issue of a discriminative stimulus. If the token economy is implemented at the school, the school will then become a discriminative stimulus, where the behavior will only be present there. Ideally, the behavior would want to be relevant in all aspects of the child’s life, and not just in the school setting. It’s also important to keep the reinforcers exciting. Maybe changing one or adding one every now and then will keep the program fresh and enticing.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
If I could ask a question to the administrators a question about this system, it would be what efforts they made in order to ensure that all of the behaviors can be recognized and which behaviors were going to be reinforced as compared to others. I would also like to know if there is a limit on how many tickets can be handed out per day, as well as if certain behaviors can be repeated for tickets multiple times.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would also like to know how the administrators plan on keeping track of the success of the system, as well as how effective it has been since it was implemented into the district. Considering this was created a few years ago, it would be interesting to see how successful the program was.
25) Terms: elicit, emit, token economy, target behavior, discriminative stimulus, reinforcer, back-up reinforcer, response, salient, PBIS, behavioral class, punishment, reward, positive reinforcement, pleasurable, aversive, desirable
1) What is this program? The program is a token economy Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about? The school district is trying to become a PBIS district which is a positive behavior interventions system.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They focus on Trustworthiness, respectfulness, care, and responsibility, basically positive behavior.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Raising hand, listening to adults, getting homework done, involving other students in games, helping other students with something they are stuck on,ect.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative? This would be positive reinforcement since it is the addition of something desirable instead of the subtraction of something aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens are purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? The con to using tickets is that they could be copied and a pro would be that the children can see how much they are getting. It also gets the kids to continually emit the desired behavior with earning the purple tickets in order to exchange them for a gold.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system would be variable ratio because students are not giving a ticket every time they emit the selected behaviors but only when they are caught or seen by a teacher.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? it encourages the kids to always be on there best behavior so that they can earn the tickets. Some cons are who is watching for these behaviors and if a child gets over looked
11) How are the tokens banked? The tokens are banked by the children, until they get 10.Once they do that they can turn them into the office for a gold ticket which can be redeemed for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? A pro would be that teachers do not need to take extra time tracking each student’s tickets but a con would be not knowing if they are real tickets or if the students took them from someone else.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The prizes from collecting enough tickets: helping the janitor, line leader, ice cream, ect
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? By the faculty and staff.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes, they are effective because they are activities and items that the children would want and enjoy.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? by getting 10 purple tickets and exchanging them for a gold one, which they can exchange for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The outcome measures may be a record of how many purple tickets were given out and traded in for golden tickets. This can be compared to the baseline that was recorded prior to implementation to determine how much, if at all, the behaviors have been increased due to the program.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? I think it is effective because they are telling the kids and parents about it. The administrators could have it announced in classrooms so the kids get a better understanding, as well as the newsletter since not a lot may of people read the newsletter.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? I feel that it would be better to know specific behaviors that would be reinforced, and how frequently this will occur.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? It does not explain how the teachers are taught about the token economy in the article, but it seems like a pretty simple concept so I am sure they are pretty well aware of how to use the system properly.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes, some teachers may think kids deserve the purple paw tickets when other teachers may disagree. Some may be more willing or bias to the children they favor.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? If some children do good things and do not get noticed for it, they may get frustrated with it and stop trying to do good. They may begin lacking motivation and give up.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? When will students be able to turn in golden tickets for prizes, is it just whenever or on certain days? How will you make this token economy consistent? How will teachers and faculty keep track of tickets that students have in order to make sure they are not stealing or using other students tickets?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would be interested to see how long the program is going to go on, and how they will fairly distribute the tickets to the children.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. token economy, behavior, reinforcement, aversive, positive reinforcement, emit, baseline, implementation, and outcome measures.
Poyer Purple Paw tokens
1) What is this program?
This program is a program that rewards students for eliciting behaviors that the district has decided are important to growth of character.
2) How did it come about?
The district has a Positive Behavior Interventions System program.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit behavioral classes of being trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Specific target behaviors that they want the children to emit might include completing homework on time, raising hands and waiting to be called on, speaking politely with teachers and other students (no name calling), volunteering to help others.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system uses positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The students are given purple tickets for emitting the target behaviors.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros could be that students like the tickets because they are like money to them. It is easy for them to know how many tickets they have earned. Some cons might be if the tickets are easily duplicated. If a student could easily copy the tickets with purple paper of their own they might forge them. Also, since the tickets are tangible they could be lost or stolen.
9) What is the delivery system?
When students are seen emitting a target behavior they are given a purple ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro to this delivery system is that students know when they have emitted a target behavior. A con to this delivery system is that if a student is not seen emitting a target behavior they will not be reinforced for it. They may only emit the target behavior when they know they will be seen and reinforced for it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The students keep the purple tickets they earn. Ten purple tickets can be traded for a gold ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro is that trading ten purple tickets for a gold ticket keeps students from having to hold onto many purple tickets at once. The purple tickets that are traded in can also be reused. A con is that it may be difficult for teachers to keep track of how many tickets each student has earned, so some students might pool their purple tickets with their friends.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal and teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
If the back up reinforcers were chosen according to the LRBI checklist, then they should have been chosen according to what the students like to do or like to have.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Reinforcers such as ice cream, popcorn, recess, or computer time are likely effective reinforcers. Having lunch with the principal and helping the custodian are not likely to be effective reinforcers.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students trade gold tickets for reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
One possible outcome measure is the number of gold tickets being redeemed for reinforcers. If there a lot of gold tickets being given to students then it might mean that the students have been emitting target behaviors at a high frequency.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It is not said how the students have been made aware of the rules of the system, but if they have been emitting target behaviors and been reinforced then they probably have a good understanding of how the system works.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The memo in the newsletter is an effective way of letting the parents know what the system is about. It lets them know what the tickets their child might bring home are, and what the purpose of the program is.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It seems like the other teachers understand the system well, since the newsletter says that students have been seen emitting target behaviors in many places in the school and have been given purple tickets for emitting this behavior.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes. Some parents might think that giving rewards for students completing homework on time, for example, should not be done. They might think that students should do their homework to learn, not to earn a prize. Similarly, some teachers might think that reinforcing some target behaviors might teach students to only emit those behaviors if they can get something for it.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
It seems like the students are on a continuous ratio reinforcement schedule for emitting target behaviors. It is possible that if a student is emitting a target behavior and being reinforced many times per day that they could accumulate purple tickets very quickly. They could then trade their tickets for a gold ticket. Once they have enough gold tickets to get the back up reinforcer that they want they might decrease the frequency of emitting the target behavior.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask how they defined the target behaviors. For example, how would a teacher know when a student displays a behavior consistent with being trustworthy or responsible? What would a topographical behavioral class for trustworthiness be? Keeping a promise?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What kind of banking system is used to keep track of how many tickets each student has earned? If multiple teachers can give tickets to any student at any time, how can you be sure that the tickets a student turns in were all earned by him/her and not given to them by, or taken from, other students? If more than one teacher sees a student emit a target behavior and wants to give reinforcement, is the number of tickets they get based on how many teachers observed the behavior or on the number of times the target behavior was emitted?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: elicit, behavioral class, target behaviors, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, back up reinforcer, continuous ratio reinforcement schedule, topographical behavioral class
1. The program is called Poyner Panthers
2. It came about as a way to teach children in the Waterloo school district about T.R.R.C. or trustworthy, responsible, respectful and caring. The school district is hoping to increase these target behaviors.
3. The behavioral class would be proper school behavior. Trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness and caring all can be viewed as positive behaviors that the school sees as proper school behavior or etiquette.
4. Some specific behaviors would be telling the truth, raising your hand before speaking, including everyone in activities, not speaking out of turn.
5. Reinforcement
6. Positive
7. The tokens are purple tickets which can then be traded into golden tickets which can finally be redeemed for prizes.
8. Some pros are that the prizes that the students can earn are very appealing for elementary school children. Furthermore, the 10 ticket exchange rate does not seem too high if a variety of different behaviors are being reinforced. Possible cons could be that Sonic is now out of business in Waterloo so offering prizes for a closed store wouldn't be reinforcing. Also, the two exchanges that children need to use is somewhat confusing. Why not just make it 10 purple tickets equals a prize instead of 10 purple tickets can be exchanged for a golden ticket which can then be exchanged for prizes.
9. The prizes (delivery system?) are either prizes or special privileges that otherwise would not be available to students, such as extra computer or recess time.
10. The main pro of the delivery system is that teachers have obviously used a behavioral hierarchy and understood what behaviors are most appealing to the students. Activities like extra recess time and computer time are extremely reinforcing. One con could be that dinner with the principal or teacher is not reinforcing and it is not clear if there is a limit to how many times I can choose a certain activity. For example, if I had exhausted all of my extra recess time and was in line to have lunch with the principal, I would stop emitting certain behaviors so as to avoid reinforcement.
11. The tokens are baked using the golden tickets. It sounds as if the students are in charge of all the purple tickets they accumulate but once they have 10 purple tickets, they can bank them and receive a golden ticket.
12. The cons of this banking system is that I feel it could become hectic will all of the tickets being accumulated. It seems as if the teachers are simply reinforcing any positive behavior which could lead to them looking only for easily identifiable behaviors. Other behaviors could go unnoticed and eventually be extinguished if other teachers fail to reinforce as well. Furthermore, some of the students could counterfeit the tickets if they are just purple of gold.
13. The back up reinforcers are the prizes (extra recess, Sonic ice cream, lunch with the principal).
14. I would imagine the teachers made a behavioral hierarchy to find out what behaviors most students engaged in on a regular basis. They then used these behaviors as the reinforcers which would elicit proper school behaviors such as raising your hand before speaking, etc.
15. Yes, I feel as if the backup reinforcers are effective because they are all behaviors or activities we all liked to engage in as children. Except for maybe lunch with the principal or teacher which is potentially aversive.
16. Students gain access to the reinforcers by emitting proper school behaviors. Once they have banked enough tickets they can exchange them for reinforcers.
17. The administrators can know the program is effective if they stop reinforcing on a continuous basis and use intermittent reinforcement. If proper school etiquette is maintained even without continuous reinforcement, then they know the program has worked.
18. It is smart that the administrators are only disclosing certain pieces of information. What the students now is that if they emit proper school behaviors then they get prizes. The administrators are manipulating the children effectively through this token economy.
19. Again, the administrators are only disclosing as much information as they have to. The newsletter is effective because it details how children can earn prizes as well as highlighting the appeal of the prizes. Parents could use this information at home as well.
20. This could potentially be a problem because SPECIFIC target behaviors have not been defined. All teachers have differing views on what constitutes proper school behavior. In addition, some positive behaviors could go unnoticed leading to unintentional extinction.
21. Yes there is always a possibility that teachers and/or students will not care about the system. Furthermore, parents could see this behavioral strategy as manipulative (which it is, but it is for a positive cause).
22. One strategy I could see being problematic is the schedule of reinforcement being used. Students could stop emitting proper school behaviors if they are reinforced every time. Also, if the teacher waits until the end of the day to reinforce then the association was not strengthened at all.
23. Do the prizes change periodically? If not then the students could not find them reinforcing anymore. It is important to continually seek behaviors that are reinforcing and change them with the current backup reinforcers.
24. How long will this be in place? Does the whole school participate? If one teacher does not buy in, it could result in extinction.
25. continuous reinforcement, intermittent reinforcement, positive reinforcement, extinction, target behavior, behavioral hierarchy, backup reinforcers, elicit, emit
1)What is this program?
Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring) Students that are shown being on T.R.R.C. are given a purple paw ticket that can eventually be traded in for a golden ticket that can help a child receive prizes.
2)How did it come about?
It came about from the Positive Behavior Interventions System and is going district-wide.
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit is positive and kind behavior. Like T.R.R.C. stands for, trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors the school is trying to get the children to emit could range from helping the teacher pick up the mess in the class before recess, putting away all of the toys before leaving the room, or standing in line for lunch without pushing or cutting.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement. If they do something good and receive a purple paw, they are likely to continue doing that behavior or other good behaviors of it’s kind.
6)Is it positive or negative?
Positive. It has only pleasurable stimuli.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
If a child emits a good behavior, they receive a purple paw. If they get 10 purple paws, they can trade those 10 in for 1 golden ticket. A golden ticket can then be used for a variety of prizes like lunch with the principle, extra computer time, etc. (Something enjoyable for the kids.)
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Possible pros: the children emit more positive behavior. Instant reward.
Possible cons: the children could be angry about who has more purple paws and they could then in turn, emit negative behavior.
9)What is the delivery system?
Whenever a child is caught doing something positive, they are given a purple paw. This is a fixed ratio reinforcement.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Possible pros: the children could be emitting the behaviors all the time, everywhere.
Possible cons: the children could feel like they are not being noticed emitting good behaviors since they are not continuously being reinforced every single time so they may stop.
11)How are the tokens banked?
10 purple paws can be exchanged for 1 golden ticket which can be exchanged for a prize.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: they will want more and more purple paws to get a golden ticket, so they will always being emitting good behavior.
Cons: the children may stop emitting good behavior once they get 10 purple paws.
13)What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14)How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen by the staff at the school by most likely deciding what it is that children really want at that age. Something that they would want to work towards getting.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
I think it could work to be effective. Because there are a variety of back-up reinforcers, the kids can choose whatever they want.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By trading their 10 purple paws for 1 golden ticket for 1 prize.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures could be helpful by keeping track of how many students are getting paws/tickets/prizes.
18)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It didn’t give any numbers about how many students are getting tickets and whatnot, but because students are getting caught emitting good behaviors EVERYWHERE, it seems to be working and taught correctly.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think they are doing just as good as this as well because of the newsletter. They are encouraging the parents to continue reinforcing their kids for good behavior.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
This wasn’t really talked about in the short thing we had to read, but I would assume the administrators taught the teachers well about the system because they would need to know how and when to give out the paws or tickets.
21)Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think it’s very possible. If some students don’t care to be respectful or don’t care about the prizes, they have no motivation to show signs of being on T.R.R.C.
22)What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
I think the main problem here and about token economies is that if the rewards are not consistent, it will become harder to reinforce.
23)What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What if a student says they lost a ticket? What if the student wants a different prize? Do you think all the prizes are of equal value?
24)What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What are some more specific target behaviors for the teachers/parents to be looking for to reward?
Terms: behavioral classes, elicit, emit, target behaviors, reinforcement, fixed ratio, positive stimuli
1) What is this program?
This program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
This came about because the Waterloo School District began a district wide initiative being a PBIS District-Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavior classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respectfullness, responsibility, and being caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
I think that some specific target behaviors they would want the children to emit would be raising their hands to speak, putting their things away (like toys or their backpacks in cubbies), helping another student put toys away.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement, they want to increase the desirable behavior classes. (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring)
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is a positive system. There isn't any taking away of activities if an aversive behavior has been displayed in this system.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens in this system are purple paw tickets and golden tickets (The gold tickets can be traded in for prizes.)
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro of this system would be it is a strictly reinforcement system, making it more effective than a punishment system. A con of this system is that some of the prizes require money to be spent, as well as the custodian making not getting as much done as he/she would like. Another con is that the children have to keep track of their purple tickets (they need ten to receive a gold ticket), and even though being able to keep track of your tickets is a good lesson in responsibility, kids tend to lose things very easily.
9) What is the delivery system?
I see the delivery system as a variable-ratio schedule, because there is no way the teacher can possibly see every time the child emits one of the target class behaviors to get a purple ticket. So the child could perform a target behavior several times before he/she gets rewarded even though the intended system is most likely continuous reinforcement. The reinforcement system is also a fixed-ratio schedule because the child must get 10 purple tickets to receive a golden ticket for a prize.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of the delivery system is that the child will probably be emitting far more desirable behaviors in order to get just one ticket, because there is no way the teacher could catch the desirable behaviors all of the time. A con of the system is also the same thing. There is no way a teacher could reward the child every time he/she emits a desirable behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
For every 10 purple tickets a child recieves, they can cash them in for one gold ticket. The gold ticket can then be saved and traded for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro is that keeping track of the tickets can teach the children one of the pillars (responsibility), but a con of that is that they are still younger children and keeping track of tickets is probably not easy at all. I think that maybe using a chart and then giving the kids one golden ticket would be a far easier system.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are 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?
The leaders of this program may have asked the children of activities they would like to do or just observed the children showing interest in these things.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe they are effective reinforcers. Granted, every child is different, but I know that when I was a kid, I would have loved every one of these options (with the exception of lunch with the principal... scary!)
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The children receive the reinforcers when they earn enough purple tickets to be able to hand in a gold ticket to get the prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think the admministrators will be able to know if the system is effective if they keep track of the amount of purple tickets or gold tickets that are being turned in. Keeping track of these will help them get a pretty good idea of how much the kids are actually participating.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think the administrators are probably doing a good job. They are getting the parents involved by sending out this information in their newsletter. I'm also sure that once they started awarding purple tickets, word would travel fairly quickly among the students themselves. I would also imagine the children have been informed of the system from an assembly of some kind.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think the administrators are effectiely teaching the parents about the system. The newsletter has given a detailed account of the program and is even asking the parents to encourage their children in this initiative.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would say they have taught the teachers a very significant amount about the system. Considering children are already bringing home golden and purple tickets. Teachers are supposed to be aware of good behavior EVERYWHERE.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think the students may not completely buy into the system, especially if there are teachers or parents that are skeptical or aren't completely on board with it. Children definitely pick up on that, which could cause the system to not reach it's full potential.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Teachers may not always be consistent in handing out tokens, and the real reinforcement is not immediate and children are not always so readily accepting of delayed gratification.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask the administrators if they had specific behaviors they are rewarding, because the behavior classes are very open to intrepretation and one teacher may not reward what another might. Is there a way the administrators are making the behaviors more specific?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would definitely want to know some specific behaviors the children are getting rewarded for.
25) Terms: behavior classes, behavior, target behavior, positive, reinforcement, desirable, emit, elicit, continuous reinforcement schedule, fixed-interval schedule, variable ratio schedule
1) What is this program? The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring) and is a system to increase target behaviors in the district.
2) How did it come about? It came about as a district-wide positive behavioral intervention system to increase the emitting of the character pillars that the district wanted to reinforce.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible, caring behavioral classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? The target behaviors they want the children to emit is putting their supplies away when they’re done or saying desirable, kind things to other students.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative? This is positive reinforcement because they are adding pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets. Ten purple tickets equals one gold ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? A con to this system is the tokens must be salient enough to emit the target behaviors, and the system is only effective in the classroom, and that’s it. The classroom would then be a discriminative stimulus. Outside of the classroom the behaviors may reach extinction.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system incorporates the continuous reinforcement through the purple tickets with the fixed ratio of the golden tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? The fixed ratio reinforcement will only work if the reinforcers are set at effective value. If the prices are too high, the students are less likely to participate. The pros are that the system combines a number of different reinforcement schedules, which keeps it interesting for the students. The continuous reinforcement is a good reinforcer.
11) How are the tokens banked? The tokens are banked in that after 10 purple tickets they can be turned in for 1 golden ticket which can then be turned in for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? The pros of this is that the children have to work up for a prize, so they will be motivated. The cons is that the banking system could be too confusing or hard for younger students to keep up with.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The backup reinforcers are the prizes at the end once the children turn in their golden tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The backup reinforcers were chosen on what the children voiced they wanted to do.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? They are effective if they succeed in reinforcing the target behaviors they want the students to emit. I don’t see the helping the custodian part as reinforcing though, maybe more of a punishment.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in their tickets to eventually reach the prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The outcome measures will be how many purple and gold tickets were traded in for reinforcers. This can be compared to the baseline recorded in a sort of behavioral journal.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? It seems effective since the system has spread out to any schools, banks, ect.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? The administrators are trying to teach the parents about the system through the newsletter, but the description is too short in my opinion.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? The administrators have informed the teachers about the system, but not as clear with how effectively the teaching was done.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? It’s possible that not every single person was on board with this, since it will include some expenses. But I feel most teachers would be on board with the idea of changing behaviors, and the students would generally like the idea.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? The classroom is the only place where the behavior is getting reinforced. The behaviors may not be specific enough for the students or the teachers may overlook target behaviors and not reward the students on accident.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How do the teachers plan to keep up with all of the target behaviors elicited? Were they informed enough?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? What was the baseline beforehand? How has this increased the frequency of the target behaviors using the token economy?
Terms: Target behavior, token economy, reinforce, positive behavioral intervention, elicit, increase, emit, desirable, pleasurable, stimuli, aversive, take away, salient, discriminative stimulus, behavior, extinction, fixed ratio, continuous reinforcement, reinforcement schedules, punishment, behavioral journal, baseline, reward, frequency of behavior.
1) What is this program?
The program is a token economy Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
It came about from the Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Trying to create an environment where the kids are trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They want the children to be on their best behavior so that they are trying to achieve getting one of the purple pawls.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is a reinforcement. The children not following the rules are not getting anything taken away from them.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive, we are adding something to the situation.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens would be the purple paws they give out and then the golden tickets they receive when they get 10 of the purple pawls.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros would be that the kids are going to follow these expected behaviors so that they can try to get a certain amount of purple pawls to earn a prize. The con could be that they students who aren't getting the purple pawls complain about the system. Also teachers may not always catch good behavior and it could be unfair that by chance some students get noticed doing good behaviors more often then others.
9) What is the delivery system?
The purple pawls are handed out by teachers and staff.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros the students will feel good that a teacher caught them doing good behavior making them feel good about themselves. Con would be that the teachers might not always catch the students doing good deeds and it might seem unfair.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children have to keep track of them until they trade them in for a golden ticket or a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Students aren't very responsible and can easily lose them would be the con. Pro is that it is trying to teach them to be responsible and keep track of their stuff.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes like ice cream, recess, popcorn, and others.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
By the staff and the creators of the program.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes and No. They could be because some kids might want those things but to most of the kids the prizes seem so small that it is easy to just not care about them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They must turn in their purple pawl tickets when they get 10, and then get a golden ticket which can later be turned in for the prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
If they are handing out a lot of purple pawls and if the students seem to care enough about turning them in for prizes.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Pretty affectively they are making sure everyone knows about it and reminding parents of it so that they are reminding their children of it.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Pretty well by putting it in the newsletter. Maybe if the parents had to sign something in their assignment books about how many they had received.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would have to be in the system to understand it fully but I am sure all of the teachers are aware of it.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes some teachers may not care enough to actually give out the pawl prints, some students may not agree with our like the system and can convince other students that it isn't a good system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The students might not care enough about the reinforcers and the teachers might not all be on board with the system and might not care enough to hand out the pawl prints when they see good behavior.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How often do the students get the pawl prints? when are the rewards handed out? Is it the same students repeatedly getting all of the reinforcers?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How long they have been doing it and how successful it has been, also I would like to know how the children feel about the system.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavioral class, reinforcement, positive and negative reinforcement.
1) What is this program?
A token economy aims to reinforce desirable behaviors by rewarding individuals with 'tokens', which act somewhat like a reinforcer, but can later be exchanged for a reinforcer. The program set forth by Poyner Elementary, Poyner Panthers on TRRC, promotes trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring actions within the school community. Every time a student in observed eliciting said actions, they will receive a purple paw ticket. Once they receive 10 purple tickets, they gain a golden ticket, which can be exchanged for prizes.
2) How did it come about?
Poyner's token economy has come about because of the district wide initiative to encourage positive behavior, PBIS, or positive behavior intervention system.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The goal is to elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring actions.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Emission of such behaviors as helping a fellow student, standing up to a bully, and possibly getting homework done on time, could grant the reward of a purple token.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This token economy is solely based on reinforcement, reinforcing desirable behaviors in order to increase the emission of the behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is definitely a form of positive reinforcement, they are adding the reinforcer of tokens which leads to prizes.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The purple tokens are used in order to immediately reinforce the student for the desirable behavior. Whereas the golden ticket reinforces the student for continually emitting desirable behavior.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro's: specified system to reinforce students for desirable behavior, encouraging these behaviors outside of school.
Con's: What behaviors fit into TRRC, children may only emit behaviors in order to receive prizes, could discourage other students who don't receive tokens.
9) What is the delivery system?
Since the school wants to reinforce behaviors at all times, the faculty are the one's to give the children tokens because they are the one's to observe the action. Children are reinforced with the tokens, but they are kept in order to grow into a golden ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pro's: The faculty will be able to correctly track the students' progress
Con's: The children may not know where they are in the process of receiving a golden ticket, the teacher may not see the child emit the desirable behavior, what happens when a student misbehaves
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are saved until the student reaches 10 purple tokens, then they are presented with a golden ticket. Once they receive the golden ticket, they get to choose between a list or prizes set forth by the school.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pro's: Since the faculty is in charge if the tokens the children will not lose them, setting the purple token number at 10 it forces the child to emit a heft number of desirable behaviors before they are reinforced.
Con's: The children may lose track of what number of purple tokens they are at, they may become uninterested in the program since they must acquire 10 purple tickets before they are reinforced.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the sonic ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Although the article doesn't specifically come out and say it, the fact that the entire school district is committed to this, they may have decided together, or the individual schools could have come up with their own reinforcers in order to cater to their students' wants/likes.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe they are effective. As in every case, there are some that may be more reinforcing than others. For instance, I personally wouldn't find helping the custodian to be very reinforcing, if anything I would find that to be punishing. However, what student wouldn't want more recess or computer time, or get an extra snack(ice cream cone or popcorn).
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students are able to access the reinforcers by emiting desirable behaviors that are then observed by faculty at the school, and are subsequently given a purple token. The purple token symbolizes a single display of desirable behavior. Once the student reaches 10 purple tokens, the student receives a golden ticket, which then leads to the access of the backup reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators are hoping to see an increase in desirable behavior in regards to trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness, and caring. They will also hopefully see the plan become effective by extinction. Hopefully these actions become everyday occurrences, and what once was a reinforcer for the students is not what drives them to act this way anymore.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It doesn't specifically say how the administrators are teaching the students, it sounds like the students are very well informed, since the newsletter is asking if the children have been informing their parents of the incentive. It also promotes the parents to encourage this desirable behavior outside of the school environment.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
By presenting the information in a newsletter, they are hoping to reach every parent, but not every parent may receive the newsletter or read it. The information in the newsletter is very well laid out and easy to understand. I also thought it was a great point to add at the end to help encourage your children to increase their desirable behavior.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would hope that the administration informed the teachers thoroughly since they are the ones that are going to do most of the initial reinforcing (giving the purple tokens). However, it doesn't specifically say.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course, some students, faculty, and parents may not think that the reinforcers or structure of the system may actually increase behavior. It is hard to please everyone and have everyone agree with systems such as this.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The reinforcers don't always match the behavior. The student could have done something very desirable, but they cannot get reinforced right away, and even then, they only get to choose from the preset reinforcers. It is important to stick with the idea of the system, only allow the student to reach 10 tokens, then they must receive a reinforcer.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Although this system focuses on reinforcement, what would you do about punishment? How long do you think this plan will need to be in play before you see the desirable changes you wished? Would you think about changing the reinforcers to better suit the children's likes/wants? You said that you would like the parent's to encourage the same behavior outside of school, do you want them to implement a similar system in their homes as well?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to learn more about how they are going to track their changes, as we have learned, it is very easy, and rewarding, to see our progress in a graph form, but the experiments we have done have been easy to graph. We have had numerical measurements, including a baseline to compare to. The most important thing I would ask about is what specifically do they define as TRRC worthy behavior. That is something that is crucial to the success of this system. You want each faculty member to judge behaviors on the same level. If you have one teacher that is more lenient on what they consider a TRRC behavior, kids may be partial to that teacher. How will they control for that?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Token economy, reinforce, elicit, emit, extinction, behavior, positive reinforcement, punishment, backup reinforcers, baseline
1) What is this program?
This program is a Positive Behavior Intervention System that is completed through a token economy.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District probably wanted to promote behaviors that extrinsically valuable to the school system. There may have been issues within the school district, and they wanted to find a way to reinforce the children, rather than punish them.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit behavioral classes of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. These consist of the character pillars.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some of the behaviors they may like the children to emit are pushing in chairs, throwing away garbage in the hallway, remaining in their place in line, and saying please and thank you.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based off of reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive, so therefore, it is positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The program consists of using purple and golden tickets. A child may receive ten purple tickets and trade it in for golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros of this program include that it promotes desirable behaviors among students, students are able to track how well they doing, and it uses an intermittent schedule of reinforcement, so the students will continue to emit behaviors to receive more tokens, and may go through extinction bursts to collect more tickets. Cons may include the child will not be reinforced each time, may decide not to participate in the intuitive, may steal or lose tickets, and may not receive reinforcement as much as needed.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery of the system is that students are given tickets from their teachers after they emit a behavior that is desirable and has extrinsic value to the school.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The teachers may not see every desirable behavior, some children may become jealous and act out more, and the children may not understand what target behaviors are needed to earn a ticket.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Children can trade in their tickets they have collected for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros include that there is reinforcement provided for the behaviors, encourages future participation in program, and everyone is involved in the process. The parents are aware of this program, so they may convince their child to work towards receiving tickets, the teachers are most likely telling them which behaviors are desirable as they receive the tickets, and the tickets can be received anywhere in the school. Cons consist of the students may not like the prizes or even find some of them aversive, and as previously mentioned, the child may lose his or her tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The teachers may have brainstormed some prizes together.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Some may be effective reinforcers, but others may serve as punishers instead. These include lunch with the principal and lead teacher and helping the custodian.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They are to turn in their tickets, but it does not say how many are required for which prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could monitor how many tickets each child has, too. This may reduce the frequency of those attempting to cheat the program. They could monitor the number of parent phone calls regarding bullying and see if this is reduced.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
If they are praising the child for the behavior as they give him or her tickets, I believe it is effective, but we cannot see the precise distribution and do not know how it is working in their school.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Parent newsletters can be effective, as long as the parents are reading them. I think it would have been much more effective to do it in person, and then the parents could more easily ask questions they have regarding the program.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I am not really sure how well the other teachers know about the system, since I do not know what they have communicated to one another about.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is a chance that students, teachers, or parents do not want involvement in the program.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The reinforcers may not be reinforcing, so an establishing operation should be put into place to ensure that the procedure is making the reinforcers more reinforcing. There may be too much time in between reinforcement, and there is a chance that the students may cheat the system or not take part in it at all.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
When are the tickets traded in for prizes?
Has this been effective for increasing desirable behaviors?
Was there previously a problem with children displaying behaviors that were not compatible to this?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know how long it has been implemented and if they are seeing improvement.
Terms: token economy, behavior, extrinsically valuable, reinforce, punish, elicit, behavioral class, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, desirable, intermittent schedule of reinforcement, extinction burst, target behavior, aversive, reinforcers, punishers, frequency, establishing operation
1) What is this program?
Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. They focus on being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
2) How did it come about?
It is a district-wide initiative being a Positive behavior interventions system.
2) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Positive character traits such as being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring.
3) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple paw tickets and golden tickets for every 10 purple paw tickets earned.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pro’s would be that the prizes such as the ice cream, extra recess, and etc. are all usually appealing to kids. Also, another pro would be the more tickets you earn, the better your chances are for winning a prize, therefore it will more likely keep the students motivated to exhibit good behaviors. Some cons would be that they are not getting a prize for each ticket, also students may become less motivated because they won’t get the instant gratification compared to if they were to get a piece of candy or something each time they were caught being well behaved.
9) What is the delivery system?
They are banked through continuous reinforcement, as every ten purple tickets = one golden ticket. The more you exhibit good behavior, the more likely you will win a prize.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pro’s are the students need to be exhibiting constant good behavior to get more tickets since the more you have, the better your chances for winning are. The con’s are it is not an 100% that even if your name is put into the raffle more than once, you still may not win the prize. Therefore, students who don’t win the raffle may get discouraged and stop emitting good behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Every 10 purple tickets= 1 golden ticket. Each golden ticket is put into a raffle to win the prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro is one can keep track of their progress by seeing all of the purple tickets and can see that the more they have, the better they are doing. Although, as I mentioned above, even if they enter their name in even a couple times, they still may not win anything in the raffle. Also, once someone wins, they may extinguish emitting their good behaviors.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the ice cream cones, extra recess time, popcorn, lunch with the lead teacher and principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They are choosen from the raffle of the golden tickets.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think some are however, it depends on each kid. One kid may win eating lunch with their teacher, but what if they don’t like their teacher? Then it wouldn’t be positive reinforcement because it’s not adding a desirable behavior for the child. Another thing that could be wrong is if they win ice cream but are allergic to dairy, they once again would not be reinforced with a desirable behavior. Although the opposite could happen where a kid who loves ice cream wins and a desirable behavior is reinforced.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By being “caught” demonstrating the T.R.R.C. character pillars.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
All of the purple tickets passed out and the golden tickets rewarded.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems like it is very effective because they are rewarding the children who are doing good behaviors everywhere. It seems straightforward and very easy to understand with the different colors representing different things.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think they are effectively teaching the parents about the system as they put it in the newsletter. The only thing I think they could do better is giving more examples of what kinds of behaviors are being rewarded.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I don’t know, they didn’t specify who was in charge of this exactly or who is the one giving out the tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, as I have mentioned, these prizes may not be appealing to all kids and the parents may not buy into either if they are trying to get their kid to eat healthier. Also, I don’t really know why anyone would want to help the custodian do their job.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
These behaviors may only be reinforced in the school setting and therefore may not reinforced at home so their parents may not be seeing these behaviors reinforced if they don’t hand out the tickets or have some kind of reward for them as well.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would want them to define each of the character pillars, give examples of ways to show them, ask how they can make this be successful outside of a school setting, why they chose the prizes they did?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know, how often these tickets are rewarded, how many raffles would there be?, how often these raffles would be?, could the winner choose a different prize if they don’t like the one they won?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Positive reinforcement, emit, behaviors, continuous reinforcement, extinguish, punishment, and reward.
1) This program is a token economy through Poyner Panthers that focuses on being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. It is a behavior modification program that hopes to see children elicit these acts and reward them using a system of tickets.
2) It came about because the Waterloo School District joined the initiative in being a PBIS District-Positive Behavior Interventions System that is looking to create more positive behaviors through positive reinforcement.
3) The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are positive behaviors towards others at school that specifically focus on being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) Some target behaviors they may want the children to emit are being honest when grading their classmates homework, not judging their classmates if they ask a question, keeping their hands and feet to themselves, offering to help others with homework, staying in line, and raising their hands to answer a question.
5) This system is based on reinforcement because they are increasing behaviors through rewards of tickets.
6) This is positive because it involves the addition of something desirable, in this case a ticket. There is no punishment involved in this program because only the good behaviors get rewarded.
7) The tokens are purple paw tickets and once they receive ten of those they can trade them in to get a golden ticket which can be traded in for a variety of prizes.
8) A pro is that the children who are younger will find interest in this new idea and want to earn these tickets to get the desirable rewards. Another pro is that since it is printed in the newsletter, their parents/ guardians will be able to reinforce this at home as well to keep the good behavior going. A con to using this is that teachers have to always remember to look for these behaviors and if a child feels as though they have been doing them and has yet to get a ticket they will get discouraged. Another con is that it is not mentioned how they will keep track of these tickets and it could be a problem if children have to keep track of them themselves and end up losing them.
9) The delivery system is that faculty members give students a purple paw ticket when they witness them demonstrating TRRC, which is through continuous reinforcement because each time they emit these behaviors and are witnessed they receive a ticket. From there they can trade in their 10 purple tickets for the golden one.
10) A con is that teachers aren’t able to watch all students at once so the ones behaving properly may not be rewarded and that will discourage any future behavior. Another con is if tickets get lost or if teachers hand out tickets way too often or not enough—they have to have some sort of system down. A pro is that once a child receives a ticket that they can hold it will bring them happiness and make them look forward to another ticket. Another pro is that the students know what they have to do to receive a ticket.
11) The tokens are banked by the children and once the children receive ten they have to turn in those tickets in order to get their golden one.
12) The pros would be that it teaches children responsibility which is one of the behavioral classes they are trying to reinforce. A con would be that if children lose these tickets but know they got them they will fight with the teachers and try to get the prizes. If teachers let this pass then other students would lie about misplacing them just to get a golden ticket. The teachers have to have the same rules throughout the school and stick to them.
13) The back up reinforcers are the prizes the children receive once they get their golden ticket: ice cream cones, extra recess, movie popcorn, extra computer time, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? It never stated how the backup reinforcers were chosen, they could have asked the children what they desired or just chose what was the most convenient without being overly expensive.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? The reinforcers should be effective if they are basing it on what interests the child. If they are things the child doesn’t like then it gives them no reason to emit the desired behaviors.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The children emit the TRRC behaviors and receive 10 purple paw tickets, then turn those in for 1 golden ticket which they can trade in for a prize (reinforcers).
17) Each teacher could keep track of how many tickets they handed out and see if it increased every week or month. If it works they should also be able to see differences in the way the children behave.
18) The administrators are doing a good job getting this idea out there through the newsletter and letting the parents in on this so they can reinforce it at home if they want to. I think they will have questions about this so they may have to have a talk with the students to further reinforce it.
19) The system is being published for the parents to see if they choose to read the newsletter so I think they are doing a good job teaching them about it. They mentioned how it worked and it was clear what the students had to do.
20) Im sure the teachers have been informed before the newsletter was sent out about what was going to happen. They have to know how the system works if the school wants to see any improvement in behavior at all.
21) Yes, some teachers may be more lenient and give tickets out for behaviors that other teachers wouldn’t. The reinforcers also may not be that appealing to certain students so they wont emit good behavior.
22) A problem could be inconsistent rewards when students think they deserve one. Another problem with token economies is that to get the reward, in this case the prize, students have to go through many behaviors to get it and could get bored with it. If the prizes aren’t appealing they wont continue with positive behavior.
23) Some questions I have are how are the tickets going to be banked? How are the teachers going to participate equally and know the circumstances of the system? Are they going to keep track over the year to see if the system actually worked or if it was a waste of time any money?
24) I would want to know what they are specifically looking for from the students, and if other schools around the district are going to get involved in this as well.
25) Terms: positive reinforcement, behavior, elicit, modification, target behavior, desirable, continuous reinforcement, behavioral class, token economy, reinforce, punishment
1) What is this program?
It is a District wide initiative to help the schools be a positive, trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring. The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
It came about as a district wide Idea to help reward good behavior from kids and to help reward the usage of the character pillars in the children.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavior classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and being caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors would be like being respectful to other children and all adults. Also it could be as simple as knowing right from wrong and telling the truth.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement of a good behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is a positive reinforcement
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets. Ten purple tickets equals one gold ticket. The golden tickets could be turned in for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros could be that students like the tickets because they are like money to them. It is easy for them to know how many tickets they have earned and also they want to get a golden ticket because the color gold is a very rewarding color. Some cons would be that depending on how easily it is for the children to duplicate them they could and also this can only be used in a kindergarden through 2nd grade because other wise this is not very practical or cool for older children.
9) What is the delivery system?
he delivery system would be variable ratio because students are not giving a ticket every time they emit the selected behaviors but only when they are caught or seen by a teacher.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro is that the delivery system can be done by any adult or faculty member at the school. But a con would be because it is a variable ratio the child wont always get a ticket because the faculty cant see what the student is always doing.
11) How are the tokens banked?
For every 10 purple tickets a child receives, they can cash the
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro would be that they can cash them any everyday and a con would be if they lose them they are just screwed because they do not keep track of them so there is no way for them to be banked in the token bank.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They are chosen by observing the children and seeing what they like to do in there spare time at school.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe for the most part that these a effective reinforcers for the children who doesn't want ice cream or extra recesses.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They can access to this reinforces by doing the pillars and also saving golden tickets to get them.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
think the admministrators will be able to know if the system is effective if they keep track of the amount of purple tickets or gold tickets that are being turned in. Keeping track of these will help them get a pretty good idea of how much the kids are actually participating.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think they are doing a good job by sending this sheet out to the parents and letting them see what they are doing at home so parents can do the same and actually following the system at the school will help
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They are doing as good as they can by just sending the note to them showing and telling them what they will be doing at school.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would assume they did a good job to make this a effective project for the school
21) 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 teachers.students and parents will not care about the system. Furthermore, parents could see this behavioral strategy as manipulative.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Its only reinforced in the classroom and also in the school but its not reinforced at home so they wont always be able.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask the administrators to define more of what kind of behaviors they are trying to reinforce and ask them to ask the parents to maybe try and reinforce it at home so the child doesn't get confused.
Terms: Target Behavior,reinforce, positive,negative,increase,fixed ratio,reward,emit
What is this program?
The program is a behavior modification program called T.R.R.C. this is being taken place at Poyner Elementary. Students receive purple tickets for being respectful, trustworthy, responsible, and caring. The students are then able to turn in their purple tickets for gold ones in which they can get prizes.
2) How did it come about?
This came about from the Waterloo School District. The school joined PBIS which is a positive behavior intervention system.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are getting the students to elicit the behaviors of trustworthiness , respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some behaviors the school would want to see their students doing would be keeping hands and feet to themselves, helping other students pick up their books, helping with homework, helping disabled students around the class/school, no bullying/standing up to bullies, not cheating, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on positive reinforcement. The students are being positively reinforced, their behaviors are being increased because they are getting a reward.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple tickets which in turn get turned into golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro is that it is clear how the tickets are used. They also get prizes which is a pro for the students. the con is that these tickets can be given too often or too few. Another con is that they could get lost.
9) What is the delivery system?
I would say that it is variable ratio schedule. I say this because not every behavior is going to be noticed. Students are eliciting good behaviors on hopes that they will be noticed and get a ticket. However the tickets are on a fixed schedule because once they get the 10 purple tickets, they get a golden ticket which in turn is used to get a prize.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pros is that students are eliciting good behaviors to get the tickets, so the students will be better behaved. The negatives is that some students get overlooked, so they may not see a point in being good if they are not getting tickets for it. Some parents may agree, but others may disagree, so getting all of the parents on board may be an issue. Another con could be that the tickets could get lost or stolen.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The students save 10 purple tickets to get a golden ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros is that the students are able to see how many they have, which motivates them to get more. A con is that the tickets can get lost or stolen. A pro is that this system can be used at home as well, but this can also be a con if the parents don't do it.
13) What are the back up reinforces?
The back up reinforces are the prizes of sonic ice cream, extra recess, bag of popcorn, extra computer time, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The back-up reinforces are chosen based on what the children find rewarding.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, the children love these things (hopefully).
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students do the T.R.R.C behaviors and get a ticket, once they save up 10 tickets and get a golden one, they turn the golden ticket in for a prize. The prize being the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could look at the number or reported problems the school had, and compare it after the T.R.R.C has been in place. They could keep track of each student and how many prizes they received over 'x' amount of time and compare it to other schools who have been participating in the PBIS.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems fairly effective. The students are aware as well as the parents.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They did so through a letter which would be effective if every parent reads it.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It also seems as though the teachers know what their duties are.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, some students may not care about the prizes, or may get over looked and not want to do the good behaviors. Some teachers may forget to give out tickets, or give out too many, both are inconsistent. The parents may not be encouraging the students at home.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Problems would include inconsistency within giving or not giving tickets out, students may not want to participate, tickets could get lost or stolen.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask who is keeping track of the tickets, what happens if a ticket is lost or stolen, what behaviors exactly are being reinforced.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know all of the answers to question 23.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforce, reinforcer, elicit, behavior modification, positive reinforcement, variable ratio, fixed schedule,
1)What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. and they are trying to reinforce good behaviors that the kids make during the school day.
2) How did it come about?
The school system is trying to become part of a PBIS district (Positive Behavior Intervention Systems).
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behaviors that T.R.R.C. stand for: Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Behaviors might include: saying please and thank you, active participation in whatever the class is doing, being honest, playing with a kid who is by themselves, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is definitely based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive reinforcement because the staff are giving something to the children to make them keep doing the action they have emitted.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are purple tickets which can then be turned into gold tickets after a child has received 10 purple tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Well a few pros involve the idea that if a kid gets enough of these tickets they can trade them in for a special prize. Another pro is that these tickets are physical, so a kid is able to show that he actually has done something good. A con is that these tickets could more than likely easily be scanned and printed if a parent owns a scanner and some colored paper. Another con is that a child can easily lose one of his/her tickets.
9) What is the delivery system?
It’s basically a variable ratio situation where only if the kid is seen doing the behavior by a teacher they are then given a ticket. The student can’t go up to a teacher and say that they have done a good behavior because the teacher didn’t see it.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pros of this is that a child will more than likely begin emitting good behaviors in hope to get some tickets. A con with this is that the good behaviors that the children emit are only because there is a teacher around and may not continue to emit them when there isn’t a teacher near to see them.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by the students themselves. The students have to keep track of the tickets they get.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro with this is that the students get to physically see how well behaved they have been in school. Another pro is that these tickets can be turned into prizes if the student gets enough. Some cons may be that the student (or his/her parents) could lose their tickets, and since the teachers don’t keep track, the teacher would think that the student is lying if they were to say that they lost their tickets. Another con could be that the students could start bragging to the other students with less tickets that they have more than them.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with their principal and teacher, extra computer time, and helping with the janitors.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It doesn’t actually say how they were chosen, but I would guess it was the school faculty who put together the list based on things they think the kids would like to receive.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Some of them are, in my opinion. The ones that I don’t think are would be the lunch with principal and teacher and helping with the janitor…I don’t know a kid who would want to clean by choice.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students have to save enough purple tickets in order to get golden tickets, and then these golden tickets can be traded in for a certain prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think one outcome measure that would show that this is working is if students have been saving up enough golden tickets to trade in for the really good prizes. I think that would show the faculty that the students have really increased their behaviors substantially. Another would be just the tickets themselves without having to turn them in. If a teacher sees a student with a lot of tickets then they’ll know that the student has been doing incredibly well with good behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would say that they’re just doing an okay job. I think it’s good in that they’re rewarding the kids for their good behavior, but the kid may only be doing the good behavior for the prizes and not do them when they aren’t at school.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
It’s honestly not that effective as it seems. It’s just a tiny blurb on the second page with not a lot of information about the program, so the parents don’t actually know a lot about the system that the school is putting in to place.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Again, they only did an okay job. The reason being because what if one teacher doesn’t see the behavior emitted as a good enough behavior to get a ticket, but another teacher does?
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Oh absolutely! One of the reasons I think so is because what if a child does a good behavior and no one sees them do it? The teachers would more than likely think that every student would have to be monitored the whole time while they’re at school to make sure they see every behavior…which is impossible to do. Also, some parents would be against this because they would probably think that it’s just another way of saying students are more well behaved than others.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Like previously stated, this type of system could be seen as discriminatory in saying that certain students are more well behaved than others. There’s also the problem, as previously mention, with the students only emitting these behaviors only when they’re being watched by faculty. The kids can’t be monitored all day so the faculty will more than likely miss certain behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What is considered “good behavior”? What are examples of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring? What if two teachers see one student emit a behavior at the same time but one thinks that the behavior should be rewarded, but the other does not? Are there ways of keeping tracks of the ticket so you know if a child tells the truth if he lost his tickets?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I’d like to know why they think cleaning with a custodian should be considered a reward. What kind wants to go around mopping hallways for fun?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcement, behavior, behavior classes, elicit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, token economy, token, pro, con, delivery system, variable ratio, emitting, backup reinforcers, outcome measures, discriminatory
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring), and it is a system to increase target behaviors in their district.
2) How did it come about?
A district-wide positive behavioral intervention system to increase the eliciting of the character pillars that are important to the district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility and caring behavioral classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
putting their supplies/toys away when done with them or showing kindness to another student.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
positive reinforcement
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and golden tickets. Ten purple tickets is worth one golden ticket.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
The tokens must be salient enough to elicit the target behaviors, additionally this system is only salient and effective within the classroom or school setting, so the children may discriminate and elicit these behaviors in the classroom or at school, but not in other settings. The classroom/school will act as a discriminate stimulus for which behaviors will be reinforced.
9) What is the delivery system?
A system that incorporates the continuous reinforcement of the target behaviors through purple tickets with the fixed ratio reinforcement of the golden tickets. These golden tickets are then exchanged for the reinforcers, with each reinforcer being worth a specific number of golden tickets.
10) What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
it is easy to hand out, giving the children an instant reward, instant reinforcement. The con is that it is difficult to keep a watch on all over the kids and reward them for the behavior every time.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are banked by earning 10 purple paw tickets, which are then exchanged for one golden ticket. These golden tickets can then be saved up and exchanged for the reinforcers.
12) What are the pros and cons?
Tracking everyone’s tickets. Some con’s are that some kids could lose the tickets and then not be able to get the reward.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess time, 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?
The backup reinforcers should be chosen based on what the children already find reinforcing. This may include activities that the children like to engage in prior to the implementation of the program. It was not specifically stated how the reinforcers were chosen in the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. program.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are only effective reinforcers if they succeed in eliciting the target behaviors at higher rates than the baseline from before the program is implemented.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in their purple tickets for golden tickets and their golden tickets for the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures may be a record of how many purple tickets were given out and/or traded in for golden tickets, or how many golden tickets were traded in for reinforcers. This can be compared to the baseline that was recorded prior to implementation to determine how much
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems as though the administrators are effectively teaching the students because the behaviors are being emitted not just in class or when necessary but throughout
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are trying to teach the parents through the school newsletter, but this description is very short and leaves a lot of questions.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
It seems like the administrators may have taught the teachers about the system, but it is not clear how effectively this teaching was done or how extensive the lesson concerning this behavioral intervention was.
21) Is there the possibility that not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may have complete buy in with the system?
It is very possible that not everyone may have complete buy in with the system. Some students may be more motivated than others by the reinforcers to emit the behaviors, additionally, some teachers may be more deliberate about reinforcing these behaviors with purple tickets than others.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The classroom/school setting may be a discriminate stimulus for these behaviors to occur in, but may not be emitted outside of this setting.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How were the teachers taught about the program and how are they going to keep track of the students tickets, especially if they were given by another teacher at recess or something
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
The definition and examples for the kids to know how to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring should be clear. Some kids may not know the meaning of those words, or how to elicit that behavioral class.
Terms used in this post: target behaviors, behavioral intervention, eliciting, elicit, behavioral classes, emit, reinforcement, shaping, positive reinforcement, pleasurable, aversives, salient, discriminate, discriminate stimulus, reinforced, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, reinforcer, extinguished, reinforcement schedules, reinforces, emitting, extinction, satiated, extinguish, reinforcing, baseline, outcome measures, satiation
1) What is this program?
The program in these readings were talking about is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C., witch stands for trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring, and it is a token economy that’s goal is to elicit the above listed behavioral classes.
2) How did it come about? This came about through a district-wide initiative to implement a behavioral intervention to do something about children not emitting behaviors that are important to the district’s character expectations.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes that are trying to elicit are trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors they may want these children to emit are raising their hand before talking in class, not talking after the bell rings, being in their seats before the bell rings, and getting homework on time.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement, because they want to make the target behaviors increase.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive because the students are given something desirable, tickets, when they emit the required behavior.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens in this program are purple paw tickets, which 10 of these can be exchanged for a golden ticket, which can be exchanged for prizes later.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros – Is that token tickets would be cheap, easily understandable, and can be given immediately after the behavior.
Cons- Younger students may lose these tickets, get tickets stolen, and get jealous of other kids with more tickets, which could lead to losing hope of change.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is both continuous reinforcement and fixed ratio reinforcement. This is because after every good behavior they get reinforced, continuous. It is a fixed reinforcement because after every 10 purple paw tickets, you receive a golden ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros- Students have both short-term and long-term goals in place. Students can be immediately reinforcement after their behavior.
Cons- It would be hard for the administrators to keep track of all of these students, and when they are doing these good behaviors, standards for when a student gets a ticket may vary with each administrator, and behaviors are just being reinforced during school. All of these would create a discriminate stimulus of when do to the behaviors, who to do the behaviors around, and the school setting for when their behaviors are reinforced.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are banked by the students control, they also have to save up these tokens, and are responsible for exchanging these tokens.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
pros- teaches kids responsibility in keeping these tokens and allows the kids to monitor their progress.
Cons- Could be hard for the younger students to keep track of these tokens, and maybe cause anger/jealousy/ lack of hope for the children who may not have as money tokens.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes the students can buy with their golden tickets at the end like eating with the principle, restaurant coupons, recess times, and snacks.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The reinforcers were chosen probably from the knowledge of the admistration staff of what they knew was reinforcing to the children.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They seem like they could be effective reinforcers because the prizes all seem like something that would be desired by children. The only way to really know if they are is to graph a baseline, and the behavioral intervention and see if there was desired change.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by emitted the proper target behavior, in which they receive purple paw tickets, which can be exchanged for golden tickets, which can be used to purchase the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures could be how many tickets are being given out, and you can compare this to the target behaviors recorded during the baseline to see if the improvement.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators must being doing a good job teaching the students about the system because they are noticing target behaviors being emitted everywhere throughout the school, and kids showing interest.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think the small article in the school newsletter is effective in teaching the parents about the system, if I were the school I would give some of the specific target behaviors they are working on so that reinforcement can be continued in the home.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would assume it was effective because the teachers are in charge of implementing the system, but we are not sure how specific the target behaviors are to know the consistency of reinforcement.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Absolutely some kids do not have the same abilities, which could cause frustration, some kids are just overall not as motivated, some parents probably do not care about what’s going on in school, and some teachers may not be as dedicated to reinforcing every target behavior.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The main problem with token economies is that tokens can only be used in the specific environment. Also tokens if a student realizes he will not be able to get enough for anything reinforcing might cause the student to give up.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I want to know if they plan on changing the prizes to see if changing the behavioral intervention, leads to more tickets being given out. I also want to know how consistent the teachers are in giving out the reinforcers.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to see the longevity effect of the system, and see if it continues to work. I would also like to know how they improve this system in the future.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Token economy, elicit, behavioral class, behavioral intervention, emit, target behaviors, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, short-term goal, long-term goal, discriminate stimulus, banked, backup reinforcer, baseline, environment.
1) What is this program?
The program is called “Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.”
2) How did it come about?
The waterloo school district became a PBIS District (Positive Behavior Intervention System).
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes the district employees are try to elicit are behaviors that can be categorized as “Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring”.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
The children want to emit some target behaviors like: holding doors open, helping other pick up belongings without being asked to, being responsible enough to walk away from a fight.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This token system is based on using reinforcement to reinforce good behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The token system is a positive one because the students are receiving a thing they place a pleasant valence on.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in the program are tickets. Fist the students get a purple ticket for doing something good, then get to upgrade to a golden ticket when they have ten purple tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros of this token system are that students are rewarded for following the golden rule, setting a good example for younger children, and just plain being nice.
The cons I think of are how the tickets are given (meaning what if a child does a good thing but never gets ‘caught’? If a child never gets purple ticket (the reinforcer), they never get reinforced for good behavior.
9) What is the delivery system?
The letter doesn’t say how. There are several possibilities of delivery: staff ‘catching’ kids being good, other students nominating students, and possibly even the honor system (but this could be easily exploited).
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some students may never get a ticket, so they may not feel the need to keep doing good things if they are never reinforced which could lead to the extinction of the wanted behaviors/ behavioral class of. Another con is that the teachers may (accidently or on purpose) play favorites with who they give the tickets to and what target behaviors they reward.
11) How are the tokens banked?
That is also not explained. It is probably age appropriate with younger students turning the tickets they earn into their teacher for safe keeping, but the older age groups probably are responsible for keeping track of their tickets on their own.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros are that most students will eventually get enough purple tickets to upgrade to a golden ticket if the tickets aren’t’ lost/ruined/stolen (the cons).
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are special prizes like: ice cream, extra recess, movie popcorn, lunch with principal and teacher, more computer time, and helping the janitor.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
This was not explained, but an educated guess would say that the student probably gets to choose the backup reinforcer when they get a golden ticket.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Like all reinforcers, the students must put a positive valence on the reinforcer. The only back up reinforces I can see not being utilized are possibly the lunch with staff and helping the janitor, because the students may not pick them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access by trading in one golden ticket (a reinforcer) for a backup reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators could keep track of how many of each type of ticket and backup reinforcers are issued to students, and they could keep track to see if there is a decrease the amount students/incidents requiring disciplinary action.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The students are being caught “everywhere”, according the letter, so it seems that the students understand the system well.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Not as effectively as possible, in my opinion, as there was some key information missing from the letter to the parents (like the delivery system, banking system).
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The teachers seem to understand the premise of the system since students are being caught “everywhere”.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, some people might see this as a bad way to get students in the habit of being “Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring” ,especially if the students only emit the target behaviors at school, or when they know the teacher is looking because they only want the reinforcer without understanding the message trying to be taught.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some students may not want any of the backup reinforcers enough to emit the target behaviors often enough, or at all.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Did this type of a token system will effectively decrease bad behavior? Will this program increase the emitions of the target behavior when there is no reward system other than helping others and feeling good about themselves? Will this system teach kids they should only be “Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring” when they get something in return?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How long has this system been in place?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Program, behavioral classes, elicit, behaviors, categorized, emit, target behaviors, reinforcement, reinforce, good, positive, pleasant valence, tokens, rewarded, delivery system, banked, backup reinforcers , outcome measures , habit, emitions, increase, decrease.
1) What is this program?
This program is a Token Economy called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. in which students are earning tokens to later be traded in for a reward.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School district is a PBIS District (Positive Behavior Intervention Systems). They decided to take initiative on actually emitting this behavior.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring behavior.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They might want the children to pay attention, play well with others, do their homework, raise their hand, or get better grades on assignments.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because it involves the addition of something desirable.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used are purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros might be that they elicit the behavioral classes that teachers need in order to do their job and the ticket system seems easy enough to follow. A con would be the lack of definitive times that they can redeem their golden tickets, which could resort in token hoarding to receive multiple prizes at once.
9) What is the delivery system?
When someone is caught showing a target behavior, they are awarded immediately with a purple paw ticket. After receiving ten purple paw tickets, the individual receives a golden ticket that they can save to redeem.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro would be that they are motivated to keep going because they have to get ten purple paw tickets to even get one prize. It makes them start back over after every ten to get more prizes. A con would be that ten might not be enough. If children are being rewarded after every good deed they do, it might get too complicated to reward them.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens aren’t banked in this program, not that it is stated at least.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros would be that the children are their own competition. The behavior should not come from the children’s competitiveness but because they want to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. A con would be that children forget their scores and teachers do as well, resulting in the program failing because of few reinforcements.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are things that are already reinforcing to kids like free ice cream or an extra recess.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen because they weren’t expensive and they were something attainable. It motivates the children to want the purple paw tickets.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective because the children like them. It may not be helpful if the reinforcers were a free coffee or a gift card to Bath and Body Works.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by way of the teacher.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the outcome measures could be the number of purple paw tickets and golden tickets the teachers have given out. It literally reports a tally of good behavior.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are effective with teaching the students about the system by telling them in class. It also helps when other children visualize another student receiving a purple paw ticket.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are effective with teaching the students about the system by putting it in the newsletter that the parents read.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
They have effectively taught other teachers by the difference in behaviors that other teachers see from that teacher’s class.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, there is. Some parents may not do this at home which could create conflict at home. A child may expect one every time they do the dishes. However, some students receive allowances at home therefore they may think the system is irrelevant to them and useless.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
There might be token hoarding which can cause a problem at the end if one person has 7 golden tickets and expects 7 different rewards. There is also the misuse of tokens. However, most will not eat a ticket. They could be cut up by other students, though. Another problem that could arise is the unequal pricing of backup reinforcers. The reinforcers need to be reasonable. Pricing them too low will result in the motivation in children decreasing and pricing it too high will result in them giving up. Neglecting legal rights can be a problem. Teachers cannot use the bathroom as a “privilege” or “reward.” One last problem would be the behavior deteriorating. After awhile, the reinforcers become too often and praised too much for little things.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I might ask them if they are keeping track somewhere. I’d like to know what their bank looks like. I’d also like to know what their schedule of reinforcement is.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know if there is a limit on how long one can run this program. Can it last a whole school year without deteriorating?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: emit, behavior, elicit, schedule of reinforcement, reinforce, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, desirable, behavioral class
1) The program is called Poyner Panther of TRRC and is part of a positive behavioral intervention system to encourage the emission of trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors.
2) This program came about so that the Waterloo district could become a PBIS district (Positive Behavioral Intervention System)
3) They’re trying to elicit desired character/citizenship behavioral classes.
4) Specific target behaviors they want the children to emit would be respecting teachers and adults by following directions, being responsible by doing homework, and being caring by helping people pick up something that has been dropped.
5) This system is based on reinforcement.
6) It’s positive because it involves the addition of something.
7) The tokens used in this program are tickets, 1o purple tickets which can be traded in for 1 golden ticket which can be traded in for reinforcers.
8) A pro associated with these tokens could be that it’s tangible and exciting for the student to hold on to, a con could be that the students have to go through two sets of tokens to get to a reinforcer and that 10 purple tokens are traded in for 1 golden ticket and multiple golden tickets are needed to buy a reinforcer, which is a lot for a student to have to earn in order to be reinforced.
9) The delivery system is that teachers/other adults (I assume) will give the students purple tickets whenever they observe the desired behavior. At some point the student trades 10 purple tickets into a teacher or adult and receives a golden ticket. At another point the students can redeem their golden tickets for a prize from a teacher or adult.
10) A pro with the delivery system is that the students get to choose their reinforcer, a con with the delivery system is that it’s unclear when students can cash in their tickets.
11) The tokens are banked by students holding onto them. Apparently golden tickets are taken home, but purple tickets are not. It is unclear.
12) A pro is that students get the enjoyment of holding onto the tickets, a con could be that students could lose the ticket and become discouraged from participating in the behavioral intervention.
13) The backup reinforcers are eating with the principle, helping the janitor, getting ice cream, extended recess, popcorn, and additional computer time.
14) It is unclear how the backup reinforcers were chosen, but I assume they asked the students because most schools wouldn’t include helping the custodian.
15) I would think that additional computer time and extra recess would be very effective reinforcers.
16) Students gain access to reinforcers by collecting enough golden tickets (which each golden ticket needs 10 purple tickets, which are awarded for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors).
17) There are no outcome measures to check for effectiveness.
18) There is no way to tell how effectively administrators are teaching students the system.
19) I would say the administrators are not very effectively teaching parents about the system, because all the parents know comes from the brief section in the newsletter.
20) It is unclear how well the administrators taught other teachers this system.
21) There is a possibility that not all students, parents, or teachers buy into the system.
22) One potential problem is that the pricing backup reinforcers may be too low and contribute to low motivation. There’s also no known expiration of tickets to prevent hoarding.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Questions I’d have for the administrators would include what adults in the building are giving out the tickets? What have you done to make sure the tickets are difficult to replicate?
24) I would also want to know what SPECIFIC behaviors get rewarded, if students can take purple tickets home, and when it is appropriate to turn tickets in.
25) behavioral class, reinforcers, behavioral intervention, elicit, emit, target behavior, reinforcement, tokens, backup reinforcer, delivery system
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring), and it is a system to increase positive behaviors for students. It also is a token economy because it rewards the students when they emit these behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
This district wide movement came about because they administrators and teachers wanted to have students emit good and respectful behavior.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes that they are trying to get students to emit are trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors that they are trying to get children to emit are such as raising their hands in class, doing their homework, listening to adults, telling the truth/being honest, helping peers in the classroom, and being respectful by saying please and thank you.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because the tokens are meant to increase a desired behavior; they are also rewarded for their actions with tokens rather than punished.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system uses positive reinforcement because it is the addition of a desirable stimulus.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
First purple tickets are handed out, and for 10 purple tickets an individual receives then a gold ticket will be awarded. Afterwards, one can cash in the tickets for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
pros: immediate awarding, a good system for helping children emit good behaviors, can be easily adjustable (so when the kids can easily get 10 purple tickets it can be upped to 20), cost efficient,
cons: the tickets could get lost or copied, some emitted behaviors might not be seen (how to keep track), trading tickets, only emit good behaviors at school and neglect them at home
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers give out tickets if students are seen doing something good throughout the day, this appears to be continuous reinforcement because every time the child emits the good behavior they will get the ticket. It can also be fixed ratio for the golden tickets because for each amount of tickets they students can exchange them for a prize.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: since it seems to be a continuous reinforcement it will be consistent, teachers are the only ones who will hand them out, strive for more tickets
Cons: some good behaviors may go unrecognized or not being reinforced every time
11) How are the tokens banked?
The child emits the behavior and for 10 purple tickets they can be turned in for 1 golden ticket which can then be turned in for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: praise for good work, looking forward for the prizes, encourages kids to be on their best behaviors, kids will be able to see their process with the amount of tickets they will get to keep
Cons: losing the tickets, only emitting good behaviors when teachers are around, depends on what teacher deems as what is good behavior
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are prizes such as ice cream cones, extra recess time, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time and helping the custodian that can be exchanged with the gold tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers where chosen by the teachers, the principal, and faulty staff.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Some of the reinforcers, such as the ice cream, recess time, and popcorn are very effective, but not the lunch with teachers and principal or helping the custodian because they aren’t viewed as rewarding to a kid when they have the other options.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
For each good behavior the child exhibits they will get a purple ticket, 10 purple tickets can be traded for a gold ticket, which can be traded for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some measures the administrators could keep are to keep track out the income and outcome of the tickets, such as how many tickets are administered and how many are returned. Also by keeping track on a spreadsheet how many kids are supposed to have each of the purple and gold tickets. By raising the tickets to achieve each month or two they can actually track if the behavior intervention is working.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators seem to be effectively monitoring the behavior not only in the classroom but outside it as well in regards to the cafeteria, playground, and halls. The kids seem interested and excited about the prizes and reinforcement so therefore it seems to be teaching them about the desirable behaviors, caring, respectful, responsible, and trustworthy.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The parents seem out of the loop so to speak regarding this behavior modification process the schools are involved with, the only thing they’ve seem to have done is send out a newsletter, it might have been better if they had a PTO meeting or something.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
If every teacher is participating in this process then they should be well informed about it, however, they may have not had a discussion on what to reward or what counts as good behavior as each teacher may have their own idea.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Some people may not understand, especially parents who aren’t kept in the loop and the younger children who don’t have a grasp on the idea of behavior modification. Also some students might not find the reward reinforcing. Teacher may have different ideas on what good behavior entails. Students may try to cheat the system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The consistency can be a problem, especially when teachers may or may not be looking or when there is a sub who defines a different good behavior than the teacher does. There could be troubles with reinforcing younger children who may not grasp what is happening and just want the ticket or may even loose interest. Target behavior may be hard to identity or tell apart.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Are you keeping track of how many tickets each student has? Are there consequences for undesirable behavior? Are there biases, especially between teachers? Will substitute teachers be aware of this program?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Information regarding what exactly is and isn’t rewarding would be a nice template for what to reinforce, also, if parents could get in on this program and reinforce good behavior at home as well.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcement, positive reinforcement, behavior, emit/emitting, reinforced, target behavior, token economy, continuous reinforcement, behavior intervention, desirable, undesirable, behavior modification, behavior class, fixed ratio schedule, stimulus, punishment
1) What is this program?
The Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. is a kind of token economy in which desirable behaviors that exhibit trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring are rewarded with purple token money, which is then traded for golden token money, which is then redeemed for various prizes.
2) How did it come about?
The program started as an initiative to turn the Waterloo school district into a PBIS district--a Positive Behavior Intervention System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit include: Trustworthiness, Respectfulness, Responsibility, and Caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Target behaviors may include: emotional intelligence (i.e. caring, showing others that they can look at a situation from their perspective, comfort them, or stand up for them; respecting other people's belongings and their well-being by not being a bully; showing responsibility through cleaning up after one's self or taking initiative to complete an assignment/task without the teacher asking; and exhibiting trustworthiness by telling the truth about what happened in a situation and alerting an adult about aversive behaviors that other students are emitting (like bullying).
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a system based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The system is ultimately positive reinforcement because something desirable is added once the appropriate target behavior has been emitted.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens include a multi-step process. First, for every desirable behavior that is emitted, a purple ticket is given. Ten of these must be collected and traded in for a golden ticket. These golden tickets are then accumulated and eventually traded in for various rewards.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro's would be that children are more likely to display these target behaviors because there is a reward. They are also likely to emit a lot more of these behaviors because they must collect many golden tickets (all of which require ten instances of desirable behavior) in order to collect a reward.
Cons of this may be that desirable behavior is only emitted when a teacher is nearby so that they receive a purple ticket. This is because if they emit the behavior without a teacher noticing, they will not be rewarded. There may also be children how are not interested in the rewards available and may ignore the program completely. Also, if only one purple ticket is allowed per day, children may only emit one of these desirable behaviors per day and then decide to act out because they know good behavior will not be reinforced anyway. There is also a susceptibility that when this token economy is taken away, the desirable behaviors will decrease because there is no consistent reinforcement.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system includes giving children purple tickets when they emit a desirable behavior, and when they have collected 10 of these purple tickets, giving them a golden ticket which can ultimately be redeemed for reinforcement.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of the delivery system is that the child is immediately given purple ticket when the target behavior is emitted, giving them positive reinforcement in the form of social recognition (by the teacher and peers) and an actual physical reward.
A con is that if a teacher or other supervisor is not watching the child emit the target behavior, they will not be rewarded. They may be able to find someone to vouch for their behavior, but the desirable behavior is not guaranteed to be reinforced unless someone with authority is watching the behavior be emitted.
11) How are the tokens banked?
After nine purple tickets have been acquired, they are traded in for a golden ticket. These golden tickets are then accumulated, and traded in for a reinforcer at a later date or after so many have been collected.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro is that this system requires students to emit many target behaviors before receiving a satisfying reinforcer which encourages students to act in a desirable way more frequently in order to accumulate enough tickets to get a prize.
A con is that some students may not like some of the prizes (like helping the custodian) or may not want to work that hard (emit that many target behaviors) in order to get the reinforcement.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers include: helping the custodian, Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, movie bag popcorn, and lunch with the principal and lead teacher, and extra computer time.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Many of these reinforcers are special privileges or activities/items that the children enjoy which is probably why they were chosen.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
It depends on the person. I do not know how many golden tickets these various reinforcers cost (and whether or not they differ, depending on the item or activity). From what I gathered, the children are allowed to decide which reinforcement they would like to receive in exchange for the golden tickets. However, if there were an instance in which a student could only afford a reinforcement that they were not happy with (i.e. helping the custodian) then it may no longer be an effective reinforcer.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Student gain access to these reinforcers by accumulating golden tickets and trading them for reinforcers, which are given after 10 target behaviors are emitted and the 10 purple tickets associated with those behaviors are traded for a golden ticket.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Although there is no specific mention of outcome measures, some simple ways to measure effectiveness would be to keep a record of how many purple tickets have been given out per day/week, what grades have the largest concentration, watch for fluctuation of purple tickets being given out, and record the number of reinforcers being redeemed. A method to see if the behavior continues outside the classroom would be to watch students in instances in which they will not be rewarded (after-school hours waiting for the bus, etc.). By watching in these various ways, leaders of the program can determine whether the target behaviors are consistently being rewarded by teachers and whether another kind of behavioral intervention may be necessary for some groups of students.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Although there is no information about this topic, it would seem as if the students are aware of the system because the newsletter explains why students may be bringing home purple and gold tickets which would indicate that students are earning these tickets.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Although there is no information about this topic, I wouldn't think that the parents are being educated well enough about this token economy because it is only briefly mentioned in the newspaper, and it is reactively explaining why these children are bringing home tokens, rather than explaining that this token economy is about the be implemented, and holding a meeting with parents who would like more information about it. The newsletter article does do an effective job of explaining the entire process of the token economy, though.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
There is no information about this topic. I would hope that they have made a long list of various behaviors that qualify for these tokens because otherwise there will not be consistency among teachers as to what target behaviors to look for and reinforce.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is definitely a concern with parents that do not understand the effectiveness of the system or who do not receive the newsletter to be concerned that the behavior being rewarded in school, and not at home, may cause the children to have extinction bursts, or even tantrums, at home when they are not reinforced. There may also be teachers who do not adequately understand which target behaviors to reward and corrupt the system. Some students may not care for any of the reinforcers and may decide not to participate or redeem their tokens for reinforcers.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems include: unequal pricing of reinforcers (i.e. reinforcers being priced too low or high, meaning students accumulate too many reinforcers and become bored or are not able to collect enough tokens to gain reinforcers); misuse/loss/counterfeiting tokens; token hoarding (i.e. becoming satiated and not emitting any more target behaviors because they have accumulated enough tokens and are waiting to attain reinforcer before exhibiting target behavior again); and behavior deterioration (once the reinforcement system ends, behaviors may become be vulnerable to extinction because there is no longer a reinforcer).
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would want to know how they determine which target behaviors to reinforce, what the cost is per individual reinforcer, and if there is consistency among teachers for reinforcing behavior. These are all very important factors that can determine whether or not this token economy will fail.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I want to know how behavior outside of school is affected by this token economy, considering that the children do not receive the same kind of reinforcement for these behaviors at home.
Terms: desirable, aversive, target behavior, emit, token economy, positive reinforcement, behavioral class, elicit, extinction, extinction burst, outcome measures, behavioral intervention, backup-up reinforcers, satiated, behavioral deterioration, unequal pricing of reinforcers, delivery system
1) What is this program?
This program is called the PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions System). And at the elementary school it is being call the Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District is focusing on becoming a PBIS district and promoting good characteristics and behavior, such as: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and care.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring behavior classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Specific behavior they are looking for the children to emit are, being quiet and respectful of others in the classroom. Coming prepared when assignments are due or students are asked to preparing something to class, showing responsibility. Or when on the playground by playing safe and being caring to include others in games and activities.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The system is based on reinforcement of the purple and golden tickets.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The reinforcement is positive because they are adding something that is pleasurable and desirable, not taking away anything if the students are being aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are set up so that ten purple tokens equals one golden token. Once you get a golden token you can then turn only the golden ones in for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros and cons that go along with the token system may differ with each school and each age. With elementary the pros will be that the kids will always want to impress and help out in order to get tickets, but cons may be that some children will get jealous. The older children may just not care about the tickets at all, or the prizes may not be as desirable as they are to the younger children. They also may elicit behavior of stealing others tickets or making fun of those who behave well in order to get the tickets.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is a reinforcement system in which a child receives a ticket when they emit a good behavior.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
They system will by on an interval ratio, meaning that each time the student does something desirable, the teacher might not always see, so some students may get frustrated if they are really proud of something they did but did not get caught doing it. They also might think teachers are picking favorites if one child gets more than another. Pros would be when a child gets caught from a teacher that is not theirs for doing something good out of habit from the program.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Ten purple tokens equals one golden token and only the golden tokens can be used to get prizes. The students have to keep track of them on their own though, as responsibility, the teachers do not keep track for them.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro would be that the students are learning responsibility, but a con would be that the teachers don’t keep track, so if a child lost theirs or thought it was stolen there is no way to know.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers would be the prizes or anything that the children desire to turn their golden ticket in for.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It did not state how the reinforcers were chosen, but I am guessing the school facility chose what they thought the children would prefer the most.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think most of the reinforcers are effective except for helping the janitor, and depending on the age of the students possibly eating with the principal.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by eliciting good behavior, saving up ten purple tickets (or more), turning them in for a gold ticket, and turning the golden one in for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could keep track each week and hold meetings with the teachers to see if behavior is improving and if more tickets are being handed out.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It did not specify how the teachers are teaching the students about the system but knowing what the program is based on and what behavior is desirable and undesirable, I feel like the teachers should already have preconceived ideas about what they are looking for in the students behavior.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think the teachers are doing good by sending out info in the newsletter home. I think if they program was started at the beginning of the year, or maybe they had a big open house to speak about it and brought everyone in and made it a huge deal it would be much understood and could be implemented in the children’s homes as well.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Again, this information is not clear. During meeting and teacher in-service days, and via email, all the teachers are on the same page for the program.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course the possibility is always out there. Some teachers, students, and parents are stuck in their ways and if it’s not a problem in their classroom why implement something that is not necessary.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Children losing their tickets, immediate gratification or reinforcement for good behavior, parents wanting to know how many tickets their child has and for what, and if each student has fair chances at receiving tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask if they have asked the children what they would like as reinforcement, what other ideas they had for implementing a system like this, and if they think they system is going to work as well in the older aged schools.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How well it has worked in other schools, what they are going to do after the system begins to not be as reinforcing, and if they are going to change the reinforcers to keep up with students wants.
Terms: reinforcers, elicit, aversive, emit, desirable, token system, fixed ratio
1) What is this program?
The program that Poyner Elementary School created was a token economy called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring).
2) How did it come about?
The program came about as a district-wide initiative for being a PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions System) District in Evansdale to improve the character pillars used in the Character Counts Program in Iowa.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behavioral classes of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit are being nice on the paly ground, being helpful to other students and the teacher, being polite, taking turns, using inside voices inside and outside voices outside, raising their hands, putting supplies away, hanging up their coats appropriately, listening to others, and taking turns in group projects.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a system based on reinforcement since they are given purple paw tickets.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is a positive reinforcement program since they are given purple paw tickets when they are notice doing something correctly in the classroom, during assemblies, the cafeteria, playground, and hallway.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple panther tickets. After the students receive 10 purple panther tickets, they get one golden ticket, and the golden ticket goes toward prizes. After they save them up, they can be traded in for things such as popcorn, helping the custodian, extra recess, lunch with the principal and teachers, and extra computer time.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro’s associated with using these tokens are that they’re easy to carry around and hand-out. It’s also a cheap token as they can be printed on paper and use the ink at the school. Some cons are the saliency of these tokens. Their effectiveness is really only during school associated activities, therefore it’s probably not carrying over to other areas. Also, another con could be that the students could figure out how to duplicate the tickets. If multiple people are awarding the tickets, it may be difficult to distinguish how many tickets the student actually received if they started making their own copies.
9) What is the delivery system?
This is a continuous reinforcement system based on the students expressing the appropriate target behaviors. When the appropriate behavior is expressed they receive purple tickets. They are on a fixed-ratio system with the golden tickets, as they are received only after the student acquires 10 purple tickets. That is the way students receive their reinforcers, which are the different prizes available.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pros of the system would be the different levels. It’s not just getting a sticker on a board. The student can hold and visualize their rewards, even before they get their reinforcement prizes. The students know they have to portray the correct behaviors, then they will be given purple panther tickets, and then when they receive 10, they will be rewarded with golden tickets, which are good for prizes. The delivery system has some definite cons, as the students may not ALWAYS be reinforced, even though it is a continuous reinforcement system. This could cause some students to be discouraged and not try to elicit the target behaviors, causing them to become extinct. Also, if some of the teachers discriminate against particular students they may not be rewarded.
11) How are the tokens banked?
As previously mentioned, the tokens (the purple panther tickets) are collected in groups of ten, and are then exchanged for a higher valued token (the golden ticket), which are in turn saved and used to exchange for reinforcers (prizes).
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Sadly, if students are not rewarded, it could cause the behaviors to become extinct. However, for the most part, this is a good guideline system. As I mentioned earlier, every student can hold and easily visualize how many tickets they have, how easy they were to attain after emitting the target behavior, and can determine how many more good behaviors they have to emit before receiving additional tickets so they can exchange it for the golden ticket, and in turn a reinforcer – prizes!
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are the prizes themselves. This could be lunch with the principal, popcorn, and helping the janitor.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were probably chosen based on what students have enjoyed in the past. Elementary students still really enjoy their teachers and faculty and like spending time with them doing “adult” type things such as eating lunch or helping the janitor.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe they have the potential to be effective reinforcers if there is a high enough turn-around rate. I think that the rewards (the prizes) in the end are effective reinforcers, it’s just a matter of making sure the students are recognized and the rewards are distributed in a timely manner.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
To gain access to the reinforcers, the students must elicit the correct behaviors, and receive purple panther tickets. As soon as they have 10 purple panther tickets, they exchange them for a golden ticket, which are then collected for prizes (reinforcers).
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators will know the system is effective if the outcome measures reflect it through statistics. Statistics could be taken on the following: the number of purple tickets distributed and traded for golden tickets and then how many golden tickets are exchanged for prizes. They will also be able to arbitrarily decide the effectiveness based on how the behaviors of the students are actually improved.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
According to the newsletter, apparently the administrators are effectively teaching the students about the system because the behaviors are being exhibited everywhere (hallways, recess, classroom, assemblies).
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The parents were able to learn about the system through the newsletter (as far as we know). They emphasized the program in an outlined section of the second page. It explained the essentials but didn’t go into great depth concerning the behavioral intervention or the token economy.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We are aware that the teachers have been taught about the system as we were able to see their packet of information. While the system was outlined and described well, we don’t know how effectively the administrators taught the other teachers about the system. Apparently though, they seem to have done a pretty good job (according to the newsletter) since the behaviors seem to be getting better.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course there is an obvious possibility that not everyone may have complete buy in with the system. If students don’t get rewarded or recognized, they may not be involved in trying to change their behaviors. Some teachers may not be on board and may not actively reward students, so they might not change their behavior.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
There could be an issue of discriminate stimulus, as these behaviors may be only learned in the school system. Their saliency may only work in the school and not transfer over to other areas of their life where they are not rewarded. Also, as the duration of the system increases, the students may get bored (or the teachers) and the behaviors will not be emitted or rewarded.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Have you considered how you’re going to keep the students and teachers engaged? What happens after you’ve been doing this system for a long time and the students/teachers get bored? Has everyone received effective training? Do the parents know about the system, or was the newsletter blurb all the information they received? How effective are the behaviors? Are they being emitted when no one is watching (0r so the students believe)?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Where did you come up with your idea? Are you finding there are too many steps before students get their reinforcer prize?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Token economy, positive, behavioral intervention, elicit, behavioral classes, specific target behaviors, reinforcement, emit, pros, cons, rewarded, reinforcers, reinforcement, salient, exhibited, effective, saliency, discriminate stimulus, fixed-ratio, system
1.)The program is called Poyner Panther of TRRC which is part of a positive behavioral intervention system to encourage better behaviors.
2.)This program came about so that the Waterloo district could become a PBIS district (Positive Behavioral Intervention System)
3.)They want to elicit desired behaviors.
4.)Some specific target behaviors they are looking for is for children to respect teachers and adults by doing basic task like following directions.
5.)This system is based on reinforcement.
6.)It it positive because it involves the addition of something.
7.)Tickets are the tokens here. 10 purple tickets= 1 golden ticket. The golden tickets can be traded in for other reinforcements.
8.)A pro associated with these tokens would be that it is exciting for kids to get a ticket like getting a golden star on their paper. The con is that it will take awhile for them to actually get a reinforcement.
9.)The delivery system is that a teacher will give a student a purple ticket when they are doing what they are supposed to. The kid will eventually turn in the purple tickets for gold ones and then get the reinforcement.
10.)A pro is that the kids get to choose their reinforcer. The con is again that it will take awhile to get what they want, so they might get discouraged.
11.)The kids have to keep track of their own tickets. 10 purple tickets are equivalent to 1 gold ticket.
12.)Holding on to their own tickets teaches them responsibility which is the pro but the con is that they could lose their tickets.
13.)The backup reinforcers are eating with the principle,getting ice cream, longer recess, popcorn, additional computer time, and helping the janitor.
14.)I would assume they put out some kind of survey asking the kids what they wanted.
15.)I think they are all good reinforcers but I think if I was a kid I would go for the food or extra recess time.
16.)Students gain access to reinforcers by collecting 10 purple tickets and then gold tickets.
17.)There are no outcome measures to check for effectiveness.
18.)I think the teachers would just pay attention to how their kids are behaving and go from there.
19.)No, the newsletter is not enough. I think the school needs to hold a seminar explaining the system so parents can encourage and support their children.
20.)I do not think they taught the other teachers that well. It seemed very vague.
21.)Not everyone is going to 100% agree with the system.
22.)This whole system could lead to kids bullying other kids for their tickets. Or making fun of kids who have good behaviors due to jealousy.
23.)Will you switch up the reinforcers when the kids grow bored of them?
24.)I also wonder how will the system works once the kids get home to their parents.
Terms:behaviors elicit, target behavior, reinforcement, tokens, backup reinforcer, delivery system
1) What is this program?
This program is a behavioral intervention system utilizing reinforcement to modify certain behavioral classes in students. Whether they are in the classroom, playground, cafeteria, or hallway, they will now receive reinforcers in the form of tokens for emitting behaviors which fall into the desirable behavioral classes. The behavioral classes are trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring, spelling the very clever Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
The TRRC program began as part of a districtwide initiative to establish a behavioral intervention in Waterloo schools. So they developed and are now implementing this system in the hope of encouraging behaviors which fit into behavioral classes that align with the four character pillars, Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring (TRRC).
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Behavioral classes are broad descriptions of behaviors which may be topographically or functionally similar. The behavioral classes in this case group behaviors which are functionally identical. There are separate behavioral classes for behaviors which function to show trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, or care.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Behaviors which fall into the behavioral class of respectful might include walking quietly in the halls, keeping your hands to yourself, and listening attentively. The trustworthy behavioral class includes keeping your promise and telling the truth.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system revolves around reinforcement as it is only rewarding desirable behavior with tokens, and not addressing the undesirable behaviors at all.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive, because we are adding the tokens where desirable behaviors earn them.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens in this program include the Purple Paw Tickets and Golden Tickets. A student must earn 10 Purple Paw Tickets to trade in for 1 Golden Ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Students might lose or steal each other’s tickets. We must consider whether students could reproduce them and whether they are cost effective for the school district to make. If they are relatively inexpensive, this is a pro. If they are expensive or easily reproduced, these are cons. Tokens should be inexpensive and difficult to reproduce so we can control and monitor who receives them.
9) What is the delivery system? 10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Although the article didn’t specifically state the delivery system, I would assume it is the responsibility of the teachers and faculty at each school to catch desirable behaviors and award tickets accordingly. There are several problems with this. Teachers who believe in behavioral methods will be excited about this system and work hard at catching and rewarding every desirable behavior. Other teachers who don’t understand or agree with the behavioral mechanisms at work in the system will probably not be as consistent at catching and reinforcing the target behaviors. This means students will likely learn to be inconsistent in emitting the target behaviors. Over time, they will learn a certain teacher will always reinforce good behavior, while another teacher may never reinforce. Other con’s to the system are logistical: how can all teachers constantly be sure they have enough tickets to award in the first place? Will they all agree to wear fanny packs so that they are never without a well-stocked supply of tickets? Pro’s to the delivery system are that the teachers and faculty know the students, and they may possibly individualize the system for each student. For example, if they recognize a student is already emitting the target behaviors, clearly this student may not need to be reinforced as consistently as students who emit the target behaviors less consistently.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The article says nothing about how the tokens are banked, but I would suggest some kind of adjustable poster the teacher can use to monitor and display progress. This makes it possible for kids to receive feedback on their process, an important part of behavioral change, and will possibly generate some positive competition among students. It is noted in the reading that teachers should keep a record privately in case some of the students try to modify the poster.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
As addressed in the reading, having the record on display may elicit dishonest behavior in some of the students. For example, they may try to add tickets to theirs, removing them from others, or target the front students (steal them from each other’s desks, etc.). On the bright side, friendly competition will elicit the target behaviors on a class-wide scale
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers include Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, movie popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I assume these backup reinforcers were chosen as fairly inexpensive small ways to reinforce target behaviors.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I would say most of these reinforcers are effective for most students. It is good that they have a variety of ‘costs’ associated to the backup reinforcers, assuming the lunch costs more tokens than does popcorn. Lunch with the principal or helping the custodian may not appeal to every student, however. Less obviously, a child who is consistently bullied on the playground is not going to enjoy extra recess the way other kids might. Besides these exceptions, these reinforcers are generally activities, objects, or snacks that kids enjoy.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
It is not clear when students have the opportunity to upgrade from Purple Paws to Golden Tickets, or when they may exchange these for backup reinforcers. The reading suggests establishing a time of day when all students may have the opportunity (if they have earned tokens, of course), to exchange these.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They may measure how many tickets each faculty member is awarding using the class bank and how many back up reinforcers are delivered.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The article doesn’t give details about how the students learn about the system. It does mention students are doing a good job of earning tickets. IF this is true, it is a good indication they have been effectively taught about the system, although we still don’t know how this was accomplished.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
It is difficult to tell whether this newsletter was the first chance the parents had to learn about the system. Assuming it was, it is an extremely vague way to communicate the benefits and details of the program. It also doesn’t give many specific suggestions on how parents can help their student engage in the system.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
The article doesn’t give details about that. The other reading suggests teachers reinforce every behavior (1 behavior = 1 reinforcer), especially in the beginning. In order for the system to be successful, teachers must try to follow this guideline.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It is definitely possible. Given the poor communication in the newsletter, it’s a safe assumption parents are somewhat confused about the system. It wouldn’t surprise me if the kids don’t fully understand the system, or if teachers haven’t been adequately trained.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
As addressed in the reading, it is very difficult to establish backup reinforcers and their pricing. There must be a variety of items that appeal to most children, such that everyone has an item they would like. Also as the teachers begin to fade reinforce (end continuous reinforcement and begin fixed/varied ratio schedule), they must be careful to monitor the behavior. If they made too large of a change in the schedule, students will give up and return to their previous undesirable behaviors, or at least stop emitting the target behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Many of these questions brought up questions I had about the system. I am curious to know more about the tokens. Are they paper? Could a student go home and make copies? How did they educate the teachers, kids, and parents about this system? Especially the newsletter piece is rather short and lacks description. It would be a great help to the success of the system if the parents understood the system and bought into it.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I’d like to know if there is a standard method of fade recommended for changing the reinforcement schedule. I’m also wondering if this might depend on the student’s age. Younger students cannot handle abrupt gaps in reinforcement, especially right away. Older children might be insulted to collect tickets for emitting target behaviors. The age of the children should be considered when determining some of the ways the tokens/reinforcers are delivered.
25) Terms: Behavioral intervention, reinforcement, behavioral classes, reinforcers, tokens, behavior, target behavior, desirable, punishment, positive reinforcement, delivery system, bank, emit, elicit, undesirable, backup reinforcers, reinforcement schedule (continuous, fixed/varied ratio schedules)
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
It came from the district wanting to see more admirable behavior from the students
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behaviors in TRRC stand for being Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful and Caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They would probably want to see kids saying please and thank you, obeying the teacher's orders the first time it's said, helping distraught or injured peers etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The system is based on reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
It's positive reinforcement
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
They're easy to store and difficult to counterfeit, but can easily be destroyed or lost
9) What is the delivery system?
The tickets are given to students by staff when they see students acting out the wanted behaviors
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The student is rewarded right away and praised for their works, but teachers don't see everything that happens between students
11) How are the tokens banked?
Ten purple tickets equal one golden ticket, which can be traded for prizes
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Students will want to commit good behaviors more often so they can collect more golden tickets, but they could be easily hoarded or stolen from other students
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the gold tickets and the prizes that follow with the tickets
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It's chosen by faculty
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Apparently. Students have been frequently seen acting out these behaviors all day every day.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They have to commit the desirable acts of TRRC
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could easily keep track of how many tickets come and go through the system. If they have a surplus or shortage of tickets, it could mean the system is either too difficult or too easy.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It appears that the system is effective if the administrators are seeing students emitting desirable behaviors everywhere around the school. And if the students are frequently talking about it around their parents then it must be a pretty big hit
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Apparently not very well if they're mentioning it first to them at their end of the year newsletter
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It's hard to say based on the information we were given
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is a strong possibility, but as I said, it's hard to say
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The tokens could easily be hoarded or switched between students for another prize they may want. Students could bully other students into giving them their tickets or only act kind when a teacher is present
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How are we making sure the students are keeping the tickets they earn? Are they only acting kind around the faculty and unkind when they aren't around? Are some students more likely to earn tickets for the same task than other students?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would genuinely like to know how well this system worked and if it caused a significant change in the student body
Terminology: reinforcement, punishment, emit, token economy, desirable, undesirable
1) What is this program?
The program is Poyner Panther on TRRC
2) How did it come about?
This program came about to encourage students to emit specific behaviors throughout the day
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit behavioral classes of trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors might include not lying, not interrupting class, turning homework in on time and helping classmates with material they do not understand.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because something desirable is added to the student when he/she emits certain behaviors.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are Purple Paw Tickets and Golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros associated with these tokens are that the tokens can elicit desired behaviors from the children and in turn lead to a more positive learning environment for everyone at the school. A con would be that if the prizes are not desirable enough, the token economy will be useless.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is that if a student is seen emitting a positive behavior during recess, at an assembly, etc., they are reinforced with a purple ticket that when enough purple tickets are obtained, a gold ticket can be obtained. This gold ticket can then be turned in for things such as extra computer time, lunch with the principal and others.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of this delivery system is that kids can be continuously reinforced for emitting positive behaviors no matter where they are. A con of this delivery system is that it is almost impossible to monitor every student all the time so some students emitting positive behaviors may go unnoticed.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Every 10 purple tickets a student receives can be turned in for one golden ticket. These golden tickets can then be used to "purchase" reinforcers.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros of this system is that students have to emit ten positive behaviors before they can be choose a reinforcer of their choice. However, if the reinforcers are not desirable, then it will not matter to the student how many purple tickets he/she receives.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the prizes that include ice cream cones, extra recess, movie popcorn, extra computer time, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It does not say how they were chosen.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Reinforcers such as extra recess or extended access to the computers can be effective, however it does not say how effective the system is in the news letter.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by obtaining ten purple tickets that can then be exchanged for one golden ticket that can then be used to purchase the reinforcer of their choice.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I am sure that the system is being monitored by administration although it does not say if it is or not. If the system is effective, positive changes in the school environment should be detectable.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Based on the news letter, it seems like the administrators are effectively teaching the students about the system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators appear to be trying to inform the parents about the system because the system is described very well in the news letter. However, not every parent is going to read the news letter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We do not know for sure, but it appears that teachers have been taught about the system in that they are able to reward behaviors constantly throughout the day.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes that is a definite possibility because if the prizes are not desirable, the whole system will be useless. If teachers are not adequately educated about the aspects of the program, the students will not be reinforced effectively.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
A problem with this system is that good behavior may go unnoticed by teachers because it is not possible to view every child at all times. Another problem is that those who do not take the system seriously may make fun of those who do. Another problem is that the kids could lose their tickets, which means that their positive behavior will go without reinforcement.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What are the specific target behaviors they are reinforcing? What happens if a student loses his/her tickets? How have you educated the faculty about this system?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to see how they are keeping track of whether or not this system is effective. I would also like to see if the system is divided in any way--if younger kids get different prizes than older kids because one prize that is appealing to a younger kid most likely would not be appealing to an older kid.
25) Terms: elicit, emit, behavioral class, target behavior, tokens, token economy, continuous reinforcement, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, delivery system, backup reinforcer
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
It was implanted into the school system to help children emit favorable behaviors throughout the day and are rewarded with tickets.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit I feel is mostly just overall good behavior, but more specifically they are trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors they might want the children to emit are raising their hands before speaking in class, walking in the hallways, helping their fellow students with tasks like helping with their homework or carrying their books.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The system is based on reinforcement because each time a student emits a favorable behavior, they are rewarded with a ticket, and once they get ten tickets they can then trade the tickets in for things such as ice cream or extra recess. So in this situation, something is being added.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive because it involves the addition of something desirable instead of the removal of something desirable.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro's associated with using these tokens could be that the students really are learning what behaviors are they should be emitting at school, and they are being rewarded for doing these behaviors. Therefore, they are reinforced for the behavior and want to repeat that behavior so they can receive more tickets and get more prizes. However, I feel that the major con for this program is that I am not sure how the students will react when they no longer are reinforced for their good behavior. If they no longer get to receive tickets for being good, they may not continue to emit the good behaviors.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system I believed is fixed ratio and continuous reinforcement. Every time a student emits a favorable behavior, they get one purple paw ticket. This is continuous reinforcement because they will continuously get tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro for the delivery system is that since it is a fixed ratio, the students can count on receiving reinforcement for each appropriate behavior they have. However, one con for this delivery system is that if a student emits a good behavior but a teacher does not see it, they will not be rewarded. Therefore, they may not trust the reinforcement any more and stop emitting the good behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Ten of the purple paw tickets can be traded in for one golden ticket and then the golden ticket can be traded in for more prizes such as ice cream cones or more recess.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro's of this is that it gives the students a goal to reach for. They know that if they are really good and have ten good behaviors that get them purple paw tickets, they will be able to trade them in for a golden ticket and even better prizes, making the students want to emit the good behaviors more often. However, a con for this is similar to the con for the delivery system. If a student emits good behaviors consistently, but the teachers do not notice, then they will not get the tickets and not be able to trade them in for the higher prizes. Also, students may choose to only emit the good behaviors when teachers are around because they know that would be the only time they would get tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes that the students get for turning in the golden tickets. These include sonic ice cream cones, a bag of movie popcorn, extra recess, lunch with the principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
These reinforcers were probably chosen by the school administrators deciding what the children would like the best. It is possible that they could have surveyed the students and asked them what kind of prizes they would like, or they could have just observed the activities students seemed to enjoy the most and chosen them like that.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe they are effective reinforcers because if I was in elementary school and had the opportunity to win ice cream, lunch with the principle, or extra recess, I would do anything I could to be able to get those.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers when they trade in their ten purple tickets for a golden ticket, and then the golden ticket in for one of the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators should probably keep track of who is getting the purple tickets, how many they get, and whether or not their behavior seems to be improving. They would be able to see the children who are not receiving the purple tickets and be able to evaluate why they are not choosing to emit the correct behaviors for the reinforcement. They should also keep track of how many of the tickets are traded in because the students may be trading the tickets among each other and that will harm the results of actually improving the behaviors of the students.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I feel that the administrators are teaching the students about the system pretty effectively. The more students see their peers getting rewarded, the more they will want to be rewarded as well. I'm sure the primary teachers for each classroom also makes a point to remind the students of the system daily when they reward a student in front of the rest of the class.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators seem to be doing a decent job teaching the parents about the system by including a description of what is going on in the schools newsletter. However, in the newsletter it seems like they started the system before informing the parents, and I feel it may be more effective to fill the parents in first so that they have full knowledge of what is going on and are able to try to reinforce the system at home with their children by offering extra rewards for getting the tickets in school.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Obviously the teachers must understand the system really well if they are the ones that hand out the tickets to the students who emit the correct and appropriate behaviors.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
This is entirely possible and there probably is a number of people who do not agree with it. If a student does not like the rewards that they could win, then they probably are not going to care about getting any tickets in the first place. Also, teachers may not agree with it because students may begin doing tons of little things that they feel deserve tickets when the teacher does not and this could cause conflict within the classroom. Lastly, the parents may not buy in with the system because they may feel that the school reinforcing their children's behavior that much and altering their children's behavior could be stepping on their toes, like the school is trying to parent their child now.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
If the system does not stay consistent, the token economies will not be as easy to reinforce. So if the students are not rewarded every time they emit a behavior, they may start to not trust the system and stop complying with it.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What specific behaviors are you going to reinforce? Are you going to have a set list that the students have to emit, or are you just going to use your own judgement? Are there going to be any guidelines for these behaviors? What are your plans once you stop reinforcement if the good behavior that you reinforced no longer continues?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know how well the system actually works in the end. I would want to know the pros and cons that they found during their period of research, and whether or not they would do it again.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Emit, rewarded, elicit, reinforced, target behaviors, behavioral class, fixed ratio, continuous reinforcement, tokens, delivery system, backup reinforcer, token economy
1. The program was called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C and it was about token economy.
2. This was a behavioral intervention program that was trying to promote good behaviors in school aged children and it was district wide.
3. Responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, and respectfulness were the main themes that they were trying promote in the students.
4. There were a few target behaviors that they were trying to get children emit in, but a couple of them included; picking up their toys and activities efficiently, using their manners when appropriate and often, helping other children with math problems, and being a good friend or peer by including others in group activities and fun.
5. This system was based on reinforcement because the school environment was trying to increase the good behaviors of the students within the school setting.
6. I would say that this is a positive reinforcement because the students are rewarded when or if they emit the desired behavior.
7. Purple paw tickets were used as tokens in this program. If the student got 10 purple paw tickers, they then got to exchange them for a gold paw ticket. Once they got the golden ticket they could then trade that in for a prize.
8. Some pros of this program would be children emitting behavior that is desired and it gives them some incentive to emit these behaviors. A con would be keeping up with this program all the time threw out the year and making sure as teachers that they are following through with the reinforcements. Keeping track of all the tickets and such would also be a con of this program. There are so many behaviors that can and are desired to be changed so it would be hard to pin point what ones actually count towards for the paw ticket as well.
9. The delivery system is a reinforcement schedule that is continuous. When a child emits the behavior of promoting respectfulness, trustworthiness, caring, and responsibility, then they receive the token of a paw sticker. This reinforcement may or may not always be rewarded because the teacher can and does not see the behavior being emitted at all time, given that would be impossible to do!
10. One main pro of this delivery system would be that the students will be more likely to emit the desired behavior because they are wanting to get the reward. The cons could be that the behavior can’t always be rewarded because they teacher or staff may not always see the desired behavior being emitted by the students. This could cause students to get upset and needy about getting tickets which would distract them from the school and learning setting per say.
11. The tokens are banked by the actual students. Once they get their 10 stickers, then they could trade those in for the gold sticker which would get them to the prize. This could be done at any time, as long as the student was at 1o stickers. They also were the ones that had to go to the office their selves to do the exchange.
12. Some pros of the children banking them their selves would be that they are showing responsibility and trustworthiness. They have to be responsible and do it their selves and they also have to make it a priority if they really want the prize. Another pro would that they can carry this system with at home if their family was willingly to do so. It could give families a new technique of changing desired behaviors. Con would it take time and priority over educational time in the class room. Students may worry about the stickers more than learning and that is a huge problem. The students might lose their tickets and become upset or they might lose count of their tickets and miss the window of getting a prize.
13. The backup reinforce would be the prize for the golden ticket. Some examples of the prizes would include; line leader, ice cream, eating lunch with the principle, helping the janitor, or classroom helper.
14. It wasn’t really clear on how the backup reinforces were chosen but I would assume that the district got together and discussed these issues, behaviors, and rewards that they thought would help the students emit the desired behaviors.
15. The program is just starting off so it doesn’t state if they are effective or not. I personally believe that the reinforcements would be very effective. My school did something like this when I was in Elementary and it seemed to hold much success.
16. The students gained access to the reinforcements by showing, promoting, and doing the target behaviors. And then once they did that they would gain access by earing the tickets and trading them in for the prize or reward.
17. I think that the school district might see less incidents of bullying, stronger friendships, more respectful students, more independent and responsible students, and students being more helpful to their peers in the classroom.
18. I’m not 100% sure since this program is just getting started but I would presume that they will explain in great detail about how the program works and runs. I feel like they are going to do more than just sending out a flyer and maybe even have an assembly or something. That is what our school did when I was younger. I agree that by informing the parents of the students is a very effective way to help promote this program.
19. They are making announcements and sending things home with the students so that the parents of the students are informed which I personally think to be a very effective way to promote the program. Once the parents understand what is happening it will be easier for them to promote it at home as well! They will also have an idea on what their kids are doing at school and how they are becoming better people in our society as well in a way.
20. I feel like it is still a work in progress, but if they are collaborating about what the target behaviors and rewards are going to be then they must be pretty informed on the program that is to be carried out. I feel like the teachers are the ones that started this program so they would be pretty informed and knowledgeable about the program.
21. There is always a possibility of this taken place and some people might be unclear about the program, such as parents and teachers. Another possibility would some students not finding the rewards to be rewarding enough to engage in the desired behaviors.
22. The lack of immediate reinforcement by school administration would be a common problem of a token economy. Some school administration might not reinforce as much as other which students could find unfair and that could cause problems in itself. The type or rewards can be manipulated to being unfair by standards from other students. Some might say getting ice cream is so much better than being a line leader, even if the student is the one choosing the prize it might cause issues about what is fair and better per say. The token economy might fade and students might get bored of this program, therefore making the program fail.
23. How are all the administration going to participate in the same manner and same level of reinforcement? How do the teachers plan on making sure that they students are still interested in learning instead of just gaining tickets? How often are the teachers going to engage in this program?
24. I would be curious about the exact behaviors in which a token would be given for and the frequency at which the student could receive a ticket for the same behavior.
25. Behavioral Modification, Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Target Behavior, Token Economy, Continuous Reinforcement Schedule, Delivery System, Psychology, Rewards.
A.S
Reading Activity Week #15 (Due Monday)
Token Economies.
1) What is this program?
The Program is a token economy called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. Which stands for all the main things the program is about which is to be trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring. Its goal is to increase target behaviors amongst young students.
2) How did it come about?
It came about from the district starting up a district-wide positive behavioral intervention system that would aim to increase students emitting respectful behavior instead of disrespectful behavior. The system was called the positive behavior intervention system.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavior class they are trying to elicit are what the programs name is which is trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring. They want them to have action and behaviors that are this four things. They are what makes up four of the character pillars.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some of the specific target behavior the school and teachers want to see their students doing would be helping other students pick up their books, keeping hands and feet to themselves, helping with homework, no bullying/standing up to bullies, not cheating, helping disabled students around the class/school and more.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on positive reinforcement. The students are having a reward introduced to them and not getting something taken away from them and that way its positive and not negative. They also reinforcement and not punishment because it is something that the students want and not something that the student thinks is a bad thing to them.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive reinforcement because the staff are giving something to the children to make them keep doing the action they have emitted.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are tickets. The tickets are two different colors some being gold and others being purple. A student must get ten purple tickets before then can get a gold ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro is that tickets would be a creep token. It wouldn’t cast the school or teacher to much extra money to have this program going. Any thing is that the students get to hold them in their hands have something that is tangible so that they will want more. A con could be that some people of counterfeit the tickets if they found where the school was buying them from. A con could be that a teacher could forget to give a ticket to a student or didn’t see the student do it so the student could get made and not want to do it anymore because they are not getting what they were promised.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system would be variable ratio schedule. Its that because the teachers give students a purple paw ticket when they witness them demonstrating TRRC, which is through continuous reinforcement because each time they emit these behaviors and are witnessed they receive a ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro is that it’s an easy thing to do and all of the teachers can do it. A con of it could be that good behavior is something that is subjective to the person that is giving out the ticket. One teacher could give a ticket of a specific behavior while another teacher than the student wouldn’t think it was fair and would get upset if they emitted the same behavior twice and only got one ticket.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens would be banked by the students.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro would be that he student knows how many they have at all times and they could feel good about looking at them and counting them themselves. A con of this could be that the student could lose their tickets and want more or they could just say that they lost them just to get more. They could also go make copies of the tickets and just produce more themselves.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforces would be the prizes that the students can pick from after they cash in their purple tickets for gold and then cash in their gold tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforces were chosen by the teacher and also by the other faculty members in the school.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes they are effective reinforces because they are something that are variety of things that could reach all the different things that the different students would want. And the students don’t just get what they get because they are the ones not the teachers that pick out the prize for them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students get their purple tickets by emitting the target behavior. They get their gold tickets by obtaining ten of the purple and trading them in. Then they can get the prize by trading in their gold tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They should keep track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are actually cashed into golden tickets. They also need to have some kind of way to measure the differences in kids’ behaviors before the system was implemented compared to after the reinforces were introduced. They could also be comparing how many detentions were handed out or time outs given.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would say that it was fairly effective because the kids are getting tickets and are talking about it and it’s in the newsletter. The kids are interested and are getting really involved into the program.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I know that the administrators are trying to teach the parents about the system through this little excerpt in the school newsletter, but it is really small and could be intrupited in different ways so that could cause parents to do it wrong.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It seems like the administrators seem to have taught other teachers the information necessary about the token economy. The article is a little unclear about the effectiveness.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I would think that there would be a really good possibility because some children are less motivated than others as well as parents, and some teachers may be better at noticing and handing out tickets than others
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems could be unequal pricing of reinforcers, loss or counterfeiting tokens, token hoarding, and behavior deterioration. Other problems could include immediate gratification or reinforcement for good behavior, parents wanting to know how many tickets their child has and for what, and if each student has fair chances at receiving tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would want to know more about the properties on the tickets if they are made or bought or if their paper or plastic. I would also want a better definition of the target beahavior so that all the teacher would treat all behaviors the same no teacher would like act is a target behavior when another teacher doesn’t think that same act is a target behavior.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What kind of banking system is used to keep track of how many tickets each student has earned? If multiple teachers can give tickets to any student at any time, how can you be sure that the tickets a student turns in were all earned by him/her and not given to them by, or taken from, other students?
25) terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforce, emit, target behavior, positive reinforcement, negative punishment, token economy, Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C., variable ratio schedule, immediate gratification, elicit, behavior deterioration, continuations reinforcement
1) What is this program? The program is Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about? The program came about in the Waterloo District as a way to be a PBIS district which is a Positive Behaviors Intervention System. This program encourages students to elicit good behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are: trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Some specific behaviors they might emit are: telling the truth, holding the door for other students or staff, raising their hand to answer in class, putting away their belongings when needed to, ask students who are alone to join their group so they feel welcome and included, and following the teacher’s instructions are some examples.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement because the students are receiving something for their good behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative? The reinforcement is positive because something good is being added.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens in this program are the purple paw tickets, and the golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Some pros would be that the students are excited to receive the tickets and that would get them motivated. Some cons would be the administration of the good behaviors on the playground because some students might not get acknowledged for their good behaviors.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system is a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Some pros in this is that the students are not being reinforced every time which helps keep the system working, another pro is that that the tickets are varied. A con for this system would be that students are not being recognized for their good behaviors often and they would not have the same chances as the other students.
11) How are the tokens banked? For every 10 purple tickets they receive, they can trade it in for 1 golden ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's? The pro for this is are that it stays consistent. A con is that it doesn’t change and can get boring after a while and lose the interest of the child.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The back-up reinforcers are the prizes they can get when trading in their golden ticket.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The back-up reinforcers were chosen based on the students age group because they need reinforcers that encourage their participation.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? By eliciting the behaviors in the Positive Behaviors Intervention System.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Measure the amount of tickets that are being rewarded.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? The system is very effective but will need to be modified in the future to keep the system being successful.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? They are being very effective in delivering/teaching the system.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? The administrators have taught the teachers the system in an effective way.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes, some people may think it is an unfair way to administer all the students effectively.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? The system may fade if the students are not reinforced and then the system becomes unimportant to the students.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? I would ask them if they would consider changing the prizes every few weeks or months to keep the students interested and motivated.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would like to know if the students will be reinforced every time they elicit good behaviors in the classroom because there is more opportunities for the teachers to watch for those behaviors.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
elicit, behavior, reinforced, reinforcers, variable ratio, schedules of reinforcement, positive, behavioral classes
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 tokenshttp://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) This program is trying to get an outcome of good behaviors from students.
2) This program more than likely got started because teachers were seeing behaviors that were not respectful to others.
3) The behavior they are trying to get is good respectful behavior.
4) Some behaviors they would be trying to get would be to wait their turn, raising their hand until called on, not talking loud, and listening to directions.
5) The system is reinforcing.
6) It is positive, because the positive good behaviors are being increased.
7) The students get purple paw tickets when they have good behaviors and they can save them for a prize.
8) Pro’s- Cheap, easy to do (my school did it) Con-depending on the size of classes it might be hard to keep track of all the good behaviors.
9) The students are given a purple ticket when they are respectful and show good behaviors.
10) I feel that a con to the delivery system is that it is inconsistent. The chidren might not be seen all the time and different teachers might have different expectations. A pro is the tickets can be easily handed out.
11) After a kid has gotten so many purple tickets they can turn them in for a gold one. And the gold ones can be turned in for prizes.
12) The reinforcement that the kids are searching for is not given right away, but in a way it could keep them motivated.
13) the back up reinforcement is the prize at the end.
14) Once the teacher gets to know the child they can find something for each specific child that they would enjoy.
15) yes they are effective, because it is something the kids will like.
16) when the students show the good behavior they get the reward.
17) The admistrition could make a base line of the behaviors to see how much they have exactly changed.
18) It needs to be well understood by everyone.
19) If the administration is putting it in a news letter to the parents I feel that the information is getting out there and the parents could ask questions if there is any confusion.
20) The teachers have been taught by the administration about this program.
21) Ya if the student doesn’t find the prize to be reinforcing, it won’t be behavioral changing for them.
22) I feel that it might not be consistant with all teachers, some teachers might not see some of what is going on, and they might have different expectations than other teachers on what is defined to be a good behavior.
23) How they are going to keep track of what students got how many prizes, especially if it is a bigger school
24) Do the children get to pick from a basket of prizes? That is what my school did. We got to pick a prize under a category of how many tickets we had.
25) behavior, reinforcement, target behavior, motivation, positive reinforcement, behavioral change, expectations
1) This program is a token economy called Positive Behavior Interventions Systems (PBIS).
2) This came about because the Waterloo District wanted a district-wide initiative being a PBIS District.
3) The behavioral classes the school wants to target are students that are being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) Some target behaviors they might want the students to emit are using their manners, helping out other classmates, not lying, and doing homework and bringing things to class. This could be number of things because the four things they listed that they are focusing on are behavioral classes and don’t give specific behaviors.
5) This system is based on reinforcement. They reinforce the students with tickets that they can use for pleasurable activities. ( I think eating with my teacher would be a punishment)
6) I think this is a positive thing because the student are probable increasing their behavior on the TRRC.
7) The tokens in this program are purple tickets that they can trade in for gold tickets.
8) I think that the con’s to using this system is that the children could lose the tickets and that the purple tickets are useless. I don’t get why they make them trade them in for gold tickets. I think the pro’s to this is that the students can see how many tickets they are acquiring and get to spend them like money and see them. I think another pro to the tickets is that the students get to hold on to them so they might mean more than points on a piece of paper.
9) the delivery system is not exactly posted in the letter. We don’t know if the teachers are giving them out or if just one person is or if students are handing them out?
10) Some con’s to the delivery system is that we don’t know who is giving out the tickets. Some pro’s is that because we don’t know who is giving out the tickets, the student might emit the TRRC behaviors more because they don’t know who is giving out the tickets. They might just emit the TRRC behaviors in front of the person giving out the tickets if they knew who they are. It is like a variable schedule of reinforcement.
11) We don’t know who the bank is.
12) I don’t know what the pro’s are because I don’t know where the student cash the tickets in at for their reward. I think this is a con.
13) The backup reinforcers are the things that the students can trade their tickets in for like extra recess.
14) We don’t know how the backup reinforcers were chosen.
15) I think the backup reinforcers would be effective if the students took a poll on what they would like as reinforcers for getting the tickets. I know I wouldn’t care to get tickets if I knew my tickets were going to allow me to do custodian work.
16) We don’t know how the student gain access to their reinforcers.
17) I think some outcome measures the administration might be able to see and measure are the childrens change in behavior and how many tickets are being handed out and turned in for rewards.
18) I don’t think the system is being addressed to the students very effective. It’s too broad.
19) I think that the system is not being explained very well to the parents either. I think it too broad. All the parents know is that their child is demonstrating the TRRC characters and getting tickets for them. The parents are also basically being told not to throw the tickets away.
20) We don’t know if the administration taught the teacher because we don’t know if they are the ones handing out the tickets or redeeming the tickets for a reward? We don’t know.
21) I think it is possible that not everyone has complete buy in with the system because it is not specific enough.
22) This system is not specific enough so we don’t know how consistent it is or what it is measuring. We also don’t know the target behaviors they want to see.
23 & 24) I have listed many of my questions and concerns in the following numbers.
Terms: token economy, target behavior, variable schedule of reinforcement, emit, consistent, and reinforcer,
1) Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2)it was a district wide initiative to be a positive behavior interventions system.
3)they are trying to elicit the behavioral classes of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4)helping someone who falls on the playground, raising your hand to speak in class.
5 reinforcement.
6)positive reinforcement
7)purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8)pro’s would be that they are cheap and easy to get, they are easy to hand out, and are safe to use. con’s would be they could easily be lost or stolen, and they could be faked.
9)teacher or someone who works at the school giving the student the ticket.
10) pro’s are they would be hard to steal from a teacher or other adult who works at the school, it is immediate, and praise can easily be giving when the reinforcers are handed out.
11)they are giving to the students to keep track of until they turn them in.
12)pro’s are that school faculty doesn’t have to keep track of everyone’s tickets.con’s are that some kids could cheat the system by stealing tickets, and it would be easy for the students to lose the tickets and then not be able to get the reward.
13)an ice cream cone, extra recess, lunch with the principal, bag of movie popcorn, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14)the teachers and others that are in charge chose the backup reinforcers based on what the students liked.
15)i think the reinforcers would be effective if they based them on what the kids want.
16)they turn in 10 purple paw tickets for 1 golden ticket and then turn golden tickets in for prizes.
17)they could keep track of the tickets given out to see if they increase each week.
18)they did a good job teaching the students because they are giving out tickets everywhere.
19)they talked about it in a newsletter that the parents will see. it could have been more detailed as to the costs of the rewards but they did inform the parents that this was going on.
20)they did a good job of teaching the other teachers about the system because they are the ones giving out tickets are it seems like they know the system.
21)yes
22) kids saving them up and thinking that they don't need anymore and then just doing what ever they want
23) the cost of stuff, can you trade them or give them to some on that might not have any. is there a time limit on how long you can have them. and what happens if you loose some. does the teachers and everyone keep track on who has what
24)i don't know i think i answered that in the pervious question
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 http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) What is this program?
This program is Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. it is to a positive behavior intervention system and at Poyner Elementary they are focusing on trust, respect, responsibility, and caring for others. It iis using these behaviors as their target behaviors. They reinforce the behaviors with the purple tickets and reinforce the behavior of getting purple ones for gold ones and then with more gold ones they can receive prizes.
2) How did it come about?
This program is a district wide system to increase the eliciting of the character pillars that are important to the district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the kids to be more trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A specific target behavior could be the kids asking other kids when they fall down if they are okay, or for picking up after themselves.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because they are rewarding the kids for this positive behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because they are adding a pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away the aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets. Each gold ticket is 10 purple tickets and with the gold tickets you can redeem prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The tokens must be salient enough to elicit the target behaviors, additionally this system is only salient and effective within the classroom or school setting, and so the children may discriminate and elicit these behaviors in the classroom or at school, but not in other settings. The classroom/school will act as a discriminate stimulus for which behaviors will be reinforced. However the pro to this would be that they would elicit the behavior more at school and since they are used to eliciting the behavior they could not do what I stated above and actually continue eliciting these behaviors.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system appears to be a continuous reinforcement system but it is a bit unclear because a child may emit a positive behavior but if it goes unnoticed it will not be reinforced. There is also a fixed ratio system in place as far as the 10 purple tickets equaling 1 golden ticket. This is unchanging and the kids can count on this happening.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
One immediate con I see is that the continuous reinforcement isn’t going to be perfect. It is almost impossible for every positive behavior to be noticed and awarded. There is also going to be some differences between the people giving out the tickets and that could determine whether a child receives a ticket for their positive behavior. The good side of this type of continuous reinforcement is that the kids can better see their progress and have something to work towards. I really like the idea of the fixed ratio system but it is important that teachers are being aware of good behaviors so that the kids are rewarded and don’t get discouraged. I think they would need to see how easy/hard it is for the kids to get 10 purple tickets and possible change that variable if needed.
11) How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tickets is equivalent to 1 golden ticket and the golden ticket can be exchanged for a reinforcer such as more recess.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros to this system is that its straightforward and easy for the kids to understand. It gives the kids something to work for and makes it hard enough that they have to continue for a while in order to earn their particular reward. However, it cannot be too easy for them because then they will not want to or just act like they are and still do the undesirable behavior as well.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the prizes they can get with the golden tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I am assuming they thought of ideas that kids like and are willing to work for. So they would emit their desired target behavior.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I feel they are effective because I think I would emit the desired behavior for more recess time.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students have to trade in their purple tickets to get a golden ticket and then they are able to give their golden ticket for a reinforcer of their choice.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think that it will be helpful for the administrators to keep track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are actually cashed into golden tickets. They should keep track of the reinforcers the kids receive, which one’s are requested more, etc. Then I think they need to have some kind of way to measure the differences in kids’ behaviors before the system was implemented compared to after the reinforcers were introduced. They could do this by comparing how many detentions were handed out or trips to the principal’s office. Also by changing up the backup reinforcers by making the ones that are used the most a little better like instead of 10 extra minutes updating it to 15 minutes.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would guess that they are pretty effective at teaching the students about the system because they make it easy enough that they caught on pretty fast and the kids are excited and interested in being involved. However, I don’t think the small article gives us enough information to truly judge how well it is being taught to the students.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
By the little information provided I feel they are not effective in teaching the parents. They had in the newsletter but they should have sent out papers before the program launched. However, they could have but I imagine if they did that they wouldn’t have put it in the newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The article doesn’t explain much about how the teachers and the system very well.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I feel that is a high possibility because not everyone agrees with everything anyways. Especially if the parents were not informed beforehand.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The first problem with this token economy is that school is a discriminant stimulus, like I stated earlier, and the positive behaviors may not spill over into different settings. The children may also become satiated with the reinforcers if they are too easy to obtain. It is also going to be highly important that the reinforcers be salient enough for the children to care about changing their behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask them a few. For example how are they measuring the data, how/when they are handing out the tokens, what happens if they don’t see a target behavior happening, and the outcome of the system so far.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I pretty much stated it above. The outcome of how it has been so far would be nice and how exactly they are reinforcing the behaviors of all the children.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Positive behavior, positive reinforcement, behavior intervention system, Target, behaviors, reinforce, elicit, pleasurable, stimuli, aversive, salient, discriminate, discriminate stimulus, delivery system, continuous, reinforcement, ratio system, variable, reinforcer, emit, desired
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 http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) What is this program?
This program is Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. it is to a positive behavior intervention system and at Poyner Elementary they are focusing on trust, respect, responsibility, and caring for others. It iis using these behaviors as their target behaviors. They reinforce the behaviors with the purple tickets and reinforce the behavior of getting purple ones for gold ones and then with more gold ones they can receive prizes.
2) How did it come about?
This program is a district wide system to increase the eliciting of the character pillars that are important to the district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the kids to be more trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A specific target behavior could be the kids asking other kids when they fall down if they are okay, or for picking up after themselves.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because they are rewarding the kids for this positive behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because they are adding a pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away the aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets. Each gold ticket is 10 purple tickets and with the gold tickets you can redeem prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The tokens must be salient enough to elicit the target behaviors, additionally this system is only salient and effective within the classroom or school setting, and so the children may discriminate and elicit these behaviors in the classroom or at school, but not in other settings. The classroom/school will act as a discriminate stimulus for which behaviors will be reinforced. However the pro to this would be that they would elicit the behavior more at school and since they are used to eliciting the behavior they could not do what I stated above and actually continue eliciting these behaviors.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system appears to be a continuous reinforcement system but it is a bit unclear because a child may emit a positive behavior but if it goes unnoticed it will not be reinforced. There is also a fixed ratio system in place as far as the 10 purple tickets equaling 1 golden ticket. This is unchanging and the kids can count on this happening.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
One immediate con I see is that the continuous reinforcement isn’t going to be perfect. It is almost impossible for every positive behavior to be noticed and awarded. There is also going to be some differences between the people giving out the tickets and that could determine whether a child receives a ticket for their positive behavior. The good side of this type of continuous reinforcement is that the kids can better see their progress and have something to work towards. I really like the idea of the fixed ratio system but it is important that teachers are being aware of good behaviors so that the kids are rewarded and don’t get discouraged. I think they would need to see how easy/hard it is for the kids to get 10 purple tickets and possible change that variable if needed.
11) How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tickets is equivalent to 1 golden ticket and the golden ticket can be exchanged for a reinforcer such as more recess.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros to this system is that its straightforward and easy for the kids to understand. It gives the kids something to work for and makes it hard enough that they have to continue for a while in order to earn their particular reward. However, it cannot be too easy for them because then they will not want to or just act like they are and still do the undesirable behavior as well.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the prizes they can get with the golden tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I am assuming they thought of ideas that kids like and are willing to work for. So they would emit their desired target behavior.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I feel they are effective because I think I would emit the desired behavior for more recess time.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students have to trade in their purple tickets to get a golden ticket and then they are able to give their golden ticket for a reinforcer of their choice.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think that it will be helpful for the administrators to keep track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are actually cashed into golden tickets. They should keep track of the reinforcers the kids receive, which one’s are requested more, etc. Then I think they need to have some kind of way to measure the differences in kids’ behaviors before the system was implemented compared to after the reinforcers were introduced. They could do this by comparing how many detentions were handed out or trips to the principal’s office. Also by changing up the backup reinforcers by making the ones that are used the most a little better like instead of 10 extra minutes updating it to 15 minutes.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would guess that they are pretty effective at teaching the students about the system because they make it easy enough that they caught on pretty fast and the kids are excited and interested in being involved. However, I don’t think the small article gives us enough information to truly judge how well it is being taught to the students.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
By the little information provided I feel they are not effective in teaching the parents. They had in the newsletter but they should have sent out papers before the program launched. However, they could have but I imagine if they did that they wouldn’t have put it in the newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The article doesn’t explain much about how the teachers and the system very well.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I feel that is a high possibility because not everyone agrees with everything anyways. Especially if the parents were not informed beforehand.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The first problem with this token economy is that school is a discriminant stimulus, like I stated earlier, and the positive behaviors may not spill over into different settings. The children may also become satiated with the reinforcers if they are too easy to obtain. It is also going to be highly important that the reinforcers be salient enough for the children to care about changing their behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask them a few. For example how are they measuring the data, how/when they are handing out the tokens, what happens if they don’t see a target behavior happening, and the outcome of the system so far.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I pretty much stated it above. The outcome of how it has been so far would be nice and how exactly they are reinforcing the behaviors of all the children.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Positive behavior, positive reinforcement, behavior intervention system, Target, behaviors, reinforce, elicit, pleasurable, stimuli, aversive, salient, discriminate, discriminate stimulus, delivery system, continuous, reinforcement, ratio system, variable, reinforcer, emit, desired
Didn't mean to post it twice. Sorry
1) The program is called "Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C." and is put on by the Waterloo School District.
2) The program was created to elicit desirable behaviors emitted by the students in exchange for tokens.
3) The target behaviors they are trying to elicit are being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Students caught emitting these behaviors will be positively reinforced.
4) Some behaviors they may want the children to emit include sharing their items, raising their hand in class, getting their homework turned in on time, or being seen helping other students.
5) The system is based on reinforcement because they are being rewarded with the pleasurable consequence of receiving a token that can later be redeemed for a real prize.
6) It's positive because they are adding something to the environment. The addition is the faculty giving out the purple and golden tickets.
7) The tokens are the purple and gold tickets. Every ten purple tickets can be redeemed for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can be redeemed for prizes such as ice cream, extra recess, or helping the custodian.
8) A con could be that the tokens could be easily replicated by the parents. If there are bullies in the school, they can take the tokens from the other kids since there is no way of knowing exactly who the tickets belong to. The pros of the system would be that the children are learning good behaviors to emit and how to act properly in society.
9)
(Sorry, my thing got posted on accident before it was done)
9) The delivery system is varied because the children never know when they are going to be rewarded for emitting the good behaviors. The fixed part of the reinforcement was that every time they had ten purple tickets, they could always be traded in for a golden ticket.
10) A con would be that maybe the kids would only emit the desired behaviors when the teachers are watching. A pro would be some kids might just start emitting the behaviors all the time.
11) The tokens could be turned in at the office for golden tickets or prizes.
12) The pros of this system are that it teaches the children how to act; the cons might be that the children might only be exhibiting the desired behaviors at school and not at home.
13) The golden tickets are the secondary reinforcers while the primary reinforces, the prizes at the end, are also the back up reinforcers.
14) I think that they were chosen based on things that kids wanted to do, or in generally what children would want to have.
15) I think the prizes are effective. It all sounds pretty fun; although I'm not sure how kids would like helping out the custodian.
16) The students gain access by the faculty members giving them the tickets.
17) They could record a graph with a baseline throughout the experiment and look at it after everything is over so they can see the progress. I also think they should have some way of tracking who they give tickets to.
18) I would think it's effective because the system is easy for kids to learn and they are using the tickets well.
19) I think it's effective because they are putting it in the student newspaper. However, if the parents don't read it, then they should use a different way to let them know what's going on.
20) Since it's a part of their job, I'd assume they keep all the teachers well informed in what they are supposed to be doing.
21) I think it's possible because people have different ideas on what these behaviors look like. It can be hard when everyone is not on the same page with such vague topics.
22) The school will be a discriminative stimulus and the children might not emit the behaviors in other settings. Also, if everyone has different ideas on what should be rewarded than the system wont seem as consistent to the children.
23) Some questions I have are how do you define what "respectful", "caring", "responsible", etc.? What behaviors are you looking specifically looking for? How long is this going to last? When someone gets a prize like extra computer time, or extra recess, can a student only get that once? Or can they get it multiple times? Or can it only be awarded once to one student? How do you know how many tickets a student has? How do you know their tickets belong to them?
24) I would want to know all the answers to the questions posted in 23.
25) Terms: behaviors, consequences, positive reinforcement, discriminative stimulus, negative, tokens, elicit, emit, varied, fixed, reinforcer, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer.
1. The program is Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. This stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
2.This program came about from the Waterloo School District becoming a PBIS District. This is a positive behavior interventions systems district.
3.The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit include the character pillars. These include being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4. Some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit include walking in hallways, throwing trash away, saying thank you, being prepared for class, arriving oto class on time, raising your hand, being quiet when told to, helping another student if they need help, turning homework in on time, and so many others that could be listed.
5. This system is based on reinforcement.
6.This program is positive reinforcement because they gain a ticket for doing something good.
7.The tokens used in this program include purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8. Some pro’s to these tickets include that these tickets are interchangeable, for example when you get ten purple paw tickets for a golden ticket. This way kids do not get a ton of purple tickets just piled up. Another pro is that these tickets are like money so they will be more valuable.
A con associated with using the tokens is that kids might lose them. Another is that if they are paper they can be easily ripped or damaged.
9.The delivery system includes handing them out to kids anywhere the teachers see a student doing something good that pertains to the character pillars.
10.Some pro’s associated with the delivery system include the quickness of reinforcing the students. Another is that kids can get these tickets anywhere, so they will want to behave everywhere.
Some con’s associated with the delivery system include the fact that they are delivered everywhere so kids will be prone to losing the cards or damaging them. Another con includes it being annoying or disruptive to the kids or their learning. This includes if kids are having fun doing something and it is good they might not do it again with the attention given. Also you might end up rewarding all the kids for doing good, and miss time you would be spending teaching.
11. The tokens are banked by the kids holding onto them.
12.The pro’s to this include the kids get to see how many tickets they have whenever they want. Another is that the kids can bring them home and show their parents.
The con’s to this include the kids could lose the tickets by misplacing them or something. Another con is that the tickets could get destroyed or damaged on accident. A third con could include other students taking tickets from others or picking up ones they see students set down.
13. The backup reinforcers include prizes. These prizes include sonic icecream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14.The backup reinforcers were chosen by things students enjoy with the combination of things that are appropriate for school.
15.I think that many of them are effective reinforcers but some are not in my perspective. Many of them, I feel, would encourage a student to achieve these golden tickets. Some on the other hand, I feel are not very encouraging. The ones I do not think are super encouraging include lich with the principal and lead teacher and helping the custodian. I know, personally, I would not want either of these. I do not find them rewarding, so I do not think they are very reinforcing.
16.Students gain access to the reinforcers by trading them for prizes at the end of the year.
17.Some outcome measures to know if this system is effective include observing if the students are more trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Another outcome includes how kids are doing in classes. This could include grades, turned in assignments, coming to class prepared, etc.. The outcome of how many students get in trouble each day or week is another measurement.
18. The administrators seem to be effectively teaching the students about the system all the time. It says that they will be everywhere looking for a reason to give someone a purple paw ticket. Everywhere includes the hallway, cafeteria, playground, classrooms, and during assemblies.
19. The administrators are moderately being effective at teaching the parents about the system. This newsletter is very good, but I do not believe that every newsletter actually arrives at home or doesn’t get lost, or just gets skimmed over and not actually looked at. I think they could also send out an email, talk about it during student teacher conferences, or something else that involves another way to contact the parents about it.
20.By the way the put it in the newsletter, the other teachers seem to have very effectively been taught about the system. Though, we are not sure on how it went about or any details on the effectiveness of the actual teaching to the other teachers.
21.There are possibly ways that not everyone could have complete buy with the system. This might include students not believing in the rewards or finding it all a scam or something. Also, teachers might find it too much work or not effective. Some parents might not find it effective.
22.Some problems that we know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here include the amount of time and effort put into this system could be too extravagant and busy, the unequal pricing of backup reinforces, tokens being misused, and students hoarding tokens.
23.Some questions I have about this system include, what are all the acts that can be rewarded, how reinforcing of this are the teachers to be, when do the students get to use the tokens to receive their prize, and where do the students put their tokens.
24.Additional information I would like to know includes information on how the tokens and the prizes are going to be balanced and measured, how hard core is the watching of the students for these good acts, and more information on how effective this has been at other schools.
25.TERMS: token economies. effective, reinforcer, backup reinforcers, banked, delivery system, tokens, positive reinforcement, reinforcement, behavioral classes. elicit, target behaviors, and reinforcement.
Reading Activity Week #15: Token Economies.
1) What is this program?
It is called “Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.” (track). It is a token economy put into place by the school system.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District has a district wide goal to become a PBIS district. (Positive Behavior Intervention System).
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are attempting to elicit behaviors from these students that could be considered acts of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
To show respect of the school property by picking up garbage in the hallways. Or volunteering to help the teacher or other school staff member. Turning in lost items instead of taking them home without attempting to find its rightful owner. Telling a peer their shoe string is untied instead of tripping them with it as they are walking.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement. In hopes to increase the likelihood the students will emit respectful, responsible, caring, and trustworthy behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system would be considered positive. It included the addition of something likeable.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple and gold paper tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros – Colored papers tickets are inexpensive yet hold value to the children.
Cons – These tickets could easily be misplaced, destroyed, or even stolen. Perhaps some students my attempt to photocopy and manufacture their own tickets. If another form of keeping track of tickets earned is not put into place, it would easily be rigged or inaccurate.
9) What is the delivery system?
I’m not exactly what this question is specifically asking. The delivery or schedule of reinforcement is most comparable to a variable ratio reinforcement. Teachers will hand out a ticket to a student who is emitting a specific target behavior. This is not based on a specific amount time between each reinforcement.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros - a recognition/reinforcement will be almost immediate. More than likely, when a student is observed emitting a specific target behavior the teacher will not only give the student a ticket, but also verbal praise for a job well done.
Cons- not all target behaviors can be observed, thus not all target behaviors will be reinforced. But just like in our self-directed behavior assignment, we will eventually have to return to baseline after reinforcing the behavior. Overall, we want the target behavior of committing acts of trustworthiness, respect, caring, and responsibility to increase!
11) How are the tokens banked?
A purple ticket is earned for every act of the target behavior. 10 purple tickets equal one golden ticket. It is not clear in the reading, but the children may be responsible for their tickets.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros - the worth of each ticket is consistent. This may give them some sense of money management. They may feel happy to be able to keep track of the reinforcer they had earned all on their own.
Cons – Children may lose, or misplace their tickets. The tickets also may get stolen or damaged.
13) What are the back -up reinforcers?
With a certain amount of tickets, the student may choose an even bigger reinforcement / reward for themselves.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I would assume they were chosen by those who take part in or supervise the back-up reinforcements, such as the janitor, teachers, and the principal.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I would like to think they will be effective reinforcers. I wish these reinforcers were put into place when I was in school!
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by emitting a specific target behavior in the view of a teacher or school faculty member. They then are able to recognize the behavior and emit a reinforcing behavior of giving the student a ticket.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could keep track of how many tickets are received by classroom or even by grade level. But this could cause some of the teachers to create a bias and give out more tickets than deserved. By keeping the sense of a competition out of the token economy at hand, this may deter any “cheating of the system” done by adults. Yes, adults would probably do this, we were kids once too.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think the administrators will be teaching the students along the way. More than likely they will not start this token economy with a giant list of behaviors that will be reinforced with tickets. This will be a social learning process for both students and teachers. Hopefully the teachers will decided to use fair and just discretion when dishing out the creditable acts of trustworthiness, respect, caring, and responsibility. Once one student sees another get reinforced for a specific behavior, that student will too want to emit that same (or similar) behavior.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I would say, fairly effective. They are being notified of the token economy through the school newspaper. They should be aware of what is being reinforced so they too can be an important part in their child’s life and their decisions to emit the target behaviors of the system in place.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would think it would be safe to assume that all the administrators are on the same level of understanding. As they will be the ones administrating the token economy. They are now a team that undermines the success of this system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There could be a good chance that some adults may not believe in reinforcing behaviors when there are other behaviors that are more prominent that would be considered less than favorable. I think this token economy is important because with the idea of striving for better, there is less time to get into trouble.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some just flat out do not work. Each token economy needs to be shaped to fit its target audience. A token economy that has high effectiveness on kindergarteners will more than likely not have the same rate of effectiveness on 50 year old business men.
Also, the reinforcer needs to actually be reinforcing. If you observe a decrease in a behavior you are trying to increase, you are probably doing it wrong.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How long will this token economy be put into place? How will the tickets be kept track of? Is there any big prize the end of the student(s) who have earned the most tickets over a certain amount of time? Is there specific adults who are allowed to administer the reinforcer?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What if this system proves to not elicit these specific target behaviors (and overall fails)?
What if a student is caught stealing tickets or any other forms or aversive behaviors?
25) Terminology: token economy, elicit, emit, reinforcer, reinforcement, reinforcing, behaviors, specific target behavior, baseline, variable ratio reinforcement, aversive behaviors.
1) This program is called The Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.
2) It came about as a district wide initiative to use PBIS: Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring
4) Specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit would be looking teachers in the eyes when talking to them, picking up after themselves, being nice to other children by way of hugging, smiling, playing with them, being honest when answering teachers.
5) This system is based on reinforcement.
6) It is positive.
7) The tokens used in this program are purple tickets, and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
a. Pros: easy to dispense, difficult to reproduce I imagine, safe to use
b. Cons: could be lost or damaged, could be stolen or lended, have no expiration or rules to reset everyone at zero, so it may produce hoarding.
9) The delivery system is teachers and faculty hand them out when they observe the desired behavior being emitted.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
a. Pros: allows for mostly continuous reinforcement
b. Cons: doesn’t keep track of how many tickets are handed out to each student
11) It doesn’t say how the tokens are banked, but it seems like they are just being kept by students and exchanged somewhere at school .
12) What are the pro's and con's?
a. Cons: unclear, doesn’t seem to have a defined time or place for exchanges
b. Pros: immediate and tangible tokens
13) The backup reinforcers are Sonic ice cream, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, extra computer time, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, helping the custodian.
14) The backup reinforcers chosen based on what the students liked doing or having, or are new privileges.
15) They are mostly effective reinforcers, kids would like ice cream and other snacks or extra play time.
16) It doesn’t say how the students gain access to the reinforcers but it seems they are given out by authorities.
17) There doesn’t seem to be any way for outcomes to be measured so the administrators know the system is effective besides saying that the desired behavior is happening everywhere and more often.
18) The administrators seem to be effectively teaching the students about the system because the students understand how to get tickets.
19) The administrators seem to be doing an alright on teaching the parents about the system, but they obviously are missing how the students will exchange tickets, and how well its monitored.
20) The administrators seem to effectively taught the other teachers about the system being that they are being able to identify the behavior but it’s hard to tell from this newsletter what they told the teachers.
21) There the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system. It is always possible that some students may not like ice cream, popcorn, computer time or recess or for whatever strange reason lunch with the principal or helping the custodian.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Losing or stealing tickets and token hoarding
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
a. Is there a system for balancing how many tickets are handed out? What are the specific behaviors that teachers are told to look for and reinforce? Where is the exchanging occurring and is it monitored? Are the tickets able to be replicated and what happens when a student loses them?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? See answer for question 23
25) Terms and terminology: token hoarding, behavior, reinforce, desirable, continuous reinforcement, behavioral classes, elicit, positive reinforcement, emitted, target behavior
1) What is this program?
T.R.R.C which is pronounced “track.” It is a program for Waterloo students to show trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and care. They receive purple tickets when they show these qualities. For every ten purple tickets, they receive a golden ticket. With golden tickets, they can buy privileges.
2) How did it come about?
It came about from the Positive Behavior Intervention System. They wanted the Waterloo district to participate in becoming a better student body.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They want their students to show they are trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Telling the truth to peers and teachers.
Being patient and kind with peers and teachers.
Keeping track of school supplies, staying organized, and being prepared for classes.
Be there for peers when they need a shoulder to lean on.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used are purple and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: motivation for students, hard to copy, symbolic
Cons: kids may hoard them, kids may become jealous and upset
9) What is the delivery system?
The teachers give out the tickets to students anywhere on the school campus.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: Children will try to be on their best behavior no matter where they are
Cons: Teachers may not recognize when a child does a behavior and that may cause confusion and frustration for the student.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children keep their tickets safe somewhere and give them to the teacher when they have ten.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: Kids will learn responsibility to keep their tickets safe.
Cons: Some kids may not be able to keep track of their tickets
Some kids may lie or steal tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are: ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal, etc
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen, because they are activities that are desirable by every student.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes. They are effective, because these activities are high motivators for children of every age.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by showing good behavior, receiving purple tickets, and exchanging those tickets for golden tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
It would be a good idea to monitor how behaviors have changed throughout the process.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems like they should be more informative and clear about certain key target behaviors they want to see from the student instead of the broad “TRRC”.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The communication to the parents seem straight forward enough, but they could also use more information on exact target behaviors.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The teachers may even need to know more about what exact target behaviors they need to look for from the students. If they go by their own judgment, that may confuse students.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes. There could be students that don’t care at all. There could be teachers that become discouraged that they have to constantly look for those behaviors to reinforce. Some parents may be a little confused not knowing how their children are supposed to be behaving exactly.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Tickets may get lost. Also, they would need to know how many tickets to give for certain behaviors. If some students are getting too many tickets too quickly it may become ineffective. Also, if they are constantly behaving well and not being reinforced that can also cause a big problem.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What are examples of specific behaviors the children need to perform to receive a purple ticket?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Does every good behavior constitute for one purple ticket?
Are teachers on the same page as to whether certain behaviors constitute a purple ticket?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: Privileges, Trustworthiness, Respect, Caring, Responsibility, Positive Behavior Intervention System, Patient, Prepared, Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Tokens, Motivation, Monitor, Target Behaviors, Backup Reinforcers
1) What is this program?
This program is called The Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (it is pronounced “track’) It is a token economy put in place by the school system. It is a system in which they collect purple tickets. For every 10 purple tickets collected they can trade it in for a golden ticket which buys them privileges. In order to earn these tickets they must show respect, trustworthiness, care, and responsibility.
2) How did it come about?
The school district trying to become a PBIS (positive behavior interventions system) They wanted the Waterloo district to participate to become a better student body.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes are responsibility, trust, care, and respect.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors might include: being prepared for class by having all of your supplies with you, picking up after themselves, being honest when talking to teachers/students, saying please & thank you, helping students if they ask you for it, treat others the way you would like to be treated.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because they are being rewarded with tickets which they can later exchange for something else.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This would be an example of positive reinforcement. They are adding pleasurable stimuli instead of taking something aversive away from the situation.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used are purple and gold tickets. For every 10 purple tickets you collect, you get one golden ticket which can be exchanged for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: these tickets are great motivation for the students because they can redeem the tickets for a desirable prize, they are easy to dispense, they are also safe to use.
Cons: other kids may become jealous if a student has so many tickets and they have none, the tickets may get stolen by other kids, and they do not keep track of how many tickets have been handed out.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is that the teachers/faculty hand out these tickets anywhere at school where the desirable behavior is being emitted.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: The students immediately get reinforced by the ticket for emitting the specific behavior, the kids can also bring the tickets home and show their parents their “achievements.”
Cons: The kids could cheat the system by selling their tickets around school and the tickets could also get lost. Another con I see is that the teachers may not always see the students doing a desirable thing and they would not get rewarded for it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children hold on to their tickets until they accumulate 10 of them. It does not say exactly where this takes place, but they do exchange them for a golden ticket which then they can exchange for a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: You get the tokens immediately and do not have to wait for them
Cons: They do not really seem to have a set time or place in which this exchange takes place. The children may also lose/have their tickets stolen from them.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers include: ice cream, lunch with the principal, sonic ice cream cones, extra computer time, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
These backup reinforcers are based upon what the students enjoy doing. I would love this token economy system in college! (the ice cream part)
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes they are very effective. What kid doesn’t like ice cream or extra recess?! These reinforcers were carefully selected to make sure the kids would have incentive to do good deeds.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to these reinforcers by emitting good behavior and receiving purple tickets. Eventually they exchange the tickets for the golden ticket.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think they should keep track of how many tickets they administer to the students. Maybe they could even keep track each day and see what day is most effective for the students!
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think they should be clear on what target behaviors they want to see at the school. They just say to be trusting, responsible, caring, and respectful. They should add in examples of such behaviors. The ticket system is good because it is easy to understand.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They talk about it in the newsletter that gets sent to the parents. However, not every parent ends up reading the newsletter. Sometimes the kids throw them away or the parents do not ask for it.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It did not really elaborate on that aspect of it. The teachers need to know exactly what target behaviors to reward and look for.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It is always possible that some students may not care for the specific rewards. Maybe a student may not like recess time or ice cream. They would not have incentive to do good deeds if they did not like the rewards being given.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Getting your tickets stolen or lost is a definite problem with this. This is why they need to keep track of how many tickets they give out. Some kids also may bully other kids to get them to give them their tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Will they change their reinforcers as the kids get older/bored of the prizes? Also, what are the tokens like? Are the token eliminated and easy to duplicate? Did the teachers/faculty have a meeting on what target behaviors they are looking for in students?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know the longevity of the system and it the reinforcers work for most of the kids. I also saw that one of the rewards is cleaning with the custodian. I guess I am a little confused by this. I do not know any kids that would think cleaning would be fun.
25) Terms:
Reinforcement, elicit, emit, consequence, token economy, rewards, target behavior, pleasurable, aversive, stimuli, behavior, pro, con, delivery system, backup reinforcers, behavioral intervention, tokens, positive reinforcement, desirable, punishment, privileges, trustworthiness, caring, respect, responsibility.
1) What is this program? This is a program that promotes children at Poyner elementary to emit T.R.R.C. T = Trustworthy, R=Respectful, R=Responsibility, and C=Caring. Students who display T.R.R.C behavior throughout the day will get a purple paw ticket. Once a student receives 10 tickets they can trade them in for one gold ticket to receive a prize.
2) How did it come about? This program was initiated by Waterloo districts to become part of a Positive Behavior Intervention System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness, and caring behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific behaviors they might want the children to emit are: for trustworthiness a behavior may be to do their own work and not cheat, for respectfulness a specific behavior would be to play well with others and not bully, for responsibility a specific behavior may be to do their homework on time, and for caring would be to involve other students in activities and avoid cliques.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because the school is working to increase the behaviors of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility and caring.
6) Is it positive or negative? It is positive reinforcement because they are adding a reward to get the desired behavior
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used in this program are the purple paw tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? The pro’s are the children might emit increase T.RR.C behavior to receive tokens. However, a con may be some students may take other peoples tokens if accessible.
9) What is the delivery system? Students are given a purple ticket in the cafeteria, on the playground, in the hallway, in classrooms and at assemblys if they emit T.R.R.C behavior.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Some children who are shy might not get as many tokens even if they display the target behavior. Children may also only emit this behavior in front of teachers to receive a ticket.
11) How are the tokens banked? When a student receives 10 tickets they can turned them in for one golden ticket to save to turn in for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? A pro to this system is it promotes students to emit T.R,C.C. behaviors because they have to work for 10 tickets. A con may be a student might not get enough purple or gold tickets to receive a prize.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The back up reinforcers are ice
cream, extra recess, a bag of popcorn, extra computer time, or lunch with the principal or teacher.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The back up rein orcers were chosen by the district to be desirable to the children to want to emit the target behaviors for a ticket.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Some of the reinforcers are effective because they are desirable to the students.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students gain access to the reinforcers by collecting 10 tickets and turning them in for a gold ticket. The gold tickets are they key to gain access to the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the outcome measures are observing students behaviors and if behavior problems decrease and good behavior increases. The tickets are also a way to measure their behavior because they get a ticket for the good behavior.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? The administrators are effectively teaching the students about the system because they have all the teachers involved to observe students behavior.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are teaching the parents effectively about the system because they informed them about the system in the school newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The newsletter did not elaborate on this topic.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? There is always a possibility someone might not have complete buy in with the system. Some students may not be interested in the rewards available and some teachers may ignore students behaviors or pick favorites. Parents might not agree with the system because they don’t want their kid eating ice cream or popcorn.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems known to exist with token economies are that they are complex. They do not apply to everyone’s values and they take time and effort. The value of the prizes may not interest all children,the teachers may not want to take time and effort in handing out these tickets. The students may lose their tickets or their tickets could get stolen.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Are the reinforcers going to keep changing? Are the teachers on the same page on what behaviors to look for when handing out tokens?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? Is this system modifying students behaviors and are the students interested in the system?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: reinforcement, positive reinforcement, behavior, emit, elicit, reinforce, reinforce, target behavior, token economy
1) What is this program?- A Positive Behavior Intervention system focusing on being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring
2) How did it come about?- It came from a district wide initiative in the Waterloo School District
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?- The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?- A target behavior for trustworthiness would be telling the truth to a teacher in a stressful situation, a target behavior for being respectful would be waiting in line patiently, a target behavior to emit for responsibility would be turning in homework on time, and a target behavior to emit for caring would be helping a classmate with a question.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?- This system is based on reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?- It is positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?- The tokens are gold and purple tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?- They could be easy to lose or forgotten at home when it is time to turn them in. A few pros would be that they are cheap to come by for the teachers, they would be hard to duplicate if they were unique enough, the children get a physical token to hold on to
9) What is the delivery system?- The delivery system is a faculty member hands out a ticket to a student who demonstrates the character traits
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?- A pro is that it is controlled by the staff so children can't withhold them from other students. I think there are a few cons with this delivery system, first of all the staff could all have different ideas of what the topography of the behavior is so one teacher might reward a student for their behavior but a different teacher might not think it qualifies, secondly a teacher might not always carry the tickets with them, and lastly a teacher might have a bias towards or against some student.
11) How are the tokens banked?- The students accumulate 10 purple tickets and once those are turned in for one gold ticket which will be redeemed for a prize
12) What are the pro's and con's?- A pro is that it is a straightforward system and they kids will have to keep participating in the program to get the golden tickets, a con could be that a student could save up all their gold tickets and try to redeem them all at once, it doesn't specify if the students could combine their tickets together and share the reward from the golden ticket
13) What are the back up reinforcers?- Ice cream cones, extra recess time, bag of popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?- They backup reinforcers were chosen because they are desirable behaviors that the students want to perform
15) Are they effective reinforcers?- I think the majority of the reinforcers are effective because they are fun behaviors that would motivate students to participate in the program however, helping the custodian sounds more like something you would have to do in detention
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?- The students gain access to the reinforcers once they have ten purple tickets to trade in for a gold ticket
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?- seeing an increase in the TRRC behaviors, seeing how many tickets each student has earned at the end of the month
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?- It seemed like the newsletter mentioned that the program was already in place and kids know about it, I would imagine that the administration held an assembly or told the teachers to talk about it in the classroom
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?- The administrators are effectively teaching the parents about the system by including it in the newsletter
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?-I believe that the administration has effectively taught the teachers because the students have been receiving tickets according to the newsletter. I imagine that the administration probably had a seminar outlining the program and any target behaviors to pinpoint
21) 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 of not everyone buying in to the program. Students might have behavioral disorders which make achieving the target behaviors more difficult, some students also might not find of the backup reinforcers desirable, teachers and parents might find the program as distracting from learning and not encourage the system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here- I can see students trying to hoard their tickets and trying to redeem them all at one time. Students may also try to duplicate the tickets or steal from other students. I think that the backup reinforcers would have to change every once and a while or else the behaviors would begin to fade.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?- How long will the system run? Are there different standards for different grades and or students? Is there any sort of punishment for students who do not participate?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?- Is there a limit on gold tickets? Will it be the same among all Waterloo schools
25) Terminology- behavioral class, elicit, emit, target behavior, reinforcer, positive reinforcement, topography, backup reinforcer, punishment
1) What is the program?
token economy poyner panther
2) How did it come about?
It came about as a district program for students in the Waterloo school district.
3). What are the behavioral classes they're trying to elicit?
Positive behaviors, being hones, being respectable to the teachers and fellow classmates.
4). What would be some specific target behaviors that they might want the children to emit?
finishing homework on time, raising their hand and waiting to be called on, no name calling
5). Is the system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6). Positive or negative
Positive reinforcement
7). What are the tokens used in the program?
Purple tickets can be eventually traded in for golden ticket
8). Pros: emitting behaviors
Cons: emitting negative behaviors
9). What is the delivery system?
If a child does something good they receive a purple paw
10). Pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
Pros: emitting certain behaviors that are more desirable than others
Cons: Teachers wont be able to catch all the good behaviors and reward all the children for their good behaviors.
11). How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tickets equals one golden ticket
12). Pros and cons
Pros: motivation to earn more tickets, results in more behaviors being emitted
Cons: not being able to properly keep track of how many students have how many tickets
13). What are the back up reinforcers?
students receive prizes at the end
14). How are the back up reinforcers choosen?
Staff and the program creators
15). Are they effective reinforcers?
Only considered to be effective if they can succeed at getting the students to emit behaviors
16). How do students gain access to reinforcers?
Students gain access by trading in their purple tickets for gold tickets
17). What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know that the system is effective?
However many purple tickets were handed out, and however many golden tickets were traded in
18). How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are doing a good job because the students are trading in their purple tickets for gold ones.
19). How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents?
Having an article in the school paper is an excellent idea because most parents read the newspaper.
20). How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
Some what effective since the teachers are in charge and they know that the system works
21). Is there a possiblilty of not everyone (Students, teachers, and parents) may not have completely buy in with the system?
Yes, especially if the child is only emitting certain beahviors at school and not at home.
22). What are some problems known to exist with token economies?
Teachers praisisng the children too much all the time.
23). What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?- How long will the system run?
Will the system eventually run for an entire school year, or eventually be tested on older student.
24). What are some additional information about the system youd like to know?
Could this program work on high school students
25). Terms used: reinforcement, behavior, positive, negative, punishment, emitting, reward,
1) What is this program?
It is a token economy put into place by the school. This program is designed to emit T.R.R.C.T which stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsibility, caring. The students that display T.R.R.C throughout the day will receive a purple paw ticket. Once they receive 10 tickets they can then trade them in for one golden ticket to receive a prize.
2) How did it come about?
This program was brought about by the Waterloo districts to become part of a Positive Behavior Intervention Systems.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness, and caring behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific behaviors they might want the children to emit would be for trustworthiness a behavior may be to not cheat. For respectfulness a specific behavior would be to play well with others. As for responsibility a specific behavior would be to do their homework and turn it in on time. And lastly for caring they could always include each and everyone in all activities and try to make everyone feel included.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because they are trying to increase the behaviors of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive reinforcement, because there is a reward given for the desired behavior.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The purple paw tickets
8.)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros would be the children demonstrating T.R.R.C behaviors in return for tokens. A con could be some students scamming the system and or stealing each other’s tokens.
9) What is the delivery system?
Students can receive a purple token in the cafeteria, playground, hallway, classrooms, and at assemblies if they emit T.R.R.C behaviors.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some children aren’t as outgoing and or quiet compared to other children. Some may misbehave all day and then only demonstrate one of the T.R.R.C behaviors when in one of the delivery systems.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Once a student receives 10 it can be turned in for a golden ticket in return for a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A positive is when a student is encouraged to emit good behavior for tickets. A con could be not receiving enough tokens for a prize in the end.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, extra computer time, lunch with a teacher or principal.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Backup reinforcers were choosen by the district to be found motivating to the children to want to emit the behaviors.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective to the student.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by collecting tickets and after 10 receiving a golden ticket. The golden ticket then allows them access to the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the outcome measures are observing students and their behavior, if the behavior problems decrease and a good behavior increases. Also by seeing how many tickets a student has.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators and teachers are all on the same page and effectively teaching the students about the system and observe each student.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The parents were informed about the system through a newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It did not talk much about this topic
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is always a possibility in any system that someone might not have complete buy in with the system. Some students just may not care about the rewards given therefore have no reinforcement for changing their behavior. Also some teachers may have favorites or not be fully into observing in the system. And also some parents might not believe in changing the behavior of their kids or the rewards that are given.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One of the biggest problems would be the kids loosing their tickets or kids fighting over them and stealing them from one another. It would be important for teachers to keep track of all of the tickets verses the kids to eliminate that problem arising.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
If the reinforcers aren’t working that well will they work on finding something that works better. Also are all the teachers really on the same page on what behavior they see really deserves a token.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Emit, behavior, reinforce, target behavior, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, token economy, eliminate.
1. This is a program that was put in place at Poyner Elementary to help the students learn to emit basic manners such as respect, caring, etc. It is a token economy and uses purple tickets that are then traded in for golden ones. These are then used to buy certain privileges or prizes.
2. The school put it into place to elicit positive responses from these students while learning good manners.
3. The behavioral classes that the are trying to bring about would be learning good manners.
4. Target behaviors that are being aimed for are showing caring, respect, and the like.
5. This system is based on a reinforcement because they are reinforced with the tickets to increase the behavior.
6. It is definitely positive reinforcement because it is the addition of something pleasurable.
7. The tokens used in this token economy are purple tickets that are traded in for golden tickets that are used to buy prizes.
8. One pro of this token is that it is cheap to get it so there is no financial burden on the school really. One con would be that the tokens are easily destroyed or lost.
9. If they are seen doing the target behaviors they are given a purple ticket by the staff.
10. A pro is that it allows staff to build a relationship with the kids. A con would be that the staff would not be able to see all the target behaviors being done so a kid may not be reinforced and will not do it more.
11. The student holds on to the purple tickets till he or she has ten then they redeem those for a golden ticket that they also hold on to until they buy their prizes.
12.Pro is that it teaches the kids to be responsible. By having to hold on to their own tickets it puts the power to receive or not to receive the reinforcer in their hands. Con of this is that elementary students are not very responsible they lose things all the time. This may lead to upset elementary students.
13. The back up reinforces are stuff like ice cream, popcorn, extra recess, extra computer time, lunch with principal and lead teacher, and helping the custodian.
14. These backup reinforces were chosen by the district probably after asking kids what they would like or just thinking about what kids enjoy from the experiences as a teacher.
15. Thinking back to when I was that age they would be very effective but just from that letter I can not say if they are effective or not.
16. They do actions like showing the target behaviors to receive tickets that they turn in for the reinforces.
17. They could measure the amount of purple/gold tickets that were handed out or turned in. They could also see how many children are picking the other backup reinforcers.
18. If they told the students what was in that letter then I think they did a pretty good job. The system is not that hard and I think they explained it well.
19. The letter they sent out to parents I thought was worded very well as to explain the system and what they should expect.
20. The system is not a hard one and if they taught all the teachers the same way then they did a good job because it should be pretty effective.
21. That is a possibility because some parents may not think that this is a good system to teach their kids so they may not tell their children to participate. Then some teachers may not believe this is the way to teach kids so they do not reinforce the kids like they should. Then some of the students may not want to participate, or they like being mean and that is more pleasurable then the rewards offered so they do not try.
22. The kids could steal or counterfeit the tickets to get more. They may also sell the tickets to each other for things like candy or money.
23. How will you tell if the kid is only turning in their own? What is to stop a kid from stealing them from others or making their own?
24. How long they plan to continue this. How consistent all the teachers are in rewarding the students.
Terms used-emit, token economy, elicit, positive, learning, behavioral classes, Target behaviors, reinforcement, increase, behavior, positive reinforcement, pleasurable, tokens, back up reinforcers
1) What is this program?
This program is called the Ponyar Panthers on TRRC which stands for being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. If students are seen using one or more of these qualities they receive a ticket which they can turn in for golden tickets and later get prizes.
2) How did it come about?
That year the waterloo school district had a district wide initiative which they called PBIS district. It stands for positive behavior intervention system.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to get the students to elicit behaviors of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring for others.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A specific target behavior they would want them to emit would be respecting the teacher by not talking back when he or she says it is time to come back inside for recess.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
It is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive reinforcement because they are adding something positive or pleasurable to the situation.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple and gold tickets are being used as tokens for this situation. One the student receives 10 purple tickets, they can trade them in for a gold one.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros are that children will want to participate because it sounds like a fun game therefore increase their behaviors of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
Cons are that these behaviors may go unseen and some students may not be rewarded with a ticket for doing a great behavior if no one is watching therefore this method is not very consistent.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is the faculty and staff of the school.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros are that the children will try to elicit behaviors of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and care for others when the staff are around.
The cons are when the staff isn’t around because these children will probably then be less willing to emit these behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Once the student receives 10 purple tickets they can trade them in for one gold ticket in order to earn prizes later.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
pros are the children will need to work for the prize and therefore will be more willing to elicit the behaviors needed in order to do that.
Cons are that these tickets can be easily stolen by other children causing them to act the opposite way of the behaviors the school is trying to reinforce.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Verbal rewards such as saying good job could be a reinforcer as well as the prizes they may receive towards the end.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
These backup reinforcers just come with the idea of the tickets and happen without any control.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are very effective because it encourages the students to keep emitting the behaviors.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They must emit the behaviors that are wanted by the school.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
If students are receiving tickets or not and if they have noticed an increase in those positive behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would say they are teaching them very effectively but should also go over it with them in class so the students know for sure what they need to do versus just having this information in a flyer.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I would say very effectively because the entire processed is discussed in the flyer for the parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Fairly effectively but should make sure the teachers know about it just incase they did not read it in the flyer.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, some people may not agree with this saying it will not be very effective. It just depends on the person and their beliefs.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One problem is that students have to wait in order to receive their prize because they must first get 10 purple tickets then trade those in for 1 gold ticket then get enough gold tickets in order to get their prize. This might be too much work for some students and therefore discourage them from emitting the appropriate behaviors. If instead, they were given reinforcement immediately then they would probably be more willing to elicit the behaviors wanted.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask them how they would all participate in order to create fairness and equality when passing out tickets. I would also ask them how they will determine whether or not the student has shown the behavior wanted.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know what specific behaviors they want the students to elicit because that makes a difference on whether or not they receive a ticket.
Terms: initiative, positive behavior, intervention, elicit, behaviors, emit, target behavior, positive reinforcement, delivery system, rewards, back up reinforcers
1) What is this program? This program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. This is a token economy that is occurring in the Waterloo School Districts. T.R.R.C. stands for trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring. Whenever a child is caught being one of these things, they receive a purple ticket. Once they receive ten purple tickets, they can trade it in for a GOLDEN ticket. Children collect as many golden tickets as possible and then trade them in to collect prizes.
2) How did it come about? It came about because the Waterloo School District is striving to become a PBIS District- Positive Behavior Interventions System. They want to become a stronger, safer, better school district as a whole.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and care.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Some target behaviors they may want the children to emit could cover any of the four behavioral classes. They want the students to be honest in their schoolwork, be respectful of those around them, be kind to the kids in their class, and turn in papers on time. They want kids to be prepared for class, raise their hand, clean up their messes, and not fight with others. They could also do things like holding the door open for others, playing with a child who is alone, speak up when they do not think something is right, and treat everyone with respect.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement. They are increasing the likelihood that the students will continue to do good behaviors by rewarding them with tickets.
6) Is it positive or negative? This is positive reinforcement. Pleasurable stimuli are being added by giving them tickets. Nothing is being taken away and no one is receiving any form of punishment.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? There are two different kind of tokens used in this program. Ten purple tickets must be collected to receive one golden ticket. Children collect golden tickets and save them for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? There are many pros for this system. Students are being encouraged to do good behaviors and are striving to better themselves. They will want to get tickets, so they will continue to do these good behaviors. They may even become habits. Some cons are that students might only want to do good things if they are going to get rewarded for it. They may become jealous of kids who have more tickets from them. Also, a student might do something great but go unnoticed for it and think that he is not as kind or respectful as his fellow classmates. Tickets could get misplaced or stolen from other classmates. It is possible that students could try to print their own tickets without the teachers noticing.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system is that teachers and faculty will pass out tickets to students they see doing things that line up with the T.R.R.C. goals.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Some pro’s are that children will feel proud of themselves when adults who they look up to are rewarding them for good behavior. Teachers are around the kids at almost all times, so they will be able to spot lots of good behavior. Some cons are that they may miss great behavior kids are emitting, or they may favor one kid over another.
11) How are the tokens banked? The tokens have a unique banking system. Children keep their purple tickets until they accumulate ten. Then, they turn it into a golden ticket. The golden ticket is traded in for an assortment of prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? The pros are that kids will be motivated to collect tickets because they know they will eventually receive a golden ticket. This will lead to them getting an awesome prize. Having a tangible ticket that they can keep with them will help them stay on track and stay focused on their goal. The cons is that it may take a while to accumulate ten tickets. Then, when they receive ten, they receive a golden ticket, but they still won’t receive any prizes. It may take quite a while to receive an award.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The backup reinforcers include things like receiving Sonic icecream cones, extra recess, movie popcorn, lunch with the principal, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? These backup reinforcers were chosen because they are desirable to children in elementary schools. There is enough variety in the prizes that each child will most likely find at least one of the available prizes desirable.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? I definitely think the reinforcers are effective. If I was in grade school, I would definitely find these reinforcers desirable. Besides the actual prizes, even receiving a golden ticket would be desirable. These reinforcers are high motivators for children!
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? Students gain access to the reinforcers by receiving them from teachers by showing good behavior, trading the purple tickets for a golden ticket, and using golden tickets to receive access to the reinforcement of prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Administrators can track the total number of tickets each student is receiving. They can compare this data throughout the semesters to see if behavior is improving. They can also weigh the negative effects of the new system to see if they outweigh the positive effects. They can do this by tracking what issues arise from this system.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? I think students understand they should exhibit good behavior, but they may be unsure which good behaviors will not be reinforced and which will. It may vary from teacher to teacher which could confuse the kids. Behaviors could be a bit more specific than just the guideline “T.R.R.C.”
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? I think the parents have a good understanding about what the system is being used for. However, they may not understand where the children trade in the ten purple tickets, or if a different amount of golden tickets are needed to receive different prizes.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? The teachers are informed, but they also may be unaware how often to give out tickets and for what exact behaviors they should reinforce. If one teacher reinforces something, but others do not, it could lead to conflict.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? This is definitely a possibility. Some kids may decide that receiving these tickets is “uncool” and try to get others to agree. This could ruin the whole point of the system. If some teachers do not agree with the system, certain children will receive less tickets and become discouraged. If parents disagree with the system, their children could be put in a tough spot. They will not know if they should accept the tickets or reject them.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Some problems that may exist are students giving away tickets, selling tickets, stealing tickets, making fun of the system, etc. Also, teachers may reinforce a behavior that other children also did, but those children will not get rewarded. This system could lead to feelings being hurt, kids being unfairly rewarded for certain behaviors, or children not receiving tickets when they should.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? I would ask if the teachers would know more specifics about which behaviors to reinforce. Also, I would ask if different prizes had different golden ticket values.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would want to know if there is a limit on how many prizes a child can receive.
25) Terms: token economy, intervention, behavior, behavioral class, elicit, target behaviors, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, pleasurable stimuli, tokens, backup reinforcers, reinforcers
1) This program is a system in which students are reinforced and encouraged to emit positive behaviors that are valued at the school and help students to learn better people skills. The program reinforces with prizes that the students can win, and overall it is a program that is helping to better students and better their school district.
2) This program came about through the school district as an initiative to help students demonstrate the character “pillars” or desirable traits that the school district decided they want the students and staff to focus on.
3) Behavioral classes that they want to elicit and have students emit are behaviors that are trustworthy, respectful to others, responsible, and caring. These classes can obviously consist of multiple types of behaviors that students can emit.
4) Some specific target behaviors might be opening doors for others, saying please and thank you, helping others that are in need, speaking nicely with others, and there are many other behaviors they could emit that would also fit the wanted behavioral classes.
5) This system is based on reinforcement, because something desirable, the purple paw tickets, are added and can be traded in for prizes. These tickets increase the likelihood that the elicited behaviors will occur in the future, which means the tickets are reinforcing.
6) This reinforcement is positive, because something pleasant, the tickets, are added, instead of something unpleasant being taken away. Otherwise, it would be negative reinforcement.
7) The tokens used in this program are the purple paw tickets, which can be traded in for golden tickets. The purple paw tickets are given to students that are caught performing the desired behaviors that have already been mentioned.
8) Some pros associated with these tokens are the facts that students can have something to work for by emitting wanted behaviors, the students can keep track of the tickets easily, the students can clearly understand what the tickets are used for, and they are simple and small tokens. Some cons are the facts that students could copy some tickets themselves at home if they really wanted to, they might stop caring about the tickets because they could just give up, and they could end up losing the tickets if they aren’t careful.
9) The tickets are delivered directly to students by teachers or other faculty that catch the students emitting the desired behaviors. There is no delay in delivery of the tokens.
10) The pros of the delivery system are: It is an instant delivery system and students do not have to wait and students get to see and touch the tickets that they get at the moment. It is a tangible reward that is instant. The cons are: a teacher could run out and not know what to do when they need to give students tickets and a teacher might not want to carry many tickets around to hand out.
11) The purple paw tickets can be held and saved until students have 10, and they can trade ten of those in for a golden ticket. They can save the golden tickets and purple paw tickets however they choose and save them until the purple paw tickets can be traded for gold tickets, and the gold tickets can be traded for prizes.
12) The cons of this banking system are: students might lose tickets before they get to trade them for golden tickets or prizes, and students might lose patience and give up before they gain enough purple tickets to hand them in for a gold one. The pros are: the students can learn the value of saving things, like their tickets, they can learn more about banking, trading, and math, and the tickets won’t be too bulky to save up in their desk or wallet.
13) The backup reinforcers are multiple different prizes that the students can gain by turning in their golden tickets. They can include ice cream, helping custodians, and other consequences that students enjoy.
14) The backup reinforcers were chosen based on what students enjoy doing. If students don’t find something pleasurable, like ice cream, then that would not be a good reinforcer to use. Reinforcers can be chosen based on what students enjoy doing already.
15) The backup reinforcers can be effective if they truly do increase the likelihood that the desired behaviors (following the traits that teachers want students to show when they emit their behavior at school) occur.
16) The students gain access to the reinforcing prizes by redeeming their golden tickets to their teachers or other faculty members. They redeem the tickets by handing them in after they have saved up enough purple tickets to gain golden tickets.
17) Some measures the administrators could use to determine if the system is working are measures of how many students go to “time out” or are punished for bad behaviors, how many tickets are given out and if that is increasing, and measuring how many prizes are given to students. They could also measure how many times student have to talk to faculty members about bad behavior or how many parents have to be called about bad behavior.
18) The administrators seem to be effectively teaching the students about the system, because it seems like the students are all aware, and now the parents are being told about it by the school. The students also have apparently been seen emitting desirable behaviors and been reinforced all over the school, which shows the teachers have explained and taught it well.
19) The administrators are teaching the parents about the system very effectively, because all the information that is necessary about the system is included in this letter home to the parents. They have taught the parents, why they’re doing it, what they hope to achieve, and how they are reinforcing the students desirable behavior. They have seemed very thorough about the way they taught the parents the system.
20) The administrators seemed to have taught the other teachers about the system well, because it sounds like students have already been reinforced with purple tickets many times throughout the school grounds. This shows that teachers are knowing how to reinforce the students and they are aware of what they are supposed to be looking for and encouraging on school grounds.
21) It is possible that not everyone will buy into the system. For example, teachers might not feel like taking the time to reinforce students, or they might not think it is effective enough that it is worth doing. Students might not care enough to actually pursue the prizes, so they might ignore the situation completely. Some parents could forget about it or ignore it because they might not notice a difference in their child’s behavior, so they will not pay attention to the program or encourage their child.
22) Some problems with token economies that could exist here are problems such as students copying their tickets to duplicate them and cheat the system. Also, people might get discouraged by the fact that they are not as wealthy with tokens as others, and this could cause them to act out, or to just give up altogether on the program. Also, the reinforcements might not be implemented and applied for multiple reasons, and this could cause students to act out or stop emitting the desired behaviors all together. Also, the setting might change for students, and this could cause them to stop emitting the respectful behaviors. This could be because of the fact that they can learn to only emit the behaviors when they’re reinforced, and they could stop carrying out the behaviors in other environments and contexts outside of the school.
23) I might ask the administrators some questions, such as how long will this program be happening? Have any programs like this been used in the past at the school? Who came up with the prizes to use?
24) I would want to know about what research they did to decide on this system? I would also want to know if all administrators and faculty are able to be involved in this system and if the bus stops throughout the community are included in locations where students can be reinforced.
25) Terminology: punishment, reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, elicited, emit, tokens, token economy, encouraging, desired, unpleasant, behaviors, environments, contexts, effective, pros and cons, banking, delivery.
1. A token economy is a program where you add a monetary like token that reinforces desired behaviors, and then can be used to exchange for desirables. This was introduced to Poyner school in Evansdale in order to focus on and enhance more desirable behaviors out of the children.
2. It came about because there was a push for all Waterloo schools to become more of an advocate for more desired children’s behaviors. This was just one school in Evansdale’s idea on how to accomplish just that.
3. trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring
4. The bahaviors they would like the children to emit would go hand in hand with the behavioral classes. Being honest, not talking out of turn, putting toys and winter clothes away properly, and including everyone in projects or during play.
5. reinforcement
6. positive
7. purple and gold tickets and you ultimately want as many golds as possible
8. pros to these tickets would be that they are cheap to make, there are only two so they are not confusing to the children, and they wouldn’t be hard to keep track of.
Cons would be that they could be replicated pretty easily, possible damage to the token could occur, and you may have kids stealing them
9. a child elicits a teacher into giving them a ticket by performing one of the target behaviors and then the teacher gives the child a ticket
10. pros this would possibly get the children to act better without a teacher around because they feel there might be one around. Definitely get them behaving better with teachers around
cons A kid could experience extinction of a desired behavior if they are constantly performing it but aren’t being rewarded at a regular rate or at all.
11. I believe the child is responsible for their own tickets, and then they can redeem them at any point in time
12. pros allows the kids who are short term minded to keep being reinforced with smaller reinforcers andlong term minded to get a larger one. Gives the children a chance to practice their responsibility of keeping track of their own tickets, and also to practice trustworthiness that they aren’t stealing other kids or lying that they lost any
Cons kids may try to beat the system and get undeserved tokens out of teachers. Kids who don’t have the best organizational skills may end up losing them.
13. anything that the child can exchange their tickets in for
14. The staff came up with reinforcers that were aimed at pleasing children and that they felt would get the highest rates of target behaviors within reason
15. they allow the kid to eat something desirable, have fun in some way, or feel special by spending time with adults
16. trade in tickets
17. by recording a baseline of the target behaviors before you administer the program and then compare the results after the program starts for the same duration
18. since there are positive results and there is adequate information being presented to them then I would say quite well
19. as long as the parents get the point then I believe they are being informed good enough and they only need to be advocates anyways
20. teachers seem to be well informed as they are on board with the program
21. for sure, since this is school related there will always be the crowd who is too good for it and there are teachers out there who are only in it to collect the paycheck
22. I think one of the bigger problems is going to that the kids will not be getting rewarded at a high rate because the teachers won’t be around them a majority of the time and you will also have the kids who just look for stuff to do when the teacher is around and won’t care any other time
23. until what age do you believe this program would be effective? At what age do you think it’ll be the most effective? Could you run something like this at the high school level?
24. I would like to simply know what percentage does the target behaviors go up because if it is significant the entire country should be adopting it.
25. terms: Reinforced, desired behaviors, emit, behavioral class, elicit, target behavior, extinction, baseline
1) What is this program?
The program is a token economy which is referred to as Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. The program is aimed at reinforcing positive behaviors that are emitted by the children. The program is targeting behaviors of trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring. As the children emit these target behaviors they earn purple paw tickets and as they earn 10 purple paws they can exchange those for golden tickets. The students can then save their golden tickets and exchanges those for other prizes.
2) How did it come about?
Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C came about as a school district initiative. The school district wanted students to demonstrate the character pillars or behaviors that the deemed were important. The system focuses on reinforcing the students when they demonstrate these pillars.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes that the school district wants their students to emit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility and caring for others.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors of the different behavioral classes would be telling the truth, keeping hands and feet to self, talking when called on, raising hands, and helping other students with homework. There are several other target behaviors that could fit into these behavioral classes however these are a few examples.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcing target behaviors, because the target behaviors are being increased.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system is focused on positive reinforcement, because a desirable consequence is being added to the situation therefore increasing the likelihood of the behavior.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens for this program are the purple paws that students receive when they display the target behaviors. These purple paws can then be exchanged for another token which is a golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro is that the paws/tickets are something tangible. The students have something physical to show for their hard work and it gives students a sense of purpose. A con to this is that since it is something physical, students can easily loose the sheets of paper. Another pro is that the tokens have a clear purpose and the students will be able to easily understand the token economy. A con however is that these tokens could easily be replicated by students who want to cheat the system. Another con to this system could be that student’s interest in the system dissipates early. Since there are several steps to getting a prize, some students may not want to put that much effort in or the activity may lose their interest.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is the tickets being directly given to students by teachers and other faculty for the behaviors that they emit. There is no delay in the delivery.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pro for this type of delivery system is that students get instant satisfaction because the tickets/paws are awarded right on the spot. The students get the token instantly and have something tangible. A con to this system could be that a teacher runs out of tickets/paws to give out. Another con could be that students do things but the teacher is not around to see their behavior. Another con could be that the students become extrinsically motivated meaning they only emit the target behaviors when they know the teacher is watching to receive the reward.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are saved until the student has received 10 purple paws. Once the student has received 10 purple paws they are able to receive a golden ticket. Once the students earn golden tickets they are then able to exchange those for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro to this type of system is that children have to engage in the target behaviors several times in order to receive the prize which will hopefully increase the target behaviors. A con could be that since the students have to emit the behaviors several times that the students will lose interest in the economy and stop participating. Another con is that students have to carry around or keep track of several purple paws which could result in students losing their purple paws.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, lunch with the principle, a bag of movie theater popcorn, extra computer time and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The back-up reinforcers were chosen based on things that the school district believed that students like to do. The back-up reinforcers were chosen in order to motivate the students.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The reinforcers can be effective because the students can choose which prize they would like. By allowing students to choose the prize then the students are more likely to be motivated because they like the prizes at the end.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by earning golden tickets from teachers and other faculty. They earn golden tickets by earning 10 purple paws from teachers and faculty. The students can then exchange the golden tickets in for the prizes they want.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
One outcome measure is comparing the number of golden tickets that are being given out over time. If the number of golden tickets given out are increasing then that is evidence that the system is being effective. Another outcome measure could be looking at the number of times students have gotten in trouble. The way to determine this could be looking at the number of detentions given out. If the number of detentions have decreased then this could also be evidence that the system is effective.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It appears that the administrators are teaching the students well about the system. The children appear to have been told about the system and are being reinforced all throughout school so that the system is consistent. The administration is also telling the parents and telling them to remind their students. This means that the students are being reminded about the token economy from several different sources.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
It appears that the administration is teaching the parents well about the system as well. By including information about the system in the newspaper the parents are able to learn what the system is and what it is about. The information also stands out on the newspaper to ensure that the parents read it. The information included in the newspaper is also very detailed, explaining the system and what the target behaviors are and what the reinforcers are.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It appears that the administration has taught their staff well about the system. The newspaper states that it is a school district initiative meaning that all the teachers within the district are involved. Also the newspaper includes that the students are being reinforced all throughout school meaning that all faculty is being involved.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There could be a possibility that not everyone buys into the system. Some students may not be interested in the prizes or the target behaviors and therefore would not be invested in the system. Some teachers may also not be consistent with reinforcing the target behaviors. Teachers may also feel like they have other things they want to teach their students and may not reinforce the same as other teachers. Parents may also forget or not care about the program. If parents are not on board then that can affect their children’s success in the program. Some parents may not read the newspaper and not know anything about the program as well.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One problem is that students may try and replicate the tokens and try to cheat the system. Another problem is that students may feel less motivated to participate in the program because it takes so long to receive prizes. The students may also feel less motivated because they have less tokens then others students. Another problem could be consistency. If the target behaviors are not well defined then teachers may be reinforcing differently. Some teachers may reinforce for certain behaviors and others may not which could confuse the students. Another problem is that students could become extrinsically motivated rather than intrinsically. The students could only be changing their behavior to receive the prizes rather than learning that the behaviors are good.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask the administration how long the system would be in place. I would also ask them how they are going to tapper the program away so that the students do not become reliant on the program. I would also ask if they have other options for prizes if those do not motivate certain students. I would also ask if they knew if similar systems have been in place in different schools and if they are successful there.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know if students were going to be limited for the number of prizes they can earn. I would also like to know that they have planned if students being copying or stealing other student’s tickets/paws.
TERMS: token economy, reinforcement, emit, target behaviors, behavioral class, elicit, positive reinforcement, delivery system, extrinsically motivated, tokens, back-up reinforcers, reinforcer, consistency, intrinsically motivated
1) What is this program? This is a news letter that is a reinforcement to encourage parents to do a bunch of things for the school before school ends
2) How did it come about? School is coming to an end so they needed to inform the parents on a bunch of upcoming things
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to encourage the parents to get involved, support their children, be prepared, attend school events, and pay any remaining charges
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? giving news letter to parents, reading this summer, be prepared for activities
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? Both
7) What are the tokens used in this program? Invitations and threats
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? The invitations positively reinforce parents to head to the school and watch their children receive rewards, find out what going to happen, be a part of decisions. The threats negatively reinforce parents to check their child’s lunch account and closets for extra or missing items
9) What is the delivery system? A news letter sent home with child
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? It’s a cheap easy delivery system is a pro. The cons are that the children may not take the letter home to parent, parents may not read the letter
11) How are the tokens banked? ????
12) What are the pro's and con's? ????
13) What are the back up reinforcers? In the lunch section they said negative accounts will receive a cheese sandwich and reading to your child will help them succeed in the intro part of the letter
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? They wanted to use information that would make the parents aware of the consequence so they tried to explain the outcomes
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? By their parents participation
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? How many parents show up to the events they promoted, how many students have no money in their lunch account, how many items are left in the lost and found at the end of the year, the childs reading level the next schools year
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? poor because the children really don’t get told what is happening by the letter being sent to their parents
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? great, they are being really informative in all aspects
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? good
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes they may not receive the letter
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? people may not receive the letter or care about the threats or invitation (reinforcers)
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? how effective it is, is there a better system, he thought process that went into it
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? What is the target behavior they are trying to get by their system
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcement, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcent, target behavior
1) What is this program? It is a token economy called T.R.R.C. used to increase positive behaviors in the students.
2) How did it come about? It is a behavior system used to elicit the character pillars in the students that are important to the school.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to elicit behaviors that coincide with the trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring pillars of character.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? They want the children to emit respect and care towards others.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative? It is positive reinforcement because they are adding a pleasurable thing instead of taking something away.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used are purple and gold tickets. 10 purple equals 1 gold.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Pros: Elicit good behaviors in the children. Con: Positive behaviors may only be elicited at school and not in other settings.
9) What is the delivery system? Delivery system is when the child is seen doing something good they receive a ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Pro: The teachers are in charge of the distribution so it should remain fair. Con: Teachers may not see all behaviors elicited.
11) How are the tokens banked? 10 purple tickets can be exchanged for 1 gold ticket which are then exchanged for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? Pros: Students aren’t satiated right away, Con: students may get frustrated and stop trying to earn tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The prizes they earn are the reinforcers.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? They chose things that appeal to the students.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? I would say yes, since students seem to enjoy them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? By earning tickets for their behaviors that are positive.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The students no longer need the reinforcers to elicit the behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? It is hard to tell from the little blurb in the news letter.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? They have informed the parents but it is hard to tell the extent.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? I am assuming the teachers know about the program in details.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes, some may be skeptical that it will work.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Students who do not receive tokens as often may act out or get discouraged.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? Is it a year round program? Who has final say in prizes? How many tickets a day?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: elicit, emit, behavior, target, token, token economy, reinforcers, positive reinforcement
1) The program is called “Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.” The program was developed for the Waterloo school district to become a Positive Behavior Interventions System (PBIS) and focuses on students being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring.
2) The Waterloo school district began this district-wide initiative to reinforce positive behaviors in students. Poyner Elementary then created “Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.” as a system to reinforce the elementary students behaviors.
3) Their are four specific behavioral classes they are trying to elicit: trustworthy, responsible, respectful and caring behaviors.
4) Some specific target behaviors the school faculty may want the students to emit may be turning in homework on time, completing classroom responsibilities, raising their hand, not budging in line, saying please and thank you, taking turns, etc.
5) This system in based on reinforcement.
6) It is positive reinforcement, because when the children emits a target behavior they are given a reward.
7) The tokens used in this program are purple paw tickets. For every 10 purple paw tickets the student can then exchange them for a golden ticket.
8) A pro to using this form of token is that it resembles currency. It can act as a way to teach the children a more simple way of understanding money and its value and uses. A golden ticket is typically viewed as more exciting and special, they know about gold medals and the golden ticket in the popular children's novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” A con to using this specific token is that children may lose the tickets if they aren't kept some place safe. They could also be stolen from their peers or traded and shared among one another.
9) The delivery system is solely based on a faculty member witnessing students emitting the target behaviors. This can happen anywhere and at anytime during school. When a faculty member sees a student emitting a desired behavior they given them a purple ticket.
10) A pro is that students are aware that both their desirable and aversive behaviors are being watched by the adults at the school. This gives them more of an incentive to be good during all times during the school day. A con to the behavior is that teachers don't know who is giving out what tickets, a student could be rewarded twice for the same behavior and then not at all later on if no one saw them. A student could also continually emit the target behaviors to keep receiving a ticket. Also how each teacher is defining the behaviors becomes complicated, what one teacher might reward with a ticket, another teacher may not.
11) The tokens are held on to by the students. The newsletter did not mention anything about the teachers keeping track of how many tickets each child received.
12) Some of the pros to the students keeping track of their own tickets is that they are able to learn how to be responsible in holding on to them and not losing them. It is also useful because students will always know how many tickets they have. A con might be that the students lose them, keep them in their pocket and they get washed, or students begin trading and stealing tickets. The teachers don't have a way to keep tracks of how many tickets each student should have.
13) The back up reinforcers include a Sonic ice cream cone, a bag of popcorn, extra recess, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, helping the custodian and extra computer time.
14) The students are able to trade in golden tickets for a back up reinforcer of their choice. In order to receive the back up reinforcer the student must have saved up enough golden tickets to trade them in for a prize.
15) Although not discussed in the newsletter my assumption is that the back up reinforcers were selected based on surveys of the students, what they would want to be reinforced with. Therefore, based on popular demand I'm sure they are effective reinforcers for the students, it is also useful that there's a variety of back up reinforcers that could be desirable to a wide variety of student personalities.
16) They first have to save up enough golden tickets, they earn one for every 10 purple paw ticket. Depending on the prize, one might cost more or less golden tickets. Again not mentioned, there is likely a table set up in the school at times during the week that the students are able to trade in their golden tickets. They perhaps might need to go to the office and trade them in. The school then gives them their prize or sets up the time and day that they could receive their prize.
17) They can measure how many purple paws they are handing out to each student, by having teachers keep a record of which students get purple tickets each day. They can then count how many times purple paw tickets are traded in for golden tickets. Finally, they can measure how many students are trading in golden tickets for prizes each week. Ultimately, it comes down to whether the faculty can see a difference in the students behaviors after some time has passed after beginning this token economy and compare it to the baseline.
18) It appears that the administrators are effective in teaching the students about the system. In the newsletter it is mentioned that they are finding the behaviors everywhere, indicating that the students are aware of the behaviors that are expected from them to earn a purple paw ticket. I think it is also useful that they mention the program to the parents so that they can also encourage the target behaviors at home as well.
19) Like mentioned previously, they are effectively teaching the parents about the system by mentioning it in the school's newsletter. Something they could do to increase it effectiveness would be developing a report of the purple paw tickets that each student receives, then send it to the parents each week. Administrators encourage the parents to talk about the system with their child at home, and the parents can decide if they also want to develop a similar system in their home.
20) If the teachers are finding target behaviors worthy of a ticket in all places it would appear that they have effectively taught the teachers. However, I might say if students are constantly getting tickets, it may become the case that teachers are too lenient and may need to redefine the target behaviors that they are looking for.
21) Yes, not everyone may buy into the system, especially those who believe that punishment is a more effective route for getting desired behaviors out of students. This could go for both teachers and parents. The students might also not buy into it and not be satisfied with the prizes they can trade golden tickets in for. As a result, they might not change their behavior at all or become worse if they feel there won't be any punishment.
22) As ridiculous as it may sound, a version of a black market might develop for students wanting to get more tickets, they could trade things, or have competitions to get themselves more tickets. The prizes might not intrigue the students enough to change their behaviors. There is no mention of a tracking system for the tickets that would prevent trading from occurring. Also clear definitions would need to be put in place so teachers know exactly what behaviors they are going to reinforce. Something that may become an issue would be a student getting 30 tickets in a day and another getting none for several days. For example the quiet kids are less likely to be seen when emitting a target behavior. I know this from experience because I was the same way, my behaviors were noticed less and I typically gave up on any form of a token system.
23) Potential questions might be: Is there any way that you are going to keep track of purple paw tickets? When can the students redeem their golden tickets for prizes? How are you going to make sure students don't steal or trade tickets? How are you going to prevent students from losing tickets? What are ways to ensure tickets are fairly distributed? What target behaviors are you trying to get the children to elicit? If the prizes aren't reinforcing to some students, what would you consider adding to the list?
24) I would want to know for what age group this system is going to be targeting. As well as how long they plan to keep the system in place. There is a chance that students could become bored with the reinforcement and extinction may set in. What are ways of preventing this. Perhaps only applying it to certain classes, and changing the prizes from grade to grade. My interpretation is that after some time students will grow bored of trying to earn tickets for ice cream cones.
Terms: Positive Behaviors, Reinforce, Behavioral Classes, Elicit, Target Behaviors, Emit, Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Token Economy, Desirable, Aversive, Back Up Reinforcers, Baseline, Punishment, Extinction.
1) What is this program?
The program is a token economy. It is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (pronounced Track). This program is designed to increase positive behavior in elementary students.
2) How did it come about?
Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. came about by a Waterloo district-wide positive behavior program. The point is to assist in elementary students emitting more positive, respectful behavior.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes the district is trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
One specific target behavior they would want the students to emit would be staying to the right when walking down the hallway. Another could be that the students be nice to one another while they’re eating lunch in the cafeteria. Another target behavior could be that the students complete their homework on time.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement as it involves the addition of something desirable, which would be receiving purple paw tickets.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is a form of positive reinforcement as the students receive these purple paw tickets when they do something the school’s staff wants them to do.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple paw tickets. When a student receives ten of these purple paw tickets, they can exchange them for a golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be used in exchange for a prize.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using
these tokens?
A pro using this system would be rewarding the students for their good behavior. Another pro would be that there are many steps that need to be taken in order to get their prize. They have to work to get their prize. It makes it so that the behavior isn’t being emitted solely to get their prize. A con would be that it could turn into a competition among the students, which could cause jealousy and animosity. Another con would be that students are emitting better behaviors while they’re at school than at home. This could be due to them not receiving the purple paw tickets while they’re at home. If this was the case, the school could become a discriminative stimulus.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is organized by the school’s staff. It’s up to that school staff to determine when a student’s behavior garners a purple paw ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of the system is that the purple paw tickets can be passed out by any of the school’s staff. This makes it easier for the positive reinforcement to be reinforced at the moment of the behavior, which will help the student understand what particular behavior caused them to receive a ticket. Another pro with this system is that the students are able to track their progress. A con would be that all positive behaviors won’t be noticed. If a particular student has many positive behaviors go unnoticed, they may give up on trying to get tickets, thus giving up on emitting positive behaviors. Another con would be that the school staff would have differences in what behaviors would ultimately earn a ticket.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by the students.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro of this would be that the students are allowed to be responsible for taking care of and handling their own tickets. Another pro would be that the school’s staff wouldn’t have to track the number of tickets each student has. A con would be that students could simply just make copies of their tickets. Another con could be that the students will essentially give up on the system if they think they’ve earned enough tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are an ice cream cone, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the janitor.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It’s not really said how the backup reinforcers were chosen, but it’s very likely that the Waterloo School District administrators responsible for coming up with this program chose these items.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think there’s a very good chance these would be effective reinforcers. I think they chose enough of them to where it would be able to reach all of the different children’s interests. These things may not seem like a lot, but one of the best things about children is that it doesn’t take much to please them. These prizes seem like they would definitely intrigue the children and cause them to try hard to emit positive behaviors.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They gain access to the reinforcers by emitting the different target behaviors. When they get enough purple tickets, they can trade them in for a golden ticket. They can then trade the golden ticket for whichever reinforcer they choose.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measurements can be logged by the administrators responsible for this system. They can keep track of how many purple tickets are handed out, and then how many of which are exchanged for golden tickets. Another thing they can do is log which reinforers the students pick to gauge the most popular choices.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think the administration is doing very well teaching the students about the program, or at least seem to be doing very well. Positive behaviors are being noticed everywhere in the school. Behaviors are being noticed in the hallway, cafeteria, on the playground, in their classrooms, and during assemblies.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Besides this little piece in the school newsletter, it doesn’t seem like the administrators mentioned this system to the parents. Since this was in the May newsletter, it seems likely this could have been going on during the entire year without the parents having an idea of it. This may have been the school’s goal though, so the parents couldn’t influence their child’s behavior. They wanted the children to emit the behavior on their own.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The administrators did a very good job teaching all of the teachers about the system. It was very important they did since the teachers were responsible for giving out the purple tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There’s definitely a possibility that some of the students don’t buy in to the system. Some students simply might not care about the prizes, so they won’t go out of their way to emit positive behaviors. Also, some teachers might not buy in to the system. They may think that their job is to just teach the students, and that watching for good behaviors to hand out tickets isn’t a part of their job description.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One glaring problem is that the students are responsible for handling their own tickets, which obviously increases the chance the tickets get lost since they have to hold on to them for long periods of time. Also, getting to ten purple tickets could take a long time, and the students might just say “forget it” and stop trying to emit the positive behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Some of my questions would include: Did you inform the parents about this before the school year? If not, did it just slip through the cracks, or did you have a specific reason for not telling them? How did you go about informing the teachers and students about the system? Was there ever any talk about taking away tickets for negative behaviors?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know how successful this system was a whole. Was this a new system, or has it been used for years? Also, I’d like to know if there were any grades that it worked better for. For instance, did it work better for 2nd graders than for 5th graders?
25) Terms: token economy, positive behavior, behavioral class, elicit, target behavior, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, behavior, delivery system, reinforcer, back-up reinforcer, outcome measurements
1) What is this program? - A token economy system called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about? – The Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. came about because their school district has a district-wide initiative of being a Positive Behavior Interventions System this year.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? - They are trying to elicit students to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? - Some target behaviors they might want the children to emit would be to demonstrate the character pillars; for example a target behavior of a student raising their hand and waiting to be called on before answering would be respectful.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? - This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative? - It is positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? - Purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? - A pro of these tokens are that they are inexpensive so not much is lost is students misplace them. A con of these tokens could be that they can be easily counterfeited or traded/given to other students.
9) What is the delivery system? – Students are handed a purple paw ticket anytime they are seen be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? - A pro is that students will be likely to obtain a lot of purple paw tickets since the target behaviors are somewhat broad. Students could be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and/or caring in a lot of different ways. A con is that students may not be seen performing these target behaviors, especially if there is only one teacher per many students.
11) How are the tokens banked? – Once a student receives 10 purple paw tickets then they can trade them in for one golden ticket. The golden tickets are saved and then can be traded in for various prizes; a few of them being extra recess time, extra computer time, and lunch with the principal.
12) What are the pro's and con's? - The pros could be that the prizes have no cost/are inexpensive and the con could be that it doesn’t explain how the teacher keeps track of how many tickets students have so they could easily trade tickets with other students for things of their own.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? - It doesn’t explain it having any back up reinforcers. I think a good way to make back up reinforcers for this token economy would be to have the students be able to trade in half (5) of their purple paw print tokens to obtain a smaller prize than what is offered by a golden ticket.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? – N/A. But I explained what could be done above ^.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? – In the scenario that I provided above, I believe they would be effective reinforcers. If some students aren’t patient enough to obtain 10 purple paw tickets and trade them in for a golden ticket then they can trade in 5 purple paw tickets for a smaller prize than what is offered by a golden ticket.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? – All that it says on this is that the purple paw tickets are traded in for a golden ticket and then the golden tickets are traded in for prizes. I assume that they just give them to their teacher when they have the needed amount of tickets collected.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? – The administrators would keep track of how many times each student obtains a purple paw ticket and how often they obtain a golden ticket.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? – The method they are using is pretty effective. If the students want the prizes then they will keep emitting the target behaviors.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? – They are teaching the parents about the system pretty effectively through the Poyner Elementary newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? – For the most part, it has taught the other teacher (me) about this system fairly well.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? – With the Purple Paw Tokens, it is only students who receive the tokens and the teachers administer them. So the parents are the only ones who won’t have buy in with the system.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? – There are no backup reinforcers listed so that is a problem. Additionally, students may be able to counterfeit the tickets and/or trade tickets with other students. Also, students could hoard tickets and then start to not perform the character pillar target behaviors because they are waiting to use their gold ticket and then be back to a baseline and start performing target behaviors again.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? - A question I would have for the administrator of this system would be, “Might it be a good idea to set an expiration date on the tickets to use them for prizes/rewards?”
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? – When a student performs one of the target behaviors of the character pillars, does it mention on the purple paw ticket which one the student performed- trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, or caring?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terminology used: Token economy, elicit, target behavior, reinforcement, punishment, delivery system, emit, baseline, reinforcers, reward, backup reinforcers.
1) This program is a token economy trying to elicit good character qualities in children within the Waterloo school district
2) Waterloo school district has a district-wide initiative as Positive Behavior Intervention System District called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
3) The schools are trying to elicit positive behaviors that are Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.
4) Some target behaviors could include following through with promise, saying please and thank you, completing homework on time, or complimenting another student.
5) Reinforcement because they are trying to increase behaviors
6) This is an example of positive reinforcement because they are increasing behavior by adding something desirable (tickets and prizes)
7) The tokens used are gold and purple tickets
8) One pro about using the tokens is that they become reinforcing all by themselves. It feels good to receive a ticket and it feels good to see them adding up. The tickets are also easy to dispense, difficult to counterfeit, and safe to use. One potential con of these tickets is bullying. Students may steel tokens from other students or they may destroy tickets that others have earned. The tickets are also easy to loose, especially for a child.
9) From what the article said, I am assuming the teachers are distributing the tickets.
10) A pro of this delivery system is that the teacher can make sure the tickets are being distributed fairly. A potential con of this system is that some teachers may be more generous with the tickets than the others. Students in one class may be receiving way more tickets than students from another.
11) From the article, it appears that the students keep their own tickets as a banking system.
12) This system is much easier than having the teachers keep track of all the tickets. With a lot of students, it would be hard for the teachers to keep an accurate count. However, the students may loose their tickets or other students may take it away from them.
13) The backup rienforcers consist of a range of prizes including sonic ice cream cones, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) Students are reinforced with a purple ticket every time they emit the desirable behavior. Ten purple tickets are exchanged for one golden ticket, and these golden tickets can the traded for prizes.
15) I believe that these will be effective rienforcers because they are all things that kids enjoy and will make them feel special. They are also either free or relatively inexpensive.
16) Students must elicit acts that are Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.
17) Administrators could measure the baseline of the target behaviors and then graph how the behavior increases as the behavior intervention is applied.
18) The article does not really say how they told the students about the program. Telling the parents, however, is a good way to have another source of encouragement.
19) I think the article was a good way to inform the parents. It described the target behavior, the tokens, the rienforcers, and the backup up rienforcers.
20) The article does not say how well the administrators told the teachers about the system. The teachers could be very well informed, but they also may not be.
21) There is always a possibility that someone will not buy into the system. I think that the program they have set up is very well thought up. If I were to guess, I would say that it would be very effective.
22) It is possible that they kid will get reinforced too much or not enough. If they get the prize too quickly, it will not be as reinforcing. If the do not get it quick enough, they may loose interest and give up.
23) I would want to ask the administrators why they decided ten purple tickets would be enough for a gold one and how they decided how many gold tickets the prizes were worth. I would also want to know what these tickets looked like so I new they were not easily counterfeit. Also, how well do the students and teachers know about the program? Was the program explained well enough?
24) What are the specific target behaviors they are looking for? What is the baseline? Do the tickets expire?
Terms: token economy, elicit, target behaviors, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, tokens, banking system, backup rienforcers, reinforced, emit, rienforcers, baseline, behavior intervention
1) This a positive behavior intervention system that reinforces children to be on “TRRC” or to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
2) The district adopted this PBIS to reinforce positive behaviors.
3) The behavioral class that is trying to be elicited is good behavior in general- trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, and caring.
4) Turning in homework on time, reading for fun, listening to the teacher, raising your hand before speaking during class, sharing a toy, spending time with the “new kid”, etc.
5) This system is definitely based on reinforcement because these “rewards” increase the likelihood of the behavior happening again.
6) Positive reinforcement because it increases the likelihood of the behavior happening again through the use of a non-aversive reinforcer.
7) The tokens used are purple paw tickets.
8) Pros: they’re easily identifiable, they’re cheap and easy to make, they’re likely to elicit the target behaviors of some children. Cons: they’re easy to lose because they’re just paper, they have potential to not be salient anywhere else but in the school setting because it sets the tone for a discriminate stimulus.
9) The delivery system is a system that uses continuous reinforcement of the target behaviors- purple tickets with the fixed ratio reinforcement of the golden tickets- Then the golden tickets are then exchanged for the reinforcers. Each reinforcer is worth a specific number of golden tickets.
10) There are going to be kids that absolutely love this token economy and will benefit immensely from the positive reinforcement. It also does not involve any type of punishment, so this whole system is strictly positive reinforcement. So, there is not going to be anyone who gets hurt or punished for any behaviors that they aren’t displaying. That’s super important. It does require a little extra thought just because the fixed ratios have to be reasonable and the reinforcer cost do too. There should be some extra attention paid to the satiability of the reinforcers.
11) Ten purple paw tickets= one golden ticket. Golden tickets can be saved up and traded in for prizes.
12) Again, it’s definitely going to be really beneficial for a lot of kids. There are going to be lots of kids that are very satisfied and continue to emit these positive behaviors. A problem, though, is that it might extinguish some of the behaviors in kids that don’t have as many tickets or don’t seem to get rewarded a lot. They might, instead of trying harder to get the tickets, give up completely.
13) The back up reinforcers are prizes such as 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) Hopefully they were determined by first determining what effectively reinforced the children, or what they really like to do from the start.
15) Their effectiveness is very much situational/subjective and depends on what kind of kids you’re dealing with. Essentially, if the children don’t work for the tickets, then the reinforcers aren’t good enough.
16) The golden tickets are traded in. So, I’m sure there was a set up for when the kids could redeem their tickets.
17) Taking a baseline measurement of the behaviors at the start would be important, first off. Then, there should be measure of how many purple tickets are given out and how many golden tickets are traded in for reinforcers. This could be a weekly tally, or something totally different. It kind of depends on what kind of schedule the administrators want to see.
18) That’s kind of hard to answer, seeing as there isn’t any information about that, but hopefully there is an explanation in each classroom or even a little pep rally about the system.
19) I think that putting this in with the rest of a newsletter is good… kind of. I am not sure how many parents would really really read this, since it is sent out with a lot of other information, this might get skimmed over. This might need to be a separate newsletter itself.
20) Again, kind of hard to tell. But, I think we get a little indication that the administrators have explained it well because it says that students are being caught everywhere, which gives indication that the teachers know what’s up.
21) Yes, but I think that is kind of a phenomena that comes with every single token economy and every single idea, really. There is always a critic and there are always going to be individuals that don’t agree or don’t buy in. Still, I don’t think that gives reason not to use this system.
22) This could create a discriminate stimulus, the kids could become satiated as time goes by, and the reinforcers might not reinforce well enough.
23) How well did the teachers learn about this and how well did they apply it? How were the children taught about this system?
24) In general, how effective was this system and in what ways did they have to modify it to make it work better?
TERMS: Behavioral class, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, elicit, target behavior, salient, discriminate stimulus, fixed ratio reinforcement, token economy, punishment, satiate, emit, extinguish, and baseline.
1) What is this program?
It is a program based on students displaying and being trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring. Students that are seen showing these character pillars will be given a purple paw ticket.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District has a district –wide initiative being a PBIS district (positive behavior interventions system); where they then focus on the character pillars such as trustworthy, respect, responsibility, and caring.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They simply just want their kids to start behaving correctly and showing 3 of the character pillars; trustworthy, respect, and responsibility.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Being nice to others, helping others out when they need help with something, saying nice things, not lying etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
It is based on reinforcement because they are receiving tickets that can be then turned in for 1 golden ticket after having 10 purple ones and those golden tickets can then be used for prizes and goodies.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program would have to be the purple panther tickets that they receive when showing the good behavior.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: Kids get a sense of what “money” is like and how it can be earned and traded for different things they want. Kids can show how respectful they are and how they are learning these traits.
Cons: Kids could take other kids tickets and say that they are theirs (not being trustworthy).
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system for them would be for everything that a teacher sees that is a part of the character system the student is then rewarded with 1 ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: Kids get 1 ticket every time a teacher sees them acting appropriately.
Cons: Sometimes the teacher may not see every action and the student then would not be praised for their actions.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are kept with the children to begin growing their pile of purple tickets.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: teaches kids how to be responsible for their things
Cons: kids can easily lose them especially when they are in elementary school or young children like 1st or 2nd grade, or the tickets can be left at home when they need to trade them in for the 1 gold ticket.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers were the ice cream, lunches with the professor etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
These were chosen based upon the children’s interests and likes.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, they are.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They gain access to these reinforcers by collecting the purple tickets and trading them in for gold ones. Then they trade those gold ones in for the great prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
??????
18) How effective are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think the administrators are very effective teaching the students about the system because if the students are starting to show the characteristics wouldn’t you think that they were doing a good job making sure that they were getting the message across to every student.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Obviously the administrators are doing a good job with teaching the parents about the system because they are sending the information out in weekly/daily news letters, but lets’ hope that these letters are being sent home with the kids or even just mailed to the family if it is weekly because sometimes parents do not check their email or kids lose the paper on the way home on the bus or walking from school.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It has probably been very effective because if the teachers are making sure the kids are doing these actions then they know well about the system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course, this is always a possibility with every system to try and change behavior or produce behaviors among children or people.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The information may not be spread correctly to the different groups.
It may not work properly.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Does this work with all types of children or do you have to change the tokens just a little bit to incorporate it with students with special needs?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
None….
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcers, positive reinforcement, back up reinforcers, banked, pros, cons
1. This program is the Poyners Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2. This program came about when the Waterloo School District created a district-wide initiative of being a PBIS District, Positive Behavioral Intervention System.
3. The behavioral classes this program tries to elicit are the behaviors of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and care.
4. Some specific target behaviors they may want the children to emit are walking in the hallway, raising their hand and waiting to speak after they are called on in the classroom, waiting their turn in line to go down the slide on the playground, picking up a dropped lunch bag for a classmate, throwing away the trash of a classmate at lunch, listening during assemblies, letting a classmate take the last bag of cookies in the lunch line, opening the door for a teacher who has their arms full, thanking the custodian cleaning in the hallway, and recycling their old notes.
5. This system is based on reinforcement.
6. This system is based on positive reinforcement. It is positive because after a student emits a target behavior, they receive a ticket, which they did not have until after emitting the target behavior. It is reinforcement because the consequence received for the behavior is pleasurable to the student.
7. The tokens used in this system are panther tickets.
8. The pros of these tokens are they are inexpensive to produce, they are easy to distribute, and they are distinguishable. Cons of these tokens are they can easily be damaged through being ripped, getting wet, etc., these tokens can be replicated, and there is not any easy way for students to keep these tokens all in one place.
9. Students receive a token if they are caught emitting a behavior that falls into one of the behavioral classes of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, or care. The students can be caught emitting the behavior at any location in the school.
10. Pros of this delivery system are it encourages students to constantly emit the target behaviors, not just in one particular setting in school, it encourages students to not cease emitting the target behaviors, and it encourages students to work on emitting more than one specific behavior. Cons of this delivery system are that it may be inconsistent; a student could be reinforced for emitting a particular behavior in the classroom but not in the cafeteria, the system could easily be forgotten as the school year continues because the system doesn’t have concrete rules, and the same students may always receive tickets since they are delivered in different settings. This delivery system may also make school a discriminative system, where students only emit the behavior in school and not elsewhere.
11. There is no specific bank for the tickets described, it is assumed the students keep track of their own tickets throughout the day; the students are their own personal bank as they can receive these tickets at any time during the day and any location in the school.
12. A pro of this banking system is it gives students more responsibility; a trait the program is trying to reinforce, it prevents any additional task from being added to a teacher’s responsibility, and it also presents students with the opportunity to emit the other target behaviors the program is trying to elicit as students participate in the program. Cons of this banking system are that students can easily lose or damage these tickets and there would be no record proving this occurred, students could lie about something happening to their tickets and nobody would be able to know if they were telling the truth or not, students could create their own tickets and turn them in and nobody would ever know, and students can easily take tickets from other students or give away tickets to other students and there would be no record to solve the matter.
13. The back-up reinforcers are golden tickets and various prizes such as 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. These back-up reinforcers should be chosen based on the interests of the different students of the school. The students need to want to work to receive the back-up reinforcers or the students will not care and will not even try to emit the target behaviors.
15. These back-up reinforcers are effective if they elicit the students to emit the target behaviors. If the students are working to emit the target behaviors and therefore are receiving the tickets, then the back-up reinforcers are effective. Personally, I think these are effective reinforcers as they seem to all be reinforcers students would want to receive, and therefore want to work to earn. The reinforcers allow students to receive a tangible object or an experience they do not normally receive at school.
16. Students receive 1 golden ticket in exchange for 10 purple tickets, and the golden tickets are traded in for the various prizes. The students most likely do these exchanges in the office of the school or with their individual classroom teachers.
17. The outcome measure of this token economy is the amount of purple tickets handed in, the amount of gold tickets students receive in exchanged for the student’s purple tickets, and the amount of prizes given in exchange for the student’s gold tickets. These outcome measures could be looked at in terms of the entire school for the entire year, or they can be looked at in terms of specific grades or classes, or per month, week, or day.
18. Although nothing is mentioned about how the administrators are teaching students about the program, we can assume they are teaching students effectively if the newsletter mentions students are coming home with the different colored tickets. There would be no need to mention this if students were not taught the program effectively, because they would not be receiving the tickets. The newsletter also mentions that students are receiving the tickets everywhere, allowing us to assume that students are emitting the target behaviors, showing that the program was explained effectively.
19. Since the program is mentioned in the parent newsletter, we can assume the administration is putting forth effort to explain the system. This explanation is also a clear description of the system, showing the administration is effectively communicating with parents. The administration could improve on their explanation of this system to parents by providing a handout about the program that includes more detail, provide an information session for parents to attend where they can learn more information and ask questions, or provide a contact number or e-mail parents can use to find out more information.
20. Although we don’t know for sure how the administration is teaching teachers about this system, we can assume the administration is doing an accurate and thorough job of explaining it to their teachers since tickets are being handed out to students. If the teachers didn’t understand the system, they wouldn’t hand out tickets to the students. There would also be no exchanging of purple tickets for gold tickets and gold tickets for prizes, and since exchanges are occurring, teachers must know the details of the program.
21. It is very possible that not everyone completely buys into the system. Students may not buy into the program because they don’t find the back-up reinforcers reinforcing, they don’t think they will ever be able to achieve a prize so they don’t even try, they don’t think the system is fair, or they just don’t care at all so they don’t try. Teachers might not buy into the program because it adds extra work to their place, it creates a competitive environment in their classroom, they can’t be 100% fair with their students, or they think students should learn proper behavior without being reinforced. Parents may not buy into the program because they believe in punishment and not reinforcement, they don’t think the reinforcers are appropriate for their child, they think it creates unnecessary competitiveness among students, or they think the system fosters favoritism.
22. One problem known about token economies that exists here is that token economies are complex and take a lot of time and effort. This token economy may be easily forgotten within the school because of its complexity and time as it is not top priority a lot of times in classrooms. Another problems with token economies and this particular token economy is token hoarding, students may just keep all of their tickets and never exchange them for prizes, defeating the purpose of the program. Another problem is the target behaviors may deteriorate if the tokens do not immediately follow the behavior or if they don’t consistently follow the behaviors. We also don’t know if the tickets are designed in such a way that they can’t be duplicated by students, which can create a problem in token economies. Finally, another problem common with token economies that exists here is the behavior is most likely to deteriorate if the students don’t receive praise along with their tokens.
23. How were the prizes determined? What specific behaviors do you look for when giving a ticket to a student? How do you make it so the target behaviors are not going unnoticed, that each time a student emits the target behavior they are reinforced with the ticket? How did you explain the system to the students? Teachers? Parents? Are students receiving praise along with their tickets? What are you doing to prevent this program from dying out?
24. Who gives out the tickets? When do students receive tickets? How often are tickets distributed? Where do the students trade in their purple tickets for golden tickets or golden tickets for prizes? When can these exchanges take place? What is the value of the golden tickets in exchange for the prize, how many golden tickets does it take to receive each prize? When can students participate in their prize activities? Are the tickets designed in such a way that the students can’t just copy them? Where do the students keep their tickets? Is there a record someplace in the school that keeps a running total of how many tickets each student has received? Is there a policy where students can share tickets with other students?
25. behavioral class, elicit, behavior, target behaviors, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, consequence, pleasurable, token, reinforce, back-up reinforcers, reinforcer, outcome measure, token economy, punishment, discriminative stimulus
1. What is this program? Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.
2. How did it come about? The Waterloo School District want to be a Positive Behavior Interventions System District
3. What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to elicit behaviors that demonstrate the character pillars of Trustworthiness, Respectfulness, Responsibility, and Caring.
4. What would some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? They might want the children to walk quietly down the hallway to class, or take turns using the outdoor play equipment.
5. Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement.
6. Is it positive or negative? The reinforcement is positive.
7. What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens of this program are purple paw tickets and little golden tickets.
8. What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens? These tickets seem easy to loose, and the children may not have a safe place to keep them. The tokens are inexpensive and easy to carry around which is a pro.
9. What is the delivery system? The delivery system is through people of authority in the school, like teachers and staff. The delivery system is based on a certain person having to see the behavior.
10. What are some pros and con’s associated with the delivery system? The pros are that they’re a lot of behaviors that could be awarded with tokens. The cons are that a lot of these behaviors will go unnoticed and not every authority figure will notice the same behaviors.
11. How are the token banked? The students must first earn 10 purple paw tickets before they can trade that in for a golden ticket. The golden tickets are the ones that can be traded for prizes.
12. What are the pros and cons? The pro’s are that there is an increasing value in tokens so that there has to be effort involved. The cons are that there is not an immediate reward. The children must save the purple paw tickets and some kids might get discouraged since 10 is kind of a large number to require before you can trade them in.
13. What are the back up reinforcers? The back up reinforcers are the rewards that can be bought by the golden tickets.
14. How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The reinforcers were chosen to entice the children. They were thought up because these activities are generally pleasing to kids.
15. Are they effective reinforcers? I think some of the reinforcers are effective for some of the students. I personally wouldn’t have been motivated by any of those rewards but I know plenty of people who would be.
16. How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in 10 purple paws for a golden ticket and saving their golden tickets until that can trade them in for a specific prize.
17. What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? I would imagine that the outcome measures would be the amount of participation in the program (whether students are getting golden tickets). It would be hard to show quantitatively, but if there was a general quality of character in the school that would also be a positive outcome.
18. How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? According to this newsletter, which is for the parents of the children, they author talks as if the students should have been already talking to their parents about this program.
19. How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? I think the administrators are teaching the parents as well as can be expected. They are really just telling the parents what is going on. They do ask the parents to help encourage their child, which is nice.
20. How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system? I have no idea how well the teachers were taught, as it doesn’t mention it directly in this article. I imagine that they were all told the same thing but every teacher came away with something different and hands out purple paw tickets according to each of their own criteria.
21. Is there the possibility of not everyone may no have complete buy in with the system. Yes there is. Those that go unnoticed by teachers, or are quieter may be overlooked.
22. What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? These tokens may lose their effect after a while. They also seem very easy to lose and hard to keep track of. There is no second system for documenting the giving of these tickets.
23. What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? I would wonder what stipulations are in place to prevent people from making their own tokens.
24. What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would want to know if there are certain behaviors the teachers have been asked to look for. I would also want to know if there is a way that the distribution of tokens is documented.
25. Terms- Elicit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, delivery system, tokens, backup reinforcers.
1) What is this program? Poyner Panther on TRCC
2) How did it come about? from the Waterloo School District's PBIS (Positive Behavioral Intervention System)
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? positive reinforcement
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? trust, respect, responsibility, caring
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program? 10 purple paws = 1 golden ticket
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Pro is that you can gain prizes if you get golden tickets, con is that (older) students might not care about the prizes
9) What is the delivery system? purple paw is received when the child does something positive
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? pro: the tokens are handed out everywhere in school (hallway, cafeteria, playground, assemblies, classroom) con: it could be distracting
11) How are the tokens banked? 10 purple paws are traded in for a golden ticket that can be used to win prizes
12) What are the pro's and con's? pro: students will work hard to get the 10 purple paws in order to get the golden ticket, con: some actions may go unnoticed by teachers leaving he student upset
13) What are the back up reinforcers? rewards that can be bought by the golden tickets
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? because they are things the students will want to trade their tokens in for
15) Are they effective reinforcers? yes
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? by obtaining golden tickets
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? the administrators could see how many golden tickets are being traded in for prizes
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? It isn't clear how effectively the students are being taught because it is a take home letter for the parents.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? Relatively effectively as long as the parents read the newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Again, this is unclear because we only read what the parents read.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Not everyone might be educated in the system, some students might have an unfair advantage, some teachers may be less likely to hand out tokens than others
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? I would be curious to know if the teachers have a minimum or maximum on how many tokens they should hand out per day. Also, if there is a limit on how many tokens a student can get per day, if students have to receive at least one purple paw each
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would also be curious if they document who gets a purple paw or golden ticket so they know that students aren't giving their tokens away. I would also be curious to see if there are prizes for all age groups (like kindergarteners as well as sixth graders)
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
positive, behavioral, positive reinforcement, target behavior, reinforcement, reinforcers, delivery system, backup reinforcers, effective, token, token system, positive, negative
1) Poyner Panthers T.R.R.C
2) The Waterloo school systems started a positive behavior intervention system throughout the school district.
3)Trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring behaviors.
4) Holding a door open for another student, picking up the classroom, listening quietly, sharing toys with others.
5) It is based on reinforcement.
6) Positive reinforcement.
7) Tickets.
8) Pros: easy to administer, gives children responsibility to keep track of their tickets, Cons: can be misplaced easily, Have to keep multiple tickets (papers) together which can be problematic, not all kids can be equally reinforced and some can be overlooked, must administer a lot of tickets,
9) handed out by teachers/staff anywhere a behavior in one of the previous behavior classes is seen.
10) Pros: Keeps children wanting to elicit target behaviors even outside the class room, praise can be given along with the ticket, Cons: Some children may be overlooked, tickets given in certain places may be hard to keep track of (like recess for example)
11) Every 10 Green tickets are traded in for one Golden ticket with the teacher.
12) Pros: the larger amount of green tickets for the one gold ticket makes the children engage in more good behaviors in order to receive the more desirable ticket, the ticket exchange promotes responsibility, Cons: Can be too complicated for younger children, the large amount of tickets needed for one gold makes the total number of tickets you’re responsible for high which could lead to them being misplaced
13) extra recess, popcorn, lunch with teacher/principle, extra computer time and helping the custodian
14) It doesn’t provide that information.
15) Since they get to choose the prize I will say yes. A few of those choices didn’t sound so great to me, but they may to some children. Giving them a choice I think is what works, since they feel more in control. I do feel the older the child is, the less things he would want out of that list. Older kids aren’t interested in eating with the principal or helping the custodian.
16) Trade their golden tickets in to the teacher and choose a prize.
17) The more tickets being administered shows target behavior is being emitted, and keeping track of how many come back show if the child is interested in receiving the prizes in the first place. A graph showing the ones going out can show if kids are continuing the behaviors.
18) That can’t be known from this flyer.
19) I don’t feel they were that effective. I feel it should be put on a sheet to be sent home, and not just on the May newsletter. Not everyone really looks at the newsletter, because usually more important stuff is sent home separately.
20) I don’t know just looking at this newsletter.
21) Yes. Some students may not find the prizes reinforcing. Teachers may not want to deal with the handing out and receiving tickets, and not all parents are okay with their children eating ice cream or popcorn or want their child helping the janitor.
22) misuse, children stealing others tickets for example; unequal pricing of backup reinforcers, since the school is k-5 it may be hard to find the right number of green tickets to get a golden one; Food may be a problem as a reinforcer due to allergies.
23) Can more prizes me added? How do you do your best at evenly distributing the tickets among children emitting good behavior? Isn’t it possible a quiet child who could possibly be displaying the target behaviors all the time get overlooked?
24) Where those prizes came from? Is this working well among the fourth and fifth graders?
25) behavior, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, target behavior, behavior class, elicit, emit,
1) What is this program? The program is Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. which focuses on being Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful, and Caring. Students who are caught emitting these behaviors receive a reinforcer for their "good" behavior with a purple ticket. Once a student has 10 purple tickets they can trade their purple tickets in for a gold ticket and then use the gold ticket to win prizes.
2) How did it come about? The Waterloo School District has an initiative since they are a PBIS District (Positive Behavior Interventions System).
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to elicit Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, and Care from people.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Telling the truth and not lying. Every time the teacher asks a student if they did their homework or not and they responded truthfully such as, "Yes I did" or "no not this time." Having respect for both the teacher and other classmates. Asking if they can borrow things, "can I please borrow your pen for one moment?" Responsibility of doing your homework and bringing it to class. Care-inviting everyone to play with you at recess who would like to join.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement because they want to increase good behaviors-they want them to occur more frequently. Every time a behavior that they are trying to elicit is emitted, they reinforce the person with a purple ticket, etc.
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive because it is the addition of something pleasurable, in this case the addition of purple/gold tickets and eventually a prize.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used are both the purple and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Pro's: they are age appropriate and sound exciting to kids. They are cheap(ish), they can be produced in mass and distributed easily. Con's: the kids may misplace them, depending on how complex the tickets are, they may be able to make them at home, kids stealing other kids tickets.
9) What is the delivery system? Students are given tickets whenever and wherever they are performing these behaviors. Kind of like a continuous reinforcement style.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Pro's: the students know that they can be reinforced quite easily and many times a day. Initial motivation to behave well. Con's: some behaviors by one individual may be seen by teachers more than other students who may be acting just as well. One kid could constantly be doing wonderful things and therefore would constantly be reinforced- leaving them with too many tickets or eventually lacking motivation.
11) How are the tokens banked? The tickets are 10 for 1. So every 10 purple tickets you receive, you then receive 1 GOLDEN ticket. You can then trade those tickets for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? Pro's: to this are the exchange between purple and gold, that you do not have to keep track of 10 individual tickets, but instead one. 10 does not seem unattainable and there are layers which keep you interested. Con's it is a little complex and for some, the kids may give up. Some kids it may be harder for them to think up how to be caring etc. and therefore do not receive as many. 10 may seem like too many for young kids. For older elementary I think the exchange is great, but for preschoolers it may need to lessen.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? Prizes, for example, extra recess, bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, helping the custodian, and Sonic ice cream cones.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? It does not specify how the reinforcers are chosen, but if I would have to guess it is based on interest of the students
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes, because they are things the kids look forward to and enjoy. They feel special. These things the kids look forward to, increase the likelihood of them emitting a desired behavior.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They gain access by emitting the desired behaviors of Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, and Caring. When these behaviors have been emitted, teachers will reward them with the reinforcers-tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the
system is effective? First of all keeping a count of the number of tickets printed each time. Once an order(certain recorded amount) is used up, then you start on the next 'bundle'. Each bundle of tickets should have the same amount in them so when they are gone, you know how many have been used up. This is applicable to both the purple and gold tickets. Also keep an inventory of the prizes and what prizes have been taken. You can see if the program is working by how many tickets are being used up and how many prizes students are purchasing and for what price.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? Based on the paragraph presented, we cannot determine how well educated the students are because this newsletter is for the parents. I definitely think there could be more information.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? The administrators are somewhat effective in their teaching to the parents, although they could provide more information on how often the kids are reinforced. Are there certain points in the day? How do they keep track of all the students behaviors? Should the parents keep track of the tickets or should the students? Is that another part of their responsibility learning? There is also no rate given for golden tickets to the price of prizes.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the
system? Again, we cannot be sure because this is a newsletter for the parents. It does not seem like the teachers have real strict guidelines of handing out the tickets though.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes for sure. Some parents might question if this is actually teaching the student good behaviors or if the children are just acting so they can eventually get a prize. For the teachers they might feel completely overwhelmed with another task, especially one of this size. The way they hand out the tickets seems very unplanned and not thought out at all. With so many students constantly emitting behaviors, it would be very hard to keep track of the positive target behaviors each student is emitting. For the students, they may have a hard time keeping track of their 10 tickets before trading them in and some of the reinforcers such as eating with the principal or helping the custodian may instead seem more like punishment.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Keeping up the motivation of the students, especially those where these characteristics do not come naturally. Some kids might token (ticket) hoard. The system may be too complex for some of the students. The exchange rate may be too high or too low. 10 purple tickets for 1 yellow ticket may be super easy to accumulate and students could loose interest or 10 purple tickets for 1 yellow ticket may be super hard to obtain.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? What is the exchange rate for golden tickets to prizes. How will the tickets be distributed throughout the day? Are there going to be certain times, because all day, all the time with many students is a LOT to pay attention to. How do you define each characteristic? What is the line you draw around each characteristic that makes certain behaviors fit each category? Is it the same/uniform throughout the whole school? Are all of the prizes reinforcing to the students? What role/purpose does each prize serve?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? All of my questions were listed above. Although what are the rules of being a PBIS District?
25) Terms: emitting, behaviors, reinforcer, positive behavior, elicit, reinforcement, reinforce, positive, pleasurable, desired, target behaviors
1) The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring) and is a system created to increase a few target behaviors in their school district.
2) This program came about as a district-wide positive behavioral intervention system to increase the elicitation of the character pillars that are important to this particular school district.
3) They are trying to elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring behavioral classes.
4) A specific target behavior they might want the children to emit may be taking the initiative to clean up a classroom mess even if they did not create it.
5) This system is based on reinforcement of the desired behavior classes.
6) This system is based on positive reinforcement because they are adding pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away something aversive
7) The tokens used in this program are purple and golden tickets. Ten purple tickets are worth one golden ticket, which can then be traded for pleasurable prizes.
8) The tokens must be relevant enough to elicit the desired target behaviors. However, this system is only relevant and effective within the classroom or school setting. The children may discriminate settings and elicit these behaviors at school, but not in other settings. The classroom/school would act as a discriminate stimulus for which behaviors will be reinforced.
9) The delivery system of the tokens is continuous reinforcement of the target behaviors through purple tickets, and fixed ratio reinforcement of the golden tickets. These golden tickets are then exchanged for the reinforcers, with each reinforcer being worth a specific number of golden tickets.
10) Perhaps some target behaviors are being done but the authorities don’t see the behavior being done. Also if these tickets are just pieces of paper, then they are probably really easy to lose. The tickets could lose their effectiveness if kids are just picking up tickets that they find on the ground. Also, a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement will only work if the reinforcers are set at a reasonably attainable value of golden tickets; if the prices are too high, students may get discouraged and the target behaviors will be not be emitted with the same frequency.
11) The tokens are awarded by frequency of the desired behaviors. For every desired behavior that a student emits, he earns a purple ticket. When ten purple tickets are earned, they can be traded for a golden ticket. The golden tickets are then exchanged at the student’s leisure for the desirable reinforcers.
12) The pros of the bank could be that they will increase incentive to do the target behaviors to receive the reinforcers. A con of this is that it may also stub out the behaviors in some children that have not obtained as many golden tickets.
13) The backup reinforcers are prizes such as extra recess time, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, Sonic ice cream cones, a bag of movie popcorn, extra computer time, or helping the custodian.
14) The backup reinforcers should be chosen based on what the children already find reinforcing. This might include activities that the children like to engage in prior to the execution of the program. It was not specifically stated how the reinforcers were chosen in this token economy.
15) They are only effective reinforcers if they do well in eliciting the target behaviors at higher rates than the baseline from before the program was put in place. Depending on the student, some reinforcers are going to work better than others.
16) After a authoritative figure witnesses a student emitting good behavior, they earn a purple ticket. After ten purple tickets are earned, they are able to trade them in for a golden ticket. The golden tickets are then saved and traded in for the other prizes, or back-up reinforcers.
17) This article does not discuss the outcomes of this token economy as it seems to be advertising the start of it. However, the methodology seems strong so I’m sure it will be successful with minor kinks.
18) Once again, the article does not discuss this, but I would assume that they are doing a decent if not good job. This article is to let parents know what is going on their children’s school and this would not have been included if it was not important to the teachers and thus being done frequently.
19) I think that this article did a great job of explaining to the parents what is happening. However, I do wish it would have been explained why they were just not implementing this program.
20) Once again, this article doesn’t clearly state this. However, I’m sure they were more clear and specific with the teachers than the parents.
21) I think that it is absolutely possible that some students and teachers may not be as motivated as others to participate in this system.
22) One of the main problems of token economies in a school setting is that being at school may very well become a discriminative stimulus. For example, clearly I am only going to be rewarded for raising my hand when I have a question when I am in my classroom and not at home or in the lunchroom.
23) What efforts have been made in order to ensure that all of desired behaviors can be recognized? Which behaviors were going to be reinforced? Is there a limit on how many tickets can be received per day? Can specific behaviors be repeated for tickets multiple times, at all or within the same day?
24) I would like to know what sparked the creation and implementation of this program. I would also like to know how the administrators plan on keeping track of the success of the system, as it is being implemented all over the school district.
Terms: target behavior, behavioral classes, elicit, positive reinforcement, stimuli, discriminative stimulus, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio, backup reinforcers, baseline
1)What is this program?
Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C.- trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring
2) How did it come about?
The district decided that they wanted to instill a set of values within the community so they began with this program as a way of paving the future of the community
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
As the name suggests, they are trying to bring trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring gestures.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Behaviors such as compliments/ nice things to say to other children and adults would be ones they would want to emit. They are also focusing on telling the truth and not tattling in situations that would otherwise bring those behaviors out.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is mostly reinforcement based because it is dealing with shaping the students into how they are desired to act in the classroom.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is an example of positive reinforcement. They are using the rewards from the cards as reinforcement to the good behaviors.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens would be the tickets that the children receive. There are purple ones and gold ones.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro is getting the kids to have more appropriate behaviors within the classroom. Another pro would be that they are seeing this as a fun time or something that they want and as a teacher that can be gratifying in many circumstances. A con might be that they are only required to act this way within the school walls. Once the kids go home there is no way of knowing how their parents will make them act.
9) What is the delivery system?
The system is going to be the distribution of these tickets upon favorable behaviors being emitted. Each student must acquire a certain number of golden tickets in order to gain the prize in exchange. Purple tickets add up to equal golden tickets, but golden is the color they need in order to gain the reward.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
To me, this seems just a little too complex simply because it involved trading up the purple to gold tickets. For some students, this might seem a little drawn out and they may lose interest. A pro that I would mention though is that this is a very good way to support having good morals and values. Even though it is on a reward system, it still has good value much past the initial reward.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Students can save purple tickets for golden tickets which they can then use for the exchange of the prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A con is that it might take a few trials to deicide the perfect number of tickets needed in order to reinforce the behavior. This will just result in more time spent. A pro is that the students will take pride in their tickets and accomplishments while saving them up. Pride in itself is a very good way of reinforcing a behavior.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
There were a few listed like having lunch with the principle, getting to have longer recess time, and even things like going to sonic and getting ice cream.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I would say that the backup reinforcers were chosen based off of who the reinforcement was for. Meaning that the target audience here is children and children often respond well to things like extra recess and ice cream. Although it was not stated specifically, it makes sense that that is how they would choose these reinforcers.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, these reinforcers are geared toward the children that it is designed to help and reinforce so I think that it is extremely effective to have these types of reinforcers. It will all come down to the results of the token economy. If they respond well then you can count the reinforcers as a total success. Until then, one can assume that they will be effective.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By using their tickets to gain the reinforcers. They earn purple tickets then trade them for gold tickets which they then will trade for the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Monitoring how many tickets that are given out every week or every month is a good start. This can help to see if the number given out compared to the number of days and students is worth the trouble of handing them out at all. Another way is to Measure how long it takes the average student to reach the reinforcer. If the time is too long then the program might not be as effective as hoped, and if it is too short of a time, then the results may be viewed as too easy to accomplish which can lead to students cheating the system put in place.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
From this news letter it is hard to tell how informed the students are about the program, but this is geared toward informing the parents which will help in informing the children. I also think that since this is something that is expected to be school-wide, there are going to be more people who are enforcing the behaviors than there are people not enforcing them.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think that they are doing a decent job of this because from the flyer, we were able to learn the ins and outs of the program after only a few sentences. There were a few holes, but I’m sure their students can help fill in the blanks if they have big questions.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
From this it is hard to say. I would guess that since this is a school/district wide program that the reachers would have to be rather informed in order to reinforce the students’ behaviors.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is always that chance when people decide to implement something like this. there will always be that kid that doesn't want to participate and that adult that doesn't agree with how the administration is handling things. I think that since this program has a decent amount of positive thought behind it, that there is a good chance that most people will be on board, teachers and parents especially.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Being reinforced is something that should happen in all aspects of life when trying to change a certain behavior, so I think that as soon as the students are at home and not being reinforced as they are in school, they may end up faltering in their habit of being T.R.R.C. However, this could also help students be more conscious of their behavior at home after they are concentrating on it all day at school. Another problem could be satiation, this is common with token economies, but I think that if the administration offers new incentives or something that mixes things up over time then there will be a less damaging amount of satiation.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
To what degree is this going to be enforced? How much or how little will result in getting a ticket? Is this for an entire academic year or is it going to go month by month? Is there a way for parents to become more involved in this program?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
So far how has the program been carried out? Prior to any change how dramatic was the baseline that made the administration want to change it?
25)
Terms: target behaviors, behavioral classes, emit, reinforcement, shaping, positive reinforcement, salient, continuous reinforcement, reinforcer, emitting,, satiated, reinforcing, baseline, outcome measures, satiation, elicit, tokens, reward/ reward system, back up reinforcers, token economy
APLK
1) What is this program?
The program is using a system that uses tokens as a sense of reinforcement in order to change a specific behavior. After a student receives a token, they can later cash them in for rewards.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District decided to become a PBIS district
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Being trustworthy, respectful, kind, and responsible
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Being nice on the playground to other class mates, being respectful to teachers in the classroom, being honest and not cheating on school work, being nice to others and maybe doing some random acts of kindness
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple paw tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro’s would be that it allows for continuous feedback to students, differential valuing of behavior, and experiences in delayed satisfaction as the students wait for their token exchange time. Some cons would be that it takes more time and effort to change a specific behavior than other techniques and some unequal pricing of back up reinforcers or kids may hoard the tokens.
9) What is the delivery system?
When a student is caught doing one of the character pillars he or she is rewarded with a ticket
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pros would be that in order for a student to receive the ticket, they have to be doing good things or emitting good behavior with the possibility of being caught or not. Some cons could be that some kids could be doing all the good things and never get “caught” so they will feel sad or upset that they aren’t being recognized for their good behavior/ deeds.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The kids hold on to their tickets until they have ten and then they can trade them in
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros would be that since it’s not documented publically, it won’t necessarily feel like a competition and they’re less likely to lose sense of the point of the program. A con would be that the tickets can be easily lost.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Sonic ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with a teacher or the principle, extra computer time, and helping the custodian
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
By asking the students what they like to earn, see how the usually spend their free time and administer reinforcer checklist
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I would say so, yes.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By earning ten tickets and cashing them in
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Count how many tickets are being banked and that will show how many good deeds or behaviors are being emitted and compare that to how it was before the program. Also just observe how different the vibe in the environment is before and after the program.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Effectively, as long as they are praising the students and immediately rewarding them with tickets and keeps the rewards continuous and consistent.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They are specific in their advertisement about the program to make sure that the parents are well informed about what they are doing
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
From what I’ve read, they are very thorough with the instructions and expectations they have for the teachers to conduct their part of the program
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems are that they take more time and effort than other techniques, sometimes there are unequal pricing of back up reinforcers, and misuse of tokens with younger of severely disabled students, and also students hoarding tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
From everything that I’ve read, there really isn’t much that wasn’t covered. Any question that I could possibly have was already listed within their list of information and instructions. So I may just ask about the final results of the program.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Again, there isn’t anything that I can think of that I wasn’t already informed about in their article, so I don’t have any addition information that I’m curious about pertaining to the system.
25) emitting, target behavior, reinforcer, positive reinforcement, rewards, system
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. which stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Students who are caught emitting any of these behaviors will be rewarded with purple paw tickets. Those tickets can be traded in for prizes at the end of each week if they have enough for a gold ticket which is only 10 purple tickets.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District has a district-wide initiative being a PBIS District, which as stated before stands for Positive Behavior Interventions Systems.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavior class they are trying to elicit are what the programs name is which is trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring. They want them to have action and behaviors that are this four things. They are what makes up four of the character pillars.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit include walking, not running in hallways, throwing trash away, saying thank you, class preparation, arriving to class on time, raising your hand, helping another student if they need help, turning homework in on time, and so many others that could be listed.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because the students are receiving something for their good behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because they are adding a pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away the aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets. Each gold ticket is 10 purple tickets and with the gold tickets you can redeem prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: could be that students like the tickets because they are like money to them. It is easy for them to know how many tickets they have earned. Cons: might be if the tickets are easily duplicated. If a student could easily copy the tickets with purple paper of their own they might forge them. Also, since the tickets are tangible they could be lost or stolen.
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers give them out if students are caught doing something good throughout the day.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
It is inconsistent which will make the children not always want to emit the target behavior if they know they always won't be rewarded. A good thing about the delivery system is that the purple tickets are usually through continuous reinforcement.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are saved until the student reaches 10 purple tokens, then they are presented with a golden ticket. Once they receive the golden ticket, they get to choose between a list or prizes set forth by the school.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pro's: Since the faculty is in charge if the tokens the children will not lose them, setting the purple token number at 10 it forces the child to emit a heft number of desirable behaviors before they are reinforced.
Con's: The children may lose track of what number of purple tokens they are at, they may become uninterested in the program since they must acquire 10 purple tickets before they are reinforced.
13) What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes for the gold tickets such as ice cream, helping the janitor, leading the line, and eating lunch with the principal.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It did not say how the backup reinforcers were chosen, but I am assuming they went by what has been most reinforcing to the children in the past. They might have also asked the children themselves, which is a good idea to make the reinforcers more reinforcing.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are only effective reinforcers if they succeed in eliciting the target behaviors at higher rates than the baseline from before the program is implemented.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in their purple tickets for golden tickets and their golden tickets for the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could easily keep track of how many tickets come and go through the system. If they have a surplus or shortage of tickets, it could mean the system is either too difficult or too easy.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It appears that the system is effective if the administrators are seeing students emitting desirable behaviors everywhere around the school. And if the students are frequently talking about it around their parents then it must be a pretty big hit.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are trying to teach the parents about the system through this little excerpt in the school newsletter, but it is really small and could be intrupited in different ways so that could cause parents to do it wrong.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The article doesn’t explain much about how the teachers and the system very well.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Some kids just may not care to make the effort to be rewarded, and so they won't emit the behavior if they cannot be persuaded by the reinforcer. Some teachers may not think some kids deserve tickets each time, especially if they only did it for a reward and not out of being sincere. Some parents may think it will make kids think they are better than others if they have more tickets than someone else.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems are stated in my answer in question 21, and also it is not always consistent
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Some questions I would have for administrators is how are they going to get all teachers to participate equally, what are the specific target behaviors, and what are they planning on implementing if this strategy does not work?
924) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Can the tickets be copied, what if a student loses there tickets or someone else steals them.
25) Terms: Elicit, aversive, emit, behavior, behavioral class, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, reinforce, target behaviors, token economy, continuous reinforcement
1) What is this program? Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, Caring)
part of the Waterloo Districts Positive Behavior Interventions System
2) How did it come about? It's a Waterloo District Initiative to encourage student to display good behavioral techniques
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, and Caring attitudes
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Telling the truth, not spreading rumors about people, doing what the teachers ask of them, understanding boundaries, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive, they are being awarded prizes for good behaviors
7) What are the tokens used in this program? Purple paw tickets, which are then traded by specific numbers for a Golden ticket-how very Willy Wonka
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Students could steal them from each other, someone would probably be shanked
9) What is the delivery system? Students receive tickets, and must save them-responsibility
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Students could lose them, or again steal them from one another
11) How are the tokens banked? For every ten tickets, they can be traded for 1 golden ticket, then they are turned in
12) What are the pro's and con's? Losing the tickets
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The prizes that the children can receive when they trade in their tickets...ice cream, recess, popcorn, lunch with faculty.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? Unknown, but I would assume they were choses because of the valence that students of that age place on those reinforcers
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Relative to the individual student
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? By gaining tickets, saving them, and trading them in
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? How many students receive tickets, how many students actually turn tickets it, etc.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? unknown
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? Minimally, if this letter is all they receive
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Who is the “other teacher,” because I feel like he/she is some alternate life form who is being hidden from society
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes, systems like this are loosely monitored and sometimes it gets to the point of “who gives a shit” a student perhaps with behavioral problems may not succeed in this system, a parent of a student with behavioral problems could be exhausted and no longer care, etc....
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Lack of monitoring, lack of participation
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? Who determines who receives a ticket, how will the students hang on to their tickets, how can you make sure every student is included, what if children are not reinforced by what you offer, will there be a limit to tickets each student can receive
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? What function does this system serve if it is so loosely constructed, is there a fixed schedule of reinforcement or will it be intermittent and unlimited
25) reinforcement, valence, behavior, function, schedule of reinforcement, fixed, intermittent
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. — trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring, and it is a system to increase a few target behaviors in their district.
2) How did it come about?
It was started as a district-wide positive behavioral intervention system to increase the eliciting of the character pillars that are important to the school district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying have the children elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring behavioral classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A specific target behavior they might want the children to emit may be putting their supplies away when done with them or saying a kind word to another student, teaching the children how to be more trustworthy.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement of the target behaviors or approximations when shaping.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system is based on positive reinforcement because they are adding pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away the aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and golden tickets. Ten purple tickets is worth one golden ticket.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
The tokens must be salient enough to elicit the target behaviors, additionally this system is only salient and effective within the classroom or school setting, and so the children may discriminate and elicit these behaviors in the classroom or at school, but not in other settings. The classroom/school will act as a discriminate stimulus for which behaviors will be reinforced.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is a system that incorporates the continuous reinforcement of the target behaviors through purple tickets with the fixed ratio reinforcement of the golden tickets. These golden tickets are then exchanged for the reinforcers, with each reinforcer being worth a specific number of golden tickets.
10) What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
The fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement will only work if the reinforcers are set as a reasonable value of golden tickets. If the prices are set too high, students may get discouraged and the target behaviors will be extinguished. The pros of this system is that it combines a number of different reinforcement schedules, which keeps it interesting and reinforces students more continuous for their behaviors while still maintaining a reasonable cost for the reinforcer. The continuous reinforcement of the purple tickets combined with the fixed ratio reinforcement of the trade from purple to gold tickets will keep reinforcing good behaviors in the students. The cons of this system is that putting extra steps in between the emitting of the behavior and attaining the reinforcer may make it too difficult for the students to obtain the reinforcer and the behaviors may experience extinction.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are banked by earning 10 purple paw tickets, which are then can be exchanged for one golden ticket. These golden tickets can then be saved up and exchanged for the reinforcers.
12) What are the pros and cons?
The pros of the bank are that it will increase incentive to emit the target behaviors to attain the reinforcers, it will serve as a guideline to determine how many more target behaviors will need to be emitted before the reinforcer is delivered, and it will make sure that the behaviors are not being reinforced too quickly that the reinforcers become satiated. The cons of this is that it may also extinguish the behaviors in some children that have not obtained as many golden tickets.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess time, 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?
The backup reinforcers should be chosen based on what the children already find reinforcing. This may include activities that the children like to engage in prior to the implementation of the program. It was not specifically stated how the reinforcers were chosen in the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. program.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are only effective reinforcers if they succeed in eliciting the target behaviors at higher rates than the baseline from before the program is implemented. I imagine that some of these reinforcers would be effective, such as the ice cream cones and extra recess time, but others such as lunch with the principal and helping out the custodian may be less effective if they are not desired by and salient for the children.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in their purple tickets for golden tickets and their golden tickets for the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures may be a record of how many purple tickets were given out and/or traded in for golden tickets, or how many golden tickets were traded in for reinforcers. This can be compared to the baseline that was recorded prior to implementation to determine how much, if at all, the behaviors have been increased due to the program.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems as though the administrators are effectively teaching the students about the system because the behaviors are being emitted “EVERYWHERE!!!”, such as in the hallway, cafeteria, on the playground, in the classrooms, and in assemblies. However, as to how often these behaviors are being emitted and by what percentage of the students is unknown to us.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are trying to teach the parents about the system through this little excerpt in the school newsletter, but this description is short and does not answer all the questions the parents may have about the program.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
It seems like the administrators may have taught the teachers about the system, but it is not clear how effectively this teaching was done or how extensive the lesson concerning this behavioral intervention was.
21) Is there the possibility that not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may have complete buy in with the system?
It is very possible that not everyone may have complete buy in with the system. Some students may be more motivated than others by the reinforcers to emit the behaviors, additionally, some teachers may be more deliberate about reinforcing these behaviors with purple tickets than others.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The classroom/school setting may be a discriminate stimulus for these behaviors to occur in, but may not be emitted outside of this setting. The reinforcers may not be salient for the students or for not enough of the students. The token economy may decrease in effectiveness as time goes on due to satiation.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How extensively were the teachers taught about the system? How extensively were the students taught about the system?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What was the baseline for these behaviors prior to implementation? How were the reinforcers chosen? How effective has this program been in increasing the frequency of these behavioral classes? What were specific target behaviors that were reinforced for each of the behavioral classes?
Terms used in this post: target behaviors, behavioral intervention, eliciting, elicit, behavioral classes, emit, reinforcement, shaping, positive reinforcement, pleasurable, aversives, salient, discriminate, discriminate stimulus, reinforced, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, reinforcer, extinguished, reinforcement schedules, reinforces, emitting, extinction, satiated, extinguish, reinforcing, baseline, outcome measures, satiation
1) What is this program?
It is the “Poyner panthers on T.R.R.C.” (pronounced track) program
2) How did it come about?
It was a Waterloo district-wide program to be a PBIS District (Positive Behavior Interventions System)
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Encouraging students to be Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful, and Caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Being prepared for class, helping another student, raising their hand in class, being honest
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
It is based on reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
10 Purple paw tickets can be exchanged for Golden tickets which can then be exchanged for prizes
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: students will be motivated with rewards; Cons: if the cost of the reward is too high, the students will lose motivation
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers will give out purple tickets every time a student is emitting a reward-able behavior
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: All of the teachers are on board therefore it is more difficult to miss a behavior that should be rewarded; Cons: Students may get multiple tickets for one behavior if more than one teacher sees them but does not know that they already have a ticket for it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Students are physically given a tangible ticket item so they turn it is as if they were exchanging ten $1 bills for one $10 bill
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: it is easy for a student to keep track of how much they have without having to ask a teacher for the amount; Cons: students could lose a ticket or one of their tickets could get stolen
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Ice cream, extra recess, movie popcorn, lunch with the principal, helping the custodian, and extra computer time
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It doesn't specifically say in the flier, but it is likely that they observed what rewards the students would like to see and chose based off of that information.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The reinforcers are varying in worth and desirability so there are, in a sense, different levels for students to achieve.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
If they have enough of the golden tickets then they can pick a reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
If the students continue to exhibit the desired behaviors even after they adjust the reward system then the system was effective enough to instill the behaviors. If it is more difficult to acquire the reward and the students are still working to gain the rewards, then it is a good sign that the system was effective.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would say that students have been taught pretty well about the system because at the beginning, the flier rhetorically asks parents if they have noticed their children coming home with tickets.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Based on what is in the newsletter, I would say that the information is efficient and effective in teaching the parents about what is going on.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
21) 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 chance that someone will not like or agree with the system and will not want to participate, or have their child participate.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Unequal pricing: since 1 golden ticket requires 10 purple tickets, and extra recess requires, for example, 5 golden tickets, that is 50 purple tickets and behaviors which may not hold the attention of smaller children for long; Misuse: having paper tickets means students can have their tickets be stolen or lost; Token hoarding and deterioration of behavior after fading may also be applicable problems.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What is their exit strategy? They can't keep students on the token economy forever...; also, do they have anything for if a students exhibits the opposite of these behaviors such as a negative punishment and they take away tickets fir undesirable behavior? (Negative punishment may also help to prevent token hoarding)
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How long the token economy is intended to last and how they intend to keep up the desired behaviors once the token economy is gone.
1) What is this program?
-A system of individual reinforcement
of target behaviors in which tokens
are administered and exchanged later for backup
reinforcers
2) How did it come about?
-
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
-Positive behavior (Respectful, Responsible, Trustworthy, Caring)
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Saying please and thank you, finishing assignments, being nice to other students/teachers, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
-Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
-Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
-purple and golden paw tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
-Kids might steal them from other kids. Some kids could lose theirs by accident.
9) What is the delivery system?
-Teachers hand them out
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
-Both a pro and con would be bias. It's no secret that some teachers play favorites...This could become unfair. But it could also be a way to avoid bias...just depends on how you look at it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
-After they receive 10 purple, they get one gold. Gold is saved for prizes
12) What are the pro's and con's?
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
-Collecting golden tickets
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
-How many tickets are given out
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
-Very well, as we have learned, reinforcers are the greatest way to modify behavior. The more tickets the kids get, the more positively they will react.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
-Very well, they included it in the parent letter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
-Must be very well since they are saying so many students are receiving tickets everywhere around school.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
-Of course! I saw it all throughout my elementary, middle, and high school. Some take these things extremely seriously and some ignore it completely.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
-The same as I listed in my pros and cons.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
-A poll of how many of them actually seriously engage in it as well as how many of them believe its actually working vs kids just acting a part for a prize.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
-How the kids feel about the system.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavior, positive, negative, tokens, reinforcers, reinforcement, target behaviors.
1) What is this program?
This program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. The T.R.R.C. stands for Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful, and Caring. These four behaviors were chose by school officials to of focus for the program.
2) How did it come about?
This program came about as a district-wide initiative to elicit certain behaviors through the use of PBIS system (Positive Behavior Intervention System) in the schools.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
At Poyner, they are trying to elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors from their students.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A few specific behaviors they might want students to emit would be turning in their homework on time, waiting patiently for their turn when standing in line, using line basics, using an inside voice, keeping their hands to themselves, following directions, and other behaviors that are typically expected of an elementary school aged child.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a system that is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system is based on positive reinforcement because it involves the addition of a desirable stimulus. When the teachers and staff at the school see the students emitting behavior that is within one of the four behavior classes chosen by the school as important, the student’s behavior is reinforcement by receiving a ticket.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens that are used in this program are the purple paw tickets. Once a student has collected ten of them, they can be turned in for a golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
One of the pros to this is will be that students will be noticed and reinforced for positive behavior. This could lead to an increase in more positive behavior. I could also see this encouraging students who typically misbehavior to modify their behavior so that they too can participate and earn tickets. One of the cons to a system like this is if the students are in charge of their own tickets is that they may lose them. Also the earning and tracking of track could become a distraction and take away from class time.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is set up so that if teachers or staff sees students demonstrating these characters of pillar throughout the day, they will be given a panther paw ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
One of the pros to the is delivery system is that they will be on a schedule of reinforcement that is pretty instantaneous; developmentally this works for this age group of children. Another pro to this system of delivery is that all staff and teachers are involved in the process. One of the cons to this systems that if there are so many teachers and staff involved what is rewarded by some, might not be rewarded by all; there would need to be a standard with no grey set. Behavior has lots of grey area so that makes it difficult.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by the individual students.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros to doing it this way is that the students learn they need to be responsible with their tickets. They are also able to see their progress on a daily basis, which can help to encourage them. Both of these pros can also be cons because if students lose their tickets they will not be replaced, they will have to start over and earn them all again. Also if they are able to see their progress on a daily basis, they may notice that they have enough to earn whatever it is they want and have trouble staying motivated to maintain their behavior.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are 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?
I believe the administrators probably thought about things that children enjoy doing and earning. It is also possible that they surveyed the parents of the students at the school to see what types of thing they though their students would like to get as prizes for positive behavior at school.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe these would be effective reinforcers because there are a variety of different choices, which means there is probably something that would interest every child. To truly decide if these options are the most effective reinforcers, Poyner would have try out the program for awhile with a group of students to establish a baseline and they could make changes to the types of reinforcers they offer.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in 10 purple paw tickets for 1 golden ticket. Once they have a golden ticket they can save them or spend them to access the prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I believe it would be helpful for administrators to track how many purple paw tickets they give out and how many are actually traded in for golden tickets. I think it would also be helpful to track which prizes are more popular and which prizes never seem to be chosen. It might also be helpful to know at which grade level certain prizes are more popular and others are not.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Based on the information I read in the article, I am not sure how effectively administrators are informing students about the system. Although if the information they provide parents is an indication, I would say that students are pretty well informed about the system that is in place.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think this article written to the parents is well written and gives them plenty of detail about the program. From the information I read, I was able to gain a basic understanding of what the program is, what the purpose is, and how it will help the child of Poyner. I am sure if parents have more questions or want a more through explanation, they can call the school and they would be happy to answer their questions.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
In the article since it is written to parents, it does not talk about the communication between the administrators and the others teachers about the system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Like everything in life, there is definitely a possibility. I worked in one of the Waterloo Schools that had a system very similar to this last year and I did not buy into it; I felt like it was like giving the children “dog treats” for doing things they were suppose to be doing anyway. I noticed that I was less likely to give out a ticket unless you were doing something extraordinary or you were a child who I typically saw making unsafe or poor choices and I saw making a positive choice.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One problem that could arise in this token economy is consistency. If teachers and staff are not consistently rewarding behavior, then students may lose interest or not want to participate anymore.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What happens if a student loses their tickets?
If a student just earned a ticket but then gets in trouble, do they get to keep their ticket?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Are the prizes set at the same price amount of tickets for each grade level?
How do you get staff and teachers to buy into the system?
25) Terms: token, delivery system, elicit, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, schedule of reinforcement, stimulus, desirable stimulus, token economy, baseline, reinforcer
1) The program is a district-wide initiative called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) The program came from the Positive Behaviors Interventions System in the Waterloo School District and was used in each school in the district.
3) The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) Some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit would be not getting into fights, remembering to do their homework on time, being quite when others are talking, helping someone clean up a mess, etc.
5) The system is based on reinforcement.
6) The reinforcement is positive because it involves the addition of something desirable.
7) The token used in this program are the purple and gold paw tickets.
8) A pro associated with the tokens is that the children will become more excited about being rewarded for the positive behaviors and encourage others to get them as well. A con associated with the tokens is that the one child could steal/take them from another and then receive a reward for an aversive behavior. Another con could be token hoarding and the child cashes in for their rewards all at one time.
9) The delivery system is teachers or administrators who see the behavior go and give the token directly to the child who exhibited the target behavior.
10) A pro associated with the delivery system is that the adult can administer verbal praise and recognition to the child which would reinforce the target behavior more effectively and let others know what the teacher/administer is looking for. A con to the system is that after the token is given to the child, there is nothing stopping another child from stealing the token. Also the children could lose their tokens over the course of time when they are trying to save them up. If that happens the children may feel that their behavior was for nothing.
11) The tokens are banked by ten purple tickets adding up to one gold ticket. The information given did not state if there was a public bank for the students to see. The children were all responsible for their own tokens once they were given to them.
12) The pros are that the teacher/administer can recognize the child individually and verbally encourage them. The cons are that the children could lose their tokens or have another child steal/take them away.
13) The backup reinforcers were the rewards that the children could receive after they got a certain amount of tokens.
14) The backup reinforcers were chosen based on what the children normally asked for/enjoyed most, such as extra recess or more computer time.
15) The reinforcers were effective because there was a visible change in the students’ behavior and how often the target behavior occurred, according to the new letter.
16) The students gain access to the reinforcers by chasing in their tokens to the administrators as a way to “purchase” the reward they had earned.
17) Some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective are being able to see a change in the students’ behaviors and being able to recognize more and more students emitting the desired target behavior.
18) The administrators are teaching the students about the system more effectively than the parents because they were most likely given and in-depth explanation of the system and what behaviors they are watching for. Likewise, the schools probably have rules for the tokens, banks, and other details about the program posted around the building.
19) The administrators are teaching the parents about the system in an effective manner as well, just not as in-depth as the students learned about the program. The parents all learned the overall workings of the system with the newsletter and most likely were able to ask questions about an areas of the system that they did not understand.
20) The administrators needed to teach the other teacher about the system in great depth and effectively because they were expected to administer tokens to the children who exhibit the targeted behaviors.
21) There is a possibility of not everyone will embrace the system because they may feel that the children are being reinforced for the behaviors that they should be doing on a daily basis for no reason at all. Children might reject the system because they feel that when they exhibit the target behavior no one is there to notice and they do not get reinforced.
22) Some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here are misuse of tokens, token hoarding, and the behavior deteriorating after fading out the tokens.
23) I would ask the administrators how their system plans to handle the children who still neglect the target behaviors and find ways to work around the token economy.
24) Additional information I would want to know about the system is how well it was working in the school and if they expected the changes to last in a long-term manner? Also if the rewards lost their stamina, how would the system evolve to fill the changing needs of the students to ensure that they continue to exhibit the target behavior?
25) Terminology Used: reinforcement, behavioral classes, elicit, target behaviors, emit, tokens, aversive, reward, exhibit, delivery system, token economy, reinforcer
This is a token economy designed to reward certain target behaviors; those that display trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, and caring. An example of such behaviors include a student being responsible and having their materials ready when class starts, or a student emitting a caring behavior and helping a fellow classmate. It came about after the Waterloo school district wanted to initiate a PBIS (positive behavior intervention system). The “Golden Ticket” system is based on positively rewarding the desirable behaviors with a token. When enough tokens are acquired they get a “Golden Ticket” which can be exchanged for a number of desired things, such as more recess. The pro’s of the system are that it increases the frequency of good behaviors; however, it takes ten tokens to get a reward which might be to high to begin with, thus discouraging students from attempting the challenge. Students bank these tokens themselves, holding on to them after they’ve gained them. That’s good in the sense that it teaches responsibility but, it could be bad if the student loses the tickets or decided to trade them to other students for favors. The tickets are delivered by the teachers which will increase the frequency of the target behaviors when the teacher is around; however, the operant behavior may change when the student knows they will not be rewarded (i.e. the teacher isn’t around to see their good behavior). Students exchange their Golden Tickets for a backup reinforcer. The backup reinforcers are somewhat desirable. The students will not likely find lunch with the principle rewarding, and extra recess isn’t fun when one is alone. Thus, extra computer time may seem like the only strong reward; unless the student is satiated with computer time at home. Teachers could track the number of TRRC behaviors before and after implementing the reward system to see if the system is effective. If the administrators are communicating the system to their students and displaying the actions themselves it could be effective. Putting a small section about the system on the second page of a school notice may not be a highly effective way to communicate the message to parents. A note sent home with every student would likely do a better job. There is also a possibility that some teachers don’t buy into the system, thus reducing its effectiveness. Certain problems with a token economy is that students may begin to hoard the tickets, or feel that they have enough tickets and can ‘coast’ and not try to get any more of them. A question I would have for the administrator is why they choose ten tokens for each golden ticket – why not start with a lower number to increase buy-in? Also, why did they choose rewards that didn’t have high valance?
Terms: Behavior, operant behavior, reward, desirable, valance, satiated, reinforce, token economy, target behavior, backup reinforcer,
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 tokenshttp://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) What is this program?
The program goes by the name of Poyner Panther On Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful, Caring (T.R.R.C) and it is a token economy that is used to increase certain target behaviors in their area
2) How did it come about? The program came about because the district wanted to increase more positive characteristics such as the ones listed above in their district by using a behavioral intervention.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Like mentioned in the name, they are trying to elicit the behavioral classes including, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, and respect
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Giving high fives to students when they do something well, helping students and other teachers put materials away when it is time to clean up, or giving them tasks and having the students perform those tasks by themselves such as passing out paper to all students in the class
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive reinforcement because they are adding something that is pleasurable if they are emitting the correct behavior
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used in this program are in the form of tickets. There are two different colored tickets the children can receive, purple and gold. Gold tickets are accumulated when the student gets 10 purple tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? These tickets are only effective in the school setting, once the student gets home, the behaviors may not continue because they will discriminate between at home and at school, making the behavior modification less effective.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system that is being used in this setting is continuous. The children constantly receive tickets if they are emitting a reinforcing behavior.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? The pros are that the students know exactly how to get the tokens, because they are constantly reinforced, a con would be that the children will get used to constantly being reinforced for their behavior and they may not want to continue to do the behavior without the tickets and this could lead to extinction of the positive behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked? Once a student receives 10 purple tickets, they then exchange them for 1 golden ticket, these golden tickets can then be used to receive some sort of reinforcement
12) What are the pro's and con's? One con is that the student may not see the big picture of the tickets, such as receiving a toy at the end, they may just see them as physical tickets which might not seem as motivating to them. One positive is that they are aware of what their goal is, to receive 10 purple tickets in order to get 1 gold ticket.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? Back up reinforces consist of more tangible items such as ice cream, lunch with the principal, or movies
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The backup reinforces are based off of what is already known to be a reinforce for the students. The teachers know students like to eat lunch with the teacher or principal, so they turned that into a reinforce for the program
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes, they are effective reinforces, but the reinforcers effectiveness may very from student to student. If a student doesn’t like ice cream, the reinforce of ice-cream obviously wouldn’t be as appealing to them as a student whose favorite food is ice-cream.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students use the golden tickets (which they receive by handing in 10 purple tickets)
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The administration would know how effective the system is by counting up how many purple tickets have been handed in in exchange for gold tickets, and then how many gold tickets have been exchanged for reinforces.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? The administrators are doing a good job of promoting the system because they students emit the reinforcing behaviors all throughout the school. Not just in the classroom but also in the lunch room, hallways, and even at recess, which shows that the administration has done a good job of constantly reinforcing the children no matter what environment they are in
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? I would say the administration could do a better job or promoting it to parents, a short mention of it in the newsletter isn’t going to be enough to explain it.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? All the teachers seem to understand the main idea of the system and what types of behaviors should be rewarded (or given a ticket for)
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? I believe that parents especially might not totally be in agreement of the system. Some parents may expect their children to clean their room without having to give them a reward or ticket. This could cause some problems if the students start to generalize the system being in all environments not just school.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Token economies are known to be discriminative. The students may only emit these positive behaviors at school because that is where they know they are reinforced
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? I would want to ask them if they are going to increase the amount of purple tickets that are needed to receive a gold ticket. Making it more work for the students to be rewarded in order to hopefully get them to do it without as many rewards in the future.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would like to know what they are doing with the kids who still aren’t increasing their T.R.R.C’s?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavior, reinforcement, generalize, reward, punishment, positive reinforcement, emit, elicit, extinction, continuous reinforcement, environment
1) What is this program?
-- This program is a token economy which the name is Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C considered to increase positive behavior from elementary students.
2) How did it come about?
--This is a district wide movement that they have tried to start. It came about to elicit more and better behaviors that encompass caring, trustworthy, respectful and responsibility.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
--I think that the behavioral classes that they want the kids to elicit overall is good behavior and as I stated before, caring, trustworthy, respectful and responsibility.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
--Some target behavior’s they want the children to emit sharing, not talking out of their turn and telling the truth. Also, some more would be hold the door for others, being quiet, being honest, etc. There is quite more.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
--This system is based on reinforcement. Mainly because the students that are caught demonstrating the character pillars are given a purple paw ticket.
6) Is it positive or negative?
--This is positive reinforcement because it is adding a pleasurable stimulus rather than taking away the aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
--The tokens that are used in this program for reinforcement are purple and gold tickets. Each golf ticket is 10 purple tickets and with the gold tickets you are able to redeem prizes.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
--The tokens must be salient enough to elicit the target behaviors. The system is only salient and effective within the classroom or school setting and so the children ay discriminate and elicit these behaviors in the classroom or at school only. I think the school or classroom would act as the discriminative stimulus for which the behaviors will be reinforced.
9) What is the delivery system?
--The delivery system is that the students are given tickets from their teachers after they emit a behavior that is desirable and has extrinsic value to the school.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
--The teachers may not see every desirable behavior – also they students need to be exhibiting constant behaviors to get more tickets, because the better chances of winning. Some cons would be that it’s not 100% that you will get your named called when it is put into the raffle.
11) How are the tokens banked?
--The tickets are banked by the children and once they receive ten they are able to turn them into get a golden ticket.
12) What are the pros and cons?
--A pro would be that they can cash them when they want - a con would be that if they lose their tickets they have no way to redeem them then because they aren’t banked somewhere that safe.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
--Some back up reinforcers are extra recess – a bag of popcorn – lunch with the principle and or lead teacher – extra computer time – ice cream cones – and help the custodian -
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
--The reinforcers are chosen on what sounds fun or rewarding to the children.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
--Maybe some of them. But in my opinion not all of them because who would want to work for the custodian? But every child is different at that age.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
-- The students gain access to this reinforcer by trading in their purple tickets for golden tickets and the golden tickets are known to be the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
--some outcome measures could be a record of how many purple tickets were given out and traded in for golden ticket, basically reporting good behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
--The administrators seems to be effectively monitoring the students behaviors not only in the classroom but outside on the playground, in the halls, in the cafeteria, etc. The kids seem too really like the reinforcement activities and prizes therefore it teaches the students what they what, which are caring, respect, responsibility, and trust.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
--There doesn’t seem that the parents know much by this flyer/newspaper hand out. Maybe they are being educated along with the children but how do we know? If it is mentioned in the paper and the students are bringing home tokens you would think that the parents know just as much about the system as the children and teachers do.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
--Again, there is not much information about this topic. You would think that the teachers are the ones who put this system together and came up with the various reinforcement’s that qualify for these tokens.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
--Each and every time you do something like this there is always going to be someone out there that may not have completely buy in with the system. Each person has there certain ways which include the teachers, parents and the students and this could make them not buy in to the system.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
-- Children could lose their tickets, parents not always knowing what the tickets are for that they bring home and how many they have, does each student have fair chances at receiving these tickets, students could switch between others students, bully could be a factor as well.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
--How do you make sure that the students take these tickets home? How do we make sure the students are keeping the tickets they earn? Are all students able to earn tickets for the same tasks?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
-- I would really like to know if this system causes a change in the students and their behaviors.
Terms: Behaviors, stimuli’s, reinforcements, outcome measures, reinforcers, exhibit, desirable behaviors, extrinsic, discriminative stimulus, salient, elicit, emit, positive reinforcement, target behaviors, behavioral classes, token economy
Reading Blog #15
Cassidy Monaco
1)What is this program?
This is a program that uses a Positive Behavior Interventions System called Poyner Panthers on TRCC (trustworthy, respect, responsible, caring). It is a behavior modification program that focuses on positive behaviors. My middle school (Waukee Middle School) used PBIS, so I know a lot about this type of behavior system.
2)How did it come about?
This plan came about in order to elicit more behaviors that involve being caring, trustworthy, respectful and responsible. This is a district wide PBIS movement that they have attempted to start.
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes that they are trying to elicit is overall good behavior, but more specifically, to be more trustworthy, caring, respectful, and responsible.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A target behavior they may want the children to emit could be helping someone carry their books, assisting another peer with homework, lining up quietly, or completing their homework on time.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on positive reinforcement. They are teaching positive behaviors by reinforcing them by giving out tickets that eventually result in prizes. They do not use punishment, because as we learned in class, reinforcement is the best way to modify a behavior.
6)Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because it is adding something desirable (tickets and prizes) to increase the frequency of a behavior.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
Teachers hand out purple tickets, and after you receive 10 of those you receive a golden ticket. You are able to “cash in” your tickets for prizes and other rewards.
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros of this system could be that it has steps and goals to work towards before they are immediately rewarded. This is a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement. A con for this system is that the kids are only elementary age and they may lose the tickets. They might also become upset when not rewarded for something they felt was worth a ticket. There may also be a problem with the children having better behaviors at school but not at home due to knowing they won’t receive tokens while at home, making school become a discriminative stimulus. However, the biggest problem I see is that the small prizes they receive may not seem cool or interesting enough to some students because not all the same tokens are desirable to different students.
9)What is the delivery system?
The delivery system appears to be a fixed ratio system because the 10 purple tickets equaling 1 golden ticket. This is unchanging and the kids can count on this happening. It is sort of continuous reinforcement because supposedly every time the child emits a good behavior, he or she will receive a ticket.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The biggest is that the continuous reinforcement isn’t going to be perfect, as teachers will not notice and reward every single target behavior. It is almost impossible for every positive behavior to be noticed and awarded. There is also going to be some differences between the people giving out the tickets and their opinions on what is the target behavior and that could determine whether a child receives a ticket for their positive behavior. The pros of this is that the kids can better see their progress and have something to work towards, since they know when they get 10 purple tickets, they will receive a golden ticket. I really like the idea of the fixed ratio system but it is important that teachers are being aware of good behaviors so that the kids are rewarded and don’t get discouraged.
11)How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tickets is equivalent to 1 golden ticket and the golden ticket can be exchanged for a reinforcer (prize) such as eating lunch with the principal or extra recess.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
The pros of this system is that it is pretty straightforward and seems rather easy to handle. It gives the kids something to work towards and makes it hard enough that they have to continue to work on their behaviors in order to earn rewards. It is important at this level that it not be too easy for kids to earn rewards or they will begin just doing enough to earn the reward and not understanding the actual point. In behavioral terms, the reinforcements may become satiated if they are too easy to come by. But it is also important not to make it too hard or it may cause some students to not even try.
13)What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time or helping the custodian.
14)How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I believe the teachers and school staff probably thought of things that children enjoy doing and things that would seem rewarding to elementary students. Almost any kid will be excited over food or getting special one-on-one time with an adult. At my school, we had similar types of reinforcers and I know I enjoyed them and saw them as reinforcing.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe these would be effective reinforcers because there is a wide variety of them which means that they would hopefully reach every child’s interests. In order to really decide if they are effective we would need to create a baseline and then study the behaviors and compare it. Like stated above, I know I enjoyed these types of reinforcers when I was younger.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They receive a purple ticket for good behaviors. Once they get 10 purple tickets, they trade them in for a golden ticket, which can be used for prizes/reinforcers.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think that it will be helpful for the administrators to keep track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are actually cashed into golden tickets. They should keep track of the reinforcers the kids receive, which ones are requested more, etc. so they know which prizes are most reinforcing to the kids. Then I think they need to have some kind of way to measure the differences in kids’ behaviors before the system was implemented compared to after the reinforcers were introduced. They could do this by comparing how many detentions were handed out before and during the time the PBIS was in place.
18)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would guess that they are pretty effective at teaching the students about the system because they make it sound like it has caught on pretty fast and that the kids are excited and interested in being involved. However, I don’t think the small parent newsletter gives us enough information to truly judge how well it is being taught to the students.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think this newsletter to the parents is a very helpful way to communicate the information. It has enough detail and in simple enough terms that it seems very easy to understand. It explains the process well. If the kids understand the system well, they can explain more details to their parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We do not get this information from the parent newsletter.
21)Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think this is a really good possibility because some children are less motivated than others as well as parents, and some teachers may be better at noticing and handing out tickets than others.
22)What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The first problem with this token economy is that school is a discriminant stimulus, like I stated earlier, and the positive behaviors may not spill over into different settings, like at home. The children may also become satiated with the reinforcers if they are too easy to obtain. Also, the teachers must learn to recognize and reward most of the good behaviors for it to be effective in changing the child’s behavior.
23)What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would like to know how they trained everyone involved in handing out tickets. My mom is a teacher at a middle school that uses PBIS and they have frequent trainings and professional development to learn more about positive behavior interventions, so I would assume Poyner does the same. I would also like to know how they plan on measuring the data.
24)What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know the outcome of this system and how effective it has been so far. I would want to know what flaws they find in the system and if they are doing anything to fix the flaws that occur.
TERMS: elicit, satiated, positive reinforcement, fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, emit, response, consequence, punishment, aversive, baseline, behavioral class, target behavior, variable
1) What is this program?
Poyner Panther on TRRC. Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible and Caring.
2) How did it come about?
This came about as a district-wide initiative to elicit certain behaviors through the use of PBIS system in schools.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
This school is trying to elicit socially acceptable behaviors that include trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Target behavior could include volunteering to pick up litter around the school, helping another student or teacher pick something up if they have dropped something, holding open a door for someone.
5&6) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This point system is based on positive reinforcement because it is to encourage the frequency of the behavior by adding incentives.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The students are given purple tickets as their "tokens" they are then able to turn every 10 tickets in for a 1 gold ticket which is then rewarded with a variety of prices.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros would be that it is making the environment of the school a more positive atmosphere also encouraging this behavior at a younger age might increase the behavior later in life. Some cons would be that this could increase competition which isn't always a bad thing but it could lead to bullying and other kids stealing.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system would be the teachers or the administration seeing the desired behaviors and awarding the child with a purple ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pros are that the teacher can focus praise on the children at an individual basis but the con could be that a child is feeling left out or the teachers/administration did see it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tokens go to 1 golden token. I'm not sure if it was public or not but the children were responsible for their ticket after they received it.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros would be that it teaches the children responsibility of keeping track of their tickets the cons would be that they could lose the tickets or someone could steal them.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers would be the prizes the children get when they turn in their tickets. These prizes include ice cream, extra recess, a bag of popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time or helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Depending on how many tickets the child accumulated depended on the prize.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They were effective from what the news letter states. The children's behaviors have improved and are desirable.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students earn their prizes by exchanging the correct amount of tickets for their desired prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administration knows the system is effective when they see the behaviors changing to the desirable target behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are most likely teaching the students in-depth about the system and giving the parents an overview of it. There is probably a bank for the tickets and rules that apply that they most likely wouldn't be telling the parents in this news letter.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think the administration is teaching the parents what they need to know. They aren't going to go so in-depth about it in a news letter but give an over view and if the parent has questions they are more likely to ask their child rather than the administration because the administration has already gone in-depth about the system to the students.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The administration need to teach the other teachers about the system so more desirable behaviors can be rewarded and they will more likely be emitted.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Not everyone may participate in the system because they may find it silly to reward kids for something they should be doing regardless or the kids might not do it because they only get reinforced if someone sees it so they might not even try.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Problems could included the misuse of tokens, keeping the tokens, or the behavior may decrease when the tokens are no longer reinforcing.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask them if they plan to change the backup reinforcers and how they plan to handle kids who don't want anything to do with the system or neglect it.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to see the data from the system, for example how many kids are participating and how many tickets are handed out.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
reinforcement, reinforcer, reinforcing, behavioral classes, elicit, target behaviors, emit, tokens, reward, exhibit, token economy
1. Poyner Panther on TRRC is a program designed to encourage and reinforce good behaviours from elementary school students through token economy. It employs behaviour modification techniques and reinforces good behaviours by awarding tokens that can be accumulated and exchange for lack up reinforcers later. Students are continuously reinforced as they emit behaviours that show they are trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
2. This program is an attempt to elicit positive behaviours from children, and it is being enforced district wide.
3. The behaviour class of the target behaviours is good behaviours. The flyers specified the target behaviours a little more by stating that the behaviours have to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. But the flyers fail to specify these behaviours even more.
4. The more specific target behaviours students may want to emit in order to be reinforced with tokens are: helping other students with their homework, coming to class on time, sharing toys, raising their hands before speaking, and participating in a wide range of class activities voluntarily.
5. 6. This program is based on positive reinforcement. Positive behaviours are reinforced by tokens that can be accumulated to exchange for back up reinforcers, which are bigger prizes that may be useful in other contexts as well. There is not aversive consequences in this program.
7. The tokens used in this programs are tickets of different colours. When students are caught emitting good behaviours, they are given a purple ticket. After the students have accumulated ten purple tickets they can receive a golden ticket. Students are able to exchange prizes with their gold tickets, and each prize requires different numbers of gold tickets.
8. The pros of this program is that it enforces continuous reinforcement schedule, where children are “caught” emitting good behaviours and are immediately reinforced, the tokens are believed to be salient enough to reinforce the children and keep the children feeling reinforced. Although purple tickets may not mean much, but if there is a prize that the children really want, they will emit more good behaviours to receive more purple tickets although they are not as salient as the golden tickets or the actual back up reinforcers. There are several cons to this programs. Some children may not be reinforced by purple tickets because the leaning out process takes too long and extinction occurs, where students extinguish their behaviours because they are not reinforced enough. Children may also lose their tickets, or when they emit a good behaviours and not get “caught” with it, they may feel discouraged. Students may also only emit good behaviours under the supervision of adults, as in a discriminative stimulus.
9. The delivery system is meant to be a continuous reinforcement, but since good behaviours cannot be “caught” 100% of the time, it may not be enforced as well as it should be. The program also employs a fixed ratio schedule as ten purple tickets are reinforced with one golden tickets.
10. The pros of the continuous reinforcement is that children are constantly reinforced so the frequency of their behaviours can increase dramatically and significantly. However, it is impossible to “catch” every good behaviours emitted due to the fact that these children are not constantly being watched. Some good behaviours can be ignored. The fixed ratio schedule is useful because it reinforced the children even more after a certain amount of good behaviours are being emitted, but some children may feel like ten purple tickets are impossible to gain and they do not even bother to try to earn one more purple ticket. These students may need a more frequent fixed ratio schedule for the token economy to work.
11. Ten purple tickets can be exchanged for one golden tickets, which can be “cashed” in for a backup reinforcer such as a coupon for the restaurants.
12. The pros and cons of this token economy is that it is easy to follow by younger children, and it acts as a constant reinforcer even though the children are not externally reinforced. The cons is that once this token economy is being mastered by all children, they may become satiated and refuse to participate for any longer as the prize cease to appear reinforcing.
13. 14. Back up reinforcers are prizes that can be exchanged through golden tickets, such as having lunch with the princpals or the sonic ice cream cones. These are chosen through the authorities figuring out which activities the children enjoy doing. Perhaps every child wants a sonic ice cream cones.
15. They are effective reinforcers, but maybe not every child finds it reinforcing. Perhaps a baseline would be useful in determining which back up reinforcers are reinforcing to most children and which one is not reinforcing at all to most children.
16. Students can gain access to these reinforcers via emitting good behaviours, get caught emitting it, and receive a purple tickets. After ten purple tickets, they can trade in for a golden tickets which will give them access to the desired reinforcers.
17. The administrators should be keeping data of the frequency of good behaviours being emitted. It may be useful to draw a baseline before administering the program. If good behaviours have increased after the program is administered comparing to the baseline, then the program is deemed effective.
18. This program is rather useful as it seems effective at delivering and message and modifying the behaviours. It is easy enough for children to understand the concept and it also acts as a game to get the children excited.
19. If it is easy enough for the children to participate, it should be easy enough for the parents to understand. Details are described in simple terms and it seems as though both the school communicates well with the parents. It also seems like the school wants the parents to participate with their children to increase the frequency of good behaviours.
20. The article lacks this information but if the parents are able to understand, other teachers should be able to grasp the concept as well.
21. This may be a possibility. Some children may not feel the need to participate as they are less motivated by the tickets.
22. The most problematic factor is the school acting as a discriminative stimulus. Children may not feel the need to act a certain way outside of school. Children can also become satiated, and it may not longer be effective.
23. 24. I want to know how the data is measured and how effective it had been since the administration of the program.
TERMS: discriminative stimulus, stimuli, positive reinforcement, punishment, consequences, behaviours, behaviour modification, elicit, emit, target behaviour, behaviour class, fixed ratio schedule, continuous reinforcement, salient, satiated, response
1) The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. which stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Students who are caught emitting any of these behaviors will be rewarded with purple paw tickets. Those tickets can be traded in for prizes at the end of each week if they have enough for a gold ticket which is only 10 purple tickets.
2) The school district is trying to become a PBIS district which is a positive behavior interventions system.
3) The behavioral classes the district is trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4) Some behaviors the children could emit might be helping someone carry things, hold the door for others, or being quiet when asked to be.
5) This system would be based on reinforcement since the kids are praised for their actions and given small tokens.
6) This would be positive reinforcement since it is the addition of something desirable instead of the subtraction of something aversive.
7) The tokens used in this program were purple paw tickets as well as golden tickets that could be exchanged for prizes.
8) The con for using tickets is that they could be copied and a pro would be that the children can see how much they are getting from their good behavior.
9) The delivery system would be variable ratio because students are not giving a ticket every time they emit the selected behaviors but only when they are caught or seen by a teacher.
10) A pro of this kind of system is that students will never know when they are being caught but also this can be a con because some students may only emit those behaviors when teachers are around.
11) The purple tickets are banked by the students themselves and can turn them in for gold tickets in the office which can then be turned in for prizes whenever they please.
12) A pro would be that teachers do not need to take extra time tracking each student’s tickets but a con would be not knowing if they are real tickets or fake ones.
13) They did not state backup reinforcers unless the back-up is helping the janitor, ice cream, and etc.
14) These were chosen by the staff and school since they are inexpensive.
15) I think the ice cream and popcorn is but I do not know many students who would turn in tickets to help the janitor.
16) The students have to report to the office to receive the reinforcers after they have received ten purple tickets.
17) The staff could keep track of the amount of tickets earned by the students and have in located outside of the office. They could have the students take a survey about how they liked the system as well.
18) The administrators should have it announced in classrooms as well as the newsletter since not a lot of people read the newsletter.
19) The parents are sort of left out of the group since they cannot see the system hands on and just have to read about it.
20) I think they need to set up better explanations about when to give out the tickets as well as how often and all the teachers need to be on the same page.
21) Yes there is a possibility that some people will not like the system and ignore it.
22) Problems with token economies are behavior deteriorates after fading which may happen in this school where teachers are not rewarding as often which leads the students to emitting the behaviors less. Another problem could be token hoarding where students turn their tickets in all at once which will be a problem for the office.
23) How are they going to keep track of the system? Does it need to be altered in anyway?
24) Has the system been effective in other schools? Are we the first school to try it?
Terminology: emitting, behaviors, positive, elicit, reinforcement, desirable, aversive, token, variable ratio, emit, reinforcers, token economies, rewarding
1) What is this program?
-Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. The letters stand for trustworthy, respect, responsibility and caring. Students are given a purple ticket if they are seen emitting any of these behaviors. At the end of the week, the students may decided to turn in their tickets for a gold ticket (10 purple tickets) for a prize.
2) How did it come about?
-The school is interested in becoming a positive behavior intervention system school district
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
-They are trying to get students to elicit the behavioral class of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
-Specific target behaviors children may emit are being quite, not talking with the teacher is, finishing homework, helping a friend, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
- this is based on reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
-It is positive reinforcement because they are being rewarded with something desirable
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
-the tokens in this program are the purple and gold tickets used to turn in for prizes
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
-Pros- kids can see their progress and be taught responsibility of not loosing them
cons- kids may loose them or get them taken
9) What is the delivery system?
-Variable ratio schedule of reinofrcement because the kids are not being given a ticket every time they do something within the TRRC program, only when the behavior is seen by a teacher
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
-pros- students will emit behaviors when no one is watching c
cons- students may expect a ticket every time they emit a desirable behavior
11) How are the tokens banked?
- the students are responsible for banking the tokens
12) What are the pro's and con's?
-pros- teaches responsibility
cons- may loose the tokens
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
-back-up reinforcers could be parents/teacher encouraging the students, or the prizes
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
-by teachers and faculty of the school
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
-everyone likes ice cream and popcorn so the reinforcers should be effective
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
-by receiving 10 purple tickets to turn in for one gold ticket and save those up
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
-the administrators should keep track of the amount of tickets/prizes that are given out
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
-I think the administrators educated the students well they could provide examples of the behaviors or prizes need to make this program successful
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
-I think the administrators educated the parent well by sending out the information in a newsletter
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
-Hopefully the teachers were taught which behaviors they should be watching for in order for them to know what to reinforce
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
-yes this is a possibility, not everyone may like the prizes available
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
-Token economies can be problematic because their effectiveness over time
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
-Are the prizes the same every time a student turns in a gold ticket or do they change?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
-Is this improving the students behavior?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
-emitting, behavior, behavioral class, elicit, target behavior, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, tokens, variable ratio, schedule of reinforcement, reinforcers reinforce, token economy
1) What is this program?
The program that the Poyner Elementary School flyer was highlighting was the Panthers on T.R.R.C., which focuses on creating Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful, and Caring students. They are using a token economy in order to elicit these target behaviors in the students.
2) How did it come about?
Poyner is involved in a PBIS district, which is a Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are certain demonstrations of trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness, and caring in their students.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors could be helping someone stand up after they have fallen down, holding the door open for their peers and teachers, and helping another student with their project/homework.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is an example of positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens that are used are purple and gold tickets. When a child is seen emitting the target behavior they are given a purple ticket along with verbal praise and once the child has earned 10 purple tickets, they can exchange those for a gold ticket and the golden tickets are the tokens that can be exchanged for the backup reinforcers such as, lunch with the principal, ice cream, working with the custodian, etc.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro’s are that it is a concrete way for a student to recognize that they have emitted the target behavior. The con’s are that the children will have to work pretty hard to earn 10 purple tickets in order to exchange for gold tickets and then receive the reinforcement. This is a long process to go through for kids, so they might not want to put the effort in to earn the tokens.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is a teacher or administrative professional handing out the tokens.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pro’s of this delivery system is that students should (ideally) be well behaved in front of their teachers. The con’s are that the target behavior is not very well defined, it is a behavioral class, which means that not all teachers are going to consistently deliver the reinforcer.
11) How are the tokens banked?
10 purple tickets can be exchanged for 1 gold ticket and the gold tickets are used to purchase the reinforcer.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro is that this is a clear-cut, consistent way for students to earn reinforcement. The con is that it does not say whether certain teachers or administrators are handling all of the exchanges and it does not say when students can exchange their tokens (what time of day, is there an expiration date to tokens, etc.). Another con is that students take these tickets home where they may be lost, or they may trade them with their friends if teachers aren’t supervising them closely enough, thus some students may get the tickets without emitting the target behavior.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and a lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
If Poyner followed the token checklist then they should have chosen the backup reinforcers according to what the students enjoy doing in their free time and other special privileges that the school offers.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I do not know if these reinforcers are effective, I do not believe that they will be since I do not believe that the reinforcers they chose will be valuable enough for students to try to earn more than 10 purple tickets for some snacks. I do not think that working with the custodian or lunch with the principal and a teacher will be enticing, so I do not think that students will want those reinforcers.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by emitting the target behavior that is trustworthiness, responsibility, respect, and caring. Once they have emitted this behavior 10 times and earned 10 purple tickets, they an exchange those for 1 gold ticket, which can then be used to purchase reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They may count how many purple and gold tickets they print off when they start the program, then compute how many they hand out, in which classrooms the most are handed out, or what time of day that the most tickets are handed out. The best way for administrators to know whether the system is effective or not is to track how many tokens they are handing out to students and how many of those tokens are being used to purchase reinforcers. It is also important to track how quickly students are spending their tokens, if they are spending them too quickly or too slowly then administrators may need to rethink the cost of the tokens. It is also important for administrators to know what the behavior baseline was because it is possible that students earn a lot of tokens and reinforcers because they were emitting the target behavior at a high frequency before the token economy was implemented. It is important to know how often the target behavior was being emitted before implementing the tokens.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It sounds like administrators are doing a great job of teaching students about the program since they say in the flyer that students are being caught “everywhere” emitting the target behavior. If they are emitting the behavior this frequently, then it must be a successful program.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
It doesn’t sound like administrators are teaching parents about the program since it was simply briefly mentioned in this flyer and it just told parents to look around and check for any purple and gold tickets laying around the house. The flyer also mentioned that parents may have heard their children talking about the program, which means that parents haven’t been contacted by administrators about it, which means that parents probably do not have a full understanding of the purpose of the program.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It is unclear how effectively the administrators taught the other teachers about the program because it really could be that students are emitting this behavior everywhere, but it could also be that teachers don’t fully understand the target behavior so they are simply handing out tokens whenever they see an instance of the behavior class, which as we know, has a different topography or function to certain people.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, I think there is a very big possibility that some people do not buy into the program. As I have already said, I do not think that some of the reinforcers will be pleasurable or valuable to the students and some parents may not like the idea of some of the reinforcers, such as unhealthy snacks or extra time at school with the custodian. Maybe some parents or administrators think that reinforcing kids for morally good behavior with material items is a bad idea, maybe they want to foster good behavior in other ways.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
There are quite a number of problems that can happen with this token economy: the price of the tokens could be ineffective, students could hoard the tokens, and the behavior may lessen in frequency once the children are not being continually reinforced for it.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would ask them how they plan to specify target behaviors and distribute tokens in a way that students have equal opportunities to achieve them. There may be more opportunity to emit the target behavior during recess, but during recess there are many more students that a single teacher is trying to watch, which means that there will be instances where the target behavior is not reinforced with a token. I would also ask who is allowed to hand out these tokens to students, is it only teachers? Or are secretaries, custodians, cafeteria personnel, guidance counselors, etc. allowed to hand out tokens since they see students in different situations than do teachers.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know where the students exchange their tickets at, where is the bank located? Is it located in each classroom and supposed to be monitored by individual teachers or is there one community bank located in the main office of the school where the secretary monitors the bank. Token economies are very complicated systems and it is important that everything is consistent, so I would just want to know how the administrators plan to be very consistent in a school with 500 students.
Terms: token economy, elicit, target behavior, behavior class, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, emit, token, behavior baseline, behavior topography, behavior function
1. This program is centered around using a token economy in order to promote the characteristics of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring among students in the Waterloo School District.
2. It came about because students were being seen showing these characteristics and we wanted to reinforce these behaviors.
3. trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring
4. An example of a target behavior for respect might be replying to questions with "Yes, Sir/Ma'am", or "No, Sir/Ma'am" when addressed by a superior. An example of a target behavior for trustworthiness could be something such as "being truthful in all cases and avoiding telling non or half truths whenever possible".
5. Reinforcement
6. Positive
7. Purple and golden tickets.
8. Pros: easy to keep track of, easy to award right away
Cons: easy to reproduce to cheat the system, you have to trade 10 tokens for another token before exchanging that token for a reinforcer instead of just using one kind of token.
9. They give them tickets when they see them emit a desirable behavior.
10. Pro: easy to deliver right away, concrete item that can be related to a primary reinforcer
Cons: easy to not notice a student emitting a behavior, no clear target behaviors defined so reinforcement will not be consistent.
11. They are sent home with the student. They must keep track of them.
12. Pros: promotes student being organized, allows parents to recognize their students good behavior
Con: student could easily lose them, making the system fail
13. ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principle, extra computer time, and helping the custodian
14. By the student turning in the ticket, and they were initially selected by the faculty (guessing, I don't think it actually said)
15. Not really. What student is going to help the custodian or have lunch with the principle in exchange for being good? No one, that's who.
16. Once they get 10 purple tickets, they trade it for a GOLDEN TICKET that can be traded for a primary reinforcer.
17. I did not see any good, concrete way that they are measuring the outcome of this project.
18. Not well at all. It seems as if the students probably are getting the information from this PDF, and this PDF is very low quality in terms of information about this project.
19. Not well at all. It seems as if the parents probably are getting the information from this PDF, and this PDF is very low quality in terms of information about this project.
20. Not well at all. It seems as if the teachers probably are getting the information from this PDF, and this PDF is very low quality in terms of information about this project.
21. Yes. It seems like knowledge of the system was poorly distributed, and as I've shown in this post it is full of holes as far as how it is constructed and applied. This same thing was tried in my hometown when I was in school and no one bought in to it. Teachers stopped giving tokens after about a week, but the program somehow existed for years without being used.
22. Students won't care if they earn the tokens because the backup reinforcers are not very valuable and they won't be consistently reinforced. It is very likely that the students will lose the tokens they are rewarded, and so they will never get access to a backup reinforcer and so the system will fail. Students will not care about the system because they will get angry when they do something they feel should be reinforced, but isn't. Everyone will lose interest quickly due to these issues and the others I outlined in this post.
23. What are the specific target behaviors you will be reinforcing? Be specific.
How are you going to make sure the reward are consistent with everyone involved having such poor knowledge about the system along with the fact that it is impossible to have all students under constant supervision?
Why do they need to exchange 10 purple tickets for a gold ticket, and then a primary reinforcer? Who not just exchange 10 purple tokens for a primary reinforcer?
24. See #23. The answers to those questions are what I would most like to know.
25. TERMS: emit, target behavior, token, reinforcing, positive reinforcement, primary reinforcer, secondary reinforcer, backup reinforcer
1. This program is regarding Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C., focusing on being Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring. It is an example of a token economy. After students receive 10 purple paw tickets, they can trade them in for 1 golden ticket (secondary reinforcer). These golden tickets can later be traded in for prizes such as ice cream cones, popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, etc, which are all primary reinforcers.
2. The Waterloo School District has a district-wide initiative being a PBIS District - Positive Behavior Intervention System. They want to use this program to elicit good behaviors.
3. The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4. Some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit are returning lost items to the office after they found them; greeting teachers when they see them; and completing all the assigned tasks within the given amount of time.
5. This system is based on reinforcement.
6. This program is an example of positive reinforcement because it involves the addition of something desirable (golden tickets, and then primary reinforcers) to increase the probability of the behavior from reoccurring.
7. The tokens used in this program are the purple paw tickets and the golden tickets.
8. The pro's associated with using these tokens would be that the students can be easily rewarded immediately, and it is a concrete physical items that the students can know that they are being reinforced. The con’s associated with using these tokens would be that reinforcement is going to be inconsistent because the target behaviors are not clearly defined, and the students can not be under constant supervision.
9. The delivery system is a teacher or any faculty members giving out tickets.
10. The con associated with the delivery system would be that students will become more bias towards the teachers who rewarded them with tickets than those who did not. A pro for this delivery system could be that it would be difficult for a student to gain tickets they did not deserve.
11. The students keep track of the tickets they received.
12. The con of this system would be that the student can easily lie about the amount of tickets they received. A pro of using this system would be that the students can learn to be responsible and trustworthy.
13. The backup reinforcers are 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. The backup reinforcers were chosen based on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The members of this program selected what would be most attractive to the students would also fit to the hierarchy. For example, the ice cream cones fit into the physiological category; having lunch with the principal fits into the esteem category.
15. I would say that not all of them are effective reinforcers. A fifth grader would probably prefer sweets, extra recess, extra computer time, etc. I do not think that they would want to exchange their tickets for lunch time with the principal because they do not get anything desirable to them in return.
16. The students can collect purple paw tickets and exchange them for golden tickets, and then exchange for a prize.
17. A good outcome measure to measure the effectiveness of the program would be the number of tickets that are distributed.
18. I think that it is not really effective. The students don’t seem to be getting any real valuable information on how the system works outside of this flier, and this flier is not very effective in distributing meaningful information about the program.
19. I think it is the same for the parents as it is for the students. They are getting information from this flier and this flier is fairly ineffective.
20. I do not think that the information was well presented to the teachers since the target behaviors were not even well defined.
21. Yes. I would think that some parents might not be very supportive of this program because it is so poorly implemented. Besides, I would think that the students would only emit a behavior because of the desire to be reinforced. If there is no teacher around (discriminative stimulus), they won’t emit the behavior.
22. Some problems that are known to exist are that those involved may not take this seriously due to the issues we’ve outlined in this post. Another issue would be that students will get frustrated with the system, or feel left out, if they are not reinforced for a behavior that they feel should have been.
23. One of the questions would be what are the specific target behaviors that will be reinforced. We have to know this so that we can make the reinforcement consistent. Also, how can they be consistent when they won’t be around the students all the time?
24. I would want to know the answers to the questions raised in #23. Because I think those are the major factors affecting this entire program. Without the answer to these questions, the token economy idea might fail.
25. TERMS: Token economy, secondary reinforcer, primary reinforcer, elicit, behavioral classes, target behaviors, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, discriminative stimulus.
1)What is this program?
This program is a token based economy which means that if a student behaves well, they get a token (purple or gold ticket) and they can exchange that ticket for a reward. This will make the student more likely to emit target behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
The school is in a school district that is a positive behavior intervention systems district and they decided to use a token economy to increase the likelihood that good behaviors will occur in the future.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit trustworthy, responsible, respectful and caring behavior classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors could be helping a fellow student with homework, holding the door open for a teacher, handing homework on time or running an errand for a teacher, and telling a teacher if another student is cheating on homework and/or if the student is doing some other untrustworthy activity.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcements.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive rewards are given when a target behavior happens or when successful approximation of the behavior happens when they are trying to show the students what they will be rewarded for (so during shaping of behaviors).
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple tickets are given when the behavior happens and ten purple tickets can be exchanged in for one golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some con’s could be students might lose motivation because 10 purple tickets might take too long to attain. The students might hoard the tickets so they can coast for a day. Some students might not get as much attention from teachers even if they do the target behaviors. Some pro’s would be that the students would start to emit behaviors constantly even if they don’t know teachers are watching. The students have something to be motivated about.
9) What is the delivery system?
As I understand it, teachers give continuous reinforcement for the good behaviors by giving a purple ticket to them no matter where they are at when the behavior occurs and the golden tickets are given in a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement (Fr10).
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some con’s would be the students might not think that the backup reinforcer is of equal value to how much they have to do to obtain it. After a while of the fixed interval schedule, some students will get bored with the tasks and rewards. Some pro’s would be that the behaviors would increase for a while, students might make the behaviors habit.
11) How are the tokens banked?
After 10 purple tickets, you can exchange it for 1 golden ticket then the golden ticket can be exchanged for a backup reward.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Some pro’s would be that this could act as an establishing operation, this could also increase the incentive in the students to work up to the golden tickets. Some con’s could be that extinction would occur because you have to get so many tickets before you can have a reward. Once again, the reward might not seem rewarding to the students.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforces are chosen by the students when they turn in their golden tickets.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They should be effective if the student picks them. Some of the reinforcers could be aversive to some of the students like helping the custodian or having lunch with the principal.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students exchange their golden tickets for the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The measures are how many purple and gold tickets are handed out and cashed in. The more purple tickets that are handed out, the more the good behaviors are happening.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Since the students are a part of the system and are being reinforced no matter where they are at for the behaviors, I think the students are being taught very well about the system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I do not feel like the administrators put a lot of effort into teaching the parents about the system. All the parents have is a brief summary of the system. There are a lot of questions that could come up if all you had was this little article to go off of.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We cannot know for sure but the teachers probably had a meeting on how this should work. There is not enough information here to know for sure though.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is a huge possibility that not everyone buys into the system. Schools do this kind of a thing all of the time and something might go wrong with it or it might just be forgotten about. So some people might think that this is just another phase for the school and might think of every possible way to shoot it down.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Hoarding of the tickets, change in reinforcement schedules, losing the tickets, copying the tickets, loss of interest.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How did you teach your teachers about this system? Do the tickets have an expiration date on them? How do you stop teachers form favoring certain students? What happens to the students who don’t get any tickets? What happens if my student loses tickets and how do you keep track of how many tickets the student currently has?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Its success rate in other schools, what kind of things would my student be doing for the custodian when they help him, if a group of kids does a target behavior would they all get tickets?
25) Terms: reward, emit, elicit, target behaviors, reinforcements, positive reward, approximation, shaping, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio, Schedule of reinforcement, backup reinforcer, establishing operation, aversive.
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is most definitely based on a reinforcement system.
6. Is it positive or negative?
This is a positive reinforcement system due to the introduction of a desirable reinforcer.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. 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?
24. 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?
25. Terms: Behaviors, stimuli’s, reinforcements, outcome measures, reinforcers, exhibit, desirable behaviors, extrinsic, discriminative stimulus, salient, elicit, emit, positive reinforcement, target behaviors, behavioral classes, token economy
1) What is the program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. which stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Students who are caught emitting any of these behaviors will be rewarded with purple paw tickets. Those tickets can be traded in for prizes at the end of each week if they have enough for a gold ticket which is only 10 purple tickets. at is this program?
2) How did it come about?
This is a district wide behavioral intervention program trying to promote good behavior in school aged children
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behavioral classes of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors they want the children to emit can be like if they will play with someone who is lonely at recess, follow classroom rules, and respect the faculty members and other students.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This program is based on Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement-adding tickets which will add up for a special reward.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple tickets for emitting the target behavior. Once they have reached 10 purple tickets, they then get a golden ticket which allows them a special reward.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A Pro would be that the children can see how much they are getting. It also gets the kids to continually emit the desired behavior with earning the purple tickets in order to exchange them for a gold. However, a Con to this system is it may be a hard concept for the younger children to understand, they may think that certain kids are getting rewarded more than others just because they are “caught” doing good things more often.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is the teachers and administrators handing out tickets as they see children doing things to earn them.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pros are that teachers and administrators are supposed to be fair in who they are handing out tickets to and they are respected by the students so I will have an extra reward because it was given to them by someone they may admire. A con would be that a teacher or administrator must see a child emitting a behavior that would be rewarded, thus children who emit the behavior when no teacher is around will not be rewarded
11) How are the tokens banked?
A student must earn 10 purple tickets to add up to one golden ticket. Then I am assuming they can trade their golden tickets for prizes based on the students wants.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
This could act as an establishing operation, this could also increase the incentive in the students to work up to the golden tickets. Some con’s could be that extinction would occur because you have to get so many tickets before you can have a reward and ten tickets may be too many for some students who are in need of the greatest behavior modification.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? \
They are chosen based on the students age group, each grade/class desire different things based on their maturity so it is based off of that.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The reinforces must be effective in order for the token economy to work. It sounds like they included enough choices to fit the wants of a variety of different students.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforces?
To gain access to the reinforces the students must trade a certain number of tickets in to an administrator or teacher. They then will receive their reward that day.
17)What are some of the outcome measures to the administrators know the system is effective?
They can measure how many purple paws they are handing out to each student, by having teachers keep a record of which students get purple tickets each day. They can then count how many times purple paw tickets are traded in for golden tickets. Finally, they can measure how many students are trading in golden tickets for prizes each week.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
In the newsletter it is mentioned that they are finding the behaviors everywhere, indicating that the students are aware of the behaviors that are expected of them.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching parents about the system?
They are effectively teaching the parents about the system by mentioning it in the school's newsletter. Something they could do to increase it effectiveness would be developing a report of the purple paw tickets that each student receives, then send it to the parents each week. Administrators encourage the parents to talk about the system with their child at home, and the parents can decide if they also want to develop a similar system in their home.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
If the teachers are finding target behaviors worthy of a ticket in all places it would appear that they have effectively taught the teachers.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, parents or students may believe that children should be expected to behave properly while in school at all times no matter what. (This is how I felt when my middle school implemented a system like this. I was mad, as a student who had behaved all the way through school and never was directly rewarded for it. I remember feeling that there shouldn’t be a need for a system like this.)
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Students may need or see a change in the reinforcement schedule, they may begin to copy and make their own tickets, they may hoard or lose their tickets and therefor never receive the backup reward.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Has the reinforcement schedule slowed as teachers and administrators “get used to” handing out tickets? Or are positive behaviors starting to become overlooked as they become the norm? Are certain students being rewarded more than others for positive behaviors because for one student it may be a behavior change and for another it may be a norm?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I want to know how has this system changed the behavior each month for the students? Can we see any long term change as the students age?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Emit, elicit, positive reinforcement, rewards, incentive, establishing operation,
1) What is this program?
This program is the Poyner Panthers on T.R.C.C which stands for trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Basically it is a program that is an example of token economy where students that elicit good behavior receive a form of reinforcement where they are given a purple paw ticket.
2) How did it come about?
This program came about because the Waterloo school district created a Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors they might want them to emit are maybe helping someone carry their books, or telling someone that they look nice, or holding a door open for someone, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because they want to increase the good behavior that the children are emitting.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive because they are receiving the purple tickets.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are the purple and gold paw tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pro's would be that the children are seeing the reinforcement and if they receive 10, they could get a prize.
Some con's would be that prizes could be expensive and they might have to get rid of the system because they cannot afford prizes any longer, which could cause extinction to the good behavior. Also, if a student has a large amount of tokens, they might believe that they don't have to emit any good behaviors for a while and can coast.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is that when a teacher sees a student emitting good behavior, he/she will reinforce them with a paw ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pro's with the delivery system are that students will be learning to emit good behaviors.
Some con's with the delivery system are that some teachers could give more tickets than others so some students could get tickets for one behavior from one teacher but not from another teacher for the same behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by earning 10 purple tickets and then the students trade them in for a gold ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro's are that the students must emit 10 good target behaviors before they can earn a prize.
The con's are that if they do not desire the reward you can get, they will not want to emit good target behaviors.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes that the students receive after they get the 1 gold ticket.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers are chosen by what the children are interested in. If the child does not like the reward, they will not be driven to emit the good behaviors in the first place.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective reinforcers as long as the students enjoy them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They gain access to the reinforcers by handing in the purple tickets for the gold one.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
An effective measure that the administrators could take to know the system would be to have them write down when a student receives a ticket and to know how many each has.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
According to the flyer, it sounds like the students have been receiving tickets and that they should be telling their parents about it.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators put the information in the newsletter, but hopefully they address this to them in person as well.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The newsletter does not say how much the teachers have been taught about this system, but I hope they all sat down and talked about what kinds of target behaviors to be looking for.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There always is this possibility, but hopefully everyone buys into the system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some students could hoard their tokens and not think they need to emit anymore behaviors, tokens can be lost/counterfeited, etc.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What specific target behaviors are you looking for to reinforce?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Is there an increase in good behavior that they have noticed?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
token economy, behavior, reinforcement, behavioral classes, elicit, target behaviors, emit, extinction, reinforcers
Token Economies.
1) What is this program?
The Poyner Panters on T.R.R.C is a positive behavioral intervention establishing a token economy to reward behaviors they deem positive.
2) How did it come about?
The program came about as a Waterloo school district wide initiative for the positive behavioral interventions
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trust, respectful, responsible and caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A target behavior that would fall under trust would be if a child asks another student to borrow a pen and they later return that pen. A respectful behavior would be something like raising your hand to ask/answer a question and talk. A responsible behavior would be putting the markers back in the bin and on the shelf the child got them from after a drawing activity. A caring behavior would be a child helping another get up after they fell during recess.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because it is designed to encourage these behaviors to increase in the future
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive because it is the addition of something desirable.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros of using this token are that the colors define their value, they are inexpensive to create large amount of and they are tangible. Cons include: they could be ripped or lost easily and depending on what they look like they could be counterfeited.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is what I assume to be teachers and other school leaders giving out the tickets as they see a good behavior.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros of this system are that you have the individuals that are benefiting from the behavior giving out tickets to behaviors that meet their standards. Cons include: the teacher to student ratio may make it difficult to catch all the behavior that are determined to need to be reinforced and if the target behavior isn’t well defined leaders could be reinforcing different behaviors or variations/different degrees of the same one.
11) How are the tokens banked?
From what I can tell tokens are banked with each other and the kids keeping track. For every 10th purple ticket they get gold and the gold one receive prizes. I’m not sure if they have an alternative banking system beyond the tokens themselves.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros are that the school leaders just have to hand out the coins and handle trading the purple for gold and the gold for prizes. The con is that children could be trading amongst each other and if the teacher doesn’t have a master score for how many each child gets as they do a behavior, some of the more popular or persuasive children or bullies could be acquiring undeserved tickets.
13) What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are ice cream, more recess, movie popcorn, extra computer time, lunch with the principle, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I assume they were chosen based on observation or asking the children what they like to do and eat.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Some of them I think would be good reinforcers like the ice cream and popcorn as long as they aren’t constantly in their environment at home or during school lunch. The lunch with the principle and helping the custodian seem weird to me and may not be desirable to certain students that may not be on good terms with the principle because of past behavior.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They would be given the reinforcers by the teachers or other school leaders that provided the tickets for the good behavior.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Outcome measures might be the number of secondary reinforcers they give out, the number of tickets they give out both purple and gold. They might also be able to measure progress based on a possible decrease in disciplinary measures they have had to take overall or per classroom/student.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I assume in order for this system to be effective and to be in a place to notify parents that they are doing a decent amount to explain how it works to the students.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
As far as it looks the parents may have only be given this blanket statement provided in the new letter. It may be more successful if a flyer were sent home with students, the students were to explain the system to the parents and to provide parents with information to ask questions if they have them.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
This information is not available in the links provided
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
This is definitely a possibility. Teachers may feel it is just another thing they have to add to what they already do in the classroom and may not follow it leading to inconsistency. Busy parents may not have time to talk to their kids about it and may not have similar expectations at home. Students may not care about the reinforcement if they think they are too mature for it or key into the control of their behavior.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
With the teachers and parents I already mentioned the time and effort that goes into token economies. Children could hoard tokens and get a lot of prizes at once and possibly cause the system to seem unfair in the eyes of those that use them consistently. The change in reinforcement schedule may be more difficult to maintain when it is a school wide effort, children collectively may catch on to it taking more times to get a ticket for a behavior that would usually just take one time.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Questions I would have would be who specifically would be handing out the reinforcement. Did they consult the students on what types of items or activities they would enjoy? How long would this token economy run or would it be a permanent fixture in the school system? Have you trained teachers and other school leaders on what specific behaviors you are trying to reinforce and what to do if a single ticket isn’t enough to reinforce it?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know if there are measures in place once students get satiated in collecting tickets and getting reinforcers and thus stop emitting the good behaviors because they don’t see a reason to. I would also be curious as to how they will define these behaviors because their behavioral classes are very broad and also may depend on each authority’s interpretation of what being trustworthy looks like.
25) Term and terminology: reinforcement, reinforcer, reinforce, emitting, behavior, behavioral class, schedules of reinforcement, satiated, target behavior.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/18141101/introducing-the-wow-token-3-2-2015
1) What is this program?
The program introduces a “token” that can be redeemed for a one month subscription to World of Warcraft. The token that is available for purchase with real currency that can be sold or bought with in-game currency.
2) How did it come about?
The development of the WoW token system came about after suggestions of adding a secure, legitimate method of acquiring in-game currency that did not involve a third party.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Third party currency sellers are known for being untrustworthy and detrimental to the in-game economy. What the game developers (Blizzard) are trying to do is change the antecedent of individuals who are unable to attain gold themselves by providing a system that is similar to that of an illegal third party currency seller.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
The target behavior that Blizzard is trying to get their customers to emit is to buy these tokens from them and not from the illegitimate/illegal currency sellers.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This token economy is based on reinforcement, by purchasing these tokens from Blizzard you are able to redeem them for a one month subscription or sell them for in-game currency.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because the buyer is gaining a subscription or in-game currency.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
“WoW Tokens”-Purchaseable with real money, redeemable in game.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros
• Deters “illegal” transaction
• Promotes legal acquisition of in-game currency
• Easily available
Cons
• Less in-game currency for real money than illegal sellers
• The cost of tokens depends on supply and demand (inflation may occur)
9) What is the delivery system?
The tokens are bought from a menu within the game and the player instantly receives the token in their inventory.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros
• This system provides those who are in need of a WoW token a fast and easy means to acquire the token.
Cons
• This system can be taken advantage of if an account was stolen or compromised
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are stored in a player’s inventory and they can chose to redeem them themselves or place in an “auction house” where others may purchase them.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros
• Allows individuals to save or spend tokens they purchase as they see fit
• The auction house adjust the price automatically to market value.
Cons
• If the subscription ends with the tokens banked they are unredeemable and would require the account to be activated by another means.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
When individuals buy in-game currency from a 3rd party they are going against the terms of service (ToS) Blizzard has. Breaching ToS is grounds for an account being banned or suspended. A back up reinforcer of this system is the removal of a potential ban/suspension.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It was not stated that this is a reinforcer but in the frequently asked questions it continually stated how bad 3rd party currency sellers are for the in-game economy and why users of those services were banned.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
There was no data presented on how effective the system has been since it has been implemented.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Access to the reinforcers is gained by using the WoW token system and avoiding 3rd party sellers to avoid the negative reinforcement of an account suspension/ban.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Outcome measures for this token economy are observable by knowing the amount of tokens are bought and how many are sold. The data on this has not been published anywhere so I personally do not know if it is effective.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The system is advertised on various game-news related websites, the login screen, and within the menu of the game. Blizzard has been very proactive in teaching users of the system and advertising it.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Information is available on the details of the system that parents can seek out and determine if they want to use this system.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
There have been other games that have offered a system similar to this so it is not a new system. Blizzard is the largest game to offer a means to acquire and sell subscriptions that are available to any player. We will see in the coming years if this model will become standard or fade away.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, this system is completely optional. There are other ways to acquire in game currency as well as other ways to renew a subscription other than this token model.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The tokens are easily available as long as individuals have the money to spend, this might create an oversaturation of the market and drive the in-game selling price much lower. With a low in-game price people could potentially go to a 3rd party currency seller and buy more in-game money for the same price as a WoW token.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What is the long term for this system? Will there be a price lock if supply and demand drop? What will happen if the system fails and users still have tokens left over?
24) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms: token economy, antecedent, reinforcer, elicit, emit, target behaviors, reinforcement, positive, negative behavior, backup reinforcers.
1) What is this program?
Poyner Panther T.R.R.C-A system that promotes trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
The waterloo School District started a district-wide initiative to promote positive behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Turning in homework, sharing, apologizing, and thanking others.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
T.R.R.C is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement, when children emit the target behavior they receive a token to redeem for rewards.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens for this system is purple paw tickets. Once a child gets 10 purple paw tickets the student can trade up for a golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
o A pro to this system is that it reinforces behaviors that are positive and rewards the children for emitting them.
o A con to this system would be that the children would only be reinforced when they are seen emitting the activity, essentially creating a random schedule of reinforcement.
9) What is the delivery system?
The tokens are handed out by the school’s staff when they see a child emitting behavior they see as in line with T.R.R.C.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
o A pros are that having many of the school staff handing out tickets the behavior can be reinforced quickly after it has been observed.
o The con to this system of delivery is that some of the children emitting positive behaviors will not be noticed and therefore not be reinforced.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The students are responsible for their own tokens.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
o The pros to this system is that the students are learning how to be responsible for their own tokens.
o The cons to this are students either trading, misplacing, or creating fake tokens.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforces are the rewards for 10 tokens, ice cream, extra recess, extra computer time, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The group responsible for creating this system felt that these would be reinforces that the students would want to acquire.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers offer choices that the students can choose from so there will be something for everyone. That being said the issue with this system is that they have to wait to get 10 tokens to be reinforced.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
When they are seen emitting a positive behavior they are rewarded with 10 tokens, the 10 tokens can be traded up for a golden ticket which can be redeemed for reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators could figure out the baseline and then apply the system and monitor if there is an increase or decrease in positive behavior reported.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The flyer seems directed at the parents of students, there is no mention of how children are made aware of this system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
This flyer is directed at the parents, it lays out the steps and behavior that the administrators are looking at in order to achieve the reward.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The article does not detail how teachers have been educated on this system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
The rewards are not mandatory but they are nice additions. No child is required to turn in their tokens or even attempt to gain tokens.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some children will not get reinforced quick enough or at all though this system. This system requires children to emit these behaviors when a supervisor is paying attention. Without consistent reinforcement the behavior may not be elicited as much as desired.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Is there a set limit of tokens in circulation? Are the tickets easily forgeable? How were prize values determined?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Is the status of the behaviors being recorded? Was there a baseline recorded before the system was implemented?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Token economy, elicit, emit, target behavior, reinforcer, reinforcement, tokens, baseline, positive
Token Economies.
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. It is a positive behavioral intervention establishing a token economy to reward behaviors that are desirable. The program gives reinforcement to students who elicit good behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
The program came about as a Waterloo school district wide positive behavior intervention system to try and promote good behavior in students.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are being trustworthy, being respectful, being caring, and being responsible.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
There are a lot of target behaviors that could go under each behavioral class listed above. An example of a target behavior for being trustworthy could be returning a pencil to a teacher if they let a child borrow one. An example of a target behavior for being respectful is waiting your turn to talk or raising your hand before speaking in class. An example for a target behavior for being caring is helping another student pick up his books if he drops them in the hall. Finally, an example of a target behavior for being responsible would be a child putting classroom supplies away after using them or turning in assignments on time. Other target behaviors could include holding a door open for someone, following classroom rules, being quiet and respectful in the hallways, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because it is designed so that desirable behaviors are reinforced with a “purple paw ticket”. This is positive reinforcement because something is being added in order to increase the frequency of the target behavior in the future.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The reinforcement is positive because it is the addition of something desirable to increase the likelihood that the child will emit the target behavior again.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple paw tickets and gold tickets. Once a student gets ten purple paw tickets, they can trade them in for one gold ticket. The student can then save their golden tickets up so they can trade them in for a bigger prize later on, such as extra recess.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
There are a lot of pros associated with using these tokens. They include: they are inexpensive to create, they are tangible, desirable reinforcers for the children, they have different colors that hold different values to help the children know their progress, they create a motivation for the children to emit these target behaviors in order to get prizes, and more. Some cons include: they could be easily lost (especially by children), children may steal other kids’ tickets instead of emitting target behaviors, some children may not understand the concept of this system, and students may only emit enough target behaviors to get the prizes they want and then extinguish the target behaviors once they have what they wanted.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system, I am assuming, is the teachers and administrators giving out purple tickets to children when they see them emitting target behaviors.
10) What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
Pros of the delivery system include: children want to receive reinforcement and admiration from their teachers, so they might behave desirably more often, students learn what is desirable behavior and what is not, teachers/administrators are seen as in control, etc. Cons of the delivery system include: students only get recognition for emitting target behaviors when a teacher or administrator is around, so they are not going to be reinforced every time (which could discourage a child), and some teachers could give out tickets more generously than others, so one behavior could get a ticket from a teacher but the same behavior might not get a ticket from another teacher.
11) How are the tokens banked?
From what I can see the tokens are banked with each other and the kids keep track of their own tickets. For every 10th purple ticket they get a gold ticket and then they can trade their gold tickets for other prizes.
12) What are the pros and cons?
A pro is that this is a simple system in that the administrators only have to worry about providing the tickets because once they are given out, the children keep track of them themselves. One major con is that children could be trading tickets with each other. If the teacher doesn’t know exactly how many tickets each child has received, the kids could be cheating. Some of the more popular kids or bullies could be getting undeserved tickets by stealing or just asking others to give up their tickets.
13) What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are receiving ice cream, more recess time, movie popcorn, extra computer time, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, and helping the custodian with tasks.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were probably chosen just by observing the children and what they like to do (recess, playing on the computers, etc.) as well as asking the children what they like to do and eat.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
A couple of them could be really effective reinforcers for children, such as popcorn and more ice cream (as long as they do not receive these things a lot in their normal environments). Extra recess and extra computer time are also effective reinforcers for children. Depending on the child, lunch with the principal and teacher and helping the custodian may either be effective reinforcers or aversive events that do nothing for the child. All of the reinforcers depend on the individual child, however.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The teachers and administrators that provided the tickets for the desirable behaviors would give the students the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the outcome measures that can be used so the administrators know the system is effective include: keeping track of the number of tickets they give out for each color, keeping track of how many visits the principal gets from students who behaved badly, and keeping track of how many times teachers have to discipline students.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The system was included and described in the parent letters, and it also asked the parents to talk to their kids about the system. Because of this, I assume that the administrators are effectively teaching the students about their system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The parents are receiving an overview of the system in their parent letter; so I assume that the administrators are teaching the parents about the system as best as they can since they cant really call each individual parent and thoroughly explain it.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
This information is not available in the links, but I assume that since the teachers are the ones who will hand out tickets, they know what they system is and how it works. So I would think that the administrators have told the teachers how it works.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
This is a huge possibility. Not everyone will agree 100% with the system. Teachers may feel like it is just another thing in their busy schedules that they have to worry about, and they might not put as much importance on the system as they do on other things such as actual lesson plans and class work. They might be inconsistent with how they do the system. Some children may believe they are too old to be bribed to behave well, some might think it is stupid and not try to behave desirably, and some children are not able to be reinforced in the same way other kids are, so they might not care about it. Parents might be too busy to talk with their kids about the system and about behaving well, and they might not have the same expectations and rules at home so they might not care about the system in school.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Token economies often take a lot more time and effort than other strategies. Children could also hoard their tickets so that they can get a lot of prizes at once or just stop trying to emit the target behaviors and coast until they run out of their tickets and need to start behaving desirably again. There could be a loss of motivation as well if the reinforcers are too easy to access. The changes in reinforcement schedule may be more difficult to maintain when the system is school wide, because each teacher and administrator is different.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
One question I would ask would be how long would this system run until they start to fade it away from the students? Do all teachers and administrators know what specific behaviors to reinforce and what behaviors are too general to reinforce? What would the administrators of the system do if the tickets did not work?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Additional information I want to know is if the administrators have a plan for when the students start to get satiated with getting tickets and having the same prizes, so they stop behaving well because they don’t see a reason to and have lost their motivation. I also want to know how the administrators define the target behaviors that will be reinforced because their behavioral classes are very broad and with so many teachers and administrators giving the tickets, there are bound to be many different interpretations of target behaviors in each behavioral class.
25) Terms: behavioral intervention, token economy, behaviors, reward, desirable, reinforcement, elicit, behavioral classes, target behaviors, reinforced, positive reinforcement, emit, reinforcers, reinforcement schedule, extinguish
1) What is this program?
This program is a behavioral intervention that is most commonly used to reinforce children for emitting desired behaviors. It is rewarding with tokens that can then be turned in for “prizes” used as backup reinforcers.
2) How did it come about?
In order to reinforce children for doing desirable behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Academic, social, and classroom skills.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Showing up on time to class with what they need to have, ie. calculator. Completing assignments on time or correctly.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because they are trying to elicit the children to emit positive behaviors by presenting something desirable.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens can be anything really: pennies, poker chips, marks on a chalkboard, etc. In the Waterloo program they are using “purple paw tickets” and then “golden tickets” once they have acquired enough purple ones
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros- reinforces desirable behaviors, makes the children happy and accomplished
Cons- children might get jealous of those with more, not everyone will have the same amount
9) What is the delivery system?
They set up “bank hours” where they can redeem their points for whatever the prize may be. Before or after lunch or at the end of the school day are good times.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros- kids get to see their reward, it will make them happy
Cons- kids may get anxious waiting for their prizes, and again some kids might get jealous of those with more tokens
11) How are the tokens banked?
Anyway the teacher or administrator chooses. In the Waterloo case they trade in for golden tickets of more value and then trade those in for better prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros- kids can see and feel their progress, it is rewarding to see
Cons- again kids might get jealous, some kids might not like waiting
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are what I like to think of as the actual reinforcers which they turn their tokens in for. The kids turn in their tokens for “prizes” like being first in the lunch line or having lunch with a particular administrator.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They are usually guided towards the children’s interest.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes they would be considered “effective reinforcers” for the reason mentioned in the question above. I would of thought it was super cool to eat lunch with my principal growing up.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By turning in tokens.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
To see how often children are emitting target behaviors or even looking at how many tokens students are accumulating.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Seems to be they are teaching this program quite well. It is important that the program be well spelled-out to the students before they begin.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Well it is case by case situation. In the Waterloo case they seem to have just put a little excerpt in the school newsletter. They might be enough information or it might not be.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
They seem to have taught them pretty well. According to the newsletter the students are receiving their tickets in several different places meaning that the teachers are really keeping an eye out for it.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes certainly. Students or parents of students who are not well-behaved might not think this is fair. Also students who are not as academically inclined or have a learning disability of some kind may think it is not equal to them.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
I think the two biggest things are first the one I mentioned several times above about children getting jealous about others and children just flat out not caring about the tokens.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I honestly just want to know how well it is working. I would like to know what changes you have made from the LRBI system in the first link. What reinforcers work best for what ages?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Again just if it is working and what the best way for it work it is,
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavioral intervention, reinforce, emit, behavior, reinforce, reinforcement, elicit, positive reinforcement, target behavior
1) What is this program?
The program is an example of token economy called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
This program was designed to elicit positive behaviors from elementary students that were previously emitting negative behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to get the students to become trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors that the school is trying to reinforce would be helping out other students if needing extra help, picking up toys when asked, telling the truth, or doing their homework on time.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is demonstration reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because they are gaining something that will increase the likeliness of repeating that behavior.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are purple paw tickets then once you get 10 of those you can trade them in for a golden ticket. Once you get some many golden tickets, you are allowed to get a prize.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro’s: students are allowed to be reinforced for good behavior, they are allowed to see their progress, cost effective
Con’s: students may lose tickets, kids may steal their friend’s, only certain behaviors may allow them to get a ticket, students may not understand program
9) What is the delivery system?
The teachers are the one’s that give the students their tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pro’s: the teachers will understand the program, students will be learning the behaviors to emit
Con’s: “teacher’s pets” may be getting more, some students may never be seen doing certain behaviors
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by getting 10 purple ones you can get one golden ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pro’s: once you get 10 purple tickets, you can get a golden ticket
Con’s: if the student doesn’t want the prize they will get they may not emit the appropriate behaviors
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes they get from the golden ticket. Examples would be Sonic ice cream cone, extra recess, bag of movie popcorn.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen based on activities the students of that age group found fun.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
If the program has been effective then the reinforcer should be also.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students have to be caught emitting the acts that are known to be getting the tickets. Then they get purple tickets for the appropriate action. Once they get 10 of them, they can get a golden ticket allowing them to pick a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
It would be easiest in my opinion to measure it by counting how many tickets have been distributed.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I don’t think they are entirely too effective. These flyers are being sent home with the students, meaning the parents are seeing them.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
This is where I think they are doing a great job. They sent home a flyer to tell the parents about it.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It doesn’t really explain that in the flyer about other administrators but in order for this to work, all teachers need to be on the same level of handing out the tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, this is extremely possible. Some classrooms may not see the benefits in this program so the teacher may try something else.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Teachers may not be fair within this program. They may hand out more tickets to some students than others.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What issues were you having that made you come up with this program?
Do you know that all the administrators are being fair?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know the yearly outcome of this. If they were successful at decreasing the aversive behaviors.
25) Terminology: token economy, elicit, emit, negative behavior, positive behavior, target behavior, reinforce, reinforcement, positive reinforcement
1) Poynor Panthers on TRRC is a token economy program based on trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors using a positive behavior intervention system. The token economy is where when target behaviors are emitted to receive tokens (coins, stickers, points, punches on a card, etc.) which can be collected and then exchanged for some sort of reinforcer (toys, snacks, extra recess time, etc.). The goal is to then increase good behaviors while extinguishing bad behaviors.
2)A district-wide initiative of the Positive Behavior Intervention System was put into place in the Waterloo schools to elicit wanted behaviors and in the process extinguish unwanted behavioral classes.
3) They are trying to elicit behaviors that align with being responsible, caring, respectable, and trustworthy.
4) Sharing, helping others with homework, helping teacher pick-up after activities, telling the truth, asking permission before doing things, being quiet while others are talking, raising one's hand to speak, etc.
5) This style of behavior modification includes reinforcement.
6) It is positive reinforcement because it adds something desirable once a behavior has occurred.
7) The tokens are purple tickets that once ten are collected they can be exchanged for a single gold ticket. Gold tickets are collected and then used for prizes.
8) The tokens help to elicit preferred target behaviors. They are very motivating for some students. However, students may become dependent on the tokens to emit the behaviors and only do so when someone is around to see them. On the other hand some students may not be noticed emitting target behaviors and may become dejected and result to emitting unwanted behaviors for attention. Some students will simply not be motivated by this system.
9) Ten purple tickets are saved to then get a gold ticket. The gold tickets are collected and then traded for prizes.
10) There seems to be no control over who has them and who doesn't. We just don't know who has them and how many.
11) By trading in purple tickets for gold tickets.
12) There seems to be no overarching bank that tells admin or teachers how many tokens each child has -- so it can be easy for them to be stolen or pawned off or traded.
13) Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with a chosen teacher or the principal, extra computer time, helping the custodian (this sounds like child labor and not at all fun so why is it a reinforcer?)
14) Backup reinforcers are chosen by what students will be driven to want. The cost of the reinforcer must be equal to the amount of effort put into it or it will not be effective.
15) Depending on the amount of tickets needed to get a reinforcer they could or could not be. I also think that things like helping the custodian or lunch with the principal really aren't that exciting (I know I would much rather eat with a friend than an adult who doesn't know much about me -- and if all students are doing this would a wait list being?).
16) The students gain access to the reinforcers by building up a stash of gold tickets and then trading them in for the reinforcer.
17) The most effective would be how many reinforcers are given out and how many tickets it took to do that. It is also important to look at how many students are cashing in.
18) I think they are effectively teaching students -- however the small tidbit of information doesn't give much insight. It is possible that because it is being sent home they are hoping parents can teach people about them?
19) They sent out a very short flyer with a very small section regarding the system. I think they understand how it's implemented but not the system itself.
20) I'm assuming they were taught at some sort of in-service and then explain it to the children. However once again the article was not very detailed.
21) Absolutely. People who don't understand behavior modification will think it is a hoax. Older children will feel like they are being bribed to be good.
22) Children may hoard tickets rather than cash them in. They may also feel like the work needed to get a single reinforcer may be too great. Some students may even just give up because they don't feel that it is worth it.
23) How are you keeping track of the tickets dispersed? What specific criteria make one eligible for a ticket? How do we know that there is no favoritism going on? Are certain faculty giving out more tickets than others (introducing a bias). Are you explaining to the children the behavior modification or just explaining the reinforcement system? What ages are being used in this? When do they stop using it (middle school?)
24) At the end of the year what were detention levels and other disturbances compared to previous years? And will there be a way to compare year-to-year to see if it effective long term?
25) Behavior modification, reinforcement, token economy, positive behavior intervention system, target behavior, extinguishing, elicit, emit, behavioral class, bank, token, backup reinforcers
Reading Activity Week #15
1) What is this program?
The “Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.” is a program that a school has implemented to increase children’s behaviors of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring. If a child emits a behavior that shows they are one of those four (or a combination of those) things, then they will receive a purple ticket. After the child receives 10 purple tickets, they will be allowed to trade those ten tickets in for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be turned in to be eligible for an assortment of prizes.
2) How did it come about?
I’m not sure how this token economy came about. The newsletter didn’t say anything about how or why the token economy came about. I would assume that maybe they are having issues with students not being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They want the students to act in a certain manner. They want the students to show higher levels of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring. These are very broad behavior classes, so there are many target behaviors that may be emitted in order to receive a purple ticket.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors may be things like getting to class on time and being prepared for class. It may also mean being quiet and respectful while the teachers are talking. The students may help clean up after certain activities. The students may help their peers when in need – this could be in class or on the playground. These target behaviors could really be a large variety of things depending on what the faculty thinks is deemed trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because the target behaviors are more likely to happen again once the consequence has occurred.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system would be based on positive reinforcement because there are things being added. Once the target behavior has occurred, the consequence includes the addition of purple tickets. And if the behaviors continue to occur, they will receive more purple tickets, which will eventually be replaced with one golden ticket (even more positively reinforcing).
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are the purple and golden tickets. Once a child earns up to 10 purple tickets, they are able to turn those in for one golden ticket. With the golden tickets, the child is eligible to win prizes.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
One pro to using these tokens (the tickets) is that the children will not be able to hoard them. In some cases, when using a token economy, a person may save up all of their tokens until the very end, or until they must use them. This will be unfair to the people who have been using their tokens as they go along. By using the system where 10 tickets must be turned in for one golden ticket, it will prevent them from hoarding all of the purple tickets they can.
One con to using these tokens is that they may be easy to lose. A child might not bring the tickets home or they may misplace them. I think if they used a punch card or sticker giving method, it would be more efficient for young children.
9) What is the delivery system?
Every time a child emits a target behavior (i.e. one showing high levels of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, or caring), they will be rewarded with a purple ticket. After the child receives ten purple tickets, they are able to trade those for one golden ticket. After the child has golden tickets, they are eligible to win prizes.
10) What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
One pro of the delivery system is that there are several chances to be reinforced. When the child emits a target behavior, they are able to get a purple ticket (reinforcer). The child is able to earn several of these purple tickets (several reinforcers). Once those tickets are earned, the child can turn them in for a golden ticket (an even larger reinforcer). And after the child collects their golden tickets, they are eligible to win prizes (largest reinforcer of all). There are several chances to be reinforced for emitting the target behaviors that the school wants to see.
One con of this delivery system is that all of the teachers will have different standards and different target behaviors in mind. I’m sure that they will be similar. But there will still be differences, and this could be confusing to the children. For example, maybe a student tells the teacher that Johnny stole the play-doh during craft time. That teacher may reinforce his behavior and say that he was being trustworthy. But another teacher may not reinforce that behavior because she doesn’t want all of the students to think that tattling is a good behavior to emit.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The purple tickets (tokens) are saved and held by the children. I would hope that the teachers would also account for who has what tickets. They are also in charge of the golden tickets that they get. I would assume they are supposed to take them home to their parents so that they can be kept track of that way, but with children, this may not be the best way to bank these things.
12) What are the pros and cons?
This way of banking can be considered a pro because it teaches the children responsibility. If they are given a ticket and it gets lost or misplaced, then they will know that they need to be more responsible with these reinforcements they are getting.
A con to this way of banking is that the tickets may get lost. With young children being in charge of their own rewards, they may get misplaced or never brought home.
13) What are the back-up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are the prizes that the students are eligible to earn after they turn in their golden tickets. With this token economy the back-up reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, lunch with the principal, or getting to help the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I think that some of the back-up reinforcers were chosen by the children. For example, I can see a child wanting extra recess time, but I cannot see them wanting to eat lunch with the principal. When I was in grade school, eating lunch with the principal was a punishment. I’m not sure that the kids would want to eat lunch with the principal, but maybe the faculty thought this would be appealing.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think that some of these reinforcers would be effective because they are appealing to the children. Kids who win awards would want a pizza party or a new basketball. The reinforcers picked by the faculty probably are not as effective. If I were told that the grand prize would be time with the custodian and helping him with his custodial duties, I would not even want to try.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students would gain access to the reinforcers only when granted access by the faculty. If they prove to show higher levels of T.R.R.C. then the faculty will reinforce them accordingly.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
If the students continue to show higher levels of T.R.R.C. then they will know that the outcomes were effective. There will be certain students that try really hard so that they can be reinforced and get more tickets, but they ultimately will have to continue these target behaviors once the token economy has ended.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I’m assuming the children are well aware of the system that is in place. But I cannot tell from the article given.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
There was an ad in a school article about the new system being put into place. I think that this is so the parents are more aware of what is going on and what the tickets are for.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
This is something else I am not entirely sure of. I don’t know how informed the teachers are, but I would assumed that they are fully aware of the token economy and how to best implement this system into the school.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There may be some issues with people not wanting to partake in this token economy. Everyone knows that grade school bullies exist and they will exist forever. I believe that there are some parents (parents of bullies) who refuse to believe that their child may be causing problems at school. For example, say there is a little boy who is a bully and he acts out at school. This will mean that he doesn’t show high levels of T.R.R.C, so he will not be receiving tickets. If he is not receiving tickets, this will make him upset. And when he goes to complain to his parents, his parents will get upset. This could cause issues between people with this token economy.
22) What are some problems to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
I think the main problem with this token economy is that the bank is not well established. I don’t think that having the children be in charge of their tickets (tokens) is a good idea. They may get lost or they may never get brought home.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would wonder if the administrators and faculty members are keeping track of the tokens they give out. I would hope that they would create a way to keep track of who is given what tickets. I would also want to know the deadline for this token economy. There must be some sort of end date when the tickets are no longer collectable so they are no longer eligible for prizes.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like a more detailed letter/reminder that the children are able to get these tokens/opportunities in school. I felt that the little article that was posted was not enough and the parents might be confused – especially if their children have not brought home any tickets.
TERMS: Behavior, Emit, Reinforcement, Target Behavior, Consequence, Positive Reinforcement, Token Economy, Reward, Reinforcer
1) What is this program? This program is a token economy that was implemented in a Waterloo school to encourage students to increase the frequency of target behaviors exhibiting the following: Trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring.
2) How did it come about? This program came about because the Waterloo school district wanted to become a PBIS district (Positive Behavior Intervention System).
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are: Trustworthiness, responsibility, respectful, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Some examples of these could be picking trash off the ground or inviting someone with not many friends to come play with you. This program is trying to encourage children to emit behaviors of many functional and topographical classes.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is entirely based on positive reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used in this program are purple slips of paper, which can be exchanged for gold pieces of paper and thus exchanged for rewards.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? One benefit of using tokens is that it is an easy way to increase the frequency of desirable behaviors, but it can also have major drawbacks such as token hoarding.
9) What is the delivery system? For this particular token economy, the delivery system is that teachers hand students a piece of paper when they see them do a good action.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? This delivery system is good because it is easy and simple, but there are several cons to it as well. It is easy for students to lose the tokens or for teachers to run out of tokens and not be able to continuously reinforce some behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked? For this economy, the tokens are banked by the students themselves and there is no official bank kept by the school’s administration.
12) What are the pro's and con's? It is easier for the administration to not have to keep a bank, but it is also going to be easy for students to forge or trade tokens.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The back-up reinforcers for this program include: sonic ice cream, extra recess, lunch with the principal, getting to help the custodian, extra computer time, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The backup reinforcers were chosen because teachers observed what things the students really enjoyed doing, and thought that these reinforcers would be an effective way to encourage trustworthy, respectful, responsible, & caring behaviors.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes, because they will not get satiated because it will take a lot of tokens to acquire the prize, and there is a wide variety so the rewards appeal to all students.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They gain access by committing the right target behavior, accumulating 10 purple tickets, then exchanging those for 1 gold ticket. Gold tickets can be used to purchase prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? One possible outcome that the administrators could measure is the frequency of behavior incidents. Before they implement the program they should get a baseline of how many students act out in class, and compare that to the number of incidents after the program has been effective for a few weeks.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? It does not appear that the administration is teaching the students about the program. They may have taught them about it in class, but there is not a lot of information for the students in this PDF.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? The administration did an okay job explaining the process to the parents. It would also have been helpful if they used some behavior modification facts/statistics to ensure parents that this program is effective.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Unsure, because there’s not a lot of information about that within the flyer.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes. Some people may be completely against the token economy. I can think of some parents I know who would oppose it because they believe their child should be respectful without seeking a reward for it, because of their personal values. I can imagine that there would be mixed feelings among a lot of parents.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? One known problem with token economies is forging, which would be easy to do since the school isn’t keeping a master bank of who has how many tokens, and the tokens are only a slip of colored paper.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? One question I’m going to ask is: How are you going to prevent students from forging the slips or from trading with each other?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I might want to know how many gold tickets it will take to acquire some of the rewards.
Terms- Target behavior, elicit, emit, functional class, topographical class, behavioral class, positive reinforcement, token economy, continuous reinforcement, baseline measure.
1) What is this program?
This program is a token economy that the Waterloo schools set up to help them become a positive behavior intervention system.
2) How did it come about?
This came about this year as a district wide initiative.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit caring, responsible, respectful, and trustworthy behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors might be turning in all their homework on time, holding the door for others, including someone in the game they're playing, and many more.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system is also positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used are gold and purple tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros would be that they receive these tickets right away. The con would be that if they don't hold on to the purple tickets, they might never get a gold ticket if they lose them, so the reinforcement wouldn't work.
9) What is the delivery system?
The students are given these tickets by staff when they are caught demonstrating these behaviors throughout the day.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pros are that they receive the stickers right away, reinforcing the behavior quickly and efficiently. The con might be that not all all good acts are seen. They might be missed every once in a while so it could make the student think that that wasn't a good act.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Once the students receive ten purple tickets, they then turn them in for one gold ticket. The golden tickets are saved and then turned in for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros would be that the prizes are spread out at a good distance from the ticket reinforcers. This would help so that they don't have to get a constant reinforcer in the future to continue these acts. The con would be that they don't know how many gold tickets they have once they turn in their purple ones.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are things such as ice cream, popcorn, lunch with the teacher or principle, extra recess, or extra computer time.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen by the amount of gold tickets they had and what they wanted to do.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe that they are very effective reinforcers especially for kids. Kids love all of these things especially in elementary school.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcer from the lead teacher in charge of the tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures is the fact that students are emitting these behaviors all over the school and at all times.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think that they are doing a great job teaching the students about the system because the outcome has been so great.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think that they could do a little better of a job teaching parents about this because this was just a short paragraph in the end of the year news letter. I feel like they should have known more about this system before the end of the year news letter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I think the administrators have done a good job letting the teachers know about it because all the teachers are handing out these tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes. I believe all of those people might not completely buy the system. I believe that they will think it won't work since the students aren't getting the back up reinforcers as the first reinforcers.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One of the main problems I think that there could be would be an unequal back up reinforcer. Some students might think that one reinforcer is better than the other and think that it is unfair. They also might have a problem with token hoarding and have a lot of tokens so that they can misbehave for a while but still get a prize when they turn in their tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I might ask them how they keep track of how many purple tickets the students have or if the students keep track of them themselves. I also would want to know more about how they choose what students get the back up reinforcers and when they get them after having so many gold tickets.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know how many gold tickets it takes before getting a back up reinforcer.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
back up reinforcer, behavior, elicit, emit, positive reinforcement, token economy, continuous reinforcement
1) What is this program?
A token program is a system of individual reinforcers that are given to an individual when they emit a certain target behavior. These individual reinforcers, or tokens, can be exchanged later for “backup reinforcers”.
2) How did it come about?
A district wide PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System was being put into place within the Waterloo Schools to help extinguish unwanted behaviors and begin to emit behaviors that were wanted.
3) what are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to emit behaviors classes that fit into the definitions of responsibility, caring, respectfulness, and trustworthiness.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Being respectful of the teacher’s things and also other students things, sharing toys or games, helping each other with homework, not speaking out of turn, being kind to others, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The token system is solely based on reinforcement. By giving these students a token, star, mark, etc. they are positively reinforcing students for acceptable behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This type of reinforcement would be considered positive reinforcement because they are adding a “token” to these students.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens being used in this specific program are “purple paw tickets”. After a student receives 10 of these purple tickets, they can then trade up for a “golden paw ticket”. These gold tickets can be redeemed for prizes.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
Pros: the tickets would help bring about target behaviors, they will help reduce unwanted behaviors, the students may only emit certain behaviors in order to receive a ticket.
Cons: May not motivate some students, some students may lash out for more attention, the students may only emit certain behaviors in order to receive a ticket, students may lose motivation if a ticket is not received.
9) What is the delivery system?
When a student emits a target behavior, they are given a purple ticket. Once they have received 10 purple tickets, those are traded in for 1 golden ticket. These golden tickets can be traded in for prizes.
10) What are some pros and cons associated with the delivery system?
Pros: Teaches children responsibility to keep track of their tickets, it will help younger students with counting.
Cons: Students may lose tickets, students may give other students tickets.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Once 10 purple tickets are received, they trade them in for one golden ticket.
12) What are the pros and cons?
Pros: responsibility to keep track of tickets.
Cons: students may steal, pawn, or lose tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Ice cream comes, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with lead teacher/principal, extra computer time, helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The child chooses the backup reinforcer. If the child would like to eat lunch with the principal rather than help the custodian, then they may do so if these chose.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe that some of these may be effective reinforcers and some may not be. For example, I would never pick for my backup reinforcer to be helping out the custodian. I would want extra recess or some time of food.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to these reinforcers by emitting target behaviors, turning in their purple tickets for gold tickets, and then redeeming them for the prize of their choice.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
A few outcome measures that administrators could do would be reviewing how frequently these target behaviors are being emitted and rewarded, how often students turn in purple tickets for gold tickets, and how many tickets on average that each class is receiving.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators communicated the system a decent amount, however, they could have talked more about how many gold tickets a student would need in order to receive the backup reinforcers.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Again, they did an alright job about explaining this system to the parents, however they could have included some information about how well the system has worked in other school systems, the success rate of this program, and how they plan to keep track of the students tickets.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The flyer did not describe at all how the administrators have explained this system to the teachers.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes. I believe many people will not buy into this type of program. I think parents mostly will be against this type of program.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Many students may only begin to emit these behaviors around faculty or staff because they know they are being rewarded and then when they go home they can be the exact opposite of these target behaviors because they have no reward for it any longer.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
A few questions would be how would they plan to keep track of each students purple tickets? How do you know some students aren’t stealing tickets from other students? How many golden tickets do you need for each backup reinforcer?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How many golden tickets are required for each reward, how well is the system working? (after a short period of time).
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Emit, target behavior, reinforcers, individual reinforcer, extinguish, token system, positive reinforcement,
1) What is this program?
Poyner Panther T.R.R.C. is a behavioral program that attempts to improve the lives and behaviors of individuals in the school systems using positive behavioral intervention.
2) How did it come about?
The program came about because of a district-wide initiative of being a PBIS system - Positive Behavioral Intervention System. Waterloos version of this is Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behaviors of Trust, Respect, Responsibility, and Caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They might want children to emit the behaviors of befriending the people around them, or maybe emit the behavior of comforting a person in need of assistance in any way.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Tokens in this program can be beans or marbles, etc are given for tokens that can be exchanged for a reinforcer later on when enough tokens are earned.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro's would be that if people are motivated enough, behaviors will likely improve in the school. However a con is that there's no saying whether one reinforcer for one student is enough reason to change their behavior is enough for another.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is essentially the schedule of reinforcement we've discussed before. While initially 1 behavior is equal to one token, it changes over time such that 1 token might equal 4 behaviors.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Changing the delivery system may make the reinforcers not as worth it if one has to repeat the behaviors multiple times. A pro would be that it could better form a habit, and children would do good things without needing continuous reinforcement.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are banked by record keeping where large amounts of points are accumulated and kept track of.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros are that students dont have to keep a record by themselves. Cons are that it becomes a teachers responsibility, potentially taking away class and learning time.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Reinforcers that can be immediately given in exchange for tokens.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
One has to observe things that students already want, high-frequency activities. These can be good reinforcers
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They exchange tokens for them.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
One has to describe the system in measurable terms, to see how effective, if at all, the system is, whether by using numbers of some sort or something like it.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Very effectively. They are working very hard to get these pillars into young people's minds.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Effectively as well. Working on these things at home make the behaviors more likely to continue after reinforcement stops.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Effectively, because they have to be able to recognize the behaviors when they occur.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course there is, there are always outliers in these things but it would likely be in their best interest.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The only real problem I see is that reinforcers will not be enough for people to emit the desired behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How much time would be taken out of learning? Any? or will there be time taken out of a free period to discuss this program with classes?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How effective has it been in other places? How much can the school afford to make effective reinforcers?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
behavior, emit, elicit, positive reinforcer, back up reinforcer, continuous reinforcement.
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. (trustworthy, responsible, respectful, caring) and is a system to increase target behaviors in the district.
2) How did it come about?
It came about as a district-wide positive behavioral intervention system to increase the emitting of the character pillars that the district wanted to reinforce.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit trustworthy, respectful, responsible, caring behavioral classes.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
The target behaviors they want the children to emit is putting their supplies away when they’re done or saying desirable, kind things to other students.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because they are adding pleasurable stimuli rather than taking away aversive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets. Ten purple tickets equals one gold ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A con to this system is the tokens must be salient enough to emit the target behaviors, and the system is only effective in the classroom, and that’s it. The classroom would then be a discriminative stimulus. Outside of the classroom the behaviors may reach extinction.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system incorporates the continuous reinforcement through the purple tickets with the fixed ratio of the golden tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The fixed ratio reinforcement will only work if the reinforcers are set at effective value. If the prices are too high, the students are less likely to participate. The pros are that the system combines a number of different reinforcement schedules, which keeps it interesting for the students. The continuous reinforcement is a good reinforcer.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked in that after 10 purple tickets they can be turned in for 1 golden ticket which can then be turned in for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros of this is that the children have to work up for a prize, so they will be motivated. The cons is that the banking system could be too confusing or hard for younger students to keep up with.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the prizes at the end once the children turn in their golden tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen on what the children voiced they wanted to do.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective if they succeed in reinforcing the target behaviors they want the students to emit. I don’t see the helping the custodian part as reinforcing though, maybe more of a punishment.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by trading in their tickets to eventually reach the prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures will be how many purple and gold tickets were traded in for reinforcers. This can be compared to the baseline recorded in a sort of behavioral journal.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems effective since the system has spread out to any schools, banks, ect.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are trying to teach the parents about the system through the newsletter, but the description is too short in my opinion.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The administrators have informed the teachers about the system, but not as clear with how effectively the teaching was done.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It’s possible that not every single person was on board with this, since it will include some expenses. But I feel most teachers would be on board with the idea of changing behaviors, and the students would generally like the idea.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The classroom is the only place where the behavior is getting reinforced. The behaviors may not be specific enough for the students or the teachers may overlook target behaviors and not reward the students on accident.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How do the teachers plan to keep up with all of the target behaviors elicited? Were they informed enough?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What was the baseline beforehand? How has this increased the frequency of the target behaviors using the token economy?
Terms: Target behavior, token economy, reinforce, positive behavioral intervention, elicit, increase, emit, desirable, pleasurable, stimuli, aversive, take away, salient, discriminative stimulus, behavior, extinction, fixed ratio, continuous reinforcement, reinforcement schedules, punishment, behavioral journal, baseline, reward, frequency of behavior.
1) What is this program?
This is a district wide behavioral intervention program to help promote positive behavior amongst all elementary school's students.
2) How did it come about?
It's a district wide initiative.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit is trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They might want specific target behaviors like appropriate and safe play on the playground to be emitted; such as using the equipment correctly, treating other children nicely, solving conflicts with friends in games, and respecting the rules by following them.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a reinforcement system.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive because they are being given tickets for the desirable behaviors.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
They are purple tickets. Once the child receives ten they can trade it in for one gold ticket which can be saved and traded in for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros-reinforcement is being used and is more effective than punishment, because it increases the frequency for the desirable behavior to be emitted.
Cons-the kids might always expect a reward for a behavior, or lie and be manipulative about certain behaviors to receive the reinforcer. Children might only produce the behaviors until they get what they want.
9) What is the delivery system?
The child is given the ticket when a teacher catches them demonstrating these behaviors. Ten purple tickets gets one gold ticket which is valuable for spending on real prizes.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros-it'a meant to reward the desirable behaviors that are being emitted even when "the teacher isn't watching." So children are receiving reinforcements for behaviors they may not have expected were positive or would go noticed and appreciated.
Cons-it's not 100% effective. Some desirable behaviors will be emitted and won't be reinforced because they are not noticed by the teachers. So children might not even want to participate. Children could also just act on these behaviors when they know the teacher is watching because they know they will get reinforced for it, instead of actually modifying their behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Ten purple tickets equals one golden ticket. These gold tickets could be saved and exchanged for prizes such as; ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch w/a principal or teacher, extra computer time, or helping a custodian.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros-their is a fixed ratio for the schedule of reinforcement. They must obtain 10 before they can get one ticket capable of getting them prizes. This might increase the children's likelihood of acting on the desirable behaviors.
Cons-tickets can be lost, children could be upset by this. They can claim they lost tickets when they didn't just to get some. Other children are capable of taking other children's tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the ice cream or popcorn, extra recess/computer time, lunch with a professor or teacher, or helping a custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The kids have to earn a certain amount of the gold tickets and choose which one they want and must save up the amount needed to trade it in for that.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Some are. Children will be more likely to work for reinforcers like food or ice cream, or extra time doing their fun activities. But a reinforcer of helping clean or eating with a staff member may not be as reinforcing because one requires work that could be seen as a punisher by some, and eating lunch with the staff isn't desired by kids as much as the other reinforcers are.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By earning as many purple tickets as possible. Ten gets them one gold ticket. Then they save these up to trade in eventually for the desired reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcome measures would be that students are emitting the desired behaviors more all over the school so they know it's an effective reinforcing system.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think they are teaching the system effectively to the kids because they are seeing improvements all over the school with this reward program.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think they could do more to teach parents about the system by possibly discussing it and encouraging it in the household. Maybe even making a system of their own at home.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
They have been teaching it well because students are being caught everywhere demonstrating these behaviors and have been reinforced with it continuously.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes some may not buy the system or see it as effective since the students don't get the backup reinforcers right away. They have to gain other reinforcers first and so many. They might not also think that this will ultimately modify their behavior completely. The students are just doing it for the reward.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some reinforcers may not be as equally reinforcing to children as others. For example, a child is going to want ice cream vs. having to help clean the school. This might not seem worth it, to the child or unfair that only these reinforcers are available for their tickets. They also might keep tons of tickets for long periods of time and not cash them in and save them up so they have a lot. They are not having them taken away, so they can still act out and be rewarded in the end, when they choose.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would like to know how they plan on keeping the desired behaviors going if they ever decide to get rid of the reinforcement; extinction. Also is there a limit to how much a child receives in one day, and how do they know if the child is truly modifying their behavior or manipulating the teacher by emitting the behaviors when wanted just to get the reinforcer. Also how do they plan on rewarding behaviors that might go unnoticed and making sure these behaviors are noticed and rewarded so the child feels like it is fair. Also I would ask if they would take away tickets if the child starts to act out, because the child might start to think they can because they already have the reinforcer and can get the reward because they reached a certain amount.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
If they document individually how many tickets each child possesses, and from whom and what they earned it for. Also how many gold tickets it takes to get the different reinforcers.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavioral Intervention, Behavioral Classes, Elicit/Emit, Target Behaviors, Reinforcement, Desirable Behaviors, Punishment/Punisher, Positive Reinforcement, Reinforcer/Reinforce, Manipulate, Behavior Modification, Fixed Ration, Schedules of Reinforcement, Outcome Measures, Continuous Reinforcement, Backup Reinforcement, and Extinction.
1) What is this program?
The Poyer Purple Paws program is a token economy that Poyer Elementary school set up to try to increase positive behavior in and around their school.
2) How did it come about?
They wanted to increase positive, helping behavior that focuses on Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring (TRRC) actions. This is part of a district-wide Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The classes of behavior are the TRRC behaviors. I think most of these are behaviors are demonstrations of helping others and treating everybody with respect.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Helping someone pick up papers if they dropped a folder in the hallway, including everybody in the soccer game at recess, or standing quietly in line at the cafeteria at lunch.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The system is based on reinforcement of good behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement. The purple paw tickets and the golden tickets can be exchanged for something desirable in return.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple paw tickets and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pros would be that they are easy to handout and exchange. But I feel like there are more cons: they may easily be lost or destroyed and they may easily be counterfeited. Simple pieces of paper may not be a sufficient token.
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers or administrators hand our purple paw tickets when they see an act that they think is worthy.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
This makes it so the students know exactly who and how they tickets are handed out. But this also means that these actions only get reinforced when a teacher is present. If the kids do one of these TRRC behaviors when no teachers are around, they will not be reinforced. This could lead to selective behaviors occurring. Student may not do good behaviors when no teachers are around because they know they won’t be reinforced.
11) How are the tokens banked?
I believe that the student keeps the purple paw tickets until they have enough to exchange for a golden ticket. I presume they also keep the golden ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
This makes every student responsible for his or her own tickets. Although, students can easily lose tickets or they might be easily destroyed (if they are in the bottom of the students backpack for example).
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the things that the golden tickets can be exchanged for. These include ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with a favorite teacher, and so on.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
These reinforcers are the things that are desirable to the children. It makes sense that they offer a wide variety of backup reinforcers because students do not have the same preferences. These backup reinforcers cater to almost all students, offering most students something extra they desire.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think they would be. As I said, they offer a wide variety of reinforcers giving all students something extra they desire.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access by performing enough good behaviors to collect enough tickets to exchange for the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators can track the number of purple paw tickets and golden tickets being turned in. But to see if the behaviors are actually increasing, they may only be able to survey and observe the school and kids actions. It doesn’t appear that there was a baseline or goal they were striving to reach.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems like everybody is well informed of the system and the prizes and exchange rates. I believe that the administrators would tell the students why they were implementing the system before they actually did it.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I don’t think very well. All they have is this short blurb about it in the newsletter. Its not a super informative blurb either.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I hope well. I hope the administrators taught the teachers what they were looking for when it comes to the target behaviors they were trying to increase. I hope the teachers were given examples and things to look for in the students actions.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Absolutely. I can definitely envision student thinking they are too cool or simple not wanting to participate. Maybe the incentives are not sufficient. Maybe the culture of the school isn’t right. There are many things that could disrupt this token economy.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
My first instinct was that some sly students may end up counterfeiting tickets. But I think the overall system would work if all the teachers reinforced the same behaviors. But since there are no well-defined guidelines, this may be a big problem. Student see a behavior reinforced when one teacher is around, but not a different teacher, their whole perception of correct behavior will be off and the reinforcements will not work.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What are the guidelines you set for the teachers awarding purple paw tickets? Is it ambiguous or are target behaviors clearly defined? Can teachers hand out more than one purple ticket for a single behavior? Basically I would like to know how well the teachers were taught about this system before its implementation. The teachers are the key to the whole economy working properly.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
It appears that this is a few years old, I would like to know if it worked. Did they increase TRRC behaviors or did they scrap the system?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Target behavior, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, backup reinforcer, baseline, goals, incentives.
1) What is this program?
This program is about a token economy. The goal is to elicit good behaviors from elementary students. It is also called Poyner panther on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
This program came about to elicit a positive behavior program in an attempt to get students to emit respectful behaviors. This involves to be more responsible, trustworthy and respectful.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Overall they are trying to elicit positive behaviors. To be caring, trustworthy, responsibility and respectful.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Getting homework done, not talking, sharing, telling the truth, listen to adults.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive because it involves the addition of something.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program were purple tickets as well as golden tickets. These tickets later on could be exchange for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro side is the children get a certain amount and they can start counting them to get bigger and bigger prizes. However the con side is the children may copy these tickets in order to have more of them.
9) What is the delivery system?
Delivery system is when a teacher or someone of the school can give children tickets anytime throughout the day when they are caught demonstrating one of the appropriate behaviors.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The Pro side is that they can earn tickets when doing a good behavior. However a con might be that children can get tired of it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by the children, until they get 10, at which time they can turn them into the office for a gold ticket which can be redeemed for prizes whenever they like.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro’s is that they will get a reward, a prize and parents will take this as a sign their child is doing good. Some con’s might be that it can be lost or stolen.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Extra recess, lunch with the principal, ice cream, prizes for gold tickets, xtra computer time and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
By the faculty and staff.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective because not all of them are available at every time. For example eating lunch with the principal doesn’t happen everyday. However this might be seen as kind of aversive for them so it depends on the children as well. But having extra recess time and ice creams are definitely for the most part effective reinforcements.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Exchanging ten purple paw tickets for one golden ticket to the teacher.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
To keep how many purple tickets were given out and traded for a golden ticket. The better the behaviors the more purple tickets and more golden tickets so keeping track can show an increase or decrease on behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Pretty good because they are giving pretty good amounts of tickets, therefore the kids are having a good understanding of why they get them. Also getting the parents involved is very good too.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
In my opinion they are effectively teaching the parents about the system as they put it in the newsletter. The only thing they could do better is giving more examples of what kinds of behaviors are being rewarded.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Very effective I guess because as I mentioned they are giving out good amounts of purple tickets and there are flyers to remind them.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Everyone have different opinions some parents maybe don’t think is a good idea because then the kid will get use to getting a reward for something good and some teachers may support this opinion.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The reinforces may not be reinforcing after a period or time or the students might get used to the idea of for always doing something good they will get a prize or a reward.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would like to know if after a period of time and stopping the prizes how the children react and also how accurate the teachers are giving out tickets.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
As I said, how effective the program is after a period of time.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Target behavior, elicit, emit, reinforcer, punishment, positive reinforce, negative reinforcer, target behavior, antecedent, consequence, behavior, increase, decrease, aversive, delivery system.
1)This program is an example of a token economy that is located in an elementary school in Waterloo. The school district has made it mandatory to have these behavior change programs. In order to increase the positive behavior around the schools, Poyner elementary has started this program where the students who are caught behaving in positive ways receive a purple ticket. After the child collects 10 purple tickets they receive a gold ticket which can be redeemed for a prize.
Token economies were founded by Mont Wolf and they were during his experimental work on artificial rewards. In the public school systems, token economies are everywhere. Whether its for getting your work doing, meeting your reading goal, or good behavior there is a type of token economy for it. The school district of Waterloo made it mandatory for the elementaries to have this type of character program in the schools.
The schools all want good behavior. This includes trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring. These types of behaviors need to be elicited at a young age so that children learn how to treat others and develop a good character.
Some behaviors that they want the children to emit would most likely be helping behaviors, respectable behaviors direct towards both teachers and peers, and the TRRC behaviors. TRRC stands for trustworthiness, respectable, responsible, and caring. When rewarded for these behaviors the children will do more of them and then may impact their character in a positive manner.
This system is based on reinforcement. It is where children collect a certain number of little rewards in order to exchange for a bigger reinforcer. This rewarding in order to increase the likelihood of the behavior is reinforcement.
Token economy is considered positive reinforcement because the participants, usually children, collect many little rewards. The collecting of these little rewards are the adding of something desirable in order to increase the likelihood of the behavior.
The tokens used in this example are purple tickets. Once someone has ten purple tickets they can exchange them for a gold ticket. The gold tickets are then saved up and used for the prize of their choice.
One con that I think would accompany this ticket using procedure is that it would not be constant enough for some children. Some children would benefit from a more continuous reinforcement schedule, especially in the beginning. A pro would be that it would change behavior for the better and hopefully help the behavior continue throughout the child’s life.
The article did not discuss what the delivery system was and how it worked. I think that it would be beneficial for the children to receive the purple paw tickets directly after the good behavior occurred in order to reinforce the good behavior.
The article also did not mention how the tokens were banked. if the tokens are banked it would be a pro if it was displayed where other kids could see it. This would give other children motivation to compete with the others. I think that it is important to have a bank where they keep track of the number of tokens that a child receives. There are no examples of back up reinforcers either in this example.
In order to gain the reinforcers the children must have gold tickets. They can save up the gold tickets for a prize of their choice. Some of the examples that were given were ice cream cones, extra recesses, extra computer time, and others.
The administrators need to track behavior trends before implementing the token economy project and then track behavior throughout in order to see if there is an increase in good behavior.
By sending a note home in the newsletter, the parents are not informed well. This is not an effective way of teaching the parents and getting the parents invested in the program. The teachers are informed about it in a good way because they need to be able to see when the children are behaving well. The teachers need to buy in with the system because it is in place to benefit them.
There are certain problems that can occur when someone is trying to implement token economies. One problem might be that the children don’t really care about gaining the tickets that get them to the big prize. Another problem might be that they lose interest in gaining tokens. Without an effective bank system or recording system it can be easy to lose these tickets and then the children may get discouraged.
I would ask the administrators what their plan would be if the children did not care about this system or lost interest in it. I believe that you could just revamp the system a little in order to get them excited again.
I do not know where all of the information for these questions is located. There was only a little box with the information in it. I want to know for sure how the teachers are recording how many tickets the children have or how they are rewarding the children. The target behavior should be reinforced immediately so that it is easier to elicit that behavior in the future.
Terms: elicit, reinforce, target behavior, token economies, positive reinforcement, emit
1) This program is a token economy by the name of Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. designed to increase positive behavior from elementary students.
2) This program came about by a district-wide positive behavior program in an attempt to get students to emit respectful behavior.
3) The behavioral classes the district is attempting to have students elicit are trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) Some specific target behaviors they would want students to emit would be actively being prepared for class with all materials needed before the bell rings.
5) This system is based upon reinforcement because it involves the addition of something, which in this case are the tickets.
6) This is a positive reinforcement because the tickets are given when the student does something the administration wants them to do.
7) The tokens are purple paw tickets that can be exchanged for gold tickets when they have ten.
8) The pros are that it will reward students for their good behavior in the class setting but the negative side to this system is it could cause jealousy among other students who do not have as many tickets. Also, the students are responsible for trading the tickets themselves as well as maintaining them for an extended period of time which may diminish the likelihood of the target behaviors being emitted.
9) The delivery system is set up by the faculty and those on staff administer the tickets when they believe a student has acted positively in a way that fits T.R.R.C.
10) The positive side of having all faculty involved with the delivery of the positive reinforcement is that it can be done at the time the target behavior is produced. The problem with this system is that the “good behavior” is completely subjective to the person who is giving the tickets out.
11) The tokens are banked by the students.
12) The nice part about allowing students to be responsible of their own tickets is they are able to see their progress on a daily basis but this is also a bad thing because they may begin to give up if they realize they have enough tickets.
13) The back up reinforcers are a free ice cream, popcorn, lunch with a faculty member, and helping a janitor.
15) I do not believe these reinforcers will be very affective because a student must collect a lot of gold tickets to be reinforced for something as small like an ice cream cone.
16) They emit the target behaviors.
17) The outcome measurements can be logged by the number of purple tickets a student receives and how frequently they trade ten in for a gold ticket.
18) The administration seems to being an adequate job teaching the students about the system because the behaviors are being noticed in the hall, cafeteria, and classrooms.
19) It does not appear the administration had mentioned the program to parents until the end of the year so parents would have little information about what was going on.
20) Administration has done a very good informing the teachers because they are in charge of rewarding the tokens when target behaviors are seen.
21) There is a possibility that some students are not able to completely buy into the system for some students are more motivated to emit these behaviors than others. Also, it seems to target the students who are already willing to display these types of behaviors.
22) One of the biggest problems is that the students are responsible for their own tickets and have the potential to lose them and also there is a large amount of time they are holding onto them. If enough time goes by without being reinforced a student may lose interest altogether.
23) Where the parents informed of the program at the beginning of the year? Are tickets taken away for bad behavior that does not meet T.R.R.C standards?
24) Does each ticket system end at semester or does it go through the whole year?
25) Terms: token economy, positive behavior, emit, behavior, elicit, behavioral classes, target behaviors, reinforcement, and positive reinforcement
1) What is this program?
A token economy is a system of reinforcement where tokens are given and later exchanged for backup reinforcers for emitting the target behavior.
2) How did it come about?
This program came about in the Waterloo School District by bringing about a district-wide initiative to become a PBIS District or a Positive Behavior Intervention System District.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behavioral classes of trust, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors that they might want the children to emit might include always respecting their teachers or authority figures or making sure that they complete their homework and other responsibilities every day.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because it involves the addition of something positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens that are being used in Polyner Elementary School are gold and purple tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro of the use of tokens is that it allows students to continually receive feedback on their behavior. A con of the system is that when a student receives a large quantity of tokens over time they may feel like they have leeway and don't need to behave because they've become satiated.
9) What is the delivery system?
The best delivery system in a token economy would be continually deliver the tokens after the target behavior is emitted. The delivery of tokens should also always be accompanied with praise and specific information about why the student is receiving the token. Also, after the behavior has become part of the students overall behavior, the system should be changed from a continuous reinforcement schedule to an intermittent schedule. In other words, the tokens should be delivered after every few instances in which the behavior was emitted.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of the delivery system is that the kids are continually praised for their good behavior and it keeps them motivated to receive the tokens. A con of the delivery system is that the tokens may be reinforcing for some students but not for others.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by keeping a type of record system to keep track of the tokens that are earned and spent.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro is that the students do not need to keep their own records and they can't lie about the number of tokens that they have. A con of this is that the students may feel badly about themselves if the records are posted and they don't have as many as the other students.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes that the students receive in exchange for the tokens.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers are chosen by the teacher by observing or asking the students what they would like.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective reinforcers because they are things that the students actually want.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by emitting the target behaviors and exchanging the tokens the receive from emitting the behavior for the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Administrators could measure the outcome of the system to see if it is effective by keeping track of the emitted behaviors, tokens given to students, and tickets redeemed.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are effectively teaching their students about the system. They want to teach their children the four pillars and reward them for their good behavior.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are also effectively teaching the parents about the system. They put the information in the school's newsletter to inform the parents of the new system put in place in their children's school.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The administrators have effectively taught the other teachers about the system as well because they are able to identify the target behaviors and reinforce them with praise and tokens.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is always a chance that some people may not buy in with any sort of system. This one is no exception.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The only big problem that I see with token economies is the fact that some students who are already the more hard working ones will go above and beyond and receive a lot of tokens for behaviors that they don't really need to be reinforced in the first place. And, on the other hand, other students who may not be as hard working in school will not see the tokens as being great reinforcers so they will not have any sort of behavior modification.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How much time out of the day does the disbursal of the tokens take? Is any time taken away from learning because of this system?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know some statistics on how successful this system has been across different schools.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcement, reinforcers, target behavior, backup reinforcer, elicit, behavioral classes, positive reinforcement, satiated, continuous reinforcement, intermittent schedule, satiated, behavior modification
1) What is this program? This program is Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. It is a district wide initiative for positive behavior intervention.
2) How did it come about? it came about because the school district wanted to elicit behaviors consistent with the pillars of character.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to elicit behaviors n the class of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Examples of target behaviors would be things like turning in their assignments on time, or helping the teacher prepare for class.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This is reinforcement because it increases the liklihood of various behaviors being emmitted in the future.
6) Is it positive or negative? it is positive because it involves the addition of a positive stimulus.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens being sued are purple and golden tickets. These tickets can then be traded in for various prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? The tokens will only be salient within the discriminative stimulus of the school. Because of this, students may not continue to emit their target behaviors when they are away from school. However, within the confines of the school, they will be very effective at eliciting the desired behavior.
9) What is the delivery system? This is not exactly clear. It sounds as if this is an example of continuous reinforcement, where any time a student emits the desired behavior they are reinforced. However, that is not the case. The behavior is only reinforced if it is noticed by a teacher. Behaviors which are emitted when no one is watching are not reinforced.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? A con of the delivery system is what I just stated above. The students are only reinforced if a teacher is watching the emit the behavior. This means that there is no real schedule of reinforcement.
11) How are the tokens banked? Every time a student emits the target behavior, they get a purple ticket. If they get 10 purple tickets, they can trade them for a gold ticket. Gold tickets can be used to buy various prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's? One pro is that it allows students to save up. This will make them want to continue to emit the desired behavior. A con is that tickets are easily lost, especially when you are dealing with kids.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? things like ice cream, popcorn and extra recess time.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? These were chosen because they are things that every student will find reinforcing.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes. These are all things that students will find pleasurable and will as a result be very reinforcing.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They gain access to them by saving up their tickets until they have enough to buy a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? They could keep track of the number of tickets that they give out and see if it increases as more students learn about the program. They could also announce it during morning announcements.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? They send home newsletters and pamphlets discussing the program, but they should be aware that not every parent reads newsletters. I think that they could be doing a better job of educating parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? It seems like they are doing a pretty good job. They need to make sure that they teachers are educated if they expect them to remember to hand out the tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Absolutely. If a student doesn’t find the prizes to be reinforcing, or thinks that saving up the tickets isn’t worth the work then they will not buy in to the system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Hoarding their tickets and never cashing them in, or trying to copy them and create more could be an issue.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How long will the program go on? Will tokens have to be used at the end of the year or will they carry over in to the next year?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? Is there a certain number of tickets that a student can stockpile up?
TERMS: behavior, illicit, stimulus, emit, token, reinforcement, positive, negative, salient, discriminative stimulus, schedule of reinforcement, continuous reinforcement,
1) What is this program?
This program is a token economy, Poyner Panther on TRRC
2) How did it come about?
This program was designed to modify the behavior of elementary students who were originally emitted negative behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The people are trying to elicit positive behavior in the children.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
The behaviors that they are trying to elicit with this program include raising hands in class, helping other children carry their books or with homework, or participating more in class.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The Poyner Panther system uses positive reinforcement in which the children are rewarded with tickets that they can use for other prizes.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is an example of positive reinforcement due to the addition of something
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are tickets that can be exchanged for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: the use of positive reinforcement creates a positive, more productive environment the children can have to modify their behavior.
Cons: children are young and may be irresponsible and lose their tickets causing them to have to start all over. This could cause one of the two things; they can work harder to emit the target behavior or they can give up altogether.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system that the system uses is a fixed-ratio reinforcement system.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: The children know when they are going to be given a ticket
Cons: The children may become reliant on the system for performing the target behavior. Fading must be used to ensure this doesn’t occur.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children are given purple tickets until they reach 10, which is exchanged for 1 golden ticket. The golden ticket can be exchanged for a reinforcer, such as eating lunch with principal or earning coupons.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: It challenges the kids and makes the reinforcers difficult to obtain.
Cons: Students can lose tickets, make copies of tickets, or again be reliant on the tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The prizes that are earned through the golden tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen by the faculty and administration to be things that are safe, cheap, and are of interest to children.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
With the variety of given prizes for the children, they are effective reinforcers.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They must trade their purple tickets for a golden ticket, which is exchanged for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some outcome measures they can use to understand whether or not the system is working is to have a count of the amount of tickets are handed out vs. how many have been exchanged.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems that the administrators were effective in establishing enough information to the children as the turn-out appears to be positive.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The article, which is designed for the parents, gives out plenty of information needed in order to inform the parents of the system being introduced to their children.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The article doesn’t technically state how effective it is for other teachers, but I’m assuming they have done well since there is a high turn-out of children using the tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It is almost impossible to get 100% turn-out with programs. Some parents and students will believe that they don’t need to emit the target behaviors set forth by the teachers, nor will all children be interested in the reinforcers.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One problem that token systems are faced with is the fact that inconsistencies will cause failure due to difficulty of enforcement. Another problem is if the reinforcements aren’t being faded, then the children can become reliant on the system for emitting the targeted behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
One question I have is are the children presented with some sort of fading system to prevent reliance?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Same as number 23.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavior, reinforment, reinforcers, target behavior, negative behavior, positive behavior, fading, elicit, emit, fixed-ratio reinforcement.
1)What is this program?
This program rewards target behavior with tickets that they can redeem for extra fun activities or treats.
2)How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District has a distract-wide initiative being a Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit I feel is mostly just overall good behavior, but more specifically they are trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness and caring.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors they might want the children to emit are raising their hands before speaking in class, walking in the hallways, helping their fellow students with tasks like helping with their homework or carrying their books.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement.
6)Is it positive or negative?
Positive.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
Tickets redeemable for fun activities or treats.
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros could be that students like the tickets because they are like money to them. It is easy for them to know how many tickets they have earned. Some cons might be if the tickets are easily duplicated. If a student could easily copy the tickets with purple paper of their own they might forge them. Also, since the tickets are tangible they could be lost or stolen.
9)What is the delivery system?
Tickets.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The tickets might be hard to keep track of for children in elementary school.
11)How are the tokens banked?
10 purple paws can be exchanged for 1 golden ticket which can be exchanged for a prize.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: they will want more and more purple paws to get a golden ticket, so they will always being emitting good behavior.
Cons: the children may stop emitting good behavior once they get 10 purple paws.
13)What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes like ice cream, recess, popcorn, and others.
14)How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Although the article doesn't specifically come out and say it, the fact that the entire school district is committed to this, they may have decided together, or the individual schools could have come up with their own reinforcers in order to cater to their students' wants/likes.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
Some may be effective reinforcers, but others may serve as punishers instead. These include lunch with the principal and lead teacher and helping the custodian.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They can access to this reinforces by doing the pillars and also saving golden tickets to get them.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
18)The outcome measures could be how many tickets are being given out, and you can compare this to the target behaviors recorded during the baseline to see if the improvement.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are effective with teaching the students about the system by telling them in class. It also helps when other children visualize another student receiving a purple paw ticket.
20)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Although there is no information about this topic, I wouldn't think that the parents are being educated well enough about this token economy because it is only briefly mentioned in the newspaper, and it is reactively explaining why these children are bringing home tokens, rather than explaining that this token economy is about the be implemented, and holding a meeting with parents who would like more information about it. The newsletter article does do an effective job of explaining the entire process of the token economy, though.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We are aware that the teachers have been taught about the system as we were able to see their packet of information. While the system was outlined and described well, we don’t know how effectively the administrators taught the other teachers about the system. Apparently though, they seem to have done a pretty good job (according to the newsletter) since the behaviors seem to be getting better.
Again, this information is not clear. During meeting and teacher in-service days, and via email, all the teachers are on the same page for the program.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It is definitely possible. Given the poor communication in the newsletter, it’s a safe assumption parents are somewhat confused about the system. It wouldn’t surprise me if the kids don’t fully understand the system, or if teachers haven’t been adequately trained.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
A problem with this system is that good behavior may go unnoticed by teachers because it is not possible to view every child at all times. Another problem is that those who do not take the system seriously may make fun of those who do. Another problem is that the kids could lose their tickets, which means that their positive behavior will go without reinforcement.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What specific behaviors are you going to reinforce? Are you going to have a set list that the students have to emit, or are you just going to use your own judgment? Are there going to be any guidelines for these behaviors? What are your plans once you stop reinforcement if the good behavior that you reinforced no longer continues?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would be curious about the exact behaviors in which a token would be given for and the frequency at which the student could receive a ticket for the same behavior.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Rewards, target behavior, behavioral classes, elicit, target behaviors, emit, reinforcement, punishment, behavior, reinforcer, baseline, frequency, judgment.
1) What is this program?
This program is a type of token economy. This is a system that is used to increase wanted target behaviors in a particular district. This program is called the Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. T.R.R.C. stands for trustworthy, responsible, respectful and caring.
2) How did it come about?
Due to teachers and staff noticing disrespectful behavior coming from their students, the Polyner Panther T.R.R.C. came about in an attempt to get students to emit respectful behavior to their peers as well as authority figures.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are T.R.R.C.- trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors that the teachers would want the students to emit would be doing something nice for a peer or teacher, or by being respectful and clean up after their mess.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcing the target behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The administrators/teachers are adding a pleasurable stimulus to the kids for emitting a target behavior. Therefore, this is a form of positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens that are being used in this program are purple and golden tickets. If a student collects enough purple tickets (ten to be exact), then they are able to trade it in for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be saved and turned in for prizes (reinforcer).
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pro’s that can be associated with using these tokens are that it is inexpensive and it is an easy concept for the students to understand. However, some con’s that can be associated with this type of program would be that it may become salient and ineffective for the students as time passes.
9) What is the delivery system?
This program uses continuous reinforcement as the schedule of reinforcement of the target behavior. The purple tickets se a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule of the golden tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some pro’s and con’s associated with this type of delivery system is that the reinforcers of the tickets need to be set at a reasonable value. If the value of the tickets are too high before a student can be reinforced then the students may become discouraged and give up on trying to emit the target behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by receiving ten purple tickets which then are exchanged for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be saved up and later used to receive prizes (reinforcer).
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro’s of the way they are banked is that the students know how many more tickets that are needed before the behavior that is being emitted is reinforced. However, if a child receives enough tickets to be reinforced this may cause them to cease emitting the target behavior, because they don’t think they need to keep doing it since they are being reinforced.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are prizes that include a bag of popcorn, ice cream, more recess time, or even extra computer time.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers are should be chosen based on what children their age like to do and that it is also appropriate for that setting and age.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
If the students partake in the behavior more frequently than they did during the baseline then it has been an effective reinforcer.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
In order to gain access to their reinforcers, the students are able to exchange the purple tickets they received, into golden tickets. After receiving more golden tickets, they can then exchange them for various prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the outcome measure that allows the administrators know how effective the system is include keeping a record of purple tickets that were given out that were then exchanged for golden tickets. Also another outcome measure would be keeping a record of how many golden tickets that were exchanged for a reinforcer.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems as if the administrators did an excellent job of teaching the students about this system. The students were emitting the target behavior throughout the school.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators have been trying to teach the parents about the system through a blurb in the school newsletter. The problem with this, is that the parents may have questions that can’t be answered and some concepts of this system may be confusing if you are only reading about it.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The administrators have been doing a great job of teaching the faculty and staff this system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It is possible that some people may have complete buy in with their system. This is because some teachers may do a better job at reinforcing the target behavior. This could also depend on the students motivation levels.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems with token economies are that the school setting could become a discriminative stimuli. By becoming a discriminative stimulus; this means that the behaviors may not be emitted outside of this setting unless they are still being reinforced.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How many many golden tickets are needed before they receive a prize? In what ways can you increase the parent’s awareness of this program? How are the faculty and staff keeping a record of what tickets the students currently possess are?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How did the administrators go about choosing the reinforcer? Has the program been effective thus far? How do you know?
25) Terms- target behaviors, emit, behavior, behavioral classes, elicit, reinforcing, positive reinforcement, stimulus, emitting, continuous reinforcement, fixed ration reinforcement, reinforcement schedules, reinforcers, discriminative stimulus
1) What is this program?
This program is the Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. It is a reward system that will elicit good behaviors from the students.
2) How did it come about?
This came about as a way to encourage students to make good choices, perhaps due to far too many aversive behaviors from the students.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit trust, respect, responsibility and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Target behaviors that may be rewarded include; helping students who need help, turning assignments in on time, being nice to other students, holding door opens, picking trash up.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The reinforcement is positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are collected by the students, then traded in for a golden ticket. These golden tickets are then traded for prizes such as; ice cream, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with a teacher and helping the custodians.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The students will enjoy being rewarded for good behaviors, however finding a balance between rewarding small behaviors equally as large/difficult behaviors is hard.
9) What is the delivery system?
The students will start with schedule of reinforcement called continuous variable interval, or continuous reinforcement. Both will reward the student after emitting the behavior every time. Eventually the teachers will have to reduce the variable of reinforcement to, rewarding once after emitting the behavior four times.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A good delivery system will encourage the students to emit good behavior but if there is no effective system set rewards will become to easy or too hard to receive.
11) How are the tokens banked?
A banking system would be a way to record the amount of tokens a student has earned. The best way identified in the article is to write up the amount of tokens in a highly visible place for all students to see.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
This would make it very easy to keep track of however when a separation is created it may discourage students who do not emit the required behavior enough.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the rewards discussed earlier, ice cream, pizza, extra recess etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The back up reinforcers were chosen through amount of demand determining the cost of the reinforcers.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
If the reinforcers continue to increase the likely hood of the good behaviors then yes, they will be effective.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students will gain access to the reinforcers by exchanging the tokens they earned with the teacher at a specified time.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
If the system of rewarding the students for good behavior continues to show increase in positive behavior then they will know the system is effective.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It appears that they have done a good job, perhaps making an announcement every once and a while will help the students remember.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They have sent home fliers, told the students to tell their parents, they could bring the system up during parent teacher conferences. It seems like they are doing a good job.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would think they have done a good job, in order to put this system into act, the teachers must have a pretty good understanding of it.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course, there may be some that feel the system will favor certain students. This system is not perfect so it would be hard to just all of a sudden incorporate it into the system of education.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
When students become upset or jealous some students may try to steal other students tickets, they may try to re-create them or maybe they will hoard their tokens.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Is there a limit of tokens that a student can earn without spending any? How long should this program go on for?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Can or should the students be punished for bad behavior?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post
Terms-
Elicit, behavior, reward, reinforcement, punishment, continuous reinforcement, fixed variable, emit.
1) What is this program? It is a way to set up a series of reinforcements and punishments through topography and using “tokens” that can be cashed in at a later time
2) How did it come about? We have been using this without knowing for yers
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Ones that have to do with personal growth and gaining.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Sit down in a chair
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? reinforcment
6) Is it positive or negative? positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program? Recess time
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? One pro is it is something the kid really wants, a con could be the kid is bullied at recess
9) What is the delivery system? It is givin at a continuous system everyday
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? The kid could become satiated
11) How are the tokens banked? They are tallied, marked, or put away to count later
12) What are the pro's and con's? you can physically see progress, and it might be hard to wait for it
13) What are the back up reinforcers? In case the first reinforcer isn’t reinforcing enough or there is something in the way of making our reinforcer more reinforcing
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? Based upon every situation we are in
15) Are they effective reinforcers? yes
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? When they emit the target behavior
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? Very effective
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? Somewhat effective
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Very effective
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes, because of the pause of the reinforcement some people do not believe this to work.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? The delayed reinforcement
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? What happens when all else fails?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Emit, target behavior, reinforcer, reinforcing, reinforcement, punishing,
1) What is this program? The program is a token based economy, meaning that if a student behaves well, they get a token, which they can exchange for a reward.
2) How did it come about? The school district is a positive behavior intervention systems district and they decided to use a token economy to increase the likelihood that good behaviors will occur in the future.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? It is an attempt to elicit a trustworthy, responsible, respectful and caring behavior.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Some of the target behaviors they want the children to emit can be like if hey will pay someone who is lonely at recess, follow classroom rules, and respect the faculty members and other students.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program? Purple tickets for emitting the target behavior. Once they have reached 10 purple tickets, they then get a golden ticket, which allows them a special reward.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? A pro would be that children can see how much they are getting. It also gets the kids to continually emit the desired behavior with earning the purple tickets in order to exchange them for a gold. However, a con to this system is it may be a hard concept for the younger children to understand, they may think that certain kids are getting rewarded more than others just because they are “caught” doing good things more often.
9) What is the delivery system? The teachers and administrators handing out tickets as they see children doing things to earn them.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Pro’s with the delievery system are that students will be learning to emit good behaviors. Some con’s would be that some teachers could give more tickets than others so some students could get tickets for one behavior from one teacher but not from another teacher for the same behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked? Earning 10 purple tickets and then the students trade them in for a gold ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's? Pro’s would be that students must emit 10 good target behaviors before they can earn a prize. The cons are that if they do not desire the reward you can get, they will not want to emit good target behaviors.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The back up reinforcers are the prizes that the students receive after they get the 1 gold ticket.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? Chosen by the students when they turn in their golden tickets.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? They should be effective if the stents picks them. Some of the reinforcers could be aversive to some of the students like helping the custodian or having lunch with the principal.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? Tickets can be exchanged for the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The measures are how many purple and gold tickets are handed out and cashed in. the more purple tickets that are handed out, the more the good behaviors are happening.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? I think the students are being taught very well about the system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? Not a lot of effort goes into teaching the parents, all the parents get is a brief summary of the system.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? We do not know for sure but the teachers probably had meeting on how this should work. Not enough information is here to now for sure.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? There is a definite possibility that not all will buy into in the system. Some may not buy in, they could not give the system a chance.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Losing, stealing, hording, copying of tickets could be a problem. Also changes in reinforcement schedules could be a problem.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? Is there a plan to stop students from altering the ticket distribution, are teachers fully aware of their role, and is the reward appealing enough to the students.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? If it works with all ages or not, who exactly is getting targeted, how long will this last, what happens if there is a refusal to be apart of the system and how will the target behaviors be distinguished.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. Reinforcement, target behaviors, elicit, emit, positive reinforcement, token economy, stimulus, reinforcers
1) What is this program?
-This is a token economy program called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
-This is a district wide behavioral intervention program trying to promote good behavior in school aged children.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
-They are trying to get the students to elicit responsibility, respectfulness, trustworthiness, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
-Some specific target behaviors they might want children to emit are putting toys and activities away, helping other children with a difficult math problem, involving all children in games at recess, and apologizing and saying please and thank you.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
-This system is based on reinforcement because the school district is trying to increase these behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
-This is positive reinforcement because the children are rewarded once their behavior increases.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
-The tokens are purple paw tickets. Once the students get 10 tickets, they can exchange them for 1 golden ticket, which can be used to redeem a variety of prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
-Some cons associated with these tokens would be keeping track of how many each kid has, they might lose their tokens, or they might elicit appropriate behavior without being reinforced. Some pros are the different levels of tokens and that some of the reinforcers are free, such as being line leader and eating lunch with the teacher.
9) What is the delivery system?
-The delivery system appears to be a continuous reinforcement schedule. Every time a child emits a behavior demonstrating respect, trust, responsibility, or caring, they receive a token. This can get confusing though, as a child may elicit good behavior without the teacher noticing, and therefore not be reinforced that time.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
-The pros to this delivery system is that the children will be more likely to often emit good behaviors as they are always hoping for more tickets. The cons would be, as I said before, not being reinforced each and every time.
11) How are the tokens banked?
-The tokens are banked by the children, until they get 10, at which time they can turn them into the office for a gold ticket which can be redeemed for prizes whenever they like.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
-The pros are that the children can take them home to their parents and show them how many they got. Another pro would be that the parents could continue this token economy at home with a similar system. The cons to this might be them losing their tickets or not keeping track of how many they have.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
-The back up reinforcers are the prizes for the gold tickets such as ice cream, helping the janitor, leading the line, and eating lunch with the principal.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
-It did not say how the backup reinforcers were chosen, but I am assuming they went by what has been most reinforcing to the children in the past. They might have also asked the children themselves, which is a good idea to make the reinforcers more reinforcing.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
-They have not started implementing the token economy yet, but i assume they will be effective.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
-The students gain access to the reinforcers by eliciting the target behaviors and earning enough tickets for prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
-Some outcome measurements could be less incidents of bullying at recess, less mess in the classroom, and grade improvements.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
-They are teaching the students effectively, as I assume they are going to explain in more detail than the flyer announcement. The fact that they are telling the parents about this plan is very effective.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
-They are teaching the parents effectively by making this announcement. The parents will come to learn more as the student becomes a part of the token economy as well.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
-If all of the teachers are aware of this system and the specific target behaviors along with what info was in the handout, then they should be well knowledgeable about the system.
21) 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 of this within a token economy. Some teachers or parents might be unclear about what behaviors should constitute for a token. Some children may not find the reinforcements that reinforcing.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
-One problem that is common and could be common here is the lack of immediate reinforcement. Student have to build up a lot of tokens to receive the actual prize. Another potential problem could be the unevenness of the reinforcers. One student may feel that getting ice cream is a much better reinforcement than leading the line. Another problem could be the fading of the economy. Teachers may not reinforce as often as they should which could cause students to lose interest.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
-Some questions I would have for administrators is how are they going to get all teachers to participate equally, what are the specific target behaviors, and what are they planning on implementing if this strategy does not work?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
-I would want to know what specific behaviors the students should be working on to receive their tokens.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
-Token economy, elicit, emit, target behavior, positive reinforcement, continuous reinforcement schedule, reinforcer more reinforcing, banked, delivery system, behavioral class.
1) What is this program?
A token economy program called Poyner Panthers on TRRC
2) How did it come about?
This came about because they needed to encourage students to elicit good behaviors and make good choices
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They're trying to elicit trust, responsibility, respect, and caring behavior
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They would like the children to emit behaviors such as being nice to their peers or cleaning up their mess or telling the truth.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement, and we know this because they are trying to increase the behavior
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is considered positive reinforcement because the children are rewarded after they emit the desired behavior
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The purple paw tickets which can be traded in for a gold ticket, which is used to redeem prizes
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro's- they know when they can trade in the 10 paw tickets
Con's- some kids may not get to 10 because the teacher's don't see all their behaviors
9) What is the delivery system?
Continuous reinforcement by teachers: they hand out the tickets when they see the child eliciting the correct behavior
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pro's- they could get multiple tickets in one day
Con's- the teacher only has two eyes; some kids may not get their good behavior recognized
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tickets can be traded in for a gold ticket
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pro's- gold tickets get them prizes
Con's- no reinforcement of kids who don't get to 10 tickets could result in even worse behavior
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are what you can trade your tickets in for, such as food rewards or helping the janitor
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I'm sure they were chosen just by what the children seem to really enjoy doing
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
When they become implimented, I would think they would be effective because it's what the students want to do
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They emit good behaviors, receive paw tickets, trade them in for gold tickets, and then eventually get the reinforcer after so many gold tickets
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Less children getting sent to the principles office, higher grades in the classroom, etc.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Very effectively; they're letting them know about the program in advance so they can get excited about it
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They are effectively teaching the parents about this system by letting them know about this program in advance as well, and if it is as successful as they think it will be, it'll be easier for parents to implement it at home too.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Probably pretty effectively, and when the program goes really well, the other teachers will see that and they will start to implement the program.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Theres always that possibility when a program is introduced, especially in schools. Some parents may not understand the idea of token economy
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
If the teacher does not see the child emitting the positive behavior, they may go tell the teacher they did the target behavior just to earn a ticket and then other students may start doing the same thing, but lying about whether the elicited the behavior.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How do you plan on making sure that the behaviors being reinforced by the teachers are the same all the way across the board?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I don't have any additional information I am seeking!
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
TERMS: Token economy, emit, elicit, target behavior, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, continuous reinforcement
1. This program is a token economy called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C..
2. This program came about because the district is trying to promote good behavior such as being respectful, trustworthy, responsible, and caring.
3. The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4. There are many target behaviors that they would want the children to emit. Some examples would be doing homework on time, telling the truth, being honest, playing fairly, putting things away, being nice to each other, sharing things, helping others, and owning up to their actions.
5. This system is based on reinforcement because they are rewarding a behavior that they want increased.
6. This is positive reinforcement because they are rewarded with something after a desired behavior.
7. The tokens in this program are the purple and golden tickets. After that they are able to receive a prize.
8. A pro associated with using these tokens are that they are reinforcing the child's behavior. It is helping them push to be better. A con associated with this is that some of the behaviors may not be noticed and the children may find that negative. Also, once this is done they may not act the way they were anymore.
9. The delivery system is continuous reinforcement because when they see the wanted behavior they will give the ticket.
10. A pro of this delivery system is that they will try to show the wanted behaviors all the time. A con would be that some wanted behaviors may not be noticed then they will go unrewarded.
11. Once the students receive 10 purple paw tickets they can trade for a golden ticket and they can save those for various prizes.
12. A pro would be that they know what they are working for and how many more good behaviors they have to do. A con would be after they get the golden ticket they will not emit the wanted behavior.
13. The back up reinforcers are the ice cream, extra recess, bag of popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14. I think that these were chosen by the people who work at the school and they are things that will not cost much and they are what the children want.
15. Yes, these are effective reinforcers. These are all things that the children want and will enjoy.
16. The students gain access by saving up the tickets from emitting the wanted behaviors 10 times to the golden ticket then being able to get a prize.
17. First the administrators could have a baseline of behaviors then keep track of how many purple tickets are given out.
18. I think that if the children are rewarded everywhere for the wanted behaviors then the teachers are for the wanted behaviors then the teachers are very effectively teaching the students about the system.
19. Since the administration sent out a letter explaining the process and asking for the parents participation they are effectively taught the parents about the system.
20. I think since it says different places where they can emit the behaviors that could be helpful to teachers. It could be more effective if they gave teachers examples of behaviors to look for.
21. It may be possible that not everyone has a complete buy in with the system. The parents may not care, the students might not like the rewards, and the teachers might be to busy doing other things.
22. A problem that may exist here is that some behaviors might go unnoticed. It also may not permanently change their behaviors once they are no longer reinforced.
23. I would like to know how long this is going to go on for. If it shows positive results will they use this permanently?
24. I think they should have exact behaviors that would be rewarded. This is kind of unclear and it might be different for different people.
25. Terms: Behavior, emit, elicit, baseline, effective reinforcers, positive reinforcement, reinforcement, continuous reinforcement, target behavior, token economy, and behavioral classes.
1) What is this program? It's call the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. - which is a positive behavioral intervention that establishes a token economy to reward desirable behaviors...Gives reinforcement to the students who elicit good behaviors.
2) How did it come about? It came about as a Waterloo school wide positive behavioral intervention method in attempt to get students to emit good behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are attempting to elicit things such as being trustworthy, caring, respectful and responsible.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? If a student trips and drops all her papers, you'd want the students who are around her to stop and help her pick up her stuff.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This is based on reinforcement, which is almost always better to use than punishment.
6) Is it positive or negative? It would be considered positive because they are adding something to the regime.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens are the purple paw and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Some pros would be that they would be very inexpensive to give out as well as being very tangible and about to deliver the stimulus immediately.
9) What is the delivery system? It would be the teachers handing out the tokens after they see a target behavior emitted.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Some pros would be that they would be very inexpensive to give out as well as being very tangible and about to deliver the stimulus immediately. Some cons would be that the teacher may not be able to see every time a pleasurable behavior is emitted therefor it may exclude some students desirable behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked? They are banked with each and with the students keeping track and if they earn enough of one kind they will be able to exchange it for a greater token and eventually a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's? Pros are that the school leaders just have to hand out the coins and handle trading the purple for gold and the gold for prizes. A con might be that the students could probably find some way to cheat the system and therefor void some of the efforts of others students.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The back up reinforcers would be considered the things like more ice cream, recess, popcorn, extra computer time.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? They were chosen most likely be surveying the students and seeing what they'd enjoy.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes mostly, as long as they dont saturate the students with them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They are given the reinforcers by teachers or student leaders when they emit a pleasurable behavior.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Well, they could simple just observe they students thoughout the day and take notice of how often they are good/bad.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? They'd of course have to let the students know that this is a thing and is going on. After that, it all becomes pretty effective by their own will.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? Well. They put the information in a newsletter which should be sufficient enough to serve their purposes.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Im assuming they had some type of meeting where they sat down and went over all the basics and what to do and what not to do when attempting to get the students to elicit desirable behaviors.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? There is pretty much always a slight possibility, but at that age, students have noting better to do with their time except for tying to get rewarded with popcorn.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? the students could become saturated with the reinforcers and that would diminish the overall effect of them. The students could also very well just not listen and ignore the system.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How do you intend on keeping this going for the long run as well as how would you deter students for jacking other student's tickets.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
What age do they think this method will be most effective? What happens when a child isn't allowed to participate for reasons such as allergies?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terms:Token economy, elicit, emit, positive/negative reinforcement/punishment, stimuli, behavior, pleasurable, desirable, target behavior, behavioral class, rewards, back up reinforcement.
1)What is this program?
A token economy program called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C that is located in an elementary school in Waterloo.
2)How did it come about?
It was designed to change the negative behavior of elementary students
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit the behavioral classes of trust, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors that they want the children to emit are being prepared for class with all the things they need before the bell rings, and respectable behaviors direct towards their teachers and peers.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement because it involves the addition of something pleasurable which are the purple and golden tickets. The tickets are rewarding in order to increase the likelihood of target behaviors.
6)Is it positive or negative?
It is positive because pleasurable stimuli is added.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are purple and golden tickets. Ten purple tickets is worth one golden ticket.
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro’s are children can exchange 10 purple tickets with one gold ticket to get what they want and their behavior will also get better. Con’s are the behavior might not be noticed by their teachers and children might not receive the rewards (tickets) they deserve. As a result, children might give up and start acting out again.
9)What is the delivery system?
The delivery system involves continuous reinforcement of target behaviors using purple tickets and fixed ratio reinforcement with golden tickets.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some of the pro’s that are associated with the delivery system are there is a combination of two types of reinforcement which motivates students better. Students are more motivated to emit target behaviors to reach the magic number, 10, purple tickets in order to exchange them with one golden ticket which can be used to obtain something they have wanted. Besides physical reinforcement, students are also praised by their teachers which is motivating to them. On the other hand, the cons are the fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement will only work if the reinforcers are set as a reasonable value of golden tickets. If the prices are set too high, students may get discouraged and the target behaviors will be extinguished.
11)How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are credited in a way that after 10 purple paw tickets have been collected they can be turned in for 1 golden ticket and the golden tickets can be turned in for prizes.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
The pros are children will be highly motivated to emit the target behaviors to obtain golden tickets, which can be exchanged for prizes. The purple tickets serve as a guideline to determine how many more purple tickets they would need in order to exchange them with golden ones. The purple to gold tickets being 10:1 ratio is good that it will make sure that the reinfoncers will not become satiated. Whereas, the cons is because they need to obtain 10 purple tickets before they can exchange them with a golden one to exchange for a gift, some children might give up thinking that the reinforce is difficult to obtain. As a result, their target behaviors will be extinguished.
13)What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess time, 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?
The backup reinforcers were chosen based on what the children already find reinforcing. They were chosen based on the observation of their previous behaviors.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective reinforces if they are pleasing to every child. There should be a variety of reinforcers for children to choose from because not all children are reinforced by the same few things.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students have to trade in their purple tickets to get a golden ticket. The golden ticket can then be exchanged for a reinforcer of their choice. They will only get a purple ticket every time they emit a target behavior.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the measures that the administrators could take are keeping track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are exchanged for golden golden tickets. Also, they should record the reinforcers that children choose in order to know the children’s preference.
18)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think the administrators are teaching the students about the system quite effectively because children are being told about it in school every time via their teachers or even peers.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are somewhat effective in teaching the parents about the system. I do not think that teaching them through this little excerpt is good enough.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The newsletter does not give information on how the teachers will be coaxed about the system.
21)Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It could be possible that not everyone may have complete buy in with the system. Some students may be more motivated than others due to the reinforcers, which is why the school should have a variety of reinforcers for students to choose from.
22)What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
One of the problems could be consistency of the token economy. Also, the reinforcers should be salient to the children. Apart from that, if the reinforcer becomes too easy to obtain, children may become satiated. As a result, they will not emit target behaviors.
23)What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would like to know how this system was brought to the teachers’ attention since it was not described in the school newsletter.
24)What additional information might you want to know about the system?
As for the system, I would like to know the effectiveness of the program in school and whether the target behaviors continued for a long time or it extinguished once the students got bored with the reinforcers, as well as, how the school handled when the reinforcers were not working anymore.
25)Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcer, reinforce, reinforcement, target behavior, salient, extinguish, stimuli, token economy, emit, reward, behavior modification
1) This program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C and the acronyms stand for trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring and it is a token economy that aims to elicit the behaviors listed above.
2) It came about because the Waterloo School District became a PBIS District (Positive Behavior Intervention System). Because of this they deiced to come up with
strategies to elicit good and respectful behaviors from students.
3) The behavioral classes that they want students to emit are trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring behaviors.
4) Some of the specific behaviors that they want students to emit are, respecting teachers by listening to their instructions, completing assigned homework, pay attention to others when they are speaking, raise their hands when they want to ask a question, being able to walk away from a fight, treating others the way you want them to treat you.
5) This system is based on reinforcement.
6) This is positive reinforcement because there is an addition of a desirable stimulus to increase the likelihood of the students emitting those target behaviors.
7) The tokens that are used are purple paws that students receive when they emit the target behaviors. The purple paws can be exchanged for a golden ticket.
8) The pros would be that these tickets are very easy to distribute among the students and doesn’t cost a lot. Other than that it is also a safe token. The cons would be that these tokens are small and not easy to keep track of especially when you are young kids who are not really big on being responsible. It is also easily stolen by other kids looking to find the “easy” way out and that would defeat the purpose of this program.
9) The delivery system is through the teachers and school faculty members who will give students the tickets.
10) The pros of having the teacher give the tickets are that the reward is immediate and swift and they feel praised for their work. The cons would be that not all desirable behaviors can be monitored and some students might not get rewarded and they would start to feel like there is no point of striving to emit the desired behaviors. Other than that, some teachers might have different expectations from other and there would be a bit of bias towards certain behaviors. This would make the token economy a bit unregulated and unsystematic.
11) Once the kids get a set quantity of purple tickets, they can hand it in to turn them into one gold ticket. These gold tickets can be turned in to redeem prizes.
12) The pros would be that this system is a very simple and straightforward system which makes it easy for the students to understand. Other than that this gives the kids something to strive for. However, the cons would be that the tickets can be easily lost or misplaced. One more con is that the tickets are easily damaged.
13) The backup reinforcers are ice-cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal, and helping the custodian.
14) The backup reinforcers are chosen based on what appeals to the students or are newly added privileges.
15) The reinforcers are very effective because it targets what kids like, for example, ice cream.
16) The students gain access to these reinforcers by emitting the target behaviors and that entitles them to purple tickets. After collecting a certain amount they can exchange it for the gold ticket.
17) Some of the outcome measures that the administrators use to find out if the system is effective or not is by calculating how many times each student obtains a purple ticket and how often do they collect enough to exchange for a golden ticket.
18) The administrators are teaching the parents about the system through the Poyner Elementary Newsletter which I am not too sure on how effective it might be.
19) In my opinion, the Newsletter is very effective depending on how well received it by the parents of students.
20) It seems to be pretty effective because a lot of the teachers are making sure that the kids are striving to get tickets and with that the desirable behaviors that they emit are reinforced.
21) Most definitely there will be people involved with the school and students that won’t buy into this system and that could be because they don’t believe it is effective or they just feel it’s a waste of time to change these students natural behavior when there are other more important things like academics.
22) Some of the problems that exist within a token economy is that this is not really an effective long term way to change a behavior because its effects will wear out either due to students feeling like the rewards aren’t that appealing or they have worked a way to get what they want because the system of a token economy is easily worked around. Other than that, token economies also can reinforce the wrong target behavior, for example, instead of encouraging students to be trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring because it is the right thing to do, the token economy reinforces that by emitting this behavior, they get ice cream, so when the reward is not present it is very easy for students to just go back to their old ways.
23) Some questions that I might have for the administrators of this system is if they have a quota on how many tokens can be given on each given day and if there is a set amount of token students can get per each day. Another question would be if there any other rewards that they have in mind other than the ones given. Finally, one question that I would like to ask is whether they have thought of changing the antecedent of this program to increase the effectiveness of their token economy.
24) There is not much I would want to ask because I feel like I have asked all the questions that I want the answer to. If I had to ask another question, it would be why did they decide to come up with this program?
25) token economy, elicit, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, desirable stimulus, target behaviors, tokens, reward, desirable behaviors, reinforcers
1)What is this program?
This program rewards target behavior with tickets that they can redeem for extra fun activities or treats.
2)How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District has a distract-wide initiative being a Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3)What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit I feel is mostly just overall good behavior, but more specifically they are trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness and caring.
4)What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors they might want the children to emit are raising their hands before speaking in class, walking in the hallways, helping their fellow students with tasks like helping with their homework or carrying their books.
5)Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement.
6)Is it positive or negative?
Positive.
7)What are the tokens used in this program?
Tickets redeemable for fun activities or treats.
8)What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros could be that students like the tickets because they are like money to them. It is easy for them to know how many tickets they have earned. Some cons might be if the tickets are easily duplicated. If a student could easily copy the tickets with purple paper of their own they might forge them. Also, since the tickets are tangible they could be lost or stolen.
9)What is the delivery system?
Tickets.
10)What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The tickets might be hard to keep track of for children in elementary school.
11)How are the tokens banked?
10 purple paws can be exchanged for 1 golden ticket which can be exchanged for a prize.
12)What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: they will want more and more purple paws to get a golden ticket, so they will always being emitting good behavior.
Cons: the children may stop emitting good behavior once they get 10 purple paws.
13)What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes like ice cream, recess, popcorn, and others.
14)How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Although the article doesn't specifically come out and say it, the fact that the entire school district is committed to this, they may have decided together, or the individual schools could have come up with their own reinforcers in order to cater to their students' wants/likes.
15)Are they effective reinforcers?
Some may be effective reinforcers, but others may serve as punishers instead. These include lunch with the principal and lead teacher and helping the custodian.
16)How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They can access to this reinforces by doing the pillars and also saving golden tickets to get them.
17)What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
18)The outcome measures could be how many tickets are being given out, and you can compare this to the target behaviors recorded during the baseline to see if the improvement.
19)How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are effective with teaching the students about the system by telling them in class. It also helps when other children visualize another student receiving a purple paw ticket.
20)How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Although there is no information about this topic, I wouldn't think that the parents are being educated well enough about this token economy because it is only briefly mentioned in the newspaper, and it is reactively explaining why these children are bringing home tokens, rather than explaining that this token economy is about the be implemented, and holding a meeting with parents who would like more information about it. The newsletter article does do an effective job of explaining the entire process of the token economy, though.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We are aware that the teachers have been taught about the system as we were able to see their packet of information. While the system was outlined and described well, we don’t know how effectively the administrators taught the other teachers about the system. Apparently though, they seem to have done a pretty good job (according to the newsletter) since the behaviors seem to be getting better.
Again, this information is not clear. During meeting and teacher in-service days, and via email, all the teachers are on the same page for the program.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
It is definitely possible. Given the poor communication in the newsletter, it’s a safe assumption parents are somewhat confused about the system. It wouldn’t surprise me if the kids don’t fully understand the system, or if teachers haven’t been adequately trained.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
A problem with this system is that good behavior may go unnoticed by teachers because it is not possible to view every child at all times. Another problem is that those who do not take the system seriously may make fun of those who do. Another problem is that the kids could lose their tickets, which means that their positive behavior will go without reinforcement.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What specific behaviors are you going to reinforce? Are you going to have a set list that the students have to emit, or are you just going to use your own judgment? Are there going to be any guidelines for these behaviors? What are your plans once you stop reinforcement if the good behavior that you reinforced no longer continues?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would be curious about the exact behaviors in which a token would be given for and the frequency at which the student could receive a ticket for the same behavior.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Rewards, target behavior, behavioral classes, elicit, target behaviors, emit, reinforcement, punishment, behavior, reinforcer, baseline, frequency, judgment.
1) What is this program?
The Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. is a program that rewards children for showing the characteristics of being either trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring. They get purple tickets each time someone catches them acting on one of those characteristics. After 10 purple tickets, they trade it in for a golden ticket which can be used to trade in for a number of cool prizes.
2) How did it come about?
The program came about because of the Waterloo School District’s initiative for being a positive behavior interventions system district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are the characteristics of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors the children can emit are helping another student with their homework (caring), helping the teacher with erasing the board (responsible), and taking the class pet home to care for it over the weekend (trustworthy).
5) Is the system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The system is based on reinforcement, because it makes the kids want to display these characteristics more often.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The system is positive, because it gives the kids something pleasurable
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this system are purple and gold tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro of using these tokens are that they are inexpensive, and easy to make. A con of using these tokens is that they may be easily lost by the children, if they are the ones in charge of keeping them safe.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is when a teacher or staff of the school sees a child emitting the correct behavior, they are awarded a purple ticket by that staff member.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro is that each staff member is responsible and knows how to responsibly and fairly hand them out. A con to this delivery system is that a student can be exhibiting appropriate behavior, and no staff member is around to see it.
11) How are the tokens banked?
It seems to me that the tokens are just banked by the students keeping track of their own tickets. There may possibly be a chart up reminding the students who has how much, but that is not mentioned in the newsletter
12) What are the pro's and con's?
One of the pros of this is that the students always know how much they have, because they can just see for themselves how many tickets they have gotten. One of the cons of this is that student can lose their tickets and if there’s no chart, they have no proof that they once had so many tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Back up reinforcers include 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?
The newsletter didn’t say how the reinforcers were chosen, but these are all just fun things that many kids would enjoy doing.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
There’s a lot of different reinforcers, so each kid will probably like at least one thing on the list. I think they will be effective reinforcers because the prizes aren’t too easy to get, or too hard to get, so the kids will enjoy working towards getting the chance to pick out a prize.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students are able to turn in their 10 purple tickets for a golden ticket, which are saved,and then be traded in for one of the prizes. I’m guessing there is a designated time for when the tickets can be traded in, and then the student will be able to get their prize during that time.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some of the outcome measurements could be less fights happening at the schools, less students sent to the principal’s office, teachers noticing more collaboration and friendliness in their classrooms, and just overall, the mood and enthusiasm of the school can help them see if their system is working.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Since the newsletter doesn’t say all their efforts to teach the students, I’m guessing they either had an assembly, or the teachers talked to them about the program. And they are also asking the parents to encourage their kids to participate as well.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The newsletter is the way that the administrators are teaching the parents. They don’t really go into much detail, like the banking system and when the tickets can be traded in, but they tell the parents about the main idea of the system.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I’m hoping that the administrators have talked to the teachers in a meeting of some sort about how the system is going to work and what behaviors can be described as ticket worthy. They would also need to teach them about every aspect of the system so that they know what’s going on, as well as if the students have questions, then they would be able to answer them.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I guess there could be a few issues. Like the head teacher having to eat lunch with a student and the principal a lot may be problematic. The parents could have issues with their kids getting sweets or may not want them on the computer. I can see some specific problems coming about with this system.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems that might come about with this token economy is that the children may lose their tokens, the children may learn how to copy and make more of the tokens, they may be able to steal tokens from other kids, or they may end up not wanting any of the prizes so they won’t even try.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How long will this token economy be in effect for? Where are you getting the money to fund for this since some prizes include food? What if the kids end up getting a ton of tokens? then it will be too easy for them, and their behavior won’t really change much. What about how the kids behave when staff aren’t present? Like at recess when the kids are off on their own, or in the bathroom and hallways? Will tokens get taken away for bad behavior?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Any additional information I want to know about the system was asked in the question above.
25) Terms: behavioral classes, elicit, target behavior, emit, reinforcement, positive, pleasurable, tokens, banking
AAW
Reading Activity Week 15
1) What is this program?
The token economy is a system of individual reinforcement of target behaviors in which tokens are administered and exchanged later for backup reinforces. Overall the idea is to decrease or increase ones behavior with receiving a form of token that will lead to a reward later.
2) How did it come about?
This came about for the school to work on the behavior or being trustworthy, caring, respectful, and responsible. The school is overall wanting to elicit good behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit is overall good behavior in the classroom. Also according to the school they also mention trustworthy, caring, respectful, and responsible.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Specific target behaviors they would want the children to perform could be examples of raising your hand, sitting in your seat, being on time, negotiate and accept criticism.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement and they steer away from punishment. The article mentions that you should use things they like to do in their free time as a reinforcer.
6) Is it positive or negative?
I would say that it is positive. They are focusing on increasing wanted behaviors and emitting ones that are not wanted behaviors with a positive reinforcement. This also allows for a more structured class on following rules and being respectful.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Examples of tokens include: plastic or metal circular chips, marks on the blackboard, points marked on a paper point card, stars, holes punched in cards, stickers, paper clips, beans in a jar, happy faces, and play money. The school choose to hand out purple tickets and after you receive ten of those tickets then you receive a gold ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro’s to using these tokens are that they are easily dispersed, difficult to counterfeit, and safe to use. Another pro is that the student has something tangible to work towards and motivated by.
The con’s are that the token with younger children or disabled may swallow or ledge smaller objects in their nose or ears. Another con is the students keeping ahold of their tokens could become an issue with them losing them.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is the teacher will lay out what behaviors performed will get a certain amount of a token. When a student performs a behavior they are reward with a token. With that it could be either a continuous reinforcement or not. The delivery system is also based on a fixed ratio where after 10 purple tickets are received they will receive 1 gold one every time.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pro’s are that the students are positively reinforced for following the rules set by the teacher.
The con’s if the behavior is to simple and receive a large amount of tokens they will no longer be interested. This will lead to them most likely not continuing the behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are tracked by the teacher. The total points of tokens for each individual is then posted so everyone can see where they are at compared to others. For the school the banked is once they receive 10 purple they receive 1 gold and can exchange for a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro’s are that this could lead to healthy competition with others in the classroom. This will lead to performing the behavior more often to the point it becomes natural.
The con’s are that if a person does not like competition and is doing poorly could lead to them not continuing with the behavior.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are received after so many tokens are occupied or the teacher sets a time that it will occur. It is the reinforcer from the reinforcers received before, being the tokens. Those tokens lead to the backup reinforcer, which is usually what the child is striving for. The specific backup reinfrorcers for the school are Sonic ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, extra computer time or helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They are chosen by asking the student what they would like to earn and observe their free time.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes these are effective reinfrocers because they are specific to the person. This way it is something they want to strive for compared to something they do not care about.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students must receive 10 purple tickets to receive 1 gold ticket to them exchange for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some outcome measures they could do would be to keep count of the purple tickets per class handed out and the gold tickets. If they even want to they can have the teachers count each student in their class on the amount of tickets they receive. Then also have an evaluation on the students behavior the beginning of the school year then the middle and lastly the end of the school year to see if their behavior improved.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
By handing out the article I would say that the teachers are teaching the students about the system and seem to be excited. However the small article gives little information on their teachings to the studnets.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I would say that they are teaching the parents about specifically how they are going to run the system. They provided information of why they are doing it, how to receive a ticket, and the rewards that are provided. However, I feel there is more information and questions parents might want to receive and ask.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
There is no information provided on the administration teaching the teachers about the system.
21) 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 a teacher, parent, or student will not like the system. That should be accepted and they should have the option to not participate.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems could be that the rewards are not exciting to every student making it that the student will emit the behavior instead of eliciting it. Another issue is the reinforcers might be too easy or difficult for others to obtain.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
One question that comes to my mind about the system is where the money is coming from to pay for the tokens and reinforcers. Another is will this be a distraction from their learning in the classroom.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know if the teachers are expecting us as the parents to continue with this system.
Terms: reinforcement, target behaviors, emitting, reinforcer, reinforcement, eliciting, fixed ratio, continuous reinforcement, and reinforcers
1) What is this program? A token economy is a system of individual reinforcement
of target behaviors in which tokens are given in order to be exchanged later for backup reinforcers. It is utilized to increase or decrease a target behavior by giving the individual a reward later.
2) How did it come about? It came about for the Waterloo Community School District to utilize in order to help shape behaviors. The schools are trying to elicit better behaviors like Respect, Responsibility, etc.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit is mostly overall good behavior, but more specifically they are working on trustworthiness, responsibility, respectfulness and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Some specific target behaviors that they would want the children to emit are raising their hands, being on time, and staying in seat.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement, because they are rewarding the students for good behavior, instead of just focusing on punishment for bad behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative? I would claim that this process is positive, because they are trying to get rid of the bad behaviors by treated the students to good behavior. This will push the students to follow the rules.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used in this program are purple and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? I would say that these tokens are pros because they are easily dispersed and creative. They are cons because of the fact that they can be hazardous to the children as well as they can be lost easily.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system is based off of the teacher explaining the behaviors and their worth to the system. After ten tokens are collected the student will get a gold token every other time.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? I would say that some pros to this system are that It reinforces good behavior and that it will help bring interest to the system. Some cons to this system are the students gaining too many tokens and losing interest, or the student not being acknowledged by teacher for committing behavior.
11) How are the tokens BANKED? The tokens are banked by the teacher. The teacher will then post the total points of tokens for the individuals so they can compare their success to the other students. Once the students receive ten purple, they can trade for a gold coin in order to purchase reward.
12) What are the pro's and con's? I would claim that the pro is that the banking will be precise because the teacher will most likely be able to handle the coins the best. The con is when the teacher posts the total points of the tokens, because it might put some students down forcing them to give up hope on the system.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The backup reinforcers are prizes like ice cream, popcorn, recess, etc.
14) How were the BACKUP reinforcers chosen? The backup reinforcers were chosen by the students.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? I would claim so, because they are specifically based for the students, so it makes it more beneficial for them.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students must receive ten purple tokens which can be traded for a gold coin to trade for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Some of the measures that the administrators could take are keeping track of how many purple tickets they hand out and how many are exchanged for golden golden tickets. They will also see how effective the system is by reviewing the improvement of the class as a whole.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? The reading didn't mention anything about how effective the teaching of the system is to the students, but I would assume they had an assembly with the principal explaining it, then had the teachers explain it separately once they got back to the classroom.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? The reading gave no information on this matter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? There is no information given on this matter.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Of course, but as long as improvement is shown then the system has a positive effect.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? I would say that some problems would contain a lack of interest in the system, and also that it may be easier for some students and harder for others.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What will they do as a backup if the system doesn't function properly? where will they be getting the money from to fund the backup reinforcers?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know what behavior are being put into play with this system.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcement, target behaviors, elicit, emit, reinforcers, punishment
Token Economies.
Please review the following website and read about the steps involved in setting up a token economy using the LRBI Checklist:
http://165.139.150.129/intervention/Token.pdf
Next read the following link about the Poyer Purple Paw tokens http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) What is this program?
-This program is a system of where students are being rewarded for emitting certain target behaviors with tokens that they are able to exchange later for reinforcers that they enjoy. These reinforcers are pleasurable activities or items that students get to chose based on their enjoyment.
2) How did it come about?
-It is not said how it came about on either website but I can imagine that this token economy came about by a teacher thinking it would be best to reward their students for their good behaviors than punish them for the bad ones. This is a motivational system to solve problematic behaviors and may be the best system out there for students learning how to behave in a classroom.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
-The behavioral classes they are trying to elicit are academic, social and classroom skills. They can also be learning appropriate community behavior. For example, the T.R.R.C was the students focusing on Trustworthiness, Respectfulness, Responsibility and being Caring. These seem to be community based behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
-Academically, a specific target behavior may be for every time the student brings their calculator and pencil to class they get a token or it may be for every time they raise their hand to speak they get a token.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
-This system is based on reinforcement. It seems like this would be a great way to motivate students to do the right thing and focus on their target behaviors set for them.
6) Is it positive or negative?
-I believe this is a positive way to teach children how to appropriately behave. I believe that this is a better way to teach children rather than punishing them in school.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
-The token are used to be treated in for reinforcers that they are able to use later on. They are able to trade the reinforcers for an extra 10 minutes with a toy or for a snack during the day
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
-Some pro’s would be that the students may actually be really motivated to earn tokens to be able to use them later on for reinforcers or rewards, they also may see that their hard work is paying off by the amount of tokens they receive. A con would be that you have to make sure that the costs of each reinforcer is balances and makes sense with your token bank and costs because if the prices are too high, students may give up. If the prices are too low, the tokens may be hoarded or they can lose motivation.
9) What is the delivery system?
-The delivery system would be delivering a praise with each town that is given for the appropriate behavior
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
-A pro is that the student will know exactly why he received the token and are more likely to emit the behavior again if he is being rewarded. A con is that if there is not a delivery of a praise then the appropriate behavior will deteriorate and the token economy would be faded.
11) How are the tokens banked?
-The tokens are banked by keeping a record of each token being earned and spent. It would have each students’ name on it and the teacher will write how many tokens the students have earned and take away tokens as they switch them for reinforcers. This way the teacher knows exactly how many tokens each student has.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
-A pro would be that each student would be able to keep track of their tokens and it would motivate them to keep doing well. A con is that students can become jealous or competitive.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
-Back up reinforcers are reinforcers that may be based on the student’s main interests instead of general reinforcers.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
-Back up reinforcers are chosen by observing students during their free time
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
-Yes, they are more personal for the student especially if students get bored of the initial reinforcers.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
-The teacher would provide a list of reinforcers for the students and create a bank where students are allowed to withdraw their points for reinforcers and the reinforcers have set values
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
-They have been able to list ways that the system has failed before and have solutions for each problem
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
-It seems like the teachers are the ones that have to teach the students about the system since they are implementing it into their own classroom.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
-I believe that it’s not as effective because the teachers are the ones that have to tell the parents just so they are “aware” what they are doing in school but they are not asking for the parents to make sure they are carrying these actions outside of school too (although you can’t tell a parents what to do with their child) 20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
-They have taught the teacher very effectively because they have step by step instructions on the system and solutions to each problem that they have had so far
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
-Yes it could be more that there can be several students that don’t care about the tokens and disregard the whole system
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
-Like I said, some students may not care at all about what the system has to offer. Some students may become bored of the reinforcers that are being offered. Or some parents may come up with a reason why this is not positively affecting their child because they don’t care those actions at home.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
-How do you treat those students that totally ignore the system while there are other students who are really passionate about getting rewarded? I feel like it could become an aversive situation in the classroom
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
-Who was the genius who taught about this token economy?
25) Terminology: rewarded, target behaviors, emitting, tokens, reinforcers, pleasurable, token economy, motivational system, problem behaviors, delivery system, emit, back up reinforcers, aversive.
Token Economies.
Please review the following website and read about the steps involved in setting up a token economy using the LRBI Checklist:
http://165.139.150.129/intervention/Token.pdf
Next read the following link about the Poyer Purple Paw tokens http://www.uni.edu/~maclino/bm/purple_paw_tokens.pdf
1) What is this program?
The program is a token economy set up for the children to emit specific target behaviors in order to receive tickets which are being used as a reinforcer to increase certain behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District initiated a Positive Behavior Intervention System to encourage being Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible and Caring. By emitting these acts they will then receive reinforcers. Throughout the flier it did not say the exact reason for initiating this program but I would assume they may have been having behavioral programs and they needed some motivation for the kids to behave.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes would be to encourage the personality traits that are most enjoyable to be around and appropriate for a school community. Since they are receiving the tickets throughout many aspects of the school I would guess they are teaching the child overall social skills (trustworthy, respectful, responsible etc,).
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors out of the behavioral classes may be turning in homework on time, including all children in recess play, not cheating on homework assignments or holding the door open for students as they are coming out of the cafeteria. These would all go into the behavioral classes (T.R.R.C.).
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a reinforcement based system because the children are getting reinforced with tickets that will then turn into a prize for them.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement because we are adding something to give to the children.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The "tokens" are the purple tickets which can then transition into golden tickets which are the ultimate thing the children need to get their prize.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
It does not specifically say on the flier if the teachers are keeping track of all the tickets handed out, but one con could be if the children lose the purple tickets they are given and there is no other way of tracking the distribution. Another con could be the competition getting too much for the children, which would mean they were only emitting the target behaviors to beat out their best friend. However, I think they are many pros to the system like, if the children can balance the competition with the practice of these behaviors, they will start to emit these behaviors out of routine and it will become automatic. These behaviors are lifelong skills needed to have so this system is given to a great age group. The reinforcers are also a pro to this system because they are things kids in elementary love. They are also not super expensive reinforcers and some do not even cost money with is a great pro.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery of the tickets will be given out whenever the child emits the "target behaviors". It sounds like the teacher just hands the tickets to the children right when they see the child in the act. It is hand delivered.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
An obvious con, I think, would be if the child just feels like wanting an ice cream cone after school so they make sure to do the target behaviors a lot that one day in front of teachers so they can get ten purple tickets. There should maybe be a limit on the amount of tickets a child can get in a day however they may not emit any of the behaviors once they get their tickets for the day. Some pros of the delivery system would be that it is done in person and publicly which means other students will see a child receiving a ticket and give them motivation to get one too.
11) How are the tokens banked?
It is not very specific on how they are being tracked but I would assume that the teachers are tracking how many purple tickets the students are receiving when they hand them out. One way they could improve the system is by having each child have a baggy hung up on a bulletin board or jar for each student and their tickets go into there until they get ten.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
I'm not really sure on the pros and cons because I do not know how the program is banking the tickets. However, a con may be if they are just going off the child's word on how many tickets they have. Also, if a child says they "lost" one and they really just didn't receive one. One pro may be if the teachers are keeping track of not only the tickets but of the reinforcers that each child gets that way the rotation is kept fair for the children.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are what the child will receive as the final reinforcer. This will be the snacks they get, extra recess playing time etc. These I believe, are chosen by the student when the receive all their tickets.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They sound like they were chosen by the different businesses in the town for the teachers to decide where gift cards should be from. Also the reinforcers were chosen because they could be given to numerous students without having to spend a lot of money on them.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes they are effective because it will be chosen by the student from their options which will let them have control over what they want as a prize. It will be more personally rewarding.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They gain access by emitting the target behaviors required to get a ticket.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They should first start off with finding a baseline so they can go back and see if this system was successful or not. They could also look into the students grades before, during and after the system to see if they improved with the positive reinforcement.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It sounds like the students should know pretty well about the program however it doesn't list what ages this is for and I think that each grade should have a meeting time to go over specifically the goals of the program and the rules and regulations.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
This flier was not very detailed and specific on the target behaviors so I think that this program should have got a whole flier to itself and maybe be stapled or on the back side of the flier with all the other announcements. This would help the parents become more educated on it and they could encourage the kids at home to do these behaviors as well. It also sounds like the program has been going on and the parents are just now finding out.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It sounds like all the teachers know about the program but because such broad behavioral classes are listed in the flier, I think the teachers should get together to make a list of specific target behaviors that are going to be reinforced with a ticket.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, I could see this being a big problem because the students may be completing these target behaviors at school when they are being awarded, however when they get home they aren't, so their target behavior will decrease. This is not the overall goal of the system because they are wanting the students to gain these skills not just for a reinforcer. Some teachers also may not be giving tickets for the same reasons other teachers are which could cause confusion. For example, if one teacher gives a ticket to a student for holding the door open and another teacher does not, this could cause arguments among student to student and student to teacher.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems may be that when the child either moves out of the grades this system is implemented in, they could go through extinction or an extinction burst when they are no longer reinforced for their good behaviors. The child may also not be actually learning these behaviors and only doing them for their reinforcers.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I would want to know specifically how they are tracking the tickets and if there is a limit on how many reinforcers the child can get in a day. I would also want to know if all the teachers are handing out tickets for the same behaviors or how they are classifying trustworthiness, respectfulness etc.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to see a baseline for how the children were acting before this program was initiated to see if the children are actually becoming better children in the school system. I would also want to talk to the parents after it has been implemented for a couple months to see if the children are also behaving better at home.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
token economy, reinforcer, target behavior, emit, motivation, behavioral classes, positive reinforcement. extinction, extinction burst, baseline,
1) What is this program?
This program is called Poyner Panthers of T.R.R.C. This stands for Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring. It is a token economy that encourages students to emit target behaviors in exchange for reinforcers.
2) How did it come about?
The school district wanted to become a PBIS district, with PBIS standing for Positive Behavior Intervention System. Like I said above, they were hoping to elicit specific behaviors from their students (trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring). We had a program similar to this when I was in elementary school, and I think it was just to teach the students how they should behave, so that there were not any behavioral problems.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to get students to elicit specific character pillars—trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. That being said, the behavioral class would probably be appropriate behavior/manners for school.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
I’m assuming that they would want their students to tell the truth, be nice to their fellow students, and getting their assignments done on time. They may hope that students will be more honest, meaning that they will not copy someone else’s work. All of these target behaviors are in line with the T.R.R.C. that the school is trying to implement.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a reinforcement-based system, because the students are given a reward (tickets) for emitting correct behavior.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is an example of positive reinforcement, because the students are being given something instead of having something taken away.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
First the students are given purple paw tickets when they are caught demonstrating the above character pillars. They can then trade 10 of these in at a time for 1 golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
I love this idea, because it makes the kids really work for and appreciate the tickets that they are receiving. Because they can be made of paper, they are easy to make and can cost close to nothing.
However, how are these tickets being kept track of? The flier does not say whether or not they are being held by the teacher or are being counted by the teacher as the teacher hands them out. Are the kids shoving them in their pockets at the end of the day? In other words, are they getting lost, taken, or sent through the wash?
9) What is the delivery system?
It sounds like the teacher is just handing the students these tickets whenever he or she sees the student emitting the desired behavior, and that seems problematic to me. Is there a limit to how many tickets they are giving to a student per day?
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Like I said above, it depends on the age of the student, but there is a high likelihood that these would get lost or ruined (aka going through the washing machine).
However, I do think that people are generally happier when someone personally hands them things like this. It’s a little bit of instant gratification. Plus, when students see other students getting these tickets, it may cause them to elicit the desired behaviors in the attempt to get some tickets for themselves.
11) How are the tokens banked?
I want to believe that the teacher is tracking them. Maybe he or she is keeping a tally each time he or she hands one out. However, the flier did not specify. If they are just being handed to the students who are told to keep track of them, and they are younger students, this may be a problem. Maybe there should be like Velcro pockets that are hung on the wall and kept track throughout the school day.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
It is hard to say the pro’s and con’s without knowing the banking system. However, there are obviously some potential con’s, like I said above. I’ve listed several potential problems above, but I can say them again. For one, if the child loses the ticket, is there a way that he or she can get a replacement, or is that ticket just gone forever? Are they placed somewhere that another student can just take them from another, and claim them as their own?
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back-up reinforcers are the prizes that they are able to “buy” with the final golden tickets that they “bought” with their purple paw tickets. The flier lists these as Sonic ice cream cones, lunch with the principal, or helping the custodian. (Side note: how is helping the custodian a reward?)
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
I think the back-reinforcers were chosen because they are relatively cheap and easier to give. I mean, an extra 10 minutes at recess costs them nothing, and students love it.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think that they should be effective because the students are able to choose them on their own. However, there could be rare circumstances when the student has no interest in any of the options, so they will not work as hard for the tickets.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They have to emit the desired target behavior and get the tickets to trade in for the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I think that for the first week of giving tickets, they should keep track of how many tickets are given, and use that as a baseline. Then after that, they should continue to keep track of how many tickets are given and see if the number increases. I think that once students see other students getting these tickets, they will want them too. Other than that, it is hard to measure how effective it is. I suppose they could look at grades and see if positive reinforcement has an effect, but the grades are the focus of the token economy. This would be difficult to track.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The nice thing is that they are sending this newsletter out to parents, which may talk to their children about it. However, if these parents are like mine, the newsletter probably ended up in the trash. The flier does not say how they are teaching the students about this program, but I assume that they are making announcements in each classroom.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The flier is vague, but I think that it taught the parents what they needed to know. The only other thing that I would have included would be the specific behaviors that students could implement to get tickets. I think that if I am able to get a significant amount of information from this, that parents are probably getting enough information. 20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I feel like since the teachers are the ones handing out the reinforcers, they were probably taught the information in a meeting. Most schools will have a full day dedicated to just meetings with their teachers, so I am sure that they are very aware of the boundaries of this program.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Oh definitely. I think that if they do not give tickets to everyone right away for emitting the target behaviors, some students may get angry and refuse to participate. Some parents might feel like this is ridiculous and make a joke about it, meaning that their kids may not take it seriously. Teachers is the upper elementary grades may feel like their students are too old for something like this.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Unequal reinforcement could be a large problem. Also, if too many golden tickets are required for a reward, students may give up, thinking that the goal is unreachable. Another problem that could occur is a student “hoarding” their tickets for long period of time, meaning that they do not have to participate in the pillars for a while.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How are these tickets being tracked? Are they being accounted for? Will they be taken away after a period of time, as in do the tickets expire?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know if the students feel like this program is good, because many will have opinions. I would want to know if the teachers or even the parents saw a significant difference in the way that their students/children behave.
Terms: token economy, emit, target behavior, reinforcer, elicit, behavior, behavioral class, positive reinforcement, desired behavior, baseline
1) What is this program?
Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C is a token economy focus on helping student become more trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District has a district-wide initiative for becoming a Positive Behavior Interventions Systems (PBIS) District
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes the administration is trying to increase are Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, Caring
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors of these behavioral classes are telling the truth, raising their hand in class, putting their toys away where they are done playing with them, and helping their peers with classwork.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive, because we are adding something pleasurable.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple paw tickets and golden tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: tickets make it more fun, there are different “levels” which keeps the kids engaged
Cons: easy to lose, easy to steal
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers give them out when they see a student being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: The children are praised by teachers when receiving their purple paws
Cons: May lose the paws if kids are are recess, may not have paws readily available to give when the correct behavior is emitted
11) How are the tokens banked?
It doesn’t say how they are banked or if they are being banked in general
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Cons: Can easily lose track of how many tokens each student has, doesn’t allow students to see feedback on how they are behaving
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal/lead teacher, extra computer time, and helping the custodian
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It does not state why or how the reinforcers were chosen. But I would guess they were chosen because there are the activities that the students at Poyner like to participate in the most.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, these reinforcers will be very effective because they allow the students to get extra prizes but also help them have fun with the staff at the school
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by collecting purple paw tickets. Once a student has ten 10 purple paw tickets they can exchange them for one golden ticket. Once the student has collect enough golden tickets that can exchange them for the reinforcers
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
In the newsletter it states that the teachers and other faculty are catching students everywhere being on T.R.R.C.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems as though the students understand the program since they are caught being trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring on a daily basis.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administration did a good job briefly, yet thoroughly explaining the program to the parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The newsletter doesn’t talk about how the administration taught the program to the other teachers. Since there isn’t any sort of banking/recording keeping system, I would say they have some work to do.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, students may only be emitting these positive behaviors in order to gain tickets. It is also possible that students are not being reinforced for their actions at home which may cause trouble when they are at school.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
I feel as the the pricing between the purple and gold tickets is to high. It may also be very easy for students to make their own purple paw tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Why is there no record keeping system? Do you think that 10 purple tickets is too much to earn before getting one golden ticket?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Is there a set time for exchanging tokens for prizes? How many purple paw tickets can a student earn in one day?
Terms: emit, behavior, target behavior, behavioral classes, pleasurable, positive reinforcement, token economy
1) What is this program?
This program is the Poyner Panthers on TRRC which stands for Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring. When students are observed displaying positive behavior they receive a purple ticket and they can trade in 10 purple tickets for 1 golden ticket which they can use to buy prizes or earn special privileges.
2) How did it come about?
tokens are used to encourage good behavior in kids with behavioral problems and students in special education classes.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
I think that both topographical and functional behaviors can be elicited.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They want the children to be respectful of authority, responsible for themselves and for their work, and caring toward other students.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is a positive program.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are tickets that can be exchanged for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some kids could be left out and the kids could potentially lose their tickets.
9) What is the delivery system?
When the kids are observed emitting positive behavior they get a ticket from the teacher who witnessed it.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Some kids just might not be around faculty when they are displaying positive behavior. The kids are rewarded for positive behavior which influences them to behave positively more often.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are recorded by the teacher.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
If the teacher is keeping the tokens then the child does not learn responsibility. If the child keeps the tokens they might lose them.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The children get to pick games that they can play with their friends.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The children get to choose the games that they play.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes because the children have choices.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By displaying positive behavior.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
If the students continue to display the positive behavior even outside of school then the system is working.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The students learn about it from the teacher and the parents are also encouraged to talk to the children about the system as well.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
It is put in the newsletter so that the parents can read about it, but it could get skipped over.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The other teacher has been taught effectively because they need to know what to encourage or discourage and when a ticket is supposed to be rewarded.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
yes that possibility exists.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Students could hoard tickets or misuse them, as well as deteriorate the positive behavior over time
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How much are they spending on prizes for the students?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How well it is working.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Positive, negative, reward, punishment, reinforcement, behavior, emitting, topographical, functional
1) What is this program?
The program is a token economy when a student demonstrates one of the pillars (trustworthy, respectfulness, responsibility, or caring) they will be rewarded with a purple ticket. They then can turn in 10 purple tickets for one golden ticket that will ultimately turn into a reinforcer of an activity or prize that they choose. This is to increase positive behavior throughout the student body and they will reward them in a variety of different situations.
2) How did it come about?
This system could have come about because of the students disrespecting each other and not emitting these behaviors very much so the school administrators wanted to come up with a way to reinforce the students who do emit these behaviors and try to demonstrate to other students to emit them.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes that they are trying to elicit are demonstrating trustworthiness, respect of others, responsibility for self, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
A few specific target behaviors they might want to emit are that of trustworthiness, this could be not cheating on a test or homework. A target behavior of respect would be waiting patiently in line for others or respecting other classmate’s property. A target behavior of responsibility would be remembering to turn in their homework on time or bringing their supplies to class. A target behavior of caring would be looking after other classmates who are upset or hurt.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This particular system is based off of reinforcement because they are reinforcing for good behaviors instead of punishing them for not emitting certain behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because they are adding something desirable instead of taking something away from the students that is aversive which would be negative reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are tickets that are handed out when a target behavior is admitted and eventually after 10 tickets they receive a gold ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The pro’s is that they are inexpensive and easy to make the con’s with these tickets are that the kids apparently can take them home and would be really easy to lose or get stolen from another child.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is when a student emits one of these target behaviors and a teacher reinforces them with a purple ticket then can go to their teacher and turn in their purple tickets for a gold ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: The children are reinforced even when not necessarily trying to get a ticket so they always try to emit these behaviors but the Cons: would be that a child could emit a lot of these behaviors yet never get reinforced which would extinguish their desire to emit their target behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children are in charge of keeping track of their tickets and they trade them in with I’m guessing their teacher which it does not specify.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pro’s: Teaches the children responsibility which is a target behavior that they are reinforced for. Con’s: They could easily be lost or stolen by other children.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principle, extra computer time, or helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen most likely from things that the teachers thought the children would enjoy or possibly took a poll from what the students would like be reinforced with.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think that most of them would be effective reinforcers especially extra computer time or extra recess time.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by turning in 10 of their purple tickets to their teacher and receive a gold ticket which gives them access to the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Outcome measures would be seeing how many students get to the gold tickets each month and could see which reinforcers were most picked.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators did not really teach the students anything from what we were given it looked like a flier for the parents of the students so the teachers would need to explain to the students themselves about the system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The teachers are effectively teaching the parents about the system by sending home the fliers but if they do not read these then I am sure that they would be pretty confused by all of the tickets that their children are bringing home.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I would hope that the teachers would be informed about the system because otherwise they could not reinforce the students correctly if they did not know about the system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think there is definitely a possibility not everyone buys into the system: parents are probably least affected because besides their kids being happy they do not have much to do with it. Teachers may feel that they are not all on the same page with what to reinforce because the target behaviors are not clear. Students may not buy into the system because if they have been emitting these behaviors yet not getting reinforced then they may give up.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Something that could arise as a problem here would be things like token hoarding where the students keep all of their gold tickets and turn them in all at once. Another problem that could arise would be that the behavior deteriorates after fading when the students have had their fill of the system and stop emitting the behaviors that they should.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What are the exact target behaviors do you want to be reinforced because it is pretty open to interpretation for the students and the teachers?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Additional information that I would want to know about the system would be how is helping the custodian a reinforcement?
Terminology: Reinforce, behavior, emitting, token economy, behavioral classes, elicit, target behaviors, punishing, positive reinforcement, desirable, negative reinforcement, aversive, extinguish
1) What is this program?
This Program called Poyner Panthers on TRRC. TRRC stands for Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring. The program is a token economy that encourages students to emit target behaviors which they will get reinforcers for.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District started a Positive Behavior Intervention System that encouraged students into being Trustworthy, respectful, responsible and caring.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The Behavioral classes they are trying elicit are having appropriate behavior in school, and they are trying to improve the students maturity.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behavior they might want the children to emit would be turning it all homework in on time, not cheating on test or homework. Being nice to all students and also teachers or administrators. Asking others if they help with any assignments or help with anything in general.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
I think this system is based on reinforcement. Every good thing they do there will be a reinforcement with a ticket.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The reinforcement in this system is positive. Its positive because it is something that is wanted and pleasant.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are the purple tickets. The purple tickets are then can be changed into 1 golden ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro associated with using these tokens would be that that the tickets make it so that the reinforcer is physical and can touch the progress that they made. Also they can see how good they are doing during the program. The cons of the tickets would be that the kids could easily lose the tickets, and how will the teachers know if the students don't steal the tickets from other students.
9) What is the delivery system?
The teachers handed the students a purple ticket when they see them being trustworthy, respectful,responsible, and caring.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of this delivery system is the students are praised immediately after doing the behavior and receive the reinforcer right away.
A con of this delivery system would be what if they kid does a behavior right in front of the teacher but the teacher doesn't think it is good enough to deserve a ticket, also what if the teacher doesn't carry enough tickets on them at all times.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are counted and recorded by the teacher.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The teacher could lose some of the tickets. Also the students could say they had more tickets then the teacher counted for them.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the students can get golden ticket. Golden tickets can get these prizes ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with principal, eatra computer time and help the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It does not say how they are chosen but i would guess they are chosen by the children when they turn in the golden ticket to the teachers. Also because those are the most important activities to the students.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes they are effective reinforcers. they are effective because those are all things students would want to do besides help the custodian.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by earning purple tickets that are then exchanged for a golden ticket with the teachers. Once they have a golden ticket they can get the reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The newsletter says that the teachers and faculty and catching students everywhere being trustworthy, responsible, respectful and caring.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think the administrators are teaching the students about the system very well since they are seeing students everywhere being TTRC.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think the teachers did a good job teaching the parents about the system. they thoroughly explained the system in the newsletter.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It doesn't say how they taught the teachers the system, bu ti would guess they taught them well since it is getting good results from the newsletter quote.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
yes, there is a possibility that not everyone bought into the system. The students may just be doing the behaviors to get tickets. Also the teachers may no hand out the tickets because they don't think it is a good system.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
How our the reinforcers being tracked within the economy. Is there a person that just keeps in track of that or what.
Also the main reinforcer maybe to hard to achieve for students.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Who keeps track of how many tickets that the students earned. And what happens when a student says they lost a ticket.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
A question i would ask is, how many tickets can a student earn per day, is there a max?
terms: target behavior, positive reinforcement, behavioral classes,
1). The program is a token economy, positive behavior intervention, Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. The goal is to individually reinforce target behaviors, the pillars of character, by using tokens and then later the tokens are turned in as a second form of reinforcement.
2). This most likely came about because there were a lot of problems with students in the school not showing the pillars of character. Then the teachers and staff came together with ideas to change this behavior. Then this program was probably formed from that.
3). They are trying to elicit the behaviors of the pillars of character, respect, responsibility, and caring,. They are also just trying to improve the students behavior overall in school.
4). Some specific target behaviors they would like to emit would be, respecting other students, respecting all teachers, respecting school property, responsibility of completing tasks and homework on time.
5). This system is based on reinforcement and back up reinforcements.
6). This is a positive reinforcement method.
7). The student is given a purple paw ticket.
8). A pro of this system is that students will be more motivated to follow rules and do better things when there is reinforcement in place. Another pro is that it’s a fun way of getting the children and faculty involved in a program to promote good behavior. A con is that the desire for the kids to get the tickets may wear off after a little while and they won’t try as hard to get the tickets. Another con would be that you will always have the students that just don’t care enough to get the tickets and they will still be misbehaving. Another con is that it may take a student to long to get a golden ticket and the program will loose its luster.
9). Award a student with the token after a specific behavior is emitted that is the desired behavior, with the handing out of the ticket they should accompany it with praise to the child. After 10 purple tickets are received the child can turn it in for a golden ticket and then they can save it or get a prize.
10). A pro is if it is done correctly, the ticket is reinforcement and the person handing out the ticket is reinforcing the student and then after 10 they are getting more reinforcement. A con would be if the teacher doesn’t reinforce with the ticket it may not be as effective and it may take a while for a student to get 10 tickets.
11). The student saves them until the 10th purple ticket is received then the student turns in the tickets and receives one gold ticket and if the student chooses to do so they can turn it in for a prize or save it for a later date.
12). A con would be that the students could loose the tickets. A pro would be that the students have to show responsibility in order to keep them to get the prize.
13). The back up reinforcements would be that the teacher reinforces the student after handed the first line of reinforcement, the purple ticket, then after enough of the tickets are earned they get more reinforcement by receiving a new ticket! Then they are reinforced again when they get the prize that they choose.
14). The back up reinforcements are chosen by the staff most likely and they are picked to be something that the students will like and already think is reinforcing. These reinforcements are changed periodically to keep the students interested.
15). Yes the reinforcers are effective because the students find them interesting and the are changed to keep the students interested making them effective.
16). They are given reinforcement when they do the desired behavior.
17). They can count and record the number of tickets earned by the students to show administrators the effectiveness levels.
18). They have to teach the students well otherwise it will not be successful because they wont know what is expected of them to receive the reinforcement!
19). In the letter that we read for the waterloo school the parents were informed through a newsletter and that was probably helpful but I also think they should send out something saying more about the program and the details.
20). If the teachers aren’t informed well enough then the program will not work so they have to be informed well. So if the program works in the school system then the teachers are probably being informed well.
21). Yes there is but that would make the system not as successful especially if it’s the students or teachers that aren’t buying in on the program.
22). Students may have access to the “prizes” at home so they may not have the desire to work as hard for them.
23). How often are the back up reinforcers changed to make the students stay interested.
24). Is there something you are going to do about the students that aren’t preforming well with this system?
25). Behavior, target behavior, elicit, emit, reinforcement,
1) What is this program?
It is a token economy that elicits target behaviors of students by using reinforcers, causing the students to emit the desired behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
The students were most likely not behaving in a desirable and respectful way, so the Waterloo School District started this Positive Behavior Intervention System, which encouraged students to be respectful and follow the pillars of character such as trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit behaviors that are similar to the pillars of character and also behaviors that will help the children in their overall performance in school, like responsibility.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Be respectful of those around you by not touching or taking their things, be responsible by turning in homework on time and complete, and be truthful by not cheating on tests.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
It is based off of reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is a positive reinforcement system.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
They are purple paw tickets that are given when a target behavior is emitted. If they receive ten purple paw tickets, they then get a gold ticket.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
They tokens are very easy to make and easy to distribute to the children, giving them a visual and physical reinforcer, but the children might lose the tickets or they might get stolen or broken by other children.
9) What is the delivery system?
The teacher awards the student with a token after a desired target behavior is emitted.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
It is a pro that the student receives immediate reinforcement, but a con could be that the teacher might not see another child emitting a desired target behavior as well, and they might assume that since they did not receive the reinforcement, they do not need to emit that behavior any more, leading to the extinction of the behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are recorded by the teacher while the student saves the physical tokens.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The students learn even more responsibility by holding onto the tickets themselves, but they could run the risk of losing them and the teacher could also lose track of how many they have, causing a miscommunication.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The golden tickets are the backup reinforcers, giving the students more incentive to emit desirable behaviors in order to receive reinforcements of prizes, ice cream, popcorn, and extra recess.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were most likely chosen by the staff and are chosen because of how appealing they are to the children. The reinforcers are changed periodically as well to keep the students interested and motivated to continue their target behaviors.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes they are because they adhere to the student's interests and motivate them greatly.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They first receive their purple tickets, later receiving ten purple tickets that can be exchanged for a gold ticket. Once they have a gold ticket, they can chose what reinforcer they want to receive.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The teachers record the amount of times a student receives a ticket and what for. They can observe if there is an increase in tickets being given out as a correlation for desirable target behavior.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
Fairly effectively. The students learn about the system through the teachers and the parents are encouraged to talk to the children about the system as well.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They are sending home fliers about it but the parents might not read it or might not talk to the student about it.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It does not state but hopefully the administrators had a meeting with all of the teachers to explain the system and have it implemented in every classroom.
21) 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 not everyone will be completely okay with the system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some students might hoard tickets or even sell them off to other students. The students might also become saturated with reinforcers, causing them to stop performing desirable target behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What are the defined target behaviors needed to receive a reinforcer? How often are the backup reinforcers changed? Are the backup reinforcers relevant and desirable to the students?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How effective is it? Is there a written analysis of this system being implemented?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
elicit, target behavior, reinforcers, emit, desirable behaviors, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, desired target behavior, extinction, saturated
1) What is this program?
This program is Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District initiated a positive behavior intervention system
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Trustworthy, Respect, Responsible, and Caring behaviors
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors might be to hold opens doors for each other or say thank you in the lunch line.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This token economy system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple and Gold paws are used as tokens in this program.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Kids can steal them from each other easily or lose them.
9) What is the delivery system?
It is unclear what the delivery system is for this program but I would assume it is the teachers within the school
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The con to this program is making sure that everyone is reinforcing the children for the same behavior and not having enough eyes to watch all the children all the time. The biggest pro to this delivery system is the teacher are already interacting with the students on a daily basis.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children keep the purple paws until they get ten and then turn them in for a golden paw which they keep and save for larger reinforcements.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pro to this is making the children having some responsibility for their own reinforers. The con is that they can be stolen, lost or copied.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Getting ice cream, popcorn, or lunch with the lead teacher/principal, helping the custodian, extra recess
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
It does not say how these were chosen.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think many of these could be effective reinforcers but things such as having lunch with the teacher/principal or helping the custodian can be viewed as positive punishment.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
This is not made clear but I would assume by turning in so many gold paws at a specific time.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Some outcome measures might be the number of gold tickets the students turn in and watch to see if that number increases overtime. If it does the administrators would probably assume the amount of time the behavioral categories described are being emitted is going up.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I assume that this was explained to the students in school but I am unable to know the answer because I was not there and I have not been informed of what they said to the students.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They attempted to fit a lot of information into the newsletter that was sent home but I think they could have done a better job explain exactly what types of behavior is being looked for and reinforced.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The answer to this is also unknown. For the administrators to have taught the other teachers about the system effectively they would have needed to set up guidelines on what the specific target behaviors that they were going to reinforce was and the reinforcement schedule.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Absolutely, I know as a student I would not have changed my behavior and would have found ways to try to ruin the system.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The fact that the subjects have control of the token brings to the view the issues of stealing, losing, or copying the tokens.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Are you using a continuous reinforcement schedule? Would a child receive a purple paw every time they said thank you even if they are just walking around saying thank you to say thank you and get the reinforcer?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
When do the children have access to the additional reinforcers? Is it once a month or after they have so many? Do all the children with extra recess get it at the same time or does one kid get to stay outside by themselve alone?
25) Terms: reinforcer, continuous reinforcement schedule, token, specific target behaviors, reinforcement schedules, behavioral category, emitted, positive punishment, positive reinforcement
1) What is this program?
The program is called the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. It is a behavioral program using token economics, which is a system of individual reinforcement of a target behavior where tokens are given to an individual for displaying that target behavior. The tokens can then be traded in/exchanged for backup reinforcers.
2) How did it come about?
It came about by the Waterloo School District having a district wide initiative since it’s a Positive Behavior Intervention System, with the hope of eliciting certain behaviors and extinguishing other undesirable ones.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They are trying to elicit behaviors that fall under the classes of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
They might want the students to emit a trustworthy behavior if the teacher needs to be gone and has a sub for the day. The teacher would want the students to emit the same well-behaved behaviors as if the teacher was still there.
The teachers might want the children to emit the respectful behavior of raising their hand to speak in class instead of blurting out.
A third target behavior the teachers might want the students to emit that falls under responsibility might include being prepared for class by having a pencil and any other materials used regularly in that class.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
The token system is based on reinforcement of a target behavior, with the target behavior needing to be reinforced immediately to be successful. Tokens are given when the target behavior is displayed, and then can later be enchanted for a backup reinforce.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because it is the addition of a desirable stimulus (or token) as a consequence of a behavior. A negative reinforcement involves the removal of an aversive stimulus to decrease the likelihood of a behavior in the future. This is definitely not the case here; they are trying to increase the target behavior in the future.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program to reinforce a target behavior are purple paw tickets. When students collect enough of those tickets they can trade them in for 1 golden ticket, which can later be traded in for bigger prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros-good incentive for the students to emit the target behavior, the students will emit more desired behaviors and less undesired behaviors, getting tickets can be motivating and encourage the kids to work harder and behave better in order to receive the tickets
Cons-students may get too competitive with each other over getting tickets and begin to display aggressive undesirable behaviors, they may misuse the tokens or hoard them thinking they can get more reinforcers or prizes at one time
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system used is the reinforcement of a target behavior with a purple paw ticket. When a student is seen emitting the target behavior they are given a ticket, and when they get 10 tickets they can trade it in for 1 gold ticket. Eventually they can trade in multiple golden tickets for a bigger prize.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros-kids are encouraged to emit the target behavior more frequently because they like getting the tickets, getting the tickets and saving them up can be motivating because they get to count how many they have and trade them in when they have enough, the kids learn to be responsible because they have to keep track of their tickets and save them up
Cons- kids could lose the tickets if they don’t care about them or aren’t careful, and once lost they can’t get another one, it could cause jealousy in other students who might be still emitting good behaviors but don’t get a ticket, some kids might only engage in the behavior when a teacher or adult is around because they want a ticket, but then behave badly again once the adult leaves.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tokens are banked by the collection of 10 purple tickets. Once 10 are received they can be traded for only 1 Golden ticket. Golden tickets are then collected and turned in for a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros- teaches students responsibility to keep track of tickets and know when they can trade in. Teaches students how to save up enough tickets for something they really want
Cons-some students might try to steal from others so they can get more
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the prizes the students get to trade their golden tickets for; ice cream, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers are chosen by the student who is trading their golden tickets in. They decide which prize they want, save up enough purple tickets-trade in for golden tickets, and then save up those golden tickets to the amount they need for whichever prize they wish to get.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They do seem to be effective reinforcers. Most of them are pretty simple but yet still something kids that age would enjoy saving up tickets for. It’s especially good several different options are given for prizes so the kids can choose which one they would want most, since everyone has their own preferences.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students will gain access to the reinforcers through whoever is in charge of the ticket system.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators will be able to tell if the system is effective by how many tickets are given out by teachers and then if those tickets are traded in for prizes. They’ll also be able to tell in the behavior of the students and whether they are emitting the target behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems as if the administrators are teaching the students fairly well about the system. We aren’t given a lot of details to see if they are, but they point out in the newsletter how students have been caught everywhere; hallways, cafeteria, classrooms, and more, displaying the behavior and how they are given tickets for that.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are doing an okay job teaching the parents about the system. It’s good they put info in the newsletter about the program but I think it would have been a lot more effective if they had sent a letter home just about the program. The little box about it could get lost in the newsletter among all the other info, and it’s on the last page too which means it might not get nearly as much attention as it would on the first page.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I think the administrators must have effectively taught the other teachers about the system because the teachers are the ones who are handing out the tickets to the students. If the teachers didn’t know enough about it they wouldn’t be giving out the tickets to encourage the target behaviors, which is what they are doing according to the newsletter.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There is definitely the possibility of not everyone wanting to buy in with the system. There are always people against it who think it won’t work or how unfair it might be to some.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Token economies are pretty complex systems that can be difficult to understand, which I could see being a potential problem here. Not all the students, teachers, or parents might understand how it works and why it is beneficial. They might also not understand the idea of receiving tokens and trading those in for the backup reinforcers.
Unequal pricing of backup reinforcers might be another problem encountered. Some kids might place different values on the backup reinforcers. Some might mean more to certain kids than others and to those they don’t mean much to, they will have less motivation to perform and engage in the target behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I might ask them how they are going to handle students who claim to have tickets stolen or how they aim to prevent that problem from occurring. I would also ask how many gold tickets are needed to achieve the backup reinforcers.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would want to know how they decide which behaviors they want to reinforce with purple tickets. I’d also ask how they decided on what the backup reinforcers would be how they know for sure the kids will be motivated to work towards them.
25) Terms: reinforce, target behavior, backup reinforce, token economics, emitting, elicit, reinforcement, desirable, undesirable, extinguish
1. What is this program?
a. This program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C., which focuses on being Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring students.
2. How did it come about?
a. The Waterloo School District wants to set up a district wide initiative program to encourage students to emit specific positive behaviors
3. What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
a. Trustworthiness, Responsibility, Respectfulness, and Caring for one another
4. What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
a. Say please and thank you, following the teacher’s directions, helping classmates when they have questions
5. Is this System based on Reinforcement or Punishment?
a. Based on Reinforcement
6. Is it positive or negative?
a. This is positive reinforcement because they are getting something desirable when they emit certain target behaviors
7. What are the tokens used in this program?
a. Purple Paw Tickets and Golden Tickets
8. What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
a. Pros might be that they will be more inclined to emit certain behaviors in order to get more purple tickets in order to get a golden ticket. A con could be if the prizes are not what the child wants and they won’t work for it.
9. What is the delivery system?
a. When students are caught demonstrating the character pillars throughout the day, they are given a purple ticket as reinforcement. When they have enough purple tickets, they can get a golden ticket, which can be exchanged, for different prizes such as extra recess time, ice cream, and a bag of popcorn.
10. What are some pros and cons associate with the delivery system?
a. A con can be that not every kid is going to be seen emitting positive behaviors and he or she might feel discouraged. A pro can be that other students will see their peers getting tickets and that will encourage them to elicit certain behaviors in order to get tokens as well.
11. How are the tokens banked?
a. After receiving 10 purple tickets a student will exchange that for one golden ticket. Golden tickets are used to get reinforcers.
12. What are the pros and cons?
a. Pros can be that students will have a goal to reach for. The golden tickets and the prizes to purchase after are their reinforce. The con can be the teachers not noticing all the students and also if the prizes aren’t desirable
13. What are the back up reinforcers?
a. The prizes you purchase with the golden tickets. This includes ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodian.
14. How were the back up reinforcers chosen?
a. They could’ve been chosen due to a survey given to the students in the classrooms and then the teachers and administration goes over them to decide what would be desirable.
15. Are they effective reinforces?
a. I think they are effective because these prizes are definitely something that elementary school aged children would want.
16. How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
a. When students trade in 10 purple tickets for a golden ticket, and then the gold ones for a reinforce
17. What are some of the outcome measures so the administrations know the system is effective?
a. The administrators can keep track on a sheet of who is getting tickets and how many. They could also give the kids a survey at the end of the year about the system.
18. How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
a. I think they are doing well if they are reminding their students about the system in their classrooms and give out tickets in class will also show the students more about the system.
19. How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
a. I think they are doing a good job because they are telling the parents about the program via newsletter and I am sure the kids are going home and telling their parents about all the tickets they are getting.
20. How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
a. I think they are doing a good job because they are the administrators.
21. Is there the possibility of not everyone may not have complete buy in with the system?
a. I feel that it is a possibility because going back to the cons, if the student does not like the prizes then they might not want to act in the program. Teachers might not agree with it because they don’t know if they can keep up with all the students as well.
22. What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
a. If the student is not rewarded every time they perform a target behavior, they might not want to keep continuing in the program.
23. What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
a. If the student acts in an undesirable way will they get tickets taken away?
24. What additional information might you want opt know about the system?
a. How well it works and how many students are participating.
25. Terms: emit, emit, reinforced, reinforce, reinforcement, target behaviors,
1) This program is a token economy focused on becoming a Poyner panther on T.R.R.C.
2) The use of this system most likely came about because of bad behavior emitted by the students.
3) The Poyner school officials are trying to elicit the behaviors of Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring which are some pillars of character that schools focus on.
4) Some target behaviors they might want the children to emit are handing in their homework on time, helping others out on the playground, and not being disrespectful to teachers in the classroom.
5) This system is based on reinforcement
6) The system is a positive reinforcement
7) The tokens are purple paw prints
8) Some pros for using purple paw prints are the final behaviors of the students. Having that reinforcement will possibly initiate their good behavior if they were at first behaving bad. A con for using the purple paw prints for certain behaviors are that the students could get bored easily. From the post it does not seem like there is a lot of variety of when they can receive a paw print and some of the prizes might not be desirable to students. They have nothing to really work up to.
9) The delivery system is from the teachers or other faculty. Whenever they see a student acting out in response to the target behavior, they get a purple paw print.
10) A pro related to the delivery system would be the timing of the giving of the paw prints. Some sort of faculty is usually around to see what is going on so they do not base it off of a hearing it from someone else. A con of this delivery system is if the teacher does not reinforce the student for what they did. There could be favoritism from the faculty with the delivery of the paw prints.
11) Tokens are banked with the student. When the student receives a paw print they have to keep them and then trade them in when they get 10 for a golden ticket and then the process repeats until they have enough golden tickets to buy something they want.
12) The pros for this banking system instills responsibility in the children and keeps them responsible for what they want. However, a con to this technique would be that they can lose the tickets easily. Some students are not really organized to be able to keep their tickets and might not want to participate because they have lost their tickets or know that they will lose them.
13) The backup reinforcers are 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) The post does not say how the backup reinforcers were chosen but they were most likely chosen by teachers based on what they believe the students would want. I feel if the students picked the backup reinforcers then there would be better reinforcers.
15) I feel like they are effective reinforcers. The students are interested in getting the final prizes and that will keep them motivated to elicit the certain pillars of character.
16) The students gain access to the reinforcers by doing something good under the pillars of character of responsibility, trustworthiness, caring, and respect. If they get caught acting in one of those ways then they receive a purple paw print that they can later exchange in for a final prize once they reach a certain amount.
17) The administrators know it is effective because they can keep track of how many purple paw prints are given out and to whom, as well as keeping track of how many final prizes are given out.
18) I feel the administrators are doing well with teaching the students about the token system. They know what is expected of them in order to receive a paw print. There should be an exact outline of what is expected of the students though.
19) I believe the administrators are teaching the parents about the system pretty well. The post in the bulletin summed up the guidelines of the token economy well enough for them to know what is going on as well as give them a reason to encourage their kids.
20) Since the administrators have gone in such length to include the teachers with the rules of the token economy, I believe they taught the other teachers pretty well about the system.
21) There is the possibility that not everyone will agree with the system. There are always those who believe that what schools do will not help the circumstances. Teachers, students, and parents might believe that the system has worse consequences later on because the child always expects to be reinforced for their good behavior instead of just doing it because they should.
22) A problem they might have are keeping the interests of students. I feel like getting caught doing good deeds are pretty easy for them and they will keep getting paw prints and getting prizes. They might get tired of it and no longer take part in the system.
23) A question I might have for the administrators about the system is, how might you keep the students from becoming bored with the program of reinforcement?
24) Additional information I might want to know about the system might be about those students who refuse to take part in the system? Is there going to be a consequence of some kind or just let them not take part.
25) Terms: Emit, elicit, target behavior, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, consequence, behavior, reinforcer, backup reinforcer
1) What is this program?
a. This program is a token economy set up to reinforce good behaviors in the elementary school.
2) How did it come about?
a. It was a district wide change because of the district being a Positive Behavior Interventions System District
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
a. They are trying to elicit behaviors such as trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring in their students.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
a. Some target behaviors would be to clean up and put away toys and materials when finished with them, being respectful to other students and teaches, and not lying to teachers and others.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
a. reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
a. Positive reinforcement
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
a. They are using purple tickets and gold ticket for the tokens.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
a. Easy to create, easy to store, light weight
b. Could be counterfeited easily, not very durable
9) What is the delivery system?
a. When a student is observed emitting a positive behavior a teacher who observed the behavior will administer the purple paw ticket to the student.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
a. It is a simple system, no extra work required, and interaction between teacher and student when ticket is given.
b. The teacher could miss observing a behavior, many children to observe, teachers could be bias to certain students.
11) How are the tokens banked?
a. It appears that there is no centralized bank, student are in charge of keeping and securing their tickets.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
a. No extra work required by teachers for bank, easy concept for children to grasp, helps inforce responsibility.
b. Children can be irresponsible and lose tickets, children could steal tickets from others, tickets could be left at home and unavailable at necessary times.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
a. Dinner with principal, popcorn, extra recess, helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
a. Once a golden ticket it obtained the child can choose the reward that most reinforces them.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
a. They appear to be effective reinforcers, some are probably more effective than others such as extra recess over dinner with principal.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
a. They must amass 10 purple paw tickets to exchange for a golden ticket.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
a. They could track incidents of disrespect or outbursts prior to the system being implemented and them after the system is implemented to see if there is a decrease in incidents.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
a. As long as they are giving out tickets at the proper times then I believe they are being effective.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
a. They are being informed through their children and being kept apprised through the newsletter so yes.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
a. It is unknown as to how the teaching staff is being informed and educated on the system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
a. Yes, if any one of the groups doesn’t follow through with the system then the system is likely to collapse.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
a. Token hording or misuse/counterfeiting of tokens could be possible in this situation.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
a. How are the teachers being educated in this and monitored in their token giving?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
a. Details on how this will work with children of different ages in the elementary system. First graders will have a different experience and problems then fifth graders.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
a. Terms/ Emit, behavior, observation, reinforcement, positive, bias.
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C and it is an example of a token economy.
2) How did it come about?
The program was established because they have a goal of being a PBIS District, a Positive Behavior Interventions System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The staff of the school are aiming to elicit the behavior classes of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors that the staff would want the students to emit could be using manners, involving other children who are left out in games, being kind to others and staff members and cleaning up after themselves.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This system uses positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens that are used in this program are the purple paw tickets and the golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
The good side of using these tokens are that they are distinct in their difference enough that the child knows that they have to earn a certain amount of purple tickets in order to trade them in for a golden ticket. A negative side of these tokens could be that they could be easily duplicated. They also are probably not that sturdy and the younger students could accidentally ruin the ticket and get no credit for having earned it.
9) What is the delivery system?
If a student is observed emitting the T.R.R.C behaviors, then they will receive a paw ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro of this delivery system is that the system receives the ticket for their good behavior as well as the acknowledgment and praise from a staff member. A con of this system however is that the staff will not be able to see every student emitting the behaviors every time they do so.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Once the student has earned 10 purple paw tickets they are then able to trade them in for 1 golden ticket. And the golden tickets can be turned in and traded for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro of the bank is that the student has the option to save up the golden tickets and earn prizes at different levels. A con could be that the child might desire a prize and the school could be out of it at that moment.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes that the golden tickets can purchase.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were more than likely chosen by the staff knowing that these prizes will not cost them too much money.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, they are effective reinforcers because they are things that the students will enjoy and want to earn.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They have to turn in their golden tickets in order to receive a prize
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The amount of prizes that have been given to students is a good way to measure if the system is working. They could also keep track of how many tickets that are handed out each day.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are have the teachers and their parents encourage the students participate in the system, this gives the students more than one source of information about it.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think very effectively; the parents have received a notification explaining the system in detail/
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
I’m sure the administrators taught the teachers successfully on how to use the system so that they can reach their goal of becoming a PBIS District.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes I think that sometimes students are not all for earning tickets and prizes and that some parents might read the announcing but not discuss it with their child and just brush it off.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The students could lie about earning tickets or cheat by either stealing from other students or from a teacher’s stash of tickets. They could also duplicate the tickets.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Are you going to keep track of each student individually so that no mistakes are made?
Do the students know where the tickets are held and are they easily accessible?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How long is this system going to be in place?
25) Terms: behavior class, elicit, token economy, target behavior, emit, reinforcement, behavior, positive reinforcement,
1) This program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C and the acronyms stand for trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring and it is a token economy that aims to elicit the behaviors listed above.
2) It came about because the Waterloo School District became a PBIS District (Positive Behavior Intervention System). Because of this they deiced to come up with
strategies to elicit good and respectful behaviors from students.
3) The behavioral classes that they want students to emit are trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring behaviors.
4) Some of the specific behaviors that they want students to emit are, respecting teachers by listening to their instructions, completing assigned homework, pay attention to others when they are speaking, raise their hands when they want to ask a question, being able to walk away from a fight, treating others the way you want them to treat you.
5) This system is based on reinforcement.
6) This is positive reinforcement because there is an addition of a desirable stimulus to increase the likelihood of the students emitting those target behaviors.
7) The tokens that are used are purple paws that students receive when they emit the target behaviors. The purple paws can be exchanged for a golden ticket.
8) The pros would be that these tickets are very easy to distribute among the students and doesn’t cost a lot. Other than that it is also a safe token. The cons would be that these tokens are small and not easy to keep track of especially when you are young kids who are not really big on being responsible. It is also easily stolen by other kids looking to find the “easy” way out and that would defeat the purpose of this program.
9) The delivery system is through the teachers and school faculty members who will give students the tickets.
10) The pros of having the teacher give the tickets are that the reward is immediate and swift and they feel praised for their work. The cons would be that not all desirable behaviors can be monitored and some students might not get rewarded and they would start to feel like there is no point of striving to emit the desired behaviors. Other than that, some teachers might have different expectations from other and there would be a bit of bias towards certain behaviors. This would make the token economy a bit unregulated and unsystematic.
11) Once the kids get a set quantity of purple tickets, they can hand it in to turn them into one gold ticket. These gold tickets can be turned in to redeem prizes.
12) The pros would be that this system is a very simple and straightforward system which makes it easy for the students to understand. Other than that this gives the kids something to strive for. However, the cons would be that the tickets can be easily lost or misplaced. One more con is that the tickets are easily damaged.
13) The backup reinforcers are ice-cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principal, and helping the custodian.
14) The backup reinforcers are chosen based on what appeals to the students or are newly added privileges.
15) The reinforcers are very effective because it targets what kids like, for example, ice cream.
16) The students gain access to these reinforcers by emitting the target behaviors and that entitles them to purple tickets. After collecting a certain amount they can exchange it for the gold ticket.
17) Some of the outcome measures that the administrators use to find out if the system is effective or not is by calculating how many times each student obtains a purple ticket and how often do they collect enough to exchange for a golden ticket.
18) The administrators are teaching the parents about the system through the Poyner Elementary Newsletter which I am not too sure on how effective it might be.
19) In my opinion, the Newsletter is very effective depending on how well received it by the parents of students.
20) It seems to be pretty effective because a lot of the teachers are making sure that the kids are striving to get tickets and with that the desirable behaviors that they emit are reinforced.
21) Most definitely there will be people involved with the school and students that won’t buy into this system and that could be because they don’t believe it is effective or they just feel it’s a waste of time to change these students natural behavior when there are other more important things like academics.
22) Some of the problems that exist within a token economy is that this is not really an effective long term way to change a behavior because its effects will wear out either due to students feeling like the rewards aren’t that appealing or they have worked a way to get what they want because the system of a token economy is easily worked around. Other than that, token economies also can reinforce the wrong target behavior, for example, instead of encouraging students to be trustworthy, responsible, respectful, and caring because it is the right thing to do, the token economy reinforces that by emitting this behavior, they get ice cream, so when the reward is not present it is very easy for students to just go back to their old ways.
23) Some questions that I might have for the administrators of this system is if they have a quota on how many tokens can be given on each given day and if there is a set amount of token students can get per each day. Another question would be if there any other rewards that they have in mind other than the ones given. Finally, one question that I would like to ask is whether they have thought of changing the antecedent of this program to increase the effectiveness of their token economy.
24) There is not much I would want to ask because I feel like I have asked all the questions that I want the answer to. If I had to ask another question, it would be why did they decide to come up with this program?
25) token economy, elicit, emit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, desirable stimulus, target behaviors, tokens, reward, desirable behaviors, reinforcers
1) What is this program? This program is called the Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. It is a token economy program that elicits positive behaviors from the students who emit trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring acts towards others.
2) How did it come about? It came about due to extreme or neglectful students within the school district and the principals and teachers attempting to change the culture of the students and what they are doing.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring are the behavioral classes that this program is attempting to distinguish.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Specific target behaviors that the teachers may wish to observe would be giving a student and overnight assignment and having them turn it in completed on the due date (responsible and trustworthy). Another potential target behavior would be assisting a kid who has dropped their materials in the hallway and have a mess everywhere and helping them clean up (Caring, respectful).
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? The system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative? The reinforcement is positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens are the purple paw tickets and the eventual golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? The pros are that they are easy to manage and hand out. A con would be the students could steal such a generic token or manipulate good behaviors instead of actually doing it for the goodness of it.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system is the teachers who are handing out the tokens.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Pro’s are that if all teachers are handing out then the students have an excellent chance of being spotted. The cons are humans are fallible and the teachers will miss students and this could cause extinction in the desired behaviors.
11) How are the tokens banked? It appears as those the tokens are being banked at the students homes and they take them home at the end of each day.
12) What are the pro's and con's? The pro’s to this is it builds the same character traits that the teachers are trying to reinforce in the first place. The con’s are the students could easily lose, trade, steal, swindle, or destroy the tokens. This means that people may not receive the ultimate reinforcer of the end gifts (back up reinforcers) and this would cause them to stop working towards these behaviors.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The backup reinforcers are the things that the children can purchase with all the tickets they accrue throughout the year.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The backup reinforcers were chosen as they were deemed enjoyable by the target population, recess, food with fun teachers, computer time, are all things young students can get behind.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? I would say they are effective, mainly because the students would enjoy working towards them, and they also have the option of what exactly they want to receive.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students first perform the acts that the teachers are looking for and receive the primary reinforcers (the tickets). And once a certain amount of these tickets were received they could exchange them for the backup reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? The teachers could compare number of incidents throughout the years to see if the system is taking effect as a hard black and white number. Another example that is not as number centric is to compare how students demeanor at school is.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? By sending information home to the parents and by also doing these actions everyday word of mouth and reinforcement will do a very effective job of teaching students about the system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? This is not as effective, one newsletter (as far as we know), will allow parents to easily forget about this system, however constant interaction between student and parent could remedy this.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? I would assume that the administrators have taught the teachers very well and in depth about this program as the teachers are the ones actually watching for these behaviors.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? There is always possibility of not everyone buying in, however if it effects a great majority, then there is no reason to not proceed with it. (51% is not a great majority whereas 80% is).
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Token economies can be cheated and manipulated, not only that but simply doing something for a reinforcer or reinforcement will not necessarily instill these virtuous tendencies into the students and the program may just give students free things for feigned behavior.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? Some questions may be: When are the students allowed to cash in these tickets? Is there a quota for stopping students from receiving a ticket every time they are spotted?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? Where any other schedules of reinforcement looked at when constructing this? Is variable ratio the most optimal method to reaching the desired behaviors?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post. Token Economy, Elicits, Behaviors, Emit, Behavioral classes, Target Behaviors, reinforcement, Positive reinforcement, tokens, back up reinforcers, reinforcer, schedules of reinforcement, variable ratio
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. This is a program that reinforces children by them earning tokens when they do something that is worthy of receiving one. This system is getting children to do a certain target behavior by attempting to basically get the kid to understand that if they want something they will have to earn it by doing the appropriate behavior.
2) How did it come about?
This came about by the Waterloo School District. This is a district-wide participation program that is attempting to introduce positive behavior by focusing on the aspects of being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Like I stated before they are attempting to elicit the behaviors of trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
For trustworthiness a target behavior could be being able to trust a student to go to the restroom or get a drink of water and come right back to the classroom. An example for respectfulness could be opening the door for a classmate that has their hands full. Example for responsibility could be getting to class on time in the morning. And finally, an example for caring could be helping a student who fell at recess.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This whole system is based on reinforcement. There is nothing about punishment in this program.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is based on a positive reinforcement system. The students are rewarded when they do a certain target behavior. This is classified as positive reinforcement because the teacher is physically giving them a token for their good deeds, aka a target behavior.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are used as positive reinforcements. These are purple paw prints that students can earn and get enough of, they will be able to save up and get a specific item or toy.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros would be that the students learn how to follow direction and do the certain target behavior to get a token. This gets students to understand what is expected out of them and get them to learn that these tokens have the ability to get them a prize.
Cons would be that the students may become greedy and get to competitive with each other.
9) What is the delivery system?
This is the purple paw ticket. When students are caught demonstrating trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsible, or caring, they will receive a purple paw ticket. When a student gets ten of these they will receive one golden ticket. They can trade this for prizes.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros for the delivery system is that students become genuinely nicer and caring for each other. Students can learn how to treat others, even if they are not friends.
Cons with this system is that students can become fake and get competitive with each other. This can lead to only doing nice things for other students when there is a teacher or someone who can handout purple paw tickets.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked with the students. Whenever a student earns a ticket, they keep them in a safe spot, most likely in their desk.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros are that students can do what they please with the tickets. They can either save up and get a golden ticket or do nothing with them.
The cons are that the student can lose their tickets or another student can steal them.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the things that the students can choose from when they receive ten purple paw tickets. These are 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?
These were chosen by what is relevant to the students and their interests. If the backup reinforcers were something that didn’t apply to the students there is less likely of a chance that students would be motivated to earn the ten purple paw tickets.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
They are effective because the newsletter states that students are showing these target behaviors and wanting to get the ten purple paw tickets.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Students gain access to the reinforcers by demonstrating those four target behaviors ten times to get the gold ticket that allows them to choose a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They can do this by counting the number of golden tickets students receive. They should od this rather than counting out how many purple paw tickets the administrators give out because if they are giving out a hundred a day that isn’t saying much. When more students come and exchange those ten for the one golden ticket, that is what matters because this is showing how effective the system is.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are being very effective with their ways of teaching the students about this system because they have given them very specific guidelines to earn the purple paw ticket.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I would say very effectively because there was a newsletter sent out that explained exactly what this system is about and what they are trying to accomplish.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
It seems like the administrators are doing a nice job at teaching the teachers about the system because kids are earning purple paw tickets and are seeing good behavior all over the school district.
21) 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. For Students it could be that they don’t think they could ever get caught doing something good ten times to earn that golden ticket, and for teachers they could think that this isn’t going to help students learn how to behavior appropriately without a reward system.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Students can become greedy and steal or lie and say that someone stole their tokens so that they can get the backup rewards without actually earning the tokens or tickets. It’s hard to say but maybe students could hoard their tokens and “sell” them to other students for other prizes.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
I understand that students are on board at fist about this program, but after a few weeks or months I feel as though they might get tired of this or feel lack of motivation. How would you keep students motivated over a long period of time?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How well does this system work for the older students? Is it the same or is there a dramatic difference?
Terms: reinforce, target behavior, behavior, elicit, positive reinforcement, emit, token economics, consequence.
1) What is this program?
The token economy involves the reinforcement of a target behavior where tokens are given when a person is successful.
2) How did it come about?
It came from the school system where they were trying to elicit certain behaviors from the students.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They want the students to become responsible, trustworthy, respect, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some of the behaviors are trying to get students to respect each other, as well as listening and doing what teachers are asking of them.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive, because they are giving tokens.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The purple and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some of the pro’s are that this is a cheap system where tokens are easy to distribute. A con is that tokens can easily be lost, especially in the younger kids.
9) What is the delivery system?
The teachers that are handing out the tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro is that students are able to be immediately rewarded for good behavior, a con is that not all the good behaviors are going to be noticed.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The kids save up their purple tickets and once they have enough they can redeem the purple tickets for a gold ticket, which will then earn them a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros of this is that they are being rewarded even further for their good behavior as well as being given something to strive for. A con is that this requires responsibility and not losing the tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The things that the students can “purchase” through out the year, such as ice cream and lunch with the principle.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen because teachers thought these would be some of the more desirable reinforcer options.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes, I believe they are because they all elicit the desired response.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They gain access by following the rules for the specific target behaviors desired, which allows them to receive tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They keep track of how many students receive tickets, and how often then exchange them for a reinforcer.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I think it is effective because the teachers are discussing this with students, as well as parents.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think it is very effective, they are sending information home to the parents where they can further discuss this with their child.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
We don’t know how the administrators were taught.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, some may not like the system there for they wont try to get tickets or teach their children about these policies.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Students who aren’t receiving tickets as often as they want may start steeling tickets from others or making up a counterfeit ticket.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Have you seen a significant increase in good behaviors? Do you like the token economy? Do you find it to be a burden or a help?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would be curious to find out if this has helped students who were previously troublemakers start to strive for tickets, eliciting good behaviors from them.
Terms used: reinforcement, target behavior, behavior, desirable, reinforcer, elicit, and reward.
1) What is this program?
a program where students that show trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and caring are given tokens that can be redeemed for prizes. Token economy.
2) How did it come about?
District became a PBIS district
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
They want students to be more respectful, responsible, caring, and trustworthy and improve general behavior.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Tell them the truth, turn in assignments on time, give others complements
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple tickets and golden tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pro- students are rewarded for good behavior, whole student body can be involved
Cons- Subject to who gives them out, might take too long to be rewarded
9) What is the delivery system?
Facility
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros- Facility have large amount of student contact, large involvement
Cons- subjective between teachers, more tickets lying around
11) How are the tokens banked?
Students hold them
12) What are the pro's and con's?
pros- do not have to keep a complicated ledger, students get to see physical progress
cons- could get lost easily, students could steal tickets
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with teacher or principal, help custodian
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
brainstorming and contacting businesses for donations
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
some are, helping the custodian seems silly because that is just working
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
by getting a golden ticket from collecting purple tickets
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Student morale, how many are turned in, observation of behavior.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
They told them, explained them, demonstrative. Effective.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Used a newsletter than many often ignore, probably not extremely effective.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Probably had meetings explaining them so probably effectivly.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
yes, teacher might not want to bring tickets around, students might not care too much.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
complex system, hoarding, misuse could be possible
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What are the standards of behavior, what if a student loses their tickets
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
how effective are they, can students get behind the program
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
reinforcer, behavior, effective, economy, token, program, students, facility, improvement, hoarding
1) This program is a system that is built on positive reinforcement. People are rewarded for completing a specific target behavior which the person giving out tokens is either trying to increase, or decrease in the other person(s). These tokens can later be exchanged for backup reinforcers. "Tokens" are items such as chips, points tallied on a chalkboard, stickers, play money, etc.
2) The Waterloo school district wanted to elicit positive behaviors from their students, so they implemented this positive behavior intervention system. The four things they wanted the students to emit were trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, and to be caring.
3) They are trying to elicit academic, social, and classroom skills. Teachers may want the children to sit quietly when they are talking, to sit still in their chairs when the lesson is going, raise their hand if they want to speak, share toys with the other children, or lineup for recess in a calm manner.
4) They want the students to be these behavioral classes: trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and to be caring.
5) The token economy system is based on reinforcement. The student are rewarded when they emit a good behavior in hopes of increasing that behavior in the future.
6) It is based on positive reinforcement because the students are given something; they are not getting anything taken away.
7) The tokens are used as reinforcement for target behaviors that can later be exchanged for backup reinforcers. In this case, 10 purple tickets are traded in for 1 gold ticket which can be redeemed for different rewards.
8) I feel like this form of token can be easily destroyed, or lost by young children. I also feel like the rate of ten purple tickets for one golden ticket is rather high, and might discourage children from trying to earn the golden ticket. (But then again I am not really sure what the average ticket amount a child may get in one day is…) I do think this is a fun way for kids to learn good behavior though.
9) When a person emits the desired behavior they are rewarded with a token. In this case, when a student exhibits a desired behavior they are rewarded with the purple ticket.
10) There are many advantages to this delivery system. It allows for unobtrusive, continuous feedback to the students, differential valuing of behavior, and experiences in delayed gratification as students wait for token exchange time. Some of the cons for this delivery system are that it takes more time and effort that other interventions.
11) The teacher keeps a record of how many tokens each person has. (earned and spent) However the record is kept should be seen by the students, so they have feedback for their behaviors. The teacher will want to make sure to keep a backup copy as well just in case someone changes the visible record without permission.
12) It is a fun way for kids to be encouraged to behave well, but if the kids do not like the rewards they may not try to behave well. Or they might give up once they receive the rewards they want.
13) The backup reinforcers could be things like activities, privileges, objects, or food items.
14) The backup reinforcers are chosen by asking the students what they would like to be rewarded with, and you can make up your own ideas by seeing how your students typically spend their free time.
15) The reinforcers can be effective as long as they are things the students will actually want. You will also want to make sure the backup reinforcers are not too challenging to obtain, but also not too easily obtained.
16) The reinforcers are marked at a certain token price, and when the student reaches that token limit they can exchange their tokens for the backup reinforcer. 17) They can ask for documentation on home many purple tickets are handed out, how many gold tickets are handed out, how many tickets are being redeemed for backup reinforcers, and do an evaluation of the students either as a whole or individually to document their behavior change throughout the school year.
18) I think the students will be able to learn the program easily because they have the newsletter they can look at, they can ask their parents about the program, they can ask their teachers about the program, and they can get help from their peers if they do not understand something.
19) I think the administrators are effectively telling parents about they system through the newsletter. The newsletter tells the parents what the purple tickets are, how many purple tickets they need to be exchanged for a golden ticket, and what rewards they can get by turning in the golden tickets. It also explains that their child needs to show trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring to earn these tickets.
20) I would assume since the program is in place, there is a newsletter, and the teachers are giving out the tickets that they understand the program/it has been explained to them.
21) There is definitely a possibility, as with anything, that individual(s) will not buy into this program. Students may feel like the teacher plays favorites while handing out tokens, parents may feel like their child is not getting rewarded as much as they should, and teachers may not like singling out students all the time. (There are a plethora of other problems that people could have with this program.)
22) Teachers could play favorites with this system, and keep singling out the same children to give tickets to. Also, the teacher just does not have the ability to know what every student is doing at any given time. Some students may not actually try at the program which makes it very ineffective, and even if they do take it seriously they may misplace their tickets and if there is not good record keeping there will be no way to know if the child is lying or not.
23) What behaviors are going to be reinforced? Will the teacher have an exact list that the students must follow? If so, will it be 100% restricted to that list, or if the teacher views a student doing something good that is not on the list can they reward them? If a child is continually emitting the positive behavior, is there a limit to how many times that can be rewarded that day?
24) I do not have any more questions than the ones I already asked in the question above.
Terms: reinforcement, positive reinforcement, target behaviors, backup reinforcers, rewarded, tokens, behavioral classes
1) What is this program?
The program is called “Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.” (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.) This program is implemented in an elementary school in order to encourage these behaviors. When students are caught in the act – being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, or caring – they receive a purple ticket. Once they receive ten purple tickets, they can trade these in for a golden ticket, which they can turn in for various prizes.
2) How did it come about?
There was a district-wide initiative (due to Waterloo being a PBIS District, Positive Behavior Interventions System). This was the individual school’s attempt to implement and reinforce being a PBIS school into their every day actions.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
There are four behavioral classes that the initiative is trying to elicit. These four classes are trustworthy behavior, respectful behavior, responsible behavior, and caring behavior.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some target behaviors regarding the trustworthy behavioral class, could be a student completing promised tasks assigned by teachers, students being honest when caught doing something wrong, students being honest about the actions of others, etc. Some target behaviors regarding the respectful behavior class could be holding the door open for others, being quiet and listening while the teacher is talking, and listening to the teacher when they ask you to accomplish a task. Some target behaviors regarding the responsible behavioral class would be doing homework each night, getting papers signed by your parents on time, feeding the class fish, etc. Some target behaviors regarding the caring behavioral class could be including someone in a game, asking someone if they need help, making sure someone is okay if they fall down, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement, not punishment. Since the tickets are being added to the situation and bring about a positive consequence and encourage certain behaviors; this would be considered reinforcement. It is not a punishment because it is not trying to take away or extinguish any behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The reinforcement is positive since the tickets are being added into the program to reinforce these behaviors.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are both purple tickets as well as gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Some pros are that the color system makes it easy to denote the value of given tickets, the system is easy and manageable for young children, the tickets can be easily transported and saved for later usage. Some cons could be that students may steal these tickets from each other and there is no way of ensuring this does not occur and students may be expecting a purple ticket every time they perform a behavior and get irritated when their behavior goes unrewarded.
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers and administrators hand tickets to the students who they observe doing the target behaviors. When the students would like to trade in their purple tickets for gold tickets, they can approach a teacher or an administrator and make the trade.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The delivery system has a few pros – since all staff carry the tickets, they are more likely to reach more students. Another pro would be that having a variety of people handing out tickets could potentially eliminate bias. A few cons associated with the system are that if a staff member sees good behavior and runs out of tickets – what would happen in that situation? Another con is that students may only spend time with a few staff members a day, in which case, there may still be bias issues.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The students store the tickets themselves.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
The pros are that this teaches children responsibility and accountability to keep track of their own tickets – it also prevents more work for teachers (keeping a system.) Cons are that children may “cheat” the system and trade the tickets outside of class for other things and this may screw up the system. Another con is that students may steal tickets from each other outside of class and the teachers cannot monitor this.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The back up reinforcers are the prizes that the students can exchange the golden tickets for. The back up reinforcers listen are Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time, and/or helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The reinforcers were chosen by the leaders of the program. They most likely assessed what children would want to trade in golden tickets for or maybe prizes they have previously used in the past.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The reinforcers are probably varying degrees of efficacy depending on the student. To some students, these prizes may be very appealing – to others these may seem boring or useless. Generally, when students are in elementary school they want to “be good.” However, how will this program reach students that don’t necessarily have this desire or are less likely to be noticed by the staff?
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students must earn at least purple tickets in order to trade their purple tickets in for a single golden ticket. The students then can turn in these golden tickets for the desired reinforcer.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They can monitor how many purple and golden tickets are distributed, and observe the statistics – whether they increase, decrease, etc. They can interact with the lead teachers and each lead teacher can monitor the students’ success. These numbers can then be reported to administrators in order to determine if the system is effective.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
This information is not necessarily provided in this small article – however it seems the students have been made aware about the program in their individual classes. The fact that the article mentions that students have already been bringing home purple and golden tickets suggests that the students are well informed about the system.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
If this is the only form of communication between the administrators and the parents about the system, this will likely only reach certain parents who take the time to read the newsletters. If there are other modes of communicating this program – such as emails, sending students home with notes explaining the program, or having the students describe the program to their parents, etc. then there is probably decent communication about the system.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The teachers seem to be fairly aware of the system, since it has already been implemented in the school. If not all teachers are informed about the system or do not effectively utilize this system this could really skew the results from classroom to classroom.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Of course, many may disagree with the program. Some parents and students could be concerned that they are not being noticed equally or if there is a pre-existing negative relationship with the primary ticket-givers. Teachers may not want to deal with the system and it may add extra drama or chaos into their day that they do not seem valid or worth it.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Competition may breed violence or other negative issues among the students, there may be shady actions with the tickets outside of monitored areas, etc.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What influenced the decision to use those specific reinforcers? Has this been implemented in other school districts? Is there research to back up this system for elementary-aged students?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How are teachers being monitored – in that they are handing out the tickets regularly so now class misses out? How are the tickets being monitored? What happens if there is shady action outside of monitored areas – are the tickets taken away?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforce, target behavior, behavioral classes, reinforcement, punishment, consequence, tokens, elicit, extinguish, backup reinforcers, pros, cons, bias
1) What is this program?
This program is called the Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C and it is set up to be a token economy based on the children being trustworthy, respectful, caring, and responsible.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District became a PBIS district, a positive behavior intervention system.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavior classes they are trying to elicit are being trustworthy, respectful, caring, and responsible.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit is holding the door for others, telling the truth, and doing assignments on time.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in this program are gold and purple tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros- they are easy to make more and distribute.
Cons- they can be easily lost
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system is the teacher directly handing them out.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros- can be given on the spot
Cons- the teacher decides when the are good enough to get them.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by saving up 10 purple tickets. Once this happens they can be traded for a gold ticket which can be saved up for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros- Encourages the children to continue being on their best behavior.
Cons- They can be lost when the child is saving them up
The pro's and con's are.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principle and lead teacher, and helping the custodians.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Finding out what the children would find as good reinforcers to get them to continue the behavior.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes because the newsletter said the children are going out of their way to get the tickets.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students save up 10 purple tickets and trade it in for a gold ticket. Once they get a gold ticket they have access to the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
Seeing how often the tickets that they give out are returned to redeem their prize. If they are handing out way to many purple tickets and not getting anyone asking to get a golden ticket, the system is not effective, however, it would mean the students are still eliciting the good behaviors.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
They are being very effective about it, they given easy to follow instructions on how to get the reinforcer.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
By telling the parents the system in place, they can get the children to hear from the parents, which in many ways would be the most effective way for the students to look to impress the parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
There is no way of knowing how the teachers were taught about the system from just reading the newsletter.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, students may not like the prizes as much as other students, teachers might not like the system, and parents may not want the children being reinforced with unhealthy foods.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some problems that could arise are children hoarding tickets and selling them to other students or making their own tickets.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Does every teacher handing out the tickets have the same standards for giving out tickets or are some easier to come by than others.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
behavior, reinforcers, elicit, behavior classes, positive, reinforcement
Please let us know if you have any questions.
1. This program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C., designed to reinforce and encourage specific target behaviors amongst the students and their families.
2. This came about from an initiative within the district to be a "positive behavior interventions system" district.
3. They are trying to elicit trustworthiness, caring, responsibility and respectfulness.
4. Some of the target behaviors they may want the children to emit would be treating their classmates and their teachers kindly and respectfully, helping another student who is in need, doing their school work as assigned, etc.
5. This system is entirely based on reinforcement.
6. This system involves positive reinforcement because of the addition of something positive, i.e., the golden and purple tickets.
7. The tokens are gold and purple tickets. They can get a golden ticket when they receive ten purple paw tickets.
8. Pro's would definitely involve the fact that students would likely be more motivated to emit the target behaviors at hand. It could also play a role in the long run in helping them develop a good character and appreciation for these values the district is trying to obtain. A con could be for any students who find themselves having a harder time obtaining any tickets because it may make them feel left out or poorly about themselves.
9. The delivery system hypothetically is supposed to be a continuous reinforcement schedule where the children are reinforced every time they emit a target behavior. A flaw in this is the fact that not every positive behavior emitted by a student may be noticed, thus not being reinforced.
10. Pro's to the delivery system is that because it's typically consistent, it's predictable for the students. Therefore, they will hopefully not experience falling back into old behaviors because they will most likely be reinforced for these behaviors. However, as I stated above, a downfall to this is that some behaviors may go unnoticed which means a student will not literally always be reinforced for their behaviors.
11. These tokens are banked by first receiving purple tickets, for every ten purple tickets they receive, they can exchange them for a golden ticket and then those can be exchanged for the reinforcers which include lunch with principal/teacher, popcorn and movie, etc.
12. Pro's to this is that the reinforcers will hopefully serve as motivators for the students to uphold these qualities that the school and district are trying to implement. It can also make the students feel good about themselves in general, which can serve as a reinforcer itself. A con to this could be if they lack consistency, students could lose interest.
13. The back up reinforcers include the prizes that the students can get when they receive golden tickets.
14. It didn't clearly state how these were chosen, but I imagine they chose things that they felt the students would not only enjoy but also get to feel special.
15. I do believe that these are effective reinforcers, espeically for this age group because they are designed to make the students feel special and that can be really beneficial for students at this age.
16. They first achieve these reinforcers by emitting the target behaviors. They can obtain the ultimate prizes later on by trading in the golden tickets, which they obtain by exchanging ten of their purple tickets.
17. They could look at overall performance academically by the children in the classrooms, they could measure the amount of tickets being given, they could also observe the overall behaviors being emitted by the children to see if any of it is coming more naturally.
18. It sounds like the teachers have done a good job educating the children because it does make it sound like students have already begun receiving the tickets.
19. I think this little section itself is a good way to let parents know what's going on and what's being expected of their children.
20. There's really know way to tell from this alone that the teachers or anyone is being taught effectively about the system. It seems that the teachers probably have been taught about the system, but there's now way to see how well it's being implemented.
21. It's definitely a possibility that not everyone will buy into the system. I would imagine this might be more likely among some parents, especially if parents are concerned about their children being able to obtain any tickets.
22. I think the biggest possible problem would be consistency. You'd have to expect the same amount of consistency for every behavior observed, but also consistency among all the staff members so that there's no issues with some teachers being more consistent than others.
23. I would want to know how well it's being implemented as of now. I would also want to ask if this program, in their opinion, will be effective for any students who are "at risk" or come from difficult situations, thus influencing their behaviors at school. I would also ask how they will be sure to make it equal among students with disabilities.
24. I might want to know what other ways, if necessary, they could use as reinforcers if these weren't effective for the students as a whole.
25. TERMS: reinforcement, target behavior, elicit, emit, schedule of reinforcement, continuous, behavioral classes.
1.) This program is a form of token economy
2.) It came about to instill in the elementary a sense of trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, and respectfulness. Interventions were put into place by the faculty as a whole to watch all the students and reinforce as needed.
3.) Trustworthiness, caring, respectfulness, and responsibility.
4.) Helping a fellow class mate at recess when they have fallen, telling the truth when asked/ coming forward with the truth if something happens. Following the directions of the class room. Helping the teachers without being asked.
5.) It is based on reinforcement
6.) Positive
7.) Purple tickets are given to the quantity of ten, and then can be redeemed for a golden ticket. These golden tickets are then traded in for small things that the student could potentially by from a classroom store.
8.) Pro’s are that the students start exhibiting better behaviors, and strive to earn more tickets. Con’s could be that golden tickets are hoarded and then used all in one day, which could potentially wipe out most of the small prizes.
9.) The tickets are handed to the individual who exhibited the behavior by a faculty member.
10.) Pro’s could be that the student is reinforced when the action happens. Con could be that the student could potentially lose the tickets.
11.) Once the student has achieved 10 purple tickets, they can trade it on for a golden one. After that, they have to receive enough golden tickets to be able to purchase the item they want, which will be priced.
12.) The student’s behavior is relatively good to get the tickets, and thus can get a lot of tickets. But they could lose the tickets or hoard them.
13.) The backup reinforcers are the small prizes that can be purchased in the store.
14.) The backup reinforcers are priced, and based on how many golden tickets the student has will affect the prize they can purchase.
15.) When a token economy is done right, they can be very effective.
16.) By collecting enough golden tickets, then trading them in. The article is not specific on where the store is located, whether each classroom has one, or if it is one big store for everyone.
17.) Bullying becomes less frequent, golden tickets are being cashed in, less trips to the principal’s office, etc.
18.) If the only way the students know about this program is through this flyer, than I would say they are not effectively teaching it. But if they had an assembly, and each teacher reinforced the program in class, than it would be very effective.
19.) With the parents being the target audience of the flyer, I would say it would be pretty effective. That is assuming that they read the flyer.
20.) Very well. All faculties would have to be a part of the program in order for it to be successful.
21.) There is. Some students may not feel like participating, some parents might not read the flyer or feel like mentioning it to their child/ following up with them at home. And some teachers may be lax on enforcing the behavioral guidelines.
22.) Token economies tend to be ineffective if they fade out the reinforcers too quickly on an intermittent schedule.
23.) What kinds of behaviors would be reinforced? Would the tokens be potentially take away for bad behavior? What is the base price for a small prize? Where will the prize center/ centers be located? Is there a limit on how many the child can get?
24.) What kinds of prizes will be rewarded? Will they be age appropriate? Will favoritism be given preferences? How can know that they won’t?
25.) Target behavior, Behavior, Reinforcement, reinforcers, Intermittent schedule.
1) What is this program? It is a program that uses a form of token, in this case purple tickets and gold tickets, that can later be turned in for reinforcers, such as popcorn or a lunch with the principal and lead teacher.
2) How did it come about? The Waterloo school district has an initiative to implement a Positive Behavior Intervention System.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to encourage the kids in certain behavioral classes. They call it staying on T.R.C.C. (pronounces track) because the classes are being Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? I would imagine that one of the main target behaviors would be turning homework in on time, as a sub class of being Responsible. I think they would also want to reinforce students to emit the target behavior of not talking when the teacher is talk, as sub class of being respectful.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? This system is based on reinforcement. There is no punishment, you do not get tickets or tokens taken away for bad behaviors that are emitted. You only get tickets for good behaviors emitted. These are then traded in for gold tickets which are traded in for reinforcers.
6) Is it positive or negative? It is positive reinforcement, it is adding something desirable to the environment.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? Purple tickets and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? The pro is that it is good at setting of a reinforcement system for the kids that makes them want to act appropriately. The cons would be kids pretending to do good things just to get tokens, or kids trading tokens for stuff they want among themselves, instead of using the system properly. Also, if a kid had a lot of tokens he might act badly until he needed more tokens, then act good until he saved up tokens again, then go back to acting bad.
9) What is the delivery system? The teachers give out the tokens.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? One teacher might give out tokens very easily, and one might be a little more picky, so there would be mixed signals on what is required for the target behavior.
11) How are the tokens banked? It would appear that the students are responsible for keeping track of their own tokens, and turn them in when they have earned enough.
12) What are the pro's and con's? This also helps teach Responsibility, but they might lose a token by accident and not get a reinforcer even though they emitted they target behavior.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? They are things like ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, and lunch with the principal and lead teacher.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? These are all things that children would find desirable.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes, I would think so.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They have to get enough purple tickets, which they can trade for golden tickets. They can then trade those for the backup reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? It would be reflected in the students’ behavior.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? It is hard to say from the information we are given. It seems pretty straight forward here, although I think there should be more details to which specific target behaviors will result in getting tokens.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? They gave them a good overview, but didn’t go into specifics about which targets behaviors result in reinforcement.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? We cannot tell from the information we have.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Yes.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? I think that these tickets would be easy to counterfeit. There could also be hoarding of the tokens. And, if they were just as vague as they are with this, students won’t know what is expected of them, or how many tickets they will earn for exhibiting certain behaviors.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? What specific targets behaviors are expected? Are they worth different amounts of purple tickets? How was the amount determined?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? Same as above.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Target behavior, behavioral class, reinforcer, reinforcement, token, emit, exhibit, positive reinforcement, desirable, environment, behavior punishment, elicit, reinforce
1) What is this program?
It’s a token economy program called T.R.R.C. that elicits target behaviors of Waterloo students by using positive reinforcers, encouraging the students in the Waterloo district to emit positive behaviors or pillars that the program believes are positive.
2) How did it come about?
It probably came about to help children improve their positive behaviors in the classroom because the students were probably not exhibiting the behavior that the school district would like them to exhibit.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavior classes they are trying to elicit are character, respect, caring, and responsibility showing an over positive attitude and behavior in the school.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some specific target behaviors who include having children be completely silent during class when the teacher is explaining a lesson, picking up trash left behind by other students, Turning in homework on time that is complete and accurate.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Purple paw tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A con of using these tokens is that they could very easily be lost by students or they could be stolen by other students. Pros are that they visual represent the reinforce and they are very cheap for teachers to distribute.
9) What is the delivery system?
The teacher will give the student the ticket right after they exhibit the positive behaviors
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The major con’s that I see to this is that the reinforcement is only given when a teacher sees the student emitting the behaviors and this could lead to the student only doing it when teachers are around or saying forget it because they always emit the behaviors when the teachers aren’t around. The pro’s include that there is immediate reinforcement and children will know what they are being rewarded for.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The children keep the purple tickets until they get 10 and then they can turn that in for a golden paw and receive their reinforcement
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A con would be that students might exhibit aversive behaviors and steal the tickets from other students. The pro is that it teaches students responsibility by keeping track of their tickets and they have to save up their tickets if they would like to get something better showing them the life skill of saving.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The prizes such as more recess time, popcorn, extra computer time, ice cream cones, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers are chosen by the students who choose what they want for their prize and trade their tickets for it
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I think that they are effective reinforcers for the most part. They are simple and are very easy. It’s good that there are different options because I don’t know how many kids would want to have lunch with the principle or help the custodian.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
It’s not made to clear but I assume that the kids would trade in their tickets at the end of the day/week or some specific time
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators could keep track of the amount of tickets they give out and see if that amount increases over time. If it does increase over time then it means students are being seen emit more desirable behaviors and the system is being effective.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I would assume they are effectively being told by their parents and teachers because it says parents are encouraged to talk to their kids about it.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Fairly effectively as long as the parent’s read the newsletter. However, some parents might not read it and miss out on learning about the token program
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
This is an unknown, but I would assume that they would have to effectively teach the teachers to help them understand what specific target behaviors earn tickets and what behaviors do not.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, because some students would simply want to go against the rules, some might even go as far as emitting positive behaviors when teacher’s aren’t around but not emitting those behaviors when teacher’s are around just because they don’t like the system or find the reinforcement lame.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Keeping the interests of students. Some students might get sick of the reinforcement and not want to continue participating. Students could steal tickets from others or even duplicate the tickets. Sometimes the behavior is emitted and is not shown reinforcement if they teacher is around so it could enable children to only act in a desirable way when they believe they are being observed.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Will students have tickets taken away for undesirable behaviors? Will all teachers be giving out tickets for the same behaviors, or will it be up to the individual teachers, because that could cause children to not like the system.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Do children simply throw away tickets when they get them? Does the program seem effective? Are there going to be consequences for not participating or showing undesirable behaviors?
25) Terms: elicit, emit, target behavior, positive reinforcement, aversive, desirable, token, behavioral class, consequence
1) What is this program?
The program is called Poyner Panthers on TRRC (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring). It is a token economy in which children receive tokens for emitting target behaviors in turn the children can cash in these tokens for reinforcers that the children enjoy.
2) How did it come about?
Waterloo school district initiated the PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention System). With this system they started Poyner Panthers on TRRC. Although, it did not say the exact reason why they started this program one can assume that they were having behavioral problems and needed something to motivate the students to change their own behavior instead of just punishing them all the time.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behaviors that they are trying to get the children to elicit are the specific character pillars. The pillars are being Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible and Trustworthy. So, the behavioral classes would be positive classroom behaviors which could even transfer to community behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
In the example, a target behavior they wanted children to emit was bringing a calculator to class with them each day, other target behavior was to have your things out and ready when the bell rang. Another one would be raising your hand when wanting to talk out loud.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This is a reinforcement based system because the children are getting something when correctly emit the target behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is an example of positive reinforcement.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used in the Poyner Panther on TRRC program was purple and gold tickets. For every ten purple tickets a student receives they get one gold ticket. The gold ticket can then be traded in for a treat.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
A pro of this system is that this can keep children motivated to emit the target behaviors. Another pro of the system is that it is relatively inexpensive. A con of the system is because you need to get ten purple tickets for one gold ticket, a child may think it is too hard and give up. Another con is that the teacher may not see every target behavior that is emitted, so they do not get rewarded and then the behavior becomes extinguished.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system of this program is that for each target behavior emitted, a teacher will give a child a purple ticket. When the ticket is given, verbal praise should also accompany it.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A pro is that it can done quickly while also being effective. Another pro is that this can also be done in front of other students to help motivate them to get more tickets. A con of this system is that a student could repeatedly do the same behavior over and over again to get ten tickets for a treat, but they are not actually learning the target behavior they are just playing the system. Another con is that yes it can motivate other children to elicit the desired response it can also make children think it is too hard and cause them to give up.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are banked by the teacher. The teacher keeps track of how many purple tickets the student has and when they trade it in for a gold ticket. This is then posted publicly to motivate the students to emit the target behaviors.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
A pro is that it will be measured correctly by the teacher. A con is that it being publicly displayed might make a child give up because other students are doing better than they are.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
A back up reinforcer is the prizes the children can purchase with their gold tickets they collect throughout the school year. Some of the backup reinforcers listed in the article were sonic ice cream cones, lunch with the principle, or an extra recess.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen with the children in mind. So, children pick which item will be most pleasurable for them.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
These are effective reinforcers because the children get to choose what they want. With this, the child can get exactly what they want and will therefore complete the target behavior to receive this reward.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students first have to complete the target behavior. With each completed target behavior the child receives one purple ticket. For each ten purple tickets a child receives they then can trade the purple tickets in for a gold ticket which then can be traded in for one of the backup reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
First the teachers need to make a baseline of the behaviors before they implement the system, so they can tell if it has changed or not. After this they should start the token economy and reinforcing the target behaviors. After a while of this they should then lessen the reward and see if the behavior increases.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The administrators are telling the parents about this which is really good. The parents themselves could then start implementing the token economy at home. The parents can also talk to their children about this too. But, for them really teaching the children about it I am sure they talked about it in each classroom, so the children knew what was expected from them.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
The administrators are teaching the parents about the system through the newsletter. I think they could have done this a little better though because not all parents read the newsletter. So, they could have scheduled meetings with the parents to teach them about this program.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Since the teachers are the ones who are with the students each day and are the one’s reinforcing the target behaviors I am sure they were taught in a teacher in service day.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I do believe that not everyone will buy in the system. Some of the children may not want any of the backup reinforcers so, they could decide not to participate. Parents may not understand it either which could cause problems.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Children can get bored with the reinforcements or get discouraged when other children are getting more tokens than they are.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How do you make sure each child wants to participate? Some children may not care and chose to act out intentionally for the added attention.
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
How effective is the token economy? Do parents and teachers see a difference in their children?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Token Economy, emitting, target behaviors, reinforcers, punishing, behavioral classes, elicit, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, extinguished, baseline
1) This program is the T.R.R.C program that is issued across the waterloo school district. It is part of a PBIS, (positive behavior) in which the students are awarded for positive behaviors that the system targets.
2) From the district wide initiative to become a PBIS district.
3) Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring
4) Returning items that do not belong to them back to the student, or in the office, Holding the doors open for others, Using professional language.
5) Reinforcement, as far as I can tell there is no punishment seeking protocol.
6) Positive Reinforcement, They are giving tickets with the target behavior demonstration with hopes to increase the frequency of the said behavior.
7) There are two tokens used in this program, first, panther paw (purple) tickets, and the Gold ticket.
8) I believe that it will be hard for students to understand and see their progress if the purple tickets had a value other than saving up for a gold ticket it might be easier to see. The newsletter isn’t clear on when the tickets can be used on what they are used for. I am also unaware of a visible back so that other kids can see how everyone else is doing.
9) The delivery system seems to be a teacher catching the student doing something that demonstrates one of the pillars and rewarding with a token.
10) The first pro is that it promotes activity without reward because you never know who might be there to give a ticket. At the same time this can present a con because there is not much consistency to the chance a teacher is watching. The last con would be that the delivery system makes me think some teachers may be less or more lenient considering the aspect of the activity.
11) The newsletter is not clear on the banking of the tickets, either purple or gold. I just guess the student has to be responsible enough to know where to keep his tickets and how many he or she has.
12) Con: you don’t know what your classmates are making. Pro: It is clear what you can use the tickets on and it is up to how hard you work to get the tickets.
13) The backup reinforcers are that the mix between privileges and rewards in the value of time or pleasurable foods.
14) I am guessing the reinforcers are chosen with students wants and the idea that they can be easily provided.
15) They are effective because the student can receive positive reinforcement of their work directly from the reward system.
16) The student can gain access through a claim rewards process where they turn in the ticket and get the prize right there.
17) You could measure the pep rallies or assemblies with the amount of purple tickets they hand out in the first half of the year and measure the frequency of amount of tickets given based on the length of time spent in the rally or assembly. Then repeat the process at the end of the year and compare the second half semester to the first half.
18) The reinforcement of behaviors will teach the kids that they are doing something good by being respectful, trustworthy, or the other pillars, and continue those behaviors. They will do this because they will have been a ratio that is higher than 1:1 which in the 1:1 scenario making the kids only demonstrate behavior when a teacher is around.
19) Through the newsletter they tell the parents that the system is being used but I’m not so sure that the effectiveness of the parent’s knowledge is there because there is no feedback scenario. And how are we so sure the parents are reading these newsletters.20) I can’t speak about the effectiveness of the teacher to teacher adherence, because this is just a newsletter. You would have to do an in depth interview to find out that information on the effective level.
21) I think students might not buy into it, especially the older students. They might see it as a joke because the prize might not be motivating enough. Teachers might have a power trip on the tickets while others would just give it away without a problem. Parents also might not want to buy into their kid eating ice cream when they want them on a healthy diet.
22) Under/over payments. I don’t see a weighted system here where a really good deed could get a kid 3 tokens or more. But teachers might feel the need to really show the kid they like what they did and give and extra where other teachers wouldn’t follow. I could also see the kids holding tickets and even trading or stealing tickets from other kids. If there was a point system that the student didn’t have to hold on to the tickets would provide the student the security.
23) Is there a limit to the amount of rewards that can be received? Can the student receive more than one reward a day? Are there specific protocol to receiving tickets? How would it be handled if the student gets tickets stolen or lost? Is there any connection to tickets at games to promote attendance? What are the students being told when they receive the ticket? Do they know why they received it?
24) I want to know who is in charge of giving tickets? Do the rewards change? Is there anything worth more than 1 gold ticket or 1 purple ticket? I want to also know about the disciplinary situation. If one kid is disrespectful and the rest are respectful, does the one student know everyone got tickets except him?
25) Behavior. Target behavior. Reinforcement. Positive reinforcement, punishment, emit
What is this program? The program as described by the reading is Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. This is a behavioral program that utilizes token economics. Token economics is a system that utilizes tokens as forms of individual reinforcement of a specific target behavior. These tokens can be exchanged for other more desirable reinforcers.
How did it come about? This program is used in the Waterloo School district. It was a district wide initiative as a part of the Positive Behavior Intervention System, with the goal of eliciting positive behaviors from students while extinguishing undesirable behaviors.
What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The overall intended behaviors that they are trying to elicit through the use of this program are all part of the larger categories such as trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, and respect.
What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Well, some of the behaviors that the school district would like their students to emit fall under the specific categories as mentioned above. One example would be for the category of trustworthiness, if a teacher is absent due to illness or other reasons, they would want their students to behave well for the substitute teacher. (Seeing as how I will be a future teacher, I would hope that my future students would behave well for me or any other authority figure that would be in my classroom!) The teacher is hoping that they can trust the students to behave and that by doing so they are exhibiting a desired behavior falling under the category of trustworthiness. Tagging onto that example, some of the other behaviors that the teacher would hope their students would emit while in their absence (or not) would consist of raising their hand to answer/ask a question as opposed to rudely blurting out loud. Lastly, another target behavior that any teacher would hope their students would exhibit is having their homework/project/speech done for class, i.e. being prepared for class. In order for teachers to have a productive class period students need to have their materials ready to go. This behavior falls under the category of responsibility.
Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Definitely have to say that the token system is a form of reinforcing desirable target behavior. The behaviors in question are ones that would need to be reinforced immediately following the emission of the behavior and that is why the token system can be very useful. They are accessible for the teachers and provide immediate positive feedback for the student.
Is it positive or negative? Well, I sort of explained this question above but yes, this is a form of positive reinforcement. The student is receiving a desirable stimulant as a consequence for emitting the desirable behavior. In order for this process to involve a negative reinforcement, the teachers (or administrators) would have to remove an aversive stimulus in order to decrease that chances of the student emitting that behavior in the near future.
What are the tokens used in this program? In the reading it described these tokens as a sort of purple paw ticket. Once students have collected a substantial amount of these tickets they are able to trade them in for a golden ticket which in turn can be traded in for a much larger (and desirable) prize.
What might be some pro’s and con’s associated with using these tokens? Looking at the positives, I would say that some of the pro’s associated with the use of these tokens are that students have a tangible incentive to exhibit desirable behaviors in the schools. The hope is that through this incentive, the students will want to work harder to exhibit the desired behaviors and the undesirable behaviors will occur less frequently. On the flip side however, I could see where students could get a little wrapped up in their desire to get these tickets and unintentionally exhibit forms of aggression towards other students or even staff members. This would instead lead the students to believe that they are being reinforced for their aggressive behavior rather than the target behavior.
What is the delivery system? This is where the student actually receives the purple paw ticket as reinforcement for exhibiting the desirable behavior. Once the student earns ten tickets they are able to trade them in for one golden ticket. As they are able to gain more golden tickets through their good behaviors, then they can earn a larger prize.
What are some pro’s and con’s associated with the delivery system? A whole bucket of worms can be opened with this delivery system, but let’s start with some positives. As children demonstrate these good behaviors, they start to feel excited about behaving appropriately. They are encouraged to behave a certain way and these behaviors come more frequently as the desire to earn golden tickets grows. Teachers can further motivate the kids by having them count out how many tickets they have and reminding them of their progress. Keeping up this energy and excitement can make the program rather successful. Unfortunately there can also be issues with these tickets as it is up to the student, not the teacher, to keep track of the tickets. A child could accidentally lose tickets or could possible stolen from another student. This whole scenario could be a breeding ground for unintentional peer competition to earn the most tickets, jealousy over others who have earned lots of tickets, and resentment towards friends or staff members.
How are the tokens banked? Well, the tokens are earned once the child trades in ten purple tickets. After the child has earned ten of these, then they can trade them in for a golden ticket. These golden tickets are eventually collected and submitted for a larger prize.
What are the pro’s and con’s? As I said before, a child could possibly steal tickets or tokens from a fellow classmate, or attempt to steal them from a teacher. However, the a desired goal of this operation is to teach the students how to be responsible and keep track of their possessions, i.e. tickets/tokens.
What are the backup reinforcers? These are the fun rewards that students get as prizes such as extra recess, a bag of movie popcorn, ice cream, etc etc. This is what the golden tickets allow the students to “purchase”.
How were the backup reinforcers chosen? These were chosen by the particular student who is trading in their golden tickets. Each student gets to decide what he or she wants as a prize. In order to get these prizes they need to see the amount necessary to obtain said prize, and save up enough tickets.
Are they effective reinforcers? It appears that this is a very effective method of reinforcement. It is a simple method yes, but the kids are still actively participating and the rewards are still appropriate for the targeted age group. Not to mention that the variety of prizes can cater to a wide variety of students.
How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? They will obtain access to these reinforcers through the staff member that is in charge of said tickets.
What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Well, it seems that the administrators would be able to tell rather easily if the system was effective or not based upon how many tickets are given out to the students. They could also look at just how many prizes have been earned by trading in tickets as well.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? From the information provided, I would assume that the administrators are teaching the students about the whole system. The reading didn’t offer much detail about this area, but the newsletter did mention about how students were caught in various areas of the school exhibiting positive behaviors and earning tickets in the process.
How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? I would say that it is good that the administrators put information about the program into the newsletter but there is an issue of parents not reading or not receiving said newsletter. Then you have the issue of divided households where perhaps one parent gets the newsletter and the other is left out in the dark. Another critique is the amount of the information offered in the newsletter about the program. Personally I feel it would have been more effective had the administrators included a little hand-out or insert specifically about the program.
How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system? One would think that the administrators have taught the teachers about this system since it is the teachers themselves that are handing out the tickets/prizes.
Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? Oh there is always someone for some reason that is opposed to one thing or another. It is quite possible that there are students who choose not to participate because they think it is stupid, or they don’t like the prizes, or they feel the teachers won’t be fair, etc.
What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Well first off, these token economies can be quite confusing in some cases. It is quite possible that there are some teachers, or parents, or students who are not comprehending why they are trying to earn tickets or how this is beneficial to the educational journey of the students. There could be an issue where backup reinforcers are not equal priced and students or staff may see this as being unfair, leaving the most desirable prizes to be unattainable.
What are some questions that you might have for the administrators about the system? As I mentioned before, there could be an issue with students attempting to steal tickets from one another or teachers even, in order to obtain more prizes faster. How is the administration going to prevent such situations from taking place? How will this be monitored? Will students thieving tickets be punished? What if a student lost some of their tickets? Will they be reimbursed?
What additional information might you want to know about the system?I would like to know if there is a designated list of behaviors for the teachers to look out for so they all have a baseline to go off of, or are they just handing out tickets and reinforcing behaviors as they see fit.
Terminology: Target behaviors, token economies, emit, reinforce, desirable, rewards, negative reinforcement, undesirable.
1.Poyner Panthers on TRRC (Trustworthy, Responsible, Respectful, Caring)
2. It was created in a district wide initiative called PBIS district, which stands for positive behavior interventions system. It seems to have been created to encourage better behavior throughout the school system.
3. The behavior classes that the system is rewarding is being trustworthy, being responsible, being respectful, and being caring.
4. Some example could be telling the truth, keeping hands to themselves, raising hands in class, listening to teachers, sharing with other kids, cleaning up desks after class projects.
5. This system is based on reinforcement.
6. The reinforcement is positive, because it is eliciting target behaviors, not trying to extinguish target behaviors.
7. The tokens are a two tiered system of tickets. They start with purple tickets, and once they reach ten, they get a golden ticket. These golden tickets can then be exchanged for prizes.
8. One con might be that they are just slips of paper, which could easily be lost or torn up. Another con could be that they might be easy to forge. A pro might be that the two tier system makes it harder to forge. Another con might be that it seems to hard to get a prize, you have to get ten purple, to get one gold, and they make it seem like you still need more than one gold.
9.The delivery system seems to be from teachers at the school. When they see a child emitting a target behavior, they will give them a ticket.
10. One possible con could be that behaviors are only rewarded when an adult in the school is there to observe them. Also, unless the teachers always have tickets on them, it's possible they would forget to actually reward the child.
11. The children bank the tickets themselves.
12. The cons in this situation is the likelihood of kids losing their tickets. They have no ability to get them back if lost. And if teachers were to replace lost tickets, there is a likelihood of someone gaming the system. A pro might be that it encourages the kids to be more responsible about keeping track of their own tickets.
13. The back up reinforcers are ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with the principle and teachers, extra computer time and helping the custodian.
14. The reinforcers seem to have been chosen by either the administrators or whomever instituted the new policy.
15. I'm not sure how effective all of them would be, the ice cream should be. I'm not sure if the kids would want to have lunch with the principle, or help the janitor clean. I know that spending time with the principle was a punishment when I was in elementary school.
16. The students gain access by trading in golden tickets to the teachers or principal.
17.Some measure might be the number of purple tickets being given out vs. those traded in. And the number of golden tickets being awarded. In addition another measure of effectiveness might be the number of reinforcers being given out.
18. It doesn't mention much about how they are training them. It does seem that they are at least trying to mete out the tokens at all times, so this would hopefully communicate that these behaviors will be rewarded at all times. I assume since they mention assemblies, that they probably have educated the kids about the system at said assemblies.
19. I wouldn't say that the parents are being educated very effectively. They detail the system in like three paragraphs in a newsletter that the parents may not even necessarily read. In addition, a lot of the methods are being left out. It seems to leave a lot up to the imagination of the parent. More worrisome is the fact that they seem to have instituted this policy without alerting the parents until it was already underway.
20. Once again, we don't know from the newsletter how effectively they have taught them. From the newsletter, there isn't really a solid operational definition for the behaviors they want to elicit. If they have some clearer definitions among the teachers it could be they are well educated on the system, but it is also possible that one teacher will reward something another teacher wouldn't.
21. I would say there is definitely a possibility that some won't buy into the system. Especially kids with parents who give them those reinforcers already. Ice cream won't be that appealing if you already have it whenever you want. And I feel like the kids that are already behaving poorly won't have much interest in helping the janitor or eating with the principle. I think if there are teachers that are stuck in their ways this could also be a problem.
22.I think there are a couple of problems that could come up here. One being that token hoarding could easily become a problem, since they are the ones keeping track of their tokens. The pricing of the reinforcers could come into play, since they don't indicate how many gold tickets you need for a reinforcer, it is possible that it could be set too high, and end up discouraging students.
23. Some questions I would have would certainly be if they have operational definitions in place. I also would want to know how many gold tickets you need to earn a reinforcer. And then I would want to know what their strategy for changing the schedule of reinforcement would be.
24. I would want to know if the reinforcers listed are the only ones they have, because it seems to me that most of those are going to be cool the first time only, so once they earn them they have lost motivation to keep emitting the correct behaviors. Also for the recess example there is no explanation of how much additional recess time the kid would get, so that should be defined.
reinforce, elicit, emit, target behavior, schedule of reinforcement.
20.
1) What is this program? A system to increase the likelihood of positive behavior.
2) How did it come about? Set up by the school district
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? Being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Raising hand to ask a question, letting another student have a toy, opening the door for someone, turning in work on time.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative? Positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? Purple and gold tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Can be easily lost or damaged.
9) What is the delivery system? Given out by school faculty.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Faculty may not see some students emitting the behavior making it so the reinforcement isn’t delivered.
11) How are the tokens banked? Every 10 purple tickets that a student receives can be traded in for one golden ticket.
12) What are the pro's and con's? Students may get discouraged easily for not collecting 10 tickets fast or before the token economy ends, students may have less than 10 purple tickets and can’t trade them in
13) What are the back up reinforcers? Ice cream, extra recess, extra time on the computer, popcorn, lunch with a teacher and principal, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? By observing what the students like to do or have.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? Yes.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? By turning in gold tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Number of gold tickets being turned in for prizes.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? Since the students would be seeing others have the tickets and the school district would make a big deal of the token economy, they probably have learned about the system pretty well.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? If the newsletter is sent to the homes of the children then it would be effective but if not I would not expect that the all of the children would be telling their parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Probably pretty well because with things like these, the faculty usually goes all out and they make sure that all of the teachers are participating.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? I think that everyone would like this idea because the teachers and parents both benefit from the good behavior and the students would like the prizes.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Tokens may be given out less often and the children could lose interest and theft
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How do they plan on handling the problems listed above?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? How long will the program last for?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavior, Reinforcement, Positive, Emitting
1) What is this program? Poyner panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about? When the schools were having trouble with behavior in their schools.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? They are trying to get the children to be more trustworthy, respectful, reasonable, and caring. Theses are also called the target behaviors.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Some examples for these behaviors would be holding the door open for other children, lending out a pencil, saying thank you, or even remembering to do your homework every week.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? Reinforcement because they are getting reinforced to do more of those behaviors.
6) Is it positive or negative? This is a positive behavior because they are giving them something for there behavior and not taking something away.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? After getting a certain amount, you can use them to buy prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Some pros to using these tickets are that the students are getting something physical to remind them of what they are doing and in which making them happy they earned it. Some cons associated with the tokens is that some children may not think getting a ticket is worth emitting these behaviors.
9) What is the delivery system? The delivery system that they use are the paw tickets given to the children when they display any of those behaviors. Once the children earn ten tickets, they then get a gold ticket where they can buy a prize.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Some pros to this would be seeing a huge difference in the children trying to get the T.R.R.Cs in their everyday school life. Some cons to this are you having to always update new prizes to keep them interested otherwise if they don’t care to get that prize then they won’t try to be T.R.R.C.
11) How are the tokens banked? They are banked by collecting ten tokens and then you get the golden token from those ten original tokens to buy a prize.
12) What are the pro's and con's? Some pro’s are helping with responsibility to keeping your coins and not losing them. Some cons are that they could make their own coins if it’s easy enough to duplicate or they can take other children’s tokens.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The backup reinforces are the prizes you get after getting rewarded by getting tokens.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? The child gets to pick there reinforce for example a sonic cone or even lunch with some teachers.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? They let there be many reinforcers so that if one child may not like one option of reinforcement, then they can choose something else. For example if I were them I probably wouldn’t like to help put custodians for fun.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? Students get theses reinforcercer buy showing the behaviors of the T.R.R.C.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? Some measures to make sure that this is working would be counting the amount of tickets out and seeing out many children buy stuff from the store. If there aren’t that many, then it is not working out or they need better reinforcers.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? From all that I know they are only showing this as a way to tell people about their program. Maybe what they should do instead is to have meeting in every class room for the kids and explain it to them.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? They also look like they are only telling these parents this through the newsletter. Some parents don’t even look at newsletters so its not very effective. They should at least have a parent meeting to explain what they are trying to accomplish with their kids and maybe even ask for some help with encouraging it at home as well.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? From what it looks like they have told the teachers about it because they are giving them out. But that doesn’t mean that all the children know about it.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? There is a for sure possibility but you can never please everyone in a school. They also may think that their children won’t want to have the reinforcements that bad in order them to emit the behaviors.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? Something that would bother me about this is that it will work for the first month and then they wont care to try anymore. This can happen in any token economies.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? They question I would ask are do you plan to change up the reinforcers every week? How can you prevent from them stealing other children’s tokens? What are you going to do if a child doesn’t care to get a token ever?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? I would also like to know how the program is doing every once in a while to see if it was working or not.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavior, punishment, reinforment, positive, negative, emit, back up reinforcment, token economy, reward, target behavior.
1)Token economy is a program design to reinforce students’ positive behaviors through the exchange of tokens which is like money for prizes that students like.
2)This program came as a way to increase the frequency of desired behaviors through the reinforcement with desirable prizes for the students.
3)The behavioral classes that they want to elicit are those classes that include all types of positive behaviors that have a positive impact in other students.
4)They want the children to raise their hands on class, be on time, have the material ready when the bell rings, and be on their seats when the class starts.
5)This token economy is based on reinforcement.
6)Design it in the right way token economy is positive because it makes students do their best in everything they do.
7)Tokens can be anything that you can easily dispense, that is safe to use and that it cannot be easily counterfeit.
8)Some pro’s of tokens are that they serve as a motivation for the students to try to do their best while some con’s might be that they have to be design in the right way in order to be successful and do not bring problems or become a danger for the student’s life.
9)First a set of values need to be set up so every time a positive action is emitted the amount of tokens set for the emission of that action will be dispensed.
10)Some pro’s are that those tokens can be used as a motivation by the students to try to emit positive behaviors while some con’s can be that a high value or a low value can affect the students negatively leading them not to increase the frequency of the desired behavior but give up or lose the motivation to emit that behavior.
11)They can be banked either at the moment that they are being received or by office hours that regulate the activity.
12)Some con’s are that students may get tokens when the bank is closed or they may have too many while some pro’s is that they will not lose them and they will be able to know the amount of them they have.
13)Backup reinforcers are rewards that are given in exchange of tokens.
14)They are chosen by setting a list of behaviors that we want the students to emit.
15)Yes they are because they serve as a motivation to students to try to do their best in order to get prizes that they really like and enjoy.
16)Students gain access to reinforcers through the behaviors they emit.
17)The increase of the frequency of desired behaviors shows them that they are doing a good job with the token economy system.
18)Administrators are effective enough for the children to understand and be aware of the rewards and how to get them.
19)They are also effective when teaching the parents about the system and how it works.
20)Administrators are effective teaching other teachers about the system which has made their job a lot easier when dealing with token economy.
21)I think that the one who may not buy the system could be the student because after a while they get tired of it or they do not want to make the effort even though the prize is something they want if they have other ways to access that prize.
22)Token economies need to be regulated in order to be successful because it is necessary to have everyone continuously motivated and interested by it.
23)I do not think I really have any question I think it is pretty clear.
24)Nothing really.
25)Terms and terminology used: behavior, emit, elicit, reinforcers, positive, desired behaviors, frequency, increase.
1) What is this program?
This program is called Poyner Panther on T.R.R.C. and it focus on reinforcing children for being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. To do so, children receive paw tickets when these kind actions are seen, and for every ten paw tickets they can trade them for a golden ticket that represents a prize.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District started this program to be a PBIS District – positive behavior interventions system. This way children are reinforced for good behaviors, which will increase these.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
The behavioral classes that they are trying to elicit are students being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. These behaviors can be seen in different environments like the classrooms, playground, cafeteria, etc. It doesn’t matter where these actions are emitted, because they will all be reinforced with paw tickets.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Here are some example that could develop: a children can be trustworthy to go to the office and deliver a message, a respectful children would wait for their classmates to finish asking their questions and then raise their hand and ask theirs, a responsible student would bring to class their homework done every day, a caring student would call a teacher when another child got hurt out on the playground. As we can see, there are different behaviors that can be emitted and fit into what this program seeks.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This program is based on reinforcement. This system reinforces well-behaved children in order to increase those behaviors. They let the children know what target behaviors will be reinforced so they know how to behave and earn the tickets.
6) Is it positive or negative?
It is positive reinforcement because when good behaviors occur teachers present a desirable consequence to increase that behavioral class.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Tokens can be presented in different way. In this program, tokens are the paw tickets received for every good behavior. When children have earned ten of these paw tickets, they can trade them for a golden ticket that provides them with a full prize, like an ice-cream.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
The pros for using this program is the increase of many good behaviors. When children are well-behaved in the school environment they are able to learn more and use their time there to do fun activities. The cons of this program could be that paw and golden tickets could be traded within children for other desired thing.
9) What is the delivery system?
The paper doesn’t really explain in detail how the tokens are delivered. It just says that desirable behaviors could occur in any environment in the school and children will receive a paw ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
The pros of the delivery system is that if tokens are giving to the children in the specific moment of the nice behavior, this behavior will have more chances of increasing because the association between the reward and the behavior will be stronger. The cons of this delivery system is that teacher may run out of tickets to give away, so this mentioned association will be weaker.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are first delivered in a form a paw tickets for each desirable behavior. When children reach ten of these tickets, they can trade them for a golden ticket. This bigger token is the one worth the prize, like popcorn, ice-cream, or extra computer time.
12) What are the pros and cons?
The pros about this is that it encourages children to keep well-behaving in order to reach the major prize. But on the other hand, some children may get tired of “waiting” to have ten paw tickets and receive a golden one, so their behaviors could decrease because they are not motivated enough.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The back reinforcers are the golden tickets, which can be different things. Each golden ticket can be worth ice-cream, extra recess, movie, popcorn, lunch with the principal, etc.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
They were chosen according to what children desire to have while in school. The point of this token system is to increase good behaviors, so in order to do it they need to give away something that children will want in return for being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
We don’t have a way to know if they are effective for everyone because children can be reinforced in many ways. One child could be more willing to help others out of school and that behavior won’t have a way to be noticed. Some other will be glad to help teachers and behave nicely in school in order to get the reward.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They gain a paw ticket every time that a good behavior in notices. This kind of tickets reinforce the children to keep behaving nicely so they reach ten paw tickets that can be traded for a golden ticket. This ticket is worth a special prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The outcomes can be measured by counting how many golden tickets have been given away and how much time it takes for the children to achieve good behaviors and reach the golden tickets. This way they can change the system if it’s not effective enough.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
The children can be informed by the newsletter. Even though I think the most effective way of letting them know would be talking about it in class. It is a simple system and they should be able to understand it easily by the demonstration that a good behavior equals a ticket.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
It is effective because the parents read the newsletter and can know about it. Also a better way would be to email parents about it because nowadays everyone checks their mail daily.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
There is not a way of knowing for sure and I would assume that they are well-informed about it because it is already in the newsletter they have to distribute within the students.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There a is a couple of ways that they may not buy in. Teachers cannot agree with it because it will take more of their time to pay attention to what children since there are no specific behaviors to be reinforced. And not every children or parent may like the reward that the golden ticket represents.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Tokens economies take more time that other rewarding programs and this can be a problem in the school because especially children are impatient and need to have an actual prize right away. The prizes should be designed and properly designed to fit children’s interest so they don’t lose motivation. Tickets can also be lost and there is no way of proving that you actually had already gained some.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
What can be done if the tickets get lost? How can they make sure that every child has the opportunity to well behave and be noticed by the teacher?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I would like to know all the prizes available for the children and how the parents may use this token economy to continue the reinforcement at home.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Reinforcing, reinforced, behaviors, increase, behavioral classes, elicit, environments, emitted, reinforcement, positive, desirable consequence, decrease, motivated, token, token economy.
1) What is this program? Poyner Elementary's Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C.
2) How did it come about? From the information given it seems that this program stems from a district initiative to improve or encourage better behavior in students.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The memo states that behaviors noted as "trustworthy, respectable, responsible, and caring" are the target behaviors for the program. However, this does not a behavior class make. I believe the behavior classes they are looking for students to emit are assisting teachers and other students, telling the truth, and completing duties asked of them in a timely manner.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit? Examples of behaviors might be helping a student who has fallen on the playground, not lying to a teacher when asked about a classroom dispute, helping another student with their schoolwork, or getting a high grade on a personally-challenging assignment.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment? It is based on reinforcement. Students are reinforced for their behaviors as outlined by the T.R.R.C. program with tickets that they can use to earn prizes.
6) Is it positive or negative? It is positive because the tokens and consequent prizes are being added or given as a result of the behaviors.
7) What are the tokens used in this program? The tokens used in this program are called purple and gold tickets, from what I can gather these are physical tickets that can be upgraded or turned in to a teacher for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens? Since these are physical tokens they could possibly be misplaced, stolen, or otherwise discredited. Some of the pros may be that these tokens could be numbered and counted if necessary.
9) What is the delivery system? Again, the memo isn’t too clear but I assume teachers write them to students physically and then keep them in a designated area.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system? Teachers could lose tickets between writing them and giving them, or the student receiving the ticket could lose it once it is in their possession. The pros would be that the teachers could in theory keep track of received tickets if they took down a record of names as they gave them out.
11) How are the tokens banked? The memo says that tokens are saved and can be traded up for more expensive tokens or prizes. I assume it would be a teacher that keeps track of these tokens.
12) What are the pro's and con's? As mentioned previously, these could be misplaced or possibly stolen. One of the pros to this would be that the teachers can personally keep an eye on these tickets and judge if the student has indeed earned up to ten purple tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers? The backup reinforcers mentioned in the memo include food like ice cream and popcorn, extra recess and computer time, and special privileges like eating lunch with the principal and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen? It isn’t really stated in the memo how these were chosen.
15) Are they effective reinforcers? According to the rules in the pdf these all sound like they would be effective, more research might be done to see how the students react to them or report on their satisfaction.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers? The students trade their golden tickets for an event or food item, other than that it is not specified how many golden tickets equal what prizes.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective? So far it seems like there are no outcome measures in place, the school could set up an interest inventory at the end of the year to see where students rated the program and if they thought it was helpful and enjoyable.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system? I feel like the system is not explained fully to the students in this memo, and that further instruction is necessary to be effective.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system? The same goes for the parents; this memo is not very explanatory when it comes to specifics on the exact behaviors it wishes students to exhibit. It would be difficult therefore for parents to encourage their children if they don’t know themselves what the school is asking for.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system? Not a lot is stated about this topic in the memo but if I had to judge from the way the system was explained to parents I would have to say not very.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system? I think it would have to be a complete effort from students and teachers, I think parents could skate by with only being a little involved.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here? The fact that many token economies have low levels of participation is something I can see being a problem in this system. My high school had a system similar to this but hardly any teachers or students paid it any mind; it was more or less used as bribes to make lower-achieving students or trouble-makers come to class and participate, it was never even brought up to advanced classes.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? How and why they decided on the T.R.R.K.? What makes those dimensions special?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system? Exactly how the gold tickets relate to the eventual prizes? Exact, defined behaviors that they would like students to exhibit for tokens?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
reinforcers, positive reinforcement, token economy, tokens, target behavior, behavior classes, emit
1) What is this program?
Poyer Panthers on T.R.R.C. which is a token economy for the Waterloo area schools. The program is designed to elicit positive behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
It's a district-wide initiative that is occurring all over the city.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Trustworthiness, caring, respectful, responsible
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Target behaviors: trustworthiness- being honest about who broke the stapler, caring- helping a classmate get back up on his or her feet after a fall, respectful- calling the teacher Ms./Mrs./Miss or Mr., responsible- cleaning up after completing a task without being asked to do so
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
PIt is a positive system because they're adding rewards for good behavior (T.R.R.C.).
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are the purple and gold tickets. A student must earn 10 purple tickets in order to earn 1 gold ticket. This gold ticket can then be exchange for a prize (the backup reinfrocers).
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: food is easily accessible, inexpensive rewards
Cons: if recess is normally outside when it becomes colder it may no longer serve its purpose of being a reinforcing token, the food used is unhealthy
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers and administrators provide the purple and gold tickets in the classroom, during recess, during assemblies, etc.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: many different teachers can provide one student with multiple tickets, if there are many deliverers it means that more students may receive the tokens (increasing overall rewards)
Cons: some teachers/administrators may be biased, some teachers may hand out many of the tokens while others will not
11) How are the tokens banked?
I did not see any mention of banking in the newsletter. The tokens could be banked on a highly visible poster, so that everyone could see.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: may encourage other students to participate, lead by example
Cons: students can see that others are earning them, some students may feel that they deserve a ticket but then don’t receive them, some students may rebel if they aren’t reinforced often
13) What are the back-up reinforcers?
Back-ups: extra recess, popcorn, ice cream, lunch with the principal, helping the custodian, and extra computer time
14) How were the back-up reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers were chosen with practicality in mind. They don’t have anything extremely expensive, yet the children will still be motivated to earn the backup reinforcers.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The backups are effective reinforcers if the children are motivated by them/want to earn them; the students have to feel that 1 tickets is worth a bag of popcorn or more computer time.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students must acquire a certain number of tickets (10 purple to receive 1 gold, which can e spent on prizes) to gain the reinforcers.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They can chart how many tokens were given out
They can measure which token was most effective
They can measure each of the four traits in T.R.R.C..
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
It seems that they expect the children to know what the program is because the newsletter says that the children should be showing them to the parents.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
They are sending home a message in the newsletter so as long as the parent is reading the newsletter than they should be informed about the program.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teachers about the system?
Because the teachers monitor and deliver the tokens, they should be well-informed of what behaviors to look for in their students.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
There are always going to be those people who are naysayers and won’t support anything new. It is impossible to please everyone, but it is important to make sure as many people are benefitting as possible.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
The reinforcement may not remain effective, hoarding can occur, fading can occur, etc.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
Have the reinforcers that being used been successful in other school districts?
Do you have a list of mor backup reinforcers because the current ones may not be effective for long?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
I want to know how long it will take before behavior changes occur (on average).
I want to know if the school would have a way of implementing a chart that measures baseline behavior and then after the reinforcement.
Terms: Poyer Panthers, T.R.R.C., initiative, positive reinforcement, target behaviors, delivery system, pros and cons, back-up reinforcers, measures, effectiveness, hoarding, fading
1) What is this program?
- Poyner Panther on T. R. R. C. (Trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring)
2) How did it come about?
- It was set up by the Waterloo school district to promote good behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
- Student being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring to each other.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
- Some examples would be to wait and raise their hands to talk, help each other clean up after play time or crafts, to always tell the truth, and share with each other.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
- Reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
- Positive.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
- Purple and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
- The ticket is a physical token and that alone is a pro because the students can touch and feel proud by carrying around their tickets. A con could be that the students can easily lose their tickets or forget to take them home or back to school.
9) What is the delivery system?
- The teacher gives the student a purple ticket every time they emit the target behavior. Once the student receives ten tickets, they can get a golden ticket.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
- A con is that it’s difficult to see every student emitting the target behavior at the same time. So some students might not be reinforced because they were simply not seen. If every target behavior was seen and reinforced it would be a continuous reinforcement schedule but because of the potential con, an extinction could occur.
11) How are the tokens banked?
- After they have collected ten purple tickets, the student can trade them in for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be used for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
- The students can keep track of how many tickets they have and feel proud about it.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
- Ice cream cones, extra recess, popcorn, extra computer time, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, and helping the custodian.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
- The newsletter doesn’t say but I assume these were things the students suggested and things the teachers have noticed that the students tend to enjoy.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
- Some of them can be.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
- They can gain access by turning in their golden tickets after so many purple tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
- They could measure the number of purple tickets being turned in versus the number of golden tickets being turned in. Then to take it further they could measure how many of the backup reinforcers were given out.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
- I’m assuming since this is a district wide change, I’m sure they’ve had pep rallies and announcements made about this. Also the newsletter that’s being sent out to the parents helps to inform the parents who can then further explain it to their children if the kids have questions.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
- The newsletter being sent helps the parents know what’s going on. But if for some reason the child forgets to give it to their parents, then they might not hear about it.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
- I can assume the teachers were taught very well since they are the ones who are distributing the reinforcers. They all needed to understand the exact target behaviors so that it’s fair to all the students.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
- Yes there’s a chance but I think that most of the adults agreed upon it because it’s a positive reinforcement and it doesn’t harm any of the student’s feelings. It simply promotes good behavior by giving the students things they enjoy in return.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
- After some time, the teachers might start giving out fewer tickets because they forget. Because of this, students may emit extinction and stop doing the target behavior as much as before.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
- How are we going to keep this token economy interesting for a long time? Are we going to change up the backup reinforcers every week or so? What if a child begins to misbehave, do they lose their tickets as a negative punishment, or are the tickets not involved with this type of situation?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
- It would be nice to get updates in the newsletters of how the program is doing, if they change reinforcers what those reinforcers will be, and if the students are responding well to the program.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
- Positive reinforcement, emit, target behavior, continuous schedule of reinforcement, extinction, reinforcer, negative punishment
1) What is this program?
The program called Poyner Panthers on TRRC (Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, Caring). It is a token economy program that aims to encourage students to use specific target behaviors to receive positive reinforcement.
2) How did it come about?
The Waterloo School District became a PBIS District which is a Positive Behavior Intervention System. The program was created to encourage students to emit specific positive behaviors.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit? The behavioral classes that they are trying to elicit are that of trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, and caring.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some of the specific targets behaviors that they want the children to emit are listening to instructions from their teachers, raise their hands when they want to ask a question, being honest when caught doing something wrong, treating others with kindness and respect, and doing assignments on time.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This token economy system is based only on reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
The reinforcement is positive because the students are given things for emitting the target behavior rather than getting things taken away.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens used for the TRRC program are purple tickets and golden tickets.
8) What might be some pros and cons associated with using these tokens?
Pros: The tickets being used are inexpensive and are easy to make. Another pro is that the reinforcer of the tickets is physical and can be touched unlike marks on a board. Cons: The tickets may become lost, stolen, or even physically damaged or destroyed. The students may misuse or hoard the tokens.
9) What is the delivery system?
The delivery system for the token economy is the reinforcement of a purple ticket when the target behavior is emitted. Students that are seen emitting one of the target behaviors are given a purple ticket, when the students collect 10 purple tickets they can trade it in for one golden ticket. They can then use the golden tickets to trade in for a bigger and better prize later on.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Cons: A con with this setup is the lack of teacher to student ratio meaning the teachers will not be able to see every student emit the target behavior because they have so many students to keep track of. If a student is missed a few times emitting a target behavior they may become discouraged from participating. Pros: A pro from this delivery system is that it is immediate and followed with words of praise. Creates several opportunities for teachers and staff to interact with students in a positive way.
11) How are the tokens banked?
The tokens are counted and recorded by the teacher, and the students keep a hold of the tickets.
12) What are the pros and cons?
Pros: Students are held responsible for keeping their tickets so this hopefully increases their responsibility. It may also teach students how to save up for something they want to trade in for. Cons: The students may lose their tickets, they may mislead the teacher by lying about the number of tickets they obtained. The teachers may lose track or miscount the number of tickets.
13) What are the backup reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers have everything to do with the golden ticket, the tickets are traded in for ice cream, extra recess, popcorn, lunch with principal, extra computer time, and helping the custodians.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The backup reinforcers are chosen by the students, once they have obtained the proper number of golden tickets they can choose the reinforcer that best suits them.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
The reinforcers seem to be rather effective because they are things that interest the students and motivate them to emit the target behaviors and save up for the backup reinforcers.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
The students gain access to the reinforcers by first being recognized by the teacher for emitting a target behavior and then being reinforced with a purple ticket for the behavior. The student continues to emit target behaviors to obtain more purple tickets, they then trade in their purple tickets for golden tickets and with those golden tickets they can trade those in for the backup reinforcer that they choose.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The administrators can look at the recordings of tickets that students have earned to see how many times the target behaviors are being emitted. The administrators can look to see which behaviors are getting recorded more often.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
There is not a whole lot of detail about seeing how effective the administrators are teaching the students about the system. There is the newsletter that does mention that students are being observed everywhere throughout the school emitting the target behaviors and how tickets are being handed out.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I don’t think that they are as effective teaching the parents about the system as they are with the students. The students are directly taught about the system because they are part of the system and the parents seem to have received information about the system only through the newsletter. It may have been better if they had a PTA or forum for the parents describing what the system is or even email the parents about the system so that they were right on par with what their children were being taught.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
The administrators have been pretty effective teaching the other teachers and staff about the system because the teachers are the ones handing out the tickets to the students who emit the target behaviors. One way to see if they were taught effectively is to see the recordings of tickets to see what behaviors had been receiving tickets and to see if they match with the target behaviors they wanted to be emitted.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes there is always the possibility of not everyone buying in with the system. There may be teachers who do not trust token economies or that don’t want the extra task of having to keep track of students’ behaviors because it requires time. There could be parents who have had experience with token economies and don’t want their children taking part in the system.
22) What are some problems known to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Some of the problems known to exist with token economies are the counterfeiting of tokens which in this case could occur if given the tickets are mass produced and easy to replicate. Another known problem is that token economies can be cheated and manipulated and the students may find ways around the system to get the desired reinforcers they want without having to do all of the work.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
At what point during the day are the students allowed to trade in their tickets for the backup reinforcers? Is there a cap on the number of tickets a student could earn during a day/week/month? Is there a limit on the number of backup reinforcers that can be purchased during a day/week?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Has this system been in place at other school districts and if so how effective was it? Is the system more effective for troubled students or for well-behaved students who already emit the target behaviors?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Terminology: Emit, Elicit, Behavior, Target Behavior, Reinforcement, Positive Reinforcement, Reinforcer, Behavioral Class
1) What is this program?
- the program is reinforcement based program where students earn tokens or some sort of reward currency to reinforce and encourage certain behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
- The waterloo school district as a whole wanted to demonstrate more of being a PBIS (positive behavior interventions system) district, and make their students demonstrate more of these positive behaviors
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
-Trustworthy, respectful, caring, responsible
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
-Helping another student tie their shoes, doing their homework on time, waiting till their called on to talk
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
- reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
- positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
- panther purple paw tickets, gold tickets
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
- pros could be that they are associated with the school theme so kids are more closely tied with the school. Cons could be that they could be replicated
9) What is the delivery system?
- from what I gathered students are just handed a ticket when they are seen doing something good.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
- a pro to this system is that if they are given a ticket as soon as they emit the behavior then they will know exactly which behavior is being rewarded, a con would be that they might not always be seen therefor they wont be reinforced for doing the right behaviors
11) How are the tokens banked?
- it appears that the students just hold on to their own tickets.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
- a pro would be that they get their ticket right away, a con would be that if they have to hold on to their tickets they could lose them.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
- the back up reniforcers were the prizes such as, lunch with the principle, or ice cream.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
- the letter didn’t say but im assuming they just picked things that were desirable by the students
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
- I would say yes because they are things that children want.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
-by obtaining 10 purple paws and trading them in for a gold ticket which can then be traded in for a prize.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
- teachers seeing more order in the classroom, more kids working together, less fights or arguments, more students getting homework done.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
- I think the letter is a good idea as long as the parent reads it to them like they should, I also hope that teachers or administrators are explaining it to them as well.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
- I think the letter would be effective as long as they read it, also the children if taught at school will probably talk about it in some way to their parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
-It doesn’t say, but in order for it to be effective they would have to teach them every behavior to reinforce and be specific, they would also have to be clear on the schedule of reinforcement as well.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
- Yes some parents might over look the letter and not know about it or might not see how their role can influence it. Teachers could think its just extra work and not take it as serious.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
- they could accidently reinforce the wrong behaviors which would elicit children to emit wrong behaviors. Children could also steal tickets from other students.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system? What are the punishments for children emitting undesirable behaviors? What happens if someone steals a ticket?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
- how long they use it for, if its all year or for a few weeks?
Terms: emit, elicit, punishment, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, target behavior, reward, reinforcers, schedule of reinforcement, undesirable behavior
BNC
Token Economy
1) What is this program?
CHAOS- youth ministry
for every good behavior in this case proactive listening a student will earn a punch that then leads to praise and reinforcers to encourage that behavior to continue.
2) How did it come about?
Two churches partnering to have a solid youth ministry for Jr. High students called CHAOS who wants to improve their listening
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Students to listen during large group time.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Usage of their phones. Talking with others. Making noises that are inappropriate and disturbing being a distraction.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
Reinforcement
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
Whole punches in a card. We will publicly display these in the group.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
They are easily dispensed and safe to use. It's not easily to be counterfeit. They allow us to keep track of appropriate behaviors. It’s not counterfeit so it can’t go through the wash and only leaders have access to it.
9) What is the delivery system?
It’s to reinforce with access to reinforce that they want. You observe the behavior during large group and then you punch the card accordingly.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros would be that the students know you’re watching and want to do well for the positive reinforce. Con would be that you may miss a poor behavior that the student could get away with.
11) How are the tokens banked?
For every 3 punches you get a snack. You can only get one punch in your card per night. Once punch a night if they are effective listeners. This bank will be visible for all the group. The leaders will have a back up bank to keep their own record.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Some may get the reinforcers a lot and get sick of the snack. Some may also all get punches and the back up reinforcer wouldn’t necessarily work because they would all want to go first to share during small group time. Students can see their improvement.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Letting them go first for sharing in small group time. Snacks for small group time.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Discussed what students would want as a reinforcer and went with it. They are inexpensive and take little time causing less interruptions.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
Food is a great reinforcement, a treat is always nice to have. Might not always care to get a treat. Leaders may not want the snack but the students would.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
The more the students want to be reinforced the more they listen. This then is effective because they are learning more about the topic and want to share during small group time.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
They are teaching the students very effectively.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
Not so effectively. It’s hard to reach out to 200 parents but on the night of delivering this system to the students before the student leaves the building they are handed a flyer introducing the new system to the parents. This is the most effective way about teaching the parents.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Very effective. All teachers are on board with the system.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
No. This system is very precise and easy to follow. The students will learn more. The teachers will have better discussion. And The parents will know that their child is learning more and is in good care.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
When systems get delivered through multiple people they may be delivered differently resulting in different outcomes. I know this is a common problem but don’t think it would necessarily happen here.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
When would you stop applying the reinforcers?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Nothing.
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Positive Reinforcement. ABC’s. Target behavior. Reinforcers. Undesirable behavior. Elicit. Tokens.
Token Economy
1) What is this program?
The program is the “Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C,” which helps children focus on being “Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring.” Students are earning tickets to be reinforced for these behaviors.
2) How did it come about?
It appears to be a program initiated by the Waterloo School District to help establish a PBIS District.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
“Trustworthy, Respectful, Responsible, and Caring” behaviors are mentioned, as stated by the acronym T.R.C.C.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Helping other students with homework, opening doors, including students that may be sitting alone, returning items that are lost, reporting bad or bullying behaviors, including a new student, waiting in line patiently, getting a really good grade on a test, bringing all of their materials to class, being prepared, etc.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
This system is based on reinforcement—more specifically, positive reinforcement.
6) Is it positive or negative?
This is positive reinforcement—something positive is being rewarded to the students.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
The tokens are purple and golden tickets, which can be exchanged for prizes later.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
Pros: Well, an obvious pro would be that the students may strive to emit good behaviors. Another pro is creating a habit of doing good, because not only are they receiving a ticket by emitting a good behavior, but they also get a good feeling while doing it. That good feeling can be another reinforce on its own.
Cons: A con could be that they only emit these behaviors when someone is watching, in order to attempt to receive a ticket. They may act differently outside of a school setting, when no one is watching. Another con is that it seems you need multiple golden tickets to receive a prize, and multiple purple tickets to receive just one golden ticket. This may make it seems like the prizes are unattainable, and the children might not receive that well. Teachers may not always be thinking about it as well, and children might begin to demand a ticket or expect that they will get a ticket every time. When they don’t, this could create an opposite effect.
9) What is the delivery system?
It appears teachers have the power to give out the tickets.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
Pros: This could create a better relationship between teachers and students—a positive feeling from the child toward his or her teacher could be gained in this system.
Cons: Like I stated above, teachers may not always be thinking to give out tickets every time they see a good deed. Or they might not even notice the behavior. This could create the effect of a negative feeling after doing a good deed, and disappointment that the child did not receive a ticket. I believe this could create an aversive effect on the child’s idea of doing good deeds. Also, it may cause a negative feeling for the child toward their teacher.
11) How are the tokens banked?
It appears that the children hold onto their tickets.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Pros: Creating responsibility, or the parent can assist the child in keeping track of the tickets.
Cons: Children sometimes have a hard time hanging onto things. Other children may have opportunity to steal their tickets. Token Hoarding (mentioned in the article “Token”) can be a problem.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
The backup reinforcers are the prizes. Some of the prizes mentioned are extra recess, a bag of popcorn, ice cream cones, extra computer time, helping the custodian, and lunch with the teacher and principal.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
The article doesn’t really tell me directly, but I have a hunch that the district and faculty may have collaborated on ideas for these.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
I believe they would be, if attained. I probably wouldn’t be too thrilled with helping the custodian, but lunch with your teacher was always a good reinforcer when I was a child.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
They must be saved and traded in for prizes. The article doesn’t say who or when they are to be traded appropriately.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
I suppose that they could count the number of tickets given to the teachers, the amount of tickets given out each day, and the amount of prizes given out to get some kind of estimate on their system. I think that an important aspect to focus on would be the number of children that actually receive prizes or tickets. If all of the students are not participating then I don’t think they are effectively reaching their goal.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
I am not sure that we really know how they are going about teaching the students about the system, from just reading the article. But at least the system is “complex” but I think still basic enough for the children to understand.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I feel as though I only received half of the necessary information from the ad, so I think parents would feel the same way. A little more detail would have been appropriate here, I think.
20) How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
If the district only came up with this system without the collaborations of teachers, then we again have no way of knowing from the article whether they have been informed deeper into the system. It would probably be helpful to find a way to help remind the teachers to be handing out tickets.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
Yes, I believe that some students will not care about the system. We have always had systems like this in my home school district (Spencer, IA), and there are always kids who don’t care. I am sure that some teachers will not care to pay that much attention to it either. Unsupportive parents may also ignore the system and child’s excitement upon receiving their tokens, also creating an adversity toward parents by their children. Teachers and parents may also not be good with praise.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
Once the system is gone, will the child continue the good behaviors? The prizes may also be too far away, or too highly priced, and as a result the backup reinforcers may not have an effect on the child. Token hoarding and deterioration of behavior were also mentioned in the Token article we read.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
How did you come up with the backup reinforcers? Have you thought about how shyer children may react to not receiving a token—this could create negative behavior between students…? How are the children going to keep track of their tickets? Do you expect me to keep track of them? Wouldn’t it be better for the teacher also to keep track on paper how many tickets each child has, in case they get lost or stolen? Are there any other backup reinforcers? Do you really think a child will be happy cleaning with the janitor as a reward?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Do you have any evidence that this kind of system works? Do you have any data on the adverse or negative effects of this system being in place?
Terms: reinforcement, behaviors, behavioral classes, target behaviors, emit, positive reinforcement, rewarded, tokens, effect, delivery system, negative or aversive effect, token hoarding, back-up reinforcers, effective, outcome measures, complex, goal, praise
1) What is this program?
A token economy called “Poyner Panther” with the goal of increasing positive behavior in elementary students.
2) How did it come about?
Faculty wanted to encourage students to show positive behavior set up by the Waterloo school district.
3) What are the behavioral classes they are trying to elicit?
Being caring, respectful, responsible and trustworthy.
4) What would be some specific target behaviors they might want the children to emit?
Some examples may be helping other students with work, not talking back to teachers, and keeping track of their toys and utensils.
5) Is this system based on reinforcement or punishment?
It is based on reinforcement by rewarding them with the tickets.
6) Is it positive or negative?
Positive, because when a positive behavior is shown they receive a ticket.
7) What are the tokens used in this program?
After receiving a certain amount of tickets you can exchange them for prizes.
8) What might be some pro's and con's associated with using these tokens?
I would say a pro could be that they are a tangible item so the students can see how many they have earned, but a con could be that they are easy to lose or someone could take them from another student.
9) What is the delivery system?
Teachers give the student a ticket when they emit a positive behavior, then the students can trade them in for prizes later.
10) What are some pro's and con's associated with the delivery system?
A con could be that the teacher may not always see the positive behaviors so they’re not reinforced as often as they should be. A pro is that the students can think of a prize and work towards it and determine when theyre ready to turn in their tickets.
11) How are the tokens banked?
Tickets are counted and kept track by the teacher, along with the student getting to hold on to them. Once they get 10 tickets they can get a golden ticket which can be used for prizes.
12) What are the pro's and con's?
Students or teachers could mistake the amount of tickets one has would be a con, but a pro would be that the golden ticket decreases the likelihood of loosing multiple tickets.
13) What are the back up reinforcers?
Some include ice cream, extra recess, extra computer time or lunch with the principal.
14) How were the backup reinforcers chosen?
Children were asked about what rewards they would be interested in so that the rewards were desirable and a realistic goal.
15) Are they effective reinforcers?
Yes. I also think it is beneficial to students to have multiple options so that they feel motivated to get 10 tickets again because there is other fun things they could do too.
16) How do the students gain access to the reinforcers?
By trading in the gold tickets.
17) What are some of the outcome measures so the administrators know the system is effective?
They could get a baseline where teachers count the amount of these desirable behaviors are shown before offering rewards (maybe for a week or so) then offer the reinforcement and keep count again.
18) How effectively are the administrators teaching the students about the system?
They sent out a newsletter which may not be the absolute best way, but hopefully it was talked about in class as well. Giving parents the opportunity to know what they’re doing at school is nice though so they could continue to do the same at home if they choose too.
19) How effectively are the administrators teaching the parents about the system?
I think using the newsletter is an effective way to reach parents. I think they should also send emails just in case they don’t often read the newsletters.
20)How effectively have the administrators taught the other teacher about the system?
Probably pretty well considering they are the ones handing out tickets and they want their students to have good behavior.
21) Is there the possibility of not everyone (students, teachers, and parents) may not have complete buy in with the system?
I think everyone would like this system, but a flaw could be a parent feeling that their child has an unfair advantage (Example: Jonny is very shy and hasn’t gotten any tickets because he doesn’t interact with others much and it is making him very upset) Teachers may also feel uncomfortable consistently drawing attention to handing out a ticket to a student.
22) What are some problems know to exist with token economies that might be a problem here?
That after awhile when student have reached the goals a few times it will lose the exciting factor and they will stop caring. Theft is always a variable as well.
23) What are some questions you might have for the administrators about the system?
If students are extremely naughty, can tickets be taken away? Could the student collect many gold tickets for one large prize?
24) What additional information might you want to know about the system?
Are faculty going to keep track of progress? What if students start feeling a sense of favoritism?
25) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Behavior, punishment, reward, reinforcement, negative, positive, token economy, increase, desirable
.) It is an example of a token economy to elicit good behavior from their students and reinforced for the behavior that was emitted. The program is called Poyner Panthers on T.R.R.C. in Waterloo. The school district has a district-wide initiative being a Positive Behavior Interventions System. If a child emits a behavior based on certain behavior characteristic pillars, they are rewarded with a purple ticket, and then once they have received 10 of them, they can trade it in for a golden ticket that is an even greater reward.
2.) It came about because of the Waterloo school district's district-wide Positive Behavior Intervention System district in the schools to elicit good behavior characteristics.
3.) They are trying to elicit being trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring behaviors.
4.) Some target behaviors they want the children to emit can be like if they will play with someone who is lonely at recess, follow classroom rules, and respect the faculty members and other students.
5.) It is reinforcement, since it is increasing the frequency of the target behavior.
6.) It is positive reinforcement, something pleasurable (tickets) is being added.
7.) There are purple tickets for emitting the target behavior. Once they have reached 10 purple tickets, they then get a golden ticket which allows them a special reward.
8.) This program is a pro since more children will elicit the characteristic pillars of T.R.R.C. This program can motivate parents or day-cares to also engage in the program in their environment. The cons of the program is that it is a discriminate stimulus since the program only happens at the school, and not in other environments. Another con of this is that it can make other children feel inferior to the others that receive tickets, and sometimes those children may only fake the good behavior to be rewarded, but are not sincere in their action.
9.) The delivery system is when a faculty member notices T.R.R.C. being emitted by a student and then given purple tickets to them through continuous reinforcement, but the golden tickets are through fixed ratio reinforcement that are exchanged later on for reinforcers.
10.) It is inconsistent which will make the children not always want to emit the target behavior if they know they always won't be rewarded. A good thing about the delivery system is that the purple tickets are usually through continuous reinforcement.
11.) Tokens are banked by earning 10 purple tickets. They then are exchanged for one golden ticket. The golden tickets can then be saved and exchanged for the reinforcers like extra recess, ice cream, popcorn, extra computer time, and eating lunch with the principal.
12.) It is good that it takes 10 purple tickets to receive one golden ticket since it makes them try harder to achieve that goal. It also is an aversive thing if the faculty were to run out of tickets.
13.) The backup reinforcers are prizes such as Sonic ice cream cones, extra recess time, a bag of movie popcorn, lunch with the principal and lead teacher, extra computer time and helping the custodian.
14.) This was not really stated in the article, but they probably selected these backup reinforcers because they assumed or maybe asked what kind of reward the children would like.
15.) They are probably effective since what child does not want ice cream, popcorn, or extra recess or computer time. Eating with the principal, or helping a custodian clean, that does not seem like to much fun for kids to engage in and may be considered aversive rather than pleasurable rewards, which can become salient.
16.) By the children exchanging ten purple paw tickets for one golden ticket to the teacher.
17.) They can keep a record in their computer systems for how many purple and golden tickets are given out. They can compare it to when there was a baseline, and then to its intervention program's statistics.
18.) I think they are making it known to not just the children, but to the parents as well by sending out the school newsletter, and may let the community know it as well. It is also effective since the kids who receive the tickets are seen "everywhere" at the schools.
19.) Like I said before, they put it in the newsletter for the parents, but it was rather small and not on the first page. It was informative to a point, but there could have been some extra information that would have been more helpful, and some parents may have many questions or see it as making the children feel superior, or inferior to one another since kids are competitive and like to brag.
20.) Clearly they taught the teachers about the program, but to what extent and all the specific details is unclear. Some teachers may thing T.R.R.C. behaviors are different then some other teacher's opinion if the child deserved the ticket or not.
21.) Some kids just may not care to make the effort to be rewarded, and so they won't emit the behavior if they cannot be persuaded by the reinforcer. Some teachers may not think some kids deserve tickets each time, especially if they only did it for a reward and not out of being sincere. Some parents may think it will make kids think they are better than others if they have more tickets than someone else.
22.) Some problems are stated in my answer in question 21, and also it is not always consistent.
23.) How were the teachers taught what behavior elicits the desired target behavior, because everyone has different opinions on manners. Has this caused self-esteem problems for children who are not as special since they are not always rewarded for their good behavior? Did you ask the parents' permission first prior to implementing the program? Did you ask the children what rewards they would want to be reinforced with?
24.) Is there a specific definition and examples for the kids to know how to be trustworthy, respectful, responsible, and caring. Some kids may not know the meaning of those words, or how to elicit that behavioral class.
Terms-token economy, elicit, emit, behavior class, reinforcement, positive reinforcement, reinforcers, target behavior, salient, frequency, pleasurable, aversive, motivate, discriminant stimulus, continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio reinforcement, backup reinforcers, baseline, and intervention