Data Analysis

Pre-Test/ Post-Test Data

In the graphs above, the orange is data from the pre-test and the blue is data from the post-test. From the pre-test to the post-test, each student improved significantly over the course of this study. As a result of implementing a token economy inside of my classroom, my student's behavior decreased tremendously from the pre-test to the post-test. Data drove my decision making because I was able to make informed decisions about changing the number of tokens that each student was earning based on how their data was scoring each day. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to determine the effect a token economy reward system will decrease the amount of elopement, physical aggression, physical disruption, and verbal disruption. There was a significant difference in the scores prior to implementing the token economy reward system. (M=45.42, SD=25.75) and after implementing (M=13, SD=11.92) the token economy reward system; t(12)= -5.31, p = 0.000124506. The observed standardized effect size is large (1.53). That indicates that the magnitude of the difference between the average and μ0 is large.These results suggest that the use of a token economy reward system had a positive effect on decreasing the amount of elopement, verbal disruption, physical disruption, and physical aggression inside of the classroom. Specifically, the results suggest that the use of a token economy reward system decreased the amount of elopement, verbal disruption, physical disruption, and physical aggression inside of the classroom.

Teaching Strategies GOLD Data from Fall to Winter

GOLD data is checkpointed three times a year throughout the school year. It is checked during fall, winter, and spring. I looked at four social-emotional standards on GOLD that all dealt with behavior and feelings. As you can see, most of my students remain the same or increased from one checkpoint to another. The token economy reward system has helped each student to enter into their expected age level band. As a result of implementing a token economy inside of my classroom, my students GOLD data increased from Fall to Winter data.

Daily Data Sheets

I collected averages from week two, week four, and week six on my daily data sheets. From these averages, my students have decreased each problem behavior each week throughout my study. During week six, Student one had an increase in verbal disruption because we had a new student join our classroom. Student one struggled with having less attention on him, so he raised his voice in order to get what he needed. These graphs prove that the token economy reward system was effective in decreasing my students' problem behaviors inside of the classroom. Data drove my decision making because as I analyzed the daily data sheets each day, I was able to see if my students behavior was increasing or decreasing using the token economy. I was also able to look at if I could increase or decrease the amount of tokens being earned.

Triangulation

Based on the data that I collected, the use of a token economy reward system in my classroom was successful for each student that used it. First, I took a pretest to figure out where my students were before I began my study. This helped me to decide what areas were the most concerning and how many tokens the student should start earning. The daily data sheets allowed me to keep a record of how the students were progressing on their behavior to see if the token economy was effective or not. It also helped me to make decisions based on how many tokens they had to earn. Analyzing GOLD data gave me a good understanding as to where my students were and how they were improving on certain areas that had to do with behavior. GOLD places my students in comparison to their peers, so analyzing it while doing this study allowed me to see how well my students were doing compared to peers their age. While analyzing my data, each graph and data point showed some type of improvement on behavior, which confirms the purpose of my study.