Throughout this action research, I learned a lot of things about my students as well as myself as a teacher. I learned that young students may need more time for the reward to increase their motivation to follow directions and control their bodies. At first, the token economy reward system was not improving their behaviors. Once I found the right amount of tokens and the reward that was the most motivating, the system started to work better with my students. I also learned that young children are going to have good and bad days no matter what kinds of rewards are offered to them. Overall, I learned a lot about behavior and it will help me in the future to make the best choices for my students.
I encountered some challenges during my action research. I realized that three and four year olds are not always motivated to do what you want them to do no matter what they are getting from it. It was important to always remain consistent with what would get them the tokens and the rewards during my action research. I also found that it was challenging to keep the study individual for each student. I found that the students who did not receive the reward did not understand why they did not get it. Overall, the use of a token economy reward system was successful, but there were some challenges along the way.
Questions:
Along with the use of a token economy reward system, what else can I do to improve student behavior in three and four year old students?
What can I add to a token economy to make it more successful for my entire class to use?
How do I continue to improve student behaviors if the token economy begins to fade?
What if I would have started this at the beginning of the school year?
Are there other resources I could have used to make this more successful?
Prior to implementing a token economy reward system with three of the students in my classroom, I was seeing many days where behavior was a concern. The students were eloping out of the classroom, standing on surfaces, acting aggressively towards each other, and more. With the use of the token economy, I saw a large decrease in those behaviors. The students began to follow directions the first time asked and they began to act in a way that was safe for them and others. Each student was also able to grow at their own rate. This action research provided my students with the opportunity to grow behaviorally and academically inside of the classroom. Each student was also able to grow at their own rate.
As a result of this action research, I plan to use a token economy reward system in the future. It showed major growth in my student's behavior and overall attitude about school. I plan to set up a classroom wide token economy to build this in all of my students. I feel that a token economy reward system can be beneficial in all classrooms with a variety of different students. Conducting this action research allowed me to grow professionally in many different ways. It taught me to continue teaching the different components to my students even when I didn't see that it was working. This action research also helped me to understand why data collection and constant reflection is so important when working with students.