Copyright 1992 by PRO-ED, Inc. Adopted by permission. Many teachers use token economies in order to encourage appropriate classroom behavior.
Token economies require careful planning and implementation.
Token economies require high levels of teacher commitment, time and skill and should be undertaken only when less intrusive measures, such as reinforcement and rule management have been tried and have failed. The rest of this summary will focus on these steps. A target behavior should be observable, countable, and measurable. When feasible, students should be involved in selecting target behaviors in order to reinforce feelings of ownership. Reward systems can only be as effective as the selection of appropriate reinforcers.