Effect of Token Economy on Academic Achievement of Secondary School Students: Implications for Counselling

Abstract

The study centered on determining the effect of token economy on academic achievement of secondary school
students. Demonstration Secondary School, Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, Rivers State, Nigeria was used
for the study. Eighty (80) Junior Secondary 3 Integrated Science students and eighty (80) Senior Secondary 1 Biology students
making up one hundred and sixty (160) students of the chosen school, during the 2009/2010 academic session constituted the
study sample. Each level of students taught by the same teacher was divided into experimental and control groups. The
experimental groups were motivated with token economy during the lessons while the control groups were not motivated. Raw
scores of the students from the two tests they were given made up data for the study. Data analysis involved the use of mean
scores and t-test of significant difference between two independent group mean scores, supported by F-test of homogeneity of
two independent group variances. It was found out that the experimental groups put up higher academic achievement than the
control groups. It was also found out that token economy had significant effect on academic achievement of the experimental
groups. These findings and their counseling implication were discussed