Behavioral Econ and Learning: Learning leaders can use prospect theory to engage employees around learning and development by highlighting the potential pain of standing pat in their current situation rather than selling them on the potential benefits.https://t.co/u22B90KPZL
— Kiran Johny (@johnywrites) August 29, 2018
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While the above article focus on application of Behavioral economics in workplace there are also interesting developments in the field of academic learning and policy.
Behavioral economics principles are becoming a powerful design stack for creating human-centered education practice and policy.
It can be used in a variety of educational decision-making contexts like:
- Student engagement.
- Instructional Design.
- Physical Activities.
- Math and Science Learning.
- Optimizing student learning and collaboration.
- The architecture of school cafeterias encourages children to select healthier eating options.
- Parents Engagement
- etc etc
In a 2016 research “The Behavioralist Goes to School: Leveraging Behavioral Economics to Improve Educational Performance” researchers Steven D. Levitt, John A. List, Susanne Neckermann, and Sally Sadoff conducted a series of field experiments involving thousands of primary and secondary school students.
They explored the power of behavioral economics to
influence the level of effort exerted by students in a low stakes testing environment, in which the following insights emerged:
Firstly, they found a substantial impact on test scores
from both financial and non-financial incentives when the rewards are delivered immediately.
Secondly, they found suggestive evidence that rewards framed as losses outperform those framed as gains.
Thirdly, they found that non-financial incentives
can be considerably more cost-effective than financial incentives for younger students, but are less effective with older students.
Finally, they found that all of the motivating power of incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay.
