From access to learning to nudging: Why behavior change might be the next new best thing in education improvement programs

• In Event: To Nudge or Not to Nudge? Improving classroom instruction to achieve learning for all

Proposal

With less than a decade to go before we are meant to achieve the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals, maintaining the status quo in the delivery of education will not be sufficient. With an estimated 70 percent of 10-year olds in low- and middle-income countries unable to read a simple, grade-level text (World Bank, 2022), perhaps believing all children can, and should, learn to read is an act of protest in itself. After all, nothing is accidental in how education systems are designed and operated, though scholars have long argued about the source of education’s structural inequalities (Coleman, 1966; Bordieu and Passeron, 1970; Willis, 1977; Carnoy and Levin, 1986).
This presentation responds to the CIES 2024 theme by asking if and how behavior change strategies can be used to disrupt business as usual education system and teaching practices and improve learning outcomes. Long used in the health sector to promote healthy behaviors ranging from handwashing to vaccine compliance, behavior science, especially nudging, is increasingly showing up in education program descriptions and strategies. Thaler and Sunstein (2008, p. 6) define nudges as “any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way, without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.”
Though large gaps remain, the provision of education hardware (buildings and people) and software (books, curricula and instructional practices) has improved substantially in many contexts over the last two decades. There is increasing consensus regarding the ingredients of effective learning improvement programs, such as those highlighted in the Gates-foundation funded Learning at Scale study (Stern et al., 2021). In many more countries are able to consistently provide sufficient high-quality teaching and learning materials, supported and trained teachers, regular monitoring of learning outcomes and reduced barriers to attendance and participation, why aren’t more children learning?
This presentation provides an introduction and framework for the presentations that follow, and includes summary data from a multi-country review of school-level gains in reading (King et al. 2023), which shows that in several countries, a small share of schools account for the vast majority of overall program gains. Given these findings, should we be redoubling our efforts to focus on the bottom 80 percent of schools? How can we identify and remove barriers to implementation by teachers in low-performing schools? How can behavioral science be used to influence teacher adoption of effective instructional practices? What nudge strategies are likely to increase uptake of practices found to be effective in improving learning outcomes, and in particular reading and math results in the early grades?

Author

• Amber K Gove, RTI International