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IZA NewsResearchApril 15, 2019

briq/IZA Workshop on Behavioral Economics of Education

How behavioral insights can contribute to equality of opportunity

Can behavioral insights be used to shape educational decision-making and student achievement? How should we design education policy, teacher incentives or interventions to address the shortcomings in decision-making by parents, students and teachers? To answer these questions, the briq/IZA Workshop on Behavioral Economics of Education brought together 26 researchers in Bonn to present their work.

Feedback on teacher performance

The first presentation of the workshop ,“Repeated Praise – Evidence from a Field Experiment”, studies how providing teachers with relative performance feedback affects changes in teaching effectiveness. Maria Cotofan shows that teachers who receive repeated recognition of their work become better at preparing students for centralized exams. The study suggests that such feedback could be an effective policy tool to raise student performance.

Mentoring programs for children

The paper “(In)Equality of Opportunity, Mentoring, and Critical Educational Decisions”, presented by Armin Falk, shows that parental education is a key determinant of educational success and that intergenerational educational mobility is particularly low in Germany. According to the study, a one-year child mentoring intervention effectively increases equality of opportunity. Children from disadvantaged family backgrounds especially benefit from the mentoring intervention and become more likely to attend the academic high school track (Gymnasium) in Germany. The paper highlights that educational careers are malleable and that the social environment can have lasting effects on student lives.

Female math teachers as role models

Alex Eble presented his paper “Stereotypes, role models, and the formation of beliefs”, which establishes that girls in Chinese middle schools perform better when having a female math teacher. He shows that this effect can be explained by changes in beliefs and aspirations as well as parental investments. Given that women remain underrepresented in math-intensive subjects, this research suggests that gender equality could be increased by providing girls with same-gender role models.

Downloadable conference papers:

Repeated Praise - Evidence from a Field Experiment Maria Cotofan When Student Incentives Don’t Work: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Malawi Hyuncheol Bryant Kim, Hyuk Son, James Berry Instruction Time, Information and Student Achievement. Evidence from a Field Experiment Simon Calmar Andersen, Thorbjørn Sejr Guul, Maria Knoth Humlum Busy Little Bees - An Experiment on Diligence and Endogenous Time Scheduling in Early Childhood Claudia Zoller, Matthias Sutter, Anna Untertrifaller Interviewing Candidates Sequentially Amelie Schiprowski, Jonas Radbruch Do Preferences and Biases Predict Life Outcomes? Evidence from Education and Labor Market Entry Decisions Michael Kosfeld, Uschi Backes-Gellner, Holger Herz, Yvonne Oswald Teach Your Children Well – Determinants and Consequences of Parenting Styles Bart H.H. Golsteyn, Thomas Dohmen, Gerard Pfann, Lena Lindahl, André Richter Do Planning Prompts Increase Educational Success? Evidence from Randomized Controlled Trials in MOOCs Sylvi Rzepka, Mark Andor, Katja Fels, Jan Renz Estimating Self-productivity in Skill Formation During Childhood Eva Berger, Kirsten Winkel Social and Cognitive Peer Effects: Experimental Evidence from Selective High Schools in Peru Roman Andres Zarate Understanding the Peer Effects of Non-Cognitive Ability on Academic Outcomes Jian Zou Skills Accumulation with Malleable Ability: Evidence from a Growth Mindset Intervention Angus J. Holford, Adeline Delavande, Emilia Del Bono , Sonkurt Sen Can Grit be Taught? Lessons from a Nation-wide Field Experiment with Middle School Students Christian Krekel, Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ana Maria Munoz Boudet, Indhira Santos, Pedro Carneiro, Violeta Petroska-Beska, Maria Ines Berniell, Omar Arias, Angela Duckworth Do Teachers use Socio-economic Cues to Evaluate Students? Experimental Evidence from Peru Gabriela Farfan, Alaka Holla, Renos Vakis Scores, Camera, Action? Incentivizing Teachers in Remote Areas Menno Pradhan, Arya Gaduh, Jan Priebe, Dewi Susanti Parenting Values Moderate the Intergenerational Transmission of Time Preferences Anne Ardila Brenøe, Thomas Epper An Economic Approach to Test-taking Benedikt Vogt, Lex Borghans, Huub Meijers, Bas ter Weel The Effects of Student Feedback to Teachers: Evidence from a Field Experiment Josse Delfgaauw, Margaretha Buurman, Robert Dur, Robin Zoutenbier Are Measures of Early Education Programs too Pessimistic? Evidence from a Large-scale Field Experiment Fatemeh Momeni, John List, Yves Zenou Stereotypes, Role Models, and the Formation of Beliefs Alex Eble, Feng Hu

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  • behavioral economics
  • education
  • inequality
  • students
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