From the folks at UPenn’s Behavior Change for Good:
A National Megastudy Shows That Email Nudges to Elementary School Teachers Boost Student Math Achievement, Particularly When Personalized
BCFG’s new megastudy published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that behaviorally-informed emails can accelerate student math progress. Led by BCFG Co-Director Angela Duckworth, this megastudy with 140,000+ teachers and 3 million students was conducted in collaboration with Zearn Math, a leading math learning platform used by 1 in 4 elementary-school students nationwide.
What did the megastudy test?
We tested 15 interventions directed at teachers to evaluate how different behavioral science approaches could help teachers improve their students’ math progress. Over four weeks, math teachers received: (1) weekly emails, and (2) weekly messages posted on the Zearn Math teacher dashboard. For instance, one intervention prompted teachers to make a specific plan for using the platform, while another appealed to their empathy for their students.
What were the key takeaways from the research?
- The most effective of the 15 interventions tested prompted teachers to log into the Zearn platform’s dashboard weekly to check their students’ progress. This intervention increased students’ math lesson completion by 5.06% during the 4-week intervention period.
- Messages that referenced data specific to a teacher’s students boosted progress by 2.26% more than other messages, with effects lasting 8 weeks post-intervention.
- Overall, the effects of these interventions were modest—underscoring just how difficult it is to nudge behavior change via email.
Learn more. Subscribe to the BCFG newsletter.