ASU Learning Sparks

Nudge Theory: Succeed in Math with Effective Strategies

What is nudge theory? It tells us that what we surround ourselves with can work in our favor and help us make better decisions. The power of nudge theory can be harnessed to succeed in math. Embrace a growth mindset, overcome challenges, and push beyond your comfort zone. Discover the Keep in School Shape Program, designed with effective nudges to enhance math learning and ...

What is nudge theory? It tells us that what we surround ourselves with can work in our favor and help us make better decisions. The power of nudge theory can be harnessed to succeed in math. Embrace a growth mindset, overcome challenges, and push beyond your comfort zone. Discover the Keep in School Shape Program, designed with effective nudges to enhance math learning and retention. Test yourself, learn from mistakes, and tackle more challenging problems. Surround yourself with supportive nudges and make decisions that lead to success.

“A nudge is some small feature of the  environment that attracts our attention and  alters our behavior.” This is how Richard Thaler, a professor of behavioral economics, defines a “nudge.”

Nudge theory tells us that the things that we  surround ourselves with can work in our favor  and ease the way to making better decisions.  Because, let’s face it, we are not entirely  rational beings, so we don’t always do what’s  best for us, even when we know better.

Nudges have been successfully used in many  different contexts, including corporate  management, government agencies, and the  healthcare industry, just to name a few.

So, how can you harness the power of nudges  to help you succeed in math? Well, let’s start by thinking about what it is you need to  succeed.

For starters, you need to believe in yourself and your ability to do math. Research shows that your mindset matters. You can succeed if  you put in effort and try. This is part of what  it means to have a growth mindset.

But it’s so easy to just give up when you hit a  roadblock, make a mistake, or get a problem  wrong.

So it’s helpful to have nudges around you that  counteract this unproductive  

behavior…nudges that encourage you to keep  going when you make mistakes so that you  can learn from them and improve.

Another thing you need to succeed is to push  yourself beyond your comfort zone. In order  to make forward progress in learning math,  you need to try problems that are challenging  for you…instead of just redoing the things  that come easy.



That’s easier said than done, though, right? Because there’s a reason we call it a “comfort” zone. So, to succeed you want to be nudged to do math that may be hard for you and that pushes  you to take your understanding to a new level.

 

The Keep in School Shape Program (or KiSS Program for short) that I developed to help  students keep the math they’ve learned fresh  in their minds over breaks from school is  designed with nudges like this in mind.

 

Students get a daily review activity so that  they can test themselves on whether they  remember how to do some previously learned  math that they will need to use again in the  future.

 

If they get a problem wrong, they don’t just  get a red X mark…they are nudged to get a hint and retry the problem or look at the  solution to the problem and try a similar  problem.

 

If they get a problem right, they are nudged to  leave their comfort zone and take on a related  problem that is a little more challenging.

 

So as you learn math, look for opportunities like this to surround yourself with nudges that support you in making decisions that work in  your favor and help you succeed.