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.