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Nudging: A Way for US Colleges to Support Students

时间:2019-09-30 23:46:05

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(单词翻译)

 

For some people, higher education is not just a goal in life, but also an expectation.

In the United States, if your parents attended a college or university, there is a good chance that you will, too. Even if your parents did not go to college, you still have a good chance of completing higher education if your family is wealthy.

But your chances are reduced if you come from a needy1 family, a community with limited educational resources or you simply have no one to follow as an example.

Helping2 those in need is one of the main ideas behind a strategy of behavioral science called nudge theory or nudging. Nudging is a way of changing people’s behavior through indirect suggestion and by supporting positive actions. It was popularized in the 2008 book Nudge. The book was a project of a legal expert and an economist3 with the University of Chicago.

A growing number of U.S. colleges and universities look to nudging as way to support poor, minority and first-generation students. They also are using it to increase overall graduation rates. Two common forms of nudging are emails to students and text messages to their mobile phones. Schools and other educational organizations keep in contact with students this way, offering advice and help when needed.

However, recent studies have shown that there is more than one way nudging can go wrong. And making use of nudging to influence large groups of students is harder than it seems.

Alejandra Acosta is a higher education policy expert at New America, an independent research group. She notes that there are several qualities a nudge campaign must possess in order to be successful.

Acosta says messages must be timely4, meaning they reach college students well before the date by which a student is required to take action. Additionally, nudges should be written clearly and provide as much information as possible. If students start to struggle in class, school officials should not just message them, saying they should seek academic support. The message should give information about what kinds of support the college or university offers and exactly how the student can make use of them.

That is why nudges should possess interactive5 qualities, Acosta says. For example, students should be able to ask questions of school officials or be directed to a website for more information. In addition, colleges and universities must ensure their support services are in place and working as best they can.

“You can’t expect to just send a nudge in a text or an email and be like, ‘Okay, we’re done,’” Acosta told VOA. “To change behavior, there has to be other supporting structures there, too.”

When nudges work, they can do a lot of good. In 2017, a nonprofit group and an education services company launched a nudging campaign at four U.S. community colleges. They worked with nearly 10,000 first-year students at three such colleges in Ohio and one in Virginia. A recent study found that older and minority students who agreed to receive these nudges were 16 to 20 percent more likely to continue into their second year than those who did not.

Iris6 Palmer is a senior adviser7 for higher education and the workforce8 at New America. She warns that even if nudges are clear, informative9 and timely, they can actually create problems, especially for the student who needs them the most.

Palmer told VOA, “An example of this would be: I’m a student who has never been to college before, my family has never been to college before. I come to college and I wonder if I’m college material. I get a message that says, ‘You’re getting a failing grade in this class. You need to come talk to your adviser.’ And I think, ‘Oh, I’m failing. I wasn’t even college material to begin with. I should just leave now.”

Nudges need to be personal, or appear to be written for the individual student, not as a general communication to a large group, she noted10.

This means they need to be structured carefully, requiring schools and educational organizations to know something about the individuals they are nudging. Palmer argues school officials should research what their students’ needs are and shape nudges to be related to those needs. Officials also must not make it seem like students have no other choice but to take a given action.

But Kelly Rosinger points out that while nudging is successful in a lot of ways, it has yet to show signs of success when dealing11 with very large groups. Rosinger serves as an assistant professor in the Department of Education Policy Studies at Penn State University.

Rosinger admits that nudging can be a low cost, useful way of getting students to meet relatively12 simple goals on time. This includes completing the U.S. government documents necessary for financial aid.

However, last month Rosinger and other researchers reported on a study in which they looked at two nudging experiments. The National Bureau of Economic Research published their findings.

The experiments nudged over 800,000 students through physical mail, emails and text messages. The study found that these efforts had almost no effect on the number of students starting college, using financial aid or continuing from one year to the next.

Rosinger says the reason the experiments failed was because the nudges were trying to reach so many students. This made the messages seem more general and, as a result, less effective. She suggests that for now, nudging works best when it comes from local groups working with smaller numbers of students in their community.

“Just getting a message from an organization you are familiar with can create more of that personalization,” she said. “It may make the message more salient to students when they’re getting it.”

I’m Dorothy Gundy.

And I’m Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

resource(s) – n. a place or thing that provides something useful

strategy – n. a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time

positive – adj. good or useful

graduation – n. the act of receiving a diploma or degree from a school, college, or university

academic – adj. of or relating to schools and education

interactive – adj. designed to respond to the actions or commands of a user

grade – n. a number or letter that shows how a student performed in a class or on a test

familiar – adj. frequently seen, heard, or experienced

salient – adj. very important or noticeable


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1 needy wG7xh     
adj.贫穷的,贫困的,生活艰苦的
参考例句:
  • Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷,但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
  • They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。
2 helping 2rGzDc     
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
参考例句:
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
3 economist AuhzVs     
n.经济学家,经济专家,节俭的人
参考例句:
  • He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
  • He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家,自以为什么都懂。
4 timely 3oVwM     
adj.及时的,适时的;adv.及时地
参考例句:
  • We are particularly grateful to him for his timely help.我们特别感谢他的及时帮助。
  • Your arrival was most timely yesterday.你们昨天来得非常及时。
5 interactive KqZzFY     
adj.相互作用的,互相影响的,(电脑)交互的
参考例句:
  • The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
  • This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。
6 iris Ekly8     
n.虹膜,彩虹
参考例句:
  • The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
  • This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫,有这样一只难以置信的眼睛,连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。
7 adviser HznziU     
n.劝告者,顾问
参考例句:
  • They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。
8 workforce workforce     
n.劳动大军,劳动力
参考例句:
  • A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
  • A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。
9 informative 6QczZ     
adj.提供资料的,增进知识的
参考例句:
  • The adverts are not very informative.这些广告并没有包含太多有用信息。
  • This intriguing book is both thoughtful and informative.这本引人入胜的书既有思想性又富知识性。
10 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
11 dealing NvjzWP     
n.经商方法,待人态度
参考例句:
  • This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
  • His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。
12 relatively bkqzS3     
adv.比较...地,相对地
参考例句:
  • The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
  • The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

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