Can behavioral economics transform implementation research?

Improved implementation is really seen as the key that unlocks education programming at scale. To inform us how to go about doing this, we need quality implementation research. This blog makes the case that implementation research is incomplete without a behavioral economics lens.??

By Simon King

No teacher has ever taught the perfect lesson, and no teacher ever will.?

Education is unique in international development. While other sectors can eliminate tropical diseases and address nutrition, progress in education on a global scale has been slow. ?

The challenge of working in a school and supporting a handful of teachers to deliver quality classroom instruction day in and day out is daunting and humbling. So, how the heck do we achieve quality classroom instruction on the national scale? Perhaps the key to all this is implementation research. We have a good idea of some components that might improve classroom instructional practice — we just need to know how to implement them?successfully in all schools.??

The teachers are not the issue — the real problem is our capacity to understand how teachers respond to change?

Teachers behave and respond according to the implementation and education system design. Systems primarily focus on the transfer of knowledge. This is where behavioral economics fits in. How knowledge is delivered, shared and sought out helps define how teachers interact with a new education program.?

Optimism is great for our personal outlook, but not so great for research?

When someone tells me it is important to be optimistic, I immediately think of Oprah Winfrey. Optimism is linked with improved mental health outcomes; it is doubtful we can get through life without wanting to be optimistic. Optimism is also linked with national identity and culture (I’m looking at you, America).??

Optimism is critical for emotional health and personal relationships. But it is also an aspect of our professional lives. If you’ve scrolled your LinkedIn feed in the past week, it is impossible to notice how optimism is a key feature of how individuals, donors and implementers tell stories and advertise their work. However, optimism often becomes a habit or bias that influences how we approach our work.??

Implementation research frequently follows the path of optimism. There is pressure to demonstrate what works, conduct an impact evaluation and demonstrate progress. Tell a positive story. There is a place for this, and to be frank, we often need it. After supporting an education program for a few years, you really need to know that it has been worthwhile — that you’re making a difference.??

But optimism is a bias and an emotion. Education research needs balance. That’s where behavioral economics fits in. Part of the behavioral economics approach is to look at where programs are not having an impact. There are really three components that behavioral economics research focuses on:?

1. The Cheerful Pessimist: Identify and address the barriers to positive decision-making?

A key aspect of behavioral economics is to focus less on what works and instead on the barriers to effective implementation. Behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman called himself a cheerful pessimist; he understood it is difficult for others not to hear the usual positive stories. He argued that removing barriers to effective decision-making is a counter-intuitive but effective way to approach improvement. This approach is essential even when programs have evidence of generalized impact on learning as it only takes a small percentage of program schools to be successful for an overall program to have an impact. The majority of schools under a successful program usually do not impact learning. This issue highlights one of the many limitations of impact evaluations.??

2. Describe the environment that influences stakeholder behavior?

Most “what works” research loves to explore the “why” — the reasons behind the impact. This approach often involves collecting interview data from participants. However, it assumes and needs the stakeholder response to be accurate. Quite frequently, this is not the case. For example, multiple studies from Bangladesh, Tanzania and Nigeria report that teachers believe their students are becoming proficient readers when the opposite is sadly true.??

Instead, behavioral economics suggests that we behave based on the influences of our environment. Thus, behavioral economics takes time to describe the world that teachers inhabit. This might include how teachers respond to systems-implemented change and the introduction of a reading program.??

3. Presume and predict irrational behavior?

Changes in our lives can often be serious life events. How we respond to change is fundamentally emotional, not logically driven. However, how often do we design education programs that account for this? By deploying behavioral economics, we can predict through design or adaptation how programs can account for stakeholder response to change.??

Behavioral economics adds a lens that implementation research does not have?

I would argue that implementation research isn’t wrong — just incomplete. It lacks a balance between optimism and pessimism, scaling what works in some schools while exploring why other schools are struggling. We need to seek this equilibrium in our implementation research.?

In the next blog, we’ll show how researching education systems from a behavioral economics perspective suggests some quite disruptive conclusions about program design.??

Friday Learning Lab

This series will explore education programming and suggest where system “transformation” is more necessary than system “strengthening.” We’ll examine why many components of education programs (specifically Foundational Literacy and Numeracy) are often born out of habit and gut instinct rather than evidence and practice. We’ll suggest alternative pathways supported by research and practice in education and the social sciences.

We don’t have all the answers

It’s our desire to enthusiastically encourage discourse and discussion that leads to greater collaboration and understanding of how to support students, educators and other stakeholders. But we cannot effectively support local education systems unless we have an international education sector with a culture that encourages innovation rather than just repeating habits and behaviors that have already had little impact. Join us in this conversation and be a part of the journey to critically examine education systems, our ingrained approaches and sparks of innovation with the potential to move the needle on children’s literacy.