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Theories Regarding Behaviors And Cognitive Biases And The Task Of Improving College

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In recent years politicians and foundations have focused attention on the large numbers of students who begin college but never finish. More than 40 percent of full-time starting students fail to complete within six years, and more than 70 percent of community college students fail to complete within three years (NCES 2012). Whether or not these rates are a sign of a problem, it remains true that the nation would gain the benefit of more college graduates if policies could be identified that would substantially increase graduation rates, assuming the increase does not come with a reduction in standards or a problematic shift in majors. The goal of this paper is to apply theories regarding behaviors and cognitive biases to the task of improving college outcomes. We start by making some simplifying assumptions about the motivations of college students in order to pinpoint relevant barriers to student progress. This allows us to tap the research literature for strategies to consider applying, including altering incentives. In the second section, we discuss behaviors to which these strategies can be applied, and we describe some approaches that could be considered. The point of college is to create independent and self-motivated learners. The reader should be warned that the lists of possible experiments, when reviewed en masse, can create a disturbing specter of students being micromanaged through every aspect of a college education. In considering creative use of incentives,

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