Cullen Simon, Oppenheimer Daniel
Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Center for Behavioral and Decision Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Sci Adv. 2024 Jul 19;10(29):eado6759. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ado6759. Epub 2024 Jul 17.
Despite strong evidence that autonomy enhances motivation and achievement, few interventions for promoting student autonomy in higher education have been developed and empirically tested. Here, we demonstrate how two autonomy-supportive policies effectively increase classroom attendance and subject mastery. First, in a randomized controlled field study, we explored the effect of allowing students to choose whether to make their attendance mandatory (i.e., a component of their course grades). We found that nearly all students used the opportunity as a pre-commitment device and were subsequently more likely to attend class than were students whose attendance had been mandated. Second, in a multi-year cohort study, we explored the effect of allowing students to opt out of a challenging, high-effort assessment stream, finding that students given greater autonomy invested more effort into their assignments and attained greater proficiency with the material. We discuss other opportunities for applying choice architecture to improve learning, motivation, and well-being in higher education.
尽管有充分证据表明自主性能提高学习动力和成绩，但在高等教育中，很少有促进学生自主性的干预措施得到开发和实证检验。在此，我们展示了两项支持自主性的政策如何有效提高课堂出勤率和学科掌握程度。首先，在一项随机对照实地研究中，我们探讨了允许学生选择是否将出勤设为必修课（即课程成绩的一部分）的效果。我们发现，几乎所有学生都将这个机会用作预先承诺的手段，随后他们上课的可能性比那些出勤被强制要求的学生更高。其次，在一项多年队列研究中，我们探讨了允许学生退出具有挑战性、需要付出大量努力的评估流程的效果，发现拥有更大自主权的学生在作业上投入了更多精力，并且对所学内容掌握得更熟练。我们讨论了应用选择架构来改善高等教育中的学习、动力和幸福感的其他机会。
