The rewards for investing effort in education can be immense, but the payoffs virtually always involve a substantial delay. Insights from behavioural insights suggest such circumstances are highly prone to the risk of poor decision-making. Education, and early childhood education in particular, is among the most promising areas for the application of behavioural insights. In this session you will hear from keynote speaker John List on his pioneering work on early childhood learning, followed by a facilitated discussion of the implications for policy.
Facilitator: Jackie Wilson
John A. List
John A. List is the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago, and Chairman of the Department of Economics. He received his B.S. in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and Ph.D. in economics at the University of Wyoming. Before joining the University of Chicago in 2005, he was a professor at the University of Central Florida, University of Arizona, and University of Maryland. He also served in the White House on the Council of Economic Advisers from 2002-2003, and is a Research Associate at the NBER.
Dana Suskind
Dana Suskind, MD, author of Thirty Million Words: Building A Child’s Brain, (Dutton, September 2015), is Co-Director of the TMW Centre for Early Learning + Public Health, Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago, Director of the Paediatric Cochlear Implant Program, and Founder and Director of Thirty Million Words. Based on scientific research that shows the critical importance of early language exposure on the developing child, Thirty Million Words helps parents, caregivers and practitioners harness the power of their language to build children’s brains and shape their future