Matab working in a classroom with young children

Matab's experience: Early Childhood Authority project

I worked with the Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (CBID) on a project sponsored by the Early Childhood Authority (ECA) of Abu Dhabi to research and understand the non-cognitive skills in Abu Dhabi school students. I primarily conducted study sessions on students 5-7 years old to analyze their non-cognitive skills (specifically grit, competitiveness, and risk tolerance) and how such skills could be transmitted through parents.

Conducting study sessions at schools in Abu Dhabi.

Throughout the summer, I visited 16 schools in which I helped set up the study sessions or lead the sessions myself. After that, I worked on digitalizing the data our team collected and creating a report for 6 different schools to summarize statistical results. Separately, I also read through 20 papers and wrote a literature review about transmission, highlighting innovative research practices and findings in economic preferences and both cognitive and non-cognitive skills and providing a contextual background on the research in the context of the UAE and the MENA region.

This was a rewarding experience in many ways. Working with children taught me a lot about the importance of research in policy creation for future generations. Moreover, it provided me with understanding of the work the ECA of Abu Dhabi is involved in, and the care the UAE has for education.