The answer presented by Punam Keller, Associate Dean for Innovation and Growth at Tuck School of Business presented at 4th Annual OECD/GFLEC Global Policy Research Symposium to Advance Financial Literacy:

“Make the student the teacher!”

Here’s the video of her presentation (starts at 3 hours 44 minutes) and the cliff notes compiled by NGPF intern, Grace Deng:

Challenges to Teaching in Financial Education

-Previously, many have emphasized the role of teachers in financial education

-However, students do not operate on the same mindset as teachers; for example, students care less about buying a car or a house than an adult, and would be less engaged when being lectured on such topics

-Students that are self-motivated or disciplined will learn just fine; the challenge is to teach financial education to those students who are just not interested

Factors that lower trust in financial education:

1. Government – polarized trust in government administration reduces trust in government mechanisms to promote financial decisions
2. Financial Institutions – lower expected returns may decrease trust in agents and certainty of outcomes
3. Individual Differences – the most vulnerable populations are least likely to trust financial institutions and instruments

Key Questions

• How can teachers, or a program/curriculum designer engage all types of student? What can you do with students who are not motivated, lazy, or just don’t care about making money? What about students who just want immediate results or impact instead of learning about long-term planning?
• What can teachers do to help these latter students learn?

Solution: “Make the student the teacher!”

Four factors that can increase trust:

1. Control and Respect: Youth learn if they have control and feel respected

-Teach for America: let students teach other students and feel that they have the ability to make an impact

2. Optimism and Empathy: Youth learn if they are optimistic and empathetic

-Letting students recognize the importance of financial education; for example, letting students travel to different countries to observe a spectrum of economic development

-Connecting with students by asking how the student prefers to learn

-Help youth understand why financial matters are uplifting

3. Social and Space: Youth work in settings that inspire learning

-Classroom setting and structured environment is boring and dull

-Creating open space and informal social settings will make youth want to learn, share, and collaborate

4. Experiential and Integrated: Youth will learn through doing!

-Many students may not care for reading instructions or coming up with a plan – would rather jump right into the activity

-Let students reflect from participating in activities and experiencing both success and failure

-Allow students to think and come up with their own plan before instructors step-in to drop hints or point out gaps in their plan

-Allow students to read/learn materials on their own before class; in class, only help them integrate concepts (through applying them to activities) and learn to work in teams

Measurements for Success of Educational Outcomes

1. Personal
2. Connected
3. Transformative

 Students can do easily do well on exams and memorize all the concepts; at the same time it is more important that they integrate what they have learned into augmenting their own financial well-being. The education is only successful if students believe that financial education is a personal issue, connected to what they care about, and transforms into part of their lives/identity.

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I love the philosophy Punam espouses of making the student the teacher. In fact, we structure many of our activities with that mantra in mind. One of my favorite examples, which got a great reception at the Tennessee JumpStart conference last week, is our Project: Online Tools and Apps. In this project, students play the role of “app reviewer” and get to decide (“come up with their own plan”) on how they want to present the results of their research. We also send students out to the web to conduct their own research through web quests (here’s a list of 25).

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.