Enhancing Students' Financial Literacy To Promote Citizenship Through The Use Of Variation Theory

Abstract

This study aims to collect evidence about the efficacy of the pedagogical principles derived from our earlier study on boosting students’ financial literacy, with the purpose of providing a theoretical account of how generative learning in the domain of financial literacy can be enhanced. A learning study in the form of design experiment was conducted, in which 156 students were taught under the three learning conditions which embedded the test criteria, and seven lessons were used by the two participating teachers for each of the classes. To assess students’ appropriation of the object of learning, four tests were conducted, i.e. a pre-test, post-test immediately after the lessons, delayed post-test after six weeks and second delayed post-test after six months. This study shows that a systematic use of the pattern of “contrast-fusion-generalization” to deal with the individual core economic concepts identified can help students lay a solid conceptual foundation for developing financial literacy. Furthermore, with the use of the meta-level pattern of “contrast-fusion-generalization” through complex everyday financial problems or situations which transcend the specific concepts, students can make effective use of the core economic concepts learnt and transform them organically into one’s analytical framework. This enables students to discern and focus upon the critical aspects of novel financial situations and have a greater likelihood of making well-reasoned financial decisions. This paper sheds light on the ways in which students’ generative learning in the domain of financial literacy can be enhanced to promote citizenship through the use of variation theory of learning.