Designing Game-based Learning Arrangements in Financial Literacy Education

Author(s):

Carmela Aprea(presenting / submitting)Julia Schultheis Kathleen Stolle

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 04, Gaming

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

09:00-10:30

Room:

W4.23

Chair:

Jo Tondeur

Contribution

Due to recent trends in society and economy (e.g., shrinking public support systems, shifting demographic profiles, changes in financial markets), financial literacy can be considered as a key skill in the 21st century, especially for underprivileged target groups (e.g., Aprea, Wuttke & Stock, 2015), and there is a wide range of political, practical and scientific activities intended to foster this skill within the populations, including the delivery of financial literacy education programs. However, despite these efforts, recent meta-analyses indicate that traditional financial literacy programs often do not reach the goals they aim at (e.g., Fernandes et al., 2014). As argued elsewhere (Authors, in press), one shortcoming of traditional financial education programs is that they are usually centred on the acquisition of factual knowledge, whereas conceptual knowledge as well as financial decision making and behaviour are mostly omitted. An additional problem is that these programs often do not sufficiently consider students’ motivation, socio-emotional needs and social practices, which have changed drastically for the generation of the so called digital natives (e.g., Lonka, 2012).

We assume that game-based learning provides one opportunity to overcome these shortcomings of traditional financial literacy education. This assumption is based on findings from instructional research studies which investigate the effects of game-based learning in various domains (e.g., Clark et al., 2016; Wouters et al., 2013). These studies basically confirm that game-based learning can promote conceptual knowledge construction and higher order thinking skills as well as enjoyment, intrinsic motivation and positive attitudes. However, none of these studies has yet addressed financial literacy education. In addition, they also show that the beneficial effects of games do not come naturally but require careful design of game based learning arrangements, i.e. game design and design of game-related instruction. A good game design should guide the learner through the game world and help him or her to understand its logic and rules. This should be preferably done as easy and immersive as possible, for example by designing game situations which afford learners to actively manipulate objects in an intended way, or by sequencing the game play according to increasing levels of difficulty (e.g., Adams, 2014). With regard to instructional integration, it is particularly emphasized that simply playing a game might not be enough for effective and sustainable learning to occur but that these gaming experiences need to be complemented with adequate preparation, elaboration, practice, debriefing/reflection and transfer of what has been learned during the game play (e.g., Leemkuil & de Jong, 2011). A powerful instructional remedy for guiding these processes is the design of respective learning tasks, mainly because of their impact on regulating students learning processes.

Against the background of these considerations the aim of the present study was to investigate how game-based learning arrangements should be designed in order to be successfully used in financial literacy education. The study was located in the context of a secondary school financial education program in Switzerland.

Method

Given the innovative nature of our endeavour in terms of integrating a new instructional approach (games in financial education) in a newly developed curriculum for financial education in Swiss secondary schools, we employed a design-based research approach (e.g., DBRC, 2003), including the following steps: (1) Analysis of the needs and concerns of the persons affected by the game-based learning arrangements (i.e., students, teachers and parents) by means of focus group workshops; (2) Development of game-based learning arrangements through collaborative effort of three re-searchers from economics education, behavioural finance and media psychology, two professional game designers and four secondary school teachers. Two kinds of products resulted from this process: (a) a rogue-like serious game on financial decision making with a super-hero plot, and (b) four game-related learning modules, each lasting 2 to 4 lessons. The modules were de-signed for grades 7 and 9, respectively, and contained five types of task assignments: Introduction, elaboration, exploration, reflection and transfer tasks. These tasks mirrored established sequencing principles from instructional science. (3) Implementation and formative evaluation of the game-based learning arrangements through a field testing with 60 secondary school students and the four school teachers already involved in the development activities. In this presentation we will focus on the formative evaluation, which intended to test the practicability of the game-based learning modules in general and the usability of the learning tasks in particular. In addition, we wanted to get a first impression on the effectiveness of the game and the learning tasks in terms of motivation and learning. Teacher and student questionnaires were developed for each learning module. Teachers were asked to judge the overall arrangements, the game and the single task assignments. All questions were open-ended and invited them to make suggestions for improvements in case of difficulties. Their answers were analysed qualitatively by identifying themes that emerged. Students had to evaluate on their worksheets if they understood what the task assignments asked them to do. Additionally, they were asked to what extent they (a) liked the game and the tasks, and (b) think they can explain the content of the lesson to a friend. Moreover, the correctness of students’ task solutions was assessed. All student answers were submitted to frequency analyses.

Expected Outcomes

For the teachers time constraints were the main concern. One reason for this was that the students had not enough time to familiarize with the game because the game was not published at that time. The other reason was that the tasks were more demanding than expected. In the teachers’ views, introduction and elaboration tasks caused no particular problems, whereas exploration tasks, reflection tasks and transfer tasks were far more challenging and needed additional help and explanation in all four learning arrangements. In some cases the transfer tasks were not applied at all. All four teachers observed positive motivational effects. Similarly, the majority of the students enjoyed playing the game and executing the learning tasks. In addition, most of them stated that they had understood the learning content and would be able to explain it to a friend. However, only half of the learning tasks were executed correctly, again indicating a need for improvement of the task assignments. Despite the limitations of the study (e.g., convenience sample), its findings support the claim that a well-designed and instructionally integrated serious game can foster learning and motivation in secondary school financial education. However, it also shows that teachers and students need sufficient time to familiarise themselves with the requirements of game-based learning, especially with regard to more complex learning tasks. The findings can be used for further development of the learning arrangements, especially with regard to the exploration, reflection and transfer tasks, and for experimental research on their effectiveness. They also indicate a need for adequate measures of teacher education and development in this context.

References

Adams, E. (2014). Fundamentals of Game Design, 3rd edition, New York: Pearson. Authors (in press). Instructional integration of digital learning games in financial literacy education. In T. A. Lucey & K. S. Cooter (Eds.), Financial Literacy for Children and Youth (2nd ed.). Frankfurt/M. Aprea, C., Wuttke, E., Stock, M. (2015). Exploring the possibilities for a bildungs-oriented conceptualisation of financial literacy. In S. Hillen, & C. Aprea (Eds.), Instrumentalism in Education- Where is Bildung left? (pp. 89–104). Münster: Waxmann Clark, D., Tanner-Smith, E., Killingsworth, S. (2016). Digital games, design and learning: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 79–122. Design-Based Research Collective (DBRC) (2003). Design-based research: An emerging paradigm for educational inquiry. Educational Researcher, 32(1), 5–8, 35–37. Fernandes, D., Lynch Jr., J. G., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2014). Financial Literacy, Financial Education, and Downstream Financial Behaviors. Management Science 60(8), 1861–1883. Lonka, K. (2012). Engaging learning environments for the future. In R. Gwyer, R. Stubbings, & G. Walton (Eds.), The road to information literacy (pp. 15-30). Berlin. Wouters, P., van Nimwegen, C., van Oostendorp, H., & van der Spek, E. D. (2013). A meta-analysis of the cognitive and motivational effects of serious games. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 249–265.

Author Information

Carmela Aprea (presenting / submitting)

Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

Julia Schultheis

Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

Kathleen Stolle

Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

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