- Description of the programme
- The study
- Key findings
- Points to consider
Description of the programme
[This is an extract from the Executive Summary of the evaluation report. Further amendments may be made to this Summary, pending review by the Evidence Hub partner]
The ‘What Works for Financial Education’ (WWFE) project aims to ascertain to what extent training teachers to plan and deliver financial education impacts on the financial capability of the young people they teach. The project focuses specifically on post-16 learners (KS5) and their teachers in schools in England, a group that has previously not been a focus in financial education teaching.
The study
The key outcomes assessed are: (1) teachers develop confidence in teaching financial education and further develop their pedagogical practice, and (2) students increase their financial capability.
The research design comprised a three-armed randomised controlled trial among teachers teaching financial education to young people aged 16+ in 126 schools and colleges in England. The intervention consisted of Young Money’s teacher training in the following five themes: (1) Fraud and identify theft; (2) Financial planning and budgeting; (3) Financial implications of work; (4) Seeking financial advice; (5) Choosing financial products.
Teachers from a random sample of 60 schools (Treatment group) and 6 Centres of Excellence (COE) schools received the teacher training. Teachers from a further random sample of 60 schools (Control group) did not receive the training. Teachers in all groups, including the Control group, were given free access to Young Money’s Financial Education Subscription Service to support their financial education teaching. Teachers in all groups then delivered financial education to their students over one term.
The evaluation took place between September 2017 and February 2018 and comprised a mixed methods approach including quantitative (survey) data and qualitative (interview and focus group) data. This enables a deeper understanding of the changes that have taken place by capturing a wide range of perspectives, and allows us to triangulate our findings. Matched pre- and post-surveys were completed by 101 teachers and 1,215 post-16 students from 93 of the 126 schools. Individual interviews were conducted with 20 teachers, six focus groups were conducted with post-16 students, and a survey and focus group was conducted with all eight consultants that delivered the training.
Key findings
Overall, the analysis confirms that training teachers to teach financial education does have a positive impact on teachers’ confidence and pedagogical practice:
- Teachers that took part in the training were more confident in delivering financial education lessons and in evaluating the effectiveness of them, compared to teachers who had not been trained.
- The training had a positive impact on teachers’ pedagogical practice, in particular, leading to increased use of technology in financial education lessons and consideration of students’ religious and cultural characteristics, ensuring a greater likelihood that financial education lessons are tailored to the needs and characteristics of students.
Key teacher characteristics, such as length of teaching experience, prior experience of financial education teaching and teacher’s motivation for teaching financial education influence the impact of the training and the effectiveness of financial education:
- The teacher’s length of service influences the degree of impact of teacher training. The greatest impact is seen in teachers with less than 10 years’ experience (compared to those with more than 10 years’ experience). This is particularly evident for confidence in delivering financial education and in the use of technology. This suggests that for training to have the optimum impact, it is best provided to teachers in the early to mid-career stages.
- The teacher’s prior experience of financial education teaching also partially influences the impact of training. The training has the greatest impact on confidence in delivering financial education, regardless of prior experience. However, the training has the greatest impact on confidence in designing financial education lesson plans and tailoring financial education to students’ among those teachers with prior experience of financial education and who feel confident in delivering financial education. This suggests that building confidence in financial education teaching is a continuing process. Training can deliver immediate benefits in building confidence in delivering financial education, but confidence in designing lesson plans and tailoring it to students’ needs requires putting the training into practice to build further confidence through experience and ongoing support.
- Teacher motivation is important as much of the current financial education delivery depends on teachers’ enthusiasm, interest and willingness to deliver. However, the analysis indicates that interest and motivation alone are not sufficient to deliver effective financial education, and can in fact have a negative impact on financial capability outcomes. Hence, motivation needs to be channelled appropriately through training. Teachers recognised the need for support to develop appropriate expertise.
Teachers appreciated access to resources and training. The provision of resources alone goes someway to improving teacher confidence and student outcomes:
- Use of good quality financial education resources, without training, does deliver benefit in targeted areas in terms of increasing both teacher and student confidence. Teachers in the Control group seemed to make as much use of the resources as teachers in the Treatment group, which possibly accounts for the improvements observed in the Control group.
- Teachers are busy and appreciated the access to resources and teaching materials that they could adapt for their purposes, although, they found it time-consuming developing appropriate teaching materials from the resources and hoped for more complete lesson plans. They generally perceived the resources to be effective, although they did not always find the resources appropriate to post-16 students. The availability of good quality resources is essential.
- Teachers welcomed the training and enjoyed it. They liked the structured, themed approach. Those teachers that had taken part in the training were able to make more effective use of the resources and reported that they developed lesson plans more efficiently.
The training had less impact overall on the Centres of Excellence schools:
- The training has had relatively less impact on the confidence and teaching practice of COE teachers, largely due to those teachers having more experience of financial education at the start of the project through their involvement in the Centres of Excellence programme. The starting point on some aspects was as high as the end point achieved by those after training.
The analysis also confirms that training teachers to teach financial education has a positive impact on the financial capability outcomes of the students they teach.
- Students that have been taught by teachers trained in financial education are significantly more confident in managing money. The effect of the training has had the impact of increasing post-16 students’ confidence managing money to a level comparable with the 18-24 year old young adult demographic (based on the UK Financial Capability Survey 2015). Increasing the level of financial capability of school leavers in this way ensures they are better equipped to deal with the key transitions and financial implications they are about to encounter as young adults.
- The effect of the training can be seen in all five themes, particularly strong in the themes of fraud and identity theft, seeking financial advice and choosing financial products. The effect of the training is less obvious in the themes of financial planning and budgeting and financial implications of work. Insights from the qualitative analysis suggest that these themes have received more attention by schools in previous financial education. A recent mapping of financial education provision by the Money Advice Service across the UK in all settings, including schools,1 highlights budgeting, keeping track of money and making spending choices are among the topics most covered in financial education, whereas choosing financial products (such as mortgages, insurance, investments) fraud and exploitation are among the least covered. This may be a contributing factor to the positive impact of the training on the themes fraud and identity theft and choosing financial products, as teachers potentially lack expertise in these areas.
Student factors (such as gender) and school factors (such as free school meals and relative deprivation, based on IMD) influence the degree of impact of the training on student financial capability outcomes:
- The effect of the training is influenced by student gender. Female students (taught by trained teachers) demonstrate lower confidence in relation to protecting themselves from fraud and identity theft. Male students (taught by trained teachers) demonstrate lower confidence in relation to knowing were to seek help with advice. Wider research evidence highlights potential under- and over-confidence of females and males respectively. These findings suggest a potential re-calibration of over-confidence of males prior to the intervention,
Money Advice Service, Children and Young People Commissioning Plan Stakeholder Workshop, 1st May 2018 based on more accurate information provided by teachers who have been trained. The training has a positive impact on students’ financially capable behaviours:
- Students that were taught by teachers that took part in the financial education training were much more likely to have made changes to the personal information they share online, engaged in saving, and sought advice on student loans.
Overall, the project provides evidence that teacher confidence and pedagogical practice and the financial capability of the students they teach increase relative to the degree of support provided to teachers:
- The greater the support and training provided to teachers, the greater the improvement in teacher confidence in financial education and pedagogical practice. Also, the greater the support and training provided to teachers, the greater the improvement in students’ financial capability outcomes.
- The Control, Treatment and COE groups represent a tiered approach to supporting and developing financial education from (1) access to resources alone (Control group), resources and training (Treatment group), and being part of an ongoing programme of support through the Centres of Excellence (COE group).
Points to consider
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Methodological considerations:
- The timeframe inhibited some schools from fully participating and led to drop-outs throughout the process, resulting in a reduction in data as the evaluation depended on teachers and schools completing pre- and post-surveys.
- Some schools were unable to deliver their financial education during the short timeframe and, despite otherwise participating in the project, could not be included in the evaluation due to missing post-surveys.
Full report
The impact of training teachers in financial education on the financial capability of the students they teach - full report
