All classrooms are different and every course, though the name may be the same, has its own goal based on its learners and teacher’s philosophy. When teaching Personal Finance, or any financial literacy focused course, my number one goal is setting students up to behave in a financially responsible way throughout their life. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy defines “Literacy” as both task-based and skills-based.
Without the “Will They?” a learner “can” have all the ability in the world which goes to waste through lack of action. Though the knowing should not be ignored, if a person has the drive to behave a certain way, they will do what it takes to know what to do. Behaving, to me, is a priority over knowing.
Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle™, based on brain science, defines a clear & simple process for the most effective way to “drive behavior”. There are three layers or rings to this process which are specific in order from the inside out. These layers are: Why / How / What… in that order, illustrated below.
This Golden Circle™ represents the necessary approach to drive behavior in that first and foremost, humans need to buy into reasons (why) for doing things. Very rarely can we rely on others to just “do what I say”, especially the beautifully cynical minds of teenage learners. Once our brain has determined that we agree with the reason (why), it needs to understand how the behavior actually works. After these two pieces satisfy our brain, then and only then are we ready to be guided on what to do. Simon explains it way more eloquently in this 5 minute clip from his top viewed TED Talk here.
As a classroom Financial Literacy & Accounting teacher of 23 years, traditionally, Financial Literacy curriculum has knocked it out of the park with the outer ring, what to do. There are a ton of very good resources available for teaching & learning the traditional topics of: What is a good credit score & what should we do to establish one? What does a good budget look like & what should we do to create one? What is good debt vs. bad debt & what can we do to stick with only the good? And so on with each of the traditional topics.
Financial Literacy curriculum has been getting better with the inner ring (the bullseye), why we should behave in a financially literate way. The most personal “why” for a learner to buy into is the concept of taking care of future versions of themself, and the value of delayed gratification. The concept of “future you” is essential for a learner to understand and find a way to connect with. The best source I’ve seen for teaching the why is Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF) who has developed a lot of really great things over the past years to help educators create this understanding and connection in their classrooms, though many curricula still don’t include it. And those that do often spend too little time on it to create proper buy in with the students.
*If you need resources on teaching the why of Financial Literacy, I highly encourage you to check out NGPF.
The middle ring, how, is the most absent and virtually non-existent in Financial Literacy curricula. The how address the questions of: How does a good credit score help me take care of future me (build wealth)? How does a good budget help me take care of future me (build wealth)? How does embracing good debt & staying away from bad debt help me take care of future me (build wealth)? Understanding the answers to these questions requires Accounting Literacy. Without Accounting Literacy, the task-based (behavior) piece of Financial Literacy has a huge, ⅓ gap that will require a big leap of faith from learners. And though some students will “just trust me”, we can’t rely on that to be acceptably successful enough.
The best source I’ve seen for teaching Accounting Literacy, the how, is Color Accounting who has an entire learning system the leverages concept mapping and hands on manipulative learning that develops deep understanding in a way comparable to nothing else out there.
*If you need resources on teaching the how of Financial Literacy, I highly encourage you to check out Color Accounting.
If you’re up for geeking out about Financial Literacy education and best practices, so am I :)
Hit me up and let’s chat... Twitter: @BusEdCrev / Instagram: @BusEdCrev / LinkedIn: Sean Crevier
