Enhancing Personal and Family Finance Courses Using Case Studies.

Abstract Growing financial concerns among college students and on college campuses suggests urgency in teaching personal finance more effectively. Active learning approaches to teaching, including the use of case studies, problem-based learning, group work, in-class writing, demonstrations, and so forth, may be more appropriate and useful when used to teach topics that are clearly applied and have immediate relevance in students' personal and family lives. One objection to active learning approaches, however, is that that some students prefer, or have an aptitude for traditional lecture and passive learning, i.e. the "aptitude problem. " We sampled 138 students in a personal finance course taught at a large public university in the Midwest. Findings from hierarchical regressions demonstrate that aptitude for traditional lecture formats can be overcome if students view active learning as non-redundant, interesting, and promoting a positive group encounter utilizing a case study approach. [142 words] Key words: active learning; aptitude; case studies; personal finance; scholarship of teaching and learning Introduction and Purpose Young adults need financial resources, tools, and education in order to make informed financial decisions now and in the future. One key life event for many young adults is graduating from college and entering the workforce. Young adults often carry with them a large amount of both student loan debt and sometimes credit card debt. Do young adults have the basic financial knowledge to manage their finances successfully? Providing young adults financial education at a key life stage, upon entering the workforce, is critical. There is no one best way to teach financial education to young adults/college students (Mauer & Lee, 2011). Furthermore, there is very little research on what type of financial education is most effective (U.S. Department of Treasury, 2006). Although active learning pedagogies have been widely embraced in the scholarship of teaching and learning, spurred on by increasing awareness of differences in learning styles, two fundamental problems still exist. First, there is reluctance by some instructors to introduce active learning in the classroom, and second there are contentions that active learning disadvantages students who prefer traditional lecture approaches. The latter may be termed an aptitude problem because some students are apt to prefer non-interaction with peers in the classroom (Snow, 1992). Instructors who primarily use lecture may be reluctant to embrace active learning approaches out of fears that some students will respond negatively, or that active learning tasks will harm learning outcomes. These legitimate concerns raise an important question; does active learning simply privilege a different set of students, perhaps those with a learning style that is different from those who benefit more from traditional lecture formats? We contend that this is not the case. We propose that all students can benefit from active learning techniques, but only if students find that they are meaningful activities. We hypothesized that well-prepared and carefully assessed active learning is likely to be considered meaningful for all students and that when activities were considered meaningful, it would not matter whether students initially preferred a particular type of teaching format (i.e. lecture vs. active learning such as using case studies). Active learning approaches to teaching, including the use of case studies, problem-based learning, group work, in class writing, demonstrations and so forth, may be more appropriate and useful when used to teach topics that may clearly be applied, and have immediate relevance in students' personal and family lives. According to this view, few college courses may be as relevant for the use of active learning approaches as courses in personal finance. Growing financial concerns among college students and on college campuses, suggest the urgency in teaching personal finance more effectively and most especially, in teaching college students the ability to apply personal finance concepts in their own lives. …