Learning by playing
Text: Inge Castryck, teacher at Teacher Training Program of University College Vives Brugge and KU Leuven University
Financial education is a hot topic and has been proven to be a main factor in reducing the risk of poverty. In periods of economic recession, the financial literacy and self-reliance is even more important.
Secondary school teachers and university lecturers from Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovakia and Estonia work(ed) on this project and developed ready-made didactical material in order to support teachers throughout the EU.
Many developers used gamification as a starting point. By introducing a gaming element, pupils and students get an extra dimension: the competition improves the intrinsic motivation.
Gamified learning doesn’t only improve their particular financial skills, it also optimizes their learning. In the map "didactical material" you can find for example an escape room, a quartet game or a board game. The added lesson plans in both English and the original language make it very easy and comfortable to use for teachers.
Some games (e.g. the escape room) even integrate different ways of differentiation. There is an option for heterogenous differentiation, where pupils are grouped randomly so that those who have less economic background can learn from the more experienced ones.
Homogenous differentiation is a second option in which the differentiation is based on the native language or math test. In the third option, pupils are randomly assigned to a group depending on their interests and economic background.
The well-chosen topics in combination with the well thought-out and didactical valuable elaborations are highly recommended. These initiatives may hopefully help improve the financial literacy of our youngsters. I highly recommend using these learning materials!