Abstract
The chapter describes a project of financial education that was delivered in Piedmont, a region of northern Italy. While being local, the project tackles general issues and adopts a replicable methodology. Already and successfully in its third year, the programme has specific characteristics: the definition of the curriculum and the choice of the educational tools is the result of interaction between researchers, teachers and pupils thus ensuring participation and full commitment. Also the programme leverages on an intense and positive approach to experiential learning, complying with the principles of coherence with the cognitive capabilities of children and the fundamental rules of pedagogical ergonomics.
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Notes
- 1.
Since 2010, Fondazione Rosselli has been working in cooperation with Consorzio PattiChiari on a yearly study on financial and economic education. During the first two years, the study included a CAWI on public and private initiatives, an inquiry on foreign best practices, and qualitative interviews on the Italian situation. The third edition benefitted from the partnership with the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR)—General Directory for Schooling Options and the Autonomy of Schools. This edition included a study of young people and their families. The study was carried out by:
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Monitoring activity on educational initiatives from schools on the topic of financial education CAWI on primary and secondary schools;
Research focused on the role of families in the education of young people to financial education (focus group with the Association of Italian Parents).
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- 2.
All data come from surveys carried out by Fondazione Rosselli.
- 3.
The POF, short for “Piano dell'Offerta Formativa”, is a programmematic document very similar to what American schools call “catalogue”. In their POFs, schools describe their internal organization and define their educational objectives in terms of educational methods, goals for students, and the outline of curricula and syllabi to achieve these objectives.
- 4.
OECD/INFE (2102) High-level principles on national strategies for financial education, OECD.
- 5.
- 6.
With the contribution of the Financial Committee of the Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture (CCIAA), Turin.
- 7.
Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Education University and Research (MIUR).
- 8.
We refer to the financial education projects promoted by Banca d’Italia, INPS, the Tax Office and the Patti Chiari Consortium—ABI, which took an active part in the project, revising their programmes in line with the new curriculum.
- 9.
Introduced by Decree no. 249 of the Ministry for Education, Universities and Research of 10/10 2010, issued pursuant to Law no. 244 of December 24, 2007[1]. This decree envisages that after a master’s degree in the subject the candidate intends to teach, the teacher training programmes for middle school and secondary school should entail a “two-year master’s degree and a subsequent year of active work experience”. At the end of the practicum, after a final exam, the candidate is authorized to teach.
- 10.
(I.C. “N. Tommaseo” and I.C. “F. D’Assisi”).
- 11.
(I.C. “I. Calvino” and I.C. “F. D’Assisi”).
- 12.
This combined institutional effort makes it possible to undertake an all-inclusive project with the teachers and to monitor the students’ understanding of the topics taught in the primary school and the middle school.
- 13.
Teachers’ comments, gathered from the diary of class activities. Keywords: “interest, curiosity, pleasure”.
“the experiment on exchange/barter has been effective and highly educational. Children started to use barter in their daily life practices with a level of personal satisfaction that, in their own words, is equal to that associated with receiving new toys”.
“Absolutely positive results. the activity is a very efficient educational tool. Pupils’ vocabulary is now significantly enriched with new words from the economic sphere (price, check/bill, product, convenience, quality, etc.). Their numeracy significantly improved (adding, multiplying, subtracting, etc.)”
“concepts like production, transformation, and consumption (rather advanced for children of this age) have been acquired without apparent effort thanks to actual experimentation with the production of orange juice”.
“the concrete experiment pushed students to activate their problem-solving abilities to solve the task dealing with profit/expenditures. To solve the task, some have resorted to drawings. Some others immediately understood that the problem could be solved with a subtraction, and used a numbered line as their tool to complete the exercise. Others, more simply, just counted backwards on their fingers (from 48 to 36)”.
“there is a more concrete awareness of what ‘working’ and ‘labour’ means, of what is commerce, and of what it takes to produce a good. Today, these children can discriminate between earning, winning at gambling, and stealing, and conduct an argument on the difference between the three.”
“the pupils are now competent in topics such as labour, saving, earning, and expenditures. They can complement their answers with effective arguments, and have greatly expanded their listening, research, and strategic abilities”.
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Farsagli, S., Filotto, U., Traclò, F. (2016). Educating People About Finance and Economics. Approaching Curriculum Design: An Italian Experience. In: Aprea, C., et al. International Handbook of Financial Literacy. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0360-8_34
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