Curriculum is on the money – but we need more teachers

Our national shortage of mathematics and economics teachers has a dramatic impact on our financial wellbeing.

Australian teenagers have lived through a global pandemic and are now growing up amid housing affordability and cost of living crises. They have unprecedented access to financial information through their families, media, social media and generative-AI.

On some topics, they know more than their teachers. On other topics, they are misinformed and vulnerable.

Financial education at school has never been more important—or more complicated.

Financial literacy is already in the curriculum

The latest version of the Australian Curriculum includes finance-related content in mathematics, which is compulsory for all Australian students. This positioning is significant because studies show that adults with high objective numeracy and high numeric confidence tend to experience the best financial outcomes in life. Finance-related content also features in economics and business, and digital technologies, creating opportunities for finance to be taught within and across multiple learning areas. To support implementation, ACARA has created a dedicated curriculum connections resource on consumer and financial literacy. The Australian government, financial regulator, reserve bank, taxation office, financial institutions, and other organisations offer websites with informational content, standardised teaching resources, and guest facilitator programs. State and territory education and curriculum authorities often curate and recommend these via online resource hubs. Teacher subject associations are active in this space, with teaching resources and events by teachers for teachers. There are some excellent teaching resources available to give schools a strong headstart in this area. Despite curriculum reform and substantial investment in teaching resources, financial education at school remains an unfinished project. The issue is less about curriculum content and more about how teachers become prepared to teach it.

Teachers make curriculum with students

The curriculum is so much more than written frameworks, lesson templates and slide decks packaged for immediate use. It’s about ideas, interactions and examples. It’s what happens off-script, when humans make connections with knowledge, each other, and the real world. If we view the curriculum more holistically, the real question is how to make sure school programs are sufficiently rigorous and agile to keep pace with fast-moving financial times.

What does financial education research tell us?

Research shows that scalable financial education programs – including those offering novel, gamified, and simulated learning – tend to provide short-term gains in engagement and financial knowledge, but little translation to financial behaviour long-term and in the real world. This does not mean that financial education is not worthwhile. Rather, it means we need to get the conditions right for quality teaching and learning about finance. Studies overseas show that initiatives combining structured curriculum materials with teacher professional learning work well. They influence not only what students come to know about finance, but how they go on to apply that knowledge when making financial decisions.

Investing in teachers makes good financial sense

In Australia, surveys of teachers indicate that they believe financial education is important and want to further develop their knowledge and skills in this area. Across the country, knowledgeable teachers are already delivering excellent programs and lessons. There is motivation, expertise, and models of success to build on. Yet translating these aspirations into high-quality financial learning remains challenging for three reasons:

1. Financial education requires specialist knowledge. Calls for compulsory “standalone” financial literacy courses are well-intentioned but overlook that many teachers have had limited opportunities to develop expertise in finance and financial education.
2. Many teachers are teaching out-of-field. Since mathematics is the main compulsory location for financial education in the Australian Curriculum, shortages of qualified mathematics teachers have direct implications for students’ opportunities to learn about finance.
   OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) data shows that approximately 25% of Year 7–10 mathematics teachers in Australia are teaching the subject out-of-field. A shortage of staff with the necessary expertise in economics, business, and digital privacy and security is also the reality in many schools.
3. “Off-the-shelf” teaching resources cannot fully compensate for these issues. While students want lessons that are useful to their financial present and future, the real world moves fast. Financial education can be more responsive, interesting, and effective when teachers and students create it together.

From curriculum to classrooms

Since curriculum is enacted through teachers, professional learning becomes a powerful lever for change. When teachers deepen their understanding of finance and its place in their students’ lives, they can begin to reimagine and redesign local offerings.

The results can be remarkable.

For example, the South Australian Department for Education partnered with Deakin University to design and deliver the Changemakers in Financial Education course.

Over three years, 120 teachers across more than 80 public schools have deepened their own financial knowledge and strengthened their teaching. At the end of the course, 70 per cent had designed original finance lessons from scratch and 85 per cent reported being inspired to continue to lead and influence finance-related curriculum innovation into the future. In other words, teachers did more than implement curriculum and teaching resources—they created new and exciting curriculum experiences for young people. Teachers have created weekly financial number talks, finance-themed primary to secondary school transition days, and “deep-dive” financial mathematics electives for Year 9 and 10. We’ve even seen interdisciplinary challenges involving finance-related “escape room” experiences. Financial education will always be an unfinished project because the financial landscape will continue to evolve. The most sustainable response may be to invest in teachers not simply as implementers of curriculum, but as changemakers who continually innovate it for new generations of learners. This article was originally published on EduResearch Matters. Read the original article.