Expanding financial and economics education | "The Economics Classroom"
Developing practical educational materials for schools
Takamitsu Sawa
Professor, Graduate School of Policy Science,
Ritsumeikan University
Special Professor, Institute of Economic Research,
Kyoto University
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What we noticed during our earlier efforts to increase Japanese children's knowledge and understanding of the capital markets, finance and economics was that the children were not being taught the basic economics literacy that they should be acquiring. In fiscal 2004 we conducted a survey of teachers at elementary and junior high schools across Japan on financial literacy programs. When asked to identify the obstacles they encountered when teaching finance and economics, the majority responded that there was a shortage of educational materials. This spurred us to think about how we could come up with ideas for educational materials that schools could really use.
The result was a joint project with Professor Takamitsu Sawa, a Professor of the Graduate School of Policy Science at Ritsumeikan University, who has been engaged in financial and economics education for many years. In March 2006 that project produced "The T-Shirt Shop," a finance and economics supplementary textbook for junior high school social studies classes that provides an introduction to economics.
Using a story about junior high school students who establish a company to make T-shirts, "The T-Shirt Shop" is a picture book that introduces children to the workings of finance and the economy. The textbook explains business and money matters in simplified language, and comes with a teachers' manual that includes worksheets and lesson examples. We donated around 200,000 copies (as of April 2008) to approximately 2,000 junior high schools across the country at their request. "The T-Shirt Shop" has been an unprecedented success as a supplementary textbook. |
Challenge of developing educational materials for latter elementary school years
In March 2008, with guidance from Professor Sawa, we produced "The Economics Classroom" as a supplementary textbook for students in the latter years of elementary school. It was positioned as a lead-in to "The T-Shirt Shop." Under the revisions made in February 2008 to the education curriculum, legal, economics and environmental studies were incorporated into the social studies curriculum for the latter three years of elementary school. "The Economics Classroom" was a quick response to these revisions.
It is no easy task to develop educational materials that teach elementary school children about how the economy works. Providing an accurate explanation means going into some detail, which ends up being difficult for students. It is important that the textbook not be too hard for elementary school students to understand. It was extremely difficult to strike the right balance between accuracy of description and ease of understanding.
Professor Sawa had already translated a textbook that teaches economics to latter year U.S. elementary school students.
He believed that "people should acquire some basic knowledge about economics from an early age, but in Japan there were virtually no books that really taught children, especially elementary school children, about how the economy works." Based on this recognition, Professor Sawa once again lent his assistance to this project, so as to help bring about a change in the current state of economics education in Japan.
"Economics is one of the biggest factors affecting what happens in the world. So the fact that many people know little or nothing about economics makes me feel that education has fallen short somewhere. No other developed country provides so little economics education as Japan," remarked Mr. Satoru Tsuru, a teacher at the University of Tsukuba Elementary School, who also took part in this project. |
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Satoru Tsuru
School Teacher,
University of Tsukuba Elementary School
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Developing educational materials that easily fit into classes
Mr. Tsuru gave the following as the principal causes behind the relative lack of progress in financial and economics education in Japanese schools.
"The main reason is the lack of educational materials. A second reason is that in elementary schools a teacher is responsible for teaching almost all of the subjects, and there are no specialist instructors for finance and economics. While those teachers who majored with a focus in social studies might be interested in teaching economics, those teachers who have a background in language arts, science, music, or manual arts, for example, are probably not so interested in teaching economics. It's also a big challenge to ask teachers who know little about economics to teach it to children."
While learning materials might be developed that are easy for children to understand, that alone is not enough to ensure that they will be used in class. It's also important to win over elementary school teachers, so that when they see the materials they will think "Oh, these pictures are fun. They look like they will tickle the children's imaginations. These materials will get them interested in learning about the economy, and I think I'll enjoy teaching economics with these. " Many elements had to be considered, from the colors used to font size, whether or not the content was easy enough to understand, and the overall look. Finally, the personal experiences of economics, as told by the characters in the text, were based on the real-life experiences of elementary school teachers.
Mr. Tsuru said "A sort of 'unspoken knowledge' develops in children, not expressed in words or any other concrete form. That's why we asked that women and people with disabilities appear in the textbook as characters who work in shops or factories or who are shareholders. For their education, it would be natural to show an environment which wasn't just filled with men, but with all sorts of people, just as it is in real life. These may be very small details, but when you're putting together something for children, you really need to give these matters proper consideration."
Creating opportunities for adults to learn about finance and economics with children
Mr. Usui, another teacher from the University of Tsukuba Elementary School who participated in the project, commented, "the change in financial and economics education in the revised curriculum is not as significant as initially thought. The real problem I fear is that the gap between this country and other developed nations in regards to economics education will grow even larger. With that in mind, I think the importance of 'The Economics Classroom' is very significant." Mr. Tsuru also commented that "while there are both people for and against teaching economics to children, I think people often make statements based on an incorrect understanding or misconceptions about economics education. I think with these new educational materials we have produced something that can do away with that inaccurate understanding entirely."
"The Economics Classroom" first came about as an educational textbook for elementary school children. However, we also hold hopes that it will help raise the levels of basic knowledge in finance and economics among teachers and parents as well.
