The misunderstanding between group and teacher is not new. It is crucially important for teacher to find the right strategy of teaching to give knowledge to students. Many strategies have been created for the past years. Some changes in teaching strategies are really needed to the class. The main goal is to find a correct one to the students, which are not interested in studying yet.
Following activities can broaden opportunities and stimulate interest of students in the subject:
- The use of visual materials (slides, video, advertising, and so forth.). These materials can foster learning among students. There are diagrams and other illustrations to help visually explain a link between new and already completed lessons. Students also should be encouraged to ask questions in the classroom. It is desirable to illustrate lessons by example and debate over the subject studied.
- Effective questioning. This is the case when a teacher encourages class discussion and puts additional questions on the subject, thus improving comprehension of the material. The following tips are helpful:
- Avoiding questions, answers to which are monosyllabic, such as “yes”, “no”, etc.;
- Avoiding questions that begin with words “what”, “why”, “how” and asking students to determine a relationship between the studied subjects;
- Avoiding questions that concern only a narrow part of the material studied;
- Using questions that develop the previous question, varying length and complexity of questions;
- Avoiding questions with “double bottom” and too complex questions that can be attributed to many issues so as not to confuse students;
- Avoiding questions that have an obvious “right” answer.
The following activities relating to work in small groups are useful:
- Analysis of articles on economic topics in the media, advertisements, and other similar information;
- Short presentations (oral and written reports, news reports, preparation of short papers, posters) on the topic of personal financial decision-making and its various aspects;
- Compilation of lists and examples of survey questions or interview questions relating to the topics of personal finance.
- Judicious use of credits;
- Choice of investment instruments;
- Budget planning;
- Comparison of insurance policies;
- Career planning.
- Financial and credit consultants and investment advisors with whom students can discuss money management and financial planning;
- Human resources specialists, representatives of recruitment agencies, career planners, and former students who can tell about all difficulties faced by people in the process of building a career;
- Tax specialists and accountants with whom students can discuss issues of taxation;
- Bankers, representatives of credit institutions, and credit managers with whom students can discuss lending;
- Real estate agents, mortgage-lending professionals, managers, and property management specialists with whom students can discuss housing issues;
- Insurance agents who will talk about insurance;
- Brokers, investment advisers, and representatives of management companies who will talk about investing in the stock market;
- Social workers and pension fund employees who will talk about possibilities of pension savings.
- Real-life financial condition as an example of one of students;
- A list of critical issues, problems, etc. relating to financial management;
- Various actions that can be taken in the given circumstances;
- Comparative advantages of options from the short- and long-term perspectives;
- Choice and consequences of certain actions;
- Discussion of possible consequences of actions taken.
Students need to learn to look at information available to see long-term consequences of actions, including their social aspects.
- Audio, video, and multimedia materials. Videos, films, and slides can serve as a great source of vivid examples, as well as contributing to discussions on various topics relating to personal finance.
- Role playing. Students in a dramatic form try to imagine to what results certain financial decisions may lead, such as a rash purchase, unreasonable use of loans, improper investment, or driving without insurance.
- Conclusions and analysis. Students prepare a short review of the learning process (3-5 sentences) or a message about how study of information may affect the business as a whole, as well as consumers, employees, and other persons. This can be accomplished in the following formats:
- Title, author, date, number of pages;
- Theme, for example, taxes, financial management, consumer credit, insurance, investments, retirement planning, and career planning;
- Overview of the study consisting of three to five sentences should contain basic facts of the analyzed subject, namely, possible influence of the studied information on (a) individuals, (b) the economy as a whole, (c) employees, and (d) other aspects of life.
- The use of tables designed for financial planning or development of their own;
- Conditions of the economy affecting financial planning;
- Tax benefits of owning one’s own business;
- Advertising credits abuse;
- Electronic banking services;
- Sale of real estate;
- Types of loans;
- The cost of car insurance for new drivers;
- Whether all property owners need real estate insurance;
- Reduction of the cost of treatment and medical care;
- Investments outside a home country;
- Investments in gold and other precious metals;
- Future of social security;
- Where pensioners live the best;
- Who needs a will;
- Whether private pension savings can be considered as a good investment, etc.
- Problems of poor management of personal finances;
- Career choice;
- Applying for loans;
- Buying a used car;
- Selection of life insurance programs;
- Comparison of different mortgage programs;
- Prevention of problems relating to tax evasion.
Moreover, the teacher may create motivation for self-education. This is a regulatory model of learning with targets for one’s self. Obviously, if there is a detailed description of effective teaching strategies that can be modeled in the learning process from the perspective of a teacher, it is possible for students to use them. Thus, in the case of self-talk on self-regulating learning, interest in this issue emerged in the early 1980s (since topics of educational strategies and self-regulated learning are very similar in content and have been developed in different traditions, there are certain terminological complexities). Here the function of planning, monitoring and evaluation of training is performed not by some other person (a teacher), but by a student. Although in the course of training a student may request others to assess results, planning of such actions lies within the subject of study.
By definition, self-regulated learning refers to self-produced thoughts and actions, which are systematically oriented at achievement of educational goals. Not every mental ability or skill work includes self-regulation. Although, of course, their structure must include a feedback system, it concerns only systems that involve self-instruction, i.e. that are more or less consciously connected with a special setting of appropriate targets and change of mental processes that are included in the training. This way, students become owners of their own learning processes and, due to this, they transform their mental abilities in skills appropriate for tasks in a variety of fields (academic achievement, sport, leisure, or health).
If educational strategies emphasize standards, self-regulated learning is more individualized, affecting acquisition and use of these standards by individuals. The very introduction of this concept is important. Due to academic achievements in the field, there is a moving focus from fixed and difficult-to-control concepts (mental abilities of students, as well as social and educational environments) concerning processes that can be initiated by students to improve their learning strategies and create a favorable environment for their education. Unlike the didactic period, which focuses on adaptation of the subject to students based on their mental abilities, socio-cultural background, or educational standards, self-regulation introduced by learning theorists is focused on how students can initiate and enrich their own experience to teach themselves.
Finally, a teacher can combine different strategies. Correct motivation for students can push them to adopt self-learning. However, the teacher should be the leader and manager in the class who asks correct questions and mixes different forms of information presentation.