Improving the financial literacy of Grade 8 and/or 9 economic and management sciences teachers in the Western Cape

Abstract

The poor performance of learners in the 2017 National Senior Certificate accounting paper has raised concern. One way to improve the results in accounting over time is to ensure that the first introduction of accounting as financial literacy in the senior phase is done properly. The training of Grade 8 and/or 9 financial literacy teachers was therefore the main focus of this study. We investigated whether an intervention (a 2-day workshop aimed to improve teachers’ understanding of financial literacy) could be an effective tool to improve the financial literacy of Grade 8 and/or 9 economic and management sciences teachers in the Western Cape. One hundred and two participants volunteered to write a pre-test (Test A or B) before the commencement of the workshop and 93 participants volunteered to write a post-test (a different but corresponding test to the pre-test) after the completion of the workshop. Only Grade 8 and/or 9 financial literacy teachers who attended the workshop and who completed the consent form were eligible to be part of the study. Mixed model analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were performed on quantitative data. A generalised estimating equation model (GEE) was used for the interpretation of individual content questions and the Spearman test was performed on Likert-scale answers to evaluate correlations. The results reveal that the participants performed significantly better in the post-test. The results also show that participants were capable of defining basic accounting concepts but struggled to determine cost of sales. Future workshops based on financial literacy teachers’ abilities are encouraged. Teachers with more experience could benefit from learning new teaching methodologies, while teachers with less experience will definitely benefit from a workshop where content is taught in detail.

Keywords: accounting; economic and management sciences; financial literacy; intervention; teacher training; teachers; workshop