68 customizable lessons, aligned with National Standards, exams and more.
Read NGPF's school-by-school analysis of financial education in America today
Activities
Advocacy
Behavioral Economics
Best Of
Budgeting
Buying a Car
Career
Checking
Consumer Skills
Credit
Cryptocurrencies
Current Events
Curriculum Announcements
Economics
Entrepreneurship
Edpuzzle
ELL Resources
FinCap Friday
Gambling and Sports Betting
Insurance
Interactive
Investing
Math
Paying for College
Philanthropy
Podcasts
Press Releases
Professional Development
Question of the Day
Savings
So Expensive Series
Taxes
Teacher Talk
We are so excited to have Beth Tallman writing content for the blog. Her weekly column "Digging Deeper" will involve in-depth research that goes beyond the headlines resulting in a thought-provoking piece. Enjoy!
-------------------------
I caught this headline in the Wall Street Journal (11/28/17) over breakfast and decided to read more about the research on CNBC and in Ben Leubsdorf’s blog. The research findings were pretty remarkable:
The conclusion? Test results may be more about motivation and effort than about aptitude. The trick is figuring out how to motivate the students:
"We've been working on studies on motivation for a while," said Sally Sadoff of UCSD. "I think for a lot of kids, their parents are just instilling a habit [of good study practices]. But for some kids, I think there is a role for us. If the return to education is so high, why aren't kids trying?"
This all got me thinking. I am sure you have students who are intrinsically motivated to do well on tests, no matter what the stakes. Were they born that way? Are their parents doing a better job than other parents? What impact do we, as educators, have? Do cultural differences explain why financial incentives had no impact on the Chinese students?
Reflecting on my experience I remembered something I tried when I was teaching high school math (Algebra 2). I was always shocked at my students’ lack of mental math skills, so I had my students compete on daily (timed) drills on multiplication, and I had the classes compete against each other. Students graded each other’s drills (yes, I did that too), and those who scored high enough were excused from further drills. The first class to reach proficiency was “compensated” with a pizza party.
It seemed to have worked! I’m not sure if the motivation came from the competition itself, or from the students’ love of pizza! I set the class goal below 100% to ease the peer pressure on the students who might not succeed by week’s end. They were never singled out, and still felt pride at watching their scores improve with practice, as did everyone else.
As teachers you are well aware of how complex motivation can be. What is it about our culture that makes some sort of extrinsic incentive necessary at times? What can parents and educators do about it? Compensating for test scores is not a pragmatic solution, but it sure makes for an interesting debate.
Activity: Let's Make A Tax Plan Prediction
Question: What percent of Gen Z (14-21 year olds) have a payment app on their phone?
My Classroom Podcast: Dr. Greenfeld and the Modern Classroom Project
2021 Edition: 7 Days of NGPF!
NGPF MOVE Activities
Join the more than 12,000 teachers who get the NGPF daily blog delivered to their inbox:
MOST POPULAR POSTS
1
Question of the Day: What are the top 3 fastest growing careers that don't need a 4-year degree?
2
Fall 2024 Updates to Paying for College Resources
3
Useful Personal Finance Movies and Documentaries with Worksheets
4
FinCap Friday: FAFSA Fiasco
5
New Fall PD Badges are Here
Before your subscription to our newsletter is active, you need to confirm your email address by clicking the link in the email we just sent you. It may take a couple minutes to arrive, and we suggest checking your spam folders just in case!
Great! Success message here
New to NGPF?
Save time, increase engagement, and teach life-changing financial skills with NGPF’s free curriculum
1.Register for a free TeacherAccount
2.ExploreSemester Course
3.Findstudent favorites
4.LeverageNGPF Academy
Your new account will provide you with access to NGPF Assessments and Answer Keys. It may take up to 1 business day for your Teacher Account to be activated; we will notify you once the process is complete.
Thanks for joining our community!
The NGPF Team
Complete the form below to access exclusive resources for teachers. Our team will review your account and send you a follow up email within 24 hours.
To speed up your verification process, please submit proof of status to gain access to answer keys & assessments.
Acceptable information includes:
Acceptable file types: .png, .jpg, .pdf.
Once you submit this form, our team will review your account and send you a follow up email within 24 hours. We may need additional information to verify your teacher status before you have full access to NGPF.
Take the quiz to quickly find the best resources for you!