OeNB Financial Literacy Evaluation Series: Conceptions of financial education for “consumers” and “citizens” and their implications for pedagogical action: a discussion

Author: Éva Kaczkó
Year: 2025

This article encourages reflection on desirable objectives and evaluation approaches in financial education. It proposes a novel categorization of financial education conceptions known in the international literature and analyzes the characteristics relevant for pedagogical action. I outline five exemplary groups along a continuum ranging from rather individual- to rather socially-oriented conceptions. Distinguishing between financial education and financial training from an educational-philosophical perspective, I argue that it is possible to place the presented conceptions within both the broader notion of financial education and the narrower notion of financial training. Furthermore, I present teaching and learning foundations from a psychological perspective, hypothesizing that an instructivist pedagogical approach is more likely to be used in rather individual-oriented conceptions and a constructivist pedagogical approach is more likely to be used in rather socially-oriented conceptions of financial education. An illustration assists the reader to select, and reflect on, educational and learning objectives, instructional strategies and the measurement of learning outcomes. The article concludes with six reflection questions for practitioners in financial education, financial training and evaluation research.

The full report is available as PDF.