Günther Seeber

Integrative Economic Education to Combine Citizenship Education and Financial Literacy

Financial markets grow more and more important for society and its members. People, including school students, should meet these current as well as future competence requirements relating to financial literacy. However, the conditions determining the requirements for financial education are highly dynamic and are becoming more and more complex. So a point exists when the learning results of school education as well as lifelong financial education will not be sufficient to solve the financial problems people are confronted with. It might thus be more effective to take care of legal conditions, which are easier to handle. Generating such conditions requires civic competences in order to establish political pressure. Civic power of judgement without core financial and general economic expertise is not convincing and effective, because to achieve ones political objectives in a democratic society it is necessary to be in possession of the relevant arguments. Further, financial literacy without civic competence remains just on a reactive competence level instead of providing students with political agency. These two dimensions, i.e. financial literacy and the corresponding civic competences, have thus to be understood as parts of an integrative concept of economic education.

Financial Education in General Education Schools: A Competence Model

The authors argue that being financially educated means more than being financially literate, and that financial education can and should be seen as a proper subset of economic education. To underpin this thesis, the chapter conceptualizes an enhanced understanding of financial education, which is closely connected to a competence model for economic education that is the subject of widespread discussion in Germany and has influenced school curricula in the recent past. The model comprises three areas of development for economic competence, each of which is identified by three competences one should possess in order to meet fundamental requirements in “economically shaped” life situations. Such situations are seen as including “financially shaped” life situations, which demand similar or even the same processes of analysis and judgment, routines and strategies. This model should consequently also be well suited to financial contexts and content. The authors’ aim is to propose a set of distinct and structured, trainable and attainable, transferable competence goals for secondary schools. Although this model has been developed for general education in Germany, it should be applicable to different national education systems and various curricular settings.

Using a Fox to Guard the Geese? A German Debate on the Purposes of Economic Education in Relation to Sustainability and the Role of Values

What is the purpose of economic education? What role do values play in economic education? These questions have been deliberated on in a German debate on the role of economic education within education for sustainability. The authors draw on this discussion in order to specify the purpose of economic education in the field of education for sustainability and to examine the role of values in economic knowledge. They claim, first, that values education is an important part of economic education; second, that values that are important for environmental sensitisation must be discussed as ‘controversial’; and third, that economic knowledge is a basic requirement in this field.

How Green Are European Curricula? A Comparative Analysis of Primary School Syllabi in Five European Countries.

The authors conducted a cross-national curriculum analysis as part of a European Union Comenius project regarding the implementation of an online tool to foster environmental education (EE) in primary schools. The overall goal was to determine the extent and intensity that EE is embedded in the syllabi of five European countries. To this end, the authors developed a categorical analysis framework and undertook a content analysis. In addition to the general goals and contents of EE, they researched in particular the inclusion of the topics ‘waste’, ‘water’ and ‘energy’ in primary school curricula. The results highlight differences and commonalities with regard to goals, contents and methodological requirements, and they confirm the relevance of EE in European school curricula.

Spielbasiertes Lernen als Methode der Entrepreneurship Education

Die spezifischen Zielsetzungen der Entrepreneurship Education weisen einige Besonderheiten auf, die die Bedeutung des spielbasierten Lernens als Methode der Entrepreneurship Education bedingen. Definiert man Entrepreneurship uber das gelingende Erkennen, Schaffen und Nutzen von Marktchancen z.B. durch die Grundung von Unternehmen (vgl. z.B. Ripsas 1997), dann geht es — im Gegensatz etwa zu reinen Grunderkursen — um verhaltensbezogene Lernziele;1 allerdings handelt es sich um ein Verhalten, von dem man zum Ausbildungszeitpunkt noch gar nicht weis, ob die Situation je eintreten wird, in der das Erlernte eingesetzt werden kann. Vor diesem ungewissen Transfer bleibt das, worauf sich die didaktischen Anstrengungen sinnvollerweise richten, letztlich auf die. Steigerung entsprechender Handlungsintentionen und-bereitschaften beschrankt. Dabei ist Handlungsintention hier z. T. in einem reflexiven Sinne zu verstehen: im Sinne einer Intention zu (selbstbestimmter) Aktivitat als solcher, d.h. ohne direkten inhaltlichen Bezug.

Wie „grün“ sind europäische Lehrpläne? Eine vergleichende Studie mit fünf europäischen Curricula

Im Rahmen des EU-Comenius-Projekts „Green Hero“ wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit Umweltbildung und Bildung fur nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE) in verschiedenen Curricula einzelner EU-Lander realisiert werden. Mithilfe einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse wurden Curricula der Primarstufe analysiert. Es konnten einerseits Unterschiede zwischen den einzelnen Landern hinsichtlich inhaltlicher Gewichtung, Kompetenzen und didaktisch-methodischer Vorschlage gefunden werden. Andererseits wurde deutlich, dass in allen funf untersuchten Lehrplanen Umweltbildung/BNE grose Bedeutung beigemessen wird.

Zu den Möglichkeiten der Implementation von Bildungsstandards in der wirtschaftsschulischen Bildung

Die aktuellen Vorschlage zur Einfuhrung von Bildungsstandards an unseren Schulen arbeiten mit einem der Expertiseforschung entnommenen Domanenbegriff und mit dem Kompetenzmodell der Kognitionspsychologie. Beides steht im Widerspruch zur berufsschulischen Praxis bzw. zur berufspadagogischen Tradition: Domane und Lernfeld kontrastieren ebenso wie das Handlungskompetenzmodell und das in den Vorschlagen zugrunde gelegte Kompetenzmodell. Der folgende Beitrag soll zeigen, dass trotz dieser Divergenzen eine Implementation von Bildungsstandards in der wirtschaftsschulischen Bildung moglich ist. Die Losungen werden im Ruckgriff auf Ergebnisse der fachdidaktischen Forschung und auf jene der Kompetenzdiagnostik in der beruflichen Weiterbildung entwickelt The recent proposals on introducing competence standards in our schools are based on two relevant concepts: First they refer to the domain concept as it is used in the research on expertise, and second, they use the competence model of cognitive psychology. Both concepts don’t fit to the traditional reflections of vocational pedagogy respectively to the practise of vocational education. The following article shall show that, in spite of the existing discrepancies, there is a possibility to harmonize the contrasting concepts and, as a consequence, to implement competence standards in vocational education. The solution refers to results of didactical research and to such of the research on recognising competence acquired in workday life.