The Effect of Teacher Professional Development Through a Webinar Series on Students' Financial Literacy Proficiency

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Division K Roundtable Session 3

Abstract

This study examines whether teacher professional development in the form of a webinar series strengthens the effect of financial education on student performance. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 1102 students, 45 teachers and 30 participating secondary schools. The results demonstrate that the financial education programme increased students’ knowledge on the topics covered by 0.46 standard deviations. The results further indicate that teacher engagement in the webinar series additionally benefited students with relatively low financial literacy levels before the intervention. As an underlying mechanism, it is observed that teachers who attended the webinars have higher financial literacy scores than their non-participating colleagues before programme implementation in the classroom.

Authors

• Boukje Compen, Maastricht University

• Kristof De Witte, KU Leuven

• Wouter Schelfhout, University of Antwerp