Browsing by Author "Nikarmaa, Pyry"

Neoliberalisms influence is growing in today's society and responsibilities are moved from the state to its citizens. Individuals own capabilities are now more important than ever. Financial capabilities are especially important. Before responsibilities can be transferred to individuals, it must be ensured that citizens have sufficient capabilities. At the moment this is not so. Finnish basic education is a great place to teach necessary financial capabilities with the help of financial education. Financially capable individuals want to and can operate actively and responsibly in different financial environments. The current knowledge on the effects of financial education or the level of financial capabilities of our youths is not sufficient. In this thesis I studied the effects of ten Me & MyCity lessons on financial capabilities. Financial capabilities were narrowed to informational level. I tried to find out how financial capabilities improve and are there differences between genders. With help of some earlier tests I constructed a survey consisting of 30 objective multiple choice items to test my research questions. 207 students from 11 different school classes answered my survey. 171 students answered the survey both before and after Me & MyCity lessons and 170 answers were eligible for further analyses. All students participated in the Me & MyCity in Helsinki-Vantaa in the spring of 2016. To test the suitability of my test I did item analysis and IRT analysis. The result was that my test was sufficient in the scale of this research. The test should be improved if used in forthcoming research. Three items that were not functioning correctly were removed from the test. The test was slightly easy and therefore didn't differentiate better students as well as it could have. The development of financial capabilities was tested with paired samples T test. The differences between genders were tested with a T test. Financial capabilities improved by 15,6%. The progression was varied between sub-factors. Gender did not affect the results. Answers stating "I don't know" decreased by 52% in the second questionnaire. The increase of correct answers was significantly lower. Me & MyCity improves financial capabilities at least on informational level. The progression was low level, although this may be partly caused by the incorrect calibration of the research instrument. Education is transforming from teaching singular skills and subjects towards teaching holistic capabilities. Effective methods are required both for this transformation and to supervise its results. Me & MyCity is in part specialized to financial education and is therefore a good place to start improving financial education and the measurement of financial capability.