About My Classroom Economy
My Classroom Economy is a free-to-use simulated microeconomy that goes alongside your traditional curriculum in any K-12 classroom. Students earn money by having a job, running a business, and gaining bonuses for wanted behavior. Students must then use the money they earn to pay rent on their desks, pay the electricity bill, buy insurance, and pay their taxes. If they work hard during the month and do not lose any money due to unwanted behavior, they will have money for the auction. Each month an auction is held where students can purchase donated items with the money they have leftover. In a study done by The University of Wisconsin- Madison, it was found that students enrolled in MCE scored 13% higher on a financial knowledge test than those who were not enrolled (Batty, Collins, O'Rourke, & Odders-White, 2016). Of those students studied, 21% of those enrolled in MCE began engaging more in economic activity in the real world and 42% began managing their own money (Batty, Collins, O'Rourke, & Odders-White, 2016).
Authentic Assessment
My Classroom Economy engages and motivated learners by assessing them using authentic assessment methods. Students are not given your typical paper and pencil test but they instead have to demonstrate their learning by doing things like creating and editing a budget, maintaining a bank log, and holding a job. Students must be able to explain and justify their actions when being assessed. Each month, students are given a day in class to receive their pay, pay their bills, and reevaluate their budget. In the second half of this class period, students can participate in an auction. This portion of class allows them to see how well their budget is working for them and they are able to see if they need to adjust further. Most of the assessment in My Classroom Economy comes from the students' own self-reflections allowing them to take ownership of their learning. When students are able to take ownership of their learning, they are more motivated and tend to be more successful.
Goal-Based Learning
The goal of high school is to prepare you for the real world. Many students graduate from high school with little to no knowledge of how the world works financially. My Classroom Economy aims to change that. MCE teaches students how to manage their finances on a daily basis, understand taxes and insurance, and helps students learn how to get and keep a job. Since high school seniors are in the middle of the transition from school to the real world, their goals are becoming less about high school and more about life. Each piece of My Classroom Economy prepares them to be financially responsible adults which allows them to see the direct connection between their goals and the content they are learning in school. Aligning content to student goals increases motivation and My Classroom Economy does just that (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). Students are given the freedom to learn and make mistakes in the program without having it be a catastrophic event in their lives. My students are more motivated using MCE than they have been with any other curriculum I have used in my years of teaching.
Learning by Doing
"Experiential- learning results from the student's own experience of action in the world, reflection on this experience leading to abstract conceptualization, followed by experimentation with the new concepts formed," (Dyson, Lawrence, Leijdekkers, & Raban, 2009). My Classroom Economy is a great example of experiential learning. Students are not simply lectured about things like a budget or taxes, but they are using them to learn. Students get the real-world experience of creating a budget and having to revise it, paying their bills, and working to earn money. Students must try these things, reflect on how well they are or are not working, and adjust what they are doing accordingly. They are discovering things not only about the financial world but also about how well they are able to handle their money, stick to a budget and not waste money. Many of the students I have used this program with have come back to me years later and expressed how happy they were to be able to learn these concepts before leaving high school and not only knowing what they were but how to use them. Learning by doing is a great way to motivate students and I personally have seen a great change in my classroom when using My Classroom Economy.
References
Batty, M., Collins, M., O'Rourke, C., & Odders-White, E. (2016). Evaluating Experiential Financial Capability Education: A Field Study of My Classroom Economy. Financial Empowerment Innovation Fund Research.
Dyson, Lawrence, Leijdekkers, & Raban. (2009). Advancing the m-learning research agenda for active, experiential learning: Four case studies. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 250-267.
Reiser, & J.V Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.) (pp. 78-86). New York, NY: Pearson
Knowledge is meaningful to learner’s goals
This case study follows the My Classroom Economy game model of teaching economics. Most students who play this game are going to be in high school and in an economics class. They’ll learn real life skills while also practicing them. Most high school students complain about not receiving any life skills in high school so this type of game would fit their goals and be meaningful to them. My daughter actually uses a form of this in her gifted class. She receives a paycheck every week, has a job, has to pay desk rent, and can lose money if she has behavior issues. The digital version is great for older students who might not…
Learner-to-Content
My Classroom Economy is a perfect example of engaging students in the curriculum. It reminded me of what I used to do with the third and fourth-grade students that I used to teach about 6 years ago. I would have them fill out a job application and have an interview to obtain a classroom job, such as attendance taker, pass out papers, sharper pencils, and clean the classroom to name a few. At the end of the week, I would give them a paper check that they could spend at the school store. I did not have it connected to standards like My Classroom Economy, but I was giving them real-life experience. Real-world application of projects that enhances subject…
Utility
In outlining key concepts and motivational principles, Robert A. Reiser and John V. Dempsey (2018) explain that motivation can be achieved by assigning tasks that are relevant to the learner's goals and have a meaningful place in their lives (p. 80). I work with students who come from families where money is tight, and the students know that. Their families have never really learned about finances, therefore smart money management skills are rarely passed onto the students from their parents. My Classroom Economy provides a fun way to instruct the students about something that they recognize is an essential part of life. “Among other factors that help produce relevance are activities that contribute to increases in a person's feelings…
My Classroom economy is a phenomenal tool to use in the classroom that will definitely offer motivational learning material for students. It touches on all of the key points for motivational learner engagement.
LEARNER CURIOSITY INCREASED BY UNKNOWN KNOWLEDGE
Not many school age learners and even young to middle age adults understand finances successfully. The knowledge gap leads to curiosity and when learners curiosity is heightened the more engaged a learner becomes. (Geiwitz, 1966; Vodanovich, 2003) explain that we must know what boredom is in order to find out how to make ones curiosity peak to lead to motivation and engagement. This material is not boring and neither the delivery so this concept was bound to keep the user enjoyi…
I really love this concept and app and love even more that you are teaching it to your students. No one took the time to teach this stuff to me so I unfortunately made a lot of bad and irresponsible decisions in my younger years. It’s safe to say that teenagers have no idea what goes into paying bills (even though they say they will) so this program is able teach them not only financial literacy, but also discipline.
The learning by doing concept is spot on for this feature. As you said you can lecture someone about this, but it’s really going to take by being hands on with it. Having a budget and being able see how…