Connecting Financial Education and Mathematics in Basic Education. Didactic proposal for 4th grade pupils

Abstract

Students education in diverse areas has been a school concern since the early years of schooling. The need to contribute to the development of individuals' financial literacy, essential for active and critical citizenship, has led to work in the area of ​​financial education, both per se and associated with mathematics. In order to understand what aspects of financial education students learn when they solve problems that involve everyday situations, a case study was designed following a qualitative methodology. The case consisted of sixteen students, aged between 8 and 10 years old, from a class of the 3^rd and 4^th grades. Data collection used written records of students, direct observation, photographic and audio records. A didactic proposal was designed that integrated a sequence of 7 tasks and allowed to work on topics of financial education and mathematics. Students revealed knowledge of euro coins and banknotes and their equivalence ratios. The weekly income concept was known to some of them, but not always to save. They identified means of payment but were not used to making decisions. Through the tasks of the didactic proposal they contacted with notions of income and expense, simulating payments and change and making decisions considering an established income, but also developing the ability to communicate their thoughts to colleagues.