Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education

Empirical findings show that students often have insufficient financial literacy, even though they increasingly make independent financial decisions. Financial education at school can provide a foundation for a lifelong proactive approach to financial matters with increasing utility value and financ...

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Main Authors: Liane Platz, Marina Zauner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Education Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/227
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author Liane Platz
Marina Zauner
author_facet Liane Platz
Marina Zauner
author_sort Liane Platz
collection DOAJ
description Empirical findings show that students often have insufficient financial literacy, even though they increasingly make independent financial decisions. Financial education at school can provide a foundation for a lifelong proactive approach to financial matters with increasing utility value and financial interest. This includes the simulation of future financial decisions with serious games. Despite a wide range of serious games to promote financial literacy, there is a lack of empirical research on the instructional design of such games. This includes the instructional design of game mechanics as action-guiding and reflection prompts for debriefing. In a quasi-experimental intervention study with a 2 × 2 research design, upper secondary students were assigned to four groups (<i>n</i> = 293). They played the game <i>Moonshot</i> with different combinations of game mechanics and reflection prompts. Based on mixed ANOVA analysis, the combination of strategic game mechanics and direct reflection prompts significantly increased students’ utility value for a financial literacy game, which underlines the importance of the instructional design of game mechanics and reflection prompts in serious games. But only a group-independent time effect was found for financial interest. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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spelling doaj-art-2bd0cc1dffb146c19e6a33a3953488d92025-08-20T03:12:00ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022025-02-0115222710.3390/educsci15020227Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary EducationLiane Platz0Marina Zauner1Department of Economics, Binational School of Education, Universität Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, GermanyDepartment of Economics, University of Konstanz, 78464 Konstanz, GermanyEmpirical findings show that students often have insufficient financial literacy, even though they increasingly make independent financial decisions. Financial education at school can provide a foundation for a lifelong proactive approach to financial matters with increasing utility value and financial interest. This includes the simulation of future financial decisions with serious games. Despite a wide range of serious games to promote financial literacy, there is a lack of empirical research on the instructional design of such games. This includes the instructional design of game mechanics as action-guiding and reflection prompts for debriefing. In a quasi-experimental intervention study with a 2 × 2 research design, upper secondary students were assigned to four groups (<i>n</i> = 293). They played the game <i>Moonshot</i> with different combinations of game mechanics and reflection prompts. Based on mixed ANOVA analysis, the combination of strategic game mechanics and direct reflection prompts significantly increased students’ utility value for a financial literacy game, which underlines the importance of the instructional design of game mechanics and reflection prompts in serious games. But only a group-independent time effect was found for financial interest. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/227financial literacyutility valuefinancial interestgame mechanicsreflection prompts
spellingShingle Liane Platz
Marina Zauner
Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education
Education Sciences
financial literacy
utility value
financial interest
game mechanics
reflection prompts
title Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education
title_full Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education
title_fullStr Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education
title_full_unstemmed Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education
title_short Financial Literacy Games—Increasing Utility Value by Instructional Design in Upper Secondary Education
title_sort financial literacy games increasing utility value by instructional design in upper secondary education
topic financial literacy
utility value
financial interest
game mechanics
reflection prompts
url https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/227
work_keys_str_mv AT lianeplatz financialliteracygamesincreasingutilityvaluebyinstructionaldesigninuppersecondaryeducation
AT marinazauner financialliteracygamesincreasingutilityvaluebyinstructionaldesigninuppersecondaryeducation