What Have Your Students Really Learned

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What Have Your Students Really Learned?

• Vance Grange, Ph.D., CPA/PFS, CFP

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My Daughter

• Teaches in an elementary school
• Trained as a teacher in an excellent program
• Studied
• Motivation classroom management
• Educational theory
• Cognition and evaluation of student learning
• Teaching methods
• Curriculum development

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My Daughter

• Studied (continued)
• Instructional technology (Masters degree)
• Served internships
• Teaching
• Media center
• Wrote
• Her educational philosophy
• Hundreds of lesson plans

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My Daughters Father

• Earned some academic degrees
• Obtained some experience in public accounting
• And then became a professor
• Little formal training as a teacher

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Additional Qualifications

• Like students
• Enjoy teaching
• Listen to students
• Lots of on-the-job training
• Experience in financial planning
• Lifetime learning advocate
• BUT NOT A FORMALLY-TRAINED EDUCATOR

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How Do We Know What Students are Learning?

• Basically and Ideally,
• We carefully prepare learning objectives
  (written)
• We do a pre-assessment of students learning
• We provide learning experiences
• We assess student learning with exams, quizzes,
  assignments, and other tools
• We constantly seek to improve all of the above

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However

• Teaching, learning, and assessment of learning
  are complex activities
• We are busy
• We may need help
• WHAT CAN WE DO TO IMPROVE?

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Learning Objectives

• What do we want students to learn from the course
  or program?
• How carefully have we prepared the learning
  objectives?
• Are the learning objectives written?

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Program Learning Objective(s)

• May be based on
• Topic list established by financial planners
• CFP Certification Examination content (at
  appropriate cognitive level)
• Preparing an entry-level financial planner
• Preparing a competent financial planner

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Learning Activities

• Courses
• Traditional, online, or other
• Course teaching methods
• Lecture, video, audio, role-playing, guest
  speakers, etc.
• Course assignments
• Prepare own financial plan, cases, etc.
• Internships
• Other

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Assessment Tools

• Course exams, quizzes, assignments, cases
• Capstone course case(s)
• CFP Certification Examination
• Evaluation of interns by employers
• Evaluation of employers by interns
• Feedback from employers

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Exam Questions

• Learning opportunities from item writing
  training, serving on Board of Examiners, and
  writing items/cases for the CFP Certification
  Examination and the CPA Exam
• Are our exam questions and exams valid measures
  of learning?

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Exam Question Issues

• Pass rate
• R-biserial correlation
• The correct answer the key
• Appropriate and attractive distractors
• Cognitive level
• Does one question give the answer to another
• Equators
• Do our questions relate appropriately to our
  learning objectives?

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Texas Tech University

• Course objectives developed by instructors or
  groups of instructors who teach the topic
• Exams are prepared by the course instructor using
  textbook test banks and questions created by the
  instructor
• Internships
• Interns are prepared, contacted regularly, and
  are debriefed after the internship by the
  internship coordinator.
• Employers provide written feedback
• Internship coordinator talks to the employer

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Texas Tech University

• Capstone course case study is completed and
  evaluated
• Feedback is sought from employers of graduates

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Boston University Online Program

• Debbie Geffken
• Learning objectives
• The learning process
• Quizzes and the course exam
• Aids for students

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Possible Resources for ImprovingAssessment of
Learning

• Consult with experts in the field (perhaps at our
  own institutions)
• Perform joint research with experts
• Study assessment methods in other fields (and in
  other personal financial planning programs)
• Share best practices in conferences and through
  other means

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Possible Resources for ImprovingAssessment of
Learning

• Seek feedback from advisory committees and
  employers
• Develop a capstone case or course
• Seek assistance from professionals in grading a
  capstone case
• Develop a national standardized capstone case for
  comparative purposes (comparative results could
  be provided without disclosing institutions)

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Possible Resources for ImprovingAssessment of
Learning

• NEFE Financial Education Evaluation Toolkit at
  http//www.nefe.org/eval/manual_db.php
• Have program directors submit 3-5 best practices
  in this area for compilation and distribution

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• Suggestions?
• Comments?

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Thanks To

• Jacob Sybrowsky, Doctoral Student in Personal
  Financial Planning at Texas Tech University
• Tim Griesdorn, Doctoral Student in Personal
  Financial Planning at Texas Tech University
• Debbie Geffken, with the Boston University online
  certificate program