ABSTRACT

This study investigates financial literacy among early childhood teachers in the US. A survey was used to measure the financial literacy among early childhood teachers in New Jersey, USA (N = 152). Financial literacy was found to be low among early childhood teachers (52% correct score) and only marginally higher than high school students. Eighty-one percent of the teachers self-assessed their knowledge of financial literacy as moderate to low. Over half of the teachers surveyed found teaching finance to be unenjoyable. Multiple regression analysis showed that the number of economics/finance courses taken was a strong (p < 0.01) predictor of financial literacy levels, suggesting that personal financial education could improve financial literacy among early childhood teachers and improve their confidence to teach financial literacy. Thus, our findings shed light on the preparedness of early childhood teachers to teach financial literacy and suggest the need for the inclusion of personal finance courses in early childhood teacher preparation curricula.

摘要

本研究调查了美国幼儿教师的金融知识。一项调查用于衡量美国新泽西州幼儿教师的金融知识（N  = 152）。发现幼儿教师的金融知识水平较低（正确分数为 52%），仅略高于高中生。81% 的教师自我评估他们对金融知识的了解为中到低。超过一半的接受调查的教师认为教授金融学是不愉快的。多元回归分析表明，经济学/金融学课程的数量是很强的（p < 0.01) 金融知识水平的预测因子，表明个人金融教育可以提高幼儿教师的金融知识，并提高他们教授金融知识的信心。因此，我们的研究结果揭示了幼儿教师教授金融知识的准备情况，并表明有必要将个人理财课程纳入幼儿教师准备课程。