In Japan, it has been said that, in the past, there were few opportunities for children to learn financial literacy. In reference to this, the country’s surrounding environment has been changing: low interest rates, the spread of the Internet, and the lower age of adulthood. Then, in 2022, financial education was introduced to high schools.
However, in the age of Society 5.0-the concept of a future society advocated by the Japanese government-there is a need for human resources with the skills to grasp things from multiple perspectives and solve problems, referred to as STEAM human resources. (STEAM is an abbreviation of science, technology, engineering, (liberal) art and mathematics.)
Since 2019, we have practiced STEAM education in the "Liberal Arts Special Lecture" with the 4th-year students at the National Institute of Technology, Kurume College (Kurume KOSEN). In the lecture, teachers give themes related to their own expertise. Through collaborative learning between students from various departments, we have led those students in integrating knowledge and creation so as to achieve deep learning.
We have formulated financial education material on simple interest and compound interest from the perspective of STEAM education, i.e., a fusion of economics and mathematics. Moreover, we have used this material in an open course for citizens by utilizing the abilities of liberal arts special course students and the 3rd-year students who studied both subjects as instructors. In addition, we have selected female students (RIKEJO) to serve as the instructors of this course, since we are informed that RIKEJO are studying in KOSEN. As a result, we have been highly rated by the participants and the female students have had a good opportunity to give back their acquired knowledge and ability to society.
This initiative has just begun, and so we must continue to develop education methods. In the current report, we propose financial education material which is relevant to economics and mathematics, while we also review the open course.