Personal Finance Pedagogy User Testing

Personal Finance Pedagogy:
Moderator’s Guide

Prepared by: User Research Team
Maria E. Porta
Prepared For: Office of Financial Education
Cassandra McConnell-Tatum
Leslie Jones

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Introductions (5 minutes)
Thank you for participating in this study today. My name is _____, and I work with the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal government agency that was created to help consumers.
Our goal today is to gather information to help us understand teachers’ experiences in teaching personal
finance in their classrooms.
Today I would like your thoughts about something new that the CFPB has created for teachers. I will ask
you a series of questions so I can gather your thoughts about the materials. I would like you to honestly
share your thoughts about whether the materials are helpful for teachers that teach personal finance. I
am not the author or creator of these materials - I am interested in both your positive and negative
reactions and feedback.
The entire session should last approximately 60 minutes. Do you have any questions so far?
Let’s cover a couple things before we get started.
I will be taking notes of this session and recording only the audio. Only those of us associated with this
project will see the notes and have access to the audio recordings, and we will not share your name or
personal information with anyone outside the project. The notes will be primarily used as a memory aid
for me so I can go back later to recall what happened during each session. Your participation is voluntary
and you can withdraw at any time. Your name and other directly identifiable personally identifiable
information will be removed from the notes before sharing and you will not be associated with any
particular comment or statement.
I am interested in your thoughts and reactions as we proceed. I’d like you to act as you normally would if
I was not here, but I would also like you to share anything you find noteworthy or confusing. You don’t
have to read everything aloud to me, but please tell me if you are looking for something and what it is
and whether you can find it or not. I will ask questions along the way.
Your candid feedback will be very valuable, so please speak openly about your opinions and experience.
There are no right or wrong answers, and your comments and opinions will only be used in combination
with the feedback that we get from other people. Any questions so far?

A. Participant’s Background and Expectations (10 minutes)
To get us started I would like to hear a little about your experiences as a teacher.
1. How would you describe your classroom and students [Iterate that they do not need to provide
any identifying details about their students]?
2. What has been your biggest challenge as a personal finance teacher? Why?

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3. Are there elements that are required to be part of your lesson plans (standards/competencies
addressed, student interactions, lecture notes)? If yes, can you identify what they are?
4. Can you tell me about a personal finance lesson you recently planned and what that experience
was like? Feel free to show me any related materials you used or reference in your planning.
a. What standards/competencies did you address in that lesson?
b. What was your method for planning and preparing the lesson?
c. What did you use as resources or guidance for building your lesson? Why?
d. How much time and effort did it take? Is that typical?
e. Were there any costs associated with it?
5. At what point do you turn to resources? Why? When?
6. What else do you use? How did you find it? What resources do you go back to the most?
7. What do you expect from the resources you use or seek out?

B. The Pedagogy Suite: First Impressions (5 minutes)
[Hand over all three documents in order to the participant.]
Please take a look at these and review them however you see fit. I want you to do your best to think
about these documents from your own point of view and avoid imagining how others would use them.
Feel free to flip through the documents and think or ask questions aloud while you do so. I will not
answer right away, but will make note of your comments for us to discuss after a few minutes.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

What are you seeing here?
What is catching your attention? Why?
What questions do you have?
What would you call these documents?
Who is this for? Why?
Does this feel familiar or like anything you have seen or used before?

Let’s go through each document separately and talk about your thoughts and feedback.

C. A Research Based Model Explainer (10 minutes)
Initial Response
1. What’s your initial impression of this?
2. What is the most valuable information here? Why?
Comprehension
3. What is this telling you?
4. In your own words, how would you describe this content?
5. Do you have any questions about this content?
Course of Action
6. What would you do with this information?
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7. What would you do with this document?
8. Is there a particular scenario you can think of in which you would use this? Why?
Value Proposition
9. How does this information apply to what you do as a teacher?
10. How would you apply this information in your classroom?
Overall Impressions
11. Is there anything you found confusing or unclear? Why or why not?
12. What questions do you have after reviewing this?
13. Is there anything missing? If so, what?
14. In your opinion are there changes (additions, removal or clarifications) that could be made to
improve the document?

D. Using the Teaching Tool document (15 minutes)
Initial Response
1. What’s your initial impression of this?
2. What is the most valuable information here? Why?
3. What part did you read first? Why?
4. In your own words, how would you describe this document?
5. Do you have any questions about this document?
6. What is this? [Point to the graphic]
Comprehension of the Teaching Wheel
7. What is this [point to the teaching wheel] telling you?
8. What part did you read first? Why?
9. In your own words, how would you describe this content?
10. Do you have any questions about this content?
Course of Action
11. What would you do with this information?
12. What would you do with this document?
13. Is there a particular scenario you can think of in which you would use this? Why?
Value Proposition
14. What value does this information have to you?
15. How would you apply this information to what you do as a teacher in the classroom?
Overall Impressions
16. Is there anything here you found confusing or unclear? Why or why not?
17. What questions do you have after reviewing this?
18. Is there anything missing? If so, what?
19. In your opinion are there changes (additions, removal or clarifications) that could be made to
improve the document?
Exercise in using the Teaching Tool

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Earlier you recalled a lesson plan you taught recently. Looking at the Teaching Tool, which
Building Block do you think you “developed” in that lesson? Did you use any of the teaching
techniques and/or learning strategies identified on the teaching tool in that lesson? If so, which
one(s)?
1.
[If no]
a. Why do you think the teaching technique and/or learning strategy you used could be listed
on the teaching tool?
2. Can the teaching tool help you in lesson planning? Why or why not?
3. How would you use it?
4. Is there anything unclear, confusing or missing?

E. Teaching High School Students Guide (10 minutes)
Initial Response
1. What’s your initial impression of this document?
2. What is most valuable information here? Why?
Comprehension
3. What is this telling you?
4. In your own words, how would you describe this content?
5. Do you have any questions about this content?
6. What’s the purpose of this document?
7. What part did you read first?
8. In your own words, how would you describe the content on this document?
9. Do you have any questions about the content on this document?
Value Proposition
10. How does this information apply to what you do as a teacher?
11. How would you apply this information in your classroom?
Course of Action
12. What would you do with this information?
13. What would you do with this document?
Overall Impressions
14. Is there anything here you found confusing or unclear? Why or why not?
15. What questions do you have after reviewing this?
16. Is there anything missing? If so, what?
17. In your opinion are there changes (additions, removal or clarifications) that could be made to
improve the document?
Exercise in using the Teaching High School Students Guide

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18. I would like you to think of the students in one of your classes. Look at the Teaching High School
Students Guide, read through the Financial Habits and Norms building block “Watch for a student to
demonstrate” section.
19. Do all, most, a few, or none of your students demonstrate positive financial habits and norms?
20. [If ALL or MOST]
21. Complete the same exercise using the Executive function building block.
22. Read over the “To develop these skills you can” section. Are these suggestions helpful to
teachers in classrooms where students do not have this skill?
23. [If FEW or NONE]
24. Read over the “To develop these skills you can:” section. Are these suggestions immediately
useable in the classroom or would they take time to incorporate into your classroom activities and
lessons?
25. Do these suggestions seem relevant? Why or why not?
26. Is there anything unclear, confusing or missing?
[Complete the same review using the financial knowledge and decision-making skills building
block.]
27. Is there anything that makes using the Teaching high school students guide difficult? Why or
why not?

F. Overall Impressions (5 minutes)
1. I’ve shown you three separate documents, can you tell me what you would call them
individually?
2. What would you call these documents as a whole?
3. Do these documents meet your needs as a personal finance teacher?
[If yes]
a. Tell me more, why does it meet your needs?
[If no]
b. Tell me more, why not?
4. Based off the titles and content of the documents, are they what you were expecting? Does it
match with what you expect from teaching resources?
5. Think about your experiences planning lessons for your classes. Would you use these documents
once, or repeatedly?
6. Is there a particular scenario you can think of in which you would use these documents either as
a whole or individually? Why?
7. In its current form, where would you store it?
8. Would you prefer a digital format? What would you ideally want?
9. Did this information feel unique or different from other resources you have used? Why?
10. Think about a teacher new to teaching personal finance. Share your thoughts on whether this
information is beneficial to them. If not, what else do they need?

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11. Is there anything else you would like to discuss that we have not touched on? Is there anything
you would like to revisit for discussion?
12. Does this information feel like it solves any problems you currently have?
13. Do you think you have an understanding of how these work and how they can be used?
14. Have you ever been asked for or given advice for finding resources for personal finance lesson
planning?
15. Going back to the resources you mentioned at the beginning of the interview, do you feel like
you trust the information it provides? Why?
16. Are there any criteria for whether or not you trust a particular resource and decide to use it?
17. Would you consider any of these a tool? Why?
[If no]
a. What would it need to have in order for you to consider it a tool?
[If yes]
b. How would you use it as a tool? What parts of it feel like a tool?

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. Those are all of the questions I have for you; do
you have any questions for me?

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