Educação financeira dos docentes: uma análise a partir do projeto sumo educacional

Abstract

The study addresses the importance of financial education in the current economic context and the need to prepare teachers to teach this topic in schools. Educational Sumo is an initiative that seeks to train public school teachers through the use of games as a teaching strategy. In this sense, gamification is an effective approach to engage and motivate participants, contributing to better learning and understanding of financial concepts. The general objective of the study is to analyze how the actions of Sumo Educacional contributed to the financial knowledge of teachers. To this end, it analyzes the financial knowledge of teachers before and after the project's actions and seeks to observe how they are passing on knowledge to students and evaluate the project results in teaching financial education in schools. The research was conducted in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, involving teachers from public schools of the Eighth Regional Education Coordination, located in Santa Maria. Data collection took place over 4 months, starting before the course and lasting up to two months after its end. Two questionnaires were used as data collection instruments. The first questionnaire was administered before the course and included questions about financial knowledge, financial behavior, teacher profile and professional experience. The second was applied at the end of the course, with questions about financial knowledge, expectations regarding the application of knowledge, and perception of the topics covered. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to characterize the profile and behavior of participants, the Mann-Whitney test to compare groups based on individual characteristics and panel data analysis to observe changes over time using the model of fixed effects and random effects. The methodology provided a comprehensive analysis of the course's impact, considering various influences on participants' financial knowledge. SPSS 26.0.0 and Stata software were used to process the data and perform statistical analyses. The sample, composed mainly of female teachers predominantly aged up to 50 years, revealed a diverse group in terms of income, education and previous experience in financial education. As a result, it was identified that the course contributed to improving the teaching method, impacting teachers' learning and expanding students' financial skills. In general, an increase in teachers' confidence when teaching and a perception of improved knowledge on various topics was observed, thus highlighting the contribution of this study to the expansion and improvement of financial education programs in schools.