Authentic Learning: Financial Literacy in Postsecondary Bridging Experiences

Abstract

We applied the most significant change analytical approach to explore what summer bridging camp participants characterized as valuable to their post-high school transitions. Through interviews, program documents, dialogue with program staff, curriculum review, and observations, our participants identified the curriculum on managing their personal finances as the most impactful and useful for their future planning. In this qualitative study, we used an interpretive framework of authentic learning to present and organize our description of the curriculum and find that both the content and the real-life activities resonated with students as they planned for their lives after high school graduation. Our discussion considers our findings in the context of school-based and informal financial literacy education and makes recommendations for authentic learning as a sound theoretical approach for designing financial literacy curricula.