How do I handle money correctly and responsibly, from pocket money to retirement planning? Promoting financial skills among young people is the goal of financial education in the classroom. In order to advance this qualitatively, it is important to first use tests to determine in which sub-questions the students’ skills are more or less pronounced. Elisa Wagner, a graduate of the Master of Science in Business Education program, was able to improve existing measurement methods as part of her master’s thesis with the aim of obtaining more precise results so that financial education can be implemented more precisely. For her master’s thesis she has now been recognized by the Käthe and Ulrich Pleiß Foundation as one of the best in the field of vocational and business education in the German-speaking region.
Elisa Wagner used one of Prof. Dr. Eveline Wuttke (Goethe University Frankfurt/Main): Elisa Wagner had 250 vocational school students from the Leipzig region take part in such a test, which she completed as part of her master’s thesis (title: “Financial Literacy of Saxon School Students.” Students – an empirical study on selected validation aspects of the Situational Judgment Test”) was then empirically evaluated.
“The master’s thesis shows that good results can be achieved with some of the test items, but that some items should be revised again. “The test has great potential due to its special test form,” estimates Prof. Dr. Roland Happ from the Institute for Business Education at the University of Leipzig and supervisor of the master’s thesis. Thematically, the work ties in with the Germany-wide debate about how financial education in Germany needs to be strengthened and expanded. “This requires first of all high-quality tests to record the initial situation in order to then be able to develop good educational measures,” adds Happ.
The Vice Rector for Talent Development at the University of Leipzig Prof. Dr. Roger Glasses says: “This prize recognizes a strong scientific master’s thesis in the field of business education. I warmly congratulate you on this. With funding from the Pre-Doc Award, Ms. Wagner can create further perspectives for her doctorate.”
Elisa Wagner herself is also impressed by the award: “I would like to thank Prof. Happ once again for supervising the master’s thesis and Prof. Wuttke for providing the test. Many thanks also to all the schools that I was allowed to visit as part of the test. I’m very happy with the price of it Käthe and Ulich Pleiß Foundation.“
Background Predoc Award
Elisa Wagner, Prof. Dr. Roland Happ and Dr. Jaqueline Schmidt is currently taking part in the Predoc Award from the University of Leipzig. As part of this, Wagner will be on Institute for Business Education tackle their dissertation in 2025.
The aim of the Predoc Award is, on the one hand, to support graduates during their doctoral preparation and, on the other hand, to support postdocs in their ability to supervise (future) doctoral candidates. The award also represents an award for previous academic achievements (for predocs) or research achievements and third-party funding successes (for postdocs). During the funding phase of the Pre-Doc Award, the doctoral project can mature and funding can be acquired.
