Abstract

Financial education for people, in general, and students, in particular, has been increasingly interesting in many countries worldwide, including Vietnam. This article analyzes the trend of integrating financial education in teaching mathematics in Vietnam and other countries. Based on the analysis of the current teaching situation and the orientations in reforming the current educational program in Vietnam, one math teaching situation was designed to integrate financial education for students in secondary school. An experiment involving this teaching situation was conducted with 38 eighth-grade students to enhance their understanding of financial matters and widespread problems and prepare them to make spending decisions. To deal with this situation effectively, the students were required to mobilize mathematical knowledge to solve problems, look up the necessary information, and select and make optimal spending decisions. For qualitative analysis, data were gathered by observing students’ facial expressions, learning attitudes, work outcomes, discussions, and presentations. The research found that this situation strengthened and increased students’ financial understanding of different types of discounts, various payment methods, and some applications that supported payments. The problem also puts students in the position of consumers, needing to choose to make a reasonable spending decision. Additionally, the results of the experiments demonstrated the viability and efficiency of the designed situation.