Knowles’ theory of andragogy, one of the foundational frameworks in adult education, assumes the adult learner is self-directed, ready to learn based on social roles, and motivated by internal rather […]
The Bandwidth Tax
Mullainathan and Shafir (2013), in their research on scarcity, found something that reframed how I think about crisis-time decision-making: scarcity itself consumes cognitive bandwidth. Not metaphorically. Measurably. Their research found […]
Measuring the Right Thing
The clearest proof I have that crisis-informed financial literacy is a genuinely different subject, not just a softer version of the same one, came from our own evaluation data. When […]
The 73%, Revisited
Two numbers have anchored a lot of what I’ve written this month. Seventy-three percent of our own residents once told us a referred financial literacy program was “not relevant to […]
Janet, One Month Later
A month ago I introduced you to Janet, a resident who scored in the 98th percentile on a numeracy-based financial literacy assessment while living in her car. I mentioned that […]
Should I Address This?
Picture the scenario: a participant in a financial literacy workshop asks the facilitator about investing. Should the facilitator answer that question? Most curricula have no real answer beyond “yes, financial […]
Five Domains, Not One Curriculum
Most financial literacy curricula are built as if there’s one competency to teach. In crisis contexts, there are at least five, and they’re not interchangeable. Here’s what happens when a […]
I Need Something I Can Reference
During fieldwork, a case manager said something that’s stuck with me: “I need something I can reference when I’m trying to figure out where to send clients. Something that explains […]
The Adult Who Was Never There
Gutman and McLoyd’s research found something specific: children whose adults actively organized their engagement with school, institutions, and community resources developed measurably stronger academic self-efficacy than children whose adults were […]
Learning in Circles, Not Lines
Standard curriculum design assumes learning moves in a straight line. Module one, then module two, then module three, each building cleanly on the last. That is not what I’ve watched […]