Employment of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Classroom Environments to Improve Financial Education in Secondary School Students

Financial education is considered an essential skill that enables students to effectively manage their economic resources. However, it is still at an embryonic stage in several countries, and the ability of young people to apply financial education in life contexts has not substantially improved. To address these challenges, this study proposes and evaluates a novel approach to improve financial education among high school students by using generative artificial intelligence tools. Following a quasi-experimental design, we randomly assigned a total of 110 high school students to two conditions: an experimental group that participated in learning experiences under the financial education approach using artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT and a control group that engaged in the same learning activities following the traditional teaching approach. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test indicate that there are significant differences between the scores of the experimental group and the control group (p=1.64E-19<0.05,  group experimental=82.92>  group control=28.08), demonstrating the effectiveness of the generative artificial intelligence approach in enhancing financial education compared to the traditional approach. Furthermore, the Kruskal-Wallis test revealed a significance p-value of less than 0.05 (p=0.000935<0.05), indicating that the use of AI significantly improves the five indicators of financial education according to the post-test evaluation phase of the experimental group. On the other hand, Dunn's test for multiple comparisons reveals a significantly greater influence of the innovative approach using artificial intelligence in the following dimensions: Financial Planning Actions, Financial Analysis Actions, Financial Behavior, and Strategic Expense Management; however, the Investment Initiative dimension shows a significantly lesser influence ( =103.46). The implementation of artificial intelligence in the classroom to promote student learning is favored by innovative approaches to pedagogical action. In this way, from the classroom, we can address the lack of skills and financial education in our students.     Received: 11 December 2023 / Accepted: 19 March 2024 / Published: 5 May 2024