It has often been said that it is better to teach a man how to make money than to give him the cash. Similarly, I wonder how many of us have ever considered the purpose of education. Is it simply to disseminate knowledge? Do our students attend classes for information they can obtain by simply reading lecture notes? The answer should be 'no'. Sometimes, we say that good students do not need to be taught. That is because they want to learn, they know how to learn and believe they can do it. Desire, technique and confidence are qualities that distinguish good students from 'not so good' ones. I believe that in the process of disseminating knowledge, the main goal of education is to teach students how to learn and turn 'not so good' students into good ones.

With this belief in mind, I devote a significant part of my teaching efforts to strengthening my students' ability to learn. The goal is to inspire in them a desire for knowledge, improve their confidence and equip them with the necessary learning techniques. These are achieved through several channels, including:

• Relating lecture topics to students' daily lives and local financial markets.
  
  
• Bringing explanations back to core economic principles and benchmarks to reinforce the analytical logic behind new concepts.
  
  
• Asking students to do research on current financial issues, challenging them to digest and apply what they found out, and to present the results to their classmates.

The objective of the module I teach, FNA3103 "Financial Markets", is to introduce students to various financial assets, the markets on which the assets are traded and the institutions who create, price, trade or facilitate the trading of these assets. To help students relate to local markets, I use the debt market as an example and introduce the auction mechanism and procedures that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) uses to issue its Singapore Treasury Bills. I also introduce the Singapore debt market's trading statistics after showing students the general evaluation and risk management of debt instruments. In the foreign exchange market, after showing students how the currency is priced, traded and why it is traded, I highlight to them the fact that MAS uses the foreign exchange rate to implement Singapore's monetary policies. This practice is unique to Singapore as other major economies such as the US tend to use interest rates and treasury open-market operations. During the lectures, I go through with students how each mechanism works and why countries choose differently.

Equipping students with analytical skills does not mean just introducing them to principles, benchmarks or examples of logic reasoning and skills application. It also involves developing students' ability in logical reasoning. This requires the lecturer to understand the subject deeply. For example, for the topic of financial arbitrage, the valuation relation and parity conditions in almost every financial markets phenomenon is based on the simple rules of risk-for-return and profit exhaustion. Therefore, I would take every opportunity during the lecture to explain examples and variable relations (e.g. parity conditions and market equilibriums) within this framework. Towards the later half of the semester, students would volunteer to analyse materials in this framework through class participation. All I need to do then is just some rephrasing or provide explanations of variations where needed.

As for group projects, I choose topics that are not only related to the lectures but are also current and closely related to students' lives. Topics such as the sub-prime crisis, Islamic banking and developments in the Singapore Exchange (SGX) are chosen. Guidelines are given to the class and expectations are loosely laid out, with enough room for students to be creative. Each student signs up for one project in which he or she is interested. The rule is that there should be five people in a group and multiple groups for each topic to allow comparisons to be made. Each group has to submit a report and do a class presentation. To complete the project, they go through the process of collecting the information, digesting it and 'teaching' what they learnt to their 'colleagues'. Therefore, students not only learn more but also realise the closeness between these financial issues and their lives. More importantly, they realise their own potential in reaching higher levels when they tackle the challenge. I provide feedback to their projects, acknowledging their efforts and giving encouragement as well as suggestions. It inspires in them a desire to learn and boosts their confidence.

At the end of the semester, I conduct a survey to find out how effective this strategy has been in terms of inspiring students, boosting their confidence and equipping them with systematic and analytical skills. The survey consists of 10 questions, with five on the effects of the project and the rest on the module itself. The results (see Figures 1 and 2) consistently show that majority of students think both the project and classroom lectures have ignited their interest and confidence in learning finance subjects. The students are also more likely to consider a career in finance as they feel increasingly knowledgeable and capable of analysing financial market issues.

Figure 1: The learning effects of practical projects in terms of improving students’ interests, confidence and analytical skills towards finance subjects

Figure 2: The learning effects of FNA3103 in terms of improving students’ interests, confidence and analytical skills towards finance subjects

One may argue that devoting so much effort into these strategies consumes too much energy. Based on my experience, I concur that it requires time and effort to be sensitive to students' needs and feelings. However, I think the effort is worthwhile as teaching the subject becomes easier over the semester. In addition, more students improve and become 'good' ones who know how to learn and take the initiative rather than wait to be fed with information. Overall, the experience reinforces the belief that students' potential can be nurtured when we encourage and help them look into their own strengths. Thus, we should teach such learning skills when imparting knowledge to our students.