"That which we must learn to do, we learn by doing." Aristotle
From the pedagogic viewpoint, it has now become necessary to change consumer education to ensure that it is based on the needs of the consumers and the special characteristics of their own consumption. The content of consumer education needs to more closely correspond with the demands of daily life. It is important to avoid making a distinction between the use of media and technology at home and their use in the learning environment. In developing methods of consumer education, learner needs and internal motivations should be focused on.
There is a need to facilitate the move from teaching individual and separate topics to understanding broader structures, conceptual relations and systems thinking. Education should enhance positive motivation, foresight, systems thinking and product life-cycle awareness. Learning should be perceived in a collective manner so that it is placed in a central position.
In practice, teaching methods should be based on the conflicts of the consumer’s daily life. Conversations, dramatisations, storyline exercises, role-play, art pedagogy, media pedagogy and simulation are important. Project work also provides the opportunity of incorporating learner-initiated issues. Practical and concrete tasks help learners understand the significance of consumer education. They need to be involved in the design and assessment of activities. Opportunities for further learning and acquiring up-to-date information must also be made available to the learners.
More innovative learning environments, integrated projects and better integration of different subjects may also help learners associate theoretical knowledge with real life experiences. The learning processes of consumer education place issues in a real life context, thereby providing abstract information with concrete, tangible frameworks and making them easier to understand. It should be the case that the context provides meaning to abstract information, making it more concrete and therefore easier to learn.
It is claimed that the traditional methods of teaching consumer skills have only minimal effects on consumption habits. Young people's consumption patterns are influenced more by their peer group than what they are taught in school, and they tend to think that being a consumer is something that only begins in adulthood. This means that it is necessary to rethink how consumer education should be taught.
The Phelan, Davidson and Yu (1993) model. (Modified by the Nordic-Estonian group.)
Human behaviour is influenced by the norms of consumption, values and beliefs that apply within the particular environment as well as the expectations associated with these. In the context of the larger socioeconomic community, the role of the media is significant and the expectations of family, peers and school with regard to consumption behaviour may differ vastly. It is through the interrelationship of these three worlds that young people form their own interpretations and views of how to behave as a consumer, and develop strategies to use when moving from one context to another. Figure 1 represents the environment within which consumer skills are acquired.
So that consumer education can achieve quality learning outcomes, the entire arena in which consumption habits are formed must be taken into consideration. This requires lifelong learning, commencing in early childhood, and careful selection of the topics to be covered. Everyday life is the frame of reference with which learners are most familiar. To make consumer education relevant to learners, teaching methods need to be based on learners' personal experiences and everyday phenomena. Consumer education encompasses attitudes, knowledge and skills that are required to function adequately within society. Educating people to become more responsible contributes to individuals’ abilities to manage their own life and home, while preparing them to participate in and influence the management of the global society’s collective life.