Students’ conceptions of learning in the context of an accounting degree
- Authors: Abhayawansa, Subhash , Bowden, Mark , Pillay, Soma
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Accounting Education Vol. 26, no. 3 (2017), p. 213-241
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Students' conceptions of learning (CoL) play an important role in the learning process leading to the development of generic skills. This paper investigates whether CoL of accounting students can be developed by incorporating high-level cognitive skills progressively within the accounting curriculum. First, the study explored, using phenomenography, the variation in accounting students' CoL. The findings highlighted some nuances in accountings students' CoL and that lower-order CoL were prevalent among accounting students. However, more (less) third-year students than second-year students adopted higher- (lower-) order CoL. Upon examining the learning objectives, teaching methods and assessment of all units comprising the accounting major of the host university, evidence was found that CoL are progressively developed and shaped, albeit in a limited way, based on the levels of cognitive domain emphasised within the curriculum. The findings highlight the need for accounting educators to take a whole of the programme approach to developing higher-order CoL. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Variations in accounting students' conceptions of learning
- Authors: Abhayawansa, Subhash , Bowden, Mark , Pillay, Soma
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, RMIT Accounting Educators Conference 2013, Melbourne, Australia, 18th November 2013 p. 1-30
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Students’ conceptions of learning or preconceived views of what learning means to students have been found to play a significant role in how they choose to approach their learning. This study investigates conceptions of learning held by accounting students in their second- and third-years in university. The study is based on phenomenographic and content-analytic approaches applied to survey responses of 207 accounting students from an Australian university. In the first phase of the analysis we identify 6 learning conceptions. Learning is conceived as: (1) increase of knowledge; (2) understanding; (3) knowledge acquisition for application; (4) a pathway to success; (5) seeing in new ways; and (6) self-development. Compared to similar studies we did not find evidence of the conception ‘learning as memorisation’. In contrast to prior research ‘learning as understanding’ emerged as a lower- order conception of learning in accounting students in this study. In the second phase we find that, after controlling for a range of factors that are likely to affect students’ conceptions of learning third-year students are more likely to adopt a higher-order conception. However, majority of the students, including third year students, continue to adopt low-order conceptions. These findings highlight the need to extend student learning beyond the acquisition of technical skills and knowledge to instil higher-order learning conceptions which underpin the development of generic skills much demanded of professional accountants. As a result, the findings of this study have implications for curriculum and assessment design, and learning and teaching practice in accounting degree programs.