Multiple interventions in a managerial accounting and financial management tutorial programme to enhance understanding

Abstract

This paper emanates from a study which focused on Managerial Accounting and Financial Management (MAF) students’ experiences of learning in a Writing Intensive Tutorial (WIT) programme. Often students do not fully grasp the underlying disciplinary concepts and struggle to transfer knowledge from one context to another. The WIT programme was based on the principle of using informal exploratory writing – writing-to-learn – to support students’ learning and understanding of MAF concepts. The participants in the study were 15 MAF students who voluntarily participated in an 18-week WIT programme. Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA) was used for the research design and as a data analysis tool. Following IQA protocols, nine affinities (themes) were generated to describe students’ experiences of learning in the WIT programme. This paper considers the students’ experiences of the affinity “understanding” of MAF concepts. The findings suggest that introducing writing-to-learn assignments impacts positively on students’ experiences of understanding MAF concepts. A writing programme legitimises writing in a MAF classroom and uses techniques which enhance understanding of concepts, and the concomitant benefits are improved communication skills without sacrificing course content.

Keywords:

• Accounting Students
• Financial Management
• Interactive Qualitative Analysis
• Managerial Accounting
• Writing Intensive Tutorial Programme
• Writing-To-Learn

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A tutorial is supplemental to a large lecture and provides participants with the opportunity to discuss work face-to-face in smaller groups of about 25 students. Tutorials can be conducted by faculty or senior students.

2. Pseudonyms used.