Skills development, motivation and learning in financial statement analysis: an evaluation of alternative types of case studies

Abstract

Relevant accounting bodies have questioned the way accounting education should be redirected. They concluded that communication, group working and problem-solving skills appear to be at least as important as ‘technical’ knowledge. The use of case studies is highly recommended for the development of those skills and also for increasing motivation. Improvements in motivation and the practising of non-technical skills facilitate content learning. Traditionally the use of real and complex case studies has not been as widespread as other active educational methods, such as the solving and public presentation of problems or shorter cases. This paper aims to study and compare the influences on content learning, skills development, and students' attitudes when studying Financial Statement Analysis due to changing the previously successful pedagogical strategy of using short cases to one that uses complex cases.

Keywords:

• case studies
• motivation
• learning improvement
• financial statement analysis

Notes

In this line, the proposals in the literature (e.g. Stewart and Dougherty, 1993; BYU, 1994; NCU, 1994) refer to a wide variety of exercises as ‘cases’ provided that they involve the students actively working on the materials.

The election of the control group should be made by reducing to a minimum the possible incidence of non-experimental variables (teacher, subject, semester, etc.). Similar experimental designs are common in the literature, for example: Borthick and Clark (1987); Parry, (1990); Stewart and Dougherty (1993); Butler and Mautz (1996); Baird et al. (1998).

A sample of the different materials evaluated were double marked by an expert teacher on the subject. No differences in the grades appeared.

This activity (which took place throughout the semester) consisted of the analysis, in teams, of a firm chosen by the team. This task is compulsory and carries a weight of 30% of the final grade. This work is tutored through interviews and has the objectives of distributing in a uniform way the students' effort along the semester, necessitating contact with real information resources, developing the techniques of selection and use of analysis tools (ratios) and developing the habit of critical analysis and evaluation.