The Effects of Different Teaching Approaches in Introductory Financial Accounting

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to examine the effect of the two different teaching approaches in the first accounting course on student performance in a subsequent finance course. The study compares 128 accounting and finance students who took introductory financial accounting by either a user approach or a traditional preparer approach to examine their academic performance on a subsequent finance course. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in the finance course grade between students who took the traditional introductory accounting course and students who were taught under the user approach. These findings support the argument that the user approach has no impact on subsequent finance course grade and either method can be used to teach introductory financial accounting. Three factors were found to affect subsequent performance in an introductory finance course: GPA prior to taking the finance course, grades in macroeconomics, and statistics.

Key Words:

• User approach
• preparer/traditional approach
• academic performance
• introductory finance course

Notes

1 In the USA, the term of college and university are used interchangeably.

2 In the USA, a school is a division within a university, similar to faculty in Britain.

3 The statistical analysis controls for the effect of using different faculty.

4 For the Chow test, the sum of squared residuals for all students, accounting students, and finance students were 39.301, 20.316, and 13.945, respectively, with k = 16 predictors.

5 For the Chow test, the sum of squared residuals for all students, accounting students, and finance students were 42.791, 26.005, and 16.426, respectively, with k = 4 predictors.

6 For example, early intervene can be facilitated through advising, tutoring service, study groups, etc.