Visualising accounting concepts: insights from Cognitive Load Theory for English as a Second Language students

ABSTRACT

Visualisations, in the form of Multimedia Digital Learning Objects (MDLOs), offer accounting educators potential efficiency in the creation of effective learning materials. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) can guide instructional design by providing a theoretical framework to help the educator understand the mental processes involved in learning. Recognising the linguistic and cultural differences of international students for whom English is a Second Language (ESL) helps sensitise the educator to the additional cognitive demands that these students face. Visualisations offer a powerful way to increase the efficiency for ESL students’ learning. This paper describes CLT and uses it as a theoretical model to ex-post evaluate the initial introduction of MDLOs, and then to inform and evaluate the modification of those MDLOs. This paper responds to Mostyn’s (2012) call [Cognitive load theory: What it is, why it's important for accounting instruction and research. Issues in Accounting Education, 27(1), 227–245] for accounting educators to recognise the insights of CLT.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognitive Load Theory
• English as a Second Language
• multimedia
• visualisation
• digital learning objects

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their insightful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 These tables provide an extract of a student survey. The complete survey is beyond the scope of this paper and will be reported elsewhere.

2 Although many used them in review prior to the final examination.

3 For a comprehensive discussion of the origins of CLT and how it relates to the prominent education theoretical perspectives, see Mostyn (2012).

4 Measuring the amount of each type of cognitive load is an unresolved challenge in the CLT literature. An important stream of research, beyond the scope of this paper, has focused on increasing construct and measurement validity, for example Leppink et al. (2013). An important choice is between objective and subjective measures, see Naismith et al. (2015).

5 To focus more on the effect of English language proficiency, students’ self-rating of English comprehension was used to create two groups (low <7; high >7, i.e. 7 is excluded). Two interesting differences then become apparent, when English comprehension is relatively low, intrinsic load is significantly higher (3.970 versus 2.931, t = 2.096, p = .041) and germane load in the lecture is significantly lower (5.009 versus 6.640, t = 3.253, p = .002).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the University of the Sunshine Coast, Learning and Teaching Grant.