What Are the Learning Styles of Community College Accounting Teachers and Students?

Abstract

The first year accounting college course is considered a gatekeeper course. If a student fails this course, it could affect their entire degree program (Duchac & Amoruso, 2012). In addition, it might preclude them from employment opportunities in the accounting profession (Pratt, 2013; Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). One factor that could improve the quality of the course, as mentioned by the Pathways report (The Pathways Commission, 2012), is learning style. Little is known about the learning styles of accounting teachers and students, as research thus far has focused on programs such as physiology (Breckler, Joun, & Ngo, 2009) and engineering (Katsioloudis & Fantz, 2012). The main question for this research was this: What are the learning styles of community college accounting teachers and students? One interesting finding is that almost a third of the students reported to have a Kinesthetic Learning Style. Accounting teachers had a range of learning styles. Opportunities for future research conclude this article.