Literature Review of Student Characteristics and Performance in an Accounting Course

ABSTRACT

This article explores the current literature on student characteristics and performance in an accounting course. When planning to teach or design a course, student characteristics play a role as part of the “situational factors” (Fink, 2003). Research has widely shown that college graduation rates are associated with student characteristics (e.g., Astin & Oseguera, 2005; Gold & Albert, 2006). This article focuses on student characteristics and performance in an accounting course. The following factors are discussed: math, English, gender, age, and prior accounting course. These factors are chosen, as they are often available from course enrollment data. The literature shows that some characteristics (math, prior accounting course) have a positive relationship with performance in an accounting course, while other characteristics (English, age, gender) have a mixed effect on performance.