Información del artículo
Abstract
Understanding the motives, expectations and preparedness of students is important for accounting educators, as they seek to develop learning environments that promote high quality learning outcomes. This paper examines these factors with a sample of entry level students on a Business and Management degree at a Spanish university. The study also explores the influence of these antecedent variables on academic performance in the first accounting module. The data were collected using a Spanish version of the MEPU questionnaire, which was developed by Byrne and Flood (2005 and 2007). The analysis revealed that students are motivated by a combination of intrinsic and vocationally-oriented factors and feel well prepared for higher education. Interest in accounting, experience of the subject at school, academic self-confidence and university access scores were all significantly correlated with performance. Some interesting gender differences were identified and variation among regular and repeating students was also examined.
Key words:
Accounting education
academic performance
motives
expectations and preparedness
Spanish higher education
Resumen
La comprensión de los motivaciones, expectativas y preparación de los estudiantes es un aspecto de gran relevancia para el profesorado de contabilidad, en la medida en que es un conocimiento clave para lograr entornos de aprendizaje que promuevan resultados de aprendizaje de calidad. Este trabajo estudia estos factores en una muestra de estudiantes de nuevo ingreso de la Licenciatura en ADE. Como segunda cuestión, aborda la relación entre estas variables antecedentes y el rendimiento académico en contabilidad. El instrumento usado es la adaptación al español de cuestionario MEPU (Byrne y Flood (2006 y 2007). Los resultados indican que los estudiantes están motivados por una combinación de motivos intrínsecos y vocacionales y presentan un nivel alto de confianza en cuanto a su preparación para la educación superior. El interés en el área contable, la experiencia previa con las materias de contabilidad en secundaria la auto-confianza académica y las medidas de rendimiento previo (nota de acceso) son variables significativamente correlacionadas con el rendimiento académico en contabilidad. Los resultados indican, asimismo, que existen diferencias significativas asociadas al sexo y entre alumnos de nuevo ingreso y alumnos repetidores.
Palabras clave:
formación en contabilidad
rendimiento académico
motivaciones
expectativas y preparación
formación superior en España
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We gratefully acknowledge the comments and suggestions made by the referees. The study on which this paper is based was partially financed by Junta de Andalucía through the Proyectos de Investigación de Excelencia en Equipos de Investigación (SEJ 2670) scheme.
Copyright © 2009. Asociación Española de Profesores Universitarios de Contabilidad (ASEPUC)
