GROUP RESEARCH AND CASE ANALYSIS

Group Research and Case Analysis

Group Research and Case Analysis

This study examined the factors which impact on students' performance accounting courses the research A Quantitative Exploration of Student performance undergraduate accounting programme based on a conceptual framework of prior knowledge drawn from the educational psychology literature. The five factors selected for this study reflect the diversity of students enrolled in the course. Consistent with the educational psychology literature, prior content knowledge was found to have a significant impact on students' performance. Students' metacognitive knowledge, which differs due to their language and gender, also has a significant effect on students' performance. Prior knowledge, therefore, is an important factor as it facilitates students' academic achievements. (Mitchell 1988) Educational institutions in UK undoubtedly are faced with an increasing diversity of students. Greater student diversity at universities results in greater diversity in student learning and performance. To ensure better educational outcomes for students, the challenge for universities is to consider various ways of dealing with the learning issues of a diverse blend of students.

In particular, with a higher number of international students as compared to the last decade or so, universities are faced with additional learning issues that this diverse blend of cultures brings. Tertiary educators need to understand that international students' prior content and metacognitive knowledge is possibly the outcome of previous learning styles and experiences in their home culture. Academics and universities perhaps should consider strategies or develop support services to assist international students who have difficulties in adjusting to the university academic requirements.

Certain dimensions of content knowledge that is most often acquired through formal learning is domain specific knowledge, which involves knowledge that relates to a particular field of study or academic domain such as law, psychology or accountancy (Glaser, 1984). Declarative and procedural knowledge are two forms of domain knowledge and are referred to as knowing that and knowing how, respectively (Bartlett 1992,1993). For instance, knowing how to prepare a balance sheet would be considered procedural domain-specific knowledge, whereas knowing accounting terminology or concepts would be considered declarative domain-specific knowledge. Not all learning is domain-specific as domain independent processes (general skills) also form part of a person's prior knowledge. Our study focuses on content knowledge that is domain- specific rather than domain independent. This framework is used to develop research hypotheses relating to academic performance and prior content and meta-cognitive knowledge. These hypotheses are tested by examining ...