The Teaching Context and Approaches to Study of Accounting Students.

Examination of the ways students approach their study can give an insight into how they learn and thus provide a guide to the teaching strategies needed to improve their learning. The present study reports data from a survey of study approaches of students enrolled in the BA (Honours) course in Accountancy at Hong Kong Polytechnic. Quantitative data from the Study Process Questionnaire provided a measure of approaches to study, which were related to teaching context variables through qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. It was found that scores for the achieving and deep approaches declined from the first to the second year of the course, indicating that enthusiasm and use of meaningful approaches to study tasks declined as students progressed through their first year. However, through the second and third year of the course, the mean deep-approach scores rose slowly. Possible explanations for the findings are excessive workload, surface-assessment demands, lack of intrinsic motivation, a didactic teaching style, high student/staff ratios, and the difficulties faced by the students in studying in a second language (English) rather than their native tongue (Cantonese). Investigation of approaches to study is seen as a way to diagnose problems in the teaching/learning context and to monitor improvements in accountancy courses.