Approaches to learning in accounting education

The impact of an area of educational research may be judged by the extent to which its terminology comes into common usage within the teaching community. By this measure the approaches to learning research would appear to have ‘come of age’. The terms ‘surface’ and ‘deep’ approach to learning are now commonly used and the approaches to learning framework forms the basis of several key texts that seek to support the development of teaching within the higher education community (Biggs, 2003; Prosser and Trigwell, 1999; Ramsden, 2003). Research within this framework has added to theory, developed research tools and provided empirical evidence to support changes in teaching. However, there still remain many unresolved issues and there exist tantalising indications that there may be numerous productive lines of research yet to be developed (Gibbs, 2003; Richardson, 2000). In particular, a review of the literature indicates that there is a clear need for further research to be conducted within specific disciplinary settings. There has been speculation amongst researchers that the view of learning outcome and approach to learning may differ between disciplines (Birkett and Mladenovic, 2002; Eley, 1992; Meyer et al., 1990; Meyer and Watson, 1991; Ramsden, 1984). In particular, Meyer and Eley (1999, p.198) argue that: