Educational Performance: The Role of Background Variables

Abstract

In the present time the accounting profession has faced two main challenges. The first challenge is the change and spread of the accounting role which has caused increasing demand for the skilled and professional graduates and the second one is related to existence of a gap between the current skills and the desired skills among the graduates of accounting field. This problem can be assigned to the lack of attention to effective factors of learning and training. Some believe that the educational program of accounting is supposed to bring those graduates in workforces who have the qualifications to meet the primary requirements of their professional job. On the other hand, some believe that the graduates must enjoy the background knowledge and skills in order to be ready for playing their organizational role and to fulfill their personal and group interactions for different jobs and overall tasks in their work life. The goal of the present study is to investigate the relationship between background variables and educational performance of accounting MA students. In this study a kind of survey method is used and a sample of MA students has been questioned and the needed data for achieving the research goals have been gathered using a standard questionnaire which is utilized in international studies. The results of the present study show that there is a significant relationship between prior educational success of students and their educational performance, also student studying in undergraduate accounting degree has a positive impact on their educational performance in the postgraduate studies. This issue is a justification about the relative lack of success of students that their undergraduate field of study is irrelevant. Student's educational performance with their motivation and expectation has a positive and direct relationship, i.e. as much more the motivation and expectation of students their educational performance is better.

Factors Associated with Failure in Accounting: A Case Study of the Omani Students Rodrigo M. Velasco1

“…There was a contradiction in the attribution of the teachers to lack of prior knowledge in accounting as the primary cause of students' failure. Although various studies (Papageorgiou, 2017;Al-Mutairi, 2011;Alanzi, 2015;Marinaccio, 2017;Nayebzadeh, Aldin, & Heirany, 2011;Arquero, Byrne, Flood & Gonzales, 2009) conducted around the world proved the importance of prior knowledge, the current study found it not significant to either success or failure of the student in accounting subject. There was no strong reference for failure to teacher-factors such as qualifications and inappropriate teaching methodology.…”

“…Taking the different studies that depicted on the importance of the previous knowledge in the study of accounting (Papageorgiou, 2017;Al-Mutairi, 2011;Alanzi, 2015;Marinaccio, 2017;Nayebzadeh, Aldin, & Heirany, 2011;Arquero, Byrne, Flood & Gonzales, 2009), the results of the current study show that students have sufficient background of the subject. Thus, it may not be a factor for failure.…”

“…The extreme use of Arabic than the English language in most daily conversations makes the Omani students unique in most cases. However, the citations of relevant studies conducted within the same Arab perspective (Garkaz, Banimah & Esmaeili, 2011;Shaban, 2015;Alanzi, 2015;Jameel & Hamdan, 2015;Mutairi, 2011;Nayebzadeh, Aldin, & Heirany, 2011;Sebrina, Serly & Taqwa, 2018;Ozpeynirci, Yucenur, Duman & Apak, 2013;Tailab, 2013) suggest similarities on communication barriers to learning. This mainly highlights not only the factors associated with failure but education culture that needs closer scrutiny.…”

“…The other factors affecting student performance include age and nationality (Mutairi, 2011), prior educational success (Nayebzadeh, Aldin, & Heirany, 2011), English grades, use of internet in independent learning and good family support (Sebrina, Serly & Taqwa, 2018). It is interesting to note that in the study by Mutairi (2011) in Kuwait, international students perform better than local students.…”

Student-related factors of academic performance: A case of non-accounting students in accounting module

“…In most of the business programs, accounting is regarded as highly challenging than any other business modules due to its global phenomenon of high failure rate (Alanzi, 2015;Borges, Santos, Abbas, Marques & Tonin, 2014;Fakoya, 2014). The most common identified student-related factors associated with academic performance include students' individual characteristics (Bean, Bush, McKenry & Wilson, 2003), personal responsibility of the learners (Gracia & Jenkins, 2002), commitment and procrastination (Borges, Santos, Abbas, Marques & Tonin, 2014), attendance (Duve, 2016;Alanzi, 2015;Jameel & Hamdan, 2015), prior knowledge (Nayebzadeh, Aldin, & Heirany, 2011;Al-Mutairi, 2011;De Villiers & Farrington, 2017), motivation and determination (Xiang & Hinchliffe, 2019) and learning techniques (Ozpeynirci, Yucenur, Duman & Apak, 2013). Moreover, studies conducted in English as Second Language (ESL) countries, academic performance is mostly associated with knowledge of English (Sebrina, Serly & Taqwa, 2018;De Villiers & Farrington, 2017) and surprisingly, nationality (Al-Mutairi, 2011).…”