Encouraging a deep approach to learning through curriculum design

Linda English, Peter Luckett and Rosina Mladenovic

Accounting Education, 2004, vol. 13, issue 4, 461-488

Abstract: Accounting educators are concerned by research suggesting that accounting students frequently adopt a surface approach to learning given that this approach has been shown to result in undesirable learning outcomes (Eley, 1992; Booth et al., 1999). Despite mixed empirical evidence, the possibility of encouraging students to adopt a deep approach to learning through interventions in the learning context is suggested by the approaches to learning and metacognition literatures. Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1985) provides principles upon which such interventions might be based. This paper, first, provides a rich description of an intervention in an introductory accounting course to encourage a deep approach to learning by improving students' written communication skills. Second, the effectiveness of the intervention is examined by comparing students' approaches to learning, using Biggs' (1987a) Study Process Questionnaire, with those at another leading Australian university offering a more 'traditional' course. The findings broadly confirm the effectiveness of the intervention, both in encouraging a deep approach, and in improving overall course results.

Keywords: approaches to learning; functional linguistics; study process questionnaire; deep approach to learning; writing and curriculum design; introductory accounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1080/0963928042000306828

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