<p> This study explored the experiences of 10 adults who had experienced academic challenges during their studies, yet were able to return to academic studies and complete one or more graduate degrees. The participants were separated into two groups. <i>Group A</i> participants experienced academic failure and were asked to withdraw from their academic programs. <i> Group B</i> participants experienced significant academic challenges, but not to the point of being asked to withdraw from their academic programs. Members of both groups returned to studies, and completed at least one degree. The qualitative study applied narrative inquiry to gather the in-depth stories of the participants. The findings indicated that to succeed, all participants underwent either an internalization or transformation process that compelled them to commit to and succeed academically. The key difference between the two groups is that <i>Group A</i> members experienced unique, transformative experiences when asked to withdraw from their respective academic programs. All participants adopted study strategies to help them succeed. These strategies included the adoption of mastery and/or performance-based approaches to improve their academic performance.</p><p>

This thesis employs a new institutional sociology perspective to investigate factors influencing accounting education practices in Libyan universities. For this purpose, two pieces of empirical work, a case study and an analysis of accounting textbooks used in Libyan universities, were conducted. The case study was undertaken at one Libyan university and included interviews of accounting academics, document analysis and observations. The findings of the case study informed the second part of the empirical work of this thesis analysing the accounting textbooks used in Libyan universities through interviews with accounting academics and a content analysis of accounting textbooks. The main findings of this thesis indicate that accounting education practices in Libyan universities are largely shaped by coercive pressure emanating from the Libyan political context and political regime and a lack of funding that has fundamentally transcended normative or mimetic isomorphism from international accounting education practices. The influence of this coercive pressure also has led to embedded institutional logic of having a second job and not conducting research as the dominant logic of Libyan accounting academics. Hence, there is a lack of a systematic development and update of the accounting curriculum, syllabus and textbooks in Libyan universities leading to an outdated syllabus that is irrelevant to the needs of Libyan accounting students or to the profession. In addition, the teaching methods adopted to deliver the accounting syllabus are traditional methods such as lectures and tutorials that are led by teachers with little interaction with students which limits the skills development of Libyan accounting students.

This research investigated the relationships between potential constraints to students’ access to technological resources and student academic performance. Longitudinal data from 2010 (n=228), 2011 (n=340) and 2012 (n=347) from South African accounting students was used to test the relationships between technological resources access and student academic performance using correlation analysis, multiple linear regression analysis and factor analysis. Access to the latest software was found to be associated with student academic performance; a ‘digital divide’ between students may influence their academic performance. This research specifically identifies certain constraints potentially associated with a ‘digital divide’ that may influence student performance. / KIM2018

The study focused on the challenges pre-service teachers face while learning to teach Accounting in the context of mentoring at a University of Technology. The major purpose was to investigate the kinds of challenges pre-service teachers face in teaching Accounting and how their respective school-based mentors respond to these challenges. It is vital to understand these challenges while learning to teach Accounting before a mentor can respond to them. This study was located within an interpretivist paradigm. The interpretivist researcher is keen to address social issues in and through their research. To position this study within the context of learning while teaching within a context of mentoring, I utilized case study research methodology. The main purpose of utilizing case study methodology was to develop a deep understanding of the challenges pre-service teachers face while learning to teach Accounting and the nature of mentoring. The voices and experiences of the respondents were used to explore and understand the reality embedded in the mentoring of pre-service teachers during teaching practice. The research sites included six schools located in the Cape Metropole, Western Cape, South Africa. I used purposive sampling to select the participants for my study. I focused on Accounting as a ‘vehicle’ to guide my choice of sampling to explore how pre-service teachers learn while teaching Accounting. The sample of this study consisted of six pre-service teachers learning to teach Accounting in the fourth year B Ed:FET programme and their respective school-based Accounting mentors. The main reason for using the fourth year preservice teachers was that in their final year of study they spend six months at a school to work alongside a school-based mentor. This time period gave the researcher sufficient time to explore challenges and how the school-based mentors respond to them. The research methods used in this study were reflection journals, unstructured interviews, focus group interviews and fieldnotes. Reflective journals can provide the teacher educator with a valuable tool showing how pre-service teachers perceive and experience teaching practice while learning to teach (Mills, 2007:69). The pre-service teachers were requested to complete entries in a reflection journal on a weekly basis, to write on their experiences while learning to teach Accounting and to describe the nature of their school-based mentors’ support. The purpose of the unstructured interview with the pre-service teachers was to gain a better understanding of their challenges while learning to teach Accounting and their interaction with their mentors, if the information in their reflection journals were unclear. Unstructured interviews were conducted with the Accounting school-based mentors to ascertain the preservice teachers’ performance while learning to teach Accounting, and to gain perspective of the Accounting mentor’s role as mentor. Two focus group interviews were conducted with the pre-service teachers to corroborate the challenges the pre-service teachers experience while learning to teach Accounting. A total of 96 reflection journal entries were collected from the pre-service teachers, 18 unstructured interviews were conducted with the pre-service teachers, 12 unstructured interviews were conducted with the school-based mentors and 2 focus group interviews were conducted. Data revealed that despite mentoring having the potential to enhance the preparation of preservice teachers, it does not always yield positive results. It also became clear in the data that the nature of the Accounting discipline requires a different type of mentoring as opposed to other disciplines. Hence a ‘one size fits all’ mentoring institutional policy does not yield the desired results of mentoring pre-service teachers in the B Ed:FET programme. Findings from this study suggest that the university must play a greater role in developing mentorship programmes to support pre-service teachers learning to teach during teaching practice, especially for Accounting pre-service teachers.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether external conditions, in the form of an e-learning tool, impact the learning motivation of adult learners in a distance education environment. This study also tested the use of Voice-over-PowerPoint™ technology as a suitable medium to deliver motivational instruction as supplementary content to the course curriculum. This empirical study was conducted over a period of approximately two months on a sample of 57 adult learners who were enrolled for a distance education course for non-degree purposes at a tertiary education institution. Quantitative research methods were applied and data was collected using two motivation measuring surveys: (1) The Course Interest Survey, and (2) The Instructional Materials Motivation Survey, which were both developed by Keller. Motivational strategies were designed for the chosen educational technology, Voice-over-PowerPoint™ (VoP) videos, using Keller's Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction (ARCS) model of motivation. These strategies were then delivered via the learner management system for learners to use at their convenience. This research suggests that overall, learner motivation can be affected by external conditions (VoP videos), and further supports the ARCS model. Furthermore, the use of VoP videos as a viable medium for delivering motivational strategies in a distance learning environment was validated. / Mini Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Taxation / MCom / Unrestricted

Under what conditions and in what situations is the telling of personal history and other stories an effective teaching tool?Storytelling has been used by many of the greatest teachers throughout history. Plato, Jesus and Gandi, used stories, parables and personal histories to educate students (Zabel 1991). In fact, storytelling has been referred to as the foundation of the teaching profession (Abrahamson 1998). In recent years, the use of storytelling has received attention from academic researchers and has been studied in several academic disciplines. It has been suggested that the use of storytelling in higher education settings increases student performance and recollection (Bryant & Harris 2011). However, few students have considered the potential for the use of storytelling in the accounting classroom.This archival research seeks to describe the value of storytelling as a pedagogical tool across academic disciplines, review the literature regarding the use of storytelling in other academic disciplines in higher education, synthesize the findings of existing research and describe the uses, benefits and difficulties with using storytelling in various accountancy classes across the curriculum, and suggest possible uses for storytelling in accountancy classes.

Throughout history, technology has had a major impact on every profession and how certain tasks are performed. In recent years, technology has accelerated at an astonishing rate causing a total shift in the valuable skillsets of young professionals. Accounting is no exception to this shift and, as technology continues to advance, emerging accounting professionals will no longer be expected to enter the workforce only with basic pen-and-paper accounting knowledge. Instead, they will also be expected to possess analytical skills and be prepared to apply and learn the newest technology on the market. However, the traditional accounting curriculum does not focus on technological skills. Rather, it focuses on the basics of accounting, theory, and manual journal entries. Although these basics are certainly fundamental to accounting knowledge they are no longer the most important skills in an accountants repertoire. This raises the following question: are accounting programs adequately preparing graduates to use technological skill in the workplace once they graduate? This research paper seeks to answer that question through a qualitative study of recent Tennessee accounting undergraduates.

Accounting faculty members in community colleges educate a large portion of accounting students each year. Accountants who become accounting faculty are the most common type of accounting instructor in community colleges and they have much to offer because of their prior work experience. Accounting faculty members who have transitioned from industry generally have the knowledge and expertise to be successful in practice but their work experience may not have prepared them for teaching roles in community colleges. The purpose of this research was to obtain information about the experiences and knowledge necessary for the successful transition from industry to teaching. Particular attention was focused on content knowledge, accounting skills, pedagogical knowledge and teaching skills. A basic qualitative research design was used to collect and analyze data for this study. Interviews were used to collect narrative data related to the experiences of accountants as they transitioned to teaching. Data analysis revealed that college academic experiences and on-the-job teaching experiences were influential transition experiences and knowledge of pedagogy was gained through teaching and professional development activities. Pedagogical skills and soft skills are essential skills needed to teach accounting to a diverse group of students. Pre-service teacher preparation and on-going membership was perceived as beneficial for new accounting faculty members. The findings in this study could provide a better understanding of the best ways of supporting entry into the teaching profession in community colleges and could influence recruitment and professional development of accounting educators in community colleges. / Ph. D.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This study deals with the evaluation research conducted to evaluate the Accounting curriculum of Asmara Commercial College (ACC), Eritrea. The purpose of the Accounting programme in this college is to train middle level skilled manpower to satisfy the dire shortages of Accounting personnel in the country. Accounting education in Eritrea seems to lag behind the rest of the world, particularly in curriculum administration and development aspects of the discipline. The target group of the above programme was directed to the 11th grade candidates who have passed the matriculation exam. The primary goal of this training was to achieve qualified students and help them to prepare for the world of work at the end of the programme. A second goal was to assist them in their professional development as future accountants. The study therefore evaluated how successfully the Accounting curriculum helped the students to develop themselves academically and professionally. It was also aimed at providing some suggestions and recommendations to the curriculum developers and teachers of the college in particular and other interested parties to assist them in identifying different aspects of the object of evaluation questions to be addressed. The researcher used both a literature review and empirical data to achieve the desired aim. Based on the literature, the Accounting education concepts, the concepts of change and evaluation as well as the role of evaluation in relation to the Accounting curriculum had been reviewed in order to support the study with its theoretical background. In the empirical part of the study, it investigated the perceptions of the respondents concerning the current Accounting practice at ACC and its relationship with the world of work. The necessary empirical data were mainly collected by 1) interviews and 2)-document analysis. The respondents were seven: 1) the director of ACC, 2) two Accounting instructors from ACC, 3) two employers, and 4) two graduates students. A normal flow of text had been used to analyze each response given to the interview items by respondents and observation of documents.

The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in accounting instruction recommended by the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) at 11 grant recipient schools and 11 similar non-grant recipient schools randomly selected. The AECC suggested that accounting education should include more communication skills, interpersonal skills, and critical- thinking and problem-solving skills. The AECC also recommended that more emphasis be placed on teaching rather than research. To measure implementation of the recommended changes, a four part Accounting Instruction Change Scale was developed. The pilot study, (n=34) revealed that the AICS did not distinguish among the four factors considered. This finding was confirmed in the actual study. Surveys were mailed to 438 subjects, 249 to grant school and 189 to non-grant school accounting faculty, of which 163 surveys were returned, 146 were usable. Using Cronbach's alpha, the reliability of the overall Accounting Instruction Change Scale, as determined by the pilot study, was .92. Reliability, using the Cronbach's alpha, for the final study data was .91. Significant differences were found between respondents and non-respondents for both grant and non-grant schools. Differences in work experience, instruction in educational psychology, and instructional methodology were found to be significant. There were also significant differences between the early respondents and the late respondents in instruction in educational psychology and instructional methodology. Significant differences between the early non-grant school respondents and the late non-grant school respondents were also found in the length of time teaching accounting, length of time at the current institution, and age. These significant differences indicate the sample respondents are a unique group, and any inferences made from this sample to the general population should be made with caution. For the correlations of all variables, Predisposition to Change, Adoption-Proneness, refereed publicaitons, non-refereed publications, work experience, educational psychology, instructional methodology, membership in professional organizations, gender, and age, the the correlations ranged from a high of .497 between the Adoption-Proneness Scale and the Accounting Instruction Change Scale to a low of .001 between age and instruction in educational psychology. In the full Regression Model, the variables included accounted for 40.8% of the variance in the AICS. The regression analysis shows the Predisposition to Change Scale scores and Adoption Proneness Scale scores to be significant expanatory variables concerning predicting the score of the Accounting Instruction Change Scale score. No other significant variables surfaced in the regression analysis indicating institutional membership did not predict AICS score. / Ph. D.