Evaluating pedagogy in educating business majors: an empirical analysis of teaching accounting without debits and credits

Craig Sisneros,Atul Rai

doi:10.21511/afc.02(1).2018.02

Abstract

An upper-level intermediate accounting course taught at two large mid-west universities in the United States provides a natural experimental setting to examine whether teaching debits/credits in the introductory financial accounting course matters. Students in the upper-level course fall into two groups: those who learned debits/credits in the introductory course and those who weren’t. The performance of both groups is evaluated during the semester while they take the upper level accounting course. Regression results show that the prior knowledge of debits/credits offers only a mild advantage in the first mid-term exam, but not thereafter. Results also indicate that grade point average (standardized tests like ACT scores) are a good (not a good) predictor of the performance in the upper-level accounting class. These results suggest that teaching debits and credits in the introductory accounting course does not provide any advantage in learning the material of upper-level accounting course.

Highlights

In the USA and the USA inspired curricula, introductory accounting students are introduced to the convention of recording increases and decreases in various accounts via the double-entry system of accounting
Results indicate that grade point average are a good predictor of the performance in the upper-level accounting class. These results suggest that teaching debits and credits in the introductory accounting course does not provide any advantage in learning the material of upper-level accounting course
The traditional approach has been taught with the assumption that those who know how to utilize debits/credits are far better at interpretation of accounting choices made

Summary

Introduction

In the USA and the USA inspired curricula, introductory accounting students are introduced to the convention of recording increases and decreases in various accounts via the double-entry system of accounting. This was taught using the debit/credit approach, which we label as the “traditional approach” to teaching the introductory accounting course. The traditional approach has been taught with the assumption that those who know how to utilize debits/credits are far better at interpretation of accounting choices made. An alternate approach has emerged that teaches the entire introductory accounting course without the use of debits and credits ( the “alternate approach”). That is, are students who didn’t learn debits and credits early in their introduction to accounting disadvantaged in learning the underlying skills to interpret higher level accounting choices?

Objectives

Results

Conclusion