Promoting Self-Regulated Learning among First-Year Accounting-Student Teachers: A Student-Empowerment Pedagogical Framework

Abstract

The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic significantly diminished opportunities for face-to-face learning. This came at the backdrop of the consistent failure of first-year students to cope with the demands of learning in a complex higher educational system, which prioritises autonomous learning. Such a failure has been attributed to the structured and supportive learning environments in basic education, which have not only produced excessively dependent learners, but also a cohort of first-year students with low levels of resilience, self-efficacy, and motivation. Against this exposition, this quantitative study investigated those teaching approaches that lecturers can use to promote self-regulated learning among first-year accounting-student teachers. Guided by the fundamental precepts of the social-cognitive model of self-regulated learning and informed by interpretivism, quantitative data were collected using a Likert Scale questionnaire. The statistical analysis of the data revealed that meaningful and sustainable self-regulated learning can only be promoted by a purely student-centred approach. With an overall mean above 4.0, problem-based learning was found to frequently promote the self-regulated learning of students. Conversely, given an overall mean of just above 2.0, scaffolding and guided instruction were found to rarely promote self-regulated learning. A low standard deviation of below 1.0 on all three teaching approaches suggests a very small variance in the students’ scores. On the basis of these findings, the study calls for a pragmatic adoption of radical student-centred constructivist teaching approaches. In line with this recommendation, institutions of higher learning need to capacitate lecturers to teach students problem-solving and self-regulated learning skills.