Teaching the concept of control under IFRS 15: the effect of a three-step teaching approach and analogy usage

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to extend the current literature on International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) teaching by examining the argument by Hodgdon et al. (2013) that arranging accounting prescriptions into the level of concept, principle and rules is helpful to students in comprehending the complex set of accounting standards. Besides, the study aims to attest the argument that analogy is a useful tool in teaching, especially when dealing with complex knowledge or concepts. Design/methodology/approach The study used a 3 × 2 between-subjects design, which includes the independent variables of the three-step teaching method (concept-only, concept + principle and concept + principle + rules) and the presence or absence of analogy. Findings The findings support Hodgdon et al. (2013). However, the combination of Hodgdon et al.’s (2013) technique with analogy resulted in only better-perceived comprehension under the concept-only condition. Research limitations/implications There are limitations to the use of analogy as an instructional tool. The reasoning behind an analogy is that it is produced from different fields in which the target and source topics have only some similarity in structure or function. This suggests a limited capacity in which the source topic can be used to fully explain a targeted topic, and thus caution needs to be exercised in the use of analogy as a teaching tool. Additionally, this study uses a perceived understanding of control in IFRS 15. While perceived understanding may likely result in actual comprehension, there is a possibility that this may not be the case. Finally, this study did not consider about how rule comprehensiveness is affected. Practical implications The findings of this study provide a useful combination of teaching tools to educators on how to deliver technical business subjects such as accounting effectively. Originality/value This paper aims to answer the call by Hodgdon et al. (2013) to verify the effectiveness of teaching IFRS via the three-step approach. In addition, this study extends the literature by examining whether an analogy could be used with the three-step approach to effectively improve students’ understanding of IFRS.