Teaching through Experiential Learning Cycle to Enhance Student Engagement in Principles of Accounting

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate structuring classroom activities in experiential learning cycles to facilitate first-year Business and Accounting students’ engagement in principles of accounting course. The levels of student engagement and achievement in understanding accounting concepts are measured at the end of the course. The content of fundamental accounting is structured into experiential learning cycles to provide a practical model for learning accounting concepts. Two models of students learning are tested in this study are the Kolb Experiential Learning Model and Burch Engagement Model. A quasi - experimental study is implemented to test the effectiveness of an experiential learning model in improving student engagement. Lessons on Business Accounting is structured into an experiential learning cycle and delivered to an experimental group to measure the improvement in students’ engagement. Burch Engagement Model which measures students’ cognitive, emotional, and physical engagement is applied in measuring their engagement level. A pre and post-test design are employed to measure the difference in their engagement level between the control and the experimental group. The respondents of this study are a total of 112 students in Principles of Accounting course. Questionnaires and test sets are the measurement instruments used for data collection. After an eight-week exposure to experiential learning strategy, the post -test score for students’ engagement show an increase in means of the four dimensions of student engagement, with the highest mean in the cognitive in-class engagement, followed by cognitive out-of class, physical and emotional engagement. Improvement in the cognitive score is concluded to be significant across the cognitive levels of Bloom Taxonomy mainly in understanding, application, and analysis. The implications of this study involve improvement of the support system to materialize the experiential learning strategy.