Approaches to learning of Indonesian accounting students

Numerous calls for improved learning outcomes in accounting graduates have been made by the accounting education bodies and the accounting profession. It has been claimed that the quality of student learning can be enhanced by encouraging a deep approach to learning. Research examining accounting students' learning approaches have been growing vastly (e.g., Booth et al., 1999; Davidson, 2002; Duff, 2004; Eley, 1992; English et al., 2004; Hall et al., 2004; Jackling, 2005a–b). However, most of these studies have been focused on learning approaches of accounting students within the Western societies. Only a few studies have explored this issue in the context of Asian accounting students, and most of them have been conducted using Chinese students (Gow et al., 1994; Cooper, 2004). This study aims to add to the body of literature in this area by exploring approaches to the learning of accounting undergraduate students in Indonesia from gender and cultural perspectives. The findings presented in this paper suggest that motivation, culture and learning environment appear to explain more in terms of differences in approaches to learning adopted by the students than gender.