The effect of team learning on student profile and student performance in accounting education

The first objective of this study is to investigate students’ preferences for learning methods in relation to their learning strategy, motivation, gender, and ability. Two learning methods are considered: team learning and lecture-based learning. The second objective is to explore the effectiveness of the chosen learning method by comparing academic achievement between the lecture-based and team-learning groups. A quasi-experiment was administered, consisting of an untreated control group with a pre-test and a post-test, for a first-year undergraduate accounting class. Students choose one of the two learning paths and subsequently follow their chosen learning path. The results show that female students had a higher preference for team learning than male students. Furthermore, team-learning students were more intrinsically motivated, had a lower ability level, and had less control of their learning beliefs, but they were more willing to share their knowledge with peers. The teamlearning approach also resulted in increased performance in an advanced accounting course while controlling for the differences in gender and ability. This beneficial impact of team learning on performance was not found for other courses, leading to the conclusion that team learning offers an appropriate learning method at the university level for a first-year accounting course.