CHAPTER ONE
1.0. INTRODUCTION Financial Accounting is an indispensible
field of study in education. It is a subject that is very essential for
business, it helps both profit and non -profit organization. Financial
Accounting is a subject that involves the process of recording, interpreting
and communicating financial data of an organization to the end users in order
to make useful economic decisions, Barry, R.A. (2010).
The
new policy on education (2004) is designed to be functional, practical and
quantitative. This is expected to reduce the more paper work system associated
with the former system of education and which led to the mass
unemployment. This new policy on
education emphasized vocational education and was formulated by Nigerians to
direct the nation towards technological and economic development and cultural
renewal. An overview of financial
accounting shows that it involves a lot of human cognitive domain i.e. an
individual is expected to be intellectually sound and up to the task of
performing calculation and must be able to translate word problems into calculable state i.e. figures,
Bear, G. (2010).
This is a fundamental characteristic of a
related subject Mathematics. In other words, this is a saying that financial
accounting has a linkage with mathematics but not all students are good in this
particular aspect. Hence, financial accounting as it involve calculation with
indeed is cumbersome also involves own theoretical aspect, Orphanos,
S. (2009).
This on the other hand, is the note aspect. Since most student s find it difficult to perform to
expectation in the calculation aspect, then they can easily boost their
performance in the note aspect because they believe it is easy to cram note
unlike calculations, However, students who have outlined their counterparts in
the calculation area, research has shown that it is as a result of the
permanent format and process that is embedded in the subject that has really
helped them, so they find it interesting
in cramming both the note aspect and the mathematical aspect. But one question
to be asked is this, how long will cramming help the students? What if the
students are called upon to teach their colleagues, will they not fumble? This
question has aroused the interest of the researcher to embark on a research on
developing effective strategies to improve the student’s academic performance
in financial accounting. Since
this study i.e. discipline focuses on preparing the students on how to forge a
head in their academic life at both the tertiary level and professional level,
there is need to look at how their performance can be improved so as to make
them relevant in their field and in other field of study, Chingos, M. &
Whitehurst, G. J. R. (2012).
Due to the vital role
that the knowledge and understanding of financial accounting is playing in the
society, there is need to improve on its standard. Therefore, this project is
carried out with the aim of developing strategies that would help students
improve their academic performance in financial accounting as a subject or
course of study.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) stated that the broad goal of the secondary
school education is to prepare individuals for useful living within the society
and higher education. To achieve these objectives, secondary school education
in Nigeria has six years duration given in two stages, three years of junior
secondary school followed by three years of senior secondary school, Fisher,
D., Frey, N. & Williams, D. (2002).
The curriculum designed for
senior secondary school is comprehensive and broad based, aims at bordering
students’ knowledge and outlook. Subject offered in senior secondary school are
in three groups core subject , vocational subject and non vocation subject acts, one of the vocational subject is
financial accounting, Flanagan,D., Mascolo, J., & Hardy, S. (2009).
Financial
accounting falls under the vocational area and therefore a discipline that is
very essential for business. It helps both profit and non -profit making
organization. This is because it helps the organization to make policies which
helps and enhances expansion. It also assesses the efficiency of management to
making decision relating to further investment. It prospectors in assessing the
efficiency of the management and provide information which assist parties
outside organization to make objective judgment about the organization. However, at the secondary
school level, the objective of teaching this subject is to provide students
with the basic method of processing data to develop manipulation skills and
provide knowledge for career advancement in accounting so as to develop an
economic understanding of business vocabulary, to help students develop and
understand basic accounting concepts and principles. In summary, to be self
reliant. As a result of this, it has been noted by some educational scholars in
this discipline that students needs to improve themselves in order to achieve
the set goals as identified above. In
the content of the academic performance of students in various subjects, it is
seen that the performance of students in term of academic in a subjects demands
improvement as a result of the relevance of the subject in other field of
study. Although,
students of nowadays put up poor performance in this important subject this is
according to the result released by West African Examination Council(WAEC) in
the last five years and even in Joint Admission and Matriculation Board(JAMB)
examination and that of the National Examination Council(NECO). Therefore, if
this problem continues to remain at the fundamental level of the course of
study, it is pertinent to state assert that achieving the goals will be a
little difficult if not checked now. Akinteru (1998) reported that
financial accounting teachers effectiveness in instructional delivery depends
on their consideration of the nature of the subject during instructional planning. According to
her, Financial accounting is not a subject
that can be mastered by mere memorization of the basic rules. It requires total involvement of the
learner in the learning process, sound theoretical intensive practice in the
application of basic principles. To what extent the financial accounting
teachers involve these principles to teach financial accounting is yet to be
determined. According to Ogunu (2000), poor academic
performance has been identified as problem in Nigerian Secondary school. Public
examination for example, WAEC(2000) Analysis of percentage performance of
candidates in West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination for 1998,1999 and 2000 revealed 52.48%,58.38% and
51.21% percentage failure in financial Accounting. Akintelure
(1998) blamed the problem on accounting teachers insensitively to the nature of
financial accounting when planning instructional activities in the classroom. According to
educational proponents, teaching methodologies has great influence in the
outcome of the teaching learning process. The method that the teacher adopts
will immeasurably determined how much he has achieved at the end of the day.
The process of teaching financial accounting entails the use of both verbal and
non verbal teaching aids, problem solving techniques which involves posing a
problem in relation to the subject with the extent of the understanding of the
students so as to enable them to take active participation in the teaching and
learning process. The present study is an attempt to determine the efficiency
of guided discovery method of instruction on the teaching of financial
accounting in some selected secondary schools of Oyo East Local Government Area
of Oyo State.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Accounting like every other business
subject has an inestimable value which it had played and still playing definite
and important roles in the world of business. However,
the academic performance of students in the field of study in the selected
schools has not being considered for major investigation but rather past
researchers had limited their research on the overall academic performance of
students which has made it impossible to determine how students perform in financial accounting. It has been
observed that despite the time allocated to the teaching of financial
accounting in secondary schools, students offering this subject tends to
encounter some problems which leads to
their poor performance and such problems among others are:
1.
inadequate of teachers source
2.
inadequate of teaching aids and instructional materials.
3. Lack of motivation. All these lapses prompted the
researcher to undertake detail study on such retrogressive observation.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Since
Financial Accounting is a subject which helps in the socio-economic development
of the masses, it becomes pertinent for all hands to be on desk. If improvement
is to be made generally, financial accounting like ever y other field or
discipline is associated with some problems. It is on this ground that study is
carried out to develop the strategies for improving student’s academic
performance I n financial accounting in some selected secondary school of Oyo
East Local Government Area of Oyo State.
The
following are therefore objectives for which the study is carried out:
1.
To determine the factors leading to poor performance of students in financial
accounting.
2.
To develop strategies that will help to bring improvement on the students’ poor
academic performance in the subject.
3.
To determine whether the factors identified in (1) above is teacher centered or
student centered.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESIS
1. What are the
factors that lead to poor performance of students in Financial Accounting?
2. What are the strategies that will help
improvement on the students’ poor academic performance?
3. Are the
factors listed on the table above, more teacher centered or students centered?
Research Hypothesis
Ho1:
The quality of financial accounting teachers does not have a statistically
significant effect on students’ academic performance
Decision Rule:
Reject the null hypothesis if the Asymp Sig level is less than 0.05. Otherwise,
you do not reject the null hypothesis.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This
research will highlight suggested ways for improving academic performance of
students in financial accounting in some
selected secondary school of Oyo East Local Government Area of Oyo State. The
research will be relevant in the following areas:
1. The research work will try to find out
ways of encouraging the present and future students of the selected secondary
school of Oyo East Local Government Area of Oyo State so that they can have
meaningful and personal relationship with their teachers. 2. This study will
also assist teachers of financial accounting to design the appropriate
methodology that fit into the curriculum of the subject. 3. The research work
will be of immense assistance to financial accounting administrators especially
the school principal, if the findings are thoroughly implemented. 4. The study will
help students harness both the
newly developed strategies and the existing ones so as to lead to improvement
in their academic performance. 5. The
findings of this study will also encourage parents/guardians of these students
to know the importance of their roles in improving the students academic
performance.
1.6 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY This study
would however be limited to four (4) secondary schools of Oyo East Local
Government Area of Oyo State. Also the scope of the study will include only the
students offering the subject. A total number of thirty (30) students both male
and female students are to be selected from each selected secondary schools.
male and female students totaling one hundred and twenty students.
1.7 DEFINITION OF THE TERMS
To
enhance objectivity and effectiveness of this research, some important terms
that are unavoidable are explicitly defined below: 1. FINANCIAL
ACCOUNTING: Can be defined as the process of collecting, recording, presenting
and analyzing/interpreting financial information for the users of financial
information. The beginning phase for financial accounting is the data
collection which capture data and other relevant facts as they occur. The
details are captured on source document. Examples of such source document
include invoice, debit notes, credit notes, voucher etc.
2. TEACHING:
Is a polymorphic process, it is an activities aimed at the achievement of
learning and practicing in such a manner as to respect the students
intellectual, integrity and capacity for independent judgment. It is also concern
with the task of bringing about understanding and knowledge. Obanya(1980) pointed out that
teaching is a series of interrelated activities engaged in the teacher to bring
out changes in the learners behavior.
3.
STRATEGIES: Mintzberg from Mc Gill
University (2011) define strategy as a pattern in a stream of decision to
contrast with a view of strategy as planning. Man McKeanon (2011) in his own
definition argues that strategy is about shaping the future and is the human
attempt to get desirable ends with available means. 4.
CURRICULUM: Is the totality of the experience which the learners have acquired
under the direction of the school for the purpose of effecting desirable
patterns of behavior. Tyler(1963)defined
curriculum as all the learning of students which is planned and directed by the school to attain its
education goals. 5.TEACHING
METHODS: This refers to the systematic
orderly procedure in teaching and learning. Andery and Nicholas(1976)
explained teaching methods as involving the relationship among pupils,
teachers and materials. The organization
of contents, its manner of presentation to the pupils and the activities pupils
and teachers carryout.