Developing the critical thinking skills of first year accounting students with an active learning intervention

Abstract

Business graduates need advanced critical thinking abilities. Critical thinking is best taught as part of the core technical business curriculum and preferably early in the academic programme. Using action research, the researchers designed and tested the effectiveness of an intervention which sought to develop first-year accounting students' critical thinking abilities as part of their core curriculum. The intervention included explicit teaching on critical thinking in accounting and various active learning exercises (both in the classroom and after class), using a flipped classroom approach, simulations, reflection, real-life or practical examples and student feedback. All 459 registered students were exposed to the critical thinking intervention, and evidence of enhanced student engagement was noted. The effectiveness of the intervention was tested using a one-group pre-test-post-test pre-experimental design, using an accounting-related custom-designed critical thinking measurement tool. A total of 95 pre-test and 72 post-test student responses were statistically analysed (voluntary participation in the study reduced the number of participants below the 459 registered students). Participants' critical thinking scores showed a significant increase ( p < 0.01) after the critical thinking intervention, indicating that the intervention was effective and that it is possible to develop first-year students’ critical thinking skills by engaging them in specialised active learning exercises. The unique value of our findings lie in detailing the intervention (which other business educators could employ when including similar interventions in their core modules), developing and piloting the accounting-related critical thinking measurement tool and using the tool (and other methods) to show that the intervention was effective. • Students' critical thinking skills should be developed from first year. • Critical thinking can be taught as a part of the core technical curriculum. • Specialised active learning exercises enhance students' critical thinking skills.