The Change of Students’ Perception of Accounting Skills in Intermediate Accounting:A Guide for Accounting Education Reform

Abstract

This paper assesses accounting and non-accounting majors’ perceptions of their accounting knowledge obtained from the introductory accounting course before and after three weeks of class lectures and a completion of an on-line case assignment in an intermediate accounting setting. Specifically, we examine students’ perceptions of their accounting knowledge in four areas: journalizing transactions, financial statement preparation, financial statement interpretation, and financial statement analysis. Our results show that accounting and non-accounting majors have different learning outcomes (measured by perception of abilities) under the same learning environment. Our findings provide several classroom implications and insights for accounting education reform.