The Association Between Prior Knowledge and Learning Approaches, in Performance in an Advanced Accounting Course

Ensuring quality in accounting education is the target by academicians in the field. One of the measures would be students’ performance which would be the benchmark of indicating whether the students are performing accordingly. Based on previous literature, prior knowledge and students’ learning approaches are seen as contributing factors to performance. The purpose of this study is to determine the following: (1) to identify whether the students with prior knowledge perform better in an advanced accounting course, (2) to identify whether learning approaches (deep, surface and strategic) could also contribute to students’ performances and (3) to identify association between gender and performance. A total of 109 students responded to the questionnaires consisting Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) which was used to identify the approaches to learning adopted by IIUM students. The results found that prior knowledge is the only significant variable and there is no association found between learning approaches and gender towards advanced accounting course performance. It implies that more effort should be directed at increasing the students’ comprehension in the prior knowledge which would include increase student centre learning approaches in teaching.