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Professor, Head of Department, Jari Huikku from the Department of Accounting and Business Law at the Aalto University School of Business and Professor Hannu Ojala and University Lecturer Markus Mättö from the University of Eastern Finland have published an article ‘Understanding the shift: exploring motivational and contextual factors affecting the adoption of learning approach’. The article discusses the learning approaches adopted by students in the introductory accounting course and the reasons for the changes that have occurred.

The study found that a large proportion of students in the introductory accounting course had moved from the desired deep learning to surface learning approach. A deep learner tries to understand the subject matter in more depth, is able to relate what they learn to their prior knowledge and has a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards learning. The surface learner takes a more superficial approach to learning, trying to memorise things.

‘Our results show that students tend to switch to undesirable surface-oriented learning if they find the course workload too heavy or the quality of teaching sub-optimal. To allow for an appropriate workload, when constructing curricula for degree programmes, special attention should be paid to an even distribution of courses over the academic year and to offering core courses several times per academic year,’ says Jari Huikku.

Hannu Ojala continues that the quality of teaching can be influenced in many ways, such as pedagogical training, collecting and analysing student feedback, identifying different learning styles and responding to them in teaching. ‘Teachers should also compare their teaching methods and course content with each other in an effort to identify and share best practice.’

‘Understanding the shift: exploring motivational and contextual factors affecting the adoption of learning approach’ article has been published in Accounting Education journal. The journal is ranked A in the ABDC Journal Quality Guide (the journal has an impact factor of 2.5).