ISSN: 2225-8329
Open access
Taking a legal-based paper among the Accounting students is often set as a challenge due to a complexity of legal terms and its application to bring a conceptual and technical knowledge to a real case situation. Being aware of its course natures, determine a knowledge structure would assist the students and course instructor in the development of effective styles of teaching and learning. Guided with the main objective of study to analyze how the Third year of accounting students in a Taxation Class constructed their knowledge by using a semi-structured questionnaire. At the end of the semester, student achievement was measured for describing how students who were successful in this course used effective ways of constructing their knowledge. Based on the analysis, the result shows that a Taxation subject is a hierarchical knowledge structure and to be succeeding in this subject requires a student to acquire a high degree of conceptual and technical knowledge. Given the lens through the student’s view validated by what was seen in their examination result. The study outcomes suggests that knowing the structure of knowledge in a particular subject allows students to expand for a student progresses through the course and becomes skilled in various procedures. This adds the value to course instructors for improving pedagogical approach and producing a proper documentation (procedures) for guiding a moderate or less successful student in the various techniques which are required for knowledge construction.
1. Bailar, B., Bailey, L., & Stevens, J. (1977). Measures of interviewer bias and variance. Journal of
Marketing Research, 14(3), 337–343.
2. Barrows, H, S. (1994). Problem-based Learning. Problem-based learning applied to medical education. Illinois: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
3. Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20(2), 157–173.
4. Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique (Rev.ed.). Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
5. Blechova, B. & Sobotovicova, S. (2015). Analysis of Tax Education in a Business School: a Case Study. Periodica Polytechnica Social and Management Sciences, 24(2). 113-118.
6. Boldt, M. N. (2001).Assessing Student's Accounting Knowledge: A Structural Approach. Journal of Education for Business, 76(6), 262-269.
7. Bradford, S., & Cullen, F. (2012). Research and research methods for youth practitioners. London: Routledge.
8. Colburn, A. (2000). An inquiry primer. Science Scope, 42-44.
9. Collier, D., & Mahoney, J. (1996). Insights and pitfalls: Selection bias in qualitative research. World Politics, 49(1), 56–91.
10. Douglas, S. (2012). Student engagement, problem based learning and teaching law to Business students. E-Journal of Business Education & Scholarship of Teaching, 6 (1), 33-47.
11. Evans, C. (2018). Analyzing Semi-Structured Interviews Using Thematic Analysis: Exploring Voluntary Civic Participation among Adults. London: SAGE Publishing.
12. Flick, U. W. E. (2009). An introduction to qualitative research. London: SAGE Publishing.
13. Furnham, A. (1986). Response bias, social desirability and dissimulation. Personality and Individual Differences, 7(3), 385–400.
14. Hoadley, U., & Muller, J. (2009). Codes, pedagogy and knowledge: Advances in Bernsteinian sociology of education. In M. W. Apple, S. J. Ball, & Armando Gandin, Luis (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education, London; New York: Routledge.
15. Martin, F. (2003). Using a Modified based learning approach to motivate and enhance learning in taxation law. The Law Teacher, 37(1), 55-75.
16. Maton, K. and Muller, J. (2007). A Sociology for the Transmission of Knowledges. In Language, Knowledge and Pedagogy. Functional Linguistic and Sociological Perspectives, ed. F. Christie and J.R. Martin, (pp.14-33). London: Continuum.
17. Maton, K. (2010). Analysing knowledge claims and practices: Languages of Legitimation. In K. Maton & R. Moore (Eds.), Social Realism, Knowledge and the Society of Education: Coalitions of the Mind (pp. 35–59). London: Continuum.
18. Myers, L. P. (2016). Knowledge structures and their relevance for teaching and learning in introductory financial accounting. South African Journal of Accounting Research, 30(1), 75-95.
19. Myers, L. P. (2017). An analysis of how students construct knowledge in a course with a hierarchical knowledge structure. South African Journal of Accounting Research, 31(31), 193-211.
20. Newlyn, D., & Spencer, L. (2010), Improving Student Performance in Interdisciplinary Law Unit Assessment by Providing Annotated Exemplars. Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association, 3(1), 67-75.
21. Aziah, N. A. M., Zuaini, I. and Nordin, W. H. (2011). Application of PBL in Financial Accounting Principles Course. Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction (MJLI), 8, 21–47.
22. Aziah, N. A. M., Zuaini, I., Zahyah, H., & Sofia, M. Y. (2013). Crafting A Good PBL Scenario in Company Secretarial Practices Course, The paper presented in The 4th International Research Symposium on Problem-Based Learning (IRSPBL).
23. Ramsden, P. (2005). Learning to Teach in Higher Education, 2nd ed., Routledge Falmer.
To cite this article: Ismail, Z., Ahmad, A.S., Ahmad, N.L., Mahjom, N. (2019). An Analysis of Students' Knowledge Construction and Their Achievement in a Taxation Subject, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences 9 (3): 346-352
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode