SUMMARY OF THE STUDY

This is made up of two parts. First, the summary of the research process is presented. This component of the summary covers the research questions and a summary of the methodology used in the study. Second, is the summary of the key findings where the main findings of the study are summarised and reported. It presents the summarised findings reflecting the research questions. As well, some critical observations made considered perennial, though not part of the research questions, are presented.

6.2.1 Summary of the Research Process

The 2007 Education Reform staged in Ghana left in its wake several modifications or total overhaul in some components of the accounting curriculum. The content of financial accounting was affected in terms of content modifications, horizontal and vertical integration, increased workload, some changes in pedagogy. These changes in the curriculum might have changed accounting teachers‘ role, increased their workload, or required an update of their pedagogical content knowledge. However, the extent of consultation of accounting teachers

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in the planning and development of the curriculum is not appreciable to warrant their total devotion to its success.

In spite of the curricular change, the needed human and material supplies needed to facilitate the implementation of the curriculum are not forthcoming. Most of the curriculum materials such as the supporting text books and hard copies of the syllabuses were not readily available to the accounting teachers (Ankomah & Kwarteng, 2010). Even those accounting teachers who have such documents are unsure about their ability to implement such changes thoroughly without any guidance (Ankomah & Kwarteng, 2010). Additionally developing the curriculum independent of the accounting teachers might decrease their morale to implement a working tool that they are not a party to its development (Kwarteng, 2013). This state of affairs might impair accounting teachers‘ ability to position themselves strategically to implement the change without compromising quality.

As such the success rate of the implementation of the accounting curriculum in senior high schools might was a suspect. Therefore, it having implications on quality of accounting education at the senior high school level. Accordingly, an investigation was staged to determine the level of quality of implementation of the accounting curriculum in senior high schools in Ghana. Using accounting teachers‘ level of use of the accounting curriculum; their description of the components of the accounting curriculum; their concerns in implementing the curriculum; their preparedness to implementing cost accounting curriculum relative to the financial accounting curriculum; examiners‘ concerns about students‘ performance in accounting in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination; and the level of instructional quality of accounting education as proxies, the quest was achieved through the following research questions which were subsequently addressed in the study:

1. What is the level of use of the accounting curriculum by accounting teachers and how comfortable are they in using the curriculum?

2. How do accounting teachers describe the components of the accounting curriculum they are using and how do their description affects quality accounting education? 3. At what stage, as determined by the Stages of Concern, are accounting teachers in

implementing the accounting curriculum?

4. How prepared are accounting teachers in implementing cost accounting curriculum relative to the financial accounting curriculum?

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5. Why do accounting examiners raise concerns on accounting students‘ performance in the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination?

6. How are accounting teachers teaching to improve quality accounting education at the senior high school level?

The study was descriptive survey that drew from both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. This involved the use of questionnaire, observation, vignette and documentary analysis. The population consisted of accounting teachers and students from 413 public senior high schools offering accounting education in Ghana. Simple random sampling was used in the selection of the schools whose accounting teachers and final year accounting students participated in the study. For the purpose of this study, the country was zoned into three. Thus, each region was captured in one of the three zones as in Southern (Central, Greater Accra, Volta and Western Regions), Middle (Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern Regions) and Northern (Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions) zones. From each zone, one representational region was selected randomly by lottery draw. All senior high schools from each of the selected regions had their accounting teachers and students participating in the study.

The participation of a school and its responding accounting teachers and students was voluntary. Respondents who were willing to participate after they had been assured of their anonymity and confidentiality were included in the study. Even so, any respondent who gave his/her prior consent to participate or actually starts but along the way liked to drop out of the study was permitted to do so without any penalty or reprisal.

Four methods were used to gather primary data. These included questionnaire which comprised an adaptation of the stages of concern and levels of use questionnaires by Hall, George and Rutherford (1998); the innovation configuration checklist and accounting teacher preparedness to teach cost accounting questionnaire, both of which were developed by the researcher. As well some self-developed vignette and the observation guides were developed and used to complement the data collection.

The quantitative data yielded by the questionnaire were analysed into descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviations, percentages and frequency counts and line graphs. Inferential statistics such as ANOVA were employed to measure the statistical influence of

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some variables as determinants of quality indicators of accounting education. The report by the accounting Chief Examiners of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) were subjected to analysis to content analyses; whilst narratives and themes were used in analysing the vignette and observation data respectively.

6.2.2 Summary of Key Findings

Generally, the study revealed that accounting education lacks the quality standards expected to be imputed to it. Apparently, accounting teachers do not get the need administrative support in implementing the accounting curriculum. Accounting teachers do not use the curriculum, the basic tool for instructional guidance, for accounting instructions. Instructional engagement in accounting lessons lack the essence required to impute and sustain some appreciable level of quality in the accounting educational enterprise. The individual findings, reflecting the various research questions, which contributed to this overall assessment of the lack of desired quality in accounting education are further provided in some depth.

1. Accounting teachers are developmentally progressing through various level of use given the time of introduction of the reform. To the best of their knowledge and insofar as available logistics could permit, accounting teachers are vigorously engaged in the delivery of the curriculum. Thus, they resorted to some other means as articulated by most of them for their instructional needs.

2. The fidelity of implementation of the accounting curriculum is a suspect. Across all the components of the accounting curriculum the accounting teachers described there was none in which unanimous congruence was obtained. In reality, each accounting teacher has their own interpretation of the components of the accounting curriculum. Their descriptions of the same curriculum differed markedly and thus shrouded in and clouded by subjectivity.

3. Accounting teachers are considered as nonusers of the accounting curriculum. They have awareness, informational and personal concerns. Simply, they were self- concerns, who apparently failed to use the accounting curriculum. These lower level concerns are indicative of their non-use of the curriculum.

4. Accounting teachers were ill-prepared to implement the cost accounting curriculum. They were incapable of surmounting the challenges the cost accounting curriculum presents. This partly due to the fact that among accounting teachers and their students cost accounting had lost popularity. The rather deteriorating situation of the cost

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accounting instruction was well explain the lackadaisical attitude staged by school authorities to support cost accounting to succeed in the senior high school curriculum. 5. The chief examiners lamented the abysmal display of content knowledge of accounting students in interpreting accounting concepts and the effective application of relevant accounting principles and standards in dealing with transactions. The examiners further noted that accounting students merely memorise and state formulae without being able to translate knowledge to solve practical problems. As well, the examiners were emphatic about the lack of details in students‘ responses and the illogical conclusions in students‘ reasoning. It was noted that students were not meticulous in the presentation of answers, as such they made several errors in their write-ups.

6. Distractions in the classrooms inhibited accounting teachers and students to get the needed concentration to aid instructional success. Discipline suffered in accounting classrooms at the senior high school level in Ghana but accounting teachers seemed not to care. They appeared to have lost touch with the relevant teaching strategies and techniques that are potent to promote students‘ learning. Accounting teachers fitted the lesson to their needs instead of focusing on the accounting students. They displayed their knowledge in dispensing with the subject matter and failed to engage students in purposeful activities that ignite passion and enthusiasm in accounting students.

Form the results, a critical observation was undertaken to unearth the factors that influenced the extant level of quality in senior high school accounting education. The factors were examined to determine whether they propelled or slowed the implementation of the accounting curriculum based on which the level of quality in senior high school accounting education. The following factors facilitated the implementation of the senior high school and thus heightened the quality in the senior high school accounting education:

1. Accounting teachers‘ questioning skills

2. Proliferation of quality textbooks and technology 3. Accounting teacher availability and quality 4. Accounting curriculum content simplification

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The state of poor quality senior high school accounting education is explicable on the basis of some factors that have negatively mediated the instructional progress in the classroom. There were some factors that were noted to have militated against the success of the accounting curriculum implementation. These factors abound with varying degrees of intensity in terms of how they retrogressively impacted the quality of the senior high school accounting education in Ghana. The factors were referred to as inhibitors of the accounting curriculum. They included:

1. Teacher dominance in accounting lessons 2. Irresponsive accounting teacher education

3. Teachers‘ motivation to use the accounting curriculum 4. Teacher concerns in adopting the accounting curriculum 5. Selective implementation of accounting education

6. Ineffective pedagogical interactions and poor communicative skills 7. Constrained instructional time

8. Frequent curricular changes

9. Poor quality of instructional facility