Using questionnaires in financial accounting

The implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) requires a paradigm shift with respect to the teaching-learning process, in which students now take an active role in their formative learning process, helped by instructors who are no longer transmitters of knowledge but instead facilitators of student learning. In order to make this change, instructors have to adopt new teaching/learning methodologies that encourage active student involvement in learning. Questionnaires are among those resources that are available to instructors seeking to implement active methodologies that allow students to improve their academic outcomes. To assess this, our study aims to analyze the impact of using formative questionnaires on student performance in Financial Accounting, a subject taught at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). The sample consists of data pertaining to 543 students, forming 7 groups. These data refer to the groups in which students are enrolled; university-access grades; the number of times a student is enrolled; partial and final grades; and the realization of interactive questionnaires. Different analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) -assuming homogeneous and heterogeneous regression slopes between groups- was applied to the sample data in order to examine group-factor effect and consequently the use of questionnaires, on student performance in accounting, isolating the effect of individual students' initial ability. The findings provide evidence for significant differences in the different subject groups' average performance. We conclude that the incorporation of questionnaires as a teaching-learning strategy helps to improve the average results obtained by students in introductory subjects and in accounting.