Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Curriculum and Instruction PhD

First Advisor

Larry D. Burton

Second Advisor

Tevni E. Grojales

Third Advisor

Annetta M. Gibson

Abstract

Problem: There is the growing demand by all stakeholders (teachers, students, employers, governments, and society) for universities and colleges to be more accountable in preparing their products for the challenges of the 21 st century. Such demands have fueled interest in the evaluation of student learning in virtually all disciplines in college. There are calls for pedagogic innovations that will improve student learning in college. If any success can be achieved in addressing the challenge of improving the quality of products from higher education, then colleges and universitieshave need for reliable data. Such data can be obtained partly through an effective process of evaluation that allows for the examination of clear indicators of program quality and the effect on student learning. It is with this in mind that I embarked on this study that relied on the perceptions of some key stakeholders to evaluate the performance of an undergraduate accounting program in a private university in Ghana.

Method: This study employed a quantitative descriptive non-experimental survey design. Four questionnaires were developed and administered to evaluate the perceptions of current students, former students/graduates, faculty, and administrators of anundergraduate accounting program in a private Ghanaian university. This study was conducted within the overarching framework of the CIPP evaluation model, and all research questions, associate research questions, and hypothesis were analyzed and discussed in terms of this framework. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the research questions.

Results: The purpose of this descriptive quantitative survey study was to find out the perceptions ofstudents, lecturers, graduates, and administrators of the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in the accounting program in a private university in Ghana. The program was perceived by these groups as performing positively in the context and product dimensions, but less so in the input and process dimensions. Again, the study indicated no significant differences in the perceptions of the students, graduates, faculty, and administrators of the BBA in accounting program.

In spite of this general agreement by all the respondent groups on the positive performance, there were specific areas relating particularly to the provision of additional resources that will require some improvement. These include the improvement in library resources and facilities, improvement in classroom facilities, provision of more teaching and learning materials, the provision of more opportunities for faculty improvement and development, and improvement in administrative support.

Conclusion: Important as the above findings are, it is my view that a more comprehensive evaluation of the program may require the validation of some of the responses elicited through the surveys. This may include interviews with relevant stakeholders, observations, and examination of program and institutional documents.

Subject Area

Accounting--Study and teaching, Business education--Evaluation

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/177/

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