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Impact of Contract Account Exercises on Contract Costing Skills among Accounting Education Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Contract costing is an important area of cost and management accounting that enables students to understand the measurement, accumulation, allocation, and control of costs associated with long-term and large-scale contracts. Accounting education students require practical skills to prepare contract accounts, classify direct and indirect costs, determine work certified and uncertified, calculate notional and estimated profit, account for retention money, assess materials and plant used on contracts, and determine appropriate profit recognition. However, conventional approaches to teaching contract costing may emphasize theoretical explanations and routine calculations without providing sufficient opportunities for students to apply contract costing principles to realistic construction and long-term project situations. Contract Account Exercises provide students with structured opportunities to analyse contract transactions, classify costs, prepare contract accounts, calculate relevant balances, and evaluate contract profitability. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of contract account exercises on contract costing skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on Experiential Learning Theory, Constructivist Learning Theory, and Mastery Learning Theory. Experiential Learning Theory emphasizes learning through concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation, providing a suitable framework for students' engagement with practical contract costing activities. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes active participation, problem-solving, prior knowledge, and the construction of knowledge through meaningful learning experiences. Mastery Learning Theory emphasizes repeated practice, formative assessment, corrective feedback, and opportunities for learners to achieve clearly defined competencies. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how contract account exercises may influence students' contract costing skills. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise undergraduate accounting education students enrolled in selected public and private universities across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, universities, faculties or departments, levels of study, and eligible accounting education students. Contract account exercises will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of practical exercises, preparation of contract accounts, classification of direct contract costs, treatment of indirect expenses, allocation of overheads, materials purchased and consumed, materials returned or transferred, plant and equipment used on contracts, wages and labour costs, subcontracting costs, direct expenses, site expenses, work certified, work uncertified, retention money, cash received, escalation clauses, cost variations, contract price, notional profit, estimated profit, recognition of profit, provision for unrealized profit, loss-making contracts, incomplete contracts, contract completion, case-based exercises, spreadsheet-based activities, accounting software, lecturer guidance, feedback, and opportunities for repeated practice. Students' contract costing skills will be assessed using indicators such as accurate classification and recording of contract costs, preparation of contract accounts, calculation of work certified and uncertified, determination of contract profit or loss, calculation of notional and estimated profit, treatment of retention money, accounting for materials and plant, calculation of cost-to-date, evaluation of contract profitability, application of profit-recognition procedures, identification of cost overruns, interpretation of contract financial information, preparation of relevant accounting entries, numerical accuracy, and ability to solve unfamiliar contract costing problems. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized contract costing skills tests, practical contract account tasks, construction and long-term project scenarios, case studies, spreadsheet exercises, competency-based assessment rubrics, observation checklists, and pre-test and post-test assessments where a quasi-experimental design is adopted. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, contract costing learning experiences, practical exercise exposure, and levels of contract costing skills. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, paired and independent t-tests, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of contract account exercises on students' contract costing skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, contract costing skill scores before and after exposure to contract account exercises may be compared with those of a comparison group receiving conventional cost accounting instruction to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that contract account exercises have a significant positive impact on contract costing skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. Students who regularly engage in structured contract account exercises are expected to demonstrate stronger abilities to classify contract costs, prepare contract accounts, calculate work certified and uncertified, determine notional and estimated profit, account for retention money, evaluate contract profitability, and apply appropriate profit-recognition procedures than students exposed primarily to conventional lecture-based instruction. Practical exercises may help students understand the relationship between contract costs, contract revenue, work completed, cash received, retention money, and recognized profit. Exposure to realistic construction and long-term project scenarios may strengthen students' ability to apply costing principles to complex and unfamiliar situations. Exercises involving cost overruns, escalation clauses, incomplete contracts, and loss-making contracts may improve students' analytical reasoning, problem-solving abilities, and professional judgement. Spreadsheet-based and computerized accounting activities may further strengthen students' digital accounting competence and ability to organize and analyse large volumes of contract cost information efficiently. However, inadequate access to realistic contract records, limited accounting technology, large class sizes, insufficient instructional time, limited lecturer training, and students' difficulty in understanding complex contract costing procedures may reduce the effectiveness of contract account exercises. The study therefore expects structured, practical, progressively challenging, and technology-supported contract account exercises to contribute significantly to improved contract costing skills among accounting education students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on contract account exercises, contract costing skills, accounting education, cost accounting education, management accounting education, practical accounting competence, experiential learning, constructivist learning, mastery learning, accounting pedagogy, construction accounting, and higher education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Universities Commission, universities, accounting education departments, accounting educators, professional accounting bodies, accounting firms, construction organizations, employers, curriculum developers, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening practical cost accounting education. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for increasing practical contract costing activities, developing realistic Nigerian construction and long-term project cases, strengthening students' training in contract cost classification and profit recognition, integrating spreadsheets and accounting software into contract account exercises, training accounting educators in practical contract costing instruction, using competency-based contract costing assessments, providing continuous corrective feedback, and creating opportunities for accounting education students to develop the practical contract costing skills required for effective accounting and cost-management practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Contract account exercises, contract costing skills, accounting education students, cost accounting education, contract accounting, construction accounting, work certified, notional profit, practical accounting competence, experiential learning, Nigerian universities, Nigeria.