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Effect of Accounting Debate Activities on Critical Thinking Skills among Accounting Education Students in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

The increasing complexity of the accounting profession has created a need for graduates who possess strong critical thinking, analytical reasoning, communication, problem-solving, and professional judgement skills. Accounting education in Nigerian universities often emphasizes theoretical knowledge and numerical problem-solving, but students may have limited opportunities to critically examine competing viewpoints, defend accounting positions, evaluate evidence, and communicate reasoned conclusions. Accounting debate activities provide an interactive instructional approach through which students can examine controversial or complex accounting issues, research relevant evidence, develop arguments, challenge opposing positions, and defend their conclusions. Such activities may strengthen students' ability to analyse information, identify assumptions, evaluate evidence, recognize inconsistencies, and make reasoned judgements. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of accounting debate activities on critical thinking skills among accounting education students in Nigerian universities. The study will be anchored on Constructivist Learning Theory, Social Learning Theory, and Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes active participation, interaction, prior knowledge, problem-solving, and the construction of knowledge through meaningful learning experiences, providing a suitable framework for debate-based accounting instruction. Social Learning Theory explains how students develop knowledge and behaviours through observation, interaction, modelling, feedback, and participation in social environments, making it relevant to collaborative accounting debates. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy emphasizes higher-order cognitive processes, particularly applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating, which are central to effective critical thinking and debate activities. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how accounting debate activities may influence students' critical thinking 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. Accounting debate activities will be assessed using indicators such as frequency of debate sessions, relevance of debate topics, accounting case discussions, research activities, evidence gathering, argument development, presentation of opposing viewpoints, questioning, rebuttal, group discussion, peer interaction, lecturer facilitation, use of professional standards, use of accounting regulations, analysis of current accounting issues, presentation of evidence, feedback, reflection, and opportunities for repeated participation. Students' critical thinking skills will be assessed using indicators such as analysis of information, evaluation of evidence, identification of assumptions, interpretation, logical reasoning, comparison of alternative viewpoints, identification of inconsistencies, problem-solving, decision-making, argument evaluation, evidence-based judgement, synthesis of information, questioning skills, and ability to reach and defend reasoned conclusions. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized critical thinking assessment instruments, debate performance rubrics, accounting case scenarios, argument-analysis tasks, evidence-evaluation exercises, 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, participation in accounting debate activities, debate experiences, and levels of critical thinking 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 effect of accounting debate activities on students' critical thinking skills. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, critical thinking scores before and after exposure to accounting debate activities may be compared with those of a comparison group 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 accounting debate activities have a significant positive effect on critical thinking skills among accounting education students in Nigerian universities. Students who participate regularly in structured accounting debates are expected to demonstrate stronger abilities to analyse information, evaluate evidence, identify assumptions, compare alternative viewpoints, construct logical arguments, challenge unsupported claims, and make evidence-based judgements than students exposed primarily to conventional lecture-based instruction. Debate activities may encourage students to research accounting issues independently, engage with professional standards and regulations, consider different perspectives, and defend conclusions using relevant evidence. Exposure to opposing viewpoints may also strengthen students' ability to recognize weaknesses in arguments, revise their positions when presented with credible evidence, and communicate complex accounting ideas effectively. However, limited classroom time, large class sizes, inadequate lecturer training in debate-based pedagogy, students' reluctance to participate, dominance by outspoken students, insufficient access to relevant accounting information, and poorly selected debate topics may reduce the effectiveness of the approach. The study therefore expects structured, inclusive, evidence-based, and lecturer-facilitated accounting debate activities to contribute significantly to improved critical thinking skills among accounting education students in Nigerian universities. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on accounting debate activities, critical thinking skills, accounting education, active learning, collaborative learning, debate-based pedagogy, higher-order thinking, problem-solving, professional judgement, and higher education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Universities Commission, universities, faculties of education and management sciences, accounting education departments, accounting educators, professional accounting bodies, curriculum developers, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening active and student-centred accounting instruction. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating structured debate activities into accounting courses, developing relevant and contemporary accounting debate topics, training accounting educators in debate facilitation, incorporating professional standards and current accounting issues into debate sessions, using evidence-based debate assessment rubrics, ensuring inclusive student participation, and strengthening students' critical thinking and professional judgement for academic and future accounting practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Accounting debate activities, critical thinking skills, accounting education students, active learning, debate-based pedagogy, higher-order thinking, collaborative learning, professional judgement, accounting education, Nigerian universities, Nigeria.