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Impact of Peer Instruction on Students’ Understanding of Difficult Financial Accounting Concepts in Nigerian Universities

Abstract

Financial accounting is a fundamental component of accounting education because students are expected to understand accounting principles, interpret financial information, analyse transactions, and apply appropriate accounting treatments to practical situations. However, students may experience difficulties understanding complex financial accounting concepts when instruction relies predominantly on lecturer explanations and individual learning. Difficult areas such as accruals and prepayments, depreciation, provisions, inventory valuation, accounting adjustments, revenue recognition, financial statement preparation, and accounting for non-current assets often require students to connect several principles and apply them to unfamiliar situations. Peer Instruction provides a learner-centred approach in which students first consider a conceptual question individually, discuss their reasoning with peers, compare alternative answers, and reconsider their responses after the discussion. This process provides opportunities for students to explain accounting concepts in their own words, identify misconceptions, evaluate alternative interpretations, and develop deeper conceptual understanding. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of Peer Instruction on students' understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts in Nigerian universities. The study will be anchored on Social Constructivist Learning Theory, Cognitive Learning Theory, and Conceptual Change Theory. Social Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes learning through interaction, dialogue, collaboration, and peer explanation. Cognitive Learning Theory focuses on how learners acquire, organize, process, store, retrieve, and apply information. Conceptual Change Theory explains how students' existing misconceptions may be challenged, examined, reorganized, and replaced with scientifically or academically appropriate understanding through meaningful learning experiences. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how Peer Instruction may influence students' understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental research design. The study population will comprise accounting education and accounting 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, classes, and eligible students. Peer Instruction will be assessed using indicators such as conceptual questions, individual response activities, peer discussion, peer explanation, response comparison, reconsideration of answers, voting or response systems, identification of misconceptions, lecturer clarification, structured peer interaction, guided questioning, discussion of alternative answers, evidence-based explanation, individual accountability, repeated conceptual questions, application questions, scenario-based questions, immediate feedback, correction of misconceptions, collaborative reasoning, student participation, peer-to-peer teaching, reflection after discussion, and opportunities for students to explain financial accounting concepts in their own words. Students' understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts will be assessed using indicators such as ability to define accounting concepts accurately, explain concepts in their own words, distinguish between related concepts, identify relevant accounting principles, explain the rationale for accounting treatments, interpret accounting information, analyse transactions, apply financial accounting principles to practical situations, classify accounting items correctly, prepare appropriate accounting treatments, explain the effects of transactions on financial statements, interpret adjustments, distinguish recognition and measurement concepts, identify accounting assumptions, recognize and correct misconceptions, justify accounting decisions, compare alternative accounting treatments, solve conceptual accounting problems, apply knowledge to unfamiliar situations, and retain understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts over time. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized financial accounting concept-understanding tests, conceptual questions, scenario-based assessments, practical accounting tasks, case studies, response records, observation checklists, competency-based assessment rubrics, and pre-test and post-test assessments. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, exposure to Peer Instruction, learning experiences, and levels of financial accounting concept understanding. Inferential statistical techniques, including paired and independent t-tests, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of Peer Instruction on students' understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, students' conceptual understanding scores before and after exposure to Peer Instruction may be compared with those of a control group receiving conventional financial 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 Peer Instruction has a significant positive impact on students' understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts in Nigerian universities. Students exposed to structured Peer Instruction are expected to demonstrate stronger conceptual understanding and improved ability to apply financial accounting principles than students receiving conventional lecturer-centred instruction. Individual consideration of conceptual questions may encourage students to activate prior knowledge and identify their initial understanding of difficult accounting concepts. Peer discussion may expose students to alternative interpretations and reasoning processes, enabling them to reconsider assumptions and evaluate their own responses. Peer explanation may strengthen conceptual understanding because students are required to articulate accounting principles in language that their classmates can understand. Discussion of alternative answers may help students identify misconceptions concerning accruals, prepayments, depreciation, provisions, inventory valuation, revenue recognition, financial statement adjustments, and other difficult topics. Repeated conceptual questions may provide opportunities for students to test and refine their understanding across different accounting situations. Immediate lecturer clarification after peer discussion may help resolve remaining misconceptions and reinforce accurate accounting principles. Scenario-based questions may help students move beyond memorization and apply financial accounting concepts to practical business situations. Collaborative reasoning may strengthen students' ability to explain why a particular accounting treatment is appropriate rather than simply identify the correct answer. Reconsideration of responses after peer discussion may encourage students to evaluate evidence and revise incorrect conclusions. However, students' reluctance to participate, inaccurate peer explanations, dominant students controlling discussions, large class sizes, limited instructional time, inadequate conceptual questions, weak prior knowledge, and insufficient lecturer facilitation may reduce the effectiveness of Peer Instruction. The study therefore expects structured, concept-focused, participatory, well-facilitated, and feedback-supported Peer Instruction to contribute significantly to improved understanding of difficult financial accounting concepts among students in Nigerian universities. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on Peer Instruction, financial accounting concept understanding, difficult accounting concepts, social constructivist learning, cognitive learning, conceptual change, peer learning, collaborative learning, accounting education, financial accounting instruction, misconception correction, student-centred learning, accounting pedagogy, practical accounting education, and university education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Universities Commission, universities, accounting education departments, accounting educators, curriculum developers, professional accounting bodies, and policymakers regarding strategies for improving students' conceptual understanding of financial accounting. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating Peer Instruction into financial accounting education programmes, developing high-quality conceptual questions for difficult accounting topics, training accounting educators in peer-discussion and conceptual-questioning techniques, using structured response systems to identify students' misconceptions, incorporating peer explanation into financial accounting lessons, providing immediate lecturer clarification after peer discussions, using practical scenarios to strengthen conceptual application, developing competency-based assessments of financial accounting understanding, and aligning accounting education with the analytical, conceptual, communication, and problem-solving competencies required in contemporary accounting practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Peer Instruction, financial accounting concepts, conceptual understanding, difficult accounting concepts, accounting education students, social constructivist learning, cognitive learning, conceptual change, peer learning, collaborative learning, student-centred instruction, financial accounting education, accounting pedagogy, Nigerian universities, Nigeria.