| Critics have suggested that characteristics of accounting education including the dominant research paradigm of academic accounting, positive economic science (PES), have negatively affected the development of important decision-making skills in pre-professional students. The purpose of this study was to measure and assess both accounting and non-accounting business students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and learning. These epistemological beliefs are thought by educational psychologists to influence the development of unstructured decision-making skills. A survey instrument, the Epistemological Beliefs Inventory, was used in the experiments. Results indicated that contrary to expectations, accounting majors were significantly more sophisticated than non-accounting majors in at least two epistemological beliefs, certainty of knowledge and omniscient authority. |
