The interaction of teaching modality and learning styles on course achievement for first- and second-year accounting students

Many studies provide evidence that cooperative learning experiences promote higher academic achievement than their competitive or individualistic counterparts (Dishon & O'Leary, 1984). Alternative literature is now starting to appear which challenges the conventional success of cooperative learning activities as the optimal teaching modality associated with the development of higher-order critical thinking skills and resulting in successful academic student outcomes (O'Brien & Peters, 1994). This literature is starting to argue that the successful academic student outcomes associated with the teaching modality of cooperative learning is mediated by at least two factors: course content and student learning styles, with student learning styles being the most predominant (O'Brien & Peters, 1994).; The literature on learning styles is also fairly comprehensive and indicates that an awareness of learning styles is a prerequisite consideration necessary to deliver superior academic outcomes (Krause, 1996).; Through the years, the learning style model has gained popularity and is being used widely in educational institutions, but it is not without its critics (Curry, 1991). The major criticism of this model questions its application citing the vagueness of its underlying concepts (Curry, 1987; 1991). In spite of this criticism, professionals still support the concept of the learning style model and have supported its implementation based primarily upon comprehensive evidence demonstrating superior student academic outcomes associated with its use (Curry, 1987, 1991; Stahl, 1988).; This study will explore the effects that the two major teaching modalities of cooperative and traditional lecture-based learning as well as learning styles have upon student academic outcomes. In other words, this study will help define the optimal mix of these two major teaching modalities to learning styles as they relate to superior student academic outcomes.