Masters Degrees (Curriculum Studies)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Curriculum Studies) by Subject "Accounting -- Study and teaching (Internship)"

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    Factors that promote students' engagement in an internship accounting programme
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Machera, Precious Charakupa; Frick, Liezel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Education. Dept. of Curriculum Studies.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to ascertain the factors that promote students’ engagement in an internship accounting programme at a private higher education Institution (PHEI) in Gaborone, Botswana. Student engagement can be defined as the desire to be involved in educationally purposeful activities, hence, the programmes and pedagogies are intended to influence student behaviour. Investigating student engagement within the particular context was warranted because higher education (HE) students are required to acquire lifelong practical skills to be used in the real world of work. Astin’s (2002) input-environment-output (I-E-O) model was used to frame the study theoretically. Due to the inquiry’s exploratory nature, an interpretivist approach was used. A case study methodology was adopted which allowed me to investigate the factors that promote student engagement in their real-life context. The ‘case’ in this study was an internship accounting programme at a PHEI in Botswana. A purposive approach to the case study selection was adopted where the unit of analysis was the perceptions of the third-year accounting students, lecturers and internship supervisors of student engagement. A total of 17 focus group participants from the same institution of higher learning agreed to take part in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three lecturers and the six internship supervisors. Document analysis was used to interpret the internship supervisor reports (ISRs) of the programme. The findings on the factors that promote students’ engagement in the internship accounting programme were analysed using the themes that emerged in this study. These themes highlight important aspects that promote student engagement in the studied internship programme. The students acknowledged that internship equipped them in acquiring practical, real-world work experience. However, in order for this to be achieved, a collective effort was required from (i) the students who had to actively participate in educationally purposeful activities to acquire knowledge, skills and competencies; (ii) the internship supervisors who needed to show their willingness to train the interns; (iii) the lecturers who had to change the teaching pedagogies and align them to the real world of work; and lastly, (iv) the institution of higher learning which had to provide support such as computer resources and the administrative policies that enhance teaching and learning. Furthermore, based on the themes that emerged from the internship supervisors, the internship supervisors requested the PHEI to provide internship guidelines and for the internship feedback to be implemented by both the lecturers and the institution of higher learning.