Action Research on Improving Students' Ability in Problem-Solving in "Principles of Accounting"

The purpose of this action research is to study how to improve students’ ability to solve numerical problem questions in ‘Principles of Accounting’ course. The study was conducted on and confined to select 12 students of the Group-3 of the First Year Accounting and Finance Program of the School of Business and Economics of the Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia. To identify the research issue, the following tools were used for preliminary data collection: Focus Group Discussion with peer teachers, Interviews with students, Analysis of Students’ Test Papers, and Preliminary Tests conducted. Tutoring and Problem-Solving Assignment were used as Action Strategies. Comprehensive Marking of test papers of the subjects for quantitative assessment, and Accounting Course Problem Solving Rubrics developed for this purpose by the researcher were used for qualitative assessment. Three levels of action interventions were carried out, first with the tutoring strategy, second with the problem-solving assignment, and the third with a combination of both. Graded problems selected from standard textbooks were used to conduct the pre- and post-strategy tests, which revealed marked improvements in performance of the subjects. Rubrics analysis indicated quality improvement in ‘problem understanding’, ‘procedure of generating solution’, and ‘neatness and clarity in presentation of answers’.