Muhasebe Dersini İlk Kez Alan Öğrencilerin Başarısına Etki Eden Faktörler: Yalova Üniversitesi'nde Bir Uygulama

Accounting is the only business function that takes place both on the establishment and ending phases of firm life cycle. Thus, accounting is defined as the heart of business management in this era. Because of this reason, much more importance is given to accounting education today. Definitely, the recent economical crisis and accounting scandals areal so influential at this point. In the context of accounting education, especially the first accounting course taken by students is critical. This is because learnings, fundementals, observations, perceptions, thoughts and experiences gathered during the first accounting course structures and shapes the accounting development of students in following years. This study investigates the factors affecting the students’ success in their first accounting course. Research is run on 150 students studying at Management in English, Management in Turkish, Economics, Labor Economics and Industrial Relations,and Law Departments of Yalova University. This research also takes advantage of the survey method based on a 5-Likert scale. Research findings are analyzed using the SPSS 13.0 software.According to the results of research, if students do not have a prior negative bias about accounting and if they are fond of their first accounting course in university, students become more successful in future accounting courses. Moreover, taking accounting courses in vocational high schools, having a strong mathematical background, teaching courses simple considering that all students have fundamental accounting knowledge, giving importance to practice, using traditional teaching methods, learning logic of accounting and how accounts function, attending courses, using board efficiently, interactive courses, giving students projects, assignments and presentations, not teaching in crowded classrooms, university’s good facilities and positive attitudes of academicians affect the success of students taking accounting course for first time.