How a color-based teaching method has lifted grades for first-year accounting students

•Student grades increased from the successful introduction of a visual aid (colour) into first-year accounting studies.•Students found higher levels of engagement from introduction of visual teaching methods.•Visual learning style (colour) incorporated successfully into an subject traditionally devoid of such.•Students in lowest quartile of studies show increase in grades to lift chances of success in higher levels of education. Improving grades for students in the lower quartile of introductory accounting courses has long baffled educators. Students who underperform often prefer to find other subject majors, struggle to pass the more advanced accounting papers or drop out of higher education study altogether. Yet students who underperform may do so as much due to a lack of affordance for their preferred learning style, as to any lack in capability. This research explores the impact of a bespoke color-based teaching method introduced to first-year accounting students at a New Zealand institute in an effort to increase student comprehension and improve final grades. The color-based teaching method brings a visual style of teaching and learning into a predominantly audio/reader/kinesthetic university accounting environment. The color-based method was introduced to 58 students over two cohorts. The students’ final percentage grades were analysed against the final overall grades of students in the previous two cohorts of 71 students, who were taught without the aid of the color-based method. The results of this research show that students’ final grades showed a statistically significant improvement in each of the four quartiles following the introduction of the color-based teaching method. These results could be successfully replicated in any learning environment where students are first introduced to accounting. The findings of this study have implications for policy and pedagogy, suggesting that a learner-centred approach which seeks to augment a traditionally greyscale delivery with memorable visual elements, can have a positive impact on learners of all levels. Most noteworthy, it can advance the achievements of the group of students who are traditionally seen as underperforming.