Influence of Study Strategies on Performance of Business Education Students in Financial Accounting in Federal Universities in Nigeria

The study was carried out to determine the Influence of study strategies (surface and deep study strategies) on Performance of Business Education Students in Financial Accounting in Federal Universities in Nigeria. The objective was to identify the differences in performance of business education students that adopted surface strategy and those that adopted deep study strategy in learning Financial Accounting. The population of the study was two hundred and eighty-one Financial Accounting students of the ten Federal Universities in Nigeria offering Business Education. Eighty students from the three first generation universities namely: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Benin, Benin City and University of Nigeria, Nsukka were used as sample for the study. Revised Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) and Financial Accounting Evaluation Test (FAET) made of post-tests 1 and 2 were administered to the sampled students. The study adopted repeated measure experimental designs often referred to as within-subjects design. Descriptive statistic was used in answering the research questions, while the t-test was employed in testing the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that study strategies had significant influence on performance of business education students in Financial Accounting. The results also showed that business education students that adopted deep strategy performed significantly better than those that adopted surface strategy. It was concluded that Business Education students performance could be because of the peculiar difference in their study strategy, their way of approaching tasks and possibly the skills and methods they use in solving problems. Any students who ignores these features is likely to have problem in learning Financial Accounting. It was recommended that lecturers should assist students to perform well in Financial Accounting by discouraging them from adopting surface strategy to learning. They should encourage students to adopt a deep approach, and inculcate analytical and critical thinking skills in the students in order to make them acquire the problem