With the Malaysian government’s aim to increase the number of Bumiputera professional accountants, it is important for institutions to search for efficient ways in delivering professional accounting education in order to improve the performance of students. Despite the suggestion from prior literature to adopt student-centered pedagogy, the issue is still not much explored in professional accounting education. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine whether students’ perception on student-centered pedagogy and teacher-centered pedagogy are associated with the exam performance in professional accounting examinations. The approach of student-centered pedagogy is to promote students to actively take responsibility of their own journey of learning. This study gathered data from 88 professional accounting students in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). The results reveal that students prefer teacher-centered pedagogy. The results contrast the findings from western literature, and hence it reflects, the learning environment in Malaysia which is still passive. Additionally, the better perception of students on both pedagogies are positively significant with better exam performance, emphasizing the work of both students and teachers are essential for better exam performance. The emphasis on exam orientation in professional accounting education is seen as a limitation to implement student-centered pedagogy in professional accounting education. It implies that the classrooms in Malaysia are not adept into making a shift to empower students’ responsibility. This study adds value by highlighting the best practice that provides benefit to the professional accounting education in Malaysia.
Keywords: Exam performance, Professional Accounting Education, Responsibility, Students-centered pedagogy, Teacher-centered pedagogy
Students’ Perception on Pedagogical Approaches and its Relation to Exam Performance in Professional Accounting Education