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Impact of Accounting Board Games on Students’ Recall of Accounting Principles among HND Students in Nigeria

Abstract

Accounting principles constitute a fundamental component of Accounting Education because they provide students with the basic concepts and rules required to understand, record, classify, and communicate financial transactions. However, HND students in Nigerian institutions may experience difficulties retaining accounting principles when instruction relies predominantly on lectures, note-taking, memorization, and repetitive written exercises. Poor recall of accounting principles may affect students’ ability to retrieve previously learned concepts and apply them appropriately when solving accounting problems. Accounting Board Games provide an interactive learning approach through which students can repeatedly encounter accounting concepts, respond to questions, make decisions, receive immediate feedback, and interact with peers in a structured learning environment. Recent accounting education research has reported positive effects of board-game and game-based approaches on accounting learning and academic performance, supporting the potential relevance of such activities for accounting education. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of Accounting Board Games on students’ recall of accounting principles among HND students in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on Experiential Learning Theory, Constructivist Learning Theory, and Cognitive Learning Theory. Experiential Learning Theory emphasizes learning through concrete experience, reflection, conceptualization, and active experimentation. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes the active construction of knowledge through interaction with learning materials, peers, prior knowledge, and practical learning experiences. Cognitive Learning Theory emphasizes attention, encoding, storage, retrieval, and application of information in the learning process. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how Accounting Board Games may influence students’ ability to recall previously learned accounting principles. The use of board games is particularly relevant because previous research on accounting board games has found improvements in accounting learning outcomes, while other game-based accounting studies have reported positive effects on academic performance and motivation. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental research design. The study population will comprise HND students enrolled in Accounting Education programmes in selected Nigerian polytechnics. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, polytechnics, departments, levels of study, classes, and eligible HND students. Accounting Board Games will be assessed using indicators such as accounting-principle question cards, debit-and-credit challenges, accounting-equation games, transaction-analysis games, account-classification games, financial-statement-element games, journalizing challenges, ledger-posting challenges, trial-balance activities, accounting terminology games, source-document identification games, matching activities, accounting puzzles, transaction sequencing activities, error-identification challenges, scenario-based accounting questions, timed recall rounds, individual game activities, team-based games, competitive rounds, cooperative rounds, point-scoring systems, levels and challenges, immediate feedback, repeated exposure to accounting concepts, peer interaction, lecturer facilitation, corrective explanations, reflection activities, and opportunities for repeated retrieval of accounting principles. Students’ recall of accounting principles will be assessed using indicators such as accurate recall of accounting concepts, identification of assets, liabilities, capital, revenue, and expenses, recall of the accounting equation, recall of debit-and-credit rules, recall of principles governing transaction analysis, identification of appropriate accounts, recall of journalizing procedures, recall of ledger-posting procedures, recall of trial-balance principles, recall of financial-statement elements, recall of accounting terminology, recognition of source documents, recall of basic adjustment principles, identification of appropriate accounting treatments, recall of accounting procedures after a learning interval, ability to distinguish similar accounting concepts, ability to retrieve previously learned principles without prompts, ability to apply recalled principles to new accounting situations, accuracy of responses, speed of retrieval, consistency of recall, and retention of accounting principles over time. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized accounting-principles recall tests, Accounting Board Game participation records, classroom observation checklists, accounting activity records, and pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test assessments where appropriate. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students’ demographic and academic characteristics, exposure to Accounting Board Games, participation patterns, and levels of accounting-principles recall. Inferential statistical techniques, including paired and independent t-tests, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), repeated-measures analysis where appropriate, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of Accounting Board Games on students’ recall of accounting principles. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, students’ recall scores before and after exposure to Accounting Board Games may be compared with those of a control group receiving conventional accounting instruction. A delayed post-test may also be administered to determine whether any improvement in recall is sustained after the intervention. Diagnostic tests will be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that Accounting Board Games have a significant positive impact on students’ recall of accounting principles among HND students in Nigeria. Students exposed to structured and curriculum-aligned Accounting Board Games are expected to demonstrate greater ability to retrieve and recognize accounting principles than students receiving conventional instruction. Accounting-principle question cards may provide repeated retrieval opportunities that strengthen students’ memory of fundamental concepts. Debit-and-credit games may help students repeatedly retrieve the rules governing the classification of debit and credit entries. Accounting-equation games may strengthen students’ recall of the relationship among assets, liabilities, and equity. Transaction-analysis games may help students retrieve the appropriate accounting treatment for different business transactions. Account-classification games may strengthen students’ ability to distinguish among asset, liability, equity, revenue, and expense accounts. Journalizing and ledger-posting games may provide repeated opportunities to recall the procedures required for recording and transferring accounting information. Trial-balance activities may strengthen students’ recall of the relationship between debit and credit balances and the purpose of trial balances. Financial-statement games may help students retrieve the basic components and purposes of financial statements. Accounting terminology games may improve students’ recall of technical accounting vocabulary. Source-document games may strengthen students’ ability to associate business documents with the accounting transactions they support. Matching activities may encourage students to connect accounting concepts with their appropriate definitions, procedures, or examples. Error-identification games may help students retrieve correct accounting treatments by contrasting them with incorrect procedures. Scenario-based questions may encourage students to retrieve accounting principles and apply them to unfamiliar situations. Timed recall rounds may strengthen retrieval speed where appropriately designed, while repeated game sessions may provide distributed opportunities to retrieve previously learned concepts. Team-based games may encourage peer explanation and repeated exposure to accounting principles, while cooperative activities may allow students to discuss and reinforce correct answers. Immediate feedback may help students identify incorrect responses and strengthen accurate recall. Point systems, levels, and challenges may encourage sustained participation and repeated retrieval practice. Lecturer facilitation may ensure that game activities remain aligned with accounting learning objectives rather than becoming purely recreational. Reflection activities may help students review the principles encountered during gameplay and consolidate their learning. A delayed post-test may demonstrate whether improvements associated with the board-game intervention persist beyond the immediate learning session. Previous studies provide support for this expectation: an Accounting Marathon board game was found to improve accounting students’ actual academic performance, while a modified Monopoly accounting simulation produced more enduring learning benefits than some comparison approaches. However, excessive competition, poorly designed game rules, inadequate alignment between game content and curriculum, limited instructional time, large class sizes, insufficient game materials, unequal participation among students, students’ unfamiliarity with game-based learning, and inadequate lecturer preparation may reduce the effectiveness of Accounting Board Games. The study therefore expects well-designed, inclusive, curriculum-aligned, appropriately challenging, and educationally purposeful Accounting Board Games to contribute significantly to improved recall of accounting principles among HND students in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on Accounting Board Games, recall of accounting principles, game-based learning, experiential learning, constructivist learning, cognitive learning, retrieval practice, accounting pedagogy, accounting-principles education, student engagement, knowledge retention, practical accounting education, and HND Accounting Education in Nigeria. Existing studies have demonstrated the potential of board games and other game-based approaches to improve accounting learning outcomes, but much of the available evidence has focused on general academic performance, motivation, or higher-order thinking rather than specifically examining recall of accounting principles among HND students in Nigerian polytechnics. The findings will provide useful information to the National Board for Technical Education, Nigerian polytechnics, accounting education departments, accounting educators, curriculum developers, professional accounting bodies, and policymakers regarding strategies for strengthening students’ retention and retrieval of fundamental accounting knowledge. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating Accounting Board Games into accounting instruction, developing curriculum-aligned accounting game materials, incorporating debit-and-credit, accounting-equation, transaction-analysis, account-classification, journalizing, ledger, trial-balance, and financial-statement games, providing repeated retrieval opportunities, using immediate corrective feedback, balancing competitive and cooperative gameplay, incorporating delayed assessments of knowledge retention, training lecturers in educational game facilitation, providing adequate instructional resources, and aligning game-based accounting instruction with the cognitive, practical, analytical, and professional competencies required in Accounting Education programmes in Nigeria.

Keywords: Accounting Board Games, recall of accounting principles, HND students, game-based learning, accounting education, knowledge retention, retrieval practice, experiential learning, constructivist learning, cognitive learning, accounting pedagogy, practical accounting education, Nigerian polytechnics, Nigeria.