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Effect of Self-Assessment Activities on Students’ Accounting Learning Responsibility in Nigerian Polytechnics

Abstract

Self-assessment activities provide accounting education students with opportunities to evaluate their own learning, identify areas of strength and weakness, monitor their academic progress, and take greater responsibility for improving their accounting knowledge and skills. Accounting education requires students to develop not only technical knowledge but also the ability to monitor their performance, recognize learning difficulties, seek appropriate assistance, and take active responsibility for their academic development. However, students may become overly dependent on lecturers and external assessment when classroom practices provide limited opportunities for independent evaluation and reflection. Self-Assessment Activities can encourage students to examine their understanding of accounting concepts, review completed tasks, identify errors, assess their progress against learning objectives, and determine areas requiring further practice. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of self-assessment activities on students' accounting learning responsibility in Nigerian polytechnics. The study will be anchored on Self-Regulated Learning Theory, Metacognitive Learning Theory, and Constructivist Learning Theory. Self-Regulated Learning Theory emphasizes students' ability to plan, monitor, regulate, and evaluate their own learning processes. Metacognitive Learning Theory focuses on students' awareness of their thinking and learning processes and their ability to evaluate what they know and what they need to improve. Constructivist Learning Theory emphasizes active participation, prior knowledge, reflection, and personal construction of knowledge through meaningful learning experiences. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how self-assessment activities may influence students' accounting learning responsibility. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental research design. The study population will comprise accounting education students enrolled in selected public polytechnics across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, polytechnics, departments, levels of study, classes, and eligible accounting education students. Self-assessment activities will be assessed using indicators such as self-assessment quizzes, accounting practice tests, answer-key activities, marking guides, self-rating scales, learning checklists, error-identification exercises, reflective questions, learning journals, portfolio reviews, accounting task reviews, concept-check activities, peer-supported self-assessment, progress tracking, learning-goal setting, performance comparison with learning objectives, self-correction activities, self-monitoring records, digital self-assessment tools, repeated self-testing, delayed self-assessment, lecturer-guided self-assessment, individual performance review, identification of learning gaps, action planning, corrective practice, feedback interpretation, and opportunities for students to evaluate their accounting knowledge and practical skills independently. Students' accounting learning responsibility will be assessed using indicators such as regular participation in accounting learning activities, independent preparation for accounting classes, completion of accounting assignments without excessive dependence on others, timely submission of academic work, regular review of accounting concepts, identification of personal learning difficulties, willingness to seek assistance when necessary, setting personal accounting learning goals, monitoring progress toward learning goals, taking corrective action after poor performance, revising errors independently, seeking additional learning resources, practising accounting procedures outside scheduled classes, managing study time effectively, preparing for assessments independently, accepting responsibility for academic performance, evaluating the quality of completed accounting work, demonstrating persistence when facing difficult accounting problems, responding constructively to feedback, maintaining consistent learning habits, taking initiative in accounting learning activities, and demonstrating sustained commitment to improving accounting knowledge and skills. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized accounting learning responsibility scales, self-assessment records, learning journals, accounting task-performance records, self-evaluation checklists, reflective activities, observation checklists, competency-based assessment rubrics, academic participation records, and pre-test and post-test assessments. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize students' demographic and academic characteristics, exposure to self-assessment activities, learning experiences, and levels of accounting learning responsibility. Inferential statistical techniques, including paired and independent t-tests, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the effect of self-assessment activities on students' accounting learning responsibility. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, students' learning responsibility scores before and after exposure to self-assessment activities may be compared with those of a control group receiving conventional accounting instruction to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings.

The study is expected to find that self-assessment activities have a significant positive effect on students' accounting learning responsibility in Nigerian polytechnics. Students exposed to structured self-assessment activities are expected to demonstrate greater independence, stronger self-monitoring habits, improved commitment to accounting learning, and greater responsibility for their academic progress than students receiving conventional instruction without regular self-evaluation. Self-assessment quizzes may encourage students to identify gaps in their understanding before formal examinations, while answer-key and marking-guide activities may help students evaluate the accuracy and quality of their work. Error-identification and self-correction activities may encourage students to take responsibility for identifying and correcting their own accounting mistakes. Learning checklists may help students monitor completion of accounting tasks and identify areas requiring additional practice. Learning journals and reflective questions may encourage students to examine their learning experiences, identify difficulties, and develop strategies for improvement. Goal-setting activities may strengthen students' commitment to specific accounting learning targets, while progress tracking may help students monitor whether they are meeting those targets. Portfolio and task reviews may encourage students to evaluate the quality of their previous work and recognize areas of improvement. Digital self-assessment tools may provide students with convenient opportunities for repeated independent testing and immediate feedback. Peer-supported activities may expose students to alternative approaches to evaluating accounting work while maintaining individual responsibility for self-evaluation. Lecturer-guided self-assessment may provide appropriate support during the early stages of developing independent assessment skills. Repeated self-assessment may gradually strengthen students' confidence in monitoring their own learning and taking corrective action without waiting for lecturer intervention. However, students' limited self-evaluation skills, inaccurate self-rating, lack of motivation, dependence on answer keys, inadequate lecturer guidance, limited access to digital resources, large class sizes, insufficient instructional time, and the possibility of treating self-assessment as a routine exercise rather than a genuine learning activity may reduce its effectiveness. The study therefore expects structured, guided, reflective, feedback-supported, and regular self-assessment activities to contribute significantly to improved accounting learning responsibility among students in Nigerian polytechnics. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on self-assessment activities, accounting learning responsibility, self-regulated learning, metacognitive learning, constructivist learning, accounting education, independent learning, self-monitoring, student responsibility, reflective learning, accounting skills development, learner-centred instruction, accounting pedagogy, practical accounting education, and polytechnic education in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the National Board for Technical Education, polytechnics, accounting education departments, accounting educators, curriculum developers, professional accounting bodies, and policymakers regarding strategies for promoting students' independent responsibility for accounting learning. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating self-assessment activities into accounting education programmes, developing curriculum-aligned self-assessment tools, training students in accurate self-evaluation, incorporating learning goals and progress-monitoring activities, strengthening students' ability to identify and correct accounting errors independently, using reflective journals and learning checklists to promote accountability, incorporating digital self-assessment platforms where appropriate, providing lecturer guidance and feedback, developing competency-based assessments of accounting learning responsibility, and aligning accounting education with the independent learning, self-monitoring, and professional development competencies required in contemporary accounting practice in Nigeria.

Keywords: Self-assessment activities, accounting learning responsibility, accounting education students, self-regulated learning, metacognitive learning, constructivist learning, independent learning, self-monitoring, reflective learning, student responsibility, accounting skills development, learner-centred instruction, accounting pedagogy, Nigerian polytechnics, Nigeria.