Keywords

1 Introduction

The application of blended learning in accounting courses promotes teamwork, which helps students to understand the course content and acquire the technical knowledge necessary for their transition to the labour market [1]. Also, through synchronous and asynchronous education, self-regulated learning is enhanced, as students participate in the educational process with particular flexibility. Several researchers state that there is a need the design of accounting courses by lecturers to meet the contemporary needs of students, through a pedagogical approach that is more experiential and student-centred [2, 3]. Activities such as mind maps, quizzes, group projects often help students to construct knowledge and obtain optimal learning outcomes. It is also evident that blended learning increases student satisfaction, as a community is created through the educational process that is characterized by a high degree of interaction [4]. In the accounting profession, in addition to recording numbers and financial analysis, collaboration with clients, colleagues and suppliers is required, creating strong interpersonal skills and effective teamwork skills [5].

Effective communication, active listening, cooperation, adaptability and ethical awareness are essential skills for professional accountants. In particular, social skills refer to an individual’s ability to interact effectively with others within a social environment. Subsequently, teamwork refers to the collaborative effort of several individuals to achieve a common goal or mission, by combining their skills with shared ideas to solve problems or achieve specific results [6]. It is noteworthy that university institutions try to empower accounting students with the ability of teamwork, however in most cases, their curricula promote individual work group [7].

For this reason, the design of accounting courses by lecturers is highly necessary, using educational activities that increase student engagement through more collaborative work. Instructors in blended environments through e-learning have more flexibility to assign group work, as opposed to since the layout of classrooms in many cases do not help to develop collaborative work. However, that have been done in accounting education show that group work compared to individual work is minimal and is an aspect that involves room for improvement.

In this context, qualitative research was conducted through interviews with students who voluntarily participated during the spring semester of 2023 in the course of Advanced Financial Accounting at the Department of Business Administration at the University of West Attica in Greece. Specifically, the students’ views on the range of social skills, and teamwork were explored in blended environments.

2 Literature Review

This literature review examines to what extent teamwork has been developed in the context of social skills in a blended learning environment, in accounting courses through the scientific articles studied [8, 9]. A large number of studies report that blended learning, is an experiential pedagogical approach that combines face-to-face teaching with e-learning, helping students, to develop the relevant skills not only of the curriculum but also of the labour market [8, 9].

Blended learning environments provide opportunities for students to participate engage in group activities, interact with other students and lecturers. Teamwork and social skills are important elements for higher accounting education, as professional accountants need not only technical knowledge and skills, but also social skills in order to meet the demands of their professional careers. In particular, social skills help accountants around the world to interact with all stakeholders, such as the government, clients, suppliers, colleagues, and other businesses [10, 11].

Negotiation, conflict resolution, communication and collaboration are some of the key soft skills required in the accounting industry [10, 11]. Teamwork in accounting courses can enhance the development of organizational, time management, critical thinking and problem-solving skills [12]. Also, Teamwork can enhance the ability to adapt to new situations and achieve common goals through cooperation and understanding among team members. However, it faces challenges and difficulties such as any unequal participation of team members, inadequate communication, and difficulty in conflict resolution. Therefore, it is important to properly manage the group dynamics and emotions of team members to achieve the common goals set [13].

There are several studies that focus on the importance of social skills and teamwork in accounting education, where they report that accounting students who participated in group workshops showed improved social skills and increased ability to work together compared to students who worked individually [14,15,16]. The use of technology enhances social skills through participation in Moodle forums as you develop a direct communication, collaboration and information sharing between group members in mixed accounting course environments. Skills acquisition and development is vital in preparing students for their professional careers in accounting [17, 18].

From the point of view of the educational process in blended learning environments, a more constructive environment is developed with a high degree of active participation and retention of students in the classroom. It has also been found that accounting students prioritize time spent on academic activities through which they cultivate technical knowledge and prefer the development of technical skills over teamwork. Researchers state that in accounting education it is necessary to redefine this area, as in many cases lecturers assign only individual tasks, resulting in a large gap in the development of competence in terms of students’ teamwork [19].

The lack of teamwork creates in some cases a refusal by students to respond and participate in group activities. However, through the blended teaching approach, not only the skills of critical thinking, problem solving, communication but also the skills of teamwork are enhanced [20]. In particular, teamwork gives many benefits to accounting students, as it is an opportunity for different perspectives, as students from different backgrounds are involved in the educational process and in solving an accounting problem, giving new perspectives and views. Other benefit is the increase in creativity, through collaboration and exchange of ideas in student groups creativity and innovation is enhanced. Additionally, the sharing of responsibilities, as it is made possible for tasks and responsibilities to be allocated by the members of each team, allowing for the effective use of individual skills and resources of the university. The development of social skills, where through teamwork the opportunity is provided to develop and improve skills such as communication, collaboration, and exchange of views [21].

It is documented that good organization, mutual trust, respect and interaction with students and lecturers are necessary conditions for the development of teamwork [17, 18].

3 Methodology

This research is a case study, as it was conducted at the University of West Attica in Greece and specifically at the Department of Business Administration during June 2023. The methodological design is qualitative through 14 individual interviews of students who participated voluntarily and anonymously with a code number to protect their personal data and they consist part of a bigger study. The first 7 interviews are related to the traditional classroom and the rest to the blended classroom. The set of questions refer to an experiment that took place within the Advanced Financial Accounting course, in blended learning environments. A part of the questions and answers of the experiment were used, which are exclusively related to the purpose of this study. The interviews of the participants were examined in depth using deductive qualitative content analysis methodology [22, 23]. The manifest analysis was based on keywords from existing literature combined with the research questions presenting in the below Table 1.

Table 1 Keywords
Full size table

Ιn this research fourteen (14) individual interviews of undergraduate students were conducted during the spring semester of 2023, in the course of Advanced Financial Accounting, University of West Attica, Greece. For the purpose of this study, the students answered two (2) questions, which were posed as the main research questions:

Research Question 1: “Do you think it is important to develop teamwork in the Advanced Financial Accounting course?”.

Research Question 2: “To what extent do you think you developed the skill of teamwork?”.

4 Findings

On the whole, participants responded freely without intervention from the researcher, in order to ensure that the qualitative data is reliable, and the results shed light on every aspect of the field under investigation. The findings are divided into two parts: a) the responses formulated by the students who participated in the traditional class (control group) and the students in the mixed class (experimental). It is noteworthy that during the transcription process, the content of the responses was not altered, and anonymity was maintained with a corresponding participant code.

4.1 Interviews of Traditional Class Students

Interviewee 1: “Definitely teamwork could have helped me in understanding the lesson, but both the room where the lesson was taking place and the arrangement of the desks did not help me to work with others, there was difficulty even though the teacher had assigned us teamwork in class. For these reasons I was not able to develop this particular skill”.

Interviewee 2: “I believe that accounting courses are purely based on individual work and not on the spectrum of teamwork and cooperation. I did not develop this skill, all the weekly homework assigned was individual work”.

Interviewee 3: “I would say teamwork is important for all courses and especially for accounting. Personally, I struggle a lot and it would help me if I had collaboration with other fellow students. In my job I work with others, so I am familiar, and I have developed the ability of teamwork, but from university I have not got this”.

Interviewee 4: “For this course, I find that it helps me better to solve exercises on my own than with others. Since the first semester there is a mentality of solving exercises alone and there are few courses that allow for group exercises, so the ability to work in groups is limited. So, I don't think I have developed this ability. Maybe, I will be given this opportunity in the older semesters, I don't know.“

Interviewee 5: “The final exams are assessed on individual effort, and I personally focused on understanding the material and solving exercises on an individual level rather than a group level. However, I definitely believe that teamwork is very important for all accounting courses and for the Advanced Financial Accounting course. Yes, that's my answer. Although I did not particularly develop teamwork even though the professor asked for it”.

Interviewee 6: “In my opinion, the development of teamwork in the Advanced Financial Accounting course is very important, although I did not develop it to a great extent. Certainly, when there were classroom exercises where we were given this opportunity, it was an enjoyable activity for both me and the team members involved. Even the weaker students participated and had an interest in learning. I think it is worth having more collaborative exercises each week so that I can develop my teamwork skills more. I can say, maybe this would help me later on in my field of work, because what I study requires collaboration and teamwork”.

Interviewee 7: “In my job, the ability to work in a team and social skills in general are essential, which is why I think they are very important for this course. I would like there to be activities in the course that would put me in the process of developing teamwork more”.

4.2 Interviews with Blended Class Students

Interviewee 8: “The ability to work in teams is essential for this course. The positive thing was that in Moodle and Ms-team I was given the opportunity to develop it to a great extent. In the first case there were activities for teamwork such as participating in voting as a group, evaluating other groups’ work such as the mind map and in the second case the time the teacher gave us in the rooms via Ms-team to work with others to solve an exercise. All of these helped me to develop my teamwork skills”.

Interviewee 9: “At first I did not think that in accounting courses it was necessary to develop teamwork, but during the semester I realized how important it was for my progress in the course. I can say that the course activities helped me, especially through working with other students, because I understood the concepts more easily and eventually, I was able to succeed”.

Interviewee 10: “Yes, it's quite important for this course. Because when we collaborate in joint activities, apart from the fact that we communicate and compare all our knowledge and sometimes notes, we come to some conclusions which have helped me personally. For sure, I developed the ability of teamwork”.

Interviewee 11: “On the question of whether it's important, I think yes, on whether I developed the skill I would say not particularly because for the most part the Advanced Financial Accounting course is based on individual effort. I think there is a lot of room for my improvement”.

Interviewee 12: “I believe in the development of teamwork because although at the end our assessment is individual, but throughout the semester the more collective effort from the teacher and the students, the more knowledge we gain and the more we actively participate. There were enough questions in the classes and a good collaborative atmosphere. I would say that I developed the team work quite a bit”.

Interviewee 13: “Yes, it is very important, definitely when I work with other students it is easier for me to succeed. I have developed the ability of teamwork quite a lot through this course”.

Interviewee 14: “The teamwork still in the e-classroom helped and energized me, it was a motivation for me to meet with other students who belonged to the same group and exchange knowledge. It gave me a great satisfaction that my opinion was taken into account by the teacher and by the group I belonged to, and it was something that encouraged me”.

5 Discussion and Conclusions

The scientific value of the present study lies in its exploratory nature as no corresponding research has been developed in Greece that examines teamwork in mixed environments of higher accounting education. In parallel, with the primary qualitative research of undergraduate students of the Business Administration Department of the University of West Attica for the course of Advanced Financial Accounting, secondary research was conducted through the literature review.

Research conducted to date highlights the necessity of social skills and teamwork in accounting education and the potential of blended learning to contribute to their development [21, 24]. The blended learning framework provides greater flexibility in the educational process, with active participation of students through more experiential methods by which social skills and teamwork skills are developed. Social skills are considered highly necessary for the academic and professional success of accounting students. Researchers report that accounting education needs redefinition through the proper design of courses related to the accounting profession [25].

Therefore, university institutions in recent decades have increasingly tried to align themselves with the needs of businesses and the work market, in terms of knowledge and skills, in order to provide graduates with all the tools for success. Today, lecturers face the challenge of creating a supportive online learning community that encourages teamwork and promotes social interaction. Effective strategies to address these challenges include the adoption of new teaching methods such as blended learning, incorporating real-world scenarios into collaborative learning tools that increase student engagement in accounting courses; universities may contribute for the qualification of potential employees [26,27,28,29,30].

The development of social skills allows students to engage in a more comprehensive educational experience, enhancing their understanding of accounting principles, communication, and the development of critical thinking [12]. In addition to the results of the literature review, student perceptions and opinions emerged from the primary research, giving the academic community (students, lecturers, and university institutions) the opportunity to identify key points for developing strategies for constructive educational design through student-centered activities.

These activities in accounting lessons promote teamwork, with collective participation in solving exercises. The qualitative research showed that the majority of students agree that the development of teamwork is important in the Advanced Financial Accounting course. However, there were few opinions that it is not so necessary.

This shows that the results from the primary and secondary research are largely aligned and harmonized and that there is room for improvement in social skills and teamwork. More specifically, it was evident that in the traditional classroom through the activities and course content, there is not much opportunity for teamwork, although there is a view that it is important for the Advanced Financial Accounting course. Also, part of the students has the perception that while they wanted to in the end, they have not particularly developed teamwork. In the mixed class, the students report that teamwork skills are very important, and most have developed them through this course. What has helped them was the design of the course through synchronous and asynchronous learning.

In synchronous teaching the lecturer had assigned them to Ms-team rooms to solve exercises in groups, while through asynchronous teaching they used forums and activities such as polls and mind maps where evaluations were made by the student groups. Overall, they claimed that on the whole, social skills and teamwork were necessary not only for their academic career but also for personal and professional development.

6 Limitations and Recommendations for Further Research

The present study could not be generalized to all Greek universities, and there was a time limitation as it was conducted during the spring semester of 2023. It is part of a bigger research and the implementation of a qualitative research on a larger sample of undergraduate students for the course Advanced Financial Accounting at mixed environments is suggested. Conducting the survey in more accounting courses, has the potential to be compared in consecutive semesters in order to provide a more holistic approach to the research area under consideration.