PERCEIVED CAUSES OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING STUDENTS IN SELECTED SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE CENTRAL REGION OF GHANA

Abstract

The study examined gender differences in the academic performance of Financial Accounting students in selected senior high schools in the Central Region of Ghana. Descriptive survey design was employed for the study, 331 students and 137 teachers of Financial Accounting were surveyed. The study found that male students studying Financial Accounting perform better than female students. The study also revealed that there are gender differences in students' academic performance in Financial Accounting. Accordingly, it is recommended that accounting teachers should put their students into groups and assign them group task. This grouping should be done in such a way that group will consist of both male and female Financial Accounting students with different performance levels so that the female students who do not actually perform well will find the ideas of their male colleagues useful. Moreover, teachers should try to make Financial Accounting appealing to students by making it practical and relevant to the lives of the students as much as possible. Keywords: Gender, academic performance, mixed senior high schools, Financial Accounting. INTRODUCTION Several debates concerning performance levels in education have been identified in literature. It is pertinent to note that significant improvements have been recorded over the years in terms of levels of performance in education across a wide spectrum of subjects and courses. Encompassed within the level of general attainment is the differential performance of males versus females, and a gender issue within the educational literature is an area which has attracted a lot of attention. Gender differences in academic performance have been among the contemporary issues in the current academic debate all over the world (Abdu-Raheem, 2012) and Ghana is not an exception. One specific issue which has generated much debate in educational circles over the years i1s a question of whether a statistically significant difference in performance exists or not between male and female students in a defined learning task. A definite answer to this question seems to be a complex one. The complexity arises because empirical and theoretical literatures have produced diverse and contradictory results (Oluwatayo, 2011). In recent times, there have been studies on the academic performance of students with emphasis on gender dimension at different levels (senior high school, college and university) and on different subjects