Learning Styles and the Performance of Internships in Accounting

Abstract

Purpose: The goal of this study was to unveil the impacts of learning styles in the performance of students who have taken mandatory and non-mandatory accounting internships. Method: The learning styles of 247 students were measured using Kolb's Learning Style Inventory, while the students selfassessed their performance. Results: With the use of chi-square and mean score statistics, the results indicate that the performance does not differ between the types of internship and that the students' learning style does not affect their internship performance. Contributions: These results are contrary to expectations and indicate that students who fit into any learning style can successfully use the curricular component of supervised internship. Unlike other disciplines in which learning styles and their relationship to performance have been investigated, the internship has its own characteristics, which seem to exert no influence on how the students learn, considering Kolb's learning styles. It was verified that internships are a valuable employment method for accounting students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]