In 2016, accounting professors at a mid-sized Midwestern University in Japan introduced a fun and creative pedagogy using body-movement and lyrics to enhance students’ learning motivation and academic performance in an entry-level business course.
Students actively participated in “Accounting Exercise” for 15 minutes at the beginning of their class. They were shown a video of the exercise movements supported by music and accompanying lyrics that were aligned to basic accounting jargon. Additionally, two instructors demonstrated to students how to follow the exercise and lyrics. Instructional materials and illustrations created by the researchers were also displayed in the classroom as students played out the exercise. The students were given a handout with information on the Accounting Exercise, including the lyrics and the inventor’s website.
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The first-year undergraduate business students showed really positive responses to this exercise compared to the class that didn’t participate in the accounting exercise during the 15 week semester. The body movement exercise maintained students’ learning motivation in accounting. The professors knew that maintaining student motivation for the course would foster positive student attitudes toward further accounting education and career choices in accounting at the university.
Satoshi Sugahara, Hisayo Sugao, Steven Dellaportas, and Takahiro Masaoka. “The effect of body-movement teaching, learning motivation and performance.” Meditari Accountancy Research Vol. 24, No. 3 (2016): 414-437. https://doi.org/10.1108/MEDAR-02-2015-0006