@phdthesis{01K8K5FWKJY7F83WT71PXQHQJD,
  abstract     = {{In the 21st century, the gap between the skills graduates possess and the skills expected of them in the labour market—the so-called skills gap—has become an increasingly important point of attention. In particular, the accounting sector is experiencing a growing demand for professional skills such as collaboration, communication, and ethical reasoning. This shift in the professional profile of accountants has led to rising expectations for education to not only convey cognitive knowledge, but also to develop these professional skills. While such skills are already the subject of extensive research in higher education, secondary accounting education remains underexplored in this regard. This doctoral research addresses that gap by focusing specifically on the stimulation of teamwork skills in secondary accounting education.
The subject-specific educational research in this doctoral dissertation is guided by the framework of Educational Design Research (EDR; McKenney & Reeves, 2019), which iteratively progresses through three phases: Exploration and Analysis, Design and Construction, and Evaluation and Reflection. These phases correspond to the three central research objectives. The first objective (RO1) explores the current state of the art regarding the stimulation of professional skills in secondary accounting education. The second objective (RO2) focuses on designing didactic materials to support teachers in fostering teamwork skills. The third objective (RO3) concentrates on evaluating these developed materials, from the perspective of both students and teachers. These three research objectives are addressed through five empirical studies, each presented in a separate chapter.
After a first introductory chapter, chapter 2 presents an exploratory study investigating how professional skills such as teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and leadership are currently addressed in secondary accounting education. The study also identifies the key opportunities and challenges that teachers experience when attempting to promote these skills. Fourteen stakeholders from the micro, meso, and macro levels of the Flemish educational system (i.e. teachers, pedagogical counsellors, and policy-makers) participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings show that teamwork and communication are the most frequently mentioned skills, yet they are often addressed implicitly. Teachers regularly ask students to work in small groups to solve exercises together or to present their findings, but this is rarely done with the explicit intention of fostering teamwork or communication skills. Teachers report a need for concrete subject-specific didactic materials to support them in explicitly developing these skills. These insights form the starting point for the subsequent empirical studies.
Chapter 3 investigates the potential of the CATME-B rubric (Ohland et al., 2012) as an instrument for mapping students’ teamwork skills in secondary education. A mixed-methods design combines student questionnaires (n = 79) with teacher interviews (n = 3) to explore how both groups experience the instrument and whether it can detect changes in teamwork skills. Results indicate that students generally find the rubric clear and useful for self-assessment. However, teachers express concerns about its length and complexity, which may hinder its practical application in the classroom. Still, most teamwork dimensions show significant improvement in post-test scores, suggesting that CATME-B is capable of capturing changes in students’ self-perceptions of teamwork. While the instrument offers a promising foundation for secondary education, there are still too many practical obstacles. A tool specifically tailored to secondary education is therefore needed.
Based on these findings, Chapter 4 presents a Delphi study in which nineteen accounting teachers evaluate three existing rubrics for teamwork skills (CATME-B, Teamwork VALUE Rubric, and TeamUP). Both the content of the instruments (i.e. the items) and their structure (i.e. the formats) are assessed with secondary education in mind. Over three successive data collection rounds—through questionnaires and think-aloud interviews—the teachers reached consensus on 51 behavioural indicators, divided across five dimensions of teamwork. These indicators are reformulated for clarity, simplicity, and relevance. Moreover, teachers reflect on how these indicators could be translated into a user-friendly digital assessment tool. The resulting set of behavioural indicators offers teachers a practical and well-founded basis for supporting and assessing teamwork skills in the classroom.
Chapter 5 introduces a new teaching module—sTEAMulate—designed to foster both accounting knowledge and teamwork skills among students. The module was developed through co-creation by eight teachers and four researchers, based on five evidence-based design principles. It includes entrepreneurship-oriented case studies, cooperative learning strategies, rotating team roles, peer feedback strategies, and formative self-assessments. The module was pilot-tested by two teachers and revised based on their feedback.
The final two chapters of this doctoral study focus on evaluating the impact and implementation of sTEAMulate. In Chapter 5, alongside the development of the teaching module, students’ learning outcomes and experiences are investigated through pre- and post-questionnaires and focus group interviews. Students report significant improvement in their self-perceived teamwork skills and particularly appreciate the fixed team composition and the opportunities for interaction with peers.
Chapter 6 investigates teachers’ willingness to implement the sTEAMulate teaching module and how they actually implement it through the Implementation Outcomes Framework of Proctor et al. (2011). Using questionnaires, interviews, and logbooks, results show that teachers perceive the module as acceptable, appropriate, feasible, and sustainable. All participating teachers implement the package to some extent, although many make adaptations to tailor it to their specific classroom context. This underscores the importance of flexibility in educational innovation.
This dissertation concludes with a general discussion that elaborates on five overarching themes central to this research: (1) stimulating versus assessing teamwork skills, (2) raising awareness on teamwork skills, (3) how design-based interventions balance fidelity and flexibility, (4) integrating multiple stakeholder perspectives, and (5) the importance of subject-specific didactic research. This dissertation yields several practical implications. In addition to making the developed sTEAMulate teaching module available, it offers recommendations for both educational practice and policy to help ensure that teamwork skills receive a more structural place in the curriculum. This doctoral research thus contributes both conceptual insights and practical applications to the field of subject-specific educational research in accounting education, and to the broader debate on integrating professional skills in secondary education.}},
  author       = {{Vanhove, Amelie}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{XXX, 340}},
  publisher    = {{Ghent University. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{Let's sTEAMulate! Stimulating students' teamwork skills in secondary accounting education : an educational design research}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}