Measuring the Learning Outcomes and Critical Thinking: The Case of Saudi Accounting Students

Obaid S AlMotairy

Assessing the achievement of learning goals is essential part of every business program and school to prepare students for the future. There is an agreement among the experts that class room time should be rationalized and student should spend also their time for the critical thinking. There is a great demand for students having the attributes of critical thinking who can meet the expectation of advance technology savvy employers. In response to the demand of the stakeholders, accounting schools have abandoned traditional methods of teaching. They leaned towards the accounting students who possess the attributes of writing and of presentation skills on the current issues, of enhanced skills of critical thinking and communication. The College of Business and Economics at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia has undertaken a project, policies, measures and steps to raise learning outcomes and the level of critical thinking among the accounting students. This paper intends to numerically measure the learning outcomes, indicators of critical thinking and at the end endeavoured to assess the association between learning outcomes and critical thinking. It turns out, at the end of a project, that methodology developed for the current study has significant impact in terms of attaining desired learning outcome and raising the level of critical thinking by the accounting students.