Business Transaction Sense-Making and Debit-Credit Application Skills among Senior High School Learners
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21425062Keywords:
accounting education, business transaction sense-making, debit-credit application, quantile regression, senior high school learners, transaction analysisAbstract
This study investigated how business transaction sense-making was associated with debit-credit application skills among senior high school learners. A cross-sectional explanatory-predictive design was used, supported by a process-oriented assessment approach. Participants were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling from eligible senior high school classes. Data were gathered using a validated researcher-developed instrument consisting of a Business Transaction Sense-Making Scale and a Debit-Credit Application Assessment. The measures demonstrated excellent internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.92 and 0.90, respectively. Descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank-order correlation, and bootstrapped quantile regression were applied. Results showed that learners had a developed level of business transaction sense-making but only a developing level of debit-credit application skills. They performed better in identifying transaction substance and affected accounts than in explaining account changes, assigning the correct debit or credit treatment, and verifying entry accuracy. Business transaction sense-making had a strong positive relationship with debit-credit application skills. Quantile regression further showed that its predictive contribution was greatest among lower-performing learners, although it remained significant across the 25th, 50th, and 75th performance percentiles. The findings indicated that accurate transaction recording depended heavily on learners’ ability to interpret the economic meaning of business events before applying procedural rules. Accounting instruction should therefore emphasize guided transaction analysis, account-change reasoning, error detection, and entry verification, with targeted scaffolding for learners who demonstrate weaker application skills.
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