Austria is one of the OECD countries with the largest share of students in vocationally-oriented upper secondary education (OECD 2012). Especially professional schools that constitute an important school type at upper secondary schools, seem to be very attractive to young people. One aim of Austrian professional schools is to help students attain A-levels in commercial areas, especially in Accountancy. However, investigating the domain Accountancy is relevant in other European countries, too. In Germany for example, the ULME III (Lehman & Seeber 2007) study tries to display students’ development in the vocational training system, including the domain Accountancy.

While there has been a lot of research in the domains of Mathematics, Reading or Science – due to large scale studies like PISA, TIMSS or PIRLS –, there is hardly any knowledge about what determines learning outcomes in the subject of Accountancy. Furthermore, there are no studies to show us what educational instructions should look like in the subject Accountancy, in order to guarantee efficient learning processes. In the latest available study carried out by Schumann & Eberle (2014), which focuses on student development in general economic competencies, an overview of predictors of students’ competence development shows that there are only few references in literature. Basic cognitive abilities, academic achievement in German and Mathematics, as well as gender and socio-economic background seem to be positively correlated with academic performance in economic-related tests. Whereas Schumann & Eberle (2014, p. 106) argue that from a pedagogical point of view, it is necessary to investigate to what extent schools and educational instructions have an impact on the acquisition of economic knowledge, I argue that from a didactic point of view, it is necessary to investigate which kind of educational instruction in a specific subject like Accountancy has positive effects on students’ learning. (In addition, one could ask from a subject-related didactical point of view which subject-related instructions seem most efficient.)

Thus, the focus of the study presented lies on the academic learning progress of professional school students in the first years of upper secondary education in the subject Accountancy. The main research question is whether and to what extent students’ development can be traced back to variables on both individual and class levels, such as prior cognitive abilities (level 1), and the instructional design (level 2), for example individualisation, differentiation, cognitive activation, time used to study, and so on.

The underlying theoretical assumptions are drawn from the Supply-Use Model (according to Helmke 2009), which forms an extension of Carroll’s Model of School Learning (1963). The supply-side describes mainly the quantity and quality of the learning environment offered, which is substantially influenced by teachers’ behaviour. The use-side describes the quantity and quality of the students’ active engagement in learning processes. In this framework, the presented study focuses on proximal aspects of the supply-side. In line with Lipowsky (2006), proximal aspects are understood as teachers’ actions and measures, which are supposed to be more closely connected to students’ outcomes and can even directly influence them. In contrast, distal aspects (such as teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge) “only” indirectly effect students’ academic achievement. The choice of these proximal factors is based on findings of general qualitative features of instruction (such as cognitive activation and time spent on studying) aswell as on qualitative features of self-regulated learning (such as knowledge building and scaffolding; Vrieling, Bastiaens & Stijnen 2010).

Eder, F. (1995). Das Befinden von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der Schule. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag. Eder, F., Gaisbauer, H., & Eder, C. (2002). MATKOMP - I Ein Verfahren zur Erfassung mathematischer Kompetenzen am Ende der Sekundarstufe I (Research Report/Test Manual). Department of Education and Educational Psychology, Johannes Kepler University, Linz. Ehmke, T., & Siegle, T. (2005). ISEI, ISCED, HOMEPOS, ESCS. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 8(4), 521 540. Helm, C. (2014). Lernen in Offenen und Traditionellen UnterrichtsSettings (LOTUS). Empirische Analysen zur Kompetenzentwicklung im Fach Rechnungswesen sowie zu förderlichen Elementen kooperativen, offenen Lernens an berufsbildenden mittleren und höheren Schulen in Österreich. Unpublished Dissertation. Institut for Education and Psychology. Johannes Kepler University, Linz. Helmke, A. (2009). Unterrichtsqualität und Lehrerprofessionalität. Diagnose, Evaluation und Verbesserung des Unterrichts. Seelze-Velber: Klett-Kallmeyer. Kolen, M. J., & Brennan, R. L. (2004). Test Equating, Scaling, and Linking: Methods and Practices. New York: Springer-Verlag. Lehmann, R., & Seeber, S. (Eds.) (2007). ULME III. Untersuchung von Leistungen, Motivation und Einstellungen der Schülerinnen und Schüler in den Abschlussklassen der Berufsschulen. Hamburg: HIBB. Lipowsky, F. (2006). Auf den Lehrer kommt es an. Empirische Evidenzen für Zusammenhänge zwischen Lehrerkompetenzen, Lehrerhandeln und dem Lernen der Schüler. In C. Allemann-Ghionda, & E. Terhart (Eds.), Kompetenzen und Kompetenzentwicklung von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern (S. 47-70). Weinheim: Beltz. Müller, F. H., Hanfstingl, B., & Andreitz, I. (2007). Skalen zur motivationalen Regulation beim Lernen von Schülerinnen und Schülern: Adaptierte und ergänzte Version des Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-A) nach Ryan & Connell Wissenschaftliche Beiträge Nr. 1, Institut für Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung der Alpen-Adria-Universität, Klagenfurt. OECD (2012). Education at a Glance 2012: OECD Indicators. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2012-en Rasbash, J., Charlton, C., Browne, W. J., Healy, M., & Cameron, B. (2009). MLwiN Version 2.1. Centre for Multilevel Modelling, University of Bristol. Sageder, J. (1995). Abschlussbericht zum Forschungsprojekt ‚Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Messung des Lern- und Studierverhaltens‘ (Research Report). Department of Education and Educational Psychology, Johannes Kepler University, Linz. Schumann, S., & Eberle, F. (2014). Ökonomische Kompetenzen von Lernenden am Ende der Sekundarstufe II. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaften, 17, 103-126. Vrieling, E. M., Bastiaens, T. J., & Stijnen, S. (2010). Process-Oriented Design Principles for Promoting Self-Regulated Learning in Primary Teacher Education. International Journal of Educational Research, 49, 141-150.