TITLE: LOWER ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF “BACK-ROWS” STUDENTS : MYTH OR REALITY?

• Autor(a) principal: Miranda, Gilberto José
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Vicente, Jausson Monteiro, Freitas, Sheizi Calheira de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de contabilidade e organizações
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/rco/article/view/55615
• topic: Ensino; Ciências Contábeis; Egressos; Turma da Frente; Turma do Fundão.; Teaching; Accounting; Graduates; Front-rows students; Back-rows students.

Internationally, the relation and consequences of classroom seating location for learning and students' academic performance have been studied in order to verify the need of adopting teaching strategies or actions which aim at ensuring the best achievement of the classroom as a whole, despite the seat taken by students.  Meanwhile, Brazilian studies emphasize the negative stereotype observed among students who sit at the back rows of the classroom. In the accounting field of study, student performance has received increasing attention among scientific studies in Brazil, however such research has not focused on aspects related to classroom seating location. The present study aimed to investigate, with an  exploratory intent, if there is correlation between the student performance in the Accounting Undergraduate Program and the seat location chosen by students in the classroom. To achieve this goal two statistical techniques were used, Multiple Regression and T-Test, on the data collected through a questionnaire developed for this purpose and applied to a sample of 102 students and graduates from a higher education institution in Brazil. Tests revealed that sitting closer to the teacher in the classroom presented a positive correlation with students' academic performance, which means, the “front-rows students” presented better Academic Performance Coefficient (CRA) than the “back-rows” students. This result suggests the need for special attention to students who sit at the back of the classroom, as well as to teachers' training to deal with this situation. Furthermore, the results point to the need for research on the causes and consequences for learning of the classroom seating location chosen by students of accounting programs.