Students’ Grade Expectations and Work Ethic in College: Evidence of the Entitlement Generation
Landry, Alexandra C. and Bernardi, Richard A.: (2015). Students’ Grade Expectations and Work Ethic in College: Evidence of the Entitlement Generation, The Accounting Educators’ Journal, 25: 1-24.
Posted: 8 Sep 2016
Date Written: August 31, 2015
Abstract
This research has two parts; in the first study, we compared the responses of 235 male-and-female, sophomore, business students enrolled in the first introductory-level accounting course at a university in the Northeastern region of the United States. While a 25-year old study found that female students responses to all five statements dealing with attitudes work were significantly higher than those of male students, our data indicate that only one difference was significant. We also had significant findings with respect to responding in a socially desirable manner. In the second study, we added the responses of 26 junior business majors and 22 sophomore-and-junior non-business majors who also took the introductory accounting class to our sample (i.e., an increase of 17 percent). We compared the responses of our 283 students to the responses of 200 students from a 25-year old study. These comparisons suggest that today’s students expect higher grades and were less satisfied by hard work than students were 25 years ago. Finally, the methodology used in the second study suggest a way of comparing data in replication studies when the prior research does not provide complete data for their sample.
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