Digital Natives’ Behaviours and Preferences: Pre-Service Teachers Studying Accounting

Abstract

Digital natives are a new cultural generation born of aggressive digital technology penetration. The rapid development of technology is influencing their learning habits and behaviours, and consequently this generation has a unique way of thinking and learning. The purpose of this research is to analyse the behaviours and preferences of digital natives through understanding their preferences in the use of technology and their cultural values, as a basic strategy for selecting learning methods. This research uses a survey method to explore the use of technology and the cultural values of digital natives on accounting courses. The cultural values referred to in this paper are Hofstede's cultural dimensions, namely power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation. The research results reveal two main findings: 1) the level of use of technology for non-academic purposes tended to be high, and the preference of the students was to use smartphones rather than fixed PCs or laptops. This suggests that lecturers must actively use technology in the classroom, thus ensuring that pre-service accountancy teaching students are themselves ready to use technology in their teaching practice; 2) analysis results of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions indicate that the students prefer learning in technological environments, informal learning structures, unlimited space and time, that they expect quick feedback, prefer teamworking, and prefer active learning rather than reading and listening. These results can be used as the basis for designing quality learning methods.