Exploring the role of learning style research in accounting education policy

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and describe the Experiential Learning Model and the Learning Style instrument developed by Kolb [1976]. Further, it is postulated that learning style may be a useful concept in making the accounting education process more effective and efficient.As a preliminary test of the concept, the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) was administered to accounting student samples of N = 172 and N = 187, respectively. Six hypotheses were tested using data obtained from the instrument. It is concluded that the LSI shows promise for generation of information useful in helping students and instructors understand the differing cognitive processes in accounting learning.     

Computer Aided Learning (CAL) and its impact on the performance of non-specialist accounting undergraduates

This study examines the factors affecting students' performance on an introductory UK undergraduate financial accounting course and changes in students' attitudes and perceptions towards Computer Aided Learning (CAL) and accounting. It differs from previous research in that non-specialist accounting students taught using CAL are studied here. Questionnaire data was collected at the beginning and end of the module and is statistically analysed. Multiple regression analysis on student performance shows that age and attitude towards accounting are significant influences, but that attitude towards CAL and students' entry qualifications are not. Students' perceptions of CAL appear to be affected negatively by its use. The study shows that students are significantly more likely to perceive CAL as easy to use, but significantly less likely to view it as flexible, helpful or useful in improving computer literacy. Students' perceptions of accounting as a subject are also negatively affected. They are shown to be significantly less likely to choose to study accounting and significantly more likely to view accounting as a boring subject, following the completion of a CAL course. The negative impact on students' perceptions and attitudes towards CAL and accounting has implications for extending the use of CAL in order to efficiently redirect limited staff resources. However, given that there is no significant effect on performance this may warrant further consideration by higher education institutions.     

Perceptions of the Usefulness of Virtual Learning Environments in Accounting Education: A Comparative Evaluation of Undergraduate Accounting Students in Spain and England

As the power of the virtual world continues to manifest itself in people's quality of life and capabilities (including learning), this paper aims to assess accounting students' perceptions of the usefulness of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) to their learning experiences. It also considers the factors that may influence students' preferences for the VLE compared to face-to-face learning. The study administered a structured questionnaire to final-year undergraduate accounting students in two universities, one in Spain and the other in England, and applied t-test, correlation and factor analyses. Although the results show that students from both countries find VLE tools and techniques useful for their learning, within the frame of the contingency theory of education, the study found that students’ perceptions of the usefulness of VLEs are strongly dependent upon their country of study, due to the significant differences between Spanish and English students in five of the seven VLE contextual factors.     

Chinese Students’ Perceptions of the Teaching in an Australian Accounting Programme – An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study is designed to elicit and understand the views of Mainland Chinese students concerning their learning experience in an Australian accounting education programme. The article contributes to the literature by investigating the issues and implications associated with international students’ perceptions of teaching, as little research has been undertaken in this context. Data were obtained from focus group interviews at two Australian universities, comprising students who had no prior experience of Western education. Based on an adaptation of Ramsden's 2003 model [Learning to teach in higher education (2nd ed.). London: Routledge], the data show that the students’ educational experience in China has a direct and negative influence on their perceptions of the teaching and learning experience in Australia. The negativity is particularly strong for entry-level students but dissipates to some extent with time. Issues concerning teachers’ enthusiasm, commitment, delivery skills and students’ expectations also emerged as important factors affecting student perceptions.     

Care in the community: Professional Ethics and the paradox of pro bono

This study is primarily concerned with accounting's claim to be a profession and aims to stimulate further discussion on the kind of education that one would imagine should be commensurate with this claim. In particular, the study reports on a seminar that was designed to introduce students to the concept of a profession. The study describes a visit to one of Glasgow's toughest housing estates. The visit concluded at Ruchill Unemployment and Community Centre where the managing director of a local development agency discussed how some local accounting practices occasionally provided pro bono services in the area. The study picks up on some of the issues discussed during this seminar in order to explore the potential of pro bono publico and Service Learning as ways of educating accounting professionals in the wider concept of public interest. The study concludes by considering the critical educational potential of service learning in undergraduate education and pro bono publico within the area of continuing professional development.     

Editorial: Special issue on tax education

In accounting education, most Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) research has investigated the relationship between students' performance and their approaches to learning. Relatively limited research has been conducted on how assessment practices influence the quality of students' learning from the students' perspective. This paper seeks to address this gap in the accounting education literature. The research is centred on a large Australian undergraduate accounting degree delivered in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Focus group interviews were conducted with students across the three locations. The research results reveal that: (1) it is the English competency of students that has the most important impact on students' completion of set assessment tasks and thus their approach to learning; (2) it is the way in which assessment is designed and written and the way lecturers convey their expectations about how assessment will be undertaken that is crucial to how students from various countries perform in that assessment; and (3) students' approaches to assessment and their preferred assessment tasks are not homogeneously based on cultural background.     

AE Briefings — Statement of Intent

This paper seeks to address the perceived failure of university teaching to foster critical understanding of audit practice and to identify a potential remedy. It contributes to the debate (Maltby, 2001, “Second thoughts about ‘Cases in Auditing’,” Accounting Education: an international journal, 10(4), 421–428) by investigating the double-faceted nature of auditing: as a sub-set of the academic discipline of accounting and as professional practice. Although case studies are helpful for students of auditing, they tend to be artificial, or at best, retrospective. This paper introduces a different type of case study for audit education using corporate failure stories from the media as an example, proposing and explaining the notion of the ‘living case’ in order to foster critical appraisal of audit practice. It contributes to the literature on audit education by describing how this different type of case can address both the technical activities and the social practice of audit through Kolb's (1984, Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall) experiential learning theory and thus concludes that there is a place for the practical nature of auditing in academic study, in order to fully appreciate the social aspects.     

Surviving an executive MBA 'riot'

UK higher education institutes (HEIs) have widened participation of students from non-traditional backgrounds. These include students who are aged over 21, students in paid employment, and those with non-traditional qualifications, perhaps from other countries or access courses. This has led to a need to explore factors that might impact upon the learning of such students. A greater understanding of such factors might better enable HEIs to provide all students with opportunities to study accounting. The participants in this study are first year students studying accounting at a post-1992 UK university, which has a high proportion of students from non-traditional backgrounds. A series of interviews with such students and the lecturers who teach them explores what engages and what detaches them from learning when studying accounting. The study suggests factors, such as employment and other commitments away from university and the student's relationship with the university, which might impact on how students engage in learning. The Note discusses the findings with reference to Lucas's (2003, A National Teaching Fellowship Project: Introductory accounting: Achieving relevance interest and understanding, available at: http://www.uwe.ac.uk/bbs/research/research/ntfs/Jan03.pdf accessed 21 August 2004) call for research in the area to be more qualitative and Reay et al's. (2001) Sociological Research Online, 5(4), consideration of Bourdieu's concept of institutional habitus and its influence on HEIs.     

Measuring moral judgement and the implications of cooperative education and rule-based learning

The Defining Issues Test (DIT), developed by Rest (1986) , measures a person's level of moral development using hypothetical social dilemmas. Although the DIT is useful for measuring moral development in social settings, it might not adequately capture an individual's moral judgement abilities in solving work‐related problems ( Weber, 1990 ; Trevino, 1992 ; Welton et al., 1994 ). In the present study, the moral judgement levels of 97 accounting students were measured over a 1 year period using two separate test instruments, the DIT and a context‐specific instrument developed by Welton et al. (1994) . The test scores are significantly higher on the DIT than the Welton instrument (between the instruments and over time), suggesting that accounting students use higher levels of moral reasoning in resolving hypothetical social dilemmas and lower levels of moral reasoning in resolving context‐specific dilemmas. The difference in test scores was highest during cooperative education (work placement programme), implying that the environment is a significant determinant on students’ test scores.     

Teachers' Pedagogical Beliefs at Commercial Schools—An Empirical Study in Germany

Within the study of teacher training, it is generally accepted that a teacher's behaviour and success in the classroom is influenced by their personal beliefs. This paper discusses teachers' pedagogical beliefs, domain-specific beliefs and conceptions of teaching and learning. We outline empirical results from various studies which explore lecturers' and teachers' perceptions of vocational training in the field of accounting education; then present an empirical study in German commercial schools, conducted via surveys (n= 225 teachers in commercial schools) and in-depth follow-up interviews (n?=?21 teachers). Using cluster analysis we identify different teacher types or belief systems regarding teaching and learning in accounting education: predominantly constructivist or instructional. Of particular interest is a mixed type, which includes both paradigms and emphasises the importance of structured lessons and systematic teaching. Verbal data allow a more detailed analysis of the different pedagogical orientations. We established significant relationships between teachers' beliefs, including domain-specific beliefs, self reports on the organisation of classroom activities and teaching patterns. All in all, the findings show a dominance of instructional ideas and teacher-centred teaching practices in the domain of accounting.     

Deep and surface approaches to learning within introductory accounting: a phenomenographic study

This paper reports the findings of a phenomenographic research study which sought to identify students' approaches to learning introductory accounting and their conceptions of accounting. The findings reveal that, in common with other disciplines, deep and surface approaches to learning can be identified. However, the main contribution of this study lies in two areas. First, it distinguishes those features that are characteristic of the deep and surface approaches within the discipline of accounting. Secondly, it identifies contextual features surrounding these approaches to learning and which are central to an understanding of them. The paper suggests how these findings can be used immediately to make changes within teaching and assessment practice through a phenomenographic pedagogy which: seeks to make students' conceptions of the subject matter explicit; provides diagnostic tools for the identification of distinctively different conceptions of the subject and approaches to learning; and addresses issues of preconceptions and relevance within teaching and assessment. The findings can also be used as the basis for further research into the identification of statistical variation in approaches to learning between students.     

A reassessment of the role of the Learning Style Inventory (LSI-1985) in accounting education research

This paper reexamines the cautionary theme advanced recently in Stout and Ruble (1991a; 1991b) regarding the use of the LSI-1985 in accounting education research. We focus on evidence relevant to the construct validity of the LSI-1985 and identify a number of psychometric problems with the instrument. The evidence regarding the measurement properties of the LSI-1985 (in both its standard and scrambled versions) argues for suspension of its use in accounting education research. In short, the LSI-1985 does not provide meaningful measures of the learning style constructs posited by the Experiential Learning Model (ELM).     

The plight of accounting education in Australia: a review article ∗

This paper summarizes the history and effects of the Australian Government's higher education lsquo;reformrsquo; agenda on the accounting discipline. After providing a brief historical perspective, the paper summarizes the contents of the Task Force for Accounting Education in Australia, a Report commissioned by the two major Australian professional accounting bodies. An overview of the Government's higher education Green and White Papers and their implications for the accounting discipline in higher education, is then provided. We then survey some of the key recommendations of the Report of the Review of the Accounting Discipline in Higher Education(The Mathews Report), an enquiry commissioned by the Australian Government after an intensive lobbying campaign by the accounting profession. The paper concludes with summary contents.     

‘Knowledge Preservation in Accounting’: Does It Deserve to Be Preserved?

This is my third in a series of critical pieces on the accounting education field. The first, ‘What Accounting Can Learn from Legal Education’, was published in Issues in Accounting Education (Fall 1987) and dealt with the problems resulting from teaching accounting as a science. The second, ‘Wisdom or Widgets: Whither the School of Business?’ (Abacus, September 1988) dealt with the price we pay in our research for our obsession with quantitative methods. The current piece evaluates Robert Bricker's 1988 article in this journal.     

Excel in the accounting curriculum: perceptions from accounting professors

Public accounting firms emphasize the importance of accounting graduates being proficient in Excel. Since many accounting graduates often aspire to work in public accounting, a question arises as to whether there should be an emphasis on Excel in accounting education. The purpose of this paper is to specifically look at this issue by examining accounting faculty's perceptions of Excel in public accounting and accounting education. We survey 245 faculty members at over 100 accounting programs. We find that a majority of faculty incorporate Excel in their accounting classes consistent with their perception of Excel importance. However, we find that students are not fully proficient in Excel based on faculty's perceptions. This study contributes to the accounting education literature by identifying possible disconnections between Excel skills faculty include in the accounting curriculum and specific Excel skills faculty believe new hires (i.e. recent accounting graduates) most often use in public accounting.     

Effect of graphical presentations on insights into a company's financial position: an innovative educational approach to communicating financial information in financial reporting

This article focuses on the graphical presentation of the financial ratios of the firm. Following an earlier plea for visualizing the financial report based on pacioli's treatise Divina Proportione, this study investigates the benefits of visualizing and reports on an experiment into the significance of visual information, designed to compare visual and numerical financial information. The experiment was conducted with the help of third-year accounting students. The study demonstrates an alternative teaching method and indicates that this can be a very effective and stimulating process of accounting education and training. Further the co-operation between teacher and students makes an intersting contribution to the development of better accounting education and training. The exploratory research indicates that presentation of graphical information produces time-gains in comparison with numerical information alone. Memory plays a very important role here. The conclusion are: first, that visual information can be considered as very important in providing a clear insight into the financial position of the firm, thus improving communication; and second, that the integration of accounting research and teaching is a very promising way of preparing academically and professionally future accounting practitioners.     

Food for Thought on the ABS Academic Journal Quality Guide

This paper discusses issues relating to the use of the Association of Business Schools' (ABS) Academic Journal Quality Guide within UK business schools. It also looks at several specific issues raised by the Chair of the British Accounting Association/British Accounting and Finance Association regarding the ratings for top international journals, and for accounting education and accounting history journals. The increasing use of this guide by business school deans/heads as a tool for staffing and research resource allocation has significant implications both for individuals and specialist areas of research.     

The core competency framework: a new element in the continuing call for accounting education change in the United States

Professional accounting organizations and academicians in the United States have developed numerous frameworks and reports to address changes in the profession and to provide guidance for accounting educators in the implementation of curriculum change. In 1998, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) released the Core Competency Framework for Entry into the Accounting Profession as an educational component of its CPA Vision Project. The online resource provides direct assistance to educators around the world in the implementation and assessment of the framework's recommendations. The purpose of this paper and the accompanying matrix, Comparison of US Accounting Education Frameworks with the Core Competencies, is to survey the history of contemporary American accounting education frameworks and compare earlier works with the most recent effort by the profession to recommend and institute accounting education change in the United States.     

The Roles of Some Key Stakeholders in the Future of Accounting Education in Australia

This article explores the role of institutional and systemic leadership in changing higher education in accounting in Australia. In particular, it discusses the roles of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, the Australian Business Deans' Council Teaching and Learning Network, and the professional accounting bodies in meeting the challenges confronting accounting education in the tertiary sector today and in the coming years. The intersection of these leadership roles is exemplified in an accounting discipline research project that explores the critical non-technical skills stakeholders require in graduate students and discusses stakeholders' roles and responsibilities in their development .     

Psychometric methods in accounting education: a review,some comments and implications for accounting education researchers

Psychometric instruments are widely used in accounting education research (Herring et al., Issues in Accounting Education, 4(1), 48–57, 1989; Benke and Street, Accounting Education: an international journal, 1(1), 33–45, 1992). Problems with the reliability of scores produced by such instruments have led to difficulties in interpreting the results of applied research (Schriesheim et al., Journal of Management, 19, 385–417, 1993). This paper has three aims. The first is to present a rationale for including information about the measurement properties of research instruments used in published accounting education research. Information regarding the reliability and validity of item scores is useful to readers, journal editors and reviewers - especially when the research topic addresses changes in educational policy and processes. Second, problems encountered with questionnairebased research are presented and current practice in accounting education is reviewed. Third, construct validation is discussed in respect of measurement validity and factor analytic methods. The paper concludes with suggestions for improving contemporary practice in accounting education research.