Learning through writing in a first-year accounting course

More than any other activity at a university, the writing experiences of students are directly linked to their academic progress. This paper reports on the practical steps taken in restructuring the curriculum of a first-year accounting course at the University of Sydney to develop students’ writing skills within a broader skills-based program to enhance learning. Three dimensions of students’ writing skills are addressed: writing skills as prerequisites for learning, writing skills as a means of learning, and writing skills as an outcome of learning.The paper explains how the educational theory about learning to write and writing to learn contributed to a pedagogical framework for teaching practice and gives several examples as illustration of the pedagogy. Interactive reading guides, annotated model answers, analysis grids, and formative self and peer assessment are among techniques adopted to encourage students to reflect actively on their own learning through writing. The curriculum redesign project reported here was first introduced in 1994, and substantially modified in 1995 in response to feedback. In general, the quality of submitted assignments, examination performance, and feedback from both staff and students suggests that the innovations reported in the paper have helped students to improve their writing skills and enabled them to become more engaged with the learning of the content of the course. Quantitative feedback between 1994–1997 confirms these conclusions.     

The truth about mentoring minorities. Race matters

Diversity has become a top priority in corporate America. Despite corporations' best intentions, however, many have failed to achieve a racial mix at the top levels of management. Some have revolving doors for talented minorities, recruiting the best and brightest, only to see them leave, frustrated by their experiences. Others are able to retain high-potential professionals of color but find them mired in middle management. To understand the different career trajectories of whites and minorities, David Thomas studied the progression of racial minorities at three large U.S. corporations. Here, he explains the three career stages that all professionals advance through, and he discusses why promising white professionals tend to enter fast tracks early in their careers, whereas high-potential minorities typically take off after they have reached middle management. Thomas's research shows that minorities who advance the furthest share one characteristic: a strong network of mentors and corporate sponsors. He found that minorities who plateaued in middle management received mentoring that was basically instructional; it helped them to develop skills. By contrast, minorities who became executives enjoyed fuller developmental relationships with their mentors. Thomas explains the types of support mentors provide for their protégés and outlines the challenges of mentoring across racial lines. Specifically, he addresses negative stereotypes, public scrutiny, difficulty with role modeling, and peer resentment. Finally, Thomas challenges the notion that the job of mentors begins and ends with their one-on-one relationships with their protégés. He offers concrete advice on how mentors can support broader initiatives at their organizations to create and enhance conditions that foster the upward mobility of professionals of color.     

Oral and written communication apprehension in accounting students: Curriculum impacts and impacts on academic performance

In the context of an accounting curriculum that has been significantly modified over the past decade in response to calls for skills development, this study investigates the impacts of curriculum on students' levels of communication apprehension. An emerging concern in accounting is that attempts made to improve students' communication skills may fail or be less effective for some students because such attempts do not improve, or may even exacerbate, students' anxiety about communicating, which in turn leads to poorer performance. The results from this New Zealand study show that students in their final year of study in which they are exposed to greater communication demands do not, on average, have higher levels of communication apprehension in earlier studies than their peers do. The levels of communication apprehension for final year students decline most markedly for those students starting with higher average levels of apprehension. The results fail to find any strong associations between levels of communication apprehension and students' abilities to advance in their studies or average levels of academic performance. One finding that opens up the possibility for further research, however, is that students' anxiety about communicating in interviews is not reduced.     

A Masterclass in interdisciplinarity: Research into practice in training the next generation of interdisciplinary researchers

This paper draws on evaluations of a number of interdisciplinary studentship and fellowship schemes to discuss some of the challenges of developing interdisciplinary research skills in early career researchers. It describes efforts to support such capacity-building in the UK through a series of Interdisciplinary Masterclasses which used workshop-based elicitation techniques to develop smallscale studies in order to synthesise experiential knowledge and foster mutual learning. This has enabled us to build important bridges between research and practice, thereby supporting and developing the interdisciplinary careers of early- and mid-career researchers, as well as research managers and leaders. This paper describes an approach to interdisciplinary capacity-building derived from actual practice. Based on learning from these activities, we offer some suggestions for improved supervision and mentoring of interdisciplinary graduate students and young postdoctoral researchers. If we are to develop effective, future interdisciplinary capacity, we advocate that supervisors/mentors need to focus, not just on the research, but on the particular forms of professional support and mentoring required by inexperienced interdisciplinary researchers in terms of career guidance, the development of publications strategies and network building.     

Minority accountants’ views on gender and race biases,career limitations and suggestions for undergraduate educational institutions

This study documents perceptions of African-American accountants (210 males and 215 females), across a wide variety of organizations, with respect to discrimination, career advancement curtailment and mentoring support, as well as provides their input regarding what undergraduate educational institutions might do to help minority students overcome career advancement barriers. Results indicate that 49 and 26% of this study’s respondents perceive racial bias and curtailment of career advancement, respectively in their current position, and 32% of them have mentors. Respondents suggested providing co-ops or internships, mentoring programs, and emphasizing the importance of oral and written communication skills to help minority students prior to their entry into the profession. Respondents further indicated that educational institutions should conduct seminars on various topics including diversity issues, handling discrimination, the transition from college to work, and corporate politics and culture.     

Why mentoring matters in a hypercompetitive world

Professional service firms (PSFs), like so many other companies, are juggling the modern challenges of global competition, increased regulation, and rapid employee turnover. In a people-oriented industry, attrition has special import. DeLong and Gabarro, of Harvard Business School, along with former Morgan Stanley and Ernst & Young executive Lees, argue that a PSF can gain a much-needed competitive edge by renewing its focus on mentoring. The authors' in-depth interviews with professionals from more than 30 PSFs have yielded four principles for firms to heed as they rediscover this lost art. First, mentoring is personal. Rather than relying on standardized programs, mentors must frequently--and fairly--provide authentic advice and nurturing. Partners at PSFs know how to use their ample people skills effectively with clients; the benefits of using them with junior colleagues are even greater. Second, not everyone is an A player. A small dose of attention given to a B player goes at least as far as a large one offered to an A player. Since B players constitute about 70% of PSF staff, that's time well spent. Third, choice assignments are in short supply, which limits the number of learning opportunities available for associates. Good alternatives include shadowing senior professionals on assignments and taking on research or other projects that are not client-related but that nonetheless build expertise. Finally, mentoring is a two-way street. Protégés should not only learn from their senior counterparts, but also be taught to attract mentors--and to co-mentor one another.     

From Plagiarism‐Plagued to Plagiarism‐Proof: Using Anonymized Case Assignments in Intermediate Accounting

Plagiarism in accounting case assignments is a serious problem that undercuts the important objectives the case assignments are used to achieve: the development of students’ critical thinking skills and the advancement of their written communication skills. This paper examines plagiarism behavior through the lens of fraud theory by targeting two elements of the fraud triangle: rationalization and opportunity. Efforts to target rationalization by changing student perceptions of peer behavior were not effective. This led to a shift in focus to the assignment itself which was providing the opportunity for misconduct. Students were sidestepping authentic engagement in the assignment by gaining access to published solutions or peer submissions from previous semesters. One failsafe design response to this problem is to use only originally written cases. However, writing a large number of original cases each semester is unrealistic within many instructors’ workloads. This article instead proposes the use of a case refreshing strategy that makes cases appear unique to each group of students. When this strategy was introduced in an intermediate accounting course, there was a dramatic decrease in plagiarism and a corresponding improvement of the academic integrity environment in the course.     

Further Evidence of Critical Thinking and Final Examination Performance in Advanced Financial Accounting

This study examines whether in-course test components requiring stronger critical thinking skills can help explain final examination performance in an advanced undergraduate financial accounting course, conducted in 2003 and 2004 over three continuous semesters at an Australian university. It proposes and validates two levels of dimensions affecting final examination performance: in-course test components and students’ previous university academic performance. Analysis of a database of 1,816 students using standardised multiple regression over three continuous semesters suggests that while overall Grade Point Advantage (GPA) is the single best predictor of final examination performance, in-course test components that require more critical thinking are better predictors than others, except for the in-course ethics essay test. Length of stay also had some predictive ability. This study suggests that academics should pay attention to monitoring and providing feedback to students on their in-course performance in tests that examine critical-thinking skills covering a wide range of topics. Such monitoring and feedback may assist in improving the final examination performance of students in this course.     

Perceptions of the benefits of the A3 planner in facilitating project-based learning in accounting education

This paper evaluates ways of instilling project management skills into accounting-based learning by the use of an iterative A3 planner to plan, monitor and review assignment progress. The application of an A3 planner to facilitate a project-based learning (PBL) group assignment in undergraduate accounting education has been critically evaluated in terms of both the student and tutor experience. The study uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Quantitative data assisting exploration of perceptions were collected through 100 undergraduate students. A series of focus group discussions were carried out to investigate students’ engagement and tutors’ teaching experiences regarding the adoption of the A3 planner. The results suggest that the A3 planner promotes active planning and effective management of a PBL group assignment. It makes students’ thought processes more visible thereby facilitating and enhancing the tutoring/mentoring process. Moreover a more interactive and transparent approach by doing assignment via the use of an iterative A3 planner has ensured more feedback points and action based efficiency in the doing approach for learners.     

Examining the relationships among background variables and academic performance of first year accounting students at an Irish University

The study reported on in this paper examined the associations among prior academic achievement, prior knowledge of accounting, gender, motives, expectations and preparedness for higher education and academic performance in the first year of an accounting program at an Irish university. Data regarding the background variables were gathered using a questionnaire and examination marks were used to as measures of academic performance. Results indicate a significant association among prior academic achievement, prior knowledge of accounting, and students’ academic performance. Additionally, students’ confidence in their skills and abilities, perceptions regarding the role of university in career development, positive prior experiences of learning accounting, and a desire to experience intellectual growth are all significant variables in explaining variation in first year academic performance. Interestingly, the opportunity provided by university to broaden one’s horizons (motive) and a willingness to ask for help from lecturers (preparedness) were found to be negatively associated with performance.     

THE ROLE OF MENTORING IN THE CAREER PROGRESSION OF CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS

This article describes the results of a study into the operation of mentoring in two of the Big Five accountancy firms in Ireland. The study showed that the experience of mentoring is extensive: two thirds of the professional staff in both firms having experienced at least one mentoring relationship. The mentoring schemes were informal and mentoring relationships were perceived as critical to promotion. The mentoring functions reported the Irish study were similar to those reported in US accountancy firms, although the relative importance was different. The intensity of the mentoring experience varied with the grade of the protégé. It was found that male mentors offered a stronger role modelling function to male protégés than female mentors did, although female mentors did not offer stronger Role Modelling function to female protégés than male mentors did. Although those who experienced strong social support and career development elements in their mentoring were more likely to have low turnover intentions; there was no gender difference in this issue. Differences between the relative importance of mentoring functions and the impact of grade and gender in the USA and Ireland were explored in the context of the differing cultures and it was suggested that these differences may be explained by the cultural differences between the two countries.     

The association of formal and informal public accounting mentoring with role stress and related job outcomes

This paper examines the association between mentoring (both formal and informal) and three measures of role stress (role conflict, role ambiguity, and perceived environmental uncertainty), as well as two job outcomes (job performance and turnover intentions). The statistical analysis is based on structural equation modeling, using responses from 794 employees of large public accounting organizations. The results suggest that in addition to providing the traditional career development and psychosocial support functions, informal mentors provide protégés with information that clarifies their organizational role (reduces role ambiguity). However, mentoring benefits may come at a cost: higher role conflict. The study found limited positive effects attributed to formally assigned mentors.     

Increasing the number of black chartered accountants in South Africa: an empirical review of educational issues

South Africa has a shortage of black chartered accountants. This situation has arisen due to a combination of political, socio-economic and related educational reasons during the four decades of apartheid rule. In recent years, numerous academic ventures have commenced in an attempt to increase the number of black chartered accountants. This paper reviews and identifies, through an empirically-based exploratory study, the educational issues potentially inhibiting the development of black chartered accountants in South Africa, as well as the academic support structures which have arisen in response to these perceived educational barriers. Both academic support organizations and recently qualified black chartered accountants in South Africa were surveyed through in-depth interviews and structured self-administered questionnaires. This study found, inter alia, that role models, as a motivational factor for black accounting students, were extremely important. Cognitive factors, such as writing skills and the interpretation of numerical data, were identified as areas of primary concern, whilst issues with respect to certain study needs, such as assistance with study skills and examination techniques, also warranted attention. This study also found that the overall approach of academic support organizations to programme structure and design appears to be addressing student needs adequately. Certain improvements, however, are recommended. Of particular concern, is the general lack of studies on the effectiveness of academic support programmes.     

An exploration of student failure on an undergraduate accounting programme of study

Academic failure creates financial and emotional issues for students, with associated resource and performance implications for higher education institutions. The literature reveals that much of the work on student performance is quantitative, restricting understanding of the deeper feelings and perceptions of students towards their studies. This paper explores undergraduate student performance from an experiential perspective, recognising the complexity and subjectivity of academic performance. Findings appear to highlight: the negative focus of reasoning underlying the choice of study; the impact of affect; the importance of the role of the tutor; the tutor expectations gap; levels of control and personal responsibility for learning; and patterns of participation as possible significant and important factors in understanding academic performance. Finally, the implications of the findings are discussed and further research outlined in terms of developing a predictive model that could offer early identification of students who are susceptible to academic failure and establishing appropriate, proactive support strategies for such students.     

The effectiveness of using spreadsheets to teach financial accounting

There have been numerous attempts to integrate micro-computers into the teaching of accounting courses in higher education. Two of the reasons that have been suggested for using computers on accounting courses are: firstly, the educational benefits and, secondly, that students will then be equipped with the computing and spreadsheet skills that they will require in the workplace. One method of using the computer is to use it as a computational tool, allowing the student to develop models from scratch. Such an approach was developed by Marriott & Simon (1990a). However, as there is little evidence regarding the educational effectiveness of using such methods, a rigourous and structured research project was conducted using first–year accounting degree students at Cardiff Business School. This article outlines the rationale for the project and analyses the results obtained. The results indicate that while spreadsheets can be successfully integrated into an accounting course, their use had no measurable impact on test performance. However, the use of computers can still be deemed to be worthwhile as the students' computer skills are enhanced and it permits further integration in other courses where educational benefits may be more readily obtained.     

How do mentoring rewards influence experienced auditors?

The benefits of mentoring are well documented, and include lower employee turnover, heightened employee success, and higher employee satisfaction. In an effort to acquire these benefits, audit firms are structuring rewards for mentoring. However, we predict that rewarding mentors can prove problematic, leaving needy young auditors without a mentor or perhaps receiving advice that might prove detrimental. We test our expectations in an experiment with 111 Big 4 auditor participants. As expected, we find that in the presence of mentoring rewards, experienced auditors are less willing to mentor the young auditors who likely would benefit the most. We also find that in the presence of mentoring rewards, experienced auditors are more likely to provide advice that might be counterproductive. Yet interestingly, in our study, when rewards are absent, experienced auditors are more willing to mentor and more likely to provide beneficial advice. Our results inform the audit mentoring literature though our focus on mentor behavior, as opposed to protégé behavior. Our results also have implications for audit firms as they consider the structure of mentoring rewards, training on mentoring advice, and the effects of this advice.     

Growth rates as measures of financial performance

This teaching note provides a vehicle to help students understand, calculate, and communicate growth rates as part of the process of financial performance evaluation. The note also makes use of the graphic capabilities and functions available within Excel. Graphics are widely used by companies in their annual reports to highlight financial performance and to focus on change over time. Many companies also report 3, 5, and 10 year growth rates for selected financial data in their annual reports. Alternative approaches for calculating growth rates are presented with a focus on understanding the differences that can exist in the resulting calculated values. The underlying biases and the advantages of each approach are discussed. A project appropriate for classroom use in a Financial Accounting or Financial Statement Analysis course is included in an Appendix.     

An examination of African Americans' access to public accounting mentors: perceived barriers and intentions to leave

This paper reviews prior research on diversified mentoring relationships and formulates predictions regarding African Americans' access to public accounting mentors. Empirical analysis is based on responses from 116 African-American public accounting employees, compared to 756 Caucasian responses from a prior study. Statistical results indicate that African-American public accounting employees are less likely to obtain an informal mentor and perceive greater barriers to obtaining mentors. For two mentoring functions (protection and assistance, and social support), African-American respondents reported lower levels of support, compared to Caucasian respondents. Also, African-American respondents indicated stronger intentions to leave public accounting.     

The budgetary interview: Intentional learning for students in governmental and non-profit accounting

Learning-to-learn skills are critical to the future success of accounting students. This paper reports on a budgetary interview exercise that helps students develop as intentional learners. Students select a government or non-profit agency to investigate, arrange an interview with an agency official to discuss the budgetary process, write a technical paper on what was learned, and record their reflections on the experience. The budgetary interview exercise was implemented with undergraduate students in governmental and non-profit accounting courses over four academic years (one course per year). Effectiveness of the exercise was assessed via content analysis of student papers and reflections. Results indicate the exercise was highly effective in helping students develop intentional learning skills. Furthermore, students successfully connected classroom material to “real-world” practice, and most students reflected on potential careers in governmental or non-profit sectors. Appendices provide materials that instructors may use to implement this exercise.     

Why are first‐year accounting studies inclusive?

This study is motivated by the increasing diversity among first‐year accounting students and the increasing number of first‐year accounting students whose majors are not in accounting related areas in UK universities. The main contribution of this study is that it uses student data over four consecutive academic years from a first‐year accounting course at a UK university to provide empirical evidence in support of the theoretical framework proposed by Rankin et al. (2003). Our results show the effects of metacognitive knowledge and content knowledge on academic performance as well as highlighting the inclusiveness of the first‐year accounting course. For instance, regardless of the choices of secondary subjects, students who have good prior academic achievement are the best performers on the first‐year accounting course. The influence of content knowledge on academic performance is strongly felt when the assessments of the course changed from a 100 per cent final exam to a combination of mid‐term coursework and a final exam. The results suggest that well‐designed mid‐term coursework is academically beneficial to accounting students, especially non‐native English‐speaking students.