Conference address: the accounting education change movement in the United States

This paper is based on a keynote speech made before the British Accounting Association Special Interest Group on Accounting Education in May 2002. Its purpose is to present the author's perspectives about the accounting education change movement in the United States during the decade of the 1990s. The paper questions whether accounting is taught too much from a practical as opposed to a conceptual basis. It also questions whether textbooks have remained sufficiently contemporary and kept pace with the needs of accounting instructors and students. The paper then turns to the issue of professional image, suggesting that recent corporate scandals have tarnished the image of the accounting profession. The recommendations of the so-called change literature are then used as a basis for suggesting that academe must take care not to let analytical skills become a casualty of change. Finally the paper provides suggestions regarding the design and process of scholarly papers on the subject of accounting education.     

论精品课程建设

精品课程是在一定范围内,经过提炼或挑选并具有优秀品质的教学课程。精品课程建设应包括:精品课程的设计;精品课程教学管理的实施;精品课程教学活动的开展等。     

An analysis of accounting education research in accounting education: an international journal – 1992–2001

This paper reviews the research papers contained within the first ten volumes of Accounting Education: an international journal since its launch in 1992, identifying both areas that have been well covered and those that present opportunities for further research. The paper compares coverage with accounting education research published in the USA. It is hoped that the paper will be of interest to researchers who wish to establish the prior literature on their research topics or who are searching for research topics and/or methods that have been hitherto underexplored. The paper also provides some observations about the methods employed and source of papers in order to gain further insight into the state of accounting education research at the start of the 21st century.     

基于通识教育理念的大学英语课程设置与教学研究

通识教育是高等教育的组成部分。受欧美国家大学的影响,中国高校也开始重视并实践通识教育。本文从通识教育的起源和内涵的角度出发,通过研究美国大学的通识教育实践,对中国大学英语的课程设置和教学所面临的问题进行分析,对如何提高学生的综合英语应用能力,改进大学英语课程设置和教学进行了思考。     

Professional Skills and Capabilities of Accounting Graduates: The New Zealand Expectation Gap?

Much has been written about teaching and learning deficiencies in accounting education. Universities have grappled with the challenge and developed a number of strategies to address the concerns raised. Many of the recommended strategies for addressing these deficiencies have included a focus on the development of professional capabilities and skills. This paper reports on a study which has identified the capabilities which are considered to be the most important for successful practice in accountancy during the first years after graduation and identified the extent to which New Zealand universities have focused on these in the delivery of their study programmes. Most attempts to measure the nature and extent of change to accountancy degree programmes have collected data from current or graduating students or from the university itself. This study instead collected feedback from accountancy graduates employed in public practice with three to five years post graduation professional experience and from their workplace supervisors. This paper reports on the results of the graduate feedback, provides a useful insight into where progress has been made and identifies where further improvement is necessary.     

Broadening management accounting education: more theory,more practicality ∗

There are two widespread beliefs among management accountants. Management accounting should be practical, and education for doing the job the management accountant actually does should include topics which would require extensive training in theory. The two beliefs are not inconsistent. Management accounting education starting from theory and moving to its application could be far more practical than education without theory in applying predefined techniques.     

Computers BITE accounting education

The recent establishment of the £20 million Teaching and Learning Technology Programme by the Universities' Funding Council in the UK provides one of the largest boosts for IT and education since PLATO (in the USA) and NDPCAL (in the UK). This note describes the BITE project which is part of the above programme and highlights some of the problems that have affected both the development and evaluation of accounting courseware in the past. By using a strong interdisciplinary team of software, educational and subject specialists, the project hopes to overcome some or all of these problems.     

研究性“学”与研究性“教”的有效策略探讨——以《计量经济学》课程为例

研究性“学”与研究性“教”是相辅相成,不可分割的统一体,其内在联系通过“研究”这一纽带得以体现。研究性“学”与研究性“教”的效果取决于课程性质和有效的实施策略。有效策略可以从建立平等合作的师生关系、学生的研究性学习方法激励、教学与研究结合的教师团队建设、课堂教学、学生研究技巧培训、课题研究过程管理、合理的评价体系与配套政策、研究性实验等八个方面予以实施,以充分保障研究性“教”和“学”的效果。     

The Impact of Journal Rankings on Australasian Accounting Education Scholarship – A Personal View

Abstract

The higher education environment in which academics currently find themselves is one characterised by corporatisation and commodification. The pursuit of scholarly academic research is increasingly plagued by quantification, ranking pursuits, and what might be referred to as a ‘publication’ maximisation culture. This paper provides reflective insight into the impact felt of journal rankings on Australasian accounting education research. The paper challenges the short-termism and narrow focus currently adopted by many business faculty executives, who continue to use journal rankings as the sole measure of academic performance. The paper argues that this results in incentive schemes not too dissimilar to that recently found within the financial industry. The paper concludes that such a narrow approach to measurement should be abandoned in order to encourage creativity and innovation in business research that assists in solving business problems today and well into the future.     

发展经济学的学派划分及其研究方法

在对经济学界关于经济学学派划分标准进行阐述的基础上,归纳分析了国内外学者关于发展经济学流派的划分观点.学者们普遍接受将发展经济学划分为结构主义经济发展思路、新古典主义经济发展思路、新古典政治经济学思路和激进主义经济发展思路.本文对上述四种思路的研究方法进行了分析,并明确指出上述几种思路研究方法分歧的本质,即“单一经济学”和“双元经济学”之争、发展中国家经济发展的“内因”与“外因”之争、对经济发展进行“纯经济研究”还是进行“社会经济系统研究”之争.     

Changes in accounting education: preparing for the twenty-first century ∗

The Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) was formed in the USA to be a catalyst for change in accounting education. The AECC has called for fundamental changes in what is taught and how it is taught. The AECC has issued Position Number 1 that describes the desired objectives for accounting education and has made ten grants to four-year and graduate schools to stimulate curriculum changes.     

Book Reviews

In 1990, the Department of Accountancy in the Faculty of Business at RMIT undertook an experiment to combat the effects of reduced resources and increased pressures on teaching. It looked hard at what is known about good teaching and student learning and considered the ways in which an innovation that built on this knowledge might use education technology. This paper describes and evaluates an innovation that used videos, workbooks and a computer package to teach a component of management accounting. Overall, the innovation increased the level of critical and reflective learning by students and reduced considerably the formal student/staff contact time.     

Smart work and hard work: explicating a learning orientation in strategic management accounting

This paper examines the skills and aptitudes necessary to undertake a strategic management accounting project. It argues that individuals involved in such projects are required to work both smart and hard. This argument is developed theoretically by reference to the work of educational psychologists who have identified two different types of goal orientation which people pursue in achievement situations: the learning orientation and the performance orientation. Evidence that strategic management accounting requires a learning orientation is provided by means of a case study which describes its use in a competitive tendering situation. This is followed by a discussion of the potentially symbiotic relationship of strategic management accounting and organizational learning. The discussion leads to the specification of a research agenda that may have significant implications for the practice and learning of management accounting.