Integrating effective writing skills in the accounting curriculum

The J.M. Tull School of Accounting at the University of Georgia has developed a program for its accounting curriculum which integrates the teaching of effective writing skills with the regular accounting courses. Students in a three-course sequence write a total of eight papers — technical, memos, or reports. The assignments resemble on-the-job technical writing tasks actually encountered by professional accountants. A full-time writing consultant on the School's staff provides occasional lectures and handouts for students on effective writing skills; she also provides help to individual students who may need it. Papers are evaluated for both accounting content and effective writing     

A profile of communication apprehension in accounting majors: Implications for teaching and curriculum revision

Practitioners have consistently noted that entry-level accountants exhibit inadequate communication skills (Andrews & Sigband, 1984). Academics and practitioners agree that accounting students' writing and oral communication skills are the two major areas needing more attention in the curriculum (Simons & Higgins, 1993). Daly (1978) and McCroskey (1984) have found that poor communication is a result of either poor skills, apprehension, or both. This suggests a need to determine the level of apprehension in accounting majors prior to making curriculum/classroom changes. This study examines the level of communication apprehension in accounting majors. The results show that accounting majors have higher apprehension toward both written and oral communications than other business majors. Gender differences were found only for oral communication apprehension, with female accounting majors reporting the highest apprehension. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Perspectives on implementing a framework for evaluating effective teaching

The recently published report of the Committee on Promoting and Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness (AAA, Teaching & Curriculum Section) recommends a comprehensive framework for evaluating effective teaching (Calderon, T., Gabbin, A., & Green, B. (1997). Framework for encouraging effective teaching. Harrisonburg, VA: Center for Research in Accounting Education, James Madison University). As part of the framework, the Committee advocates a portfolio approach to fully assess the various dimensions of effective teaching. This paper describes the experience of three accounting departments in their initial application of selected PETE Committee recommendations. Each case describes the department's motivation, how chosen recommendations are applied, information resources required, and the problems and concerns encountered. An evaluation of the lessons learned during the first year in each of these cases is also provided. The material presented in this paper should be of interest to accounting programs that wish to focus attention on the dimensions of effective teaching in assessing faculty teaching performance.     

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.     

Integrating tax and financial accounting concepts into the partnership accounting curriculum

The integration of partnership financial accounting and tax accounting into the accounting curriculum has become very important in the current environment of increased partnership activity. The primary purpose of this article is to assist accounting educators in both financial and tax courses with this integration process. To accomplish this objective, a partnership's life cycle is detailed from formation to liquidation. Journal entries are presented to enable the reader to quickly assimilate the transactions involved in the life cycle. Supporting worksheets and partners' tax basis tables are also presented to depict the position of the partnership and partners, respectively, at the end of each stage of the life cycle. This article's example is designed to permit accounting instructors to integrate both tax and financial accounting concepts when teaching either advanced accounting or partnership taxation in the most efficient manner.     

The introductory financial accounting course: Its role in the curriculum for accounting majors

This paper reports a study that addressed two related research questions. The first concerns the proper emphasis in teaching introductory financial accounting in terms of the conceptual and procedural aspects of the subject. The second deals with the adequacy of introductory courses in preparing accounting majors for their intermediate and advanced accounting courses. Professors who had recently taught intermediate and/or advanced accounting responded to a questionnaire designed to answer the above questions. A recent study of the curriculum for accounting majors helped provide a framework for part of the questionnaire. The responses provide some evidence favoring a more conceptual emphasis, although it is not conclusive. There is a clear indication that these professors perceive the preparation received by accounting majors to be inadequate. A related finding is that more study of the accounting curriculum is needed, especially in terms of when the various topics should be taught.     

管理会计与商业银行业绩考评

目前，我国国有商业银行业绩考评的一个最重要的指标是利润表中反映的财务会计“利润”。然而，以会计“利润”为基础的考评指标能否客观、公正地反映管理层的经营业绩呢?下面我们通过一个简化的实例来看一看这个问题。     

North American college and university uses of micro computers in teaching accounting - 1983 survey

This paper reports the results of a survey of North American college and university accounting departments' uses of micro computer hardware and software.     

Service-learning: an innovative approach to teaching accounting: a teaching note

Service-learning allows students to enhance their learning through real-world applications of accounting concepts. This Teaching Note describes the service-learning process and the benefits to students, faculty, the university, the community, and the accounting profession. Quotations from students' reflective journals are used as illustrations regarding how students develop communication, leadership, strategic, and critical thinking skills. Practical issues for implementing and supervising service-learning projects are also given.     

American law schools: Implications for accounting education

Given the similarities of the practices of law and accounting, it seems natural to consider restructuring accounting education along the lines of the law school model. The similarities, coupled with the lengthy history of legal education, suggest the importance of inquiring into whether the law school experience offers any lessons for enhancing the quality of accounting education. The results of such an inquiry are the subject of this report.     

Reporting accounting changes and fundamental errors: a teaching note

Mastering the requirements for reporting accounting changes and fundamental errors in comparative statements is a challenging topic for many accounting students. Because authoritative literature focuses on identifying events and associating them with reporting methods, many illustrative examples confound the differences between reporting methods with the differences between the factual situations in which the methods apply. This paper presents a single-context teaching aid that focuses on mastering basic reporting methods inherent in the International Accounting Standard governing accounting changes and in the US generally accepted accounting principles. Suggestions are also provided for class discussions of issues surrounding the reporting of accounting changes and fundamental errors.     

Flowcharting: An effective teaching tool

The journalizing phase of the accounting cycle is flowcharted to provide a visual introduction to the journalizing process. This should aid students in understanding how journal entries are constructed.     

Benchmarks for evaluating the research productivity of accounting faculty

This study reports comprehensive data on both the quantity and quality of research productivity of 3878 accounting faculty who earned their accounting doctoral degrees from 1971 to 1993. Publications in 40 journals were used to measure faculty publication quantity. Journal ratings derived from a compilation of the rankings of five prior studies and co-authorship were used to measure publication quality. Choosing benchmarks for an individual faculty requires users of our data to determine four parameters: (1) what credit to give a faculty member for co-authored articles; (2) what level of journal quality is appropriate, e.g. presenting benchmarks for publications in the Best 4, Best 12, Best 22 and Best 40 journals; (3) choosing appropriate levels of performance, e.g. considering the publication record in the top 10%, top 20%, top 25%, top 33%, or top 50% of all faculty; and (4) deciding the emphasis to place on the number of years since the doctoral degree was earned. We believe that this is the first set of benchmarks that allows administrators to state, with some justification, a required number of articles for tenure or promotion. In addition, we discovered that the average number of authors per article is significantly correlated with time and growing at a pace of 0.017 authors per article per year.     

中注协关于印发《中国注册会计师协会关于推动会计师事务所做大做强的意见》的通知

各省、自治区、直辖市注册会计师协会:为适应我国社会主义市场经济发展需要,贯彻落实国家“十一五”规划对行业提出的新要求,服务于企业“走出去”战略,进一步推进注册会计师行业建设,实现行业做大做强和国际化发展的目