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.     

Assessments of the Expert Evidence of Accountants

The capacity of expert accounting witnesses to provide understandable evidence has been challenged by Australian judges. They have assessed expert accounting evidence as the most difficult evidence, from eight disciplinary areas, for them to evaluate adequately. This paper reports the responses of a sample of ten expert accounting witnesses to such assessment. We reveal the difficulties these accounting experts have experienced in presenting evidence. These include the unfamiliarity of judges and barristers with commercial principles; the intimidatory environment of courts; and outmoded attitudes to the use of modern communication aids. Several ways of improving expert accounting evidence are canvassed, including the provision of communications skills training for accountants and financial literacy training for judges and barristers.     

Developing Accounting Students' Listening Skills: Barriers,Opportunities and an Integrated Stakeholder Approach

Accountants and employers of accounting graduates consider listening to be among the most important communication skills that graduates possess. However, accounting education practices that develop students' listening skills are uncommon. Further, in the case of listening development, the current approach of prescribing that educators do more to rectify students' skill deficiencies overlooks barriers that prevent greater incorporation of listening instruction in the accounting curriculum. An alternative integrated stakeholder approach to develop students' listening skills is proposed. Informed by a broad range of education literature, the approach identifies cross-disciplinary listening development best practice and barriers to the widespread implementation of such practices in the typical accounting programme, before determining and assigning interrelated listening development roles to key stakeholders who will benefit from improved student listening. While student listening development is feasible under the proposed approach, shared contributions by accounting students, the profession and educators are needed to achieve enhanced skills outcomes.     

Accounting Students' IT Application Skills over a 10-year Period

This paper reports on the changing nature of a range of information technology (IT) application skills that students declare on entering an accounting degree over the period from 1996 to 2006. Accounting educators need to be aware of the IT skills students bring with them to university because of the implications this has for learning and teaching within the discipline and the importance of both general and specific IT skills within the practice and craft of accounting. Additionally, IT skills constitute a significant element within the portfolio of employability skills that are increasingly demanded by employers and emphasized within the overall Higher Education (HE) agenda. The analysis of students' reported IT application skills on entry to university, across a range of the most relevant areas of IT use in accounting, suggest that their skills have continued to improve over time. However, there are significant differential patterns of change through the years and within cohorts. The paper addresses the generalizability of these findings and discusses the implications of these factors for accounting educators, including the importance of recognising the differences that are potentially masked by the general increase in skills; the need for further research into the changing nature, and implications, of the gender gap in entrants' IT application skills; and the low levels of entrants' spreadsheet and database skills that are a cause for concern.     

Evaluating Assessed Group-work in a Second-year Management Accounting Subject

Abstract

This paper discusses the perceptions on the part of a large cohort of Sydney-based second year university accounting students of the benefits of group-work in developing transferable skills in teamwork, self-management, and planning and organising. The Australian accounting profession and business employers have identified these skills as lacking in accounting graduates. A questionnaire was administered to obtain students' perceptions of assessed group-work and the results were compared with three other similar studies of smaller cohorts of students. Overall, students considered assessed group-work to be a positive experience and a vehicle to develop transferable skills. The paper elaborates on elements in effective group-work design and students' comments which raise the need to integrate and scaffold assessed group-work in the accounting curriculum.     

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.     

Students’ conceptions of learning in the context of an accounting degree

Students' conceptions of learning (CoL) play an important role in the learning process leading to the development of generic skills. This paper investigates whether CoL of accounting students can be developed by incorporating high-level cognitive skills progressively within the accounting curriculum. First, the study explored, using phenomenography, the variation in accounting students' CoL. The findings highlighted some nuances in accountings students' CoL and that lower-order CoL were prevalent among accounting students. However, more (less) third-year students than second-year students adopted higher- (lower-) order CoL. Upon examining the learning objectives, teaching methods and assessment of all units comprising the accounting major of the host university, evidence was found that CoL are progressively developed and shaped, albeit in a limited way, based on the levels of cognitive domain emphasised within the curriculum. The findings highlight the need for accounting educators to take a whole of the programme approach to developing higher-order CoL.     

Final Year Accounting Undergraduates' Attitudes to Group Assessment and the Role of Learning Logs

Abstract

Group assessment now plays a significant role in higher education. Existing research has identified a number of benefits that derive from group assessment including the development of generic skills and the promotion of deeper learning. Despite its importance as a learning tool, there has been little research reported in the accounting literature, which has examined accounting students' attitudes towards the use of group assessment. This paper attempts to address this deficiency by exploring students' attitudes to the use of group assessment, in terms of group dynamics and generic skills development, in a cooperative learning environment within a final year undergraduate accounting module. In addition, the study analyses students' attitudes to maintaining a journal or learning log, which recorded the group's experience of completing the group assessment. Specifically, the study considers whether students' attitudes differ according to academic ability and it proffers explanations for the findings.     

Critical thought on critical thinking research

Calls for improving the critical thinking ability of accounting students have been clear and repeated in both the accounting education and professional accounting literature. Although numerous ideas for developing critical thinking skills have been generated, there remains a significant lack of empirical evidence, in both the accounting education and higher education literature, that any specific instructional method can enhance the critical thinking skills of students. Given the lack of empirical support for success in the development of critical thinking skills, the value of further efforts to develop students' critical thinking skills must be questioned. The premise of this paper is that accounting programs and faculty wanting to address the issue of developing critical thinking skills in their curricula should be able to empirically examine whether their efforts are achieving the desired effects. This article first presents a brief review of prior research on critical thinking skills development and then offers suggestions to improve the design of future research on this topic. The authors attempt to provide guidance on the design of more powerful empirical tests of promising curricular strategies so that accounting faculty can determine if their attempts to enhance student critical thinking skills are meeting expectations.     

Developing critical reflection: An integrated approach

The increasing impact of globalisation and digitalisation on accounting reinforces the need for accounting education to develop students' core professional skills such as communication, analytical skills and critical thinking, as well as their ability to evaluate the relativity of their knowledge and acknowledge learning needs. This paper reports on a comparative study that explores outcomes from surveys of two separate student groups as they engaged with the elements and components of a task designed to develop their skills and ability to reflect on the currency of knowledge. Findings show merit in the design's integrated and interactive approach, including the transition of students' perspectives, with critical reflection developed through sequencing individual and cooperative learning, oral and written exercises, and formative and summative assessment. Survey responses from students indicate that they responded positively to the challenge of critically reflecting upon research and articulating the relativity of their knowledge.     

Fostering deep and elaborative learning and generic (soft) skill development: the strategic use of case studies in accounting education

It is vital that accounting educators take responsibility for the development of students' generic (soft) skills in conjunction with, discipline-specific skills. Research indicates that the typical learning styles of accounting students are not suited to the acquisition of generic skills. In this paper learning theory is used to provide a framework to support the use of case studies as a tool to promote appropriate learning styles and thereby enhance generic skill development. The paper details a number of strategies that may be implemented with case studies to achieve these goals. The implications for accounting educators, which are significant, are discussed.     

Accounting Undergraduates' Perceptions of Cooperative Learning as a Model for Enhancing their Interpersonal and Communication Skills to Interface Successfully with Professional Accountancy Education and Training

To interface effectively with professional accountancy training, accounting educationalists should ensure that they turn out graduates who possess the interpersonal and communication skills required of today's accountant. Attainment of these skills is promoted by group work. However, little empirical evidence exists to help academics make an informed choice about which form of group learning enhances interpersonal and communication skills. This paper addresses this deficiency by comparing perceptions of skills enhancement between accounting students who experienced traditional or simple group learning and those who undertook cooperative learning. The findings reveal that the cooperative learning cohort perceived their learning experience to be significantly more effective at enhancing interpersonal and communication skills than that of the simple group learning cohort. This study provides evidence that cooperative learning is a more effective model for delivering interpersonal and communication skills than simple group learning, thereby creating a more successful interface between academic accounting and professional accountancy training.     

Vocational skills in the accounting professional profile: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) employers' opinion

The increasingly dynamic environment in which accountants work has necessitated a reorientation of accounting education. In some countries this issue has raised great interest amongst accounting educators and practitioners. The ongoing debate has already resulted in the publication of several statements and research papers that have raised the question of the relevance of the role of vocational skills in accounting education. Examples of these vocational skills are communication skills, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving skills. This paper reports on the importance that the employers of management accountants gave to a specified set of vocational skills and capabilities and the level of ability of these skills exhibited by students. In order to prioritize future developments an integrated analysis of the two attributes, importance and exhibited level, is enabled by the use of strategic mapping. The results of this study suggest that the employers perceive deficiencies in several capabilities that they have identified as being quite important. These deficiencies exist, in the employers' opinion, both prior to recruitment and on professional qualification. The research also indicates that, in the opinion of these employers, the development of these skills should be a central concern for universities and professional bodies. The employers also indicated that vocational skills should be attained in an integrated way.     

Management accounting curricula: striking a balance between the views of educators and practitioners

Management accounting education has been subject of considerable debate since the 1970s, particularly in terms of what topics should be taught. The research reported here set out to ascertain the management accounting topics/techniques and the skills/characteristics that are considered important for a graduate who intends to pursue careers in management accounting. Based on a survey conducted on educators and practitioners, the results indicate that educators viewed behavioural implications, activity-based costing (ABC), performance evaluation and product costing as the top four important topics. In contrast, practitioners' top four important topics were cash flow management, operational budgeting, variance analysis and performance evaluation. Overall, traditional techniques, as compared to contemporary techniques, tend to be more widely used by firms. As regards skills and characteristics, practitioners and educators placed high importance on thinking, problem solving, listening and quantitative skills.     

‘Lights,Camera, Action!’ Video Technology and Students' Perceptions of Oral Communication in Accounting Education

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of an authentic assessment item on three dimensions of oral communication in accounting education: skills, self-efficacy, and relevance. An explanatory mixed methods design is used to explore students' perceptions of their development. The results indicate that an elevator pitch assessment has a positive impact on all three dimensions. In particular, the employed video technology fosters greater self-awareness and a more accurate perception of skill levels, and enhances students' self-efficacy. The contextualised learning experience also enables students to better appreciate the relevance of oral communication to their future careers. The paper extends the literature on video technology, self-efficacy, and generic skills development in accounting education, and provides relevant stakeholders with evidence of an authentic activity that can assist with bridging the skills-expectation gap.     

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.     

Does the Holland model of occupational choice (HMOC) perpetuate the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype of accountants?

This article investigates the Holland model of occupational choice's (HMOC) development, influence, and validity in relation to its classification of bookkeepers, accountants, and business professionals. Study 1 reanalyzes published data and provides evidence that the Beancounter-Bookkeeper (BB) stereotype, which is promoted in the HMOC, is partially predictive of the personality characteristics of individuals who choose to enter professional accountancy. Study 2 investigates the influence of HMOC training, and exposure to accounting education, on perceptions of the personality type needed for accounting work; results indicate that: (1) HMOC training is associated with perceptions that accounting work requires a BB personality, and (2) the importance of investigative skills to accounting work increase with accounting education. Following this, we review evidence that suggests low validity in the HMOC's claims of greater job success and satisfaction among BB accountants. Finally, we consider three possible processes that may explain Holland and colleagues’ conjoining of accountants with bookkeepers. Together, the analysis promotes skepticism regarding whether the HMOC's claim that professional accounting success demands a passive, compliant, subservient, i.e., BB, personality supports the public interest obligations of professional accountants.     

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.     

Analogical Reasoning and the case of Accounting for Cashback Programs in the Casino Industry

The primary objective of this instructional case is to develop students' analogical reasoning skills. This objective is accomplished by directing the students to resolve an actual accounting issue involving an unstructured, open-ended, and real situation for which there are no specific authoritative pronouncements. To resolve the issue, students must draw upon and apply their knowledge and understanding of accounting principles as embodied in GAAP. Students are likely to disagree on the proper accounting treatment to be used in this situation. Therefore, the case can also be used to expose them to issues arising in the context of resolving disagreements in a group setting.     

The influence of self-efficacy beliefs and prior learning on performance

This research examines self-efficacy beliefs and prior learning of accounting students to determine how useful these variables are for predicting academic success in accounting courses. Self-efficacy beliefs are the confidence one has in the ability to perform certain tasks or skills (Bandura, 1997). As Bandura (1977) argued, the results here showed that confidence in one's ability to succeed is the most powerful predictor of academic success. This research provides pathways for increased student success by indicating that a focus on enhancing student self-efficacy will lead to higher achievement. The implications of this research for accounting education practice is discussed.