Description
At our institution we felt that an
approach based on active learning strategies
as suggested by the Albrecht and Sack Report
(2000) was appropriate for non-accounting
majors. This was primarily to instil a greater
enthusiasm for and interest in accounting than
had been evident from our experience with
these students in the past. In the course
evaluations the non-accounting majors were
positive about their learning experiences
Accounting Research Journal
Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
Paul Coram
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
13
Active Learning in Accounting: A Case
Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
Paul Coram
Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems
The University of Melbourne
Abstract
In recent years there has been a decrease in the
proportion of commerce students taking an
accounting major in Australia (Institute of
Chartered Accountants in Australia, 2001),
resulting in a greater proportion of first year
accounting classes comprising non-accounting
majors. At our institution we felt that an
approach based on ‘active learning’ strategies
as suggested by the Albrecht and Sack Report
(2000) was appropriate for non-accounting
majors. This was primarily to instil a greater
enthusiasm for and interest in accounting than
had been evident from our experience with
these students in the past. In the course
evaluations the non-accounting majors were
positive about their learning experiences. In
reviewing the students’ assessment
performance we found that the non-accounting
majors actually performed better than the
accounting majors in one of the five assessment
components – the final exam. These findings
suggest that the active learning approach may
be beneficial to all accounting students.
Keywords: accounting education, active learning,
curriculum revision, non-accounting majors
Acknowledgments: This paper relates to a teaching
initiative undertaken with colleagues whilst I was a staff
member at The University of Western Australia. The
original version of this paper was prepared for the AAANZ
Conference in Perth 2002 as a result of my winning the
inaugural Pearson Education Accounting Lecturer of the
Year Award in 2001. It was also presented at the 9
th
IAAER
World Congress of Accounting Educators in Hong Kong in
2002 thanks to funding from Pearson Education in relation
to the above award. Thanks to participants at both of the
above mentioned conferences for feedback on the paper.
Thanks also to colleagues for comments and suggestions on
this paper, particularly Philip Brown, Gary Monroe, Robyn
Moroney, Juliana Ng, Ann Tarca and David Woodliff.
Finally, thanks to an anonymous reviewer of the
Accounting Research Journal.
1. Introduction
This paper evaluates how implementing active
learning affects non-accounting majors’
perceptions and performance in a first year
accounting course. Active learning involves
students doing things and thinking about
the things they are doing (Bonwell and
Eison, 1991). Lucas (1997) outlined two key
requirements (and challenges) of active
learning. Firstly, it requires the abandonment of
passive learning and development of strategies
that encourage a deep approach to learning.
Secondly, the adoption of active learning
implies reflective learning and therefore
practical problems are particularly useful. Our
aim was to implement the requirements of
active learning in our first year course for non-
accounting majors. All first year accounting
students were told about the different approach
and asked whether they intended to major in
accounting or not. The class was then divided
accordingly. We redesigned our class approach
for this and also increased the class size to
allow more time to implement these active
learning strategies.
Evaluating different teaching strategies for
non-accounting majors is important because
more and more students are choosing to study
commerce without majoring in accounting. The
results of this study suggested that non-
accounting majors had a positive perception of
their learning experience and showed that they
performed better than accounting majors on the
final exam component of their assessment.
These findings suggest that all accounting
students could benefit from this change in
approach.
The paper is structured as follows, Section 2
describes the decline in accounting majors,
Section 3 explains the Albrecht and Sack
recommendations, Section 4 provides the
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
14
background to the problem at our institution,
Section 5 outlines the changes made to
implement active learning, Section 6 discusses
the findings from the student evaluations and
student performance measures and Section 7
concludes by outlining the limitations of the
study and suggesting directions for future
research.
2. Declining Proportion of
Accounting Majors
The declining percentage of commerce students
majoring in accounting and the declining or
stagnant numbers of accounting majors has
been observed for a number of years in
Australia and to a greater extent in the United
States (US). In the US the problem was
considered serious enough for the profession,
practitioners and academics to commission a
study into the future of accounting education
that resulted in a report titled “Accounting
Education: Charting the Course through a
Perilous Future” (Albrecht and Sack, 2000).
Statistics from this report illustrate the size of
the problem: in the US from the period 1995 to
1999 there was a decline of 20 percent in the
number of accounting degrees awarded
(Albrecht and Sack, 2000, p.19). There were
similar findings reported by McCrary (2001),
who noted that in California in a ten year
period there had been a 30 to 50 percent
decline in the number of students majoring
in accounting. The Institute of Chartered
Accountants in Australia (ICAA) 2001 report
“Trends in Accounting at Australian
Universities” found that the number of students
undertaking Business/Commerce degrees
increased by 12.4 percent between 1997 and
2000 but at the same time the number of
students choosing accounting as a major
decreased by 9.8 percent. The report
commented that there “…is a need to
implement strategies to increase the popularity
of accounting as a career choice.” (ICAA,
2001, p.3) The Albrecht and Sack Report
conducted research into the main problems in
accounting education in the US and found that:
• the number and quality of students electing
to major in accounting is decreasing rapidly;
• if given the opportunity, many accounting
professors and accountants would not again
major in accounting; and
• accounting leaders and practising
accountants believe that accounting
education, as currently structured, is
outdated, broken and in need of significant
modification.
The reasons for the declining proportion of
students majoring in accounting are separate
issues beyond the scope of this paper although
they are considered in detail in the Albrecht
and Sack Report.
1
However, as the third point
outlined above by Albrecht and Sack would
suggest, the problems are not solely external to
accounting education practices. Concerns with
the way accounting is being taught have not
just arisen in the last few years, as was shown
in a study by Adams et al. (1994), which found
that first year accounting attracted large
numbers of high aptitude students but lost
many of them because of the rule-based
accounting curriculum. Several Australian
studies have commented on this curriculum
issue. Monroe (2001) suggested that in the past
we have done our students a disservice by
focusing too much on teaching students how to
be experts rather than how to become experts
and how to redevelop expertise. Howieson
(2003, p.85), in looking at the possible future of
business, commented that, “there will
need to be a major change in the way
both practitioners and educators view the
objectives of university accounting studies and
continuing professional development.” These
concerns are not new as Henderson (1996)
also noted that the profession did not
believe universities produced what the market
wanted.
3. Albrecht and Sack Reform
The Albrecht and Sack Report outlined a
number of problems facing accounting
education and suggested three main ways
2
accounting education could be improved:
1 Albrecht and Sack (2000) found the following reasons:
(1) decreased salary levels; (2) more attractive career
alternatives; (3) willingness to choose risky majors; (4)
misinformation about accounting; and (5) the 150-hour
rule (US specific).
2 Other suggestions by Albrecht and Sack included: skill
development; faculty development and reward
structures; and strategic planning and direction of
accounting programs and departments.
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
15
• A broadening of course content and
curricula, exposing students to concepts like
globalisation, technology and ethics.
• Pedagogical change. Students currently
spend too much time listening to lectures
and not enough time engaged in activities
that develop business skills and knowledge.
• Greater focus on technology. Students
should have a more thorough understanding
of technology’s impact on business.
There is evidence that some schools in the
US have taken the changes recommended by
Albrecht and Sack on board (Force, 2002).
3
In the first year accounting subject at our
institution we made a number of changes for all
of our students based on some of the
suggestions of the Albrecht and Sack Report,
particularly relating to broadening the course
content and curricula and having a greater
focus on technology.
However, the focus of this paper is on the
pedagogical change made by implementing
active learning strategies, which was specific to
the non-accounting majors. This paper is a
review of how these changes affected the non-
accounting majors’ perceptions and
performance in the first year accounting course.
4. Background
At our institution in the years preceding this
study the overall number of students studying
commerce increased but the proportion of them
majoring in accounting decreased consistent
with the Australia wide phenomenon
previously discussed.
4
This meant a greater
proportion of students were studying the first
year accounting subject with no intention to
major in accounting. Anecdotal evidence
suggested that these students were less
interested in accounting than the accounting
majors, were less motivated, were only taking
3 This was from an interview with Robert Sack. However,
he also noted that the response from accounting
professionals was more positive than academics.
4 At our institution in the three year period up to
implementation of these changes the number of students
studying first year accounting increased slightly (all
commerce students must study this subject). In the
corresponding lagged three years there was a decrease
in the number of students studying the third year
auditing subject (this is the best indicator of the number
of students completing an accounting major).
first year accounting because it was a
requirement and did not perform as well as
accounting majors.
5
In our view the problems with motivation in
this group of students were made worse by the
traditional approach of teaching first year
accounting from a very technical point of view.
Historically, there has been great emphasis on
needing to understand ‘the basics’, which is
reflected in the approach taken by many first
year accounting textbooks. As a result, students
would spend many hours tediously working
through journals, T-accounts, adjusting entries,
trial balances, closing entries, etc. Our view
was not that these skills were unimportant.
Rather, the over emphasis given to this
‘technical’ or ‘manual’ approach to accounting
meant that important messages associated with
interpretation and understanding that we might
want to convey in first year accounting courses
were lost in the detail, particularly for those
students who did not intend to major in
accounting.
6
This view is supported by a study
undertaken by Adams et al. (1994), which
found that the ‘rule-based’ method of
accounting instruction was deterring high
aptitude students from majoring in the subject.
One of the recommendations of the Albrecht
and Sack Report also illustrated these problems
by quoting a respected accounting professor as
saying, “Our courses are too detailed and too
technical” (Albrecht and Sack, 2000, p.50).
In our view, a teaching approach consisting
of lectures and conventional tutorials
exacerbated this problem. We felt that
implementing active learning strategies and
having students more engaged in the learning
process could reduce the problem outlined
above. An active learning strategy would also
allow us to direct the focus of some of the
allocated class questions to give greater
consideration of the users’ perspective in
5 In prior years, some tutorials were comprised mainly of
students who were unlikely to major in accounting,
which was due to timetabling issues rather than a
conscious decision to separate them. Observation and
interaction with these students was the main source of
this anecdotal evidence.
6 This is not to say that a different approach is not
warranted for accounting majors, however the point is
that it is even more important for non-accounting
majors.
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
16
relation to interpreting and understanding
accounting information – an important issue for
non-accounting majors.
The next step was to split the first year
accounting class into accounting and non-
accounting major streams. The streams would
essentially cover the same material and reach
the same learning outcomes
7
but the approach
would be different for the non-accounting
majors in terms of using ‘active learning’ and
giving them more class time
8
. We divided the
class by sending students a questionnaire
explaining what we intended to do and asking
them how likely they were to major in
accounting on a scale ranging from 0 ‘I’m sure
I will not’ to 100 ‘I’m sure I will’.
The students were then divided into the two
streams based on their response: Stream A
(likely accounting majors) and Stream B (likely
non-accounting majors). Half of the students in
the course circled 50 or above and were
allocated to Stream A. Students in both streams
attended two 45-minute lectures each week. In
addition, Stream A students attended a one-
hour weekly tutorial (class sizes of
approximately 15) and Stream B students
attended a two-hour weekly workshop (class
sizes of approximately 40), that incorporated
use of active learning strategies.
5. Active Learning Strategies
Active learning involves students doing things
and thinking about the things that they are
doing (Bonwell and Eison, 1991) and it has
been linked to superior learning (Wittrock,
1977; Rau and Heyl, 1990; Burns and Mills,
1997). Murdoch and Guy (2002) suggest the
more in-depth discussion of analytical and
theoretical issues stimulated by active learning
methods leads to a deeper knowledge of the
subject matter. This is also illustrated by Table
1, which shows that some sensory modalities
are more effective for learning than others.
Sensory modalities associated with active
learning are shown to be very effective as can
be seen in Table 1, which shows that people
learn 70 percent of what they talk over with
others and 95 percent of what they teach
someone else. Sensory modalities associated
7 90% of the assessment would be the same.
8 Although there was a class size tradeoff as numbers
increased.
with traditional course delivery, such as reading
and hearing, do not rate particularly well in
assisting learning, showing learning rates of 10
and 20 percent respectively in Table 1.
At our institution active learning strategies
were adopted in normal and supplementary
lectures but the main implementation of active
learning was in the workshops. The non-
accounting majors attended a two-hour
workshop with 40 students instead of a one-
hour tutorial with 15 students. Due to resource
constraints class sizes had to be increased to
allow more time to be spent with the students.
Theoretical justification for the trade off of
increasing class size in order to increase class
time was based on studies that have found no
detrimental effects of larger class sizes on
student performances (Baldwin, 1993; Hill,
1998). Interestingly, although the study by Hill
(1998) found that large class sizes were not
detrimental to students’ performance or their
attitude towards accounting, they did perceive
the class size to be too large. A more recent
study by Murdoch and Guy (2002) produced
different results, finding that students in smaller
classes
9
scored significantly higher on the final
exam than did students in larger classes
10
. This
was in a scenario where active learning
strategies were implemented in both of the
classes, suggesting possible limitations to the
benefits of active learning in large class
settings. Murdoch and Guy (2002) used a
written examination requiring completion of
problems and essays to assess students,
allowing students to exhibit a deeper
understanding of the subject matter. They
suggested one reason for their results differing
from previous studies may have been that
Baldwin (1993) and Hill (1998) used multiple
choice exams to test learning. In summary, the
recent research suggests that there may be
detrimental effects on learning when class sizes
rise above a certain level. However, in our
course the increase in student numbers was
only up to the class size defined as ‘small’ by
Murdoch and Guy (2002), so the increase
would seem to be a justifiable and reasonable
trade off to allow greater time for active
learning.
9 Average size – 38 students.
10 Class sizes of 280 and 434 students.
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
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Table 1
Most people learn…
10% of what they read
20% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see and hear
70% of what they talk over with others
80% of what they use and do in real life
95% of what they teach someone else
Source: Attributed to William Glasser and quoted in Biggs (1999, p.78)
Increasing the class size in our course
allowed the time spent with the students in the
workshop environment to increase from one to
two hours, allowing greater use of active
learning strategies with the students. There was
also extensive use of group work, in part due to
the larger class size and also to facilitate active
learning by the students.
In designing the material to be covered in
workshops, exercises that were more numeric
and technical (i.e. more traditional accounting
questions) were required to be prepared by
students before attending the workshop. On six
random occasions throughout the semester the
workshop leader collected this work and graded
it with a mark of zero, one or two based on
effort. The marking of the pre-prepared work
ensured that students had completed the work
before attending the class so that not too much
workshop time was allocated to these types of
questions, allowing more time for active
learning strategies to be used in workshops.
The workshop time allocation was 30 percent
to discuss pre-prepared questions and 70
percent to work on the other allocated
questions with selected answers put on the web
at the end of each week.
The material allocated for preparation and
discussion during the workshop was chosen with
regard to its appropriateness for active learning
teaching strategies. Numeric questions selected
for preparation in the workshop were designed
to focus on particular issues of potential
difficulty and to promote discussion. Some
questions were designed for the students to
present their group answers to the rest of the
class. A number of accounting questions with
ethical implications were also used to conduct
semi-structured debates. Subjective accounting
issues that encouraged discussion and helped
students understand that accounting does not
provide one ‘true’ figure were also emphasised
in the workshops. With regard to the questions
that were covered in the workshops, importance
was not placed on covering every aspect of the
answer but on highlighting the key issues of
importance. For this reason, suggested answers
to some of the questions were posted on the web
page. All of these practices were aimed at
encouraging active learning.
6. Findings
6.1 Student Evaluations
Despite efforts to encourage active learning in
lectures as well as workshops, the results of the
student evaluations (as shown in Table 2)
suggested that the students did not perceive the
lectures as optimal learning experiences, with
only 44 percent evaluating them as a ‘good
learning experience’. This is consistent with
much of the educational research literature (e.g.
Ramsden, 1992; Murdoch and Guy, 2002) and
Table 1 in this paper. Murdoch and Guy (2002)
also found that active learning did not benefit a
lecture size class, although it did benefit a
workshop size class.
Interestingly, despite these poor student
evaluations about lectures as a learning
experience, the lecturer received a high
personal approval rating. Given these findings,
we should be wary of assuming that a high
personal assessment of a lecturer’s
performance by students indicates they feel
they have had a good learning experience.
Despite the prior research and the above
findings, the reality for many accounting
academics is that large class sizes necessitate
the use of lectures as an efficient way to teach
students.
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
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Table 2
Students’ Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) Evaluations for the
Non-Accounting Students
Question Agree or
strongly agree
– No. of
students (%)
No opinion –
No. of students
(%)
Disagree or
strongly
disagree – No.
of students
(%)
Total – No. of
students (%)
I found the lectures to be a good
learning experience
63 (44) 33 (23) 47 (33) 143 (100)
I found the workshops to be a good
learning experience
98 (69) 16 (11) 29 (20) 143 (100)
I found the workshops to be a better
learning experience than tutorials
53 (38) 42 (30) 44 (32) 139 (100)
There was a more positive response to the
active learning initiatives in workshops,
although it must be noted that facilitating
workshops comprising 40 first year students
can be hard work even for experienced
teaching staff! Many of the staff involved
found teaching these workshops a challenge.
The two main issues were as follows.
Diversity of student ability within the class.
There was a range of ability from the very good
students who needed to be extended to the very
poor students who needed considerable extra
help. This was ameliorated to a certain degree
by the use of groups. Workshop leaders tried to
mix the ability levels within the groups so that
students could learn from each other.
Lack of personal contact with students.
Lecturers could not engage with students on an
individual level to any great extent.
Consequently they felt frustrated in the extent
to which they could interact with individuals,
and assist in the learning process. It was not
clear whether this was an issue of concern to
students as well.
Despite these issues, the use of active
learning strategies seemed to pay off because as
shown in Table 2, 69 percent of students agreed
or strongly agreed that the workshops were a
good learning experience. In the evaluations, the
students were asked to provide written
comments about the best aspects of the course
and suggestions for improvement. Students were
generally very positive about the workshops and
the below comments are examples of responses
to the following question about the course,
‘What aspects do you feel are the best?’:
• “The workshops help you understand
difficult concepts better. They are very
helpful.”
• “Workshops were more constructive and
helped a great deal in the learning process.”
• “Most is actually learnt from the
workshops.”
• “Workshop questions were good, as they
helped to give a better understanding of the
topics.”
Compared to anecdotal evidence from non-
accounting majors in prior years we were
pleased with this result. We also asked students
whether they found the workshops to be a
better learning experience than their experience
in tutorials.
11
The response to this question in
Table 2 was mixed with only 38 percent
agreeing or strongly agreeing. Given students
inherent negative perceptions about larger class
sizes as shown in the prior research (Hill,
1998), this was perhaps to be expected. In
hindsight a more useful question may have
been to ask their views on the time versus size
tradeoff that was implemented to allow greater
active learning within workshops.
6.2 Student Performance
Table 3 shows a comparison of performance
between the non-accounting and accounting
streams for each assessment component. The
second column of Table 3 shows the
percentage difference between the raw marks
of the non-accounting and accounting streams.
A positive percentage means that the raw mark
11 From experiences in other first year subjects.
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
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was greater for the non-accounting stream than
the accounting stream.
As can be seen from Table 3, in four of the
five assessment components the raw marks
were within about 2 percent of each other and
not significantly different. However, in the
final exam, which was designed to provide an
overall evaluation of the understanding of the
course, the Stream B (likely non-accounting)
students scored an average mark almost 9
percent better than the Stream A (likely
accounting) students. This difference was
found to be significant in the analysis of
variance performed (F=4.929, p=0.027). The
exam was consistent in style with previous
years and had been found to be a good measure
of students’ understanding and grasp of the
material. Murdoch and Guy (2002) suggested
that where issues are tested in-depth by
problem and essay examinations, students who
have learned more have a better opportunity to
display this knowledge. Hill (1998)
acknowledged the possible problems of
multiple choice exams by stating that they did
not allow instructors to evaluate higher order
cognitive skills. Overall, the improved final
examination results for the non-accounting
majors would seem to indicate that the different
teaching approach might be beneficial for all
accounting students.
7. Conclusion
This paper is a discussion of and reflection on
changes made to a first year accounting course
to better address the needs of non-accounting
majors. The main objective of the changes was
to increase non-accounting majors’ interest in
accounting by delivering the course using an
active learning approach. We were pleased
with the student perceptions of their learning
experience within the workshops, although
there is always room for improvement. It
should be noted that a limitation of this study is
that data from previous years specifically
relating to non-accounting majors was
unavailable, therefore historical evidence about
the attitude of non-accounting majors towards
the study of accounting was primarily
anecdotal.
The interesting and unexpected finding from
the change in teaching approach was the
significantly better result for non-accounting
majors on the final exam. This finding
contributes to the research literature on the
benefits of active learning strategies to enhance
student learning. More specifically, it suggests
that greater use of active learning strategies
may be beneficial for all accounting students,
not just non-accounting majors.
These results also contribute to the research
on the impact of increased class sizes,
demonstrating that an increase in class size was
not detrimental to students’ perceptions and
actually resulted in better final exam
performance.
However, it should be noted that it was a
relatively small increase in class size compared
with earlier research (Murdoch & Guy, 2002)
and the students were also given more class
time in exchange for the increased class size.
Table 3
Comparison of Performance between Non-Accounting and
Accounting Streams
Assessment Component Non-Accounting >
Accounting (%)
1
F Sig.
Assignment 1 – MYOB (0.3)% 0.037 0.848
Assignment 2 – Group financial analysis 2.0 0.615 0.433
Mid-semester exam – multiple choice 2.0 1.698 0.193
Participation mark 2.3 0.572 0.450
Final exam - comprehensive 8.6 4.929 0.027
1 This column shows the percentage difference between raw marks of the non-accounting and accounting streams for each
component of assessment. The only component of the assessment where the accounting stream outperformed the non-
accounting stream was in Assignment 1.
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
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Further research could possibly examine
student perceptions about class size and active
learning strategies in more depth by conducting
semi-structured interviews.
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Millennium is Accounting Education Ready to Meet
the Challenge?’, The British Accounting Review, Vol.
35, pp. 69-103.
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Conference on International Accounting Issues, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.
Murdoch, B. and Guy, P. W. (2002), ‘Active Learning in
Small and Large Classes’, Accounting Education,
Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 271-282.
Ramsden, P. (1992), Learning to Teach in Higher
Education, Routledge, London.
Rau, W. and Heyl, B.S. (1990), ‘Humanizing the College
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Wittrock, M. C. (1977), ‘The Generative Processes of
Memory’, in M. C. Wittrock (ed.) The Human Brain,
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This article has been cited by:
1. Joan Hise, Dawn W. Massey. 2010. Applying the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm to the Creation
of an Accounting Ethics Course. Journal of Business Ethics 96, 453-465. [CrossRef]
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doc_540802682.pdf
At our institution we felt that an
approach based on active learning strategies
as suggested by the Albrecht and Sack Report
(2000) was appropriate for non-accounting
majors. This was primarily to instil a greater
enthusiasm for and interest in accounting than
had been evident from our experience with
these students in the past. In the course
evaluations the non-accounting majors were
positive about their learning experiences
Accounting Research Journal
Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
Paul Coram
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
13
Active Learning in Accounting: A Case
Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
Paul Coram
Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems
The University of Melbourne
Abstract
In recent years there has been a decrease in the
proportion of commerce students taking an
accounting major in Australia (Institute of
Chartered Accountants in Australia, 2001),
resulting in a greater proportion of first year
accounting classes comprising non-accounting
majors. At our institution we felt that an
approach based on ‘active learning’ strategies
as suggested by the Albrecht and Sack Report
(2000) was appropriate for non-accounting
majors. This was primarily to instil a greater
enthusiasm for and interest in accounting than
had been evident from our experience with
these students in the past. In the course
evaluations the non-accounting majors were
positive about their learning experiences. In
reviewing the students’ assessment
performance we found that the non-accounting
majors actually performed better than the
accounting majors in one of the five assessment
components – the final exam. These findings
suggest that the active learning approach may
be beneficial to all accounting students.
Keywords: accounting education, active learning,
curriculum revision, non-accounting majors
Acknowledgments: This paper relates to a teaching
initiative undertaken with colleagues whilst I was a staff
member at The University of Western Australia. The
original version of this paper was prepared for the AAANZ
Conference in Perth 2002 as a result of my winning the
inaugural Pearson Education Accounting Lecturer of the
Year Award in 2001. It was also presented at the 9
th
IAAER
World Congress of Accounting Educators in Hong Kong in
2002 thanks to funding from Pearson Education in relation
to the above award. Thanks to participants at both of the
above mentioned conferences for feedback on the paper.
Thanks also to colleagues for comments and suggestions on
this paper, particularly Philip Brown, Gary Monroe, Robyn
Moroney, Juliana Ng, Ann Tarca and David Woodliff.
Finally, thanks to an anonymous reviewer of the
Accounting Research Journal.
1. Introduction
This paper evaluates how implementing active
learning affects non-accounting majors’
perceptions and performance in a first year
accounting course. Active learning involves
students doing things and thinking about
the things they are doing (Bonwell and
Eison, 1991). Lucas (1997) outlined two key
requirements (and challenges) of active
learning. Firstly, it requires the abandonment of
passive learning and development of strategies
that encourage a deep approach to learning.
Secondly, the adoption of active learning
implies reflective learning and therefore
practical problems are particularly useful. Our
aim was to implement the requirements of
active learning in our first year course for non-
accounting majors. All first year accounting
students were told about the different approach
and asked whether they intended to major in
accounting or not. The class was then divided
accordingly. We redesigned our class approach
for this and also increased the class size to
allow more time to implement these active
learning strategies.
Evaluating different teaching strategies for
non-accounting majors is important because
more and more students are choosing to study
commerce without majoring in accounting. The
results of this study suggested that non-
accounting majors had a positive perception of
their learning experience and showed that they
performed better than accounting majors on the
final exam component of their assessment.
These findings suggest that all accounting
students could benefit from this change in
approach.
The paper is structured as follows, Section 2
describes the decline in accounting majors,
Section 3 explains the Albrecht and Sack
recommendations, Section 4 provides the
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
14
background to the problem at our institution,
Section 5 outlines the changes made to
implement active learning, Section 6 discusses
the findings from the student evaluations and
student performance measures and Section 7
concludes by outlining the limitations of the
study and suggesting directions for future
research.
2. Declining Proportion of
Accounting Majors
The declining percentage of commerce students
majoring in accounting and the declining or
stagnant numbers of accounting majors has
been observed for a number of years in
Australia and to a greater extent in the United
States (US). In the US the problem was
considered serious enough for the profession,
practitioners and academics to commission a
study into the future of accounting education
that resulted in a report titled “Accounting
Education: Charting the Course through a
Perilous Future” (Albrecht and Sack, 2000).
Statistics from this report illustrate the size of
the problem: in the US from the period 1995 to
1999 there was a decline of 20 percent in the
number of accounting degrees awarded
(Albrecht and Sack, 2000, p.19). There were
similar findings reported by McCrary (2001),
who noted that in California in a ten year
period there had been a 30 to 50 percent
decline in the number of students majoring
in accounting. The Institute of Chartered
Accountants in Australia (ICAA) 2001 report
“Trends in Accounting at Australian
Universities” found that the number of students
undertaking Business/Commerce degrees
increased by 12.4 percent between 1997 and
2000 but at the same time the number of
students choosing accounting as a major
decreased by 9.8 percent. The report
commented that there “…is a need to
implement strategies to increase the popularity
of accounting as a career choice.” (ICAA,
2001, p.3) The Albrecht and Sack Report
conducted research into the main problems in
accounting education in the US and found that:
• the number and quality of students electing
to major in accounting is decreasing rapidly;
• if given the opportunity, many accounting
professors and accountants would not again
major in accounting; and
• accounting leaders and practising
accountants believe that accounting
education, as currently structured, is
outdated, broken and in need of significant
modification.
The reasons for the declining proportion of
students majoring in accounting are separate
issues beyond the scope of this paper although
they are considered in detail in the Albrecht
and Sack Report.
1
However, as the third point
outlined above by Albrecht and Sack would
suggest, the problems are not solely external to
accounting education practices. Concerns with
the way accounting is being taught have not
just arisen in the last few years, as was shown
in a study by Adams et al. (1994), which found
that first year accounting attracted large
numbers of high aptitude students but lost
many of them because of the rule-based
accounting curriculum. Several Australian
studies have commented on this curriculum
issue. Monroe (2001) suggested that in the past
we have done our students a disservice by
focusing too much on teaching students how to
be experts rather than how to become experts
and how to redevelop expertise. Howieson
(2003, p.85), in looking at the possible future of
business, commented that, “there will
need to be a major change in the way
both practitioners and educators view the
objectives of university accounting studies and
continuing professional development.” These
concerns are not new as Henderson (1996)
also noted that the profession did not
believe universities produced what the market
wanted.
3. Albrecht and Sack Reform
The Albrecht and Sack Report outlined a
number of problems facing accounting
education and suggested three main ways
2
accounting education could be improved:
1 Albrecht and Sack (2000) found the following reasons:
(1) decreased salary levels; (2) more attractive career
alternatives; (3) willingness to choose risky majors; (4)
misinformation about accounting; and (5) the 150-hour
rule (US specific).
2 Other suggestions by Albrecht and Sack included: skill
development; faculty development and reward
structures; and strategic planning and direction of
accounting programs and departments.
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
15
• A broadening of course content and
curricula, exposing students to concepts like
globalisation, technology and ethics.
• Pedagogical change. Students currently
spend too much time listening to lectures
and not enough time engaged in activities
that develop business skills and knowledge.
• Greater focus on technology. Students
should have a more thorough understanding
of technology’s impact on business.
There is evidence that some schools in the
US have taken the changes recommended by
Albrecht and Sack on board (Force, 2002).
3
In the first year accounting subject at our
institution we made a number of changes for all
of our students based on some of the
suggestions of the Albrecht and Sack Report,
particularly relating to broadening the course
content and curricula and having a greater
focus on technology.
However, the focus of this paper is on the
pedagogical change made by implementing
active learning strategies, which was specific to
the non-accounting majors. This paper is a
review of how these changes affected the non-
accounting majors’ perceptions and
performance in the first year accounting course.
4. Background
At our institution in the years preceding this
study the overall number of students studying
commerce increased but the proportion of them
majoring in accounting decreased consistent
with the Australia wide phenomenon
previously discussed.
4
This meant a greater
proportion of students were studying the first
year accounting subject with no intention to
major in accounting. Anecdotal evidence
suggested that these students were less
interested in accounting than the accounting
majors, were less motivated, were only taking
3 This was from an interview with Robert Sack. However,
he also noted that the response from accounting
professionals was more positive than academics.
4 At our institution in the three year period up to
implementation of these changes the number of students
studying first year accounting increased slightly (all
commerce students must study this subject). In the
corresponding lagged three years there was a decrease
in the number of students studying the third year
auditing subject (this is the best indicator of the number
of students completing an accounting major).
first year accounting because it was a
requirement and did not perform as well as
accounting majors.
5
In our view the problems with motivation in
this group of students were made worse by the
traditional approach of teaching first year
accounting from a very technical point of view.
Historically, there has been great emphasis on
needing to understand ‘the basics’, which is
reflected in the approach taken by many first
year accounting textbooks. As a result, students
would spend many hours tediously working
through journals, T-accounts, adjusting entries,
trial balances, closing entries, etc. Our view
was not that these skills were unimportant.
Rather, the over emphasis given to this
‘technical’ or ‘manual’ approach to accounting
meant that important messages associated with
interpretation and understanding that we might
want to convey in first year accounting courses
were lost in the detail, particularly for those
students who did not intend to major in
accounting.
6
This view is supported by a study
undertaken by Adams et al. (1994), which
found that the ‘rule-based’ method of
accounting instruction was deterring high
aptitude students from majoring in the subject.
One of the recommendations of the Albrecht
and Sack Report also illustrated these problems
by quoting a respected accounting professor as
saying, “Our courses are too detailed and too
technical” (Albrecht and Sack, 2000, p.50).
In our view, a teaching approach consisting
of lectures and conventional tutorials
exacerbated this problem. We felt that
implementing active learning strategies and
having students more engaged in the learning
process could reduce the problem outlined
above. An active learning strategy would also
allow us to direct the focus of some of the
allocated class questions to give greater
consideration of the users’ perspective in
5 In prior years, some tutorials were comprised mainly of
students who were unlikely to major in accounting,
which was due to timetabling issues rather than a
conscious decision to separate them. Observation and
interaction with these students was the main source of
this anecdotal evidence.
6 This is not to say that a different approach is not
warranted for accounting majors, however the point is
that it is even more important for non-accounting
majors.
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
16
relation to interpreting and understanding
accounting information – an important issue for
non-accounting majors.
The next step was to split the first year
accounting class into accounting and non-
accounting major streams. The streams would
essentially cover the same material and reach
the same learning outcomes
7
but the approach
would be different for the non-accounting
majors in terms of using ‘active learning’ and
giving them more class time
8
. We divided the
class by sending students a questionnaire
explaining what we intended to do and asking
them how likely they were to major in
accounting on a scale ranging from 0 ‘I’m sure
I will not’ to 100 ‘I’m sure I will’.
The students were then divided into the two
streams based on their response: Stream A
(likely accounting majors) and Stream B (likely
non-accounting majors). Half of the students in
the course circled 50 or above and were
allocated to Stream A. Students in both streams
attended two 45-minute lectures each week. In
addition, Stream A students attended a one-
hour weekly tutorial (class sizes of
approximately 15) and Stream B students
attended a two-hour weekly workshop (class
sizes of approximately 40), that incorporated
use of active learning strategies.
5. Active Learning Strategies
Active learning involves students doing things
and thinking about the things that they are
doing (Bonwell and Eison, 1991) and it has
been linked to superior learning (Wittrock,
1977; Rau and Heyl, 1990; Burns and Mills,
1997). Murdoch and Guy (2002) suggest the
more in-depth discussion of analytical and
theoretical issues stimulated by active learning
methods leads to a deeper knowledge of the
subject matter. This is also illustrated by Table
1, which shows that some sensory modalities
are more effective for learning than others.
Sensory modalities associated with active
learning are shown to be very effective as can
be seen in Table 1, which shows that people
learn 70 percent of what they talk over with
others and 95 percent of what they teach
someone else. Sensory modalities associated
7 90% of the assessment would be the same.
8 Although there was a class size tradeoff as numbers
increased.
with traditional course delivery, such as reading
and hearing, do not rate particularly well in
assisting learning, showing learning rates of 10
and 20 percent respectively in Table 1.
At our institution active learning strategies
were adopted in normal and supplementary
lectures but the main implementation of active
learning was in the workshops. The non-
accounting majors attended a two-hour
workshop with 40 students instead of a one-
hour tutorial with 15 students. Due to resource
constraints class sizes had to be increased to
allow more time to be spent with the students.
Theoretical justification for the trade off of
increasing class size in order to increase class
time was based on studies that have found no
detrimental effects of larger class sizes on
student performances (Baldwin, 1993; Hill,
1998). Interestingly, although the study by Hill
(1998) found that large class sizes were not
detrimental to students’ performance or their
attitude towards accounting, they did perceive
the class size to be too large. A more recent
study by Murdoch and Guy (2002) produced
different results, finding that students in smaller
classes
9
scored significantly higher on the final
exam than did students in larger classes
10
. This
was in a scenario where active learning
strategies were implemented in both of the
classes, suggesting possible limitations to the
benefits of active learning in large class
settings. Murdoch and Guy (2002) used a
written examination requiring completion of
problems and essays to assess students,
allowing students to exhibit a deeper
understanding of the subject matter. They
suggested one reason for their results differing
from previous studies may have been that
Baldwin (1993) and Hill (1998) used multiple
choice exams to test learning. In summary, the
recent research suggests that there may be
detrimental effects on learning when class sizes
rise above a certain level. However, in our
course the increase in student numbers was
only up to the class size defined as ‘small’ by
Murdoch and Guy (2002), so the increase
would seem to be a justifiable and reasonable
trade off to allow greater time for active
learning.
9 Average size – 38 students.
10 Class sizes of 280 and 434 students.
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
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Table 1
Most people learn…
10% of what they read
20% of what they hear
30% of what they see
50% of what they see and hear
70% of what they talk over with others
80% of what they use and do in real life
95% of what they teach someone else
Source: Attributed to William Glasser and quoted in Biggs (1999, p.78)
Increasing the class size in our course
allowed the time spent with the students in the
workshop environment to increase from one to
two hours, allowing greater use of active
learning strategies with the students. There was
also extensive use of group work, in part due to
the larger class size and also to facilitate active
learning by the students.
In designing the material to be covered in
workshops, exercises that were more numeric
and technical (i.e. more traditional accounting
questions) were required to be prepared by
students before attending the workshop. On six
random occasions throughout the semester the
workshop leader collected this work and graded
it with a mark of zero, one or two based on
effort. The marking of the pre-prepared work
ensured that students had completed the work
before attending the class so that not too much
workshop time was allocated to these types of
questions, allowing more time for active
learning strategies to be used in workshops.
The workshop time allocation was 30 percent
to discuss pre-prepared questions and 70
percent to work on the other allocated
questions with selected answers put on the web
at the end of each week.
The material allocated for preparation and
discussion during the workshop was chosen with
regard to its appropriateness for active learning
teaching strategies. Numeric questions selected
for preparation in the workshop were designed
to focus on particular issues of potential
difficulty and to promote discussion. Some
questions were designed for the students to
present their group answers to the rest of the
class. A number of accounting questions with
ethical implications were also used to conduct
semi-structured debates. Subjective accounting
issues that encouraged discussion and helped
students understand that accounting does not
provide one ‘true’ figure were also emphasised
in the workshops. With regard to the questions
that were covered in the workshops, importance
was not placed on covering every aspect of the
answer but on highlighting the key issues of
importance. For this reason, suggested answers
to some of the questions were posted on the web
page. All of these practices were aimed at
encouraging active learning.
6. Findings
6.1 Student Evaluations
Despite efforts to encourage active learning in
lectures as well as workshops, the results of the
student evaluations (as shown in Table 2)
suggested that the students did not perceive the
lectures as optimal learning experiences, with
only 44 percent evaluating them as a ‘good
learning experience’. This is consistent with
much of the educational research literature (e.g.
Ramsden, 1992; Murdoch and Guy, 2002) and
Table 1 in this paper. Murdoch and Guy (2002)
also found that active learning did not benefit a
lecture size class, although it did benefit a
workshop size class.
Interestingly, despite these poor student
evaluations about lectures as a learning
experience, the lecturer received a high
personal approval rating. Given these findings,
we should be wary of assuming that a high
personal assessment of a lecturer’s
performance by students indicates they feel
they have had a good learning experience.
Despite the prior research and the above
findings, the reality for many accounting
academics is that large class sizes necessitate
the use of lectures as an efficient way to teach
students.
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ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)
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Table 2
Students’ Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) Evaluations for the
Non-Accounting Students
Question Agree or
strongly agree
– No. of
students (%)
No opinion –
No. of students
(%)
Disagree or
strongly
disagree – No.
of students
(%)
Total – No. of
students (%)
I found the lectures to be a good
learning experience
63 (44) 33 (23) 47 (33) 143 (100)
I found the workshops to be a good
learning experience
98 (69) 16 (11) 29 (20) 143 (100)
I found the workshops to be a better
learning experience than tutorials
53 (38) 42 (30) 44 (32) 139 (100)
There was a more positive response to the
active learning initiatives in workshops,
although it must be noted that facilitating
workshops comprising 40 first year students
can be hard work even for experienced
teaching staff! Many of the staff involved
found teaching these workshops a challenge.
The two main issues were as follows.
Diversity of student ability within the class.
There was a range of ability from the very good
students who needed to be extended to the very
poor students who needed considerable extra
help. This was ameliorated to a certain degree
by the use of groups. Workshop leaders tried to
mix the ability levels within the groups so that
students could learn from each other.
Lack of personal contact with students.
Lecturers could not engage with students on an
individual level to any great extent.
Consequently they felt frustrated in the extent
to which they could interact with individuals,
and assist in the learning process. It was not
clear whether this was an issue of concern to
students as well.
Despite these issues, the use of active
learning strategies seemed to pay off because as
shown in Table 2, 69 percent of students agreed
or strongly agreed that the workshops were a
good learning experience. In the evaluations, the
students were asked to provide written
comments about the best aspects of the course
and suggestions for improvement. Students were
generally very positive about the workshops and
the below comments are examples of responses
to the following question about the course,
‘What aspects do you feel are the best?’:
• “The workshops help you understand
difficult concepts better. They are very
helpful.”
• “Workshops were more constructive and
helped a great deal in the learning process.”
• “Most is actually learnt from the
workshops.”
• “Workshop questions were good, as they
helped to give a better understanding of the
topics.”
Compared to anecdotal evidence from non-
accounting majors in prior years we were
pleased with this result. We also asked students
whether they found the workshops to be a
better learning experience than their experience
in tutorials.
11
The response to this question in
Table 2 was mixed with only 38 percent
agreeing or strongly agreeing. Given students
inherent negative perceptions about larger class
sizes as shown in the prior research (Hill,
1998), this was perhaps to be expected. In
hindsight a more useful question may have
been to ask their views on the time versus size
tradeoff that was implemented to allow greater
active learning within workshops.
6.2 Student Performance
Table 3 shows a comparison of performance
between the non-accounting and accounting
streams for each assessment component. The
second column of Table 3 shows the
percentage difference between the raw marks
of the non-accounting and accounting streams.
A positive percentage means that the raw mark
11 From experiences in other first year subjects.
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Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted
19
was greater for the non-accounting stream than
the accounting stream.
As can be seen from Table 3, in four of the
five assessment components the raw marks
were within about 2 percent of each other and
not significantly different. However, in the
final exam, which was designed to provide an
overall evaluation of the understanding of the
course, the Stream B (likely non-accounting)
students scored an average mark almost 9
percent better than the Stream A (likely
accounting) students. This difference was
found to be significant in the analysis of
variance performed (F=4.929, p=0.027). The
exam was consistent in style with previous
years and had been found to be a good measure
of students’ understanding and grasp of the
material. Murdoch and Guy (2002) suggested
that where issues are tested in-depth by
problem and essay examinations, students who
have learned more have a better opportunity to
display this knowledge. Hill (1998)
acknowledged the possible problems of
multiple choice exams by stating that they did
not allow instructors to evaluate higher order
cognitive skills. Overall, the improved final
examination results for the non-accounting
majors would seem to indicate that the different
teaching approach might be beneficial for all
accounting students.
7. Conclusion
This paper is a discussion of and reflection on
changes made to a first year accounting course
to better address the needs of non-accounting
majors. The main objective of the changes was
to increase non-accounting majors’ interest in
accounting by delivering the course using an
active learning approach. We were pleased
with the student perceptions of their learning
experience within the workshops, although
there is always room for improvement. It
should be noted that a limitation of this study is
that data from previous years specifically
relating to non-accounting majors was
unavailable, therefore historical evidence about
the attitude of non-accounting majors towards
the study of accounting was primarily
anecdotal.
The interesting and unexpected finding from
the change in teaching approach was the
significantly better result for non-accounting
majors on the final exam. This finding
contributes to the research literature on the
benefits of active learning strategies to enhance
student learning. More specifically, it suggests
that greater use of active learning strategies
may be beneficial for all accounting students,
not just non-accounting majors.
These results also contribute to the research
on the impact of increased class sizes,
demonstrating that an increase in class size was
not detrimental to students’ perceptions and
actually resulted in better final exam
performance.
However, it should be noted that it was a
relatively small increase in class size compared
with earlier research (Murdoch & Guy, 2002)
and the students were also given more class
time in exchange for the increased class size.
Table 3
Comparison of Performance between Non-Accounting and
Accounting Streams
Assessment Component Non-Accounting >
Accounting (%)
1
F Sig.
Assignment 1 – MYOB (0.3)% 0.037 0.848
Assignment 2 – Group financial analysis 2.0 0.615 0.433
Mid-semester exam – multiple choice 2.0 1.698 0.193
Participation mark 2.3 0.572 0.450
Final exam - comprehensive 8.6 4.929 0.027
1 This column shows the percentage difference between raw marks of the non-accounting and accounting streams for each
component of assessment. The only component of the assessment where the accounting stream outperformed the non-
accounting stream was in Assignment 1.
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Further research could possibly examine
student perceptions about class size and active
learning strategies in more depth by conducting
semi-structured interviews.
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This article has been cited by:
1. Joan Hise, Dawn W. Massey. 2010. Applying the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm to the Creation
of an Accounting Ethics Course. Journal of Business Ethics 96, 453-465. [CrossRef]
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