8
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

Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

  • Upload
    paul

  • View
    212

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

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 9th 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

Page 2: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

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 ways2 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.

Page 3: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

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.

Page 4: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

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 outcomes7 but the approach would be different for the non-accounting majors in terms of using �active learning� and giving them more class time8. 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 classes9 scored significantly higher on the final exam than did students in larger classes10. 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.

Page 5: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

17

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.

Page 6: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)

18

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.

Page 7: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

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.

Page 8: Active Learning in Accounting: A Case Study in Preaching to the Unconverted

ACCOUNTING RESEARCH JOURNAL VOLUME 18 NO 1 (2005)

20

Further research could possibly examine student perceptions about class size and active learning strategies in more depth by conducting semi-structured interviews.

References Adams, S. J., Pryor, L. J. and Adams, S. L. (1994),

�Attraction and Retention of High-Aptitude Students in Accounting: An Exploratory Longitudinal Study�, Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 9, No.1, pp. 45-58.

Albrecht, W. S. and Sack, R. J. (2000), Accounting Education: Charting the Course through a Perilous Future, Accounting Education Series No.16, American Accounting Association, Sarasota, FL.

Baldwin, B. A. (1993), �Teaching Introductory Financial Accounting in Mass-Lecture Sections: Longitudinal Evidence�, Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 97-111.

Biggs, J. (1999), Teaching for Quality Learning at University, Open University Press, Buckingham.

Bonwell, C. C. and Eison, J. A. (1991), Active Learning: Creating excitement in the classroom, ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No.1, The George Washington University, School of Education and Human Development, Washington, DC.

Burns, C.S. and Mills, L.K. (1997), �Bringing the Factory to the Classroom�, Journal of Accountancy, Vol. 183, No. 1, p.56, 58, 60.

Force, M.S. (2002), �Authors of Accounting Education Study Reflect on Current State of Education, Professional Satisfaction�, The Journal of Government Financial Management, Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 8-9.

Henderson, S. (1996), �Tertiary Education: What to Teach? How to Teach it?�, Australian CPA, Vol. 66, No. 9, pp. 16-17.

Hill, M. C. (1998), �Class Size and Student Performance in Introductory Accounting Courses: Further Evidence�, Issues in Accounting Education, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 47-64.

Howieson, B. (2003), �Accounting Practice in the New Millennium is Accounting Education Ready to Meet the Challenge?�, The British Accounting Review, Vol. 35, pp. 69-103.

Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (2001), Trends in Accounting at Australian Universities, ICAA, Sydney.

Lucas, U. (1997), �Editorial Comment - Active Learning and Accounting Educators�, Accounting Education, Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 189-190.

McCrary, D. (2001), �Where Have all the Accounting Students Gone?�, California CPA, Vol. 69, No. 10, pp. 10-14.

Monroe, G. S. (2001), �Educating Accounting Students to Cope with a Rapidly Changing Business Environment�, Paper presented at Asian-Pacific 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 Classroom: Collaborative Learning and Social Organization Among Students�, Teaching Sociology, Vol. 18, pp.141-55.

Wittrock, M. C. (1977), �The Generative Processes of Memory�, in M. C. Wittrock (ed.) The Human Brain, pp. 153-184, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.