Main articles

Using journal articles to teach public sectoraccounting in higher education

Zahirul Hoque*

School of Accounting and Finance, Griffith University, PMB 50, Gold Coast Mail Centre,

Queensland 9726, Australia

Received 1 March 2000; received in revised form 1 January 2001; accepted 1 October 2001

Abstract

This article reports the findings of an exploratory study into students’ perceptions of theextent that journal articles are helpful for learning public sector accounting. Data used in thestudy were mainly derived from face-to-face interviews with six students. Abstracting themeaning of articles was a dominant concept of learning for the majority of students who

participated in this study. The students found journal articles to be a valuable aid to learning.Whilst they perceived academic articles as helpful in facilitating learning, they ranked theusefulness of professional articles higher than academic articles. The study also found that the

majority of students who participated used a deep approach in reading a journal article; i.e.they tried to gain a full understanding of the article. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rightsreserved.

Keywords: Accounting education; Journal-based learning; Student learning; Public sector accounting;

Australia

1. Introduction

Adaptation and change of the accounting curriculum is necessary to properlyprepare students to communicate effectively, apply appropriate factual analyses, andmake sound judgments about the challenges facing them in this new century. Inaddition, scholars suggest that the accounting curriculum must be updated to beresponsive to the needs of prospective employers (Rebele & Tiller, 1986; Rebele,

J. of Acc. Ed. 20 (2002) 139–161

www.elsevier.com/locate/jaccedu

0748-5751/02/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

PI I : S0748-5751(02 )00006 -4

* Tel.: +61-7-5552-8703; fax: +61-7-5552-8068.

E-mail address: z.hoque@mailbox.gu.edu.au (Z. Hoque).

Stout, & Hassell, 1991; Rebele, Apostolou, Buckless, Hassell, Paquette, & Stout,1998a, 1998b).

Accounting teaching is predominantly based on textbooks; consequently under-graduate students often receive little exposure to journal articles. However, someacademics claim that the conventional wisdom of accounting textbooks (especiallymanagement accounting) has little relevance to practice (Ryan, Scapens, & Theo-bold, 1992). Thus textbooks need to be supplemented by articles from academic andprofessional (or practitioner) journals. Academic articles can help reduce the per-ceived gap between theory and practice, and enable students to understand the rolesof accounting in organizations and society. Professional articles can help studentsintegrate theoretical and practical concepts, and increase the practical relevance ofaccounting course material.

Faculty are the primary audience for academic journals. In contrast, professionalarticles are published in journals whose readers include practitioners as well as aca-demicians. Articles published in academic journals are generally long and are basedon theoretical frameworks and/or reasonable assumptions and logic. Professionalarticles are short, concise, and relate to problems facing practitioners and the busi-ness community as a whole.

Despite calls for greater use of articles in accounting teaching, there is little researchon whether student learning styles differ when academic and professional journal arti-cles are used in undergraduate courses (Caldwell, Weishar, & Glezen, 1996; Williams,Tiller, Herring, & Schiener, 1988). This article seeks to shed light on this topic.

Johnstone and Biggs (1998), Bonner and Lewis (1990) and Libby and Luft (1993)suggest that integrating technical information with practical experience and promotinglifelong learning skills are necessary for developing the knowledge and performance ofaccountants. Further, the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC) pro-poses that accounting curricula should be configured to convey attitudes of life-longlearning as well as essential information and technical skills (AECC, 1990). The authorbelieves that the use of academic and professional articles may serve this purpose, asthese articles deal with both theoretical and practical issues. Little is known about thebenefits of journal articles in an accounting course (see Saudagaran, 1996). The moti-vating factor for this study derives from a desire to examine this apparent gap inprior research. In so doing, the study sets out three primary objectives:

1. To assess students’ conceptions of learning;2. To determine the usefulness of journal articles in facilitating student learning;

and3. To determine how a student approaches reading a journal article.

The findings reported here should be helpful for accounting educators who wouldwant to incorporate journal articles in their classes. Furthermore, the findings maygenerate issues for future research in accounting education.

The context for this study is the Contemporary Issues in Public Sector FinancialManagement course at the third-year undergraduate level within the School ofAccounting and Finance at the Gold Coast Campus of GriffithUniversity in Australia.

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This course critically examines fundamental issues underlying recent developmentsin public sector financial management, accountability, and control. It attempts tosynthesize a variety of theoretical perspectives to help future managers grapple withissues of financial management, internal reporting and control. No existing textbookappears to capture the breadth of these issues; consequently the course is basedcompletely on articles from both academic and professional (or practitioner) jour-nals. Appendix A provides a list of the readings used.

The author attempts to achieve the following primary objectives with studentsenrolled in the course:

1. Provide students with theoretical knowledge to critically evaluate financialmanagement and accountability issues within public sector organizations;

2. Provide an understanding of the values and assumptions underlyingaccounting and accountability systems in the public sector and the way wethink about the nature and roles of accounting in public sector organizations;

3. Provide students with theoretical knowledge to analyze standard account-ability reports of various public sector entities and express their views in acoherent manner;

4. Provide students with opportunities to develop their awareness of the latestdevelopments so that they can enter a job knowing what public sectoraccounting is like today;

5. Develop the ability to initiate and conduct research; and6. Develop skills to think creatively and act ethically.

The professional accounting bodies in Australia expect that accounting curriculawill be designed to enable students to acquire the above cognitive and behavioralskills.1 Scholars claim that these skills are required to allow knowledge and under-standing to be used appropriately and effectively at work, and in collaboration withothers (e.g. Marton & Saljo, 1997; Tate, 1993). Accounting professionals outsideAustralia also encourage more student involvement in the learning process (fordetails, see AECC, 1990; AICPA, 1998; Arthur Andersen & Co. et al., 1989).

The next section of the paper defines concepts relevant to the study. The thirdsection describes the research method employed. Subsequent sections present theresults and a discussion of the implications of the findings.

2. Literature review

This study draws from literature on students’ conceptions of subject matterand aspects of learning styles. Surprisingly, a review of the accounting education

1 For further details on these skills, refer to Competency Standards and Assessment Structures for Pro-

fessional Accountants in Australia and New Zealand (1996) prepared by Professor W.P. Birkett and pub-

lished by Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants (ASCPAs), Institute of Chartered

Accountants in Australia (ICAA) and Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand, May, 1996.

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literature revealed little or no work on these issues. Consequently, the literaturereview presented below is largely drawn from work in other disciplines such as arts,sciences and education.

2.1. Concept of learning

Generally, the term ‘conception’ refers to acquiring a general understanding of thediscipline or subject area (Entwistle, 1997, p. 17). Dahlgren and Marton (1978)suggest that conceptions of learning form a very important component of what wecall the ‘‘cultural basis of a society.’’ The education literature suggests that studentscome into higher education with differing conceptions of learning (Marton & Saljo,1997), which may vary from individual to individual (see Perry, 1970; Whitehead,1957).2 Marton, Beaty, and Dall’Alba (1993) and Marton et al. (1997) delineatestages of learning as:

� A quantitative increase in knowledge.� Memorizing.� The acquisition, for subsequent utilization, of facts, methods, etc.� The abstraction of meaning.� An interpretive process aimed at understanding reality.� Developing as a person.

Not all students will see learning as including all the above steps. Some may seelearning as mainly transforming information in the process of reaching personalunderstanding; others may see learning as a matter of acquiring information andreproducing it accurately as required by the teacher (Entwistle, 1997).

2.2. Student learning approach

Student approaches to learning are well documented in the literature (see Laur-illard, 1978; Marton, 1970; Marton et al., 1997; Svensson, 1976). The education lit-erature describes two approaches to learning: deep (or holistic) and surface (oratomistic). In the deep or holistic approach, students tend to show indications ofunderstanding the text as a whole. This includes a search for the author’s intention,relating the content to a larger context and delimiting the main parts of the text.Alternatively, in the surface or atomistic approach, students tend to focus on specificcomparisons in the text, or the sequence of the text, but not the main parts, mem-orizing details without orienting towards the message as a whole.

Laurillard (1978) carried out a study on a group of 31 university students studyingvarious sciences and engineering courses to determine the extent to which existingdescriptions of the learning process, such as the deep/surface approach, could beapplied to students taking these courses. Laurillard found that the adoptedapproach derived from students’ reasons for undertaking the course—why they were

2 For a detailed review of conceptions of learning see Perry (1970) and Marton et al. (1997).

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doing it and what they expected to get out of it. According to Laurillard (1978), thisaffected whether students had a desire to understand the meaning (deep or holisticapproach), or merely to memorize or to reproduce information (surface or atomisticapproach). Furthermore, she found 19 out of the 31 students used both approaches.

To sum up, within the deep approach students look for patterns and underlyingprinciples with the intention of understanding issues critically and cautiously. Suchstudents tend to become actively interested in the course content. Alternatively,within the surface approach students tend to cope with course requirements, try tomemorize facts and procedures routinely, experience feelings of undue pressure, andworry more about their work (for details, see Entwistle, 1997, p. 19).

3. Research method

3.1. Case study strategy

Morgan and Smircich (1980, p. 491) state:

The case for any research method, whether qualitative or quantitative (inany case, a somewhat crude and oversimplified dichotomisation) cannot beconsidered or presented in the abstract, because the choice and adequacyof a method embodies a variety of assumptions regarding the nature of theknowledge and the methods through which that knowledge can be obtained, aswell as a set of root assumptions about the nature of the phenomena to beinvestigated.

Thus the rationale for a particular research strategy is grounded in the coreassumptions regarding ontology, human nature, and epistemology (Burrell & Mor-gan, 1979; Morgan, 1980). The study described the social world from the perspectiveof relevant actors (in this study the students). The primary focus is on understandingthe students’ experience of learning and perceptions concerning the use of journalarticles in curriculum design. In this sense, organizations and society (in this studyuniversity, faculties, schools, classrooms) are assumed to be socially constructedsystems of reality (Burrell & Morgan, 1979; Chua, 1986, 1988; Morgan, 1983;Morgan & Smircich, 1980). Morgan and Smircich (1980, p. 494) remark, ‘‘The socialworld is a continuous process, created afresh in each encounter of everyday life asindividuals impose themselves on their world to establish a realm of meaningfuldefinition.’’ This suggests that actors develop or create their realities, not onlythrough their own intellect, but also through common experience and interactionwith others (Garfinkel, 1967; Hopper & Powell, 1985; Tomkins & Grove, 1983; VanMaanen, 1979). By focusing attention on the students’ interpretations and sub-jectivity, this study seeks to show how the students involved in learning public sectoraccounting make sense of situations and their everyday experiences.

The style of research required for this purpose was an open-ended, intensive casestudy in the interpretive tradition (Garfinkel, 1967; Silverman, 1985; Hopper &

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Powell, 1985). Yin (1993) suggests that a case-study approach should be the pre-ferred strategy when what, how, or why questions are posed and when the researcherwishes to understand an organizational phenomenon in its real-life context.

The case study approach, however, has weaknesses. The interpretations of thesocial reality raise the problem of researcher bias, because the researcher in thiscontext cannot be regarded as an independent observer. A case study is time-con-suming and may result in massive, unreadable documents. The inability to generalizefindings from a case study is also an issue. However, the aim of this study is not predic-tion, but understanding. Despite its weaknesses, the case study approach adopted herecontributed significantly to the author gaining a deep understanding of the students’experience of learning in a particular context. As Scapens (1990, p. 278) remarks:

Researchers should avoid the temptation of thinking of case studies only interms of statistical generalisation. . . researchers who see generalisations onlyin this sense will either reject case study methods or not fully exploit theirpotential.

3.2. Data sources

Data were gathered over a 6-month period using a series of semi-structuredinterviews. The purpose in this study was to understand beliefs, perceptions, andexperiences of learning in students’ own terms. This demanded that the researcherlet students speak as freely as possible about their own ways of perceiving them-selves and their world. Perry (1970) and others consider this technique to be usefulin research where the primary concern is to reveal how respondents give meaning totheir experiences (Silverman, 1985; Van Mannen, 1979). Perry (1970, p. 18) states:

We feel that our way of addressing the issues at stake in these moments, beyondbeing crucial to the data of this study, may have general relevance for the con-duct of any inquiry in which the primary purpose is to allow the respondentfreedom to speak from his own ways of finding meaning in his life.

Six accounting students, aged between 21 and 31, were interviewed. The interviewsvaried in length between 40 min and 1 h and took place in the researcher’s office.During each interview, which was taped, the researcher first welcomed the inter-viewees, restated his interest in hearing from them about their experience, and askedpermission (with assurance of anonymity) to record. An interview protocol (seeAppendix B) was devised to conduct the interviews. This protocol served severalpurposes: introducing the purpose and methods of the research, emphasizing theimportance placed on respondents’ views, and providing a basic checklist during theinterview to make sure that all relevant topics were covered. Thus, the interviewprotocol helped the researcher conduct the interviews in a systematic and compre-hensive fashion. In order to have complete records of student interviews availablefor subsequent analysis, the researcher transcribed each tape recording.

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In addition to tape recording, the researcher also took notes during each inter-view. Taking notes served two purposes: first, the notes helped formulate newquestions as the interview progressed, particularly where it might be appropriate tocheck out something that was said before; second, the notes helped form a databaseabout what was being said during the interview. Careful notes of reactions of theinterviewees were made immediately after each interview.

Thus the researcher in this study observed the processes and engaged personally inthe processes under scrutiny as a ‘‘participant observer’’. Information gathered frominterviews was used as a primary data source to explain the research issue explored.Within the interview transcriptions, important direct quotes were used to sub-stantiate the findings.

Students participating in this study were split into two groups: deep learners(those who saw learning as mainly transforming information in the process ofreaching personal understanding) and surface learners (those who saw learningas a matter of acquiring information and reproducing it accurately as requiredby the teacher). This technique helped the researcher capture individual differ-ences or variations in perceptions about real-world practice. Thus this study wasconcerned with how participant actors viewed the social world and why they didso.

4. Research findings

4.1. Accounting students’ conceptions of learning

The researcher sought to answer the question of what learning means to students.Analyses of the transcripts produced a variety of conceptions of learning. These arereproduced below in turn.Student A (Samantha): Samantha3 is a final year student studying an accounting

degree as well as public sector accounting. She has recently accepted an appointmentwith Queensland Audit Office. According to Samantha, learning is personal under-standing. She elaborated it thus:

I believe that learning is personal understanding because unless you are able toput it in your own thought, in your own words, in your own mind, you don’tunderstand it and you might be able to rote learn it for a test but as soon as youwalk out of the exam you can’t remember it and it doesn’t actually mean any-thing unless you understand it and apply it to situations that you have seen orthings that you have heard of and actually take a personal understanding.

In addition to achieving a deeper understanding of the topic, Samantha also likesto get good marks. As she reflected:

3 The real name of the student is not used to preserve anonymity.

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For me I also like to get high grades. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I like tostrive for the high marks.

Student B (Rob): Rob graduated in Semester 2 2000 and has taken a position atthe Australian Taxation Office. He described his concept of knowledge, as follows:

I do not really think of learning as just being able to regurgitate exactly whatthe teacher said. I think what you need to do is that you need to collect theinformation from the teacher and you need to sit down yourself and try andunderstand it yourself.

Student C (Shamma): Shamma is a second year student studying accounting andpublic sector accounting. To Shamma, learning is more of a personal understanding.She described her concept of learning thus:

Reproducing is all well and good but if you don’t understand it then you won’tremember it. Like you study for an exam and if you just reproduce what a lec-turer or what the textbook says you get out of the exam and you can’t remem-ber what you have learnt but if you understand the concepts it is probablyeasier for you to remember more things.

Student D (Sharmi): Sharmi is a final year student studying for both accountingand public sector accounting. She saw learning from a broader context. Accordingto her, learning is multi-dimensional. She elaborated it thus:

I think learning is not just about reproducing information because then youmight not understand it but if you have an exam and you know that is going tobe on there and you want to get the mark then maybe that is what you will do.If you don’t really learn it well you might get the grade but then when you areworking you won’t know it so you are going to have to learn it eventually but itdepends what your priority is.

Student E (Shehab): Shehab is a second year student studying for a double degreein accounting and public sector accounting. He saw learning as developing self-confidence. According to Shehab:

Learning is more about achieving a wider understanding of the topic. So ifsomebody asks about something you can have a conversation. If you under-stand the topic deeply you should be able to speak about it or you should beable to understand it.

Student F (Adnan): Adnan will graduate in Semester 1, 2001. He is working fulltime in a commercial bank. He is also studying for a double degree in accountingand public sector accounting. To Adnan, learning is something that one can use tocreate knowledge. He elaborated it thus:

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You can study out of a book, you can take notes, you can reproduce it in examsbut you might not actually learn anything. Reproducing it is not actuallylearning what it is all about. It is like you see enough stop signs you know thatyou have to stop. You might not know what for, for what reasons you are tostop, for something that you visualize, you identify with it. You just do it.

Further, Adnan commented:

Learning from my mind is having a good understanding and being interested init enough that you want to develop that a little bit further. If you don’t want todevelop it a little bit further then you are not really interested in learning itin the first place. It is just a means to an end. It is just a task that you areperforming.

These quotes suggest that each student shares a common concept of learning,viewed as the process of reaching personal understanding. Equally, the students saidthat without personal understanding they could not get a good grade. Moreover,there is a widespread feeling that although some employers look for high grades it isa good understanding of a topic that really matters. Getting high grades seems toappear as a sort of external pressure to Shehab (Student E). This is reflected on hisfollowing views:

I think personally getting the grade seems to be where a lot of pressure isbecause that is what is getting your foot in the door and gets you the job butonce you are actually in there and doing something if you don’t have theunderstanding then I think you are going to be found out pretty quick or youare going to fall over or not cope.

4.2. Use of journal articles to teach public sector accounting

Each class involved a 3-h seminar-type session that was the equivalent of thestandard 2-h lecture plus 1 h tutorial or workshop allocation per subject. The semi-nar involved the presentation of material followed by a workshop component. Foreffective discussion on the topic in the seminars, students were advised to read andgain an understanding of all the set reading materials beforehand.

It was not the aim of the seminars to go routinely through initiatives in each of themajor public sector organizations. Rather, seminars highlighted and critically ana-lyzed the main assumptions, outcomes, and implications of such initiatives. Studentswere expected to draw on this material and the appropriate readings to build a suf-ficiently comprehensive understanding of accountability and control systems in thepublic sector.

Each student was also required to lead class discussion by presenting a review andanalysis of two journal articles set within the reading materials for two alternativeseminar weeks. Presentations commenced in the third week. Students were advisedto follow the following steps in the review process:

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� To identify key issues addressed in the article; To outline the paper’s theore-tical or methodological issues;

� To summarize the findings discussed in the article;� To ascertain what remains to be studied (unresolved issues) in the area; and� To conclude.

Article presenters were encouraged to generate discussion by asking questions andorganizing debates or activities. All students were expected to prepare for each ses-sion by reading and writing a brief summary of all articles for that session. A sub-stantial component of the overall presentation mark was awarded for creating anactive class discussion around the topics. Students were also encouraged to create asmall case study, or series of questions or debate issues to inspire discussion.

4.2.1. Usefulness of journal articles in facilitating learningThe researcher sought an answer to the question of ‘‘how helpful journal articles

were’’ in facilitating student learning. The following quotes reveal variations instudents’ responses:

Samantha: I think journal articles give us an idea of the sort of research that isgoing on out there that we wouldn’t otherwise come into contact with. Theyfocus on one specific topic, they tend to go into a lot of detail on the one topicso even if you can’t understand everything the writer is saying, at least if yougrasp some of it you have a bit of an idea of that topic then.

Rob: I think journal articles are vital for the subject. It gives you more of a reallife interpretation of what is actually going on. There are so many courses thatyou just get the textbook and that is it. It doesn’t tell you that it exists in thisorganization, whereas the journal articles they give you an insight into the topic.

Shamma: I think journal articles give you more contact with the world whereasif you are reading from a textbook it is just theoretical and a lot more technical.Like at least you can put that into practice. Like you read about something andyou say ‘‘Oh yes I can understand where that comes from’’ but when you readtextbooks it doesn’t always come across like that.

Sharmi: Journal articles are good. They seem to bemore up to date than the textbook.

Shehab: I think the journal articles are one of the things that when you have anunderstanding and you have had them for a while and you have worked in thatsort of industry or studied that sort of industry for a while then those things willbecome more relevant and clearer to you. You cannot get these sorts of under-standing from a textbook.

Adnan: I think articles-based learning is important because you know you havepeople study at university for a number of years. They may go through their

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university life and never actually see a journal article, in particular an academicpaper and not actually know what it is that an academic actually does and howthey are responsible for further development of the subject and the topics andthose sorts of things. That is not just something that comes from the workforceand what happens out there in the real world. The academics are the ones thatbring out the theories and start the ball rolling.

Three of the six students who participated in this study, however, expressedreservations about journal articles. As one student remarked:

The only weakness of journal articles that I would say is that unless you havean understanding of the topic before you start reading you can get lost. Becausethey go so deep and quite often they assume that you already have someunderstanding. If you don’t have that understanding you get lost because theyhave meanings for particular words and you may not actually know what theyare getting at through those terms.

Another student stated:

If you are not used to studying that sort of thing, it can be hard to understandthem. What are they proposing and what are they about? That would be theweakness of journal articles.

Another student went on further to express her negative sentiment about journalarticles, thus:

Journal articles are sometimes difficult to understand. Because I think it mightjust be the wording or larger words or complex sentences.

The above findings indicate that the majority of students interviewed foundjournal articles to be a valuable aid to learning.

4.2.2. Perceived benefits of academic-type and professional-type articlesThe researcher was interested in appraising students’ perceived usefulness of both

academic-type and professional-type articles. The quotes below illustrate students’views on this matter:

Samantha: The strengths of academic articles are that they go into a lot ofdepth.

Rob: Probably the academics have more of a theoretical side obviouslybecause it is academic and then they put it into practice whereas the practicalones are straight what happened here, what happened here, and what hap-pened here. That is the way that I understand it anyway. The academics theydo have more theoretical stuff in them; I think that that is a major advantage.

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At least then you can see the theoretical side and then you can see it put intopractice.

Sharmi: The academic one I think their strengths are the fact that they can askmore questions about an issue where I think if you look the practical onesexplain how things work and if they give a good example of how things workwell it is sort of a ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ sort of thing.

Shehab: The strengths of an academic article are looking deeper and seeing,asking the questions not always giving the answers but that is fair enoughfor more research. And practical are better for how things work. I find thatthe academic articles have trouble explaining to non-academics how thingswork like with a difficult diagram. Professional articles are a lot easier toread. Just to walk in off the street and read it and not know anything aboutthe topic.

Adnan: Personally I think that the majority of the academic articles that I havehad to read they sort of talk around themselves a lot perhaps go over the oneissue more than once or twice and in the end virtually complicate that particularissue.

The above findings indicate that professional articles are quite good because theygive a slightly different view to what an academic does. Such articles use a differentapproach and tend to have a knowledgeable background on theory as well aspractical aspects of it.

4.2.3. Perceived problems with academic articlesThe following quotes illustrate students’ perceived problems with academic

articles:

� The academic articles are a bit heavier than the practitioner articles just in theway that they are structured.

� I do find academic a lot harder to read through than professional. I read theacademics a couple of times whereas I may read the professional ones oncebecause I understand them more than the academic ones.

� Well, I have found that a lot of academic articles are difficult to read.� It is just the message the academic articles are trying to convey to the reader,

a lot of the articles even just the heading is even sometimes hard to under-stand because they use big words but they might say one thing and you mightthink it has something to do with along the lines of this but it might be totallydifferent to what they are trying to get at.

These findings indicate that undergraduate students may find academic articlesdifficult to understand for their complex theoretical orientations.

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4.2.4. Perceived problems with professional articlesThe following extracts describe students’ perceived problems with professional

articles:

Professional articles seem to be written a bit more from an average person’sperspective but they don’t go as deeply into a topic and quite often they raise anissue but they don’t find an answer to it, they just say well we will leave that tothe academics.

The practitioner ones are also focused at a pretty high level or high standard ofstudying or learning, but personally I think the practitioner ones are easier tounderstand. More of a real life focus.

I find I don’t have to go back and read a professional article a second time andtry and work out what they were getting at because quite often it is quite clear.

What I find with the practitioner ones is that they are a lot shorter whereas theacademic articles describes something and it kind of backs it every way possible.So there might have been six ways that it could have been done so I think in alot of academic articles it is kind of repeating some of the stuff kind of the waythat it is said.

These findings suggest that professional articles are easy to understand. They tendto be shorter and condensed. Students who participated in this study found profes-sional articles very helpful in their learning processes.

4.3. Styles and approaches to reading a journal article

The quotes below record variations in students’ approaches to reading a journal article:

Samantha: When I try reading an academic article I try and read it rightthrough and I get out my highlighter and I highlight what I think are the mainpoints as I am reading it. But then quite often the first time that you read itseems like a jumble of information and it is hard to take it all in so perhapsafter a little bit of a break going back and trying to work out what were themain points they were getting at.

Rob: When I have the time what I like to do is set the article out in front of meand maybe with a notebook and I usually have a highlighter as well and I justsimply read through the article and where I think they are making a point likethe aim of the article and may be some important points which I think arerelevant I just jot them down on the notebook and highlight them.

Shamma: I read an academic article a couple of times and highlight them. I tryand read through them and get a basic understanding of what they are trying to

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say. Some of them they just go straight over the top of my head, some of themnot. I probably would be better if I made notes and things like that but I don’t,due to time and things, but I think if I read them a couple of times it is probablythe best way of understanding them and the second time pick out the mainpoints of what the authors are trying to say.

Interestingly, in contrast to Rob and Shamma, Sharmi tends to adopt a differentapproach to reading an article. She elaborated her approach to learning thus:

Well, I try to read the abstract and the conclusion first and then I try to read thewhole thing. I read it once through leave it and then read it again a second timeit is clearer. I usually try to highlight but I have a problem that if I am startingto get tired that I just start to highlight everything because I think everything isimportant.

On the other hand, Shehab’s approach seems to be a deeper approach as reflectedin his comments:

First, front to back straight through and then the second time I sort of go a bitslower and try and pick out the relevant things, read it and then sort of sit backa bit and get a handle on that and then that is one peg and then the next sort ofpeg and then try and piece it together. If it is in a logical sort of move you knowthe article progression so then you can sit back and if you can make your ownconclusion at the end of the article on top of what the conclusion is to theowner if you can sit back and say basically the article talks about this but herewas the problem or here was the issue and then move towards it.

Similar to Sharmi, Adnan first reads the article and then looks for conclusion. Hedescribed his approach thus:

I will do that first to get a feeling of and then I get a sense of where the article isstarting at, where it has finished at and what basically should be covered inbetween. Then I will go back through and go through the whole entire articlepossibly just making pencil notes or highlighted notes throughout and then Imight walk away and leave it for a couple of days and actually come back andtake proper notes on the article and then I can relate that back at times of doingreviews or studying for exams or whatever I have got a few sets of notes.

The above evidence suggests variations in students’ approaches to reading anacademic-type article and a professional article. One student, however, expressed hisexperience in the process of learning from professional articles, accordingly:

I find I don’t have to go back and read a professional article a second time andtry and work out what they were getting at because quite often it is quite clear.They have one message to get across and they will write to that.

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The researcher was also interested in knowing what the students were reallylooking out for in the article when they started reading it. The intention was toassess whether the students focused on the text itself or on what the text was about;the authors’ intention, the main point, the conclusion to be drawn. Some quotesbelow illustrate their learning experience in this matter:

Samantha: The message. . .why the writer has written it and what they want totell you the reader from the information they provide.

Rob: I think trying to understand the issues they are putting forward. That isnumber one, trying to understand what they are talking about because some-times it is hard to find out what the aim is of the article. Next is to read throughthe article to try to understand the points for and against. Trying to understandexactly what is being said and trying to remember it too.

Sharmi: Well I try to get something from the article so you may sit down for anhour and watch some TV and then say well I remember that article and it wasbased on this and that. Even if you only remember a few points that means youhave remembered something.

Shamma: Well their main points I guess. What they are trying to get across.What they are talking about and what they are trying to tell us.

Adnan: It depends on the article. I know some articles I find the topic is moreinteresting than others and so that one of course I am going to be more ‘‘I knowthat this is going to be good’’. I try to find something really interesting andunderstand the meaning.

Shehab: An understanding of an issue. Not just hearing an issue.

These quotes suggest these students have been engaged in ‘‘deep’’ learning as dis-cussed in the literature review section of the paper (Marton et al., 1993; Marton etal., 1997) in order to understand the meaning of the topic.

5. Discussion and implications of the findings

This study is about students experiences of learning in a public sector accountingcourse at a university. The following sections discuss the contributions and impli-cations of the findings with reference to the original research objectives.

5.1. Accounting students’ conceptions of learning

For most students, learning was abstraction of meaning, understanding reality,and growing self-confidence. Interestingly, the majority of students who participated

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in this study perceived ‘‘memorizing and reproducing information’’ as a less impor-tant activity in their learning process. Thus the students’ view of learning was richand seemed to be more closely related to their goals for higher education, i.e. tobetter understand the meaning of issues. This evidence supports previous claims thatthe types of learning students expect depends on what learning means to them(Marton et al., 1993; Marton et al., 1997; Tate, 1993).

The findings have practical implications for accounting instructors. As discussedearlier, from a lecturer’s point of view, educating students about public sectoraccounting practices is challenging because the context of public sector organiza-tions is very different from the private sector context. Viewed from such a context,different things have to be taken into consideration, for example, not just applyingtechniques as they come out of the textbook but actually adapting them to therelevant political and social environment.

5.2. Usefulness of journal articles

The findings suggest that the majority of students who participated in this studyliked the use of journal articles in their study of public sector accounting. Theybelieved that journal articles worked well for them, with professional articles per-ceived as being more useful than academic articles. Almost all of the students whoparticipated believed that academic articles were too long, too wordy, too heavy, tootheoretical, etc.

5.3. Approaches to learning

The study found variations in students’ approaches to learning from journalarticles. Some students read the introduction first, followed by the conclusion, thenthe body to grasp the key points, while others were more concerned with readingthe article in a holistic manner to understand in depth the meaning of thearticle. Some students, however, used both of these approaches. The evidence wasthat some students looked for understanding of the issue as a whole, while otherslooked to summarize the main points for examination purposes. These findings areconsistent with studies by Marton and Saljo (1976a, 1976b) and Marton andSvensson (1979).

A further implication of this study is that students’ experience of learningshould be examined within its natural setting because the quality of learningdepends crucially on both teaching assessment and students’ conceptions oflearning.

6. Concluding remarks

Abstraction of meaning was a dominant concept of learning to the majority ofstudents who participated in this study. Journal articles were seen as valuable aid tostudents’ learning. The majority of students who participated in the study used a

154 Z. Hoque / J. of Acc. Ed. 20 (2002) 139–161

deep approach to reading a journal article, although the deep approach is notalways best and its usefulness may vary from subject to subject. The way studentslearn has an important implication for their learning outcomes. As Marton andSaljo (1997) remarked:

The way students learn which we believe to be of fundamental importance,and since this difference goes between two approaches to learning, of which oneis clearly preferable to the other, should we not try to make the students whotend to adopt the less appealing approach, change to the more highly valuedone?

The study has limitations. It is based on a small sample size and one course. Thedata collected may have been influenced by the learning materials selected and theparticular style of the instructor. Also, the researcher being the instructor may biasthe results, though this has benefits of getting close to the interviewees. This studyprovides no insights into how valuable journal articles may be in a class wheretextbooks are required. Further, there was no treatment versus control groups and,consequently, there was a lack of experimental rigor in the study. A follow-up studymay investigate these issues using a larger sample and a more rigorous experimentaldesign.

Notwithstanding, this study is naturalistic in nature in that it uses an in-depthcase study method. Small sample sizes are inherently the nature of naturalisticresearch. This does not mean we cannot learn from this sort of study. This paperbrings attention to the issue of using journal articles in class and provides insightinto what kind of journal articles (i.e. professional vs. academic) students seem tolearn the most from. Additionally, insight into how students approach reading ajournal article is interesting and would be helpful to know for instructionalpurposes.

Acknowledgements

This study draws on the author’s dissertation submitted to Griffith UniversityInstitute for Higher Education as partial requirement for the degree of GraduateCertificate in Higher Education. The author wishes to thank Griffith University forthe financial support provided for this project in the form of Vice Chancellor’sTeaching Bursary. He is indebted to Margaret Buckridge, Roger Landbeck, ChrisGuilding, Trevor Hopper, Ross Guest, Jodie Moll, the Editor, the Associate Editorand the two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on earlier versionsof the paper. The paper further benefited from the comments by seminar parti-cipants at Griffith University School of Accounting and Finance, Gold Coast,Australia and James Cook University School of Business, Cairns and Townsville,Australia.

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Appendix A

ACF3203 Contemporary Issues in Public Sector Financial ManagementList of Weekly Readings (Semester 2 1999)

LectureWeek

Topic/Readings

Week 1: Introduction and administration

Week 2: Reforming the Public Sector and Accounting:An OverviewCommon, R. K. (1998). Convergence and transfer:a review of the globalization of new public management.International Journal of Public Sector Management,11(6): 440–450.Dixon, J., Kouzmin, A. and Korac-Kakabadse, N. (1996). Thecommercialisation of the Australian public service and theaccountability of government: a question of boundaries. InternationalJournal of Public Sector Management, 9(5/6): 23–36.Ernst, J. (1999). The cost-benefit of privatisation and competition:towards a broader frame of reference, in Clark, C. and Corbett, D.(Eds) Reforming the Public Sector: Problems and Solutions,Allen & Unwin, 79–99.

Week 3: Researching Changes in the Public Sector Reform:Methodological IssuesBroadbent, J. & Guthrie, J. (1992). Changes in the public sector:a review of recent ‘‘alternative’’ accounting research, Accounting,Auditing & Accountability Journal, 5(2): 3–31.Broadbent, J. (1999). The state of public sector accounting research:The APIRA conference and some personal reflections. Accounting,Auditing & Accountability Journal, 12(1): 52–57.Lapsley, I. Pettigrew, A. (1994). Meeting the challenge: accounting forchange, Financial Accountability & Management, 10(2): 79–92.

Week 4: New Public Sector Management, Benchmarking and ManagementAccounting Systems: UK, USA and Australian ExperiencesGlyn, J. J. and Murphy, M. P. (1996). Public management: failingaccountabilities and failing performance review. InternationalJournal of Public Sector Management, 9(5/6): 125–137.Dorsch, J. J. (1998). A framework for the benchmarking in the publicsector: literature review and directions for future research.International Journal of Public Sector Management, 11(2/3): 91–115.Evans, P. and Bellamy, S. (1995). Performance evaluation in the

156 Z. Hoque / J. of Acc. Ed. 20 (2002) 139–161

Australian public sector: the role of management and cost accountingcontrol systems. International Journal of Public SectorManagement, 8(6): 30–38.

Week 5: Public Sector Reform in Australia and CommonwealthFinance LegislationProthero, S. (1996). The Role of Law and Its Relationships toManagement Reform in the Public Sector. Readings in AccountingDevelopments in the Public Sector 1994–1995, Public SectorAccounting Centre of Excellence, Australian Society of CPAs,pp. 1–11.Miller, G. (1998). Commonwealth Finance Legislation, 3rd PublicSector Symposium, Brisbane, 16 June.Butler, B. (1999). Corporate Governance, 4th Public SectorSymposium, Brisbane, 11 June.

Week 6: Accrual Accounting and Reporting PolicyRyan, C. (1998). The introduction of accrual accounting reportingpolicy in the Australian public sector: an agenda setting explanation.International Journal of Public Sector Management, 11(5): 518–539.Stanton, P and Stanton, J. (1998). The questionable economicsof governmental accounting. International Journal of Public SectorManagement, 11(2): 191–203.Pallot, J. (1994). The development of accrual based accounts for thegovernment of New Zealand, Advances in International Accounting,Vol. 7, pp. 289–310.

Week 7: Case Studies in Accrual AccountingBaker, K. (1997). Accrual accounting at the Australian FederalPolice 1995/96: valuing police resources. Public Sector—Best PracticeCase Studies 1997. Public Sector Accounting Centre of Excellence,Australian Society of CPAs, pp. 6–12.Rose, G. and Vaughan, P. (1997). The establishment of a cost modelingsystem in a NSW public hospital. Public Sector—Best Practice CaseStudies 1997, Public Sector Accounting Centre of Excellence,Australian Society of CPAs, pp. 95–108.Anderson, D. (1997). Issues in implementation of value-basedmanagement systems in research organisations: The case of CsiroExploration and Mining. Public Sector—Best Practice Case Studies1997, Public Sector Accounting Centre of Excellence, AustralianSociety of CPAs, pp. 25–52.

Week 8: Local Government Reform and AccountingJones, R. (1999). Implementing decentralised reform in localgovernment: lessons from the Australian experience. InternationalJournal of Public Sector Management, 12(1): 63–76.

Z. Hoque / J. of Acc. Ed. 20 (2002) 139–161 157

Worrall, L., Collinge, C. and Bill, T. (1998). Managing strategyin local government. International Journal of Public SectorManagement, 11(6): 472–473.Sadler, R. (1998). The Australian experience: managing anon-metropolitan urban water utility - paradigm shifting towardsa new mindset. International Journal of Public Sector Management,11(7): 596–610.

Week 9: Cost Accounting in the Health SectorAlam, M. and Lawrence, S. (1994). A new era in costing andbudgeting: implications of health sector reform in New Zealand.International Journal of Public Sector Management, 7(6): 41–51.Salauroo, M. and Burnes, B. (1998). The impact of a market systemon the public sector: a study of organisational change in the NHS.International Journal of Public Sector Management, 11(6): 451–467.Lapsley, I, (1994). Responsibility accounting revived? Marketreforms and budgetary control in health care. ManagementAccounting Research, 337–351.

Week 10: Performance Measurement and Auditing in the Public SectorLapsley, I. (1996). Reflections on performance measurement in thepublic sector, in Lapsley, I. & Mitchell, F. (Eds.) Accounting &Performance Measurement, Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd, London.Guthrie, J and English, L. (1997). Performance information andprogramme evaluation in the Australian public sector.International Journal of Public Sector Management, 10(3): 154–164.Hepworth, N. (1995). The role of performance audit,Public Money and Management, pp. 39–42.

Week 11: Auditor Independence and AccountabilityDe Martinis, M. (1997). Best Practice Case Studies in Public SectorAuditing: Audit Mandates, Auditor Independence and PublicAccountability. Public Sector—Best Practice Case Studies 1997, PublicSector Accounting Centre of Excellence, Australian Society of CPAs,pp. 66–83.Student Project Presentation

Week 12: Lessons from Public Sector Accounting in a Developing Countr ContextHoque, Z. and Hopper (1994). Rationality, accounting and politics:A case study of management control in a Bangladeshi jute mill.Management Accounting Research, 5, pp. 5–30.Student Project Presentation

Week 13: Public Sector Executive DevelopmentMorely, K. and Vilkinas, T. (1997). Public sector executive

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development in Australia: 2000 and beyond. InternationalJournal of Public Sector Management, 10(6): 401–416.

Student Project PresentationWeek 14: Revision

Appendix B

Interview protocolStudents’ conceptions of learning

1. What do you mean by learning? In other words, how do you describe yourgeneral understanding of your discipline or subject area?

2. How do you see the ideas of ‘‘getting the grade’’ and ‘‘really learning something’?

Students’ approaches to reading a journal article and their perceived usefulness ofjournal articles

1. What is your view about the inclusion of journal articles in a subject curri-culum?

2. What is your view about the inclusion of both the academic and practitioner-type articles in the same subject?

3. Do you see any difference between an academic-type article and a practi-tioner-type article?

4. Could you describe how do you go about reading an academic-type article?5. Could you describe how do you go about reading a practitioner-type article?6. What are you looking out for in an individual article? What will you be get-

ting from it?7. Do you find an academic-type article interesting? Why?8. Do you find a practitioner-type article interesting? Why?9. What do you do if there is anything that struck you as particularly important

while reading?

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