On
July 25, 2016, I posted a blog entry describing a class supplement I was
building for my introductory financial accounting class. I have spent the summer creating electronic
flashcards using Power Point so that I could embed audio clips and link to
videos that I had made. My goal was to
guide students through each chapter of the textbook to help them in organizing
and reviewing complex material (or to serve as the preliminary coverage for a
flipped classroom). In that earlier
posting, I stressed the need for careful sequencing of the individual cards.
I
emailed the finished product for Chapter One to my students yesterday. I am a big believer in the power of
communications so I explained what I was trying to do and why. I asked for their feedback. After all, the product is for their benefit. Students are in the best position to say what
works and what doesn’t.
If
you would like a copy of what I created for Chapter One and shared with my
students, drop me a note at Jhoyle@richmond.edu
and I will email it to you.
Even
if you don’t teach financial accounting (or even accounting at all), you might
find the construction interesting. It
might stimulate your own thinking. I
believe that what I built, anyone could build for virtually any course.
**
One
of the great things about teaching is that your thinking evolves as you gain
more experience. Over the past year, I
have become especially focused on exactly what I am trying to teach my students
(or maybe I should say: How I want to
change my students—I actually think that sounds better). Once determined, I have worked to connect each
element of my courses to that specific goal.
It seems obvious, I guess, but I wonder how many teachers can state in
one sentence what they want to teach their students. Here, at the start of a new semester, that
might be a worthwhile exercise.
So,
I have a couple of basic questions to stimulate your thoughts as you look forever to
the first day of fall classes:
--At
the very foundation level, what is it that you want to teach your students? How do you want your students to be different
at the end of the semester?
--Is
everything you do in class tied to that goal?
What
objective is at the core of your course and how is the class constructed around
that core? I never used to think like
that but my teaching has certainly evolved in that direction.
I
think the easiest way for me to explain my thinking is by sharing a note (slightly
edited) that I emailed to my Intermediate Accounting II students a few days
ago. After a long summer, they are
getting ready for the start of classes next Monday morning. Not only is it important to know what you
want to accomplish, I really think you should make that as clear as possible
for your students. Why leave them in
the dark?
To
my Intermediate Accounting students:
“Okay,
if you don’t read any other question this semester read this one because it
explains the whole purpose of everything we will do in this class. Over and over and over, I will give you
countless weird, odd, bizarre accounting and reporting situations and I will
help you learn how to arrive at viable solutions that you can justify as being
fairly presented according to U.S. GAAP. That’s it.
That’s the course in one sentence.
I will pose these odd situations before every class for your preparation
(and also after many of the classes as follow up practice). Then, when you come to each of the tests, I
will throw out new weird, odd, bizarre accounting and reporting situations so
that I can see whether you have gained the ability to arrive at viable
solutions that you can justify as fairly presented according to U.S. GAAP. That’s what CPAs do all the time. It is not about memorization. It is about understanding and developing the ability to (using my three
favorite words from class) “figure it out.” Notice
that this is also the basic premise underlying your three-part writing
assignment for this semester. This is
what this course is all about.
“So,
here is your first question for next Monday as a warmup: You go to a used book store and buy a book
for $20 on December 30, Year One. You
tell them that you’ll pay for the book in two months and they say okay. However, you believe the clerk treats you rudely and
when you get home you slam the book down and say ‘I do not want to be treated
that way. I’m going to keep this book
and never pay for it.’
“If
you make a balance sheet on December 31, Year One, do you have to report the
$20 as a liability? Weird, odd, bizarre
– how do you report this? When you
report a liability on a balance sheet, what are you reporting – what you owe or
what you are going to pay? What is a
viable solution that you could justify as being fairly presented according to
U.S. GAAP in case, for example, you ever wind up in court and have to explain the
logic of your answer to a judge. It's a simple question so what's your answer? And, we will always assume that all amounts in this class are material. Saying that something is not material is just a way to avoid making a decision”
What
do I want to accomplish? I want my
students to be able to analyze unique situations. I want my students to understand that being
an accountant is not about memorizing rules.
I want my students to have a firm understanding of U.S. GAAP. I want my students to realize that being a
CPA means being able to come up with answers where obvious answers do not
exist. That requires critical thinking
skills that I think can best be developed using oddball questions.
To
me, this is accounting education at its most exciting. Even after 45 years in the classroom, I
cannot tell you how excited I am to get back to work. I am sure the class will not be perfect but,
at least, I do know what I want my students to accomplish.
Let
me leave you with one suggestion. Write
down, in one sentence, how you want your students to be different by the end of
the semester and then email it to them.
Go on record. “This is the goal.” It’s a good exercise for you and the
students will appreciate the clarity and frankness.
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