Bloom's Taxonomy in Accounting Education: Teaching Strategies

Introduction

Mathematics is an area of education not often sought after by teachers interested in truly meaningful instruction. The subjects typically seem dry, and students rarely take the courses seriously. In the field of accounting, however, there has been an even larger deficiency in properly educating students. As stated by Rob Gray (2006):

There is evidence that accounting education fails to develop students' intellectual and, relatedly, ethical maturity. This may be seen as a moral failure on the part of accounting educators. The content of much of what currently passes for core accounting knowledge has characteristics which can be associated with both superficial learning strategies and ethically immature moral positions. Thus, it may be that "current accounting knowledge" implicitly reinforces poor accounting education.

It is this premise that leads to the belief that there are methods which can aid in both student learning and enjoyment. Through understanding the material and realizing its possibilities, a teacher can help students look beyond the simple fact that they are in a statistics or accounting course and instead see the big picture of what their education will accomplish once they enter the real world. This paper proposes a different approach to teaching college-level accounting courses — one that appeals to all learning styles while still conveying essential knowledge.

Teaching Techniques and Student Memory Retention

As a student enters the accounting field and begins their education at a university, they are introduced to many new mathematical concepts and may feel overwhelmed from the start. Many first-year instructors prefer simply lecturing as their primary form of instruction, expecting students to retain information for an exam. The problem with this approach is that it only scratches the surface of education and will not benefit students after they complete their degrees and must apply what they have learned in the real world. According to Bloom's Taxonomy, simply remembering and even understanding certain complex topics is merely the tip of the iceberg within the educational system (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001).

It is this lack of real application — combined with an abundance of purely theoretical knowledge — that results in many accounting graduates being unable to function effectively once they leave the university. Igor Batista (2005) argues:

It is evident that we need to rethink business education, updating all the means to current needs. This model bears not only the components of a qualification system for accountants — including techniques, skills, and desirable values required for graduation — but allows the contents that should be considered as a guide in order to prepare and organize a program in tune with the global needs within the field. (22)

In order to move a student to success in the field of accounting, that student must be able to properly analyze the information taught in school so that it can be applied in the real world — where problems are no longer neatly packaged to correlate with specific textbook scenarios, and where clients are looking to that student for help and advice. According to Bloom's Taxonomy, this higher level of comprehension is achieved when a student can "examine and break apart information into parts by identifying causes" and "make inferences and find evidence that supports generalizations" (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2000).

Moving an accounting student to this higher level of thinking is the most advantageous goal a professor can pursue. Studies have shown that students capable of critical thinking achieve much greater professional acceptance after graduation. According to a study conducted by Robert Rademacher (1999), the more students were able to critically analyze information from various sources, the higher their acceptance rate for publication of academic papers.

The question then becomes whether it is possible to bring a student to this level of comprehension within the framework of accounting education. The answer is simply yes — entirely possible when using proper classroom techniques. While formal lecture has its place, it cannot be the only method employed. Rather, an integrated approach must be taken in order to encourage students to move to that final level of comprehension. This paper discusses the essential components that move an accounting student beyond simply remembering information: cooperative learning techniques, proper study habits, microteaching strategies, and approaches that guide every learning style through the material.

Rote memorization has its place within education. It would be impossible for a student to master calculus without memorizing the basic rules of derivatives and integrals. However, once concepts are memorized, a student must be able to do more than simply recite those rules. Instead, a student must learn to examine the rules from different angles and apply them to various circumstances. This is the level of comprehension known as critical thinking (Duron, 2006). While most associate critical thinking with the language arts, it is also an important aspect of accounting. According to Duron, Limbach, and Waugh, there is a five-step framework for implementing critical thinking within accounting education.

Moving Beyond Remembering

The first step to creating a critical-thinking-based lesson is to determine the learning objectives. The objective should never be vague or unclear, but rather focused on the particular behaviors or actions desired of the students (Duron, 2006). For instance, in a lesson on forecasting, the desired objective would be for students to identify all necessary components to form an accurate forecasting report and explain why each factor is necessary — as well as why certain factors are not. This goal may sound simple, but mastery of the skill can be difficult and elusive. The goal must therefore remain consistent throughout the lesson, supported by ensuring proper primary and secondary sources of information for students to review and utilize (Nentl, 2008). Given that each forecasting scenario is different, students must have sufficient resources and knowledge to understand that thinking outside the box is required. The objective must address each level of Bloom's Taxonomy through questions posed to students. According to Duron, examples include:

Knowledge level requires an answer that demonstrates simple recall of facts. Questions at this level could ask students to answer who and what, and to describe, state, and list. Comprehension requires an answer that demonstrates understanding of the information; questions might ask students to summarize, explain, paraphrase, compare, and contrast. Application requires an answer demonstrating an ability to use information, concepts, and theories in new situations; questions may ask students to apply, construct, solve, discover, and show. Analysis requires an answer demonstrating an ability to see patterns and classify information into component parts; questions could ask students to examine, classify, categorize, differentiate, and analyze. Synthesis requires an answer demonstrating an ability to relate knowledge from several areas to create new or original work; questions might ask students to combine, construct, create, role-play, and suppose. Finally, Evaluation requires an answer demonstrating ability to judge evidence based on reasoned argument; questions may ask students to assess, criticize, recommend, predict, and evaluate. (162)

The objectives should therefore have enough flexibility and range to ensure all forms of questions are asked and presented for students to practice.

The next step, according to Duron, is to teach through questioning. This method — also known as the Socratic method — has been utilized by teachers since ancient Greece to foster critical thinking (Smith, 1987). In the field of accounting ethics, this method has taken on a new form known as the "Case Method," in which students are asked to role-play or evaluate basic cases or problems and determine what should be done in each situation (Shugan, 2006). This method can also be applied to statistics. In the forecasting example above, instead of simply working through a sample problem and moving on, a teacher who desires critical thinking skills will change the variables within the problem and force students to approach it from new angles. This probing does not end until students are adequately able to see past the simple rules and procedures and apply the underlying principles. According to Duron:

Questioning techniques can be used to foster the thinking ability of students. One simple method is to use the general categories of convergent and divergent questions. Convergent questions seek one or more very specific correct answers, while divergent questions seek a wide variety of correct answers. Convergent questions apply to Bloom's lower levels of Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application and may include questions like "Define nutrition," "Explain the concept of investing," and "Solve for the value of X." Divergent questions apply to Bloom's higher levels of Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation; are generally open-ended; and foster student-centered discussion, thereby encouraging critical thinking. (162)

Not every question need lead students through the same pathway. In the forecasting example, a false or extraneous factor could be introduced to prevent students from developing a routine when analyzing a problem.

The third step to bringing about critical thinking in accounting is to have students practice various techniques before being assessed. Fink (2003), a leading educational writer, recommends two considerations when creating preparatory learning activities. First, activities should be drawn from each of the following three components of active learning: Information and Ideas (primary and secondary sources accessed in class, outside class, or online); Experience (doing, observing, and simulations); and Reflective Dialog (papers, portfolios, and journaling). Second, whenever possible, direct kinds of learning activities should be used — such as doing in an authentic setting, direct observation of a phenomenon, reflective thinking, service learning, journaling, and in-class or out-of-class dialog.

The key is to select an activity that fits the lesson and the teacher's instructional preferences. For example, when teaching forecasting at the college level, a visit to the computer lab to work with a forecasting program would allow students the opportunity to practice skills in a more realistic and less purely theoretical setting.

Computer simulation programs have become particularly valuable in giving students realistic applications. According to a study conducted by Igor Batista and Edgard Cornachione (2005), once students began using a business simulation program, their overall comprehension and application skills improved by roughly 50% across every area measured. By the end of the simulation, 81% of students were able to create other types of business applications — a capability that will help them stand out and perform well in the real world.

Step four is by far the most vital to true quality teaching: review, refine, and improve the course. Courses should never be static; through constant reflection and student surveys, they should be continually improved and updated. According to Duron:

Teachers should strive to continually refine their courses to ensure that their instructional techniques are in fact helping students develop critical thinking skills. To accomplish this, teachers should monitor classroom activities very closely. To track student participation, a teaching diary can be kept that identifies participating students, describes the main class activities, and provides an assessment of their success. Other reflective comments can also be tracked in this journal and can be very useful when revising or updating instructional activities. (163)

Along with journaling, student surveys are a powerful tool for ensuring a course is developing critical thinking. While some students may be put off by being asked to do more than listen to lectures, others will offer honest feedback on how activities assisted their understanding. Surveys need not take a formal form; Angelo and Cross (1993) suggest indirect techniques such as giving students a two-minute paper in which they identify the most important points learned within a particular lesson.

The final step is to provide feedback to students through assessment. The simpler approach — assigning a set number of problems, marking incorrect answers, and moving on — does not offer students a chance to reflect or improve. Entry-level accounting students who receive tutoring frequently cite a lack of meaningful feedback as their primary obstacle. They strive to improve but do not understand how. Tutors have more time to devote to feedback and can offer advice and guidance that a busy professor often cannot. A straightforward way for teachers to begin offering more feedback is to assign more word problems or problems requiring extended analysis, and to encourage students to write out all steps so that incorrect reasoning can be identified and corrected during grading.

Conclusion

Bloom's Taxonomy offers teachers a means of ensuring that by the end of an organized, objective-based unit, students have a firm grasp and applicable knowledge of accounting skills. Whether the course is basic business accounting, microeconomics, or ethics, students must develop a more mature critical thinking ability. Failure to develop such an ability results in failure to achieve in the real world. Guides and guidelines for this style of teaching have been available since the 1920s; however, many educators still choose to ignore this approach to the disadvantage of their students. Simply put, Bloom's Taxonomy must be utilized regularly in the classroom and integrated with the lecture structure in order to ensure that graduates are fully prepared for professional practice.