Presenter:
Michael J. Krause, Le Moyne College
Description:
Synthesizing accounting lessons is a skill that needs to be developed in accounting majors. On a recent Intermediate Accounting II exam, I asked a cumulative question concerning defined benefit pension plans where one data set was used to develop the year-end journal entry, reconcile the pension funding, and to calculate the required minimum balance sheet liability. Some of my best students were stunned by this holistic testing approach. Case studies provide an excellent opportunity to develop skills necessary to fight "tunnel vision" in accounting education. However, if you introduce comprehensive case studies to today's college sophomore, can you honestly expect an effective initial experience? Or in other words, can you train their minds without losing yours? What is needed is a transitional process that introduces case studies in an interactive form so that ultimately the student can handle a case study in the traditional cumulative form. By interactive form, I mean a form that allows for a series of deadlines to make sure that not only are students proceeding correctly, but also to prevent a dawn of due-date student-action plan. The ultimate goal is making upper-division accounting students capable of solving a case with a single deadline.
