An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association 2005 Annual Meeting August 7–10, 2005 San Francisco, California Come to the City by the Bay!

Effective Learning Strategies Forum
Monday, August 8, 2005

Session 30
Teaching Professional Skepticism

Presenter:
John D. Rossi III, Moravian College

Description:
One of the common threads associated with almost every accounting and audit fraud is a failure of the accountants to exercise professional skepticism. When students graduate from College, they may have been exposed to ethics and professional standards, but they probably never were engaged in a project that teaches professional skepticism. In this session, I will present ideas that I have successfully used to incorporate professional skepticism into projects and the classroom. Instead of having students evaluate the financial statements of Fortune 500 Companies, I select Bulletin Board Companies where examples of suspicious activity are plentiful. Students also learn to look just beyond what is often an impressive website to discover that there is most likely nothing behind it. In addition, I reinforce concepts such as Going Concern, Development Stage Enterprise, and Contingencies. I have found that this alternative approach better prepares students for the challenges of the real world.

Back to Monday Sessions

AAA Home Page