A Message from the Chair
Dasaratha V. Rama, Texas A&M International University
T&C and the Scholarship of Teaching
As part of our efforts to enhance accounting education, many of us have
reflected on the importance of "scholarship of teaching" in bringing
greater rewards and recognition to faculty. Over the years, I have to come to
appreciate the value of T&C section membership in promoting the scholarship
of teaching through committee activities, CPE sessions, papers/panels, and
informal interactions with T&C colleagues. Thus I will organize my
discussion of T&C activities in this message around the notion of
"scholarship of teaching."
Many of our committee activities are scholarly activities that involve
significant disciplinary expertise, are innovative and replicable, have
potential for peer review, and are significant.1 I will briefly mention some of these activities that
are described in committee midyear reports in this issue. The Pedagogy
Committee (Chair: Araya Debessay) is surveying accounting administrators to
determine how their accounting units have considered the AICPA Core
Competencies in developing their pedagogical approaches to classroom
instruction. Through this work, the committee plans on identifying best
practices and making them available to section members. I thank Araya for
writing an article on one such pedagogical approach (Problem-Based Learning)
for this newsletter. The Committee on the Integration of Information Technology
in Accounting Education (Chair: Skip White) is interviewing/surveying
accounting professionals about accounting IT skills and knowledge that they
consider important, and accounting educators about the integration of IT in the
curriculum. Members of both of these committees have submitted proposals
related to these topics for CPE sessions/panel presentations to the 2003 AAA
Annual Meeting.
The Introductory Accounting Sequence Committee (Co-Chairs: Barbara Eide,
Lynn Mazzola) is developing a survey on the first-year experience for educators
at both two and four-year institutions. The goal of the Service-Learning
Committee (Co-Chairs: Dorothy Feldmann, Susan Wolcott) is to explore
theoretical connections between professional competencies and citizenship and
civic engagement, to develop best practices and assessment approaches for
studying the impact of service-learning on student competencies. The Research
in Accounting Education Committee (Chair: Julia Karcher) is contributing a
"Have You Seen?" column for each issue of our newsletter. Thanks to
Nashwa George for contributing columns for this issue as well as the previous
one.
The work of the Research Awards Committee (Chair: Mahendra Gujarathi)
addresses a different aspect of scholarship. Through this award the Section
recognizes significant scholarly contributions. In order to encourage newer
faculty to participate in educational research, we consider work authored by
assistant professors in our review process. Our regional directors/associate
directors are in the process of identifying recipients of T&C best paper
awards at each regional meeting-yet another activity designed to recognize the
scholarship of teaching.
The Committee on Improving Teaching and Learning with Technology (Chair:
Faye Borthick) has decided to focus on MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resources
for Learning and Online Teaching) for this year's project. MERLOT is a
repository of sharable learning modules that includes simulations, tutorials,
drill/practices, quiz/tests, animations, presentations, collections, and
resources. Business is one of thirteen broad disciplines represented in MERLOT.
Thanks to Susan Moncada (Indiana State University) for writing an article
describing MERLOT for this issue. In addition to making learning materials
accessible to faculty, a second goal of MERLOT involves providing formal
recognition for the scholarship of teaching. To this end, Susan describes
MERLOT's peer review process in her article.
Finally, through my two years as the section webmaster, a significant part
of my involvement with the Section has involved the use of information
technology (IT) to enhance our activities. By facilitating information sharing
and communication among members, IT can play a key role in enhancing the
scholarship of teaching. The T&C Connections committee (Chair: Don Wygal)
is exploring ways to leverage emerging technologies, especially the T&C
website and related tools such as online chat and forum to help us stay
connected on an ongoing basis. We welcome suggestions from T&C members on
these issues. Please email your suggestions to Don Wygal (wygal@rider.edu) or Gail Cook (gcook@taro.bus.BrockU.CA).
1 I have taken these criteria
from Diamond and Adam (1993). See "Changing Priorities and the Faculty
Reward System," in Recognizing Faculty Work: Reward Systems for the
Year 2000, New Directions for Higher Education, No. 81, edited by R. M.
Diamond, and B. E. Adam. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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