Application of Problem-Based Learning
(PBL) in Accounting
Araya Debessay, University of Delaware
The Search for Innovative Pedagogical Approaches.
The call for introducing new pedagogical approaches has been persistent,
loud, and clear. The American Accounting Association (Bedford Committee Report
1986), the Big 8 accounting firms (The White Paper, 1989), the Accounting
Education Change Commission (AECC) 1994, and the AICPA, have all urged
accounting educators to devise innovative educational reforms to equip
accounting graduates with the skills and abilities necessary to meet the
challenges of the ever growing and increasingly complex professional career.
The Bedford Report (1986, 187) recommends: "Faculties should design
educational experiences for students that require them to be active,
independent learners and problem solvers rather than passive recipients of
information." There was also a similar call for reform in undergraduate
education at the June 1994 Wingspread Conference that was organized to discuss
the quality of undergraduate education. The conference developed the following
list of important characteristic of quality performance of college and
university graduates (Wingspread, 1994):
- High-level skills in communication, computation, technological literacy,
and information retrieval to enable individuals to gain and apply new knowledge
and skills as needed.
- The ability to arrive at informed judgments—that is, to effectively
define problems, gather and evaluate information related to those problems, and
develop solutions
- Ability to address specific problems in complex, real-world settings, in
which the development of workable solutions is required.
With the AECC's role as a catalyst for change, several schools have
introduced curriculum and pedagogical changes, but there are also many others
who are still relying on the traditional methods of teaching. Albrecht and Sack
have lamented, "Except in a few schools, these warning
signals—warnings about the future viability of accounting
education—have largely gone unheeded. In too many respects, accounting
education is being delivered the same way today as it was 20 or 30 years
ago" (Albrecht and Sack, 2000, 2). This situation should not continue. It
is incumbent upon accounting educators to explore ways that will prepare
students better for the challenges of the 21st Century.
Accounting educators who are still relying on the traditional, lecture-based
way of teaching are being "criticized for spending too much time on
content mastery and too little time and effort to helping students to develop
skills that will enrich their lives and make them successful" (Albrecht
and Sack, 2000, 5). The concern with the traditional, lecture-based teaching is
that students are primarily "engaged in rote learning, which entails the
acquisition of facts that have little staying power" (Duch et al., 2001,
319). The Carnegie Foundation's report, Reinventing Undergraduate Education:
A Blueprint for America's Research Universities (1988) stated that
"traditional lectures and note taking were created for a time when books
were scarce and costly and lecturing to large numbers of students was an
efficient means of transferring knowledge" (Duch et al., 2001, 5).
The persistent call is for pedagogical approaches that will help
professionals develop their problem-solving skills, their analytical ability,
and their ability for collaborative work as well the ability to continue to
learn on their own. In urging accounting educators to devise new pedagogical
approaches, Albrecht and Sack argue: "Students forget what they memorize.
Content knowledge becomes dated and is often not transferable across different
types of jobs. On the other hand, critical skills rarely become obsolete and
are usually transferable across assignments and careers" (Albrecht and
Sack, 2000, 55). In order to address the concerns raised by Albrecht and Sack,
accounting educators need to "design educational experiences for students
that require them to be active, independent learners and problem solvers rather
than passive recipients of information" (Duch et al., 2001, 4)
The purpose of this writing is to urge accounting educators to seriously
consider Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a pedagogy that will better prepare
accounting professionals for the challenges of the 21st Century.
What is Problem-Based Learning (PBL)?
PBL is a group-based active interactive and collaborative learning approach.
PBL has its roots in the medical education. PBL, at the present, has achieved
wide popularity in a variety of disciplines in undergraduate education. Core
Competency Framework for Entry into the Accounting Profession (AICPA 2001)
has listed PBL as one of the recommended "strategies and classroom
techniques" for the development of requisite competencies for accounting
professionals. The AICPA is urging Academics to embrace the "paradigm
shift from a content-driven to a skills-based curriculum," by adopting PBL
among other pedagogical approaches (see
http://www.aicpa.org/edu/boardof.htm).
The unique feature of PBL is the fact that it is a problem driven,
student-centered learning approach where the student assumes major
responsibility in the learning process and the role of the instructor is that
of a facilitator and a discussion leader (Schwartz et al. 2). While there are
different versions of what constitutes PBL, it is not the same as
problem-solving activities that are typically found in accounting textbooks.
"In the problem-based approach, complex, real-world problems are used to
motivate students to identify and research the concepts and principles they
need to know to work through those problems." (Boud and Feletti, 1997, 2).
Cottell (2002) has developed several accounting cases for application of
PBL in accounting. In explaining the difference between PBL cases and the
problems in traditional accounting textbooks, Cottell states that unlike the
traditional textbook accounting problems, a PBL case is "an unfolding
problem...in that the problem itself does not contain sufficient information
for the student to solve it. In the initial stage, the problem has a vague and
broad requirement. As students wrestle with the problem, they first must
determine what information they must obtain to fulfill the requirement. The
problem 'unfolds' as students are given additional information that allows them
to engage the problem at an increasingly concrete level. As the students work
together on the several stages of the problem, they simultaneously learn both
course-related concepts and problem-solving skills " (Cottell, 2002).
The History of PBL
PBL was first introduced at McMaster Medical School in Canada in the late
1960s (Schwartz et al., 2001, 2). Since then, PBL is being widely used in a
variety of disciplines with some variations. One of the originators of PBL,
H.S. Barrows, has said that PBL "does not refer to a specific educational
method. It can have many different meanings" (Barrows, 1986, quoted in
Schwartz et al., 2001, 2). Since the early 1990's, The University of Delaware
has promoted Problem-Based Learning in several disciplines and has achieved an
international recognition in the use of problem-based and active-learning
strategies in the classroom. The University of Delaware has created a
Clearinghouse, which is believed to be the first online PBL journal. Several
accounting cases that have been specifically developed for use in PBL
environment are available to accounting educators through the University of
Delaware PBL Clearinghouse. (https://www.mis4.udel.edu/Pbl/)
The Benefits of PBL
The motivation to adopt PBL in the medical education was the desire to help
medical professionals to cope up with explosion of knowledge that proved the
traditional rote learning seriously deficient (Evensen and Hmelo, 2000, 1).
Given that accounting professionals are facing similar problems, PBL, which has
proven effective in the medical profession, can also be successfully applied in
educating accounting professionals. One of the compelling reasons why
accounting educators should adopt PBL is because it is becoming increasingly
clear that it is difficult to include all the knowledge that the accounting
professionals will need to prepare them for their professional career.
Moreover, it is a waste of valuable time to expect accounting students to learn
material that in many instances proves obsolete before they graduate. What is
needed in educating accounting professionals is to help them acquire the skills
that will enable them to "learn quickly, effectively and independently
when they need it" (Boud and Feletti, 1997, 4).
Problem-based instruction is designed to help students develop the following
abilities:
- Think critically and be able to analyze and solve complex, real-world
problems
- Find, evaluate, and use appropriate learning resources Ø Work
cooperatively in teams and small groups
- Demonstrate versatile and effective communication skill, both verbal and
written (Albanese and Mitchell 1993, quoted in Duch et al., 2001).
To sum up, the benefit of PBL is to help accounting students to develop the
ability for self-directed learning in order to cope with ever changing and
increasing body of knowledge they will need to succeed as professionals. (Boud
and Feletti 1997, 17)
References
Albrecht, W. S. and R. J. Sack. 2000. Accounting Education: Charting the
Course through a Perilous Future, Accounting Education Series, Volume No.
16. Sarasota, Florida: American Accounting Association.
American Accounting Association (AAA), Bedford Committee, Committee on the
Future Structure, Content, and Scope of Accounting Education (The Bedford
Committee). 1986. "Future Accounting Education: Preparing for the
expanding profession." Issues in Accounting Education (Spring):
168–195.
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). 2001. Core
Competency Framework for Entry into the Accounting Profession. Available
at: http://www.aicpa.org/edu/boardof.htm.
Boud, D. and G. Feletti, G., eds. 1997. The Challenge of Problem-Based
Learning. Second edition. London, U.K.: Kogan Page
Cottell, P. 2002. Blankley Corporation Case. PBL Clearinghouse,
University of Delaware. Available through:
https://www.mis4.udel.edu/Pbl/.
Duch, B. J., S. E. Groh, and D. E. Allen, eds. 2001. The Power of
Problem-Based Learning. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Evensen D. H. and C. E. Hmelo, eds. 2000. Problem-Based Learning: A
Research Perspective on Learning Interactions. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates.
Perspectives on Education: Capabilities for Success in the Accounting
Profession (The White Paper). 1989. Arthur Andersen & Co., Arthur
Young, Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Ernst &
Whinney, Peat Marwick Main & Co., Price Waterhouse, and Touche Ross. New
York, NY.
Savin-Baden, M. 2000. Problem-based Learning in Higher Education: Untold
Stories. Buckingham, U.K.: Open University Press.
Schwartz, P., S. Mennin , and G. Webb, eds. 2001. Problem-Based Learning:
Case Studies, Experience and Practice. London, U.K.: Kogan Page.
Wilerson, L., and W. H. Gijselaers, eds. 1996. Bringing Problem-Based
Learning to Higher Education: Theory and Practice. San Francisco, CA:
Josey-Bass Publishers.
Williams, D. Z. and G. L. Sundem. 1991. "Grant Awarded for Implementing
Improvements in Accounting Education," Issues in Accounting
Education, 5(2), 325–328
Araya Debessay, Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting and MIS,
at the University of Delaware, is currently serving as the Chair of the
Pedgagogy Committee of the Teaching and Curriculum (T&C) Section of the
AAA. Professor Debessay is an Advanced Fellow of the Institute to Transform
Undergraduate Education (ITUE) at the University of Delaware. The University of
Delaware has promoted Problem-Based Learning in several disciplines and has
achieved an international recognition in the use of problem-based and
active-learning strategies in the classroom. Professor Debessay has used
Group-Based Active Interactive and Collaborative Learning Approach in his
accounting classes. As an Advanced Fellow of ITUE, he is trained in the
application of PBL and has used PBL in his Intermediate Accounting course. He
has also served as a reviewer of PBL cases in Accounting for the University of
Delaware based PBL Clearinghouse.
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