With its grant from the Accounting Education Change Commission, Kirkwood Community College is implementing changes to its two-semester Accounting Principles course.

The objective of the proposed changes include the following:

• To encourage the brightest students to become professional accountants.
• To improve students’ communications skills in the presentation of accounting and business information.
• To develop students’ critical thinking skills.
• To increase students’ knowledge of the influence that the business environment has on accounting.
• To improve students’ abilities to work in groups.
• To improve accounting instructors’ teaching methods.

The perspective in the Principles of Accounting courses is being changed from that of a preparer of information to that of a user of the information. Greater emphasis is being placed on accounting concepts, with a reduced emphasis on the procedural aspects of accounting.

Students will concurrently enroll in a Learning to Learn (LTL) course and Principles of Accounting I. The LTL course will teach such skills as critical thinking and the accounting course will emphasize the use of such skills as they relate to accounting - a practical application of such skills. The LTL course will be taught by non-accounting faculty members. However, accounting faculty members are working directly with the LTL faculty to create specific accounting-related applications.

The students will concurrently enroll in a Technical Writing (TW) course and Principles of Accounting II. The TW course will teach the appropriate technical writing skills and the accounting course will be used to apply the skills by requiring students to write reports emphasizing accounting information. The TW course will be taught by the English department faculty. An English department faculty member will work with the accounting department faculty to create writing projects that are accounting-related.

The teaching emphasis is moving away from the lecture-oriented approach to methods where the students become more active learners and work in groups.