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MOTIVATION FOR CHANGE At the most fundamental level, criticism of accounting programs has centered on the excessive attention given by accounting curricula to rule-based and procedural-oriented knowledge. As a result of this narrow focus, capabilities that are deemed to be highly significant in achieving success in the profession have been inadequately developed or ignored altogether. These deficiencies include the inability to solve unstructured problems and to make reasoned value-based judgments; the lack of interpersonal skills required to work effectively in groups; the lack of writing and oral skills required to communicate effectively with others; and insufficient computer skills. The Accounting Department at CSU, Chico agreed that accounting curricula needed to be overhauled, but the faculty also agreed that not enough attention was being paid to the first two accounting courses. The vast majority of faculty agreed that a redesign effort should, as a first major step, focus special attention on the first-year introductory accounting sequence. Most of the AECC-grant universities implemented full-scale revisions of their programs, but the changes being implemented in the introductory courses were designed primarily for the accounting major. More than one million students enroll in introductory accounting courses at community colleges and universities each year (Baldwin and Ingram, 1991). Baldwin and Ingram criticized accounting programs whose introductory courses cater to the prospective accounting major: The intellectual sterility of the introductory accounting sequence is caused by the implicit and myopic view that these courses are simply the first ones in the accounting major. This is congruent with the view that the objective of these courses is to prepare students for intermediate accounting. This view is held even though, at most colleges and universities, no more than 15-20% of students taking introductory accounting will become accounting majors. As a result, there exists an objective for introductory accounting that serves (ineffectively at best) 15-20% of student enrollment rather than an objective that serves the 80-85%. (Frankly, this configuration of introductory accounting courses does not serve the needs of prospective accounting majors, either)" (p.4). In light of this breakdown, it is clear that most students enrolled in introductory accounting represent users rather than preparers of accounting information. Accordingly, the major thrust of the reengineering effort has been to redirect emphasis towards users and to assist students in understanding the uses and limitations of accounting information in a variety of economic contexts. Motivation to learn has been enhanced by actively engaging students in a continuous sequence of economic decisions. Each decision problem requires students to learn something new about accounting, business, and organizations in order to solve the problem. The student's need to know has become the motivation to acquire additional knowledge. Further, the decision is the central organizing principle around which accounting, business, and organization concepts are introduced.
Structure of the New Courses | Obstacles | Resources | Outcome Measures Reaction of Interested Parties | Recommendations for Interested Parties | Links | Index |