Teaching Applied Professional Research
David A.
Ziebart
Professor of Accountancy
Anita L. Feller
Lecturer in Accountancy
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Accountancy education needs to train students to be able to conduct applied professional research. This training encompasses teaching students to recognize and analyze accounting situations and to conduct applied research. The applied research process involves more than just forcing students to use electronic professional literature databases. It requires students to learn the process of identifying the issue, developing a problem statement, generating keywords and phrases on which to conduct literature searches, evaluating the search results, and reporting the proposed solution. This essay describes the steps we use in teaching applied professional research skills and discusses the pedagogy and practical issues surrounding our experiences teaching undergraduate students to conduct applied professional research in accounting.
The Need for Teaching Applied Professional Research in Accounting
As accountancy education enters the 21st century, changes are occurring in the profession that make the traditional rule-based emphasis in accountancy education obsolete. Advances in technology and changes in the business world make the training of professional accountants shift to a more active approach. This more active approach consists of problem-solving via applications of the rules to novel transactions.
In this new approach to accountancy curriculum, undergraduate accountancy majors first will develop a conceptual foundation. They will then learn to apply accounting theory to the growing number of complex, novel, or innovative transactions encountered in today's business environment. Most of these "new" transactions strain the application of rote solutions covered in a textbook. Accordingly, the new educational goal becomes one of preparing students to be accountancy problem-solvers. This requires the students to have a sound understanding of accounting theory coupled with the capacity to conduct applied professional research.
Applied professional research is the process of identifying an accounting problem or issue and developing a solution using theory and existing professional literature. Training students to conduct applied professional research requires the students to learn the skills that enables them to assess an accounting issue or problem, develop a problem statement, and identify plausible alternatives. Students then must search the applicable authoritative literature and evaluate the alternatives given the support garnered for each. Finally, they must develop a proposed solution, and communicate the solution along with a basis of support.
The primary educational objective in teaching applied professional research is to engage the students in a process that develops their skills of inquiry, analysis, and communication. The development of these skills begins at the undergraduate level and should prepare the student for a lifelong process of continuing improvement as they develop as professionals. These skills are manifold and are inventoried below.
Ennis [1985] defines critical thinking as "reasonable, reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or do." Components of critical thinking include identifying the problem, gathering evidence, using objective reasoning, identifying and understanding value assumptions, determining credibility of sources, distinguishing facts from inference, and applying both deductive and inductive logic and reasoning. Teaching applied research requires students to exercise these thinking skills and develop critical thinking dispositions necessary for their future success.
Critical thinking dispositions are affective in nature. These dispositions include being open-minded and considerate of other people, staying relevant, being impartial, suspending judgment and taking a stance when warranted, questioning one’s own views, and using one’s critical thinking skills. Critical thinking in accountancy requires students to think dialogically and to view the accounting problem or issue from various stakeholder perspectives. In applied professional research, this may be manifested in the alternative solutions identified in the early stages of the research process.
Problem Identification and Analysis
Inherent in the training of applied professional research is the development of the students' skills to identify an accountancy problem (financial accounting and reporting, taxation, or auditing) within a descriptive setting. This often involves the students' abilities to formulate the issue into the fundamental elements for which they have a knowledge base. For example, in financial accounting and reporting, this involves the determination and classification of a deficiency in the recognition of an asset, liability, equity, revenue, expense, gain or loss. Alternatively, the problem may not involve a recognition deficiency but may instead revolve around a measurement problem. Sometimes, the identified problem may involve both recognition and measurement. The educational objective is for students to recognize patterns in sets of facts and translate them into accountancy recognition and measurement problem formulations.
The education literature suggests critical thinking is subject specific. Therefore, teaching applied professional research using accounting problems allows transfer of a student’s critical thinking skills into the accounting domain. The first step is for students to learn to construct a problem statement. This problem statement should use accounting terminology that concisely describes the accounting problem and captures the essential aspects of the scenario. This requires the ability to translate transactions and situations from a descriptive context into accounting concepts.
Application of Theory and a Conceptual Foundation
To identify an accounting recognition or measurement problem, the student must have a sound conceptual foundation. This involves a working knowledge of the fundamental elements of financial statements and the general measurement conventions employed in practice. Students must refine identified accounting problems into the basic accounting elements and link the identified problem to the basic building blocks of accounting theory. They generate keywords or key phrases that become the basis for searching the professional literature.
Applied professional research can be taught using either hard copy sources or electronic databases; however, using electronic databases embraces current technology and better prepares students to enter the profession. Educators familiar with hard copy sources might believe that researching via hard copy or electronic database differs only in media. A closer analysis suggests researching hard copy and electronic databases requires very different approaches. In a hard copy search, the researcher searches a table of contents, index at the front of the text, or a topical appendix at the back of the text. The researcher then locates the applicable standard and skims the entire contents of the standard sequentially. If the literature is not appropriate, the researcher moves to the next appropriate standard and continues the process until support is found.
Electronic media is accessed not by topic, but by exact matches of character strings, called keywords. Students often perceive a keyword search to be a topical search and fail to find all the relevant material. Although the keyword electronic search is more powerful and exhaustive, it may produce fragmented results that are incomplete if the researcher is not properly trained in using the database. To achieve a complete, exhaustive search, students must be proficient with the contents, navigation techniques, and search operators of the professional literature database.
For students to become effective researchers, they must understand the organization and contents of the database. This can be accomplished by comparing and contrasting the database with hard copy sources. Students should have a mental picture of how the database or "infobase" is divided into folios or paragraphs for search purposes. In addition, students must understand the vocabulary and navigation commands for the database to use it effectively and efficiently. This includes mastery of the search and retrieval techniques using boolean operators.
To achieve mastery, students must complete enough "drill work" to become proficient with searching. Proficiency with the databases allows students to focus solely on the research problem and not be hampered by their inability or inexperience with using the database. Although there may be minor changes from one database to another, the search commands and retrieval techniques are similar. Once students master one professional literature database, they have relative ease transferring their search skills from one database to another.
To be effective and efficient, students must formulate a research strategy and plan. This formulation is based on several elements. They include the keywords generated, synonyms for these keywords that might better capture the issue, knowledge of the boolean search process, and the students' priors regarding which keywords or key phrases better capture and represent the problem elements. Search strategy is essential in deciding the order in which the keywords or key phrases will be used in the search process. For example, modifiers will be chosen to narrow the search¾one will highly rank a delimiter such as inventory and then use it with cost rather than starting a search using the broad notion of costs.
Evidence Accumulation and Evaluation
The essential element in professional applied research is one of identifying plausible accounting alternatives and then searching for evidence to support or negate the different alternatives. Once found, the evidence is evaluated for consistency with the fact pattern. Alternatively, the evidence may be evaluated for similarities and differences between the fact pattern of the identified problem and the inferred fact patterns underlying the evidence. Similar to academic research, evidence is accumulated and the alternatives are rejected when they fail to match fact patterns or are logically inconsistent. Evaluating the evidence requires students to use deductive logic and analogical reasoning. This component of critical thinking and the applied research process is taught by having students compare and contrast alternative scenarios and evaluate similarities and differences between fact patterns.
Communication of findings is the final component to the critical thinking process and applied professional research. Communicating results requires the students to be sensitive to the needs of their audience, clearly state their conclusions, and provide logical support for those conclusions. The goal is to convince the other party (manager, client, attorney, tax authorities) that the position taken is appropriate. Propriety is demonstrated by a reasonable basis of support or existing authority for this position.
Providing students with a guide to prepare research reports will enhance the quality of their research findings. Below are some simple guidelines to help students prepare a research report:
- Facts: State the facts of the case. By stating the facts, your manager will know whether you understood the facts of the case correctly. You must understand the facts in order to determine the issue.
- Issue: Describe the issue you are trying to resolve. Stating the issue clarifies the research goals and helps determine key search terms.
- Authority: Find and appropriately cite the authority to resolve the issue. Be sure that each quotation and cite are separate. Each item from the database should be accompanied by a specific cite so that another person can trace your work.
- Conclusion: This is your conclusion on how to resolve the issue. State your conclusion in your own words and show how you logically arrived at it.
A key factor in being successful in applied professional research is to have a good command of accounting vocabulary. A deficient vocabulary base will yield incomplete search results. It is common for novice researchers to use only keywords contained in the actual text of the case. Since the database is organized as character strings and not topically, students must be able to generate synonyms for the terms they identify. This allows them to broaden their search. For example, if a student were attempting to research whether an item should be classified as a long-term asset, the student might need to search fixed asset, long-term asset, noncurrent asset, plant asset, depreciable assets, or plant, property, and equipment. Some aspects of the accountancy curriculum must focus on enhancing the students' vocabulary if the applied professional research component is to be successful.
Another potential problem in teaching applied professional research is the potential discrepancy between students' reading levels and the reading levels of both the cases and the authoritative literature. The theoretical reading level of a college junior is grade level 15. Unfortunately, many Financial Accounting Standards Board pronouncements are written at a higher reading level. This suggests that in teaching applied professional research, both the cases used and the applicable professional literature should be matched to the reading level of the students. For example, assigning a case with a reading level of grade 18, which relies on professional pronouncements above grade level 18, may doom the applied professional research experience to failure if the students cannot read at that level. It may be quite discouraging to the student and will result in a poor learning experience. Most students beginning to learn professional applied research skills have enough difficulties to overcome without additional difficulties due to materials with an inappropriate reading level.
Computerized grammar checkers can be employed to scan the cases and applicable literatures for determining the reading level. Ashmore and Cork [1985] provide a formula for estimating reading level grade equivalents based on ACT scores. This approach can be used by instructors to obtain a general idea of students' reading capabilities at the time they enter college. Initially matching your students' reading level capabilities with the assignments enhances success. Later in the process, or in subsequent courses, the reading difficulty level can be raised as students' applied professional research capabilities improve.
Similarly, when teaching applied research, the instructor should choose the case assignments to match the students' existing knowledge base. If applied research is taught at the junior year level, the cases chosen for the initial introduction to applied research should focus on simple transactions that focus on definition problems. Instructors should not attempt to use cases that focus on topics such as consolidations or advanced auditing issues. Those more difficult cases can be used in subsequent courses once the students have mastered the applied research process. For example, having students conduct research on transactions such as interest rate swaps, complex hedging activities, reverse mergers, or environmental liabilities too early in the educational process may be very discouraging for both the student and the instructor.
When the student is learning to conduct applied professional research, critical reading of the search results is very important. For example, on a database training exercise, students were asked "What is a confirmation?" Students produced research results that read "A confirmation is used to...." or "A confirmation is used when....." Students' responses did not address the basic research question. Often students will fixate on some early results that access the keyword. They fail to critically read whether the information directly addresses the question or issue.
Students may experience frustration with applied research because prior accountancy courses focused on the "right" answer. Accordingly, they expect to appeal to authority and open the accounting standards to find precisely the answer. For example, if students were given a case on revenue recognition for internet access providers, some students would expect to type in the keywords "internet access providers" and find an answer immediately. When it becomes apparent that a quick, simple search will not yield results, students may become frustrated and will not expend the time and energy to complete an exhaustive search.
In the working environment, applied professional research is rarely a group project. Therefore, it is essential for students to learn to conduct research on their own. Individual assignments promote development of critical thinking, research skills, and communication skills. Group assignments promote brainstorming, creative thinking, and interdependence.
In the early stages of research training, group assignments detract from student learning. In the advanced stages of practicing applied research, where the accounting problems become more complex, group work may be beneficial.
With groupwork there may be problems with "free riders." Given the limitations on the number of appropriate applied research cases that are available, multiple students will be working on the same case even when the assignment is individual. This leads to potential problems of collusion. One means of discouraging collusion and "free riders" is to require students to prepare and submit a research log. In the research log, students must keep track of the keywords they searched and the resulting pronouncements. Use of a research log provides an audit trail if concerns arise regarding collusion or "free riders."
Also, the research log can be used for students to record their perceptions of the difficulty in understanding the authoritative guidance and its contribution to their solution. By monitoring the research log, the instructor gains feedback regarding the students' capabilities to read and understand the appropriate professional literature. Requiring students to assess the extent to which the professional literature passage contributed to their solution provides the students with a direct linkage between the research process and their results.
When teaching students the applied professional research process, three levels of competency need to be mastered. The initial level of competency is whether students have acquired the capabilities to mechanically access the databases and search them effectively and efficiency. Assessment of this level of competency requires that the students show proficiency. Simple boolean search exercises can be used.
The second level of competency is the ability of the students to apply the research process. Mastery at this level requires that students analyze a problem, develop a problem statement, generate keywords or key phrases, search the literature, and prepare a solution in good form. The emphasis here is on the process and the "correctness" or sophistication of the answer is secondary. Students must be encouraged to apply the process; creativity and innovation should be encouraged. Assignments at this level should have a readily determinable solution once the appropriate literature is identified and found.
The final level of competency must focus on the ability to find the appropriate professional literature and to interpret it correctly. This level of competency builds upon the mastery of the other two levels. Assignments that are more ambiguous and for which the "best" solution is more complex are appropriate at this level. In addition, group assignments may be appropriate.
For the second and third levels of competence, grading involves assessing the students' thinking processes and their use of evidence to support their position. Grades are not based solely on obtaining the "right" answer. Instead, grading is based on the students' abilities to identify the research problem, support their position, and the manner in which they communicate results. The research log is effective in helping the instructor detect whether the search conducted was exhaustive and adequate. When the search is very "off base" (and this is likely to occur for some students), the instructor must encourage the students to try again. This may involve continuing to research the same case or may require an additional assignment. Students will not progress at the same rate and some flexibility is required.
The professional applied research process described so far consists of problem identification, problem statement formulation, generation of plausible alternatives, keyword and key phrase generation, an authoritative literature search, evidence accumulation and evaluation, followed by communication of the results and explanation for the chosen solution. This process is a confirmatory approach in which hypothesized alternatives are generated based upon a theoretical foundation, these alternatives are ranked based upon their theoretical and conceptual appeal, and then evidence is accumulated to support or reject the alternatives. Such an approach requires a sound basis in the conceptual foundations of accounting and uses theoretical underpinnings to identify the accounting alternatives early in the research process.
An alternate process is needed when the researcher is unable to identify any plausible accounting alternatives based upon her or his theoretical and conceptual knowledge base. In such a situation, the first stage of the research process becomes one of using the professional literature to formulate and identify the alternatives. An exploratory approach is used to initially identify the accounting alternatives; this is followed by a confirmatory approach to support or reject the alternatives identified.
Cases requiring the application of an exploratory approach should not be assigned until the students have competency in applying the confirmatory approach. However, cases which might require the use of an exploratory stage can be used if the instructor provides the plausible alternatives and then assigns the students to complete the confirmation or rejection of the alternatives.
Summary of Experiences at Illinois
At the University of Illinois, a component of the Project Discovery curriculum is the acquisition of professional skills. Students learn to conduct applied professional research in the second semester of their junior year. These skills are further developed through application in their upper level courses in financial accounting and reporting, auditing, attestation and assurances, and taxation.
Preparation for the applied professional research begins with database training. Approximately five one-hour sessions are used to introduce students to the databases. This begins with a simple overview and explanation of the database using a laptop computer and LCD panel. Ease of use and the power of the database is demonstrated in the classroom through an exercise in which students learn to navigate the database and read the results windows. After students have mastered routine navigation commands, they can move on to the search operators. Quizzes ensure the students have completed the assigned exercises. Several in-class exercises are used to develop keyword brainstorming techniques. Finally, students are assigned a short case to practice their research skills. They receive formal feedback regarding keyword generation combined with accessing and searching the databases. Upon mastery of this, the students are ready for the next level¾application of the process to more complex cases.
Concurrent with their having mastered accessing and searching the electronic databases in the second semester of their junior year, students practice the applied professional research process through active learning assignments in which they research an accounting issue, make a judgment, and then practice communicating both in written and oral forms. Initially, students are required to prepare problem statements and generate keywords for financial accounting and reporting cases. After developing their capability to read a case, write a problem statement and generate keywords or key phrases, students are ready to practice the complete applied research process. The sorts of projects employed are the following:
- Corporate comment letter project. Students analyze a corporate comment letter written to the FASB and prepare an analysis of the corporation's motivation for its position. This is accomplished through research on the corporation and the industry in which it operates.
- Financial accounting and reporting project. Students are assigned cases and must practice the assigned research process. They must develop a problem statement, generate plausible alternatives, identify key words and key phrases on which to search the professional databases, conduct the searches, accumulate and evaluate the evidence for the different alternatives, make a choice, and then communicate their choice and the basis for their choice.
- Tax research case. Students practice their applied research skills in a different domain. Once students have mastered the process using applications in financial accounting and reporting, students should be able to transfer their knowledge of the applied research process to different contexts. Students apply the same process but conduct the research on tax cases using a professional tax literature database.
Upon completion of this basic training in applied professional research, students have the tools to conduct applied professional research across professional domains¾financial accounting and reporting, auditing, and taxation.
Evaluation of Results at Illinois
Stone and Shelley [1996] studied the differences between students having learned professional applied research skills (in the Project Discovery curriculum) and students not exposed to applied professional research (traditional accounting curriculum) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their results show that the Project Discovery students have higher cognitive complexity, increased abilities in identifying accounting-related information sources, improved problem structuring skills, and improved written communication skills. Project Discovery students also believe that the Project Discovery courses improved their communication skills, their interpersonal skills, and their creativity and problem-solving skills. These outcomes cannot be attributed solely to their education in conducting applied professional research but they are consistent with the types of skills expected to be acquired through teaching the applied professional research process.
Ashmore, R. and K. Cork, "Estimating Reading Level Grade Equivalents Using the American College Testing Program," Journal of College Student Personnel, November 1985; pp. 547-548.
Ennis, R., "A Logical Basis for Measuring Critical Thinking Skills," Educational Leadership, 43: 1985; pp. 44-48.
Stone, D. and M. Shelley, "Educating for Accounting Expertise: A Field Study," unpublished manuscript, Department of Accountancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996.
David A. Ziebart, Ph.D., CPA, is Professor of Accountancy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is holds an appointment at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). In addition, Professor Ziebart serves as an academic fellow in the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Professor Ziebart served as the associate director of the Project Discovery curriculum project at the University of Illinois. An award winning instructor, Professor Ziebart developed and teaches the Accounting Institutions and Regulation course in Project Discovery. Professor Ziebart conducts research in financial accounting and reporting and has published in journals such as Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of the American Statistical Association, The Accounting Review, Journal of the American Taxation Association, Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Anita Feller, Ph.D., CPA, is lecturer of accountancy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ms. Feller teaches the introductory courses in accounting at the University of Illinois and assisted in developing the introductory accountancy courses in the Project Discovery curriculum. In addition, she developed and has taught the Project Discovery Professional Development Workshop course. An award winning instructor, Ms. Feller has given numerous lectures and workshops on education theory, critical thinking, and active learning in accounting education. In addition, Ms. Feller has authored study guides, instructor manuals and supplements, and practice sets for a number of accounting textbooks.
Reprinted with permission from the FSA (Federation of Schools of Accountancy)