IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joaced/v31y2013i3p333-349.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Thinking practice: Iteration, peer review, and policy analysis in a governmental accounting class

Author

Listed:
  • Finley, Wayne
  • Waymire, Tammy R.

Abstract

All accounting graduates need strong critical thinking skills to succeed. However, possessing these critical thinking skills upon graduation is particularly crucial for new accountants working in the field of governmental accounting. As public servants at the local, state, and federal levels, they may face both short-term budget constraints and long-term sustainability concerns that cannot be solved with technical skills alone. Due to the proliferation of standards and technical practices across the accounting profession, governmental accounting educators may find it difficult to incorporate critical thinking instruction into their courses. In response to these concerns, this paper presents a project developed for inclusion in a governmental and nonprofit accounting course. Over the course of one semester, students choose a governmental policy topic of interest, conduct background research, evaluate the costs and benefits associated with a policy issue, and prepare recommendations in a written format addressed to the appropriate legislative committee. The project also incorporates review and iterative components that allow students to revise their written work based on feedback from the instructor and classmates. We report results of pre- and post-surveys that suggest that the project offers promise as a vehicle for promoting critical thinking skills among governmental accounting students.

Suggested Citation

  • Finley, Wayne & Waymire, Tammy R., 2013. "Thinking practice: Iteration, peer review, and policy analysis in a governmental accounting class," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 333-349.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:31:y:2013:i:3:p:333-349
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccedu.2013.06.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0748575113000420
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2013.06.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Irene Tempone & Elaine Martin, 2003. "Iteration between theory and practice as a pathway to developing generic skills in accounting," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 227-244.
    2. Tamara A. Lambert & Christopher P. Agoglia, 2011. "Closing the Loop: Review Process Factors Affecting Audit Staff Follow‐Through," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 1275-1306, December.
    3. Balasundaram Nimalathasan & Assoc. Prof. Ph.D Brabete Valeriu, 2010. "Association Between Critical,Creative Thinking And Problem Solving In Accounting Researches: An Overview," Revista Tinerilor Economisti (The Young Economists Journal), University of Craiova, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 1(14), pages 7-12, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Grimm, Stephanie Dehning & Blazovich, Janell L., 2016. "Developing student competencies: An integrated approach to a financial statement analysis project," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 69-101.
    2. McKinney, Earl & Yoos, Charles J. & Snead, Ken, 2017. "The need for ‘skeptical’ accountants in the era of Big Data," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 63-80.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gopal Krishnan & Marietta Peytcheva, 2019. "The Risk of Fraud in Family Firms: Assessments of External Auditors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 261-278, June.
    2. Marie H. Kavanagh & Lyndal Drennan, 2008. "What skills and attributes does an accounting graduate need? Evidence from student perceptions and employer expectations," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 48(2), pages 279-300, June.
    3. Hurley, Patrick J., 2015. "Ego depletion: Applications and implications for auditing research," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 47-76.
    4. Nitaya Wongpinunwatana & Kunlaya Jantadej & Jamnong Jantachoto, 2018. "Creating Creative Thinking in Students: A Business Research Perspective," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(4), pages 47-56, April.
    5. Kathryn Kadous & Yuepin (Daniel) Zhou, 2019. "How Does Intrinsic Motivation Improve Auditor Judgment in Complex Audit Tasks?," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 108-131, March.
    6. Andiola, Lindsay M., 2014. "Performance feedback in the audit environment: A review and synthesis of research on the behavioral effects," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 1-36.
    7. Thomas, Tyler F., 2016. "Motivating revisions of management accounting systems: An examination of organizational goals and accounting feedback," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-16.
    8. Rafael Bautista-Mesa & Horacio Molina Sánchez & Jesús Nicolás Ramírez Sobrino, 2018. "Audit workplace simulations as a methodology to increase undergraduates’ awareness of competences," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 234-258, May.
    9. Păcuraru-Ionescu Cătălin-Paul & Cîmpan Marius & Borlea Sorin Nicolae, 2023. "Determinants of Audit Quality and Connections with Economic Development and Education," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 17(1), pages 741-751, July.
    10. Booker, Danielle D. & Pelzer, Josette R.E. & Richardson, Jeremy R., 2023. "Integrating data analytics into the auditing curriculum: Insights and perceptions from early-career auditors," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Sweeney, John T. & Suh, Ik Seon & Dalton, Kenneth C. & Meljem, Sylvia, 2017. "Are workpaper reviews preparer-specific?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(6), pages 560-577.
    12. Pan, Peipei & Perera, Hector, 2012. "Market relevance of university accounting programs: Evidence from Australia," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 91-108.
    13. Despina Whitefield & Louise Kloot, 2006. "Personal and interpersonal skills: The process of prescribing definitions in an accounting degree," Asian Review of Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 14(1), pages 101-121, July.
    14. Kai A. Bauch & Peter Kotzian & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2021. "Likeability in subjective performance evaluations: does it bias managers’ weighting of performance measures?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 35-59, February.
    15. Andiola, Lindsay M. & Bedard, Jean C., 2018. "Delivering the “tough message”: Moderators of subordinate auditors’ reactions to feedback," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 52-68.
    16. Dierynck, Bart & Kadous, Kathryn & Peters, Christian P. H., 2023. "Learning in the auditing profession: A framework and future directions," Other publications TiSEM eb74c8e4-bc4a-4b71-b88a-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Trotman, Ken T. & Bauer, Tim D. & Humphreys, Kerry A., 2015. "Group judgment and decision making in auditing: Past and future research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 56-72.
    18. Carolyn Mactavish & Susan McCracken & Regan N. Schmidt, 2018. "External Auditors' Judgment and Decision Making: An Audit Process Task Analysis," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(3), pages 387-426, September.
    19. Rowe, Stephen P., 2019. "Auditors’ comfort with uncertain estimates: More evidence is not always better," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1-11.
    20. William D. Brink & Jonathan H. Grenier & Jonathan S. Pyzoha & Andrew Reffett, 2019. "The Effects of Clawbacks on Auditors’ Propensity to Propose Restatements and Risk Assessments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 313-332, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:31:y:2013:i:3:p:333-349. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-accounting-education .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.