Web Site of

Ronald R. Tidd, Ph.D., CPA

Professor, Accounting, Master of Professional Accountancy
College of Business
 

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Teaching Philosophy Statement

Accounting education at any given institution must be driven by that institution's mission and the market for its accounting graduates. The focus should be on providing students with the skills, knowledge, and professional orientation (per AECC Position Statement No. 1 and the AICPA Core Competencies Framework) that they need to succeed in a dynamic business environment. I believe that means:

• Emphasizing concepts from different functional areas (e.g., economics, psychology, and philosophy) that will apply regardless of how the business environment evolves in the Information Age, while
• De-emphasizing rote memorization of accounting rules that are transitory.

This should be accomplished by engaging the students in active learning experiences, with educators serving as mentors and partners. Students must be held accountable for their personal and professional development and made to struggle with challenging learning tasks. Educators must be held accountable for providing a supportive learning environment and employing pedagogy that enhances learning outcomes.

Ideally, progressive pedagogy involves cross-functional cooperation/coordination between educators, such that students begin to appreciate that the borders and boundaries of the Industrial Age are counterproductive and increasingly insignificant. Undoubtedly, progressive pedagogy involves information technologies that are integrated across the curriculum. However, investment must be restricted to technologies that enhance learning outcomes, rather than technologies that satisfy someone's technology fetish or provide a high profile for alumni approval. It is imperative that the acquisition of hardware and software be mission driven and accompanied by significant investment in training and support for everyone who is expected to use the technology.

Regardless of the technologies used, today's accounting graduates must be exposed to learning tasks that prepare them to serve in an ambiguous decision making environment. This can be accomplished by some combination of service learning, internships, and classroom exercises that provide professional-grade experiences. Such experiences must involve ambiguity, decision-making, client service and consultation, professional communications, and ethical dilemmas. In other words, there must be some effort to replicate the professional experience during pre-professional education so that graduates are prepared to hit the ground running.

NOTE: You can see how I have operationalized my philosophy by referring to the links to courses that I teach on my home page.

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