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Abstract
Emerging technologies are shifting the landscape of the economy, and the practices of various professions. More than ever before, accounting employers require new staff to have technical accounting expertise and enhanced higher order skill sets. Since faculty play an essential role in the student learning process, accounting faculty should be implementing pedagogical practices that promote enhanced higher order skill sets to best prepare students for their careers. In this study, I examine the pedagogical practices of accounting faculty using data from the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, complemented by 25 semi-structured interviews with accounting faculty from a variety of universities. In general, I find that accounting faculty do not engage in pedagogical practices that are designed to promote higher order skill sets in their classrooms. Instead, accounting faculty are more likely to utilize pedagogical practices that are least apt to emphasize higher order skills (i.e., lecturing). Further, even during the small amount of class time focused on practices that promote higher order skill sets, most faculty emphasize application or analysis skills rather than evaluation and creation skills, with the exception of the systems sub-discipline. This finding is especially concerning given that emerging technologies used in professional accounting can apply and analyze data without human intervention, therefore evaluation and creation skills are the most critical skills needed by accountants. When considering specific pedagogical practices implemented, I find that accounting faculty’s pedagogy is significantly related to characteristics of the courses taught, more so than other institutional or individual demographic characteristics. Indeed, my interviews also reveal that accounting faculty are influenced most by the specific course type in which they are teaching. Interesting only 6 of the 25 faculty interviewed indicated that their curriculum decisions were influenced by current professional practice, suggesting students may lack the proper knowledge and skill sets as they move into their careers. Overall, this research makes an important contribution to the literature by highlighting the specific types of pedagogical practices implemented throughout the accounting curriculum and identifying disconnects between the pedagogical practices used and those proven to effectively promote the higher order skills that the accounting profession requires.