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Using case studies in accounting education

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 Accounting Education
An International Journal

ISSN: 0963-9284 (Print) 1468-4489 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/raed20

Using case studies in accounting education

Trevor Hassall Guest Editors & Markus J. Milne Guest Editors

To cite this article: Trevor Hassall Guest Editors & Markus J. Milne Guest Editors (2004)
Using case studies in accounting education, Accounting Education, 13:2, 135-138, DOI:
10.1080/09639280410001676594

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 Accounting Education 13 (2), 135 –138 (June 2004)

EDITORIAL
Using case studies in accounting education
The debates surrounding the development of accounting education continue to focus on the
ubiquitous view that accounting practice and the role of the professional is changing but account-
ing education is not reflecting this change (Patten and Williams, 1990; Albrecht and Sack, 2000).
The AECC Position Statement No.1 (AECC 1990) was instrumental in summarizing the vision of
the desired professional profile of future accountants. This statement, in conjunction with the
Bedford Report, the White Paper and the AICPA statements, formed a solid basis for a large
number of curricular innovations and research studies. The Bedford Report (AAA, 1986) concluded
that accounting courses should ‘aim to develop the students’ capacities for analysis, synthesis,
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problem solving and communication.’ Of particular concern was the misleading way in which
accounting problems are presented to students as being well-structured and well-defined (Sterling,
1980; Mayer-Sommer, 1990). A comment in the Bedford Report drew attention to the influence of
accounting regulation on teaching styles: ‘the current pedagogy also emphasizes problems with
specific solutions rather than cases with alternative solutions.’ As part of the calls for change in
accounting education, prescriptions emerged for educators to move to case-based methods, semi-
nars, role-plays, and simulations for actively involving students in the learning process (AAA,
1986; AECC, 1990; IFAC, 1996; Adler and Milne, 1997a; Hassall et al., 1998a). And similar
calls have come from educationalists more generally who were concerned that undergraduate edu-
cation was overemphasizing the technical capacities of students’ knowledge to the detriment of
more generic ‘life-long’ skills and attitudes (e.g., Biggs, 1989; Gibbs, 1992; Ramsden, 1992;
Candy et al., 1994). Accounting academics indicate that the analysis of case studies, linked to
oral and written assessments, was the preferred pedagogical approach to promote synthesis and
evaluation of content and to develop professional skills in higher level courses (Ainsworth and
Plumlee,1993; Hassall et al., 1998b). In response to the calls for change, case studies are now
being increasingly used in the teaching of accounting in higher education and they have also
been added to the examination structure of many accountancy professional bodies.
In putting together this collection of papers from accounting educators, we did not and do not
necessarily intend by ‘case study’ some long or even short pre-existing (as in published) descrip-
tion of an organizational and/or accounting situation/problem. To us, case studies are not deter-
mined by their material content, but rather by what students do with them, and what they do to
students’ learning and their pre-existing conceptions. Case study material by itself, for example,
does little to define the nature of the learning task. If used in a situation where the instructor
entirely dominates the problem definition, analysis, solution set and recommendation phases,
as for example in a lecture demonstration of how to do a case study, then the learning situation
is relatively inactive and, we would argue, the students’ learning the poorer for it. If, on the other
hand, the learners are given or even have to find the case study material and then have a class
session in which to present and discuss the material with their peers, then the situation is con-
siderably more active (see Barrows, 1986 and Milne and McConnell, 2001 for discussion on
a variety of ‘case-methods’). What makes a ‘case study’, then, is more governed by what it
does, and who does the doing, than what it is and, as can be seen from the collection of
papers in this issue, they can range from field investigations conducted by students to extremely
short, but thought-provoking folk stories.

Accounting Education
ISSN 0963-9284 print/ISSN 1468-4489 online # 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/09639280410001676594
 136 Editorial

One of the purposes of this special edition was to provide newcomers and existing users of
case studies with an insight into the ways in which accounting and finance educators have
embraced their use. Contributors were encouraged to submit holistic accounts of the use of
case studies on their courses. It was hoped that the contributions would collectively provide a
variety of views, but each from an individual standpoint, that would encompass the following
issues:

. The educational aims and objectives they pursue and why these are considered important.
. The reasons their particular use of case studies meet those aims and objectives.
. What steps they take both directly and indirectly in the classroom and outside in support,
to ensure the methods are effective.
. What evidence they have that the goals for teaching, learning and assessment are being
achieved through the use of case studies.
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. In what ways they critically evaluate the chosen approaches, and in what ways they have
developed and refined those approaches over time.

Emphasizing the process of learning as much if not more than the content the educator
expects to be learned appears to be critical in terms of what is actually likely to be
learned by the students. According to some educationalists (e.g., Ramsden, 1988, 1992;
Frazer, 1992; Gibbs, 1992), learning comes about from an active working upon, and inter-
action between, the old way of thinking and the new. Learning, it is argued, is facilitated
by arranging situations where learners confront the differences between their present way
of thinking and the new way, and where learners can come to realize the personal value of
the new way. According to Ramsden, when teachers focus on the learner and learning, as
well as the material, they are likely to pursue strategies that make learning possible rather
than focusing on effective ways to tell or transmit knowledge. The contributions to this
issue, we would suggest, provide a variety of interesting ways in which educators are
seeking to arrange situations that confront students’ existing conceptions and make learning
possible. Some of the contributions to this issue also amply illustrate how educators have
come to be concerned about their learners, about their prior experiences, for example, and
how these can impact on students’ learning and attitudes.
A further concern for us, and consistent with a focus on the learner and learning, was how
educators go about collecting evidence of the effectiveness of their methods. In this regard,
we were concerned to avoid any insistence on our part that educators had to provide the
results of blind random treatment/control type experiments. Consistent with Adler and Milne
(1997b, p.278), we believe that ‘What is most important is that educators have good reasons
for what they and their students do in the classrooms in terms of their learning. How they
might justify these reasons, what feedback they might choose to collect, and how they might
choose to collect it, is really for them to judge.’ We tend to believe that good narrative descrip-
tions of instructors’ and students’ experiences of particular approaches may be every bit as valu-
able for encouraging innovation as student responses to some Likert-type scales. Our objective is
to encourage educators to self-develop, to research their own teaching, and to develop their own
ways of judging the effectiveness of their own approaches. In essence we are keen to illustrate
and promote in educators what Schön (1983, 1987) refers to as ‘self-reflective practitioners’.
And, to this end, we have not sought to provide in this issue a collection of papers that showcase
the ‘best ways’ to use case studies. Rather we have sought to provide a collection of papers that
illustrate how some educators have sought to engage their learners, and how they have sought to
 Editorial 137

investigate the effectiveness or otherwise of such approaches, as much for themselves as for
others.
Three papers use student attitudes to measure the effects of specific variables. Weil,
Oyelere and Rainsbury use a survey of students studying for professional examinations in
New Zealand to explore students’ perceptions of the use of case studies in developing core
competencies and the potential influences of variables such as age, gender and first language
on these perceptions. Also taking a student focus, Ballantine and Larres consider the effect of
Northern Irish students’ relevant work experience on their experience of learning using case
studies and draw conclusions on the perceived necessity to amend case studies to take account
of this factor. A financial statement analysis unit taught in Spain is used by Arquero, Jimenez
and Joyce to measure students’ attitudes to a change involving the use of complex cases as
opposed to shorter cases.
Adler, Whiting and Wynn-Williams focus on the question of whether, in the use of the case
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study methodology, the teacher or student should be predominant. They draw conclusions on the
importance of students’ involvement and also on the effectiveness of case studies in developing
generic skills. The use of a computerized business simulation in a management accounting unit
is used by Wynder to explore the issue of creativity. The paper explores the factors that can
encourage students to generate creative responses to problems.
The development of case studies and the relationship to research activity is explored by
Cullen, Richardson and O’Brien. They suggest that empirically-researched, narratively-
constructed case studies used in a problem-based learning context can play a significant role
in meeting some of the challenges facing accounting education. Hayes and Baker use a folk
story adapted from Zen Buddhism to explore the teaching of the concept of substance over
form. The differing interpretations of the parties involved reflect the potential for conflict and
disagreement and necessitate the students developing an understanding of the complexity of
the concept of substance over form.
The papers present a spectrum of experiences ranging from single case studies to multiple use
and in a variety of contexts which include undergraduate and professional programmes.
Common to all papers, however, is the ability of case studies and associated methodologies
to meet the educational aims and objectives that are viewed, by the profession and educationa-
lists alike, as being necessary to educate the new generations of accounting students to meet
the future requirements of their chosen profession. Common also through all these papers is
evidence that educators are seeking to innovate and provide means by which their students
can actively engage with material, with their peers, with the educators themselves, and with
others so that they may learn. In various ways, these educators have sought to explore what
impacts their chosen approaches are having on their students’ attitudes, their students’ experi-
ences and their students’ learning. Both these activities, we believe, are critical to fostering
self-reflection in accounting education, and we hope others who read them will be encouraged
to develop and investigate the effects of their own approaches on students’ learning.

TREVOR HASSALL
Sheffield Hallam University, UK
MARKUS J. MILNE
University of Otago, NZ
GUEST EDITORS
 138 Editorial

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