An annual prize is awarded for the best paper appearing in Accounting Education: an international journal, and this book contains the prize-winning papers for every year from 1992 to 2012. The journal’s primary mission since the first issue was published in March 1992 has been to enhance the educational base of accounting practice, and all the papers in this book relate to that mission. These papers, reporting on research studies undertaken by accounting education scholars from around the world, build on research findings from the broader domain of education scholarship and embrace a wide array of topics – including: curriculum development, pedagogic innovation, improving the quality of learning, and assessing learning outcomes. Of particular interest are three themes, each of which runs through several of the papers: students’ approaches to learning and learning style preferences; ethics and moral intensity; and innovation within the accounting curriculum. Accounting educators will find many ideas in the book to help them in enriching their work, and accounting education researchers will be able to identify many points of departure for extending the studies on which the papers report – whether comparatively or longitudinally. This book is a compilation of papers originally published in Accounting Education: an international journal.

This book is intended to take stock of the current state of accounting education with a specific emphasis on the South African situation. It provides a critical overview of the current published research and identified gaps. Through this, it aims to equip accounting academics with information and tools to motivate them to research the field of accounting education to improve teaching and learning. It also aids in the identification of suitable research topics in this regard and highlights potential pitfalls in researching accounting education. The book, therefore, focuses on accounting educators as specialists in their respective disciplines. Different authors with a keen interest in a specific area relating to accounting education research wrote each chapter in this book. It forms a planned collective work, assembled by appropriately qualified and experienced scholars in the accounting education field which generates a new conceptual synthesis that advances scholarship of accounting education research, since no such synthesis currently exists for accounting education research in South Africa.

Accounting, often described as "the language of business", requires a diverse set of written, listening and oral communication skills if those who practise it are to be effective. Given the pace of change relating to, for example, the evolution of international accounting standards and the demands for greater transparency, accountants must be clear, responsive, and audience-focussed communicators. Employers of accountants consistently comment on the need for their new graduate recruits and trainees to have strong written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills. In this light accounting educators face the challenge of designing and delivering programmes that reflect professional expectations on the part of employers and clients, and educating students on how to make informed communication choices in order to achieve desired results and to build good working relationships. The chapters in this book deal with such topics as accounting students’ perceptions of oral communication skills; competence-based writing skills; and the development of listening skills. This book was originally published as Accounting Education: an international journal.

The development of generic skills (often referred to as ‘soft skills’) in accounting education has been a focus of discussion and debate for several decades. During this time employers and professional bodies have urged accounting educators to consider and develop curricula which provide for the development and assessment of these skills. In addition, there has been criticism of the quality of accounting graduates and their ability to operate effectively in a global economy. Embedding generic skills in the accounting curriculum has been acknowledged as an appropriate means of addressing the need to provide ‘knowledge professionals’ to meet the needs of a global business environment. Personal Transferable Skills in Accounting Education illustrates how generic skills are being embedded and evaluated in the accounting curriculum by academics from a range of perspectives. Each chapter provides an account of how the challenge of incorporating generic skills in the accounting curriculum within particular educational environments has been addressed. The challenges involved in generic skills development in higher education have not been limited to the accounting discipline. This book provides examples which potentially inform a wide range of discipline areas. Academics will benefit from reading the experiences of incorporating generic skills in the accounting curriculum from across the globe. This book was originally published as a themed issue of Accounting Education: an international journal.

Advances in Accounting Education is a refereed, academic research publication whose purpose is to help meet the needs of faculty members interested in ways to improve accounting classroom instruction at the college and university level.

Many enquiries into the state of accounting education/training, undertaken in several countries over the past 40 years, have warned that it must change if it is to be made more relevant to students, to the accounting profession, and to stakeholders in the wider community. This book’s over-riding aim is to provide a comprehensive and authoritative source of reference which defines the domain of accounting education/training, and which provides a critical overview of the state of this domain (including emerging and cutting edge issues) as a foundation for facilitating improved accounting education/training scholarship and research in order to enhance the educational base of accounting practice. The Routledge Companion to Accounting Education highlights the key drivers of change - whether in the field of practice on the one hand (e.g. increased regulation, globalisation, risk, and complexity), or from developments in the academy on the other (e.g. pressures to embed technology within the classroom, or to meet accreditation criteria) on the other. Thirty chapters, written by leading scholars from around the world, are grouped into seven themed sections which focus on different facets of their respective themes – including student, curriculum, pedagogic, and assessment considerations.

Advances in Accounting Education: Teaching and Curriculum Innovations investigates how teaching methods or curricula/programs in accounting can be improved. Volume 15 includes papers examining communication apprehension, self-directed learning in managerial accounting courses, and a section on integrating accounting with other business disciplines.

Over many decades the global development of professional accounting education programmes has been undertaken by higher education institutions, professional accounting bodies, and employers. These institutions have sometimes co-operated and sometimes been in conflict over the education and/or training of future accounting professionals. These ongoing problems of linkage and closure between academic accounting education and professional training have new currency because of pressures from students and employers to move accounting preparation onto a more efficient, economic and practical basis. The Interface of Accounting Education and Professional Training explores current elements of the interface between the academic education and professional training of accountants in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. It argues for a reassessment of the considerations and requirements for developing professional accounting programs which can make a student: capable of being an accountant (the academy); ready to be an accountant (the workplace); and professional in being an accountant (the professional bodies). This book was originally published as a special issue of Accounting Education: An International Journal.

Accounting practice, whether in business or government, is more dynamic, more complex, and addresses a wider array of issues than it did as little as five years ago. Significant and rapid social, political, technological and economic changes are taking place in the world economy and it is increasingly recognised that accountants in all countries play a key role in the process of economic development.Accounting education is undergoing a thorough review on a worldwide basis and major developments are taking place to produce quality accounting education that can keep pace with dramatic world change.This book provides an up-to-date view of the state of accounting education throughout the world and focusses on the global challenges facing accounting education as we approch the millenium.

There is no doubt that accounting education scholarship and research in Australia is not only thriving, but is amongst the best in the world. Nor is there any doubt that Australian scholars in this field punch well above their weight within the international arena. This book is not derived from a conventional special issue (i.e. one focussing on a specific theme such as audit education, communication in accounting education, or the interface between accounting education and professional training). Instead, it presents a collection of leading edge contributions to accounting education research from Australian scholars on topics which have international relevance. These topics reflect the typical breadth of research in this field being undertaken in Australia - including coverage of students’ conceptions of accounting work, the impact of entry mode on accounting students’ approaches to learning, listening skills in accounting practice, and student’s performance in online accounting courses. Taken together, the contents of this book will help to enhance the educational base of accounting practice by providing guidance to educators in improving their pedagogic practice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Accounting Education: an international journal.