Given recent corporate scandals, the credibility of the accounting profession has been called into question. In order to restore public trust, accounting educators need to devise ways to convey the importance of ethics in our profession to our students. An alternative approach to using a traditional lecture to teach ethics is to use games. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a game strategy to teach ethics and professionalism to students. Using games makes learning more fun and also helps to maintain student interest and involvement in the learning process. Student feedback has been positive and encouraging on the use of this format to teach ethics and professional responsibilities.

No abstract

No abstract

This paper provides best practices evidence from a sample of accounting educators in the U.S. recognized formally for their teaching excellence. These teaching exemplars were surveyed and asked to list, in their own words and in ranked order of importance, “a minimum of three and up to five factors or qualities of your teaching that you believe have helped distinguish you as an effective teacher.” We received 453 responses to this question from our sample of 105 award-winning accounting educators. A content analysis of these responses suggests the following major characteristics of teaching effectiveness in accounting (in decreasing order of perceived importance): class session learning environment, student focus, preparation and organization, importance of the practice environment, passion and commitment to teaching (as a profession), and the design of the course learning environment. Response breakdowns suggest the existence of contextual effects: differences in importance ratings for selected characteristics of teaching effectiveness were observed with respect to respondent professorial rank, years of full-time teaching experience, and gender. Results shine a light on teaching effectiveness in accounting education providing, for the first time, both evidence of the perceived relative importance of specific characteristics, as well as insights on pedagogical knowledge to guide educator classroom pursuits.