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Flavell (1976, 232) describes metacognition as: “one's knowledge concerning one's own cognitive processes or anything related to them.” Metacognition has been characterized as “thinking about thinking” (Georghiades 2004), “thinking about learning” (Jackson 2004), “learning about learning” (Case et al. 2001), “knowing about learning” (Meyer 2004), “knowledge about knowledge” (Yore and Treagust 2006), and “what we know about what we know” (Halpern 1998). Essentially, metacognition involves a self-awareness of how one learns and thinks. Because metacognition is an important aspect of self-regulated learning, it has potential as a learning skill or attribute that can serve to improve accounting education. The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between metacognition and student performance and success in accounting classes. The researchers use data collected over the course of a decade (1995–2004) to examine this association. Students in a variety of accounting courses completed a questionnaire to assess their metacognitive knowledge and self-regulation. The survey results support the conclusion that metacognitive attributes are associated with accounting course achievement.

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Auditors generally describe risk in terms of probabilities. Risk arises from lack of information which in turn leads to uncertainty. Since uncertainty exists when information is deficient and information can be deficient in different ways, it follows that auditors deal with different types of uncertainty. This article describes different types of uncertainty and a relatively new method of dealing with uncertainty referred to as fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory have contributed greatly to the development of artificial intelligence and have the potential to facilitate internal auditors’ measurement and management of risk and uncertainty in the audit environment.

Defines critical thinking as the art of examining an issue from numerous perspectives, questioning the validity of both the premisses and the conclusions. Critical thinking skills are essential to the internal auditor’s function. A recent update of the common body of knowledge (CBOK) reflects this expectation by the internal auditing profession. Respondents ranked reasoning skills, which essentially are critical thinking skills, as the most important subject area. Discusses several definitions and frameworks of critical thinking, including a critical thinking framework that is both comprehensive and useful in describing what the internal auditor does. This framework includes affective, cognitive, and behavioural components which basically describe the attitudes, thought processes and actions that are essential to the critical thinker and to the internal auditor. The internal auditing classroom is an appropriate setting for the internal auditor to begin honing the critical thinking skills demanded by the profession. Arguments are presented for the importance of teaching in a way that encourages critical thinking in the classroom, with the goal being transferability to the workplace. Describes two assignments that have proved useful in developing critical thinking skills.