While accounting educators have been increasingly concerned with the quality of accounting education, the accounting education literature has not proposed a coherent framework for addressing this issue. The Approaches to Learning paradigm in the education literature offers such a framework for analysing the ways in which students learn and how the learning context interacts with learning choices. Here we use this paradigm to investigate the learning approaches of accounting students from two Australian universities as compared to previously reported data for Australian arts, education and science students. In addition, we consider the impact of accounting students' approaches to learning on their academic performance. Data about learning approaches, using the Study Process Questionnaire and various attitudinal and performance variables, were collected from accounting students at two Australian universities. The comparison of the learning approach scores of accounting students with previously reported norms for Australian arts, education and science students, indicated that the former had relatively higher surface and lower deep learning approaches. In addition, higher surface approach scores were found to be associated with less successful academic performance, but no association was found for deep approach scores. The implications of these results for accounting educators are discussed and suggestions for future research into students' approaches to learning are considered.Learning Approaches Deep And Surface Learning Academic Performance Study Process Questionnaire Quality Of Accounting Education,

Peer observation partnerships can help teachers improve their teaching practice, transform their educational perspectives and develop collegiality (Bell 2005). This paper describes the peer observation model used in the tutor development program in the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney, and reports on the effectiveness of this exercise using quantitative and qualitative data from five sources. Results from 32 peer observations reveal both the common strengths and the areas in which tutors need to develop their teaching practice. Ninety four percent of participants found the exercise valuable and 88% said that they would change their teaching as a result of the exercise. This model can be applied in academic development programs in any discipline and suggestions for augmentation and improvement are provided.

Research shows that introductory accounting students have many stereotypical negative perceptions of accounting and that negative perceptions are often created or reinforced in introductory accounting courses. Since stereotypes influence career choice, courses supporting unrealistic perceptions may result in the 'wrong” people choosing accounting careers and the 'right” people choosing non-accounting careers (Friedlan, 1995). Recent studies show that, while nontraditional teaching methods, such as cooperative learning and case-based learning, are more effective in changing negative perceptions than more traditional lecture-based methods, these methods provide only limited success. Using Ramsden's (1992) Model of Student Learning in Context and Biggs' (1996) Alignment Model, this study provides potential explanations for the limited success of alternative teaching methods and explores a more effective way to facilitate appropriate changes in students' perceptions. In contrast to prior studies, this study finds statistically significant positive changes in students' negative perceptions for almost all survey items.Students' Perceptions Approaches To Learning Teaching Methods Learning Environment And Career Choice,

Accounting educators are concerned by research suggesting that accounting students frequently adopt a surface approach to learning given that this approach has been shown to result in undesirable learning outcomes (Eley, 1992; Booth et al., 1999). Despite mixed empirical evidence, the possibility of encouraging students to adopt a deep approach to learning through interventions in the learning context is suggested by the approaches to learning and metacognition literatures. Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1985) provides principles upon which such interventions might be based. This paper, first, provides a rich description of an intervention in an introductory accounting course to encourage a deep approach to learning by improving students' written communication skills. Second, the effectiveness of the intervention is examined by comparing students' approaches to learning, using Biggs' (1987a) Study Process Questionnaire, with those at another leading Australian university offering a more 'traditional' course. The findings broadly confirm the effectiveness of the intervention, both in encouraging a deep approach, and in improving overall course results.approaches to learning, functional linguistics, study process questionnaire, deep approach to learning, writing and curriculum design, introductory accounting,

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