Improving accounting student writing skills using writing circles

Digital self-contained module to assist a writing task on evaluating the financial, social, and environmental performance of a company: Teaching note

“…To prepare students for successful accounting careers, Cleaveland and Larkins (2004) urge educators to facilitate the development of students' written communication skills. The development and improvement of the writing skills of accounting students, including both undergraduate and postgraduate students, albeit deemed to be crucial, has presented new challenges that require the additional intervention of accounting educators (Dale-Jones, Hancock & Willey, 2013;Huber et al, 2020;Rebele and St. Pierre, 2019). Despite the documented value of the ability to communicate orally and in writing for employability purposes, many graduates are still struggling to find jobs because of weak communication skills, despite being technically proficient (Dale-Jones, Hancock & Willey, 2013).…”

Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices of Assessment Rubrics in Assessing Students’ Learning at Higher Education Level

“…Studies revealed that developing and using assessment rubrics is very important for both teachers and students (Huber et al, 2020). For example, assessment rubrics with clear criteria help students to reflect on their own abilities to solve real-world problems, analyze and synthesize information and it also helps teachers to reflect on their own approach to teaching (Brookhart, 2015).…”

“…They said, "rubrics give a clear vision of a given task to follow the instructions…satisfy my grading because I follow each step" (Interview, October 25, 2018). Rubrics are like rating scales and define and differentiate levels of students' performance, which enhance students' satisfaction over their performance (Martin-Kniep, 2000;Huber et al, 2020). Andrade and Du (2005) asserted that using assessment rubric is important because it provides directions to students with clear indicators about different levels of their performance.…”

“…It means, if all the teachers in schools and colleges use rubrics, the learning gaps would be filled, and students will be high achievers with satisfaction (Dawson 2017;Huber et al, 2020). In this way, it is important to probe the views of the teacher-educators and prospective teachers to realize the importance of using rubrics in assessing students' learning.…”

“…However, in the context, to assess the students' learning in ADE classes, rubrics are used by those teacher-educators who were either trained or got exposure to attend professional training programmes focused on assessment. Studies show that the students become satisfied with their assessment when they compare their learning/work against the rubrics given beforehand and teachers also satisfy with their grading of students in a fairly manner (Huber, Leach-López, Lee & Mafi, 2020). Therefore, this study is conducted to explore the perceptions of teachereducators about the students' assessment while using rubrics in the assessment process.…”