Professional judgement is hard!
How do students learn to make complex professional judgements?
The complex professional judgements required of accountants and other business professionals contain many sub-decision points. Critical thinking is a central component of accounting and business higher education curriculum (Coupe et al., 2023; Bryant, 2023). In the 3rd-year unit, ACCT3011 Reporting on Business Groups, we addressed the challenge by scaffolding (in excel), “joining the dots”.
What can excel teach us about critical thinking?
We transformed tutorial activities by using an interactive MS Excel professional judgment tool. Central to this interactive excel was conditional formatting, so students could see the “what if” scenarios. This allows students to understand how changes in parameters and decision points affect decision-making. This was simple and effective in excel, we had a “green to go” function. When students select from a drop-down menu the cell will turn to green for the correct one, or red for incorrect. This encourages students to look for a different basis for their professional judgment by redoing the calculations.
Image 1-3: examples of conditional formatting from ACCT3011
For example, in the segment reporting tutorial above:
A: once the students enter the correct consolidation adjusting journal entry, the cell changes from Blue to “Green to go”, so students know their attempt is correct.
B: when determining the reportable base, once the correct revenue base is input, calculate 10% threshold and identifies “green to go“, correct, big segments.
C: not getting a “green to go” green 75% calculation (that is the pink) alerts students that they need to find another segment to make the 75% test and get the “green to go” together with a valid supporting reason.
Image 4-5: excerpts on ACCT3011 module on conditional formatting
Students find accounting consolidation very abstract, so we used partly completed journals, with drop-down data validation idea for incomplete parts (account names and numbers) and self-populating data field functions for subsequent years, repeat journals and consolidation worksheet preparation so students could see the connections.
Not just for quantitative units
Every student needs strong critical thinking skills. We developed an extended response template with a structured plan and marking rubric
Image 6: ACCT3011 excerpt – extended response template & rubric
On the left you can see the plan of how to set up an answer, in the middle students write their answer and on the right is a marking rubric so they can see how their answers may be evaluated.
Improvements in assessment and quality teaching
Judgments are made in partnership with students during tutorials. Staff model the Excel file’s interactive decision-making processes, allowing discussion to focus on critical thinking and reflection:
“It not only saved a significant amount of time but also allowed us to concentrate on what truly matters: discussion and reflection”
ACCT3011 Tutor
Improved quality of final exam critical thinking essay responses were observed in semester 1, 2023. With an increase in the average mark of ~18% for this question.
Tutorials had a better “vibe” with more active discussion as students worked through the examples:
The tutorial has been a great learning experience. I love how the questions were designed and the Excel format really helped in consolidating the knowledge learnt in lecture.
The unit’s success is evidenced through teaching accolades and awards:
- USS Award for Teaching 2023
- Toolbox & Innovator Award 2023
- Highly Commended, Educational Innovation Awards 2023.
Transferable to accounting and business education
What complex judgements or decisions do your student need to make? Could a scaffolded excel spreadsheet help? While ACCT3011 is a technical unit, as you can see from the essay planning example above, it can be adapted to any unit where critical thinking is required – and isn’t’ that all of them?
You can read more about the Excel – a new way to join the dots in the Ascilite Conference 2023 proceedings.
Authors
Janine Coupe is a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Accounting, Governance & Regulation at the University of Sydney Business School and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Louise Luff is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Accounting, Governance & Regulation at the University of Sydney Business School and is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Ben Lay is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Accounting, Governance & Regulation at the University of Sydney Business School.
Kaiying Ji is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Accounting, Governance & Regulation at the University of Sydney Business School.
About the author
Janine is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head (Education) of the Accounting, Governance & Regulation Discipline at the University of Sydney Business School and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).