A Total Quality Management Approach To Assurance Of Learning In The Accounting Classroom: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The research presented in this paper seeks to discern which combination of pedagogical tools most positively impact student learning of the introductory Accounting curriculum in the Principles of Accounting courses in a 4-year U.S. public college. This research topic is relevant because it helps address a quandary many instructors experience: how to teach quantifiable courses in a way that resonates with and reaches undergraduate business students. The significance is underscored by concerns that U.S.-educated students lack quantitative ability needed in the 21^st century workplace, and is heightened all the more by uncertainties in the current economic climate that would seem to make quantitative competencies all the more vital. Toward that end, student perceptions of course delivery methods were analyzed at the conclusion of the first of a two-course sequenced introductory Accounting course. The results were used to redesign the second half of the course, after which measured perceptions were compared with actual outcomes. Results and proscriptions for advancing Principles of Accounting course pedagogy are presented.