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At the beginning of each semester, I always find myself full of energy, enthusiasm and excitement regarding the possibilities of the robust learning that can occur in the accounting classes I teach. I have always prided myself in setting an aggressive learning agenda, both in terms of the challenge of the complexities of the information I hope to disseminate to students, and the amount of content I plan to cover. The learning goals I set reflect my understanding of the accounting skills and knowledge the students will need as they enter the real world, regardless of their specific career goals. Additionally, I have always sought to have students achieve a level of learning that requires them to apply their knowledge and demonstrate critical thinking skills. It’s my belief that all students have a responsibility for their learning, and therefore, should possess an adequate level of drive and motivation to meet the challenges I present them in my classes.
A Downward Spiral in Student Responses
Each semester, semester after semester, for a number of years, I have witnessed a series of student responses to the learning challenges I have presented them in my introductory financial accounting course. In all my classes, in each semester, a small percentage of students have always risen to the challenge and found a way to master the material and excel in their learning. I will identify these students as successful learners. The majority of the students, however, typically have found the challenges presented to them to be significant. Of this group of challenged students most have responded by trying harder to succeed, at least initially, based on the expectations I have set. A small percentage of these challenged students have been able to persevere and overcome the learning barriers they faced; I also identify them as successful learners. The majority of students, however, have continued to struggle.
At varying points during the semester, individual students in this remaining large group inevitably would begin entering the downward spiral of learning despair as a result of their unsuccessful efforts in overcoming the increasingly difficult learning goals set for them in my aggressive learning agenda.
At varying points during the semester, individual students in this remaining large group inevitably would begin entering the downward spiral of learning despair as a result of their unsuccessful efforts in overcoming the increasingly difficult goals I set for them in my aggressive learning agenda.
Thus, it is my belief that these students saw themselves staring down a path of insurmountable learning expectations either with respect to the degree of difficulty of the content or the amount of work required for the course. Ultimately these challenges would become overwhelming to these students, and despite their best efforts to learn they would experience modest or poor academic performance - a.k.a. a low grade in the class.
The dejected learners displayed signs in varying degrees of disinterest, ambivalence, and apathy.
Within this remaining group, I witnessed two camps of students whom I will call the determined learners and the dejected learners. Determined learners are so identified because they consist of students who despite the learning struggles they faced were determined to at least marginally pass my class; this means to earn a grade of a C or D. Some learners in this group struggled valiantly only to succeed minimally, while others were willing only to put forth just enough effort to achieve their desired marginally passing grade. Once students entered either of these two subsets they often expressed feelings of tension, frustration, and anger in and out of class for the remainder of the semester.
The dejected learners displayed signs in varying degrees of disinterest, ambivalence, and apathy. The least dejected students attended class but often would daydream rather than stay focused on the classroom learning events. The most dejected students stopped coming to class altogether and often even failed to officially withdraw from the class even when this was possible. Student movement from one group to another occurred, not unpredictably, at the critical grading points during the course, e.g. when tests were administered.
FACETS—An Avenue to Connect Teaching Practice to Learning Style
Imagine my dismay that slowly set in, semester after semester, as the students in my introductory financial accounting classes would begin to face the challenges I presented to them. While all students faced the initial challenges with determination, as the students who would later be identified as determined and dejected learners experienced each small failure, their confidence would be shaken, and their drive to succeed would be whittled away just a bit. As the number of unsuccessful learning experiences mounted and the number of students in the class facing such challenges grew, the downward spiral of minimal learning outcomes commenced. This process was gradual but progressive and once underway was difficult if not impossible to stop.
The growing level of dejection experienced by the students would inevitably be deflected on to me as a teacher, the one responsible for facilitating student learning. Imagine how my own dejection, my own negative attitude, contributed to the downward spiral of minimal learning outcomes for most of my students. Then a culminating experience occurred. One semester’s group of determined and dejected students became particularly large and expressive of their frustrated emotions. At this point in time, when the need to make significant changes in my introductory financial accounting course was clearly obvious and could no longer be ignored, the opportunity to participate in the Faculty Alliance for Creating and Expanding Teaching Strategies (FACETS) was announced. I saw participation in the FACETS program as an avenue for me to change my teaching practices to tackle these thorny issues I had been unable to do anything about - the adoption of active learning strategies that employed a variety of teaching approaches to address differences in students’ learning styles.
. . . I placed the responsibility for student learning squarely on their shoulders . . . because I lacked the knowledge, experience, and creativity to meet the needs of students with learning styles different than my own overcome the challenges of learning the accounting discipline.
In my explanation regarding the challenges faced by students, I placed the responsibility for student learning squarely on their shoulders. I believe I did this not because I was oblivious to issues regarding teaching and learning style preferences, but rather because I lacked the knowledge, experience, and creativity to meet the needs of students with learning styles different than my own overcome the challenges of learning the accounting discipline. After all, like most faculty, I learned accounting and excelled within this discipline from a traditional sage on the stage teaching strategy with one slight modification to incorporate the use of demonstration exercises in which the faculty would present an accounting issue, propose the solution approach, and walk students through the solution’s steps. Thus, not surprisingly, until my participation in the FACETS program, my instructional practice of choice, that with which I was most comfortable and skilled, mimicked the teaching approaches employed by the faculty who taught me.
Support for Change
Participation in FACETS addressed many of the challenges I faced as a teacher. First and foremost, as a FACETS award recipient, I had the privilege of having a one-course release to work on my FACETS project. This was critical as it provided me with the time I needed to reflect about my teaching while I was engaged in the process. Looking back on a semester’s events at its conclusion has not been very effective for me, in the past because time serves as a barrier; I have found that some of the poignancy that exists when teaching and learning challenges emerge during a class session is lost over time.
During the semester in which I had the course release, I was able to plan, create and adopt new teaching tools that employed active learning strategies to address multiple learning styles throughout the semester. Having the time to develop these teaching tools was critical to me. I was more confident in introducing new teaching tools when the reason for their creation was made evident to me as a result of interactions with my students, and the purpose and goals of the teaching tools were fresh in my mind. This is juxtaposed to my past experiences of creating new teaching approaches outside of the traditional semester timeframe. Given my experience in using these teaching tools once, I expect their use in future semesters will lead to modifications and improvements. In fact, I am in the process of making several of these changes for this coming semester, Fall 2005. I also expect, that new ideas and creative teaching activities will be more easily identified and developed in future semesters.
Making changes to one’s teaching methods and approaches is scary business. . . . Part of my problem in changing was getting over the fear-induced frustration of implementing changes.
Making changes to one’s teaching methods and approaches is scary business. My involvement in the various aspects of FACETS supported activities over the past two years, such as being a member of a teaching circle, attending the FACETS seminars, meeting with the faculty leading the FACETS program, and receiving an award for release time provided the support, both intellectually and emotionally, I needed to break away from my comfortable practices of the past. In all of these activities, I had the opportunity to discuss my own frustrations of addressing students whose learning styles differed from my teaching approach. Part of my problem in changing was getting over the fear-induced frustration of implementing changes. Faculty from other disciplines, who’s teaching and learning strategies were different from my own, offered ideas for trying new teaching approaches. They also shared their own experiences of making changes in their courses that helped support my desire to take the leap toward adopting a new teaching paradigm.
A Student-centered Approach to Learning
Throughout the semester I introduced a student-centered approach to teaching by creating and employing class activities in which students worked in groups to address at least one accounting issue in each major learning module in the course. I preceded these activities with a brief introduction of the accounting issues using a lecture method for content as well as instruction and explanation as it related to the activities to be performed. Each activity required students to solve an accounting problem using a discovery approach. The activities were designed to get students to be more engaged in the class; specifically, to talk to each other about accounting issues, ask questions, and share their thoughts as they worked through the activity.
In assessing student learning, I intentionally designed the quizzes and exams to incorporate the major learning concepts addressed by each of the teaching tools or class activities. I wanted to be sure that students’ knowledge regarding the key points of these activities was being evaluated. I also implemented informal surveys of students’ perspectives on the effectiveness of the class activities as they related to students’ learning.
How I Resisted Intervening
At the beginning of the semester when I introduced the first teaching tools that employed small group activities conducted during the class period, students were hesitant to interact with one another. The room was very quiet and I felt pressure to lead the activities. I often resisted my temptations to interrupt the students’ silence by reviewing my notes about the activity or accessing the computer in the classroom to stay occupied and somewhat distracted. Rather than giving in to the temptation to lead the process I chose to encourage students to talk with one another.
As I found myself forcing the issue of student interaction and discussions in small groups, the environment began to change. First, student’s hesitations to reveal their vulnerability as learners to one another began to break down. They were forced to ask questions of one another. As this progressed, I found that the students in each group who were most confident and seemingly knowledgeable, and the least vulnerable as learners were willing to risk asking me the questions the group was unable to answer.
Only after the conversations in the room started to develop and I could hear the various student groups raising questions without reaching consensus on the answers would I begin to walk around the room to address these questions. At this point I had to resist another temptation; that is I had to resist directly answering the questions asked. Rather than providing direct and accurate answers I consciously elected to reply to students’ questions with new questions that hopefully would lead their thoughts down a path of discovery. While this was initially challenging to the students and to me, it forced the issue of student engagement. Students discovered it was no longer acceptable to sit back and be a sponge. This process of questioning students’ questions required them to take an active role in their learning.
As the students became more comfortable with the format of the class activities, their defenses that previously limited their interactions began to fade away or melt altogether. Near the middle and into the end of the semester, the students’ interactions began promptly after the explanation of the class activity concluded. Student groups often communicated with each other sharing ideas. As groups raised similar questions, I was able to announce information to the class as a whole to provide clarifying replies or interject new questions to guide the students’ thinking without directly answering their questions. In some instances, the students’ questions brought to light a limitation in the design of the class activity that I had not anticipated. This provided me a great insight on how to modify and improve this teaching tool for future use. In the informal surveys conducted during the semester, students generally found the class activities supported or improved their learning.
Of the classes in which I adopted the student-centered learning strategies, I observed that the classroom was alive with discussion focused on the topic presented. I interpret this as an indication that the downward learning spiral experienced by many of my students had been mitigated. I recall instances late in the semester in which students who had been struggling with their learning continued to be engaged in the class activities giving these students some experiences that provided clarity and understanding. I believe these same students would have given up and thrown in the towel on their own learning had I continued employing my previous teaching approaches.
My Changed Practice Empowers Student Learning
I believe my students felt more empowered in their learning as a result of the student-centered teaching strategies that I adopted. On average, students performed better on the last test prior to the final exam than they did on the prior test. In prior semesters, the test grades fell with each exam. Additionally, the test scores on both the last test and the final exam were higher than those for the comparable graded exams in the prior semester. I interpret these results to indicate that the student-centered teaching approach I adopted during the semester in which I had release time reduced my students’ feelings of defeat late in the semester and improved student learning. Despite the challenges they faced, my students were still engaged in their learning and willing to continue to put forth effort to achieve their learning goals throughout the entire semester. They did not give up before the semester ended.
As a group, the students’ end-of-course evaluations indicated they expected to earn a B in my class, which I interpret as an indication that they believed they had achieved their learning goals. At the very least this indicates to me that students’ attitudes about the course at the end of the semester were positive. These same evaluations of my teaching also generally improved over prior semesters. Additionally, students perceived that as an instructor, I had a high level of enthusiasm. I interpret this to mean not only did these student-centered learning activities reverse the negative attitude the students had about their own learning, it also reversed the negative response I had as an instructor to the students’ experiences. These positive results reflected in the end-of-course evaluation existed even though students acknowledged my aggressive learning agenda by indicating that the intensity of the course workload.
Throughout the semester the overall level of student engagement in the classroom was very high, and the general feeling in the classroom was positive and supported learning. Students asked more questions and ones asked more insightful than they had in prior semesters, elevating the level and depth of communication. In general, I believe the students were more satisfied regarding their own learning.
From my perspective as a teacher the most exciting change that resulted from my participation in FACETS relates to the classroom. It became alive!
From my perspective as a teacher the most exciting change that resulted from my participation in FACETS relates to the classroom. It became alive! Without participating in the FACETS seminars and having the course release to think reflectively on my teaching practice, I would not have had the time, energy, ideas or courage needed to make the changes in my teaching practice toward a student-centered approach. My students would still be disengaged, and I would still be wondering how to improve their learning experiences. I realize that I have only just begun my journey in moving toward a student-centered approach to teaching and learning. The impact of making just these modest changes in my teaching practice has convinced me that reverting back to my old practices is no longer an option. I plan to adopt this approach in my other courses as well.
Afterthoughts—Looking Backward
In contemplating my experience of participating in FACETS one year later, three unexpected outcomes have occurred. First, I believe that the practice of reflection has become second nature to me. Reflective practice in modifying the design of each semester’s course seems more intuitive to me. In the past, it had been a struggle.
The second unexpected outcome relates to prioritizing learning goals. In the past, I allowed myself to get caught in the details of the accounting topics and used precious classroom time on issues of relatively less importance. Being more comfortable in reflecting on my courses has helped me to do a better job of prioritizing learning goals and evaluating how best to use classroom contact hours. Now, making the tough decisions about content and coverage is easier, and I believe I am making better choices to meet the overall learning goals of the course.
The early introduction and consistent employment of learning activities that focus on the most important content of the course has continued to result in a higher degree of student engagement than I had imagined possible. In this new teaching paradigm, I have witnessed innumerable ah-ha moments.
The most exciting and unexpected aspect of adopting changes to my teaching approach has been the impact on the learning culture in the classroom. The early introduction and consistent employment of learning activities that focus on the most important content of the course has continued to result in a higher degree of student engagement than I had imagined possible. In this new teaching paradigm, I have witnessed innumerable ah-ha moments. When students apply their knowledge during a learning activity, they see the relevance of the details and ask questions to clarify the issues. As students reveal unique questions in their own time frame, have them answered when they are ready to apply and comprehend the answers, their understanding of the details of the topic becomes a byproduct of learning the major concepts of the activity. This increased level of student engagement in the learning activities has modified the current culture in my courses and reduced the number of students who otherwise would have been identified as either “determined” or “dejected” learners. Now, virtually all my students embrace the opportunity to learn and achieve a greater depth of understanding.
Brief Bio: Janet has been teaching at UWSP since 1995. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Management Science from Northland College, and a Masters of Accountancy degree from Truman State University. Her professional designations include Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified Financial Manager (CFM), and Certified Public Accountant (CPA). She also has several years of accounting experience with the Entrepreneurial Services Group of Ernst & Young. Janet’s primary teaching responsibilities are the capstone courses for seniors. Contact Janet at: jmcknigh@uwsp.edu