CONTRADICTIONS AND UNCERTAINTIES: LECTURERS' CONCEPTIONS OF TEACHING INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNTING

British Accounting Review (2002) 34, 183ÿ203 doi:10.1006/bare.2002.0197, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

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CONTRADICTIONS AND UNCERTAINTIES: LECTURERS' CONCEPTIONS OF TEACHING INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNTING URSULA LUCAS

University of West of England This paper draws upon educational research to examine lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. A critical review of relevant research indicates that lecturers' conceptions of teaching may be speci®c to particular disciplinary and educational contexts. Thus the context of introductory accounting may yield its own unique domain of lecturers' conceptions of the objectives, approaches, outcomes and problems of teaching. A model of teaching conceptions (Fox, 1983) is identi®ed as particularly relevant for the analysis of conceptions within a disciplinary context. The phenomenographic research study reported in this paper analyses lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting within the framework of Fox's model. Results indicate both the relevance of Fox's model as well as some key contradictions and uncertainties within conceptions of the teaching of introductory accounting. Such contradictions and uncertainties have to do with, amongst others, a tension between a professed priority for conceptual understanding, a dif®culty in articulating concepts and an emphasis upon technical mastery of topics and problems. The results indicate the need for further research but also provide a conceptual framework through which lecturers might re¯ect upon the manner in which introductory accounting is, and can be, taught. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION There has been much criticism of accounting education in recent years for its narrow focus and rules-based procedural approaches. In part, this has been attributed to the dominance of professionally related textbooks (Zeff, The comments and advice of two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged, as is the ®nancial support of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales CATER Fund trustees for this research. Please address all correspondence to: Ursula Lucas, Bristol Business School, University of West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK, Tel: ‡ 44 117 344 3409; Fax: ‡ 44 117 9786 3851; email: [email protected] Received May 1999; revised November 2001; accepted May 2002 0890±8389/02/$ÿÿsee front matter

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2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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1989a) and the accreditation requirements of professional accounting bodies (Zeff, 1989b; Dewing & Russell, 1998). However, professional pressures are just one of a range of possible in¯uences which may affect the teaching objectives, teaching and learning approaches and learning outcomes within accounting education. These in¯uences have been widely researched in recent years and this has led to the development of the presage-processproduct (3P) model (Biggs, 1989). This model acknowledges the complexity of learning but also makes it amenable to study. The 3P model (Figure 1) identi®es learning-related factors at three points in time: presage, before learning takes place; process, during learning; and product, the outcome of learning. The presage factors interact at the process stage to determine the student's and lecturer's approaches to learning and teaching. Figure 1 shows a somewhat simpli®ed version of the 3P model. It is a systems model in which all elements are seen as forming an open-ended and recursive system. Learning outcomes are determined by many factors interacting with each other. Thus, the model does not describe anything as straightforward as a causal process. As Biggs (1999, p. 19) wryly observes: `This systems feature explains why no two classes you teach are ever the same.'

Figure 1. The 3P model (adapted from Biggs, 1989)

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Prior research within the introductory accounting curriculum has tended to focus strongly on presage factors: student characteristics and teaching context, and how they may be used as predictors of learning outcomes (for a review of this see Lucas, 1998; Rebele et al., 1991, 1998a,b). However, there has been much less research into students' and lecturers' conceptions. The importance of these conceptions arises from a key assumption that underpins this part of the model. Lecturers' approaches to teaching and students' approaches to learning are not assumed to be stable personality traits or cognitive styles that operate regardless of context. Rather, their approaches to learning and teaching are a response to their conceptions of the particular context in which they ®nd themselves (Thomas, 1951). Thus as conceptions of context change so, too, do approaches to learning and teaching. Thus learning is viewed from a constructivist, rather than a cognitive, perspective. Pratt (1992), in explaining the term `conception' describes this perspective: Conceptions are speci®c meanings attached to phenomena which then mediate our response to situations involving those phenomena. We form conceptions of virtually every aspect of our perceived world, and in so doing, use those abstract representations to delimit something from, and relate it to, other aspects of our world. In effect, we view the world through the lenses of our conceptions, interpreting and acting in accordance with our understanding of the world (p. 204).

There is now a substantial body of educational research which has identi®ed how conceptions of learning, teaching and the subject vary, affecting approaches to learning and teaching and, ultimately, the learning outcome (an overview of this research is provided in Prosser & Trigwell (1999)). Within accounting there is a small, but growing, body of research that provides some insight into students' conceptions of learning introductory accounting. In particular, several research studies (reviewed by Mladenovich, 2000) show that introductory accounting students come to their study of accounting with many negative preconceptions of accounting. The power of such stereotypical views of accounting should not be underestimated (Friedman & Lyne, 2001; Fisher and Murphy, 1995). Lucas (2000) identi®es two quite different student worlds of accounting: a world of detachment where students see accounting as a subject to be passed, a technique to be learnt, lacking relevance and possessing negative attributes; and a world of engagement where students see accounting as possessing inherent meaning and personally relevant. These different worlds are associated with different approaches to learning (Lucas, 2001). The world of detachment is associated with a surface approach to learning (involving an intention to reproduce and rote-learn rather than understand) and the world of engagement is associated with a deep approach to learning (involving an intention to understand ideas and seek meanings). The surface

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approach, involving a focus on technique, is thus closely related to students' negative preconceptions about accounting. Much less is known about lecturers' conceptions of teaching accounting. Yet the role of the lecturer is an important contextual variable affecting the approach to learning adopted by students. It has been demonstrated that students' approaches to learning are related to lecturers' conceptions of teaching and their approaches to teaching (Biggs, 1987; Gow et al., 1994; Ramsden & Entwistle, 1981; Sheppard & Gilbert, 1991; Trigwell et al., 1994). Students who learn in a context where the lecturer adopts a studentfocused approach to teaching that emphasises learning as involving a change in students' conceptions, are more likely to adopt deep approaches to learning. However, where a lecturer adopts a teacher-focused strategy, which emphasises learning as the accumulation of knowledge, students are more likely to adopt surface approaches to learning. Accordingly, it would be interesting to know whether lecturers are able to overcome a studentfocus on technique. To answer that question we need to know more about lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. A FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY OF LECTURERS' CONCEPTIONS OF TEACHING INTRODUCTORY ACCOUNTING There is a signi®cant body of research into lecturers' conceptions of, and approaches to, teaching generally (reviewed by Kember, 1997). There is a high degree of consensus on the categories used to describe conceptions of teaching in higher education, such research having been conducted in several countries and in a diverse range of universities. Kember (1997) derived a synthetic model of conceptions of teaching1 from that prior research. This model of teaching comprised two broad orientations. The ®rst is a teacher-centred/content orientation where the teacher focuses either on imparting information or on transmitting structured knowledge. The second is a student-centred/learning orientation that focuses on either facilitating understanding or on supporting conceptual change. However, Kember's synthetic model has been criticised for being generic, applying to all teaching contexts irrespective of either level or discipline (Samuelowicz & Bain, 1992; Prosser et al., 1994). This criticism is supported by research on students' approaches to learning that indicates that their characteristic features may differ from one discipline context to another (Entwistle, 1984; Meyer et al., 1990; Ramsden, 1984). This is likely to apply equally to teaching. A review of previous research into lecturers' conceptions of teaching reveals one model that is potentially relevant to further study within a disciplinary context. Fox (1983) proposes a model, which is similar to that of Kember's but offers a matrix view (Figure 2), that has the potential to allow the disciplinary element to emerge more fully. Fox

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Figure 2. A matrix view of conceptions of teaching (adapted from Fox, 1983)

identi®ed four personal `theories of teaching' held by lecturers. He uses the term `theory' but uses it in the same sense as the term `conception'.2 One aspect of Fox's matrix identi®es conceptions as either teachercontrolled or student-centred. However, within this a lecturer might adopt either the subject or the student as his or her primary focus. Fox's four conceptions will now be brie¯y described. It should be noted that an important aspect of Fox's approach is that he identi®es the analogies or metaphors that lecturers use when talking about teaching, providing delightful examples. It is impossible to do justice to these in a summary and the reader is urged to refer to the paper itself for a full description. The transfer conception treats knowledge as a commodity to be transferred from one vessel to another. What is transferred to the student is the subject, making this conception subject-centred with the prime responsibility resting with the teacher. In the shaping conception, the prime responsibility still remains with the teacher but the focus is the student. There are many varieties of the shaping conception. One view is that teaching is about the shaping of raw material, i.e. student minds. Thus, certain verbs predominate, such as `produce' (engineer, architect) or `develop' (a capacity to solve problems, to manipulate data). Typically teachers would do this by `demonstrating' and `showing' these qualities and skills, using the language of an athletics coach or industrial trainer. The teaching strategy is often for: The teacher to demonstrate the way of solving the problem by `going through it' at the blackboard or overhead projector and for the students to be required to solve similar problems by the same methods (Fox, 1983, p. 154).

The travelling conception is evidenced by the use of such words as `lead', `guide' and `explore'. The focus is on the subject and the aim is to provide a view of the territory. The teacher becomes a travelling companion, learning something too, gaining new perspectives. As Fox observes: The teacher is a local guide and equipment supplier, not a coach driver on a packaged tour (Fox, 1983, p. 157).

The growing conception focuses on the student and what is happening to the student as a person. Here the teacher acts as gardener, acting as a

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nurturer, but unwilling and unable to speci®cally direct the way in which the student might grow. There are no precisely de®ned ends. Fox identi®ed a ®fth conception but did not include this in his matrix. This is the building conception, which he describes as a hybrid between the transfer and shaping conceptions. He points out that the words `build' and `building' are frequently used in connection with the word `concept'. Since concepts can be complex structures involving several interrelated elements, teaching not only involves delivering the materials to the building site but also involves building the structure to a predetermined plan. He sees the building conception as a transfer conception when the teacher perceives his or her role to be principally that of the quantity surveyor or builder's merchant. It becomes a shaping conception when the role of the teacher is analogous to that of the architect and builder. Fox also sees the building conception as potentially transitional, leading into the travelling and growing conceptions. He speculates: Once it is realised that the student has to build his own concepts and that the design will be modi®ed and developed by the student as the building proceeds, then the conception is well on the way to becoming a developed conception (Fox, 1983, p. 155).

Fox's matrix thus offers a more elaborate model than Kember, placing the subject as well as the student within its framework. It therefore appears to be more relevant for research within a disciplinary, rather than a generic, setting. Further, its application within a disciplinary context will allow its descriptive validity to be tested. THE RESEARCH STUDY Aims and objectives The aim of this research study is to identify lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. In particular, its objectives are to:  analyse lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting within the framework of Fox's model; and thus  assess the descriptive validity of Fox's model. Research method The constructivist assumption underpinning the 3P model of student learning (Figure 1) requires a research method that is able to tap into the rich nature of lecturers' experiences of teaching introductory accounting. All studies of lecturers' conceptions of teaching have adopted a naturalistic framework. As Kember (1997) describes, this involves: No preconceived hypotheses of conceptions of teaching. Rather, the researchers expected the descriptions or classi®cations of teaching

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conceptions to emerge from the data. The aim was to report the perceptions of the teacher rather than impose the researcher's framework (p. 258).

The dominant research method used within previous studies was phenomenography. Of the thirteen previous studies described by Kember (1997), seven used this method. Of the remaining six studies, ®ve used similar research methods and one developed a questionnaire based on previous phenomenographic research. Phenomenography is a research method that emerged from educational research carried out in Sweden in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It takes an experiential or second-order perspective (Marton, 1981) involving: The empirical study of the limited number of qualitatively different ways in which various phenomena in, and aspects of, the world around us are experienced, conceptualized, understood, perceived and apprehended (Marton, 1994, p. 4424).

The objective of this research is to see the world from the individual's perspective. The emphasis is on experience that has been re¯ected on, to the extent that it can be discussed and described by the experiencer. The lifeworld of the individual is the focus of enquiry.3 It was this form of research that identi®ed the surface and deep approaches to students' learning (Marton, 1975, 1976). Since then phenomenography has emerged as an internationally valued educational research method (Entwistle, 1997). A key aspect of phenomenography is to engage with the lifeworld of the individual. Consequently, the design, conduct and analysis of interviews involve an intention by the researcher to bracket presuppositions about the nature of the phenomenon being investigated and to avoid the explicit prior construction of hypotheses or interpretative categories. Clearly any such attempt to bracket will only be partial in its success. It is very dif®cult to set aside particular ways of viewing the world and implicit personal beliefs. Consequently it is of value to counter such tendencies by the development of an empathetic understanding of the individual's experience (Ashworth & Lucas, 1998). In this research study, a comprehensive analysis of the interviews was carried out without reference to any prior model of teaching conceptions. A fuller description of what is involved in such analysis is available in Ashworth & Lucas (2000) and Lucas (1999). Subsequently, following the identi®cation of Fox's model as relevant for use within a disciplinary setting, a further analysis was carried out within Fox's framework. The participants and teaching context Ten lecturers from four United Kingdom universities were interviewed about their experience of teaching. They taught on introductory accounting courses that were designed for both accounting and non-accounting students.4 The four male and six female lecturers were diverse in terms

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of: length of teaching experience, industrial and professional experience and types of course taught. They lectured at two `old' and two `new' universities. Following the interviews, it was not possible to identify any common feature that might indicate that, as a group, they might present a restricted range of experience or conceptions. It appeared that there was a suf®cient element of repetition or re-occurrence of themes and perceptions such that saturation had occurred (Guba & Lincoln, 1985, p. 350). The conduct of interviews One interview was conducted with each lecturer. The objective was to explore aspects of teaching accounting in the broadest sense and to remain open-minded to all possible aspects of the subject being taught. All lecturers were asked the same initial question: `What do you expect students to have learnt or achieved by the end of the course?' Thereafter the interview was semi-structured, being designed to elicit aspects of the experience of teaching accounting and the nature of accounting. Open-ended questions were asked in a variety of areas, covering such aspects as: students' problems, concepts that underpin student learning, notions of learning, the lecturer's experience of learning accounting, teaching activities, learning activities and students' attributes. However, the lecturer's interests and responses dictated much of the shape and content of the interview. Most interviews lasted between forty-®ve and seventy-®ve minutes. THE FINDINGS Fox's model provides an informative, and conceptually coherent, framework through which to view conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. However, in the light of this study, it was found necessary to revise his model. This revised model is illustrated in Figure 3. There are three revisions. First, the transfer conception has been subsumed within the shaping conception. Second, those lecturers who expressed the growing conception also expressed travelling conceptions (but not vice versa). In accounting, it would appear that the growth of the student involves an exploration of the subject of accounting and its relation to the student. Thus these two aspects are not easily separated and this is denoted by the dotted line between these two conceptions in Figure 3. Third, Fox's model has also been revised to include the building conception. Described as a hybrid between the transfer and shaping conceptions and as a `possible bridge' to the travelling and growing conceptions, Fox saw the building conception as a shaping conception when the role of the teacher is analogous to that of the architect and builder. The lecturer moves into the role of guide and nurturer within the travelling and growing theories once it is realised that the students have to think for themselves (understand

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Figure 3. Conceptions of teaching introductory accounting

concepts) and recognise their own relation to accounting (design a conceptual structure). The building conception forms a central part of the teaching of introductory accounting but, as will be discussed below, it fails to be fully actualised in the experience of lecturers. The following sections will discuss the shaping, travelling, growing and building conceptions of teaching in more detail. The shaping conception (incorporating the transfer conception) The transfer conception was found to be incorporated within, and subservient to, the shaping conception. Lecturers talked about the delivery of the subject within lectures and tutorials. Yet this was, essentially, a secondary aspect of their work. The delivery and presentation of appropriate learning materials was a necessary, but not a suf®cient condition, for the teaching of accounting. The necessary condition was expressed through the shaping conception of teaching. Six of the ten lecturers fell into the shaping category. However, there were two distinct aspects to the shaping conception, one explicit and one implicit: explicitly, students were to be shaped as performers and, implicitly, they were to be shaped as converts. First, lecturers wanted to shape the student into a person who has mastered a technique and can produce accounts. There was a high degree of consensus that accounting is a `technical thing' and was taught using an: Illustrative approach. You do one on the board or you demonstrate an example, they do an example, then you try to give them more extended examples in the tutorial (6:40).5

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Thus learning is then de®ned in those terms as: Giving the student an ability to perform a series of tasks, or to interpret a set of accounts, that they didn't have at the beginning of the course. So I see it as an enhancement in, I suppose, technical ability (6:57). (Emphasis added)

There was a rather unrelenting tone attached to teaching approaches. For example, students can be `drilled', material is `spelt out', the practicing of questions is associated with `rooting it in their brain' and the conventional teaching approach is associated (negatively) with `beating them over the head with the pro®t and loss accounts and balance sheets' (5:84). Two lecturers used analogies to illustrate what was involved, such as learning to drive a car or ride a bike. This involved becoming so familiar with the routines required that one would carry them out automatically. Second, lecturers implicitly expressed another important teaching objective. This was a strong theme in their re¯ections. Their students were to be `won over': converted from individuals who ®nd accounting boring, dull, connected with maths and numbers and something to be feared. In other words, negative preconceptions of accounting were to be challenged and eliminated. Lecturer 1 wants to: Change their minds, I think they come with the idea that accounts are boring, [ . . . ] and it's very hard on us to actually make them change their mind. Say look, it's not that bad after all (1:274).

Lecturer 2 sees students as worried and fearful about accounting. Thus it is not surprising that she sees the teaching of accounting as: One big hurdle getting over just the, you know, their fears or preconceptions about ®nancial information, how to do the work (2:6).

As Lecturer 8 comments: `You've got to win them back' (8:25). The travelling conception Four lecturers (4,5,9,10) described their teaching in terms that saw education as a journey: exploring the subject with the role of the lecturer as guide. However, for two of these lecturers (4 and 9) it was their prime focus. For the remaining two lecturers (5 and 9), as will be discussed below, their prime focus was on the student rather than the subject. Teaching involves an ongoing process of continually re®ning approaches as the subject is re-examined. The aim is to explore, thus: Good workshops to me are when the students are asking a lot of questions [ . . . ] and they explore with you I think, the concepts. And again, the workshop isn't about ®nishing the exercise and getting the right answer, it's more about well, this is the subject area, OK this is an activity, but it is more exploring the subject (4:103).

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The teaching objective is to provide the students with some sort of map of the territory: Actually one thing that I think, perhaps an overriding thing is, if they don't know something, that they at least know where to go [ . . . ] That they could see a ®gure, or a statement made, and then could realise that well there's more in that than I know, but I know where to read, where to ®nd out about it (9:105).

Lecturer 9 recognises the dangers of shaping students since this may deter them from exploring: `That we're not encouraging them to think but to do.' (9:182). Accordingly, both Lecturer 4 and Lecturer 9 have made speci®c changes to their teaching to address this: by reducing the amount of technical calculation required and by speci®cally assessing conceptual understanding rather than technique. As Lecturer 4 explains, the best form of assessment requires: . . . questions where, what is the best de®nition of . . . how well that shows an understanding I don't know. Really you need the students to be able to explore it themselves and put it down in their own words . . . (4:124). (Emphasis added)

Another feature of the travelling conception is that it can involve a commitment to sharing personally held views with students. These two lecturers saw these as `personally held' because they represent views that they do not see as normally included in the curriculum. They are dif®dent about sharing these views because they see a con¯ict between a commitment to the professionalism of accountants and the dif®culties (or impossibility) of providing a `real' picture. As Lecturer 9 re¯ects: I very much stress the fact that [pro®t] is estimated and that it approximates and it can be manipulated. And I've slightly had this internal con¯ict, that if you're not careful, if you tell them too much they end up thinking that all accountants are crooks and yet if you play it straight down the line, saying well this is real, then again they're going away with a . . . an incorrect picture . . . You know, to try and impress upon them that it can be manipulated (9:46/49).

The growing conception Two lecturers expressed the growing conception. This places more emphasis on what is happening to the student rather than on the subject per se. The two lecturers allocated to this conception both expressed the travelling theory but they placed a more central focus on the student rather than the subject. Accounting is described as an activity that is: All about giving you (the student) information for managing, planning and control etc. So that is really the starting point and it is from these that we move into the actual subject itself (10:28).

Consequently, learning can be explained as: Going through an experience of some kind, where you end up in that particular respect, being different, and having your perceptions changed. I

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suppose . . . that's the best I can do. You are a different person afterwards, not necessarily better or even worse, just different . . . (5:115).

Learning is associated with a sense of personal growth. What makes a good student is not good attendance, intellect or whatever but `an attitude of mind that says this is important for me, what I've learnt' (5:106). Where personal growth is the objective then this puts the student, and his or her relation to accounting, at the forefront. Both Lecturers 5 and 10 move beyond the technique and provide students with the opportunities to identify problems and to judge whether accounting techniques offer solutions. Thus Lecturer 5 wants students to develop: . . . an ability to question. I want them to understand that there is no such thing as a perfect pro®t calculation, and there is no such thing as an unbiased management accounting technique, and that if, that money is very important, they are going to be judged by money, and if they are going to be judged by money they should be in a position to ®nd out exactly how they are being judged (5:5/8).

However, both lecturers felt constrained in how much they could achieve. They recognised that, since they are talking about a ®rst year undergraduate course, there was a limit to how much the student might develop. An adaptation of Fox's model: the explicit integration of the building conception The building conception was an important part of all lecturers' re¯ections on teaching. There was a prevalence of building metaphors in their accounts of teaching. In particular, structure and sequencing assumed a great importance. For example, Lecturer 8 comments: I think there are building blocks in accounting and with the system of recording is part of . . . is one of the building blocks, things like the fundamental accounting concepts which we introduced and get an understanding of, I hope, in the ®rst year [ . . . ] So yes I do think there are . . . there are . . . there is sequential learning going on there, they are important building blocks in that process (8:13/14).

Yet while all lecturers readily see the teaching of accounting in these terms, the building conception fails to be fully actualised in their re¯ections on teaching. The actualisation of the building conception requires three key elements:  a conceptual structure;  key concepts; and  the means of assessing students' understanding of the structure and concepts. However, whereas a high degree of certainty was attached to descriptions surrounding the shaping conception and teaching of the technique,

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lecturers' re¯ections within the interviews revealed either inherent contradictions or indicated areas of expressed uncertainty as follows: Inherent contradictions Despite the professed importance of conceptual understanding there was: 1. 2. 3. 4.

A scarcity of articulated concepts An avoidance of concepts A lack of an expressed clear structure into which concepts might be ®tted Dif®culty in providing explanations

Expressed uncertainties about 5. The relationship between conceptual understanding and the learning of technique 6. The effectiveness of assessment techniques. Each of these issues will be discussed in turn. 1. A scarcity of articulated concepts While there was an emphasis on the need for conceptual understanding, lecturers identi®ed relatively few key concepts that it was important for the student to grasp. The two concepts which all lecturers agreed upon as fundamental were cash and pro®t: students should appreciate the difference between these. Underlying this was the concept of the matching or accruals convention. Two further concepts which arise logically out of the matching concept are realisation and periodicity. The matching adjustments are only required because of the convention that the ®nancial statements re¯ect either the position of the enterprise at a certain point in time or performance over a period of time. In addition, accounting rules are applied to judge when a transaction is `realised' and recognised within the ®nancial statements. However, no lecturers referred to these concepts. 2. The avoidance of concepts Not only is there a scarcity of articulated concepts but some lecturers went out of their way to avoid references to concepts, which at times they referred to as `jargon'. This was linked very much with the second teaching objective in the shaping conception. If students perceive accounting to be dull, boring, about numbers and maths, then a way of making it more accessible is to avoid what lecturers term `accounting jargon'. It is Lecturer 4, who expresses a travelling conception of teaching, who considers this issue further. She doesn't see this as an issue of jargon. Having `explored' these issues with her students, she recognises that it is a matter of needing to understand the business environment, but also of understanding aspects of the world in terms of accounting concepts.

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Re¯ecting on why students have problems with gross pro®t percentages and mark-ups she comments: But there is some problem as far as, I suppose, they can't visualise something, a commodity having perhaps a cost and a price (4:98). (Emphasis added)

Not all lecturers take this approach of explicitly avoiding jargon. However, as will be discussed below, neither did any lecturers put forward a comprehensive overview of the concepts which they felt underpinned the learning of introductory accounting. 3. The lack of an expressed clear structure into which concepts might be ®tted Lecturers perceived accounting in two main ways. First, as a micro activity which involved the preparation of ®nancial statements. Second, as a macro activity which involved the role and use of accounting information in a wider context. The lecturers who expressed a shaping conception of teaching mainly focussed on the micro level of accounting: the technique of preparing ®nancial statements. They did refer to macro concepts in their re¯ections, for example, accountability, performance, probity, control, information systems and stakeholders. But, in teaching, prominence was given to the key technique-related concepts of cash, pro®t and accruals. Those lecturers who expressed a travelling or growing conception of teaching, whilst certainly teaching the technique, also placed emphasis on the macro level of accounting. For example, Lecturer 4 states: the aim of the course I think, is to have an understanding of the accounting environment and the way that ®nancial information is produced and how that can be used. That's the decision making, the planning (4:4).

She distinguishes her aim from what she describes as `the conventional objectives and secondary objectives' of teaching the technique. Structure is central to the building conception and the macro view of accounting provides a potential framework for a conceptual structure. Yet only one lecturer re¯ected on the need to provide that structure, what she termed a `narrative drive'. I really believe that the best courses are the ones that have a very strong narrative drive to them, [ ] which has to go through the entire syllabus, so that you can connect up the bits. You have to do the syllabus, almost by de®nition in bits, but if you can get that strong narrative drive, then it makes it easier for the lecturer, and I think if it makes it easier for the lecturer, it makes it better for the students (5:29/33).

4. Dif®culty in providing explanations As discussed above, lecturers did not necessarily adopt an explicit structure for their teaching that was in accordance with their expressed view of accounting. Another related feature was that lecturers experienced

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dif®culties in `coming up' with explanations. For example, Lecturer 9, when asked how she describes accounting to her students, says: At a simplistic level, I tell them that it's record-keeping and then, I try and tell them it's not record keeping! It's more than that . . . um, so . . . most probably, actually you're making me wonder what they actually get out of that, do they think that it is just record keeping? I suspect that they do (9:32/4).

When Lecturer 9 is asked what she thinks accounting is, rather than what she tells the students, she replies unhesitatingly: Oh I think it's accountability, mmm . . . (pause) but it's a while before I actually introduce that to the students (9:36).

When asked if she refers to accountability explicitly, she replies: Yes, I do but I think that's because that's the way I . . . yes, I mean that's the way I see it. I don't think it is actually . . . , it's not in the handout course material that they're given but I think that, yes, that comes across very much in what I say (9:38/39).

The experience of Lecturer 8 is similar. When asked how he would respond to students asking about what accounting is, he struggled for a de®nition: The de®nition that I use, which I can't remember exactly, can be interpreted quite narrowly or has within it the capability of being interpreted quite widely. And I would obviously take the wider one but I don't introduce ®rst year students to that breadth on lecture one! We start off with it a bit narrower (8:17).

In only one area did explanations trip off the tongue. By far the most notable example of this was the explanation of the balance sheet. Here lecturers had an explanation ready and waiting. This is illustrated by the comments of Lecturer 3, when asked how he sees the balance sheet, responds: Well, I mean we all have dif®culty with the balance sheet as accountants, don't we? You know, it's dif®cult, you know. You go through the stock answers, you know, it's a snap shot of a business at a point in time . . . . Christ! You know, so I give them that (3:137/140).

This lack of commitment to the `stock answer' might have been shared with students (indicating a travelling or growing conception of teaching) but instead it is `given' (transferred) to the students. 5. The relationship between conceptual understanding and the learning of technique All lecturers perceived the achievement of conceptual understanding as constituting an important aspect of their teaching of accounting. Yet a key ®nding was the uncertainty that surrounded the notion of conceptual

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understanding; in particular, doubt about its relationship with the learning of the technique. This was expressed by all lecturers regardless of their own particular conception of teaching. A problem identi®ed by all lecturers was that students often failed to grasp the meaning of pro®t and loss accounts, balance sheets and the difference between pro®t and cash, despite being able to produce a set of accounts in the end of year examinations. Between them, they raised a series of questions: Is conceptual understanding a prerequisite for the use of technique? Does the emphasis on technique ÿÿ allow students to avoid conceptual understanding? ÿÿ divert students from achieving that understanding? ÿÿ provide a barrier to, or refuge from, conceptual understanding? There is much speculation around these questions. Yet, the concern with this issue is not overwhelming for those lecturers who expressed a shaping conception of teaching. A characteristic feature of their interviews is that these are regarded as interesting questions but not of suf®cient importance to require a fundamental revision of, or experimentation with, the teaching of accounting. 6. The effectiveness of assessment techniques The lack of overriding concern with the relationship between conceptual understanding and the learning of the technique is matched by the takenfor-granted nature of assessment problems. Lecturers expressed many concerns about assessment but did not perceive this as posing any fundamental problem within the teaching of introductory accounting. The ®rst concern lies with the question of whether the assessments test understanding. Lecturers recognise that there is a `standard' type of examination assessment but that this may not necessarily test understanding. For example, Lecturer 8 describes the examination: It's a 3 hour, standard type paper. A compulsory ®rst question for 30 marks which is a basic book keeping question, then a choice of a number of predominantly calculative questions and at least one essay question (8:73).

Thus, most of the questions are computational, with a minority (20±40%) of essay questions. However, as Lecturer 8 states, often the computational questions have a small element of discussion in them. Lecturer 9 refers to this as `the ®ve mark bit' which her students cannot answer. The essay questions, the `®ve mark bits' and parts of the course work assessments, are designed to test understanding. This is seen as an important part of the assessment because the lecturers do not have much con®dence in the standard computational questions that appear on the

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examination paper. Lecturer 6 vividly describes what he perceives as the exercise of examination technique: They've learnt almost algorithmically the way to produce a set of accounts. And then what you tend to ®nd with these students is the pro®t and loss account is more or less correct, because they've gone down the notes and they've realised that they've got to add something here, and take something away. But then the balance sheet is usually all over the place, dreadful [ . . . ] But, because the marks are allocated for the ®gures, going down in the marking scheme, they get through the question (6:47/48).

It is not clear, given this dissatisfaction, why assessment remains so takenfor-granted and unchallenged. However, several lecturers commented that students would get lower marks if more essay questions were set. For example, Lecturer 9, who is the only lecturer who states that she emphasises conceptual understanding in her examination, acknowledges this: I set up my papers where half of the paper is theory which most probably means that they don't get as high marks as they might do but perhaps that's the price of [not being?] numerical. You know, and at this time of year [examination time] they're harder to mark and they get lower marks for them. But I think it's only . . . I personally think it's more important that they understand why, and I also feel that they should be able to construct a decent essay (9:127/130).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION In the Introduction it was noted that accounting education has been criticised for its narrow focus and rules-based procedural approaches. This focus has, in part, been attributed to the dominance of professional requirements. However, this paper has taken a broader view of possible in¯uences, using a model of student learning that acknowledges the complexity of learning and the multiplicity of in¯uences on learning and its outcomes (Biggs, 1989). One in¯uence is lecturers' conceptions of teaching and Fox's model has provided an illuminative framework for the analysis of lecturers' conceptions of teaching introductory accounting. Two central issues arise from these ®ndings. First, there is the failure to actualise the building conception of teaching. Lecturers profess the importance of conceptual understanding yet their re¯ections reveal inherent contradictions or they express uncertainty with the nature of conceptual understanding and its assessment. Consequently what emerges as an unintended consequence is a central preoccupation with the shaping of students who can perform techniques. Second, within the shaping conception lecturers also wish to `win the student over'. Teaching accounting is seen as an attempt to overcome negative preconceptions held by students. However, this attempt is also

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associated with the avoidance of jargon and concepts. Thus there is also an implicit risk that, by the failure to actualise the building conception and an inadvertent focus on the learning of the technique, lecturers may in fact be reinforcing students' negative preconceptions of accounting and their predisposition to experience accounting as the learning of a technique. Given the expressed need to develop conceptual understanding, the form of this attempt to `win students over' may comprise a potentially damaging paradox at the heart of the world of introductory accounting. This paradox is less powerful within the travelling and growing conceptions since they open up the subject area for a broader exploration and encourage students to think about their role in relation to accounting. Whilst those lecturers expressing the travelling and growing conceptions also struggled with the identi®cation of a broad conceptual framework, they recognised and shared (to an extent) the problem with the students. The emphasis on the macro (or broader) view of accounting, which is lacking within the shaping conception, would appear to arise naturally within the travelling and growing conceptions of teaching. The exploration of macro concepts such as accountability, probity and control raise issues about the evaluative nature of accounting information and its role in judging the performance of organisations and individuals. For lecturers who expressed the travelling and growing conceptions of teaching, this willingness to engage with the student is part and parcel of the territory. Their emphasis is not so much on winning the students over, as encouraging students to view accounting in a wider, and possibly more relevant, context. These ®ndings reveal several areas where further research is required, particularly in the area of assessment. Research into the relationship between conceptual understanding and the learning of the technique would, of necessity, be closely linked with research into assessment practice. There is a substantial body of research within science education that could form the basis for further study. It is of interest that Linder (1992, 1993) argues that the linking of the ability to solve scienti®c problems with conceptual understanding may be a doubtful pedagogical assumption. The pedagogic value of these ®ndings lies in the way in which they reveal the teaching of introductory accounting to be an area of education that would bene®t from further re¯ection and discussion. We do not necessarily need to know why lecturers experience their teaching in this way. The main contribution of this type of research may be to provide lecturers with the stimulation for a further exploration of the nature of teaching within accounting. As Entwistle et al. (2000) argue: One of the most intractable problems both in teaching education, and in staff development in higher education, is how best to utilise theoretical constructs and research evidence. [ . . . ] Categorizations offered by researchers provide a conceptual framework through which teachers and lecturers, whatever their experience, can more readily re¯ect on their experiences of teaching . . . (p. 24).

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It may be suf®cient for lecturers to re¯ect on their teaching and consider what might be appropriate approaches to teaching for particular courses. For example, Linder (1992) has argued that unacknowledged teacher epistemology may be a source of conceptual dif®culty within courses. Similarly Prosser (1993) and Prosser and Trigwell (1997) show how confronting both students and lecturers with the variety of conceptions held, and assisting them in identifying for themselves their own conceptions, can be of value in teaching and learning. It would not be appropriate on the basis of these ®ndings to argue that there are `right' or `wrong' conceptions of teaching within introductory accounting. Nor is it possible, from this research, to determine whether or not there is a developmental trajectory to these conceptions. Instead, it is argued that, rather than judge these conceptions in terms of developmental sophistication, one should evaluate their appropriateness within the context in which teaching takes place. The teaching of introductory accounting is revealed as a world where much is taken for granted and where contradictions and uncertainties remain unquestioned.

NOTES 1. Subsequent studies (van Driel et al., 1997; Entwistle et al., 2000) support his categorisation. 2. Kember (1997) discusses the terminology used within the 13 studies. The most commonly used term is conceptions of teaching, but the terms belief and theory are also used by researchers. 3. Husserl (1970) used the term `lifeworld' to describe the world as encountered and lived in everyday life. Spurling (1977) describes it as follows: `The Lebenswelt or life-world is the setting of our common-sense, daily activities; it is the world of familiar objects, routine tasks and mundane concerns. In the natural attitude we live in the life-world, and yet, under the in¯uence of scienti®c presuppositions, we apprehend it as ``objective'' and external to us, existing independently of our actions and interests.' (p. 9). 4. Just one lecturer taught on an introductory course designed exclusively for accounting students. However, this course did not vary substantially from those taught by the other lecturers. 5. The transcript number refers to the lecturer number and the numbered unit from which the quotation is extracted.

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