What makes accounting interesting for learners? Viewpoint of a teacher from India

Purpose – The article aims to share the viewpoint of the author on the impact of the innovative teaching pedagogyadoptedbyhiminteachingtheaccountingcoursesonthesatisfactionoftheparticipantsinapremierIndianBusinessSchool. Design/methodology/approach – The experiment was carried over by introducing an innovative teaching approach by the author among the first-year participants of the Management Program. At the end of the experiment, the participantswere askedto rate the teachingapproach on afive-pointscale besides offeringthe qualitative feedback on the impact of the experiment on their learning outcomes. Findings – The paper concludes that the participants were highly satisfied with the teaching approach adopted by the author. Originality/value – The study contributes to the theory and practitioners on accounting education in many ways. First, it is offering evidence on the impact of teaching pedagogy on the satisfactionof the participants of the accounting courses of an emerging market business school. Second, the accounting educators of the emergingcountriesmayreplicatetheexperimentintheirinstitutes.Third,theeducatorsofothercoursesinthebusinessschoolsmaymakeanefforttomeasuretheimpactoftheteachingapproachonthefeedbackoftheirlearners.


Introduction
The primary objective of teaching the accounting course to the participants of the Business Schools is to accomplish a set of learning outcomes such as providing a thorough understanding of the subject, strong technical skills, application orientation and the ability to think critically to solve real-life problems (Nelson, 1995;Beattie et al., 1997). The literature shows that participants of the Business Schools come to their accounting classes with an inappropriate or unrealistic perception that accounting is a mechanical and repetitive number crunching process (Cory, 1992;Fisher and Murphy, 1995;Friedlan, 1995). Many accounting educators emphasize the mechanical and bookkeeping aspects of the subject and thereby confirm the preconceived negative perceptions of the students (Saudagaran, 1996). Further, accounting educators continue to give emphasis on the usage of conventional teaching methods such as lectures, seminars, and textbooks (Brown and Guilding, 1993), which makes accounting classes boring to the learners.
Therefore, this article aims to describe the impact of the innovative teaching pedagogy adopted by the author in teaching the "Financial Reporting Analysis" (FRA) and" Financial Reporting and Cost Management" (FRCM) courses on the satisfaction of the participants in an Indian Business School. The experiment was carried over among the first -year participants of the MBA -Business Management Program (for FRA course), MBA-Human Resource Management Program (for FRCM course) and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Management Program (for FRA course) of a premier Indian business school. This study is unique as it perhaps is the first to examine the impact of innovative pedagogy in teaching accounting course(s) on the satisfaction of the participants of an Indian business school.
The paper concludes based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the feedback of the participants that the participants were highly satisfied with the teaching approach adopted by the author. The study contributes to the theory and practitioners on accounting education in many ways. First, it is offering evidence on the impact of an innovative teaching pedagogy on the satisfaction of the participants of the accounting courses of an emerging market business school, thereby extending the body of knowledge on accounting education. Second, the accounting educators of the emerging countries may replicate the pedagogy in their institutes and investigate the impact of the innovation on the satisfaction of their participants. Third, the educators of other courses in the business schools (both developed and emerging countries) may develop a customized teaching pedagogy and make an effort to measure the impact of the approach on the feedback of their learners.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows; Section 2 presents the student learning context and the Motive and Strategy in approaches to learning and studying. The third section describes the Teaching Approach adopted by the author. Section four presents the quantitative and qualitative reflections of the participants on the effectiveness of the teaching pedagogy/approach adopted by the study. The final section concludes the study and offers scope for further research.
2. Student learning context and motive and strategy in approaches to learning and studying According to Ramsden (1992), the past educational experience of the participants and the context of learning, teaching, curriculum, and assessment impact the participants' orientation towards studying. The learners' perception of the task requirements is determined by their orientation towards learning and the context of learning, teaching, curriculum, and assessment. The learning approach is impacted by the participants' perception of the task requirements. The learning approach impacts the learning outcomes of the participants (see Figure 1). Biggs (1987) lists down the motive and strategy in three approaches to learning that are adopted by participants in a learning environment. He points out that the motive of the surface learning approach is just to meet the minimal requirements of the course while the Deep learners want to deepen their interest and competence in specific subjects and the motive of the third type of learners "Achievers" is to enhance their ego by scoring the highest scores in every subject/course irrespective of their interests.
The strategy of surface learners is to meet the minimal requirements of the course and "reproduce through rote learning." The deep learners' strategy is to read deeper and link new learning with their prior knowledge and the strategy of Achievers is to organize their space and time and "behave as model student" (see Table I).
3. Teaching approach adopted for the study The author had designed and followed an innovative approach to teach the Financial Reporting and Analysis course to the MBA-BM students (187 in number) and Ph.D. in Management students (13 in number) and the Financial Reporting and Cost Management course to the MBA-HR students (68 in number) who were divided into four sections. Both the courses were offered for 30 h in twenty sessions in Term 1 of the respective programs in the Academic Year 2018 (July-September). The author had adopted a Ten Point Approach to teach the Financial Reporting and Analysis and Financial Reporting and Cost Management courses which incorporated the following features:   (1) Course Design and Clarity in Communication of the Course Learning Objectives.
(2) Choice of the textbook.
(7) Participants Solving the Cases/problems on the board.
(10) Creation of an aligned learning environment to earn the desired profit (Learning outcomes).

Course design and clarity in communication of the course learning outcomes
Course design requires updating and continuous improvement by the instructors on a periodic basis. According to Spiceland et al. (2015), course redesign results in enhanced performance, improved student retention and growth in number of accounting majors in business schools. The author had designed the content of the courses based on his previous experience and interaction with the old (passed out) students of the institute. A course well designed solves half the problems of the students. One cannot teach all the topics to the learners in a thirty-hour course and hence the author gave more emphasis on the vital and essential topics and as much time and focus on the desirable topics in order to avoid the dullness in the delivery of the course. Further, it is to be noted that the participants should be made aware of the objectives of the course as the questions that comes to their mind in every 15 min in the classroom is "Why is he Teaching this topic?" and "How is it useful to me?". The author had kept on reminding the participants about the need for learning a topic and how it is going to be useful to the participants in their managerial career.

Choice of the textbook
There are a number of textbooks that are available in the market for both the FRA and FRCM courses. But the textbook to be recommended for the participants should consist of the following features: (1) Coverage of all the essential topics in depth. AJAR 5,1 (2) Inclusion of discussions on IFRS.
(3) Provision of illustrations and chapter-end problems.
(4) Presentation of real-life cases for all the topics.
(5) Presentation of material in an interesting manner.
Accounting is learnt by doing and hence the recommended text book plays a major role in accomplishing the course learning outcomes in an easier manner. The author had recommended the text book (for FRA and FRCM courses) that had fulfilled the above stated features.

Introductory sessions through video content
It is not possible to cover both the basic and advanced topics of both the courses in the 30-h time and hence, the author had video captured 5 of the introductory sessions that covered topics such as introduction to financial statements, Preparation of Balance Sheet and Preparation of Income Statement and circulated the video content to the participants few days before the commencement of the regular classes. The participants were instructed to consider the introductory sessions' videos as a mandatory pre-requisite for attending the regular classes to be offered by the author. D'Aquila et al. (2019), in their study on whether instructor generated video lectures enhance student learning performance in accounting course conclude that participants watch these videos and find them to be helpful and thereby improving their learning performance. They also state that video lectures should not replace the traditional classes rather these video lectures should be used as complementary tools in teaching accounting.

Concept first cases next
It is always a dilemma for faculty members of management on whether they should focus more on teaching through concepts or through cases or through the mix of both concepts and cases. The advantage of teaching only through cases is that the participants do not get dullness in the classroom as they are challenged to solve the real life problems. However, the approach works only when the participants have a reasonable prior understanding of the concepts. Case only method of teaching argues for imparting the application orientation among the learners but one cannot apply a concept in a real life management situation without knowing the concept with clarity. This is especially true when it comes to teaching financial and management accounting courses which need to be taught in a structured manner and therefore, the author had taught the concept first and dealt with the cases next.

Cases cure boredom
Some educators teach the concepts and then require the participants to solve the problems/ exercises given in the textbook either in the classroom itself or through the take home assignments. The advantage of this approach is that the learners may be having the conceptual clarity but the limitation of this approach is that the learners may not be in a position to apply the concepts in a real life business situation. Cases make the participants to come forward to the learning environment as it provokes the interests among the participants (suitable for Deep Learners) besides providing challenges to the participants in solving the problems within the limited time (meets the motive of Achievers). Several teaching methods such as lectures, games, role-plays, simulations and case studies are available for business school faculty members. Among these various methods, case studies and simulation nurture What makes accounting interesting?
the problem-solving ability of students compared to lecture method of teaching (Farashahi and Tajeddin, 2018). The authors had used fifteen cases in the FRA course and ten cases in the FRCM course. The participants (particularly the surface learners) sometimes do not participate actively and at times they are observed not even read the case before the commencement of the case discussion in the classroom. The author at regular intervals had communicated to the participants to maintain a "Case Learning Diary" for the course and keep writing the most important learning from each case that is been discussed in the classroom. The learners were told that they may have a question in their mid-term and end-term examination on the learnings from a specific case. This had made all the participants in general and the surface learners in particular to comply with the requirements to maintain a case diary.

Weekly assignments
Participants want to see the linkage between what is taught in the classroom and what is happening in the real business world. Educators may provide assignments/hands on exercises on how to analyze financial statements using the annual reports of firms and relate the content of the course to the other courses and the real-life implications for managers, investors and markets (Abbott and Palatnik, 2017).
The students of first year MBA program of the institute have no classes in the weekends. The institute schedules the twenty sessions for a course in ten weeks on an even manner such that only two sessions of FRA/FRCM is scheduled in a week. The author divided the course into ten topics such that each week, he handled one topic to the participants of both FRA and FRCM courses. In order to reinforce the learning of a topic, the author had given two cases on an average as a weekly assignment wherein the participants were required to send their individual assignment through mail on or before 5 p.m. on every Sunday. Concepts followed by cases followed by assignments completed the learning cycle of a week/topic 3.7 Participants solving the cases/problems on the board The author had experienced monotony in delivering lectures in the past and therefore introduced "Participants on the Board" approach in this academic year. The author used to randomly select one of the learners (usually one of the surface learners) for this activity and require him/her to come to the board and start solving the problem along with him on the board. The other participants in the class were requested to follow their friend on the board. This approach had helped the educator in three ways: (1) First, everyone in the class knows that if they show dullness, then they will be called to the board to solve the case.
(2) Second, those who got an opportunity to solve the case on the board along with the instructor start liking the subject as accounting is learnt by doing and not seeing others doing.
(3) Finally, the instructor can save more time through this activity compared to the other alternative of requiring the participants to solve the case/problems individually wherein he needs to clarify the doubts of every student on an individual basis. The saved time can be used to solve another problem/case with the help of another student on the board.

Continuous assessments and feedback
Participants (specifically surface and achiever learners) of the accounting course prefer to get the feedback on their learning outcomes as often as possible. The evaluation criteria to be

4.75
Note(s): The feedback was collected from 187 participants Design of the course: How was it structured in terms of flow of concepts/issues and learning in view of the course objectives Content of the course: Extent to which the contents were relevant and up to date Pedagogy used in the course: The appropriateness of the teaching and learning method Assessment: Appropriateness of the assessment, tasks requirements and criteria for evaluation used by the faculty Accessibility: The extent to which the faculty was open and accessible for providing feedback and counseling for improvement Delivery by the faculty: The extent to which the faculty was overall effective in meeting the course objectives employed by the faculty must be communicated to the participants prior to the commencement of the regular classes. The author had evaluated the participants using quizzes, Mid-Term, End-Term, Assignments and Class Participation. The marks scored by the participants in quizzes and mid-term examination were informed to the participants as soon as the evaluation was done. The author had conducted quiz 1 upon the completion of session number 5 and quiz 2 was conducted after completing the 15th session. Mid-Term was conducted after the 10 th session and End-Term examination was conducted after the course got over. The evaluation was carried over covering all the topics so that the participants do not develop the habit of omitting some topics. This is important as recruiters may ask any question from any topic. Continuous assessment and feedback enable the participants to improve their course learning outcomes. Notes(s): The feedback was collected from 13 participants Design of the course: How was it structured in terms of flow of concepts/issues and learning in view of the course objectives Content of the course: Extent to which the contents were relevant and up to date Pedagogy used in the course: The appropriateness of the teaching and learning method Assessment: Appropriateness of the assessment, tasks requirements and criteria for evaluation used by the faculty Accessibility: The extent to which the faculty was open and accessible for providing feedback and counseling for improvement Delivery by the faculty: The extent to which the faculty was overall effective in meeting the course objectives What makes accounting interesting?
3.9 Desire to teach better The learners get inspired by a faculty member who is not only knowledgeable but also sincere and well prepared besides having the passion for teaching. In fact, it is the interest of the teacher which drives the learners' attitude towards learning accounting/any subject. This is particularly true to the surface and deep learners. The author had put in his best efforts in preparing for each session and wanted to teach as much better as it was possible for him. He had approached the students with a positive attitude and motivated the learners to come prepared for the classes besides being attentive and active in class room interactions. Further, he had encouraged the learners to ask as many questions as possible and kept his interest to teach better alive for all the 30 h of the course.
3.10 Creation of an aligned learning environment to earn the desired profit (learning outcomes) Creating an aligned learning environment (alignment of curriculum, teaching pedagogy, assessment and learning outcomes) is most constructive in removing the pre-conceived negative perceptions of students on accounting (Mladenovic, 2000). The faculty member must integrate all the above stated aspects of the course curriculum, teaching pedagogy, evaluation and learning outcomes in order to exceed the expectations of the learners of the accounting course. This is because one point is interrelated to the other points. The author had made an integrated effort in providing a satisfactory learning experience of accounting to the participants of the experiment.
4. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the reflections of the participants on the effectiveness of the learning approach adopted by the study The participants were asked to give their feedback on their level of satisfaction of the experiment at the end of the experiment. The feedback was collected on six parameters on a five-point scale where rating of "five" refers to excellent and rating of "1" refers to very poor. The parameters considered for the feedback were "design of the course, Content of the course, Teaching Pedagogy, Assessment, Accessibility of the faculty and delivery by the faculty." All these six parameters were included in the feedback questionnaire such that all the ten subpoints of the experiment discussed in the previous section were evaluated by the participants. The ten-point approach adopted by the author has secured him an overall feedback (average of the six parameters' average feedback) of 4.75, 4.88 and 4.76 from the MBA-BM, Ph.D. in Management and MBA-HR participants respectively. This indicates that the participants have given a 95 percent satisfaction level with regard to the effectiveness of the teaching approach (see Tables II, IV and VI for Quantitative Feedback of participants from MBA-BM, Ph.D. and MBA-HR).
Best class and best teacher Excellent I am an engineer so the course is little bit difficult for me but the lectures were so good that I did not face problems in the course It was very methodological and easy way to learn the course with the professor. He made every one of us involved in his classes through his unique way of engaging Lot of learning in the classroom and highly interactive sessions Privileged to have you as my teacher for this course Note(s): The above stated are the selective list of qualitative feedback given by the Ph.D. participations for the FRA course The reflection of the participants on the effectiveness of teaching approaches is vastly measured by researchers using the quantitative feedback offered by the participants. But it is problematic from the learning and teaching perspective as it does not reveal the complete information that is required for improving the course learning outcomes. Therefore, Steyn et al. (2019) suggest the researchers to employ the collection and analysis of qualitative feedback in capturing the true impact of the teaching approaches.
The qualitative feedback of all the three group of participants on the effectiveness of the ten-point approach revels that most of the participants were highly satisfied with the content, relevance, pedagogy, assessment tasks and delivery by the author (see Tables III, V and VII for Qualitative Feedback of participants from MBA-BM, Ph.D. and MBA-HR).

Conclusion
Accounting classes are misperceived by the participants as boring and difficult to understand. Literature on accounting education consists of several studies that had examined the various aspects of accounting education from the developed market perspective and there is a research gap with regard to the impact of the innovative teaching approach on the satisfaction of the learners of accounting in an emerging market business school. This article makes an attempt to bridge this research gap by offering evidence on the impact of an innovative ten-point teaching approach adopted by the author on the satisfaction level of the students of the accounting course in an Indian Business School. The study concludes that the participants were highly satisfied in all the six parameters of student feedback with regard to the impact of the teaching approach adopted by this study. The findings of the study have many implications. First, the study provide evidence on the impact of a teaching pedagogy in accounting education in an Indian Business School, perhaps for the first time and thereby extending the body of knowledge on accounting education. Awesome Excellent Delivery Excellent learning Excellent Teaching skills Good Satisfactory Great experience Great Professor who taught extremely well Good. Finally started to understand accounting concepts and cases Interactive and enjoyable sessions I really enjoyed the teaching methodology and the way he explained the concepts Overall the course structure and the learning was very good Professor keeps the class engaged Perhaps the best Satisfactory The design of the course is relevant to HR participants and the pedagogy was good The faculty is very helpful Good teaching approach Very interesting way of teaching accounting was demonstrated The course was taught by citing relevant examples The content was enriching and the teaching method was very good The course presented a balance between the theoretical and practical aspects Note(s): The above stated are the selective list of qualitative feedback given by the MBA-HR participations for the FRCM course Second, the accounting educators of other emerging countries may investigate the impact of their teaching approach on the satisfaction of their participants. Third, faculty members teaching other management subjects may examine the impact of their teaching approach on the learning outcomes of their participants.
Accounting educators may carry out future research on the impact of teaching approaches on the grades, employment prospects of the participants both from the developed and developing countries settings. Researchers can also examine the following in their future research works: (1) The impact of class timings on the effectiveness of the innovative teaching pedagogy on the learning outcomes of the accounting courses.
(2) The effect of the demographics (such as gender, previous work experience and academic background) on the effectiveness of the innovative teaching pedagogy on the learning outcomes of the accounting courses.
(3) The influence of the academic culture of the institute on the effectiveness of the innovative teaching pedagogy on the learning outcomes of the accounting courses.
(4) The difference in the effectiveness of the innovative teaching pedagogy on the learning outcomes of the accounting courses over a period of time.
(5) The difference in the effectiveness of the innovative teaching pedagogy on the learning outcomes of the accounting courses between two or more business schools/ countries.