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Accounting Education
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Accounting education: a cooperative learning strategy

James W. Carlanda; Jonn C. Carlanda; Janet C. Dyeb
a
School of Business, Western Carolina University, b School of Business, University of Alaska
Southeast,

To cite this Article Carland, James W. , Carland, Jonn C. and Dye, Janet C.(1994) 'Accounting education: a cooperative
learning strategy', Accounting Education, 3: 3, 223 — 236
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/09639289400000021
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09639289400000021

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 Accounting Education 3 (3), 223-236 (1994)

Accounting education: a cooperative

learning strategy
JAMES W . CARLAND', JOANN C. CARLAND*'
AND JANET L. DYE2
' School of Business, Western Carolina University
School of Business, University of Alaska Southeast

Received September 1992

Revised September 1993
Accepted April 1994

Abstract
This paper reviews the experiential learning and learning-styles literature and applies it to accounting
instruction. The authors show that the majority of Sophomore accounting students display a learning
style which is inconsistent with traditional teaching methods. An experiential teaching approach is
presented which utilizes a cooperative learning environment. This method resulted in improved
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student performance.
Keywords: learning styles, experiential learning, accounting, institutions

I never teach my pupils,

I only attempt to provide
the conditions in which
they can learn.
Albert Einstein (Walter and Marks, 1981, p. 1)

Introduction
This quote of Einstein's seems to succinctly state the apparently inherent conflict between
teaching and learning. If the objectives of educators in management and business are to
support the learning process, they may need to d o more than simply teach; they may need
to create an environment in which students can learn. One of the most difficult courses in
management education in which to create such an environment is the Principles of
Accounting course. Like many instructors, the authors have experienced tremendous
frustration in striving to make sophornores literate in accounting. This paper will explore
some of the issues involved in teaching accounting, examine the role of learning styles,
and will present a strategy which the authors have employed successfully to increase the
rate of learning. The focus of the paper will be changes in the traditional teaching paradigm
which can improve the learning process in accounting courses.

* Address for correspondence: Dr JoAnn Carland, School of Business, Western Carolina University, PO Box
2689, Cullowhee, NC 28723, USA.
0963-9284 Q 1994 Chapman & Hall
 Carland et al.

Traditional accounting education

Traditionally, accounting is taught passively by lectures and illustrations of problem
solutions. Practice sets and/or labs are assigned to simulate real-life applications, but the
focus remains on class presentation of concepts and problem solutions. This paradigm and
its historic and persistent role have been recognized by the American Accounting
Association's Future Committee (American Accounting Association, 1986). The traditional
view is that accounting is rigorous and many students are not sufficiently motivated to
perform well. Traditionally, the expectation is that those students who succeed in
Accounting Principles are those who wish to pursue majors in accounting, a minority in
any principles class; those students who are achievement oriented and highly motivated;
or, those students who work hard. Further, such students will succeed regardless of the
approach used to teach the course. The corollary is that those students who do not do
well are not interested in accounting; not highly motivated or not achievement driven; or,
not willing to devote long hours outside of class. Such students will not do well, regardless
of the approach used.
Research in accounting education has frequently supported the traditional view. Many
studies have shown that key factors in success in accounting are past grades and grade
point averages (Lavin, 1965; Astin, 1971; Eckel and Johnson, 1983; Dockweiler and Willis,
1984; Hicks and Richardson, 1984; Ingram and Petersen, 1987). Many other studies have
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shown performance on college entrance exams to be highly correlated with success in

accounting (Cattel and Butcher, 1968; Astin, 1971; Eckel and Johnson, 1983; Schroeder,
1986). Yet further studies have demonstrated the value of student motivation and effort
(Lavin, 1965; Uguroglu and Walberg, 1979; Baldwin and Howe, 1982; Schroeder, 1986;
Eskew and Faley, 1988). One limitation of all of these studies is that they take as given
that academic performance is equivalent to learning. Consequently, they focus on what it
takes to perform well in the academic accounting setting.
Modern researchers in accounting education are increasingly recognizing that learning
is different from academic performance and that the structure of the teaching paradigm
needs to change in order to increase the learning rate of all students. Many studies involving
approaches to modify the traditional teaching approach have been presented in recent
years (Baldwin and Reckers, 1984; Baker et al., 1986, 1987; Brown and Burke, 1987; Togo
and Baldwin, 1990; Campbell and Lewis, 1991; Knechel, 1992; Cottell and Mellis, 1993;
Geary and Rooney, 1993). Despite this shift in paradigm, some researchers continue to
stress the importance of student effort in traditionally designed accounting classes (Doran
et al., 1991).
Pressure on the academic community to change its traditional perspective of the
educational process is building (Arthur Andersen & Co. et al., 1989; Evangelauf, 1989;
Ekroth, 1990; Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990). The authors of this paper
postulate a twofold basis for the pressure. First, the persistent lack of success of large
numbers of students in Accounting Principles is attracting attention from educators.
Estimates are that 35% to 45% of enrollees in these courses fail to complete them or earn
less than satisfactory grades (Doran et al., 1991). Secondly, poor performance of accounting
graduates in the profession is resulting in calls for classroom changes to emphasize the
development of real-world skills (Evangelauf, 1989) such as critical thinking, oral and
written expression (Ekroth, 1990) and active learning, problem solving and interpersonal
skills (Accounting Education Change Commission, 1990).
 Cooperative accounting education 225
Innovative accounting educators are increasingly recognizing that students have different
learning styles and that those learning styles will inevitably affect their academic and
professional success (Baldwin and Reckers, 1984; Baker et al., 1986, 1987; Brown and
Burke, 1987; Togo and Baldwin, 1990; Geary and Rooney, 1993). There are pioneers in
accounting education who suggest that the traditional paradigm must change to
incorporate a recognition of learning styles in the pedagogy (Togo and Baldwin, 1990;
Geary and Rooney, 1993).

The effects of learning styles

Karl Jung's (1971) theory of personality types forms the foundation for much of the field
of cognitive psychology. Jung felt that conscious mental activity could be subsumed under
forms of psychic activity that remain the same in principle under varying conditions. He
felt that an individual's thought processes tended to be either 'extraverted', attention
directed towards objects and people in the environment, or 'introverted', attention directed
towards the inner world of ideas and concepts. He divided perceptive activity, the ways
of becoming aware of things, people, events or ideas, into 'sensing' and 'intuition' modes.
People who prefer to stress the five senses, who see reality as only what can be seen,
touched, or heard, prefer 'sensing' as a method of perception. People who perceive by way
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of the unconscious, who tend to see things in terms of the whole, and who employ 'hunches'
are 'intuitives.' He divided judgment activities, the ways in which an individual comes to
a conclusion about what has been perceived, into 'thinking' and 'feeling' modes. Thinking
is a mode which links ideas together through making logical connections. Feeling is the
function of making decisions by weighing relative values of issues. The functions pull in
different directions at all times. The dynamics of the theory stress that individuals frequently
change from one mode to another as circumstances dictate, but that each person will have
a preference for one mode over the other.
Myers (1962) extended Jung's work to make more explicit his orientation toward
perception and judgment. She added the concept of an attitude or a preference for a
perceptive or judgment mode. In the perceptive attitude, people are attuned to information
gathering while in the judging attitude, people are more attuned to making decisions,
seeking closure, planning operations or organizing activities.
The four pairs of preferred modes of psychic activity evolved from Jung's work are
extraversion versus introversion, sensation versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and
perceptive versus judging. The 16 permutations of preferences are called 'personality types'
or 'cognitive styles' and can be established through the use of the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (MBTI) (Myers, 1962). The MBTI is a widely used psychological instrument
which assesses an individual's preferences for the various modes of psychic activity.
Kolb (1976, 1984), building on Jung's theory of personality typology, identified four
types of learning styles which people employ. He described the four types as illustrated in
Table 1. As the table shows, two of Kolb's four learning styles, the divergent and the
accommodation, would clearly benefit from a shift in the teaching paradigm away
from lectures and problem illustrations because of their strong preference for concrete
experience.
Kolb (1984) correlated his Learning Styles Inventory with the MBTI and reported that
his convergent style corresponded to the MBTI extraverted-thinking style; the divergent
 Carland et al.
Table 1. Kolb's learning styles

The convergent style Relies on conceptualization and active experimentation, and

The divergent style
The assimilation style
The accommodation style
has as its major strength: problem solving, decision making
and practical application of ideas
Emphasizes concrete experience and reflective observation,
and has as its major strength: imaginative ability and
awareness of meaning and values
Emphasizes abstract conceptualization and reflective observa-
tion, and has as its major strength: inductive reasoning and
an ability to create theoretical models
Emphasizes concrete experience and active experimentation,
and has as its major strength: doing things, carrying out
plans and tasks and getting involved in new experiences

Source: Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, pp. 77-78

to the introverted-feeling style; the assimilation to the introverted-intuitive style; and, the
accommodation to the extraverted-sensing style (pp. 8 1-94).
Keirsey and Bates (1984) developed four dominant types of temperaments from the work
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of Jung, Kretschmer, Freud, Adler, Sullivan, Maslow and Myers-Briggs. The four groupings
are simpler to work with than the 16 different types determined by the MBTI and are
established by examining the dominant characteristics of each typology. The four groups
which result, labelled SP, SJ, NF, or NT, are called temperaments. Keirsey and Bates
named the temperaments for Greek gods who embodied the primary characteristics. The
temperaments derive from an individual's dominant preferences for sensing versus judging
or perceiving, and for intuition versus thinking or feeling. The temperaments can be
identified with the MBTI or with the Keirsey Temperament Scale (Keirsey and Bates, 1984).
Extrapolation of Kolb's learning styles to the temperaments elucidated by Keirsey and
Bates would result in groups with the characteristics displayed in Table 2.
In a survey of business administration students, Kolb (1984) found that students of
management or business administration tended to display the accommodation learning
style. That style is one which learns best from concrete experience and from active
experimentation.
Accounting majors are different. Baldwin and Reckers (1984) found that accounting
majors tended towards the convergent style. This finding was supported by Brown and
Burke (1987) who also suggested that accounting majors tended to prefer the convergent
learning style. Collins and Milliron (1987) found that accounting professionals pre-
dominantly displayed the convergent style and that the preference was independent of firm
type or practitioner specialty. It seems clear that many accounting majors either self-select
their studies because of their learning style or that other learning styles are forced out of
accounting programmes because of a lack of success. Togo and Baldwin (1990) found that
the convergent learning style performed better in the traditional college level introductory
accounting course. They emphasize that there is no evidence that other styles cannot be
successful in an accounting programme or an accounting career. Nevertheless, the
convergent learners will have a clear advantage in academic performance in a traditional
accounting course.
 Cooperative accounting education 227
Table 2. Kolb's learning styles extrapollated to Keirsey and Bates temperaments

Temperament Learning style

The SJ or Epimethean temperament Convergent learning style

The SJ is decisive, a traditionalist, likes policies, rules, schedules, standards and is
resistant to change, but can be pessimistic and critical and can preserve useless rules
The SP or Dionysian temperament Accommodation learning style
The SP goes into everything full speed ahead, is practical, flexible, open-minded,
excited, enthusiastic, and a risk taker, but does not like theory or routine and lives
for the moment
The NT or Promethean temperament Assimilation learning style
The NT is a visionary and architect of change who enjoys complexity and hungers
for competency, knowledge and mastery, but may lose interest in a task before
completing it
The N F or Apollonian temperament Divergent learning style
The N F is personable, idealistic, empathic, and charismatic, focuses on individuals,
and is participative, but makes decisions based on personal likes and dislikes
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If business students tend toward the accommodation style of learning, one can expect
sophomore accounting classes to be dominated by that type of student. All business
students need accounting skills for success in their future endeavours. Clearly a pedagogy
which is inconsistent with their typologies will hinder their learning. The authors posit
that it is time for a recognition that the purpose of accounting education is not to evaluate
how well students perform under a given pedagogy, but to increase their learning. In order
to accomplish that purpose, the pedagogy should strive to accommodate all learning styles.

Experiential learning
Experiential learning has been a concept of interest for many years to educators in a variety
of disciplines. Its advocates and its critics are many and varied (Hutchings and Wutzdorff,
1988; Henry, 1989; Boud, 1989; Wildemeersch, 1989; Nelson, 1989; Peterson, 1989; Walter
and Marks, 1981; Kolb, 1984). Experiential learning is defined as a sequence of events
which require active involvement by the student at various points (Walter and Marks,
1981). There may be multiple learning objectives but the central tenet is always that one
learns best by active involvement.
Jerome Coleman (1976) presents an excellent differentiation between experiential and
classroom learning. He focuses on the sequence of steps in the learning process employed
in the classroom and in experiential processes. The learning steps which he identified and
the differentiation which he described have been validated by others in the field of
experiential learning (i.e. Harris, 1979; Kolb, 1984; Seeman, 1988). Coleman describes the
steps in learning under a classroom process as:

(1) receiving information through a symbolic medium such as a book or lecture;

(2) assimilating and organizing information so that the general principle is understood;
 228 Carland et al.
(3) being able to infer a particular application from the general principle; and
(4) moving from the cognitive and symbol-processing sphere to the sphere of action.
Experiential learning, according to Coleman (1976), follows an almost reverse sequencing.
The learning process involves:
(1) carrying out an action in a particular instance and seeing the effects of the action;
(2) understanding the effects in a particular instance;
(3) understanding the general principle under which the particular instance falls; and
(4) applying the concept through action in a new circumstance within the range of
generalization.
Coleman believes that the advantages of the classroom method include a reduction of the
time and effort required to learn something new. Its disadvantages are that it depends
heavily on the symbolic medium, which is usually language, and it depends upon extrinsic
motivation. On the other hand, experiential learning is time consuming; however, Coleman
believes that it has a strong advantage in that it depends upon intrinsic motivation. More
importantly, Coleman believes that learning through the experiential concepts is less easily
forgotten than learning through the information assimilation of the traditional classroom
because, '. . . the associations that embed it in memory are with concrete actions and events
to which effect was attached, and are not merely associations with abstract symbols or
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general principles expressed in abstract symbols' (p. 58).

Astin (1984) was deeply concerned by the motivation required for success in learning.
He posits a theory of student involvement in which he maintains that, '. . . a particular
curriculum, to achieve the effects intended, must elicit sufficient student effort and
investment of energy to bring about the desired learning and development' (p. 301). He
argues that merely exposing the student to a particular set of courses may or may not
work. Astin (1984) defines student involvement as, '. . . the quantity and quality of the
physical and psychological energy that students invest in the college experience', in
whatever form that takes (p. 307). Astin's work supports a belief that experiential learning
could be a superior approach to education, at least for those students who require a
stronger involvement in order for their investment of physical and psychological energy
to result in learning. Nevertheless, Grambsch (1981) found that schools of business have
been slow to adopt experiential learning techniques.
Both the divergent and accommodation learning styles function better with concrete
experience (Kolb, 1984). Remember that most business students are accommodation
learners (Kolb, 1984). Clearly they would be better served with a teaching paradigm which
emphasized experiential learning concepts. Developing such an approach in Principles of
Accounting is eminently feasible.

A change in accounting instruction

The authors have employed the traditional approach to accounting instruction for many
years, but the result always seemed to be boredom and lack of attention within the class
and failure to complete the homework assignment outside of the class; at least, failure to
complete the assignment individually. Like many instructors of accounting principles, the
authors experienced a high failure and withdrawal rate. Table 3 displays the distribution
of grades on final examinations and the proportion of withdrawals from one of the author's
 Cooperative accounting education
Table 3. Historic grade distribution for instructor 1
-

Distribution (Ok)

Grade 1988-89 1989-90 1990-9 1 Total

A 11 18 18 16
B 45 32 29 35
C 18 12 16 16
D 0 9 12 7
F and W 26 29 25 26
Total 100 100 100 100

Table 4. Historic grade distribution for instructor 2

Distribution ( X )

Grade 1989-90 1990-91 Total

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A 8 11 9
B 17 16 17
C 28 35 31
D 17 15 16
F and W 29 23 27
Total 100 100 100

Principles of Accounting classes over the last three years. Table 4 displays the same
distribution of grades for two years for classes of a second author. The basic need for at
least one fourth of the class to repeat the course was a consistent factor in other instructors'
classes. In fact, every instructor of sophomore accounting with whom the authors have
spoken over the years, claims a similar failurelwithdrawal rate. This anecdotal evidence is
consistent with published experience (Baldwin et al., 1989; Doran et al., 1991). There is no
statistical validity in this observation, but it implies that difficulties with sophomore
accounting are systemic and perhaps universal.
The authors had tried a variety of teaching techniques and approaches in sophomore
accounting classes without success. All of those were minor variations of the central
construct: that is, added review classes, sessions and labs; extra assignments for
low-performing students; retakes on examinations; more emphasis on working problems;
more emphasis on explanation of concepts; more practice sets; less practice sets;
computerized assignments; etc.
In academic year 1990-91, the Accounting Department of the primary author became
so concerned with low performance that it decided departmentally to require weekly
attendance of all Principles students at a three-hour lab, monitored by a faculty member,
in addition to the three-hour class meeting. That approach also failed to change the
 230 Carland et al.
Table 5. Learning styles from a sample of sophomores
- --

Kolb's style Keirsey and Bates temperament Percentage

Assimilation Promethean 12
Divergent Apollonian 16
Convergent Epimethean 38
Accommodaton Dionysian 34
Total 100

performance curve. The Accounting Faculty remained concerned about the

high level of repeats in the courses, but were unable to find an approach which could
change it.
As a result of research into teaching effectiveness unrelated to Accounting Principles,
the authors began to gain a growing familiarity with the learning styles literature and with
the experiential learning literature. That familiarity led to skepticism about the traditional
perspective towards sophomore accounting. The authors wondered whether the learning
styles of the students were at odds with the methodologies employed.
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To pursue that concern, the authors administered the MBTI (Myers, 1962) to their
1991-92 classes and divided the students into the temperament classifications proposed
by Keirsey and Bates (1984) and the commensurate learning styles proposed by
Kolb (1984). The distribution is displayed in Table 5.
As Table 5 shows, an extremely high proportion of the classes fell into temperaments
or learning styles which would prefer experiential learning constructs. Kolb's divergent
and accommodation learning styles constituted 50% of the classes. The authors now
became concerned that the traditional perspective about accounting education would not
be effective with these students. That is, if significant numbers of sophomore accounting
students display a learning style consistent with experiential learning preferences, the poor
performance in accounting classes might lie with the instructional methodology rather than
with the students.
Cottell and Millis (1993) describe the use of a cooperative learning structure in
Accounting Principles. This approach involved the use of small groups within the
classroom who work on assignments independently of the rest of the class. Cottell and
Millis (1993) report improvement in the learning process from the approach and highly
recommend it to accounting educators. The cooperative learning process, clearly an
example of experiential learning, has many supporters (Kagan, 1989; Johnson et al., 1984;
Johnson and Johnson, 1989; Johnson et al., 1991; Cooper, 1990a, b; Hassard, 1990; Astin,
1991; Nastasi and Clements, 1991; Cottell and Millis, 1992). These supporters almost
uniformly embrace a maxim of McKeachie et al. (1986) who presented a review of the
literature concerning teaching and learning in the college classroom. They conclude (1986,
p. 63):

The best answer to the question, 'What is the most effective method of teaching?' is that it
depends on the goal, the student, the content, and the teacher. But the next best answer is
'Students teaching other students'.
 Cooperative accounting education

A change in instructional strategy

The authors decided to literally embrace the maxim, 'the next most effective method of
teaching is students teaching students'. To design an instructional strategy incorporating
peer teaching, they organized a pedagogy around a totally hands-on approach. There
would be no lecture, no problem solving, no practice sets, no homework assignments. The
only assignment made was a reading assignment of the text chapters. The idea was to
engage small groups of students in peer teaching under a cooperative environment.
There were four classes in Accounting Principles involved in the experiment. Two were
taught by one author, two were taught by a second author. The students were organized
into four-person teams. Each team was determined by grouping students by learning style.
That is, each group consisted of students with the same learning styles. At the beginning
of each class period an assignment was made from the text. The students did not know
the assignment in advance of the class meeting. Teams worked together to complete the
assignment. At the end of the class, a quiz was administered on the material covered in
that class. Students had to take the quiz individually. The students worked together in a
cooperative environment to help each other learn. Each student understood that he or she
had to master the concepts in order to pass the upcoming quizzes. Periodic examinations
were also administered individually based on several units of study.
The class assignment included short answers for questions selected to reinforce
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theoretical portions of the text and exercises and problems to reinforce concepts and
processes in the text. The teams worked together to complete the assignment. The instructor
acted as facilitator and consultant, providing assistance only when a team was incapable
of continuing. The members taught each other as they assisted each other in completing
the assignment. The peer teaching was reinforced by mandating that teams could only
proceed to the quiz in a group. The hands-on approach was reinforced by mandatory
attendance. Students were not permitted to make up class assignments or to make up
quizzes. The lowest grade was dropped, thereby permitting one absence. Students were
encouraged to study together outside of class in their groups. Students were informed that
preparation for examinations was best served by reworking class assignments and similar
assignments from the text in their groups.
Initially, the teams had trouble finishing the assignments in the allotted time. There
seemed to be a great deal of socialization going on in the groups. When they discovered
that they could not take the quiz until the assignment was finished, regardless of the time,
they moved more rapidly. In fact, as the semester progressed, the instructors found it
necessary to adjust class assignment lengths upward as the classes were performing an
increasing amount of work in the allotted time block.
The distribution of the class performance is displayed in Table 6. Clearly, this strategy
did not lend itself to statistical analysis. That is, the performance of earlier students taught
under traditional methods could not be compared to the performance of the experimental
students. Not only were the students different, the exams were different. There were two
instructors involved in the experimentation, yet their subjective judgments were that the
final exam for the cooperative groups was equally rigorous with those administered to
previous classes.
Table 6 shows that the cooperative class had a stronger performance than the earlier
classes. The grade distribution would lead one to conclude that performance had been
shifted upward. That is, some Bs shifted into As, some CS were shifted into Bs, etc. By far
 Carland et al.
Table 6. Grade distribution in the cooperative group (1991-1992)

Instructor l Instructor 2

Grade Percentage Grade Percentage

A 24 A 13
B 19 B 19
C 10 C 34
D 28 D 20
F and W 19 F and W 14
Total 100 Total 100

the most important factor was the reduction in Fs and Ws. As the table shows, a
dramatically smaller proportion of the classes for both instructors had to repeat the course.

Caveats
Several provisos are apropos at this point. The approach used in this pedagogy does require
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minimizing one's ego. The instructor appears to be relegated to the role of a lab monitor.
That, of course, is not the case, in that planning the class assignments and monitoring the
progress of the teams is crucial to success. Further, the instructor must decide when to
assist a team and when to deny that assistance. A mistake made in one direction could
impair the peer teaching process, while a mistake made in the other direction could create
extreme frustration thereby causing students to withdraw their interest. An untrained lab
monitor or graduate student would be unable to make such judgments effectively.
Nevertheless, the instructor's role is considerably less apparent than the traditional
classroom in which a professor is always at the podium, the blackboard or the overhead
projector.
Further, this approach leads to numerous student complaints initially. Students have
become so accustomed to traditional classes that they instinctively rebel when their
expectations are not realized. Further, this approach really requires a great deal of work
on the part of the student. Most classes truly do not. All that most students have to do is
tolerate class lectures and presentations, share homework assignments and cram for a few
examinations. Sadly, many students seem to be solely interested in obtaining certification
in the form of a degree: not in learning anything and especially not in work. The students
involved in the cooperative class embraced its value toward the end of the semester, but
early in the semester they railed against having to 'dig out' information themselves; they
complained about 'teaching themselves' rather than being taught.
In order to successfully pursue a strategy of this type an instructor must keep foremost
in mind that he or she is the principal architect of the learning process. Students not only
do not know the subject matter, they do not know how learning takes place. Some can
learn passively without any difficulty, but others require a more hands-on approach. But
be warned: those who most need the approach will be most vehement against it in the
early stages.
A major factor with regard to the experiential method may well be noise tolerance.
 Cooperative accounting education 233
Admittedly, a classroom filled with individual teams working and talking,together is noisy.
The authors found that the noisier the classroom, the better the assignments seemed to be
progressing. Quiet teams simply seemed to work together separately. Noisy teams truly
got involved in sharing their ideas about the assignment with each other.
Further, the length of the class period is a major factor because the cooperative method
is considerably slower than traditional methods. Two of the classes involved in this
experience were night classes with three-hour class meetings. The other two classes were
afternoon sessions meeting twice each week for 75 minutes. The afternoon sessions proved
entirely too short. The longer class meetings allow the instructor to make strong contact
with each group and to have enough time to ensure full involvement by the groups. In
the shorter class periods the instructor had difficulty answering all questions from all
groups. More importantly, the shorter time period simply did not provide enough time to
achieve full involvement by the students. Ten minutes were lost at the beginning of the
period as students shifted into groups, traded greetings, prepared books and materials,
read the assignment, and prepared to work. The last 10 minutes of the class were lost to
'clock watching' as student attention began to wander in preparation for departure. That
left 55 minutes of concentrated time which was simply inadequate. In a group setting with
peer teaching, each problem takes longer to complete than normally expected because
students must discuss it and compare notes about it.
The real learning takes place in gaining insight from each other. There must be time for
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the exchange of ideas in order to facilitate that process. The three-hour night classes proved
ideal for this cooperative approach. There was enough time for in-depth discussion and
for the instructor to answer all questions from all groups. Further, there was less
competition for student attention as few students had further activities scheduled after
class. The mental readiness for an in-depth work session seemed to make a tremendous
difference.
Like students, instructors have varying temperaments. That means that some will be
more tolerant of experiential constructs than will others. It probably also means that some
instructors will be more receptive to the idea of new pedagogic strategies than will others.

Conclusions
Clearly, this exploration was not statistically sound. Consequently, the results cannot be
extrapolated. Admittedly, the construct used needs refining. Nevertheless, the results of the
cooperative learning strategy clearly supports the possibility for success with an experiential
construct in sophomore accounting.
Future studies into cooperative learning might be better served by assigning students
with different learning styles to the same group. Such an approach might blend the
strengths of the various types into a stronger learning environment. However, it is clear
that in any given class the distribution of student typologies will not be uniform. This can
complicate a mixed grouping strategy because there are simply too few students in some
typologies to be represented in every group. Consequently, a valuable aspect of future
research might be to compare the grades of mixed groups to the grades of uniform groups.
Such a study could reveal whether the stronger networks which result from uniform types
work better than the blending of strengths of divergent types.
For these authors, the cooperative approach has proven attractive, and they plan to
employ cooperative techniques in a variety of courses. The final determining factor for the
 234 Carland et al.

authors was a statement overheard in the hall in a n exchange between students about the
success of the experience. O n e student said t o her friends, 'I made a good grade in
Accounting a n d it was fun!' O n e rarely hears students describe sophomore accounting a s
'fun'. If the cooperative approach has the power t o a d d that dimension, it is well worth
the effort.
Many Accounting teachers have already abandoned the traditional mode. F o r those still
employing traditional methods a n d who are unhappy with their results, the cooperative
learning environment holds promise. Convergent learning styles simply d o not dominate
business schools. It is time t o recognize that different learning styles call for different
pedagogies.

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