Teaching Accounting and Management through Business Simulation: A Case Study

Teaching Accounting and Management through Business Simulation: A Case Study

Paulino L. Silva (Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal), J. Freitas Santos (Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal) and Isabel Vieira (Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal)
Copyright: © 2014 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-5166-1.ch003

Abstract

Everyday accounting and management teachers face the challenge of creating learning environments that motivate students. This chapter describes the Business Simulation (BS) experience that has taken place at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Institute of Accounting and Administration (IPP/ISCAP). The chapter presents students' perceptions about the course and the teaching/learning approach. The results show that pedagogical methods used (competency-oriented), generic competencies (cooperation and group work), and interpersonal skills (organisational and communication skills) are relevant for future accounting professionals. In addition, positive remarks and possible constraints based on observation, staff meetings, and past research are reported. The chapter concludes with some recommendations from the project implementation.
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Accountant’S Competencies: A Brief Literature Review

A large stream of research in accounting education has tried to identify some important skills that accountants must have. Lin et al. (2005) investigated the perceptions of Chinese accounting practitioners, teachers, and students on the required knowledge, skills, and pedagogy for accounting education. The authors concluded that accounting practitioners emphasize written and oral communication skills, a relatively weak area that should be strengthened in Chinese accounting education. Survey evidence from Dutch practitioners (Bots et al., 2009) indicates that there may be three groups of competencies: basic, advanced and highly advanced. Basic competencies need to be present at graduation (e.g. written communication), advanced some years after the start of the career (e.g. financial management) and the highly advanced skills may be needed for Chief Financial Officer (CFO) candidates (e.g. project management). Ellis (2006) reinforces the importance of writing skills considering that a better understanding of what students learn is connected with a further approach in writing.

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