Relevance of knowledge, skills and instructional methods from the view point of accounting students and professionals: an international comparative study

Abstract

Driven by Albrecht and Sack (2000), Francis and Kelly (2002) and based on Bloom's Taxonomy (1956), this study aims to compare perceptions of Accountancy undergraduate students and accounting professionals in Brazil about the set of knowledge, skills and methods of teaching and learning that are considered the most important for accountants' professional activities. The study involved a sample of 1,710 subjects: 769 students enrolled in undergraduate accounting programs in Brazilian universities and 941 accountants registered in Regional Accounting Councils from several Brazilian regions, who responded the questionnaire developed by Lin, Liu and Xiong (2005) about the importance attributed to knowledge, skills and teaching and learning methods. The results showed that the professionals perceived all investigated topics as more important when compared to students. Compared with China and the U.S., the scores of Brazilian professionals are always higher for the three dimensions (knowledge, skills and methods). In comparison with the Chinese, the Brazilian students generally also assign more importance to the three dimensions examined. Higher education managers should pay attention to the Brazilian participants' higher scores, considering the intense changes in young students' profiles and the accelerated professional market changes. It is highlighted that these results should be further explored by analyzing their reasons, inferring that the current Accounting context in Brazil, due to the global process of harmonization of international standards, is a favorable scenario for explanations in this respect.