Shining Additional Light on Effective Teaching Best Practices in Accounting: Self-Reflective Insights from Cook Prize Winners

• In Event: Teaching, Learning and Curriculum

Abstract

The AAA/J. Michael & Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize is an annual award designed to recognize up to three currently active faculty members who “consistently demonstrate the attributes of a superior teacher in the discipline of accounting. The Prize serves to recognize, inspire and motivate (AAA) members to achieve the status of a superior teacher.” The present paper has a three-fold objective: (1) provide an additional mechanism for promoting the Cook Prize as a formal means of rewarding and—in the words of the Pathways Commission (2012)—“shining a light” on teaching excellence in accounting; (2) share the self-reflective insights on teaching effectiveness and ineffectiveness practices of the first six recipients of the Cook Prize; and (3) compare Cook Prize recipient responses to those of other accounting educator exemplars reported previously in the literature. Findings with regard to categorical identification of teaching effectiveness and ineffectiveness practices indicate general agreement between Cook Prize recipients and accounting educator exemplars as reported by Stout and Wygal (2010) and Wygal and Stout (2015). Further analysis identifies purposeful planning perspectives common to Cook Prize respondents that inform their teaching strategies. Such insights should be of interest to accounting faculty members interested in improving their teaching effectiveness, to individuals considering a teaching career in accounting, and to those seeking to inform their professional/teaching development.

Authors

• Donald E Wygal, Rider University

• David E. Stout, Youngstown State University

• Billie M Cunningham, University of Missouri-Columbia