The Use of Scoring Rubics in Management Accounting

ABSTRACT The first two courses in accounting, principles I and II elicit fear and misunderstanding from most business students. Reinforcing the importance of accounting as a foundational building block in business education is critical to the students' success in later business courses. Yet, a large number of students who exit the accounting principles courses are not trained in using accounting for business decisions. In this study the treatment was a rubric assignment in one section of an accounting principles II course. Another section was maintained under the lecture, homework and exam format. Results indicated that students using rubrics in the course initially struggled with incorporating the method into their learning process. Even after students were familiar with the rubric process, they did not show improvement over the control group. Although initial findings were not significant, issues discovered in current study will be used to refine future research. INTRODUCTION The recent accounting scandals ranging from Enron to WorldCom that have rocked the business world as reported in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and other media outlets emphasize the need for change in accounting education. All business students now need to be able to accurately assess the financial statements and accounting records in business organizations. The conventional wisdom that accounting skills should be developed only by those intending to be accountants has proven to be a costly mistake. All managers now have the responsibility to be able to identify accounting inaccuracies within their own organization. The reaction from governmental bodies has been centered on increasing the validity of publicly issued accounting information, as the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 have partially been intended to do. One of the main goals behind recent changes in accounting has been to make non-accountants (Top-Management) responsible for publicly released accounting information. This outcome has led to other non-accountants being forced to reevaluate their accounting skills. Business Schools have responded by reemphasizing the principles of accounting courses and developing courses in ethics and corporate responsibility. Focusing on changing course content and adding new courses, however, does not address the fundamental problem of poor performance by students in the initial principles of accounting courses. There are several possible reasons for the overall poor performance in the two initial accounting courses: 1) U.S. GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), while highly developed, is not always intuitive. 2) More students who are non-accounting majors enroll in the principles of accounting courses. These students are typically not interested or motivated to perform well. 3) Fear of accounting related to perceptions of difficulties in learning accounting exists. All three reasons indicate the need for developing more efficient methods of delivering accounting knowledge to business students. If students understand what they are supposed to learn from a course, and have guidelines on how they will be evaluated, then even students who are not accounting majors will be able to understand the basics of GAAP and other accounting methods. Clearly stated guidelines will be able to minimize or eliminate students' fear of accounting. One of the tools available to enhance student learning in accounting courses is rubrics. Arter and McTighe (2001) define a rubric as scoring tools containing criteria and a performance scale that allows us to define and describe the most important components that comprise complex performances and products (p. 8). Criteria are standards by which something can be judged or valued (Gregory, Cameron, and Davis, p. 7). By specifying the particular qualities or processes that must be exhibited, an instructor provides students with a clear description of and expectations for performance. …