Integrating a foundation for the development of critical thinking skills into an introductory accounting class

We address calls to develop accountants’ critical thinking skills by describing a pedagogy based on Bloom’s ([1956]. Taxonomy of educational objectives, handbook I: The cognitive domain. David McKay) taxonomy for cognitive development which can be integrated into an introductory accounting class. The pedagogy recommends instructors be more cognizant of how critical thinking skills are developed, and adopt instructional examples, problems, and testing strategies for each course topic that are explicitly intended to help develop students’ critical thinking skills in a stepwise manner. To facilitate implementation, we describe how an introductory accounting class was modified to accommodate the proposed pedagogy. Specific examples are included. We also provide preliminary evidence that the proposed pedagogy positively impacts students’ ability to apply accounting concepts (i.e. step three of six in Bloom’s taxonomy).