DESIGNED INTERVENTION IN ACCOUNTING HIGHER EDUCATION TO SOLVE AUTHENTIC PROBLEMS Patrick Edward Walsh Submitted to the faculty of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Education in the Department of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University May 2020 Accepted by the School of Education Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Doctoral Committee ____________________________ Curtis J. Bonk, Ph. D. ____________________________ Krista D. Glazewski, Ph. D. ____________________________ Joshua A. Danish, Ph. D. Date of Defense April 28, 2020 ii © 2020 Patrick Edward Walsh ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to the entire Instructional Systems Technology department. The program exceeded my expectations. I learned so much from my teachers. I can honestly say there was not a class I did not like. My online classmates and I worked hard and I am proud of the work we did and support we provided each other. I can definitely answer the question “Was it worth it?” in the affirmative. When I received my acceptance letter from Indiana University it listed my faculty mentor as Dr. Curtis Bonk. I looked up his bio and was excited to learn he was a CPA who chose a higher path as an instructional designer. He has been my mentor, my instructor, my advisory committee chair, and my dissertation committee chair. His support was extremely helpful and his example as a scholar and teacher sets the bar very high. I am also appreciative of Dr. Glazewski. She was my teacher, a member of my advisory committee, and dissertation committee. It was during my qualifying exam that she introduced me to an intervention study, which helped influence my dissertation. My two Learning Science minor advisors, Drs. Hickey and Danish, were a great help throughout the process and I am grateful for their willingness to participate in my education. I am also grateful for my employer, Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I). BYU-I provided some financial help, but more importantly were encouraging in my efforts to become a better instructor. Lastly, I could not have done this without my family support. My wife, Emily, was supportive and patient over the many late nights and accommodations for someone going to work and school full-time. Without her I would not have been able to finish. My children, Brian, iv Andrew, Mia, and Mackenzie, did not complain when I brought papers to read during breaks in their games or brought my laptop with me on vacation. I hope my example of working hard to reach your goals was visible to them. My parents and parents-in-law are wonderful cheerleaders and I appreciate their example and love. v Patrick Edward Walsh DESIGNED INTERVENTION IN ACCOUNTING HIGHER EDUCATION TO SOLVE AUTHENTIC PROBLEMS Accounting higher education has not changed adequately to address the rapidly changing technology landscape impacting the industry. One way to train accounting students for the future is by helping them solve authentic problems. Four component instructional design (4C/ID) can help prepare students for the changing landscape. However, it has not been used in an accounting education setting until recently. In this study, one section of an upper-division accounting course incorporated 4C/ID, whole-task instruction, in a partnership module. The same module was taught in a different section using traditional lecture, topic-centered instruction. Research questions addressed: Research Question 1. Is there a difference in accounting students’ knowledge of basic tax rules, with respect to partnership taxation, when a topic- centered instructional strategy is used versus the use of whole task-centered instruction? Research Question 2. Are accounting students able to solve authentic problems with respect to partnership taxation when a topic-centered instructional strategy is used versus the use of a whole task-centered instruction? The testing was performed during a two-week partnership module during the Fall 2019 semester. Fifty-four students participated in the two-group study; 31 students in the whole-task experiment group and 23 students in the topic-centered control group. All students took the same three tests; one test was a pre-test, which included CPA exam questions, a second test was a post-test, which included similar CPA questions to the pre-test, and the third test was a summative exam for the module, which included authentic problems. vi The pre- and post-tests were used to measure the students’ learning gains. Both groups had a similar statistically significant increase in their learning. More importantly, there was a significant difference between the groups when comparing the summative assessment, which included authentic problems. The experimental group performed significantly better than the control group on the authentic problems. The implication of this study is that whole-task instruction can better prepare students to solve authentic problems when compared to topic-centered instruction without compromising their performance on content based multiple choice exams, like the CPA exam. Further research could help strengthen this claim. _________________________________ Curtis J. Bonk, Ph. D. _________________________________ Krista D. Glazewski, Ph. D. _________________________________ Joshua A. Danish, Ph. D. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLES ............................................................................................................................ xi FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... xii LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1 The Need for Change ........................................................................................................4 What Skills Are Needed ....................................................................................................9 Designing Accounting Curriculum .................................................................................11 Textbooks Fostering Teacher-focused Learning ............................................................11 Accounting Faculty’s Dual Role .....................................................................................13 Problem Statement ..........................................................................................................14 Description of Study .......................................................................................................15 Research Question 1 ....................................................................................................15 Research Question 2 ....................................................................................................16 Significance of Study ......................................................................................................16 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...........................................................................17 Instructional Design Options ..........................................................................................17 A Comprehensive Model of Accounting Education .......................................................18 Four-Component Instructional Design Model ................................................................18 General research .........................................................................................................19 Accounting research ....................................................................................................20 Implications..................................................................................................................20 Pebble-in-the-Pond Model ..............................................................................................20 General research .........................................................................................................20 Accounting research ....................................................................................................21 Implications..................................................................................................................21 viii Flipped Classrooms .........................................................................................................21 General research .........................................................................................................21 Accounting research ....................................................................................................22 Implications..................................................................................................................23 Problem-Based Learning ................................................................................................23 General research .........................................................................................................23 Accounting research ....................................................................................................24 Implications..................................................................................................................24 CHAPTER 3: METHODS .................................................................................................25