No more monopoly on teaching

Lecturer shows Gen Y need more say in learning

Sonja Larsen
Editorial assistant, Connections
Avondale College of Higher Education
Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

Playing the board game Monopoly in class engages tech-savvy accounting students, research by an Avondale College of Higher Education lecturer shows.

Collaboration is the key, says Dr Keith Howson, dean of the Faculty of Business and Information Technology. Inspired by generational differences in learning preferences, Keith wrote a paper to find new ways of teaching his students. “I know how to reach generation X, but you have to switch gears to reach generation Y,” he says. “These students require us to more engaged, authentic and involved in learning.”

Keith uses Monopoly in class, although he notes the literature also suggests using technology, such as blogs and wikis, and small group tutorials as ways of engaging students and involving them in learning.

Keith presented his paper, called “Teaching accounting to generation Y: applying current technologies to the education experience. An Australian view,” at the 11th World Congress of Accounting Educators and Researchers in Singapore.

Colleague Lyn Daff, a senior lecturer in accounting, also presented. Her paper, “Lessons for accounting educators from the medical world,” examines how medical training incorporates well-developed approaches to teaching interpersonal skills and how these can be adapted for use in accounting education. Lyn has now received an invitation to present a paper at the Southern African Accounting Association this year.

Following the conference in Singapore, Keith presented another paper, “Teaching business ethics: an Australian perspective” at the 22nd Asian-Pacific Conference on International Accounting Issues on the Gold Coast.