A strategy for using digital mindsets and knowledge technologies to move past pandemic conditions

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical concepts of adult constructive development (ACD) in response to a requirement to teach fully online during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, responses have been unique for many university educators, regardless of the roles they have in supporting students during this time. How each person approaches the changing context can be enhanced by an understanding of their mindset as defined by Kegan’s theory. Design/methodology/approach An accounting academic and educational designer combine their expertise and engage a “digital mindset” to guide the re-design of the management accounting unit incorporating strategies that encourage students to be self-reliant yet learn from a broad diversity of perspectives. Findings Unexpected changes within an educational environment may be the catalyse needed to force significant rethinking of pedagogical practice within the online teaching space. Practical implications This paper offers practical thinking and design tips for creating interactive learning and teaching programs to develop a positive and supportive approach that challenges and facilitates cognitive growth in student knowledge, skills and learning behaviours. Social implications Stimulating student interaction via the creation of interactive and dynamic online curriculum design teachers may communicate more effectively with students as well as sharing their knowledge and skills with each other. Originality/value The authors explore Kegan’s ACD framework (1982, 1998, 2009) within the context of tertiary teaching and learning design for management accounting. The authors propose online strategies for each of the levels of development in the form of supports and challenges.

Accounting education in a Latin American country during COVID-19: proximity at a distance

“…The third stage, the action process, has been found to begin with little (no) preparation. These unexpected changes within the educational environment were a catalyst that rethought pedagogical practice (Stewart and Khan, 2021). Although there was no time for a detailed design of the new environment, the instructors managed successfully with little specific training (Sadiq, 2020).…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic shook the entire world and forced educators worldwide to adopt online teaching-learning systems (Dhawan, 2020). In accounting education, this has been perceived as a "lockdown" (Othman, 2021;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Ramachandra and Wells, 2021;Stewart and Khan, 2021), as a "deadly outbreak" (Aji et al, 2020), with different transition cycles of accounting academics (Ackermann, 2021). The generalised response in accounting programmes has been to move from face-to-face training to online training (Reyneke et al, 2020), also called "distance learning" or "remote teaching" (Masoud and Bohra, 2020).…”

“…The emerging literature on accounting education in the COVID-19 context has focussed on faculty autoethnography and undergraduate students studies. The group of articles on faculty describes recent teaching experiences (Ackerman, 2021;Beatson et al, 2021;G omez and Alba, 2021;Haynes, 2020;Mai, 2020;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Stewart and Khan, 2021;Wong and Zhang, 2020) whilst the other group highlights student responses and challenges (Ali et al, 2020;Bowyer, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Malan, 2020;Pasion et al, 2021;Reyneke et al, 2020). There is also a paper on graduate students (Ramachandra and Wells, 2021) and another one on the training of instructors for online education (Sadiq, 2020).…”

“…Initially, the literature of accounting education in the COVID-19 context was geographically concentrated in Australia (Beatson et al, 2021;Dyki et al, 2021;Mai, 2020;Powell and McGuigan, 2020;Sadiq, 2020;Stewart and Khan, 2021;Wong and Zhang, 2020) and New Zealand (Ackermann, 2021;Ali et al, 2020;Beatson et al, 2021;Othman, 2021;Ramachandra and Wells, 2021). Authors wrote some works with institutional affiliation in Indonesia (Aji et al, 2020), Portugal (Pasion et al, 2021), South Africa (Malan, 2020;Reyneke et al, 2020), UAE (Masoud and Bohra, 2020), UK (Haynes, 2020) and USA (Bowyer, 2021;Fogarty, 2020).…”

From unrequited love to sleeping with the enemy: COVID-19 and the future relationship between UK universities and professional accounting bodies

“…The absence of formal ties, the lack of a coordinated approach to accounting degree education and the complexity of the structural relationships between stakeholders enables us to reflect on all components of this long relationship. Thus, we argue that if the two phases highlighted in this paper continue to dominate the PAB–university relationship, this will have significant consequences for the roles and identities of academics in constructing interactive learning and teaching programmes that develop a positive and supportive approach (Stewart and Khan, 2021). Traditionally, by virtue of their proficiency and professional status, academics were principally trusted to design and deliver curricula in a way that echoed the interests of students (Clarke et al , 2007).…”