Shining Additional Light on Effective Teaching Best Practices in Accounting: Self-Reflective Insights from Cook Prize Winners

Abstract

ABSTRACT The AAA/J. Michael and Mary Anne Cook/Deloitte Foundation Prize is an award designed to recognize up to three currently active faculty members annually for teaching excellence in accounting. This paper has a three-fold objective: (1) provide an additional mechanism for promoting the Cook Prize as a formal means of rewarding and—in the words of the Pathways Commission (2012)—“shining a light” on teaching excellence in accounting; (2) share with other accounting faculty the self-reflective insights on effective and ineffective teaching practices from the first six recipients of the Cook Prize; and (3) compare Cook Prize recipient responses to those of other accounting educator exemplars reported previously in the literature. With regard to categorical identification of effective and ineffective teaching practices, we find general agreement between Cook Prize recipients and accounting educator exemplars, as reported by Stout and Wygal (2010) and Wygal and Stout (2015). Further analysis identifies purposeful planning perspectives common to Cook Prize respondents that inform their teaching strategies. Collectively, these insights from accounting exemplars should be of interest to accounting faculty members who wish to improve their teaching effectiveness, to individuals considering a teaching career in accounting, and to those seeking to inform their professional/teaching development.