Abstract
Having pervasive skills is becoming more important to employers as well as to professional bodies and associations. Consequently, the ability to work in groups is regarded as an essential skill. Although working in groups is found to heighten the performance of students and lead to the development of various pervasive skills, group work still forms a very small part of most South African tertiary education teaching frameworks. As a consequence, most professional bodies have updated their competency models and syllabuses they prescribe to tertiary institutions. In response to this development, the Department of Accounting at Stellenbosch University in South Africa has developed a management accounting project requiring students to prepare a business plan for a new business venture while working in groups, giving consideration to the skills they believe they should develop. A questionnaire was created to investigate students perceptions of group work. Responses were favourable with the majority of respondents being of the opinion that the ability to work in groups is an important skill to develop while at university before commencing their professional careers. The study highlighted some obstacles which need to be considered in developing a project requiring group work. The main constraints appear to be group selection, group size, group management and assessing group work and time.
Highlights
T he International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (2006, para 42) lists “working in groups effectively” as one of the key skills required in terms of the education and development programme for accounting professionals
If the premise is that group work is important to future success, this lack of exposure to group work supports the motivation of professional bodies to require universities to include teaching tools in the curriculum that enhance pervasive skills developed by group work
This might be because professional bodies may realise that students who did not have the experience of working in groups will lack the necessary pervasive skills in future
Summary
T he International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) (2006, para 42) lists “working in groups effectively” as one of the key skills required in terms of the education and development programme for accounting professionals. As a result, accounting practitioners are demanding that group work skills be developed at tertiary level before entrants enter the job market (Peek, Winking, & Peek, 1995; Lindquist & Abraham, 1996) The only way this can be achieved is to give students the opportunity to complete tasks and assignments in groups (Stainbank, 2003). This study contributes to the discussion supporting the use of group work projects to teach students pervasive skills in the field of accounting education and in management accounting. This study is relevant to educators in general, because the principles and findings are applicable to group work projects in any environment It addresses the question whether tertiary institutions should be tasked with developing the skills perceived to be developed by group work. Each section requires different learning approaches, teaching methods, and the development of different skills
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