Criteria considered by accounting faculty when selecting prescribed textbooks – A South African study

1. Criteria considered by accounting faculty when selecting prescribed textbooks – A South African study Karen BargateUniversity of KwaZulu-Natal

2. What criteria do South African accounting faculty consider important when deciding upon a prescribed text? Adequate coverage of professional body syllabus? Cost to the student? End-of-chapter questions?

3. Textbooks Serve as a primary teaching tool Supplement the topic being studied Role in facilitating student learning Reinforce existing material Specialist knowledge and skills of the discipline accumulated, communicated, debated May make or break a student’s interest

4. Objective of the study To identify the selection criteria that accounting faculty at 13 South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) accredited universities use to select prescribed accounting textbooks Financial accounting (4 years), auditing, taxation, managerial accounting, financial management (2 – 3 years)

5. Methodology Email questionnaire sent to 300 accounting faculty, 122 (40.67%) responses Profile information – academic rank, level of instruction, teaching specialisation, involved in selection decision 12 structured questions on selection criteria using a 5-point Likert scale Questionnaire adapted from Smith & DeRidder’s (1997) study in United States

6. Academic Rank n % Professor 9 7.3 Associate professor 13 10.6 Senior lecturer 64 52.5 Lecturer 35 28.6 Other 1 1.0

7. Level of instruction n % 1st year 23 16.1 2nd year 31 21.6 3rd year 43 30.1 Honours/post grad 46 32.2

8. Teaching specialisation n % Auditing 15 11.0 Cost/managerial acc 21 15.4 Financial accounting 56 41.2 Financial management 17 12.5 Taxation 27 19.9

9. Involvement in selection decision Group decision – 82.8% Smith & DeRidder (1997:32) – 90% Lecturers from the accounting team together with the subject head in accounting will discuss new books and look at the one best suited for the level of student and module (Fin Acc) Meeting of the taxation section chaired by me (Tax)

10. 13.1% indicated no involvement in decision • Same textbook used for past 17 years, as it is aligned to the syllabus by authors who are teaching the subject at our university. It is a good product (Fin Acc) • The textbook had been prescribed for the previous semester (Auditing) • Decided by management of department (Fin Acc)

11. 4.1% (5) respondents indicated decide exclusively, 3 at post grad level Consistent with Smith & DeRidder (1997:372) “courses (typically graduate) are predominately individual decisions”

12. Ranking of selection criteria Up-to-date text material 1 2 Comprehensible to students 2 1 Clarity of explanation of text 3 4 Compatibility between text and syllabus 4 3 South African context 5 N/A Solutions manual 6 5 Text layout 7 6 End-of-chapter questions 8 - Cost to students 9 9 Instructor’ teaching guide, ancillary material 10 8,10 Additional support material for students 11 12,13,14 Authored by lecturers in the school 12 -

13. Comments Currency of the textbook, readability of the textbook, availability of problems and solutions (Auditing) The most important aspect of a book is its quality and comprehensiveness – a textbook is a contribution to the discipline not a technical manual for a particular course (Man Acc, Fin Mgt) …one that has a principle or concept approach instead of a rote approach that teaches a ‘method’ (Fin Acc)

14. I firstly needed to find a book that addresses the syllabus that needs to be taught (ManAcc, Fin Acc) Style of writing. Updating by constantly adding extra paragraphs to override previous paragraphs is not appropriate or relevant and certainly confuses students (Tax) ...set out to agree with SAICA’s competency framework AS WELL as according to good pedagogical principles (Auditing)

15. Lowest ranked Authored by member of school I thought we teach ethics in most programmes – is there not a conflict of interest if you have written a book for financial gain which you prescribe? Additional support material, instructors guide These add to the cost, borne by student Cost/man acc ranked significantly higher than Tax, Auditing and Fin Acc

16. Cost Ranked 9th out of 12 Grove (2009:1) “faculty members do not purchase [the] textbooks they select, there is less impetus for them to take cost into consideration during the selection process” Students will need to buy only one textbook for all their Man Fin course from 2nd year to 4th year. It will result in a cost saving for the students (Fin Mgt)

17. Academic rank – no significant difference of perceived importance Level of instruction – significant difference comprehensible to students second year ranked significantly higher than first year and third year Teaching specialisation– 7 out of 12 criteria. Up-to-date text material and South African context were less significant for Man Acc/ Fin Mgt than other 3 subjects

18. Conclusion up-to-date text material, comprehensible to students and clarity of explanation are the primary drivers of textbook selection lowest ranking were additional support material available to students and authored by faculty in the school principal method of selection a committee no significant difference between the perceived importance of any criteria for different academic ranks

19. Conclusion Significant difference of perceived importance of criterion, comprehensible to students, for levels of instruction Faculty at the second level of instruction ranked comprehensible to students significantly higher than other levels of instruction. For the teaching specialisations, there were significant differences in ranking between criteria

20. Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the questionnaire Morgan who helped with the data capture