Wed March 16, 2011

The pressure to produce higher graduation rates in high schools has led thinly disguised reviews before exams. The review of course turns out to be remarkably similar to the exam. Bingo the grades and  graduation rates improve and the supt, principals, etc all say See what  good educator am I!  This charade continues in many community colleges. I have had students visit a few minutes in person and remark that would never happen in community college. The adjuncts have to go tot their real job, so not conversation. Or the CC may put the entire course in the computer lab, this solves all scheduling problems, just come by when you can, hit a few buttons till the answer appears, and bingo, you complete the class. (I am not putting all CCs in this category but it happens).

And so students arrive assuming that all tests are like the ones that have come so far, This is an understandable expectation, learned over years of exposure. But now it is different, the problems are more complex. Notice this means that students have not been reading outside the class either, no magazines, newspapers, or business books much less business websites. And so, for the first time ever, things are different. 

Think of it this way. One might have casual recognition, familiarity, or content mastery. 

casual recognition of a brand of dress-oh that's a Versace not a Ralph Lauren

Now let's suppose we hire you to comment on the fashions that are worn on the Red Carpet before the Academy Awards. Each fashion house is eager to show off its latest designs and has picked gorgeous movie stars who have no doubt starved themselves on 1,000 calories a day for weeks just for the event. Now, can you explain in sound bites the difference between a Versace and a Ralph Lauren original?  Can you describe how this year is different from say the dress that Angelina wore from the same designer two years ago, or how it is different from the one Audrey Hepburn or Kate Hepburn wore decades ago?  Gee that is a lot tougher and will require an almost encyclopedic knowledge of trends, trend setters, and signature fashion design. Of course it will, that is why you got hired. I call this level familiarity. Such experts are hired to comment on gymnastics, diving, fashion, ice skating, and such exactly because they possess such familiarity. 

Now, suppose you got hired by Versace. Versace has signed Hillary Swank to appear in their newest line, Morocco, sporting gorgeous natural fibers of silk, cotton, and fine wools. Your assignment is to create this new look. HIllary will be coming by for an initial fitting and measuring, ready set go. Now you have to create the look rather than just comment. You will design the pattern and supervise the seamstress that put it all together. If the look is not right you will have to take it apart and get re-arrange the entire look for that one-off, gotta have it, smash even the most jaded experts at Vogue and Elle. Gee that is a whole different level of expertise. I call this Content Mastery.

So where am I going with this, no Professor Elam is not becoming a fashion blog. the problem is that most accounting students are only operating at the level of recognition. But accounting requires that one operate at the content mastery level. After all, we are literally creating the financial statements. 

Users of financial statements, may get by with recognition, did we make money,look at net income. Analysts need to operate at the familiarity level, can you examine the components of net income to see where the money came from, borrowed or earned?

Real accountants however must operate at the level of content mastery. After all it is the accountant who builds the financial statement, just as the designer creates the one-off masterpiece for Ms. Swank. 

All of which is to say that a mere recognition of what is happening will not be sufficient for success. This is why multiple choice statements separate the quick and the dead, one must understand how the entries come to be. Now many of these questions require you to think back and reconstruct the original entry and fill in  a missing blank. 

As I have many female students I used the fashion example. Here is another way to look at it. Many of you drive to school in a car with an automatic transmission. Using it is easy, one just has to recognize drive or reverse, select one, and go. Familiarity might consist of describing that this Nissan has a CV or constant velocity transmission or that mercedes has a six speed automatic with paddle shifters. But now, suppose we require that you analyze what is wrong with a transmission, tear it down and fix it?  Gee that will require content mastery. Very few people can do the final step, like all pyramids of understanding the ability to analyze fault and correct it means operating at the highest level. 

Plan to attain content mastery regarding accounting.