Educating Gen XYZ : strategies for facilitating active learning and engagement in accounting education

There are a number of influences in the changing nature of the higher education landscape, one of which is the evolving needs of the profession in this digital age. It is commonly acknowledged within the accounting education domain, for example, that as graduates enter the workforce, knowing a lot of facts or having an accumulation of knowledge is far less important nowadays than having the skills and ability to deal with complex and often ambiguous information. This conceptual change requires a substantial modification to the way learning and teaching at university is facilitated. This paper discusses a learning intervention, which explicitly addresses the need to ensure that graduate accountants are well equipped to face the challenges of modern business environments. The study described in this paper considers the active learning construct as having the capacity to promote the development of generic skills and attributes that are essential for success in the accounting profession. The paper discusses the impacts of this learning intervention, informed by a combination of constructive alignment (Biggs, 2003), Chickering and Gamson's (1987) seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education, and approaches embodied in the apprenticeship-style learning from the situated learning paradigm (Collins, Brown & Newman, 1989). The findings reported in this paper are promising, in that they provide important points for reflection to the way learning and teaching at university can be meaningfully facilitated to meet the demands of the accounting profession.