Over the past 15 years, major changes in accounting education have impacted the way most college and university professors teach introductory accounting. We are gratified that our concepts approach has been so effective it has become a market leader in the change movement. We are confident our teaching approach offers students a more sound understanding of introductory managerial accounting than traditional methods.

Innovative traditionalists

We do not aim to radically transform accounting education, but instead to make it more effective. Recent trends require accounting educators to modify their teaching strategies. Technology and globalization have changed the business environment. The business environment has shifted toward service companies, especially in the United States. Traditional texts, however, emphasize accounting practices developed for manufacturing companies. This text serves the modern business environment by emphasizing decision-making concepts that apply to both service and manufacturing companies. We introduce such topics as operating leverage, cost-volume-profit analysis, relevance, and cost allocation early. Our budgeting chapter illustrates a retail company rather than a manufacturing company. Because we repeatedly emphasize decision-making concepts throughout the text, we include traditional topics like manufacturing cost flow, job-order and process costing, and recording procedures toward the end of the text.

Helping students develop critical thinking skills

Skill development in introductory accounting has been focused at a relatively low level, concentrating primarily on comprehension and recall. Accounting education has traditionally emphasized content. Rigor has been measured by the quantity of content covered. Authors and educators have added more and more topics to the curricula and accounting textbooks have grown ever larger. This model provides little opportunity to help students develop the skills that the modern business environment demands.

This text helps teachers move from the traditional educational paradigm more easily than you might imagine. The content focuses on essential concepts, reducing the amount of material you must cover. You have more time to work on skill development. The Instructors' Resource Manual provides step-by-step instructions for implementing innovative teaching methods such as active learning and group dynamics. It offers enticing short discovery learning cases which provide class-opening experiences that effectively stimulate student interest and help develop critical thinking skills. The text itself also includes many innovative features to better prepare students for the business challenges ahead in today's dynamic environment.

Tom Edmonds
Cindy Edmonds
Bor-Yi Tsay
Philip Olds