Fred Phillips,
University of Saskatchewan Robert Libby,
Cornell University Patricia A. Libby,
Ithaca College
ISBN: 0073527106 Copyright year: 2011
Feature Summary
Relevant Focus Companies. The approach pioneered by co-authors Robert Libby and Patricia Libby, each chapter of FFA makes financial accounting come alive by using a real-world focus company to teach the concepts in each chapter. The real company is integrated throughout, not just in the opener. Students learn financial accounting concepts through the use of examples from such companies as American Eagle (clothing), Activision (video games), Skechers (shoes), and Under Amour (sportswear).
Reinforcement tools: Several tools help reinforce the concepts discussed in the text. These tools are innovative and student-friendly pedagogical features to reinforce concepts in the text as well offering helpful insight.
Coach's Tips. Virtually every student has been inspired by a great coach at some point, and FFA features a Coach who appears throughout the text to help students through difficult topics by offering tips, advice, and good ideas about how to learn. The coach appears in the end-of-chapter material as well, giving students additional encouragement as they work to reinforce the material they've learned.
You Should Know. Provides a quick recap of important terms and concepts used in the text.
How's It Going? – Self Study Practice - Nothing helps like a quiz for mastering tricky subjects, so FFA provides plenty of these innovative review boxes, appropriately placed throughout each chapter. "How's It Going?" boxes pose a review question about the recent material, and provide the answer right there on the page, printed sideways so that students don't accidentally read it before answering the question.
3-step accounting cycle framework helps students grasp the accounting cycle by giving them an easy way to visualize the accounting equation by breaking into three clear portions: Analyze, Record and Summarize.
Clear Writing and Real World Relevance:
Writing that students can read and understand. Fundamentals of Financial Accounting introduces students to financial accounting using an appropriate mix of conversational wording, clear and concise presentations, and everyday examples. It does this without ever sacrificing its rigor or the concepts that are important to grasping financial accounting. Students can feel comfortable as they are introduced to the world of financial accounting.
More Emphasis on the Real World. There's no substitute for working on real-world data, so FFA includes a complete annual report from The Home Depot bundled free with every new copy. Annual Report Cases in the end-of-chapter material call on students to use this data to solve in-depth problems; rival home improvement chain Lowe's is used as a contrast company.
End of Chapter Material:
Homework Helper: Immediately precedes each chapter’s homework materials, highlighting subtleties discussed in the chapter and providing practice advice so that students can avoid common pitfalls when completing homework.
Multi-perspective Discussion Questions: Each chapter includes 10-20 questions that ask students to explain and discuss terms and concepts discussed in the chapter. Specific questions are denoted with an icon and are designed to help students begin developing critical thinking skills. These questions are ideal for sparking debate at the beginning of class or when transitioning between or reviewing topics.
Comprehensive problems: Selected chapters include problems that cover topics from earlier chapters to refresh, reinforce, and build an integrative understanding of the course material. These are a great resource for helping students stay up-to-date throughout the course.
Continuing Cases: Require students to apply topics of the current chapter to a business context that extends the continuing case introduced in prior chapters.
Multiple-Choice Questions. Students are likely to see these kinds of questions on tests and exams, so give them some practice with these quick checks of basic concepts.
Coached Problems. It's as if we've shrink-wrapped a teaching assistant in every book. In every chapter, a group of problems feature hints and check points from the coach, acting as instructional scaffolds to help students get through the toughest parts of each problem. The coached problems have the same structure as the regular problems, but go beyond traditional check figures to advise students on the process of solving a problem rather than just its outcome. When students are ready to tackle problems without help, they can move on to the two additional sets of problems that are structured identically to the set of coached problems.
Skills Development Cases. Ethics, annual report, team, and spreadsheet cases develop the critical thinking, ethical reasoning, financial analysis, teamwork, writing, and technology skills identified by instructors and considered by accreditation bodies as important to students' future careers. The specific skills developed by each case are identified in the Instructor's Manual.
Ethics Mini-Cases. Two in every chapter, the Ethics mini-cases build on the Spotlight on Ethics topics introduced throughout the chapter, and give students the opportunity to experience real-life ethical decision making in practice.
Annual Report Cases. FFA comes complete with an annual report from The Home Depot, and the end-of-chapter cases make extensive use of the data. Students learn how to read an annual report, how to search it for the information they need, and gain valuable perspective on how financial accounting information is used in decision making.
Team Cases. Every chapter also includes a team case that directs groups to search the Internet for companies to analyze, using the tools covered in that chapter. Students not only learn useful research skills but gain valuable practice solving accounting problems in group settings.
Spreadsheet Cases. Every chapter includes at least one spreadsheet problem that allows students to skip the tedium of repetitious number-crunching and focus instead on "what if" analyses and interpretations. And don't worry if your students haven't had formal training with spreadsheets: each problem includes advice on the steps needed to perform basic spreadsheet calculations.
Excel Template Problems. Students entering the accounting profession can never have too much practice working with real software, so FFA's end-of-chapter material includes specially designated problems to be solved with the educational version of Peachtree Complete. These problems are marked with an icon and make ideal homework assignments.
Flexibility. FFA offers flexibility for instructors to choose the areas they want to emphasize, when they wish to emphasize it. This has been achieved by writing each chapter in a self-contained manner and by locating coverage of selected topics in optional end-of-chapter supplements. Instructors who wish to emphasize cash flows early in the course, for example, can assign the body of Chapter 12 immediately after Chapters 4 or 5, but defer its supplement until later in the course. Others who wish to leave the topic for other courses can do so without adversely affecting what students learn from the other chapters.
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2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education