All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Joan Amanda Ballantine |
|---|---|
| Email: | joan.ballantine@qub.ac.uk |
| Institution: | Senior Lecturer, Queens University Belfast |
Patricia McCourt Larres
Accounting education at tertiary level has been criticised in the literature for failing to provide graduates with transferable skills required by professional bodies and employers. Chief among these skills are interpersonal and communication skills which are promoted by team work. Accordingly, the literature recommends the adoption of group-work as the appropriate learning approach to deliver these skills. However, group learning structures vary. At one end of the continuum is simple group learning where students form their own groups and experience little in the way of structure or management. At the other is cooperative learning which boasts a more robust structure in terms of formation and management. However, little empirical evidence exists to allow academics to make an informed choice as to which form of group learning delivers the greatest benefit in terms of interpersonal and communication skills. This paper addresses this deficiency by comparing perceptions of skills enhanc ement between accounting students who have experienced simple group learning and those who have experienced cooperative learning. The findings reveal that the cooperative learning group believed that their learning experience was significantly more effective at enhancing interpersonal and communication skills than that of the simple group learning cohort. This study provides evidence that cooperative learning is an effective model for delivering interpersonal and communication skills.