The learning journal as critical reflective assessment tool in accounting education

Criticism has raged for a number of decades concerning deficiencies in accounting education, including poor up take of teaching and learning innovations to improve the quality of learning and, in particular, to provide opportunities for accounting students to develop and demonstrate a range of generic competencies. this paper provides a report on a three-year longitudinal trial (2004-2006) of innovation in postgraduate management accounting education where a learning journal featured as a formal assessment innovation. The journal was designed to address a range of recognised shortcomings in terms of learning processes, experiences and outcomes. Utilising action research methods, the staged implementation of the trial is described and evaluated, based on qualitative and quantitative analysis of the 23 learning journals submitted across the trial period. The results and findings, while derived from a small sample, should nevertheless be instructive for academics wishing to benchmark their own teaching and assessment activities, as well as providing a case study of innovation implementation highlighting both pitfalls and prospects in achieving change in accounting education at the micro level.