+
Cognitive Apprenticeship in Accounting Education
Preparing Students for the Profession
Nona Muldoon and Jennifer Kofoed

Implementing the seven principles

Second Life Machinima as a learning anchor

Real life dilemmas

Cognitive apprenticeship in practice
Modelling (on-campus)
Modelling (off-campus)
Coaching Fading

Constructive alignment in practice

Design-based research
322 students

Students’ perceptions of their learning experience

Comparative course results

Impact of the apprenticeship model
• Emphasised the relationship of content knowledge
and thought processes to perform authentic task.
• Students benefited from the opportunity to
collaborate, reflect and scaffold from members
of their audit team.
• “The Hird & Co scenario made the course
more life like and made the tough course
interesting.”
• “It forces you to consider things differently
to the way you would normally look at them
and opens your mind to other possibilities.”

Impact of curriculum alignment
• Students appreciated the linking of all curriculum
elements and were motivated to learn
• Facilitated a high level of active engagement and
participation across all cohorts of students
• “I could appreciate how the weekly
group tasks were building towards the
assessment”
• “I can honestly say I have never learnt
more in a subject and truly appreciate
the structure of the course”

Concluding remarks
“I think that personally I have gained many
skills and attributes from this task... It has
been amazing to see through my journals how
our team and myself as a person grew
throughout this term.” Student T1 2008

Nona Muldoon Jennifer Kofoed
Email: n.muldoon@cqu.edu.au Email: j.kofoed@cqu.edu.au
Skype: nona.muldoon Skype: jenny.kofoed
Blog: http://nonamuldoon.wordpress.com
Twitter: Nona_Muldoon
PPT slides in Slideshare:
http://www.slideshare.net/nona.muldoon

Results
P1 The level of interaction is at a high standard and is better
than most other courses I have completed.
P2 The Audit team not only helped me by explaining concepts
that I struggled with but my understanding was increased
by having to explain concepts to others.
P3 In my view the course encouraged active learning in the
learning and teaching process to a very high degree.

Results
P4 I found this course far superior to others I have undertaken
in terms of prompt lecturer feedback and am satisfied with
the communication responses.
P5 I think the strategies in place are good in helping me keep
on track, especially the announcements on balck board
[sic]… this was a good reference point.
P6 I was aware of the high expectations in this course and do
think this helped me reach greater heights in studying and
learning… For me they could not be improved further.
P7 The greatest part of the experience for me was feeling like
we were a real audit team, learning together and
conducting the audit together…