Enhancing tax analysis skills through Excel-based scenarios: exercise encourages hands-on data analysis to address the Model Tax Curriculum's concern for delivering basic tax knowledge and developing students' skills.

• Author: Harrington, Steve

A joint task force of the AICPA and the American Taxation Association (ATA) issued a revised Model Tax Curriculum (MTC) in May 2014. This represents the fourth iteration of this valuable resource for accounting educators.

The document highlights both the importance of, and challenges for, the study of taxation. The MTC has provided guidance to educators since 1996, complementing other resources such as the Accounting Education Change Commission report, the AICPA Core Competency Framework, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business Assurance of Learning standards, and the ongoing work of the Pathways Commission. Despite this encouragement and support, however, the MTC notes that "significant gaps in fundamental principles and skills remain."

Researchers have explained this shortfall by noting the dynamic state of the business environment and growth in technology and the resulting inability of accounting education to keep pace (Wessels, "A Critical Learning Outcome Approach in Designing, Delivering and Assessing the IT Knowledge Syllabus," 19 Accounting Education 439 (October 2010)). The issue must be considered from the viewpoint of both accounting and tax educators. From a tax perspective, the MTC emphasizes that all accounting students should develop basic tax knowledge "because taxation is pervasive, complex and critical to decision-making" (MTC, 2014).

The MTC recommends a variety of active learning approaches to achieve the document's learning outcomes and as a basis for future learning. Similarly, researchers have explored pedagogies from a number of perspectives. For example, the MTC and the Core Competency Framework recommend a broader approach to tax education and active student involvement, an approach that supports a skills-based curriculum and enhances lifelong learning (Hite and Hasseldine, "A Primer on Tax Education in the United States of America," 10 Accounting Education 3 (2001)). Educators can enhance student-centered learning through an interactive environment such as computer-based instruction (Larres and Radcliffe, "Computer-Based Instruction in a Professionally-Accredited Undergraduate Tax Course," 9 Accounting Education 243 (2000)). Educators can also develop abilities with information communication technologies such as spreadsheet software through active learning methods, thereby improving skill sets desired by employers (Ling and Nawawi, "Integrating ICT Skills and Tax Software in Tax Education,"

27 Campus-Wide Information Systems 303 (2010)). Panelists at an accounting conference on professional judgment emphasized the benefits of developing accounting intuition, building problem-solving skills, using experiential hands-on learning, focusing on process rather than outcomes, and learning to choose between alternatives (Cornell, Jamal, and Robinson, "Teaching Professional Judgement in Accounting," 6 Accounting Perspectives 123 (2007)).

Educators frequently seek to accomplish learning outcomes through the traditional use of textbooks and, specifically, end-of-chapter (EOC) material. An emphasis on EOC material, however, can result in a narrow focus on students' technical knowledge and a lack of development of higher-order cognitive skills (Gupta and Marshall, "Congruence Between Entry-Level Accountants' Required Competencies and Accounting Textbooks," 14 Academy of Educational Leadership Journal 1 (2010)). Higher-order skills, according to the...