Teaching and Learning Can Be Energizing

When David Stout invited me to participate in a session he was arranging for the 1998 AAA Annual Meeting, he said that his objective was to have three master teachers describe their teaching philosophies and the ways they energize their teaching. For a brief moment, this “master teacher” flattery tickled my ego and I agreed to participate. The sobering reality that this title is completely inappropriate for someone with my teaching style hit shortly thereafter. I hope that by the end of this commentary you will appreciate that my teaching style is very reliant on the relationships I have with my students and, in particular, on their contributions to our combined success. For this reason, notwithstanding my other shortcomings, it makes no more sense for me to aspire to become a master teacher than to aspire to become a master husband, a master father, or a master colleague. In all of these relationships, “we” is more important than “me.” David’s charge caused me to think carefully about a question that I am often asked: Why do my students and I put so much energy and enthusiasm into my courses? The short answer is that we get far more energy than we give. But, where does the energy we receive come from? This is the more difficult question that I will try to address in this commentary by briefly describing my source of energy, and by illustrating the comprehensive course development model I am continually refining in an effort to energize my students. For my part, the energy I receive from teaching comes from the premise that I am doing something important that I cannot come close to perfecting in my lifetime—a quest intellectually and personally stimulating. Teaching accounting to the best of my ability is important because my students will collectively make decisions during their careers that will affect the flow of billions of dollars worth of resources and the lives of countless individuals, and the quality of these decisions can be improved, in part, by what they learn in my courses. Teaching cannot be perfected because none of the essential skills for teaching can be altogether mastered, let alone in combination. Among other things, core competencies include relationship, research and organizational skills, and mastery of a broad base of facts, terms and concepts related to business phenomena. Still, I seek to improve my teaching and other scholarly activities by pursuing ways to strengthen