Thoughts on Competency Integration in Accounting Education

Lawson et al. (2014) provides a conceptual framework for accounting education that suggests all accounting professionals (and therefore our students) can best add value to the organizations that employ them by integrating diverse professional competencies. Left unanswered, however, is a detailed discussion of various curricular-implementation issues, including strategies for achieving the competency integration envisioned in the Lawson et al. (2014) framework. This paper begins by identifying four levels of curriculum integration and then provides specific examples of competency integration using two plausible and broad learning objectives: capital investment decision analysis, and inventory management. The paper also addresses the following two challenges associated with the development and implementation of an integrated competency-based teaching framework in accounting: (1) defining the set of learning objectives that span accounting and broad-management competencies, and (2) defining the scope of integration. In short, this paper is meant to begin the dialogue of how the curricular integration, as envisioned in the educational framework presented in Lawson et al. (2014), could be implemented in practice. Additional dialog regarding alternative curricular-integration strategies in accounting is encouraged