Abstract The article presents a discussion on the article "Teaching Approaches to Elementary Accounting," by Lloyd D. Doney and Richard C. Neumann, published in the July 1965 issue of the journal "The Accounting Review." The previous article had highlighted that the use of programmed learning material did not make any significant difference in performance of accounting students, which has been criticized in this article. The author holds that the exposure of students to few items on the evaluation test, prior to mid-semester exams, gave them a significant advantage. The fact can be elaborated by the argument that final examination performance on repeated items was improved about 40% at the University of Massachusetts. It is also noteworthy that the only performance equal even to the third of these was the top performance in the honors section at the University. Thus, it may be that programmed learning has a desirable impact on individual students, even where it does not seem to influence the average performance of the group.

Abstract A programmed instruction contains a teaching machine with a series of small and carefully planned steps by which the teacher's message is revealed, with the requirement that the student makes a response at each of the steps, and with feedback in the form of immediate information about the response expected of the student. The article presents a study on the use of the programmed content of first college course in accounting designed by the author. The program was tried to be made a complete substitute for the textbook exposition and for most of the routine, mechanical work normally carried on in the first semester of college accounting. The programmed material accounted for improved recognition of the needs of people having responsibilities and the often-tentative ways in which accounting data can assist them. According to the author, programmed instruction is important because it provides a means for experimentally improving instruction. The study points to the achievement of advances as the program is experimentally modified and to tentative confirmation of the hypothesis that programmed instruction is effective as a means for teaching introductory material.

Abstract It has become an objective of some of the members of the faculty at the University of Massachusetts to deal with all the subject matter offered in the School of Business Administration as the philosophy, information and skill necessary and appropriate to the general problem of administration. In order to maintain and communicate this focus it is necessary to organize classes around more fundamental subject classifications. These classifications are in terms of what managers need to be able to do rather than in terms of the responsibilities and activities of persons who occupy particular niches in an organization chart. One of the problems which this approach creates is a greater difficulty in conveying to a student the relevance of a particular course to his educational objectives. It was relatively simple to explain that there is some one called a sales manager, or controller, or treasurer whose shoes one day he might fill. Since not all business problems are amenable to a quantitative analysis, and since very many different kinds of problems are amenable, it is useful in an introductory way to examine the functions which numbers can perform.

Abstract "There is no accounting for tastes," an eminent playwright assures, and all teachers have met people with no taste for accounting. Aside from the question of whether cost or market valuation shall be applied at all, it may be decided, according to someone's fancy, whether the rule shall be applied to the totals of the alternative values or to individual items or classes. The difference in result may be marked indeed. There is an uncertain distinction to be drawn which could be removed only by eliminating an alternative and that a choice may always be exercised when a situation qualifies for the pooling treatment. The clash of accounting tastes the matter of minority interest in intercompany profits suggests itself. The issue here concerns assets sold by a subsidiary, not wholly owned, which are retained by the parent at the time of preparation of consolidated reports. Taking inventory as an example, the choice lies between showing the part purchased from the subsidiary at the cost of its acquisition by the subsidiary or at this cost plus a percentage of the profit on these sales equal to the percent of minority ownership. The effect on consolidated book value of inventory would be relatively small, though the effect on minority interest might be substantial.

Abstract Accounting is a means of making certain quantitative information available. When it is obligatory, as in tax reporting, there are rules to follow and no theory need justify them. (Some rules are formulated only after specific returns have been filed.) The area where theory and professional training are relevant is that where a decision-maker is (or would be) motivated to incur the collection costs of accounting because he expects to make a decision which will be more rewarding because the data were known than would the saving of the collection costs have been. The many parties (all of whom are managers) who need this kind of data are mainly trying to determine what company management seeks to know--company prospects under various (or a single) future conditions. Historical data are often irrelevant, and logical historical income determination often disguises relevant portions of the data. Accounting theory should pay more attention to users' objectives, even at the sacrifice of some objectivity. All accounting courses should stress usefulness by pointing out shortcomings of certain data as well as by pointing out the precise conditions where useful data are relevant. At present there is need for a course with this practical emphasis in which the principal attention will be on the relations of data to decisions and on means of analyzing and augmenting routine data for limited internal purposes.

Abstract A student in an elementary accounting class was asked to record the transaction in which a donation had made to the Junior League. The problem of transmitting ideas clearly and accurately is so formidable and of such long standing that it is well-known to all. There are those who believe that its genuine solution would quickly lead to the end of wars. It is important and desirable to establish a uniform terminology, but it will take a long time and one must not hope for too much. The Committee has done much constructive work toward this long-term goal, and this writer relied often upon its work in making his own recommendations with regard to the terminology problem. A precise and uniform terminology will permit the effective accomplishment of this rather necessary service. It should not be necessary to prepare a separate glossary for each report. There should be many terms which will always be present and which can be set up in a standard glossary with which the work of firm members will always be consistent.

Abstract The article presents a list of sarcastic words given by college students in the U.S. to the journal "The Accounting Review." The author of the article requested a class of college students to bring in a list of terms which they felt might be misunderstood. The result was not only what the author expected, but many definitions of the outlandish character which his own example had suggested. Since the authorities of the journal wanted some amusement and since some ingenuity was apparent, they set out to produce the list reported in the article. They examined the index of the current edition of the "Accountants Handkook," and, after selecting the terms produced a list. Some of the words are: Acid-test which is quoted as litmus paper; Accountant is the one without "ecountant," hence a no count; "Accrual" is interpreted as kind; "Allowance for containers" is usually a nickle on each bottle; "Annual Reports are quoted as Independence Day celebrations," "Deferred charges," are quoted as shepherd's flock after shearing.

Abstract Beyond anything else, successful communication of fact and opinion is an essential for accountants. Nor is it likely that the attention of the profession is properly focused when it tries to refine a technical terminology so as to make it understandable to the nonspecialist. The layman requires, upon occasion, a personal interpretation of a special matter. The accountants and other specialists must be sure that their understanding of each other is such that all are able to give the layman his explanation. A recent study indicates that this understanding does not always exist. As an example the article considers how the term, depreciation, is used by accountants. In this study all issues of the periodicals, The Accounting Review, Journal of Accountancy, and Bulletin of the National Association of Cost Accountants from 1930 until October 15, 1954 were scrutinized for intended or implied definitions of many accounting terms, of which depreciation is one. Also examined were miscellaneous publications and all textbooks in accounting which were published currently on October 15, 1934.

Abstract The definitions related to fixed assets are listed in descending order of frequency of usage. The first definition is by far the most frequent, appearing just over one-half of the time. The least frequent definition appeared a little less than ten per cent of the time. The differences here are differences in the scope of the fixed assets category, although every definition excludes those assets which would be classified as "current." The definitions tend either to set up categories for permanent investments or intangibles as separate from the current and fixed asset categories, or they tend to include one or both within the fixed asset group. No amount of any asset would be different under one fixed asset definition or another. The preparation of a balance sheet forces, in effect, the selection of one of the definitions. The income statement is unaffected by a choice of classifications. It is agreed that fixed assets include none of the items which should be classified as current assets.

Abstract Reviews the book "The Core of the Curriculum for Accounting Majors," by Richard B. Flaherty.