Providing an Experiential Dimension To Cost\Managerial Accounting Courses

Abstract

Johnson and Kaplan have argued in their recently published book that the management accounting systems in place are no longer relevant to managers relying on them for their informational needs. Major reason for this loss of relevance is due to the subservience of managerial accounting systems to financial accounting reports. In the academic world one also finds cost/managerial courses playing a subservient role to financial accounting. The accounting majors usually take only one cost course in contrast to four to six financial accounting courses. Given this imbalance, instructors teaching cost/managerial accounting courses must maximized the students' exposure to the decision-making and planning role of accounting information, The students’ learning experience in the cost/managerial accounting courses can be enhanced by using an experiential dimension to the class. The paper discusses ways instructors at Northern Arizona University have supplemented book learning with experiential modes of knowledge.