The aim of our paper derives from the necessity of adopting teaching strategiesthat fit better with the students‘ professional skills. The scope of our paper is to investigatethose teaching strategies that can be adopted in Romania in order to help students to gainmore professional skills. We identified most recommended teaching strategies appliedworldwide. Then, based on constraints identified at Romanian university level, we filtered theteaching strategies in order to find those that can be applied successfully in Romania. Wefound that intergroup discussion/class debate, teaching stories, teaching using PPT, games,problem based learning, lecture & discussion, JIT teaching and case studies are strategiesthat can be applied successfully in our business universities.teaching strategies, constraints in teaching, international education standards

Alexandra Ileana Mutiu

English

Research Papers in Economics

Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 13(2), 2011 
 
  290 
AN ATTEMPT TO IDENTIFY PROPER TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR 
ROMANIAN BUSINESS UNIVERSITIES 
 
 
Alexandra Ileana Mutiu
1 
 
 
ABSTRACT: The aim of our paper derives from the necessity of adopting teaching strategies that fit 
better with the students’ professional skills. The scope of our paper is to investigate those teaching 
strategies that can be adopted in Romania in order to help students to gain more professional skills. 
We identified most recommended teaching strategies applied worldwide. Then, based on constraints 
identified at Romanian university level, we filtered the teaching strategies in order to find those that 
can be applied successfully in Romania. We found that intergroup discussion/class debate, teaching 
stories, teaching using PPT, games, problem based learning, lecture & discussion, JIT teaching and 
case studies are strategies that can be applied successfully in our business universities. 
 
Key words: teaching strategies, constraints in teaching, international education standards  
 
JEL codes: M49 
 
 
Introduction 
The necessity of embracing new ways of learning arises from the adoption of International 
Educational Standards  issued  by IAESB. IES provides a uniform general global  framework for 
education;  they  promote  convergence  in  the  application  of  technical  and  practice  standards, 
contributing to the cooperation of accounting practitioners, university teachers, representatives of 
the business community, and the public. In this sense, IES stipulate a certain  level of required 
professional knowledge, professional skills, values, ethics and professional attitudes, developing a 
continuing education approach over the whole duration of life. 
The aim of our paper derives from the necessity of adopting teaching methods that fit better 
with the professional skills students have to become familiar with. Therefore, the scope of our paper 
is to investigate those teaching strategies that can be adopted in Romania in order to help students to 
gain more and more professional skills.  
The novelty of this paper relies on the fact that teaching strategies in Romanian business 
universities is not a subject for research until these days.  
The  paper  is  developed  further  in  four  parts:  literature  review,  methodology,  which 
describes the path we followed and methods we applied in the research, results, and conclusions.   
 
Literature review 
The general IES framework defines the objectives and functioning procedures of EDCOM 
(IFAC  Technical  Committee  on  Control  Education),  the  aim,  the  area  of  applicability  of 
International Education Standards, as well as the modalities in which standards can be adopted and 
applied. 
Regarding  International  Education  Standards  (IES  1-7)  these  include  two  educational 
strategies: 
                                                             
1 Babes-Bolyai  University,  Faculty  of  Economics  and  Business  Administration,  Cluj  Napoca,  Romania,  e-mail: 
alexandra13mutiu@yahoo.com 
 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 13(2), 2011 
 
  291 
  the first is related to the stage of prequalification of a professional accountant (IES 1-
6), starting with the university stage and continuing with the training stage required 
for obtaining the quality of expert accountant or licensed accountant, and 
  the  second  is  focused  on  the  continuing  professional  training  of  professional 
accountants, the concept of continuing education throughout the whole active life in 
the profession being introduced by IES 7. 
Out of these, three standards are related directly with the learning process in universities: 
IES 2 - Content of Professional Accounting Education Programs, IES 3 - Professional Skills, and 
IES  4  -  Professional  Values,  Ethics  and  Attitudes.  IES  2  establishes  the  knowledge  and 
competences  required  for the  work of  a  professional  accountant,  i.e.  accounting,  financing  and 
related knowledge, organizational and business knowledge, along with knowledge and competences 
in IT, a professional diploma or qualification, as well as at least two years of university studies, day 
courses. IES 3 - Professional Skills - includes a series of required professional skills: intellectual, 
technical  and  functional,  personal,  interpersonal  and  communication  skills,  organizational  and 
business  management  skills,  and  emphasizes  that  general  education  assists  in  developing  these 
skills. 
IES 4 - Professional Values, Ethics and  Attitudes - establishes the required professional 
values, ethics and attitudes, the minimum study areas, recognizing that the different approaches will 
reflect the specific cultural and national environment.  
Romanian research papers on accounting education shows Romanian universities are doing 
efforts to adapt their accounting curricula with the IESs. Diaconu (2008) presents the cohesion with 
IESs in terms of percentages as follows:  
 
Universities   The cohesion with IESs (%) 
Babes Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca   83 
Academy of Economics Study Bucharest  78 
Transilvania University Brasov  65 
Romano-American University Bucharest  57 
 
But Diaconu’s work was focused on analyzing the international benchmark versus the stage 
of the universities by using as single criterion IES 2. His research didn’t touch the teaching methods 
as vehicle to provide students the tools for self-directed learning. 
 
Research methodology  
In order to investigate those teaching strategies that can be applied in our environment, we 
started our investigation by following the steps as described above: 
Step 1 was about searching in the trade literature the most recommended teaching strategies. 
Using ANELIS database, we investigated article published after year 2000, using proper key words, 
like:  teaching  classes,  teaching  class,  strategy  classes,  strategy/strategies  large  classes,  teaching 
business, and teaching accounting. 
In step 2 we analyzed the papers found by looking the domain they were applied in. Also, 
we analyzed if the strategies recommended were empirically tested or not. We believe that if a 
strategy was proved to be good, this means it is efficient. In the end, we tried to make a ranking of 
the most recommended strategies. Mainly, this step was about identifying the most popular teaching 
strategies recommended today  
In step 3 we investigated the representative factors that influence the teaching process and 
we identified constraints which restrict the number of possible strategies to be applied.  
 Then, in step 4, using the constraints mentioned, we filtered the teaching strategies in order 
to find the strategies that can be applied successfully in Romania. 
 
 Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 13(2), 2011 
 
  292 
Results  
Our research brought into light many papers that have as central focus teaching strategies. 
Our wish was to identify the strategies that are most recommended and then to extract those that can 
avoid the constraints that exist in our environment. 
      We investigated a total of 54 papers that recommend strategies for different domains, or 
some of them are not even focused on one. Therefore, their structure on domains is: 
- 18 papers present strategies in general and they don’t speak about a certain domain where 
they can be applied in; 
-  18  papers  discuss  strategies  applied  in  business  area,  like  accounting,  management, 
economics, and micro economy; 
- 13 papers are focused on strategies used in social and political sciences; 
- 5 papers present strategies in different areas, like Earth science, biochemistry, physics, 
history, and math. 
Out of the total, 30 papers empirically tested the strategies presented while the rest don’t 
have any statistical evidence.  
A classification of the teaching strategies based on how often they were recommended in the 
papers is presented below: 
 
Table no. 1 
Classification of the teaching strategies identified 
No.  Teaching strategies  No of  papers that 
recommend it 
1.  Using online facilities  14 
2.  Clickers  9 
3.  Team work/ projects  8 
4.  JIT teaching  4 
5.  Intergroup discussion / class debate  4 
6.  Quizzes  3 
7.  Problem based learning  3 
8.  Lecture & discussion  3 
9.  Case studies / Connection to the real world  3 
10.  Work outside the classroom  2 
11.  Teach stories  2 
12.  Coaching students  2 
13.  Games and simulations  1 
14.  Feedback offered to students  1 
15.  PPT  1 
16.  Written assignments  1 
 
It can be seen from the table above that most recommended strategies are based on online 
facilities.  14  papers  support  the  idea  that  lecture  notes  online,  streaming  videos  of  lectures, 
multimedia  including  digital  video,  Web  resources  including  hypertext,  enhanced  hypermedia, 
emails, discussion forums, and blogs are widely used in education area.  
In the same spirit, clickers held the second place in terms of teachers’ preferences in regard 
to teaching strategies. Multiple-choice questioning of the students using Personal Response System 
technologies, as clickers, (Elliott, 2003) are considered to be a very useful tool applied in learning. 
Students find clickers very beneficial (Salemi, 2008).  
Team work or team projects represent a very useful strategy in developing students’ abilities 
to communicate and interact in different situations and places.  
At a larger distance, Just-in-time teaching, followed by quizzes, problem based learning, 
lecture combined with discussion, and teaching case method are recommended strongly. Among 
most preferred also by teachers and students, these techniques proved to be effective even in large 
classes (Carpenter, 2006) Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 13(2), 2011 
 
  293 
 
Also, intergroup discussion and class debate (based on cases and problems, questions) is 
another way to get students involved in the learning process. 
Offering feedback, coaching them represent a way of learning also. 
Among  ones  of the  most  fascinating  strategies  could  be  considered  teaching  games  and 
teaching  stories.  A  good  story  can  illustrate  management  principles  such  as  decision-making, 
leadership,  group  dynamics,  power  and  politics  in  a  way  that  captures  students'  attention  and 
enhances memory (Harbin, 2010). The authors suggest storytelling is not only an effective teaching 
tool, but is an essential leadership skill that should be taught in our business schools (Harbin, 2010). 
But  not  all  of  the  teaching  strategies  presented  above  can  be  applied  in  the  Romanian 
business universities. This relies heavily on the factors that influence the decision of using one or 
another strategy. Grigoroi (2011) identifies these factors as being: 
- Content of the learning  
- Class’s particularity (referring to number of students, their expectations, learning styles)  
- Available time for working with students 
- Available resources 
At a deeper analysis we  noticed that the first criterion: content of the learning does not 
represent a restrictive factor in regard with other countries or universities. As long as the Romanian 
universities’ curriculum is harmonized with the international education standards, the content of 
learning doesn’t exist like a particularity of our country. 
The second criterion is a very complex one. In many Romanian universities, the numbers of 
students enrolled  in class exceed 100 students. Their expectations can be extremely diversified: 
some of them don’t attend classes since they have a job; some of them come to classes just for 
being  there  and  some  really  want  to  learn.  On  the  other  hand,  we  don’t  measure  students’ 
expectations and their learning style. The third factor: available time for working with students is 
about the standard class time, which is about 2 hours. This is why we believe that this factor is not a 
real constraint.  But the one that really concerns is the last factor: available resources, in terms of 
financial resources available at the university’s level and also on students’ level. 
Using the strategies identified so far in the present paper, we wanted to analyze which of 
them would fit better in Romanian universities. We did this using the criteria presented above.  
 
Conclusions 
As we mentioned before, the main restriction we have to deal with is the available resource. 
Lack of financial resources allocated for class activities combined with the poverty of population 
does not allow us to teach using sophisticated technology like: online facilities and clickers, and 
simulations. 
The  rest  of  the  remained  strategies  could  be  classified  in  two  groups,  with  respect  to 
available time for working with students. 
Strategies  that  imply  a  lot  of  individual  or  group  feedbacks  are:  quizzes,  team  work/ 
projects, written assignments, work outside the classroom, and coaching students. Considering we 
have large classes, with more than 70 students, these strategies are very time consuming. Therefore, 
even if teachers’ commitment to the class is very high, these methods are not suitable for large 
classes. 
Strategies that are not build necessary on students’ feedback are: intergroup discussion / 
class  debate,  teaching  stories,  teaching  using  PPT,  games,  problem  based  learning,  lecture  & 
discussion, JIT teaching and case  studies. Since these don’t rely  necessarily on giving students 
feedback, these teaching strategies depend mostly on teachers’ willingness to apply them. Some of 
them  are  already  used  in  Romanian  academic  environment,  like  teaching  using  PowerPoint 
presentations, and lectures. But other strategies, like class debate, games and discussion are known 
as more powerful than the latter mentioned.      Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, 13(2), 2011 
 
  294 
Therefore, we may conclude that intergroup discussion/class debate, teaching stories, games, 
discussion, JIT teaching and case studies are strategies that should be considered by Romanian 
business universities to be applied in the classroom. 
 
Acknowledgements  
Authors  would  like  to  acknowledge  the  participants  to  the  Audit  and  Accounting 
Convergence 2009 Annual Convention for their helpful comments and suggestions. This work was 
supported by CNCSIS–UEFISCSU, project number PNII – IDEI 2476/2008, “Study regarding the 
development process of the Romanian educational accounting system toward a global economic 
environment”. 
 
References  
 
1.   Carpenter J. M., 2006. Effective teaching methods for large classes, Journal of Family & 
Consumer Sciences Education, Vol. 24, No. 2, Fall/Winter. 
2.   Diaconu  P.,  2008.  Directions  of  the  accounting  educational  curricula  in  the  Romanian 
universities and the conformity with IES provided by IFAC, AMIS Conference, Bucharest. 
3.   Elliott C., 2003. Using a Personal Response System in Economics Teaching. International 
Review of Economics Education, volume 1, issue 1, 80-86 
4.   Grigoroi L., 2011. Metode avansate, aplicate în predarea contabilităţii, available on-line at 
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTCENFINREPREF/Resources/4152117-
1270824012230/6954188-1299453142594/l_grigoroi_metode_avansate_de_predare.pdf, 
consulted on the 29
th of September 2011 
5.   Harbin  J.,  2010.  Teaching  management  by  telling  stories.  Academy  of  Educational 
Leadership Journal Vol 14. 1: 99-106.  
6.   Salemi  M.  K.,  2008.  Clickenomics:  Using  a  Classroom  Response  System  To  Increase 
Student  Engagement  In  a  Large-Enrollment  Principles  of  Economics  Course.  American 
Economic Association posts Conference Papers 
 

Clickenomics: Using a Classroom Response System To Increase Student Engagement

Directions of the accounting educational curricula in the Romanian universities and the conformity with IES provided by IFAC,

Effective teaching methods for large classes,

Metode avansate, aplicate în predarea contabilităţii, available on-line at http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTCENFINREPREF/Resources/4152117-1270824012230/6954188-1299453142594/l_grigoroi_metode_avansate_de_predare.pdf, consulted on the 29 th of

Teaching management by telling stories.

Using a Personal Response System

AN ATTEMPT TO IDENTIFY PROPER TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR ROMANIAN BUSINESS UNIVERSITIES

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AN ATTEMPT TO IDENTIFY PROPER TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR ROMANIAN BUSINESS UNIVERSITIES

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