Curriculum Changes Using Concept Maps

As accounting educators we are frequently involved in developing and revising the curriculum. This might involve changes to incorporate new content and skills identified from attending conferences, reading texts and journals, peer-reviewing colleagues' teaching, changes in professional body syllabi, and so on. Such curriculum development/revision can be seen as a chore or an opportunity! While curriculum concept mapping can be applied to many different type of modules and even to whole academic degree programme reviews, this Teaching Note describes how curriculum concept mapping has been used to assist making changes to an accounting theory module. Considerable benefits flow from using this approach, of which the most important is that the process of constructing such maps forces educators to re-consider and question assumptions. In addition, educators can better identify curriculum redundancy, omission, complexity, misconceptions and concepts requiring assessment. In addition, the process of constructing curriculum concept maps can be seen to enhance module cohesion, integration with texts, and the sequencing of topics. Where more than one educator is involved in curriculum development, concept maps provided a vehicle to facilitate shared and collaborative perspectives. Finally, curriculum concept maps enhance accountability to peers, professional bodies, students and other stakeholders. Therefore, this Teaching Note should be useful to support faculty, of all levels of experience, to consider and reconsider both accounting and non-accounting curricula.