From the updates from this week, I was again taken back by Thayer's article of making curriculum relevant. The example that was mentioned in update #6 from Thayer (1928) is the introduction of home economics courses. The purpose of home economics courses, “It was pointed out that under present social and economic conditions large numbers of girls were securing no training at home for intelligent home making and in many instances the training received was actually a handicap” (Thayer, 1928). Thus, there was a need to develop content and curriculum that was relevant to the student.

Thayer’s core principal of education is making the curriculum relevant to students. As many of us may already know, filing taxes or learning about content that is dull is not fun Often times we fail to remember it, because it is dull. In the article, Using short stories to teach critical thinking and communication skills to tax students, Crumbley and Smith (2000) present a new approach to teach accounting students. In order to help make the content relevant and attainable for accounting students to grasp, suggest having students create short fictional stories. Within these short fictional stories they will not only portray the tax person as a good person, but they will also hold accounting or tax scenario within them. Not only are the short stories educational, but they also add some fun to learning the material. In order for the short stories to be effective Crumbley et al. (2000) suggest that the stories be short, contain the tax person as a good character, and contain a specific scenario that relates to the content of the textbook. This makes learning the content enjoyable and also much easier to grasp. Crumbley et al. (2000) note that when students are able to attach a story to the tax incident, they are, “….formulating solutions to dilemmas, putting textbook information into practice and, hopefully, enjoying the process” (p.292). Crumbley et al. (2000) also notes that this makes reading term papers more enjoyable for professors and students, “…enjoy developing their communication, creative, and critical thinking skills” (p. 293).

In keeping with Thayer’s principal of making content relevant, Crumbley et al. (2000) show a way to not only engage students, but to make the content relatable and relevant. Incorporating a short story of a tax scenario with characters includes not only the scenario, but also incorporates history of tax codes and laws.

Annotated Bibliography:

In the article, Using short stories to teach critical thinking and communication skills to tax students, Crumbley and Smith (2000) present a unique way to engage their students with an alternative means. By allowing their accounting students to create short stories, they are not only building on the students communication skills, but making the content relevant and relatable. The use of student created short stories helps to build their communication and critical thinking skills. as The article is not a study, but an alternative means to teach content that maybe seen as dull and boring. Crumbley et al. (2000) provide an alternative means to provide and alternative method of teaching from traditional teaching methods. What would have been helpful is if the article provided examples of student work.

D. Larry Crumbley & L. Murphy Smith (2000) Using short stories to teach critical thinking and communication skills to tax students, Accounting Education, 9:3, 291-296.

Thayer, V.T. 1928. The Passing of the Recitation. Boston: D.C. Heath. pp. 130–131.