Improving Teaching: A Sustained Mentoring Collaboration Between Accounting and Education

At a small liberal arts university in Western New York, a second-year accounting professor and a fully tenured education professor worked together to develop a model of sustained mentoring across an entire semester with the goal of helping the accounting professor improve his teaching. The model was put to practice in a freshmen managerial accounting class during the spring 2011 semester. It involved frequent observations (roughly one-third of the classes) and immediate follow-up communications. Control over all decisions remained with the accounting professor at all times. The results were positive and substantial for all parties. The students reported better learning during in-class time. The accounting professor added to his “tool belt” and gained greater confidence in his teaching ability while the education professor reenergized his career by extending the body of his life’s work to include higher education.