Core+Studies+1

=Outline of Student Intended Learning= =Assessment= =Unit plans/ideas= This year, in introducing Accounting, my focus has been to 'bring the real world into the classroom'! It's been really easy to do because there have been a number of high profile issues that involve accounting in some way.

I started with this particular Reuters article [] which focussed on the fact that there were a number of law suits against 'the big four' as a result of the GFC fallout. The language, concepts and various high profile institutions mentioned in the article gave me an opportunity to talk about accounting as it happens in the real world and relate this information to our introductory accounting topic around the accounting profession: - accountants vs auditors - the 'big four' - the 'big five before Enron' - the 'Enron' debacle - the role of accounting information for shareholders

With this article I asked students to precis the article ... what's a precis? This is a new term for them and certainly a new genre so it is worthwhile to investigate it with them. Here are a couple of sites I used to guide them: []

[]

Then there was the case regarding ABC Learning Ltd where Eddie Groves was in court due to the action being taken by ASIC. We had been talking about the role of ASIC and had mentioned ASIC as a 'user' of accounting information. I had mentioned in discussions with my students that the upshot of action taken by ASIC against directors would be done through the civil courts. This necessitated an explanation of civil vs criminal law and the notion about laws being made by the courts vs laws being made by parliament. All this was news to them but it set the picture. How excited was I when the next day's paper indicated that Groves was to be in court that day and that ASIC was taking action ... not in the civil court .. but in the criminal court! This meant that ASIC must have been very sure of its case because the level of proof required for a conviction is higher in the criminal court than in the civil courts.

Article from The Courier Mail, 28 January 2011 =Useful websites (provide name of site and a brief description)= Article about accountants not being boring! []

Website to clarify different stages of insolvency: 'administration', 'receivership' and 'liquidation' []