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How Study Guides can help

Gareth Owen, ACCA qualifications development manager explains how the design of the new ACCA Qualification can help tuition providers and their students teach and learn more effectively.
 
For the new ACCA Qualification, all Study Guides refer to three intellectual levels. These represent the three bands of intellectual or cognitive ability required to study a particular subject or topic area.

It is recommended best practice in accounting education to give students as much guidance as possible on how much study is required in order to achieve syllabus aims and objectives. Therefore, as their tutors, you need to be aware of the depth at which your students will be assessed in any given area so that you can adequately prepare them for their exams.

This feature explains how the system of intellectual levels should be used in relation to the ACCA syllabus and Study Guides. This should give you valuable guidance to pass on to your students and help you with your lesson preparation on the new ACCA Qualification.

What are intellectual levels?

Benjamin Bloom, an educational psychologist, identified six main cognitive domains relating to study:

• knowledge comprehension
• application analysis
• synthesis evaluation.

According to Bloom, the level of intellectual difficulty increases from the relatively simple process of recalling knowledge to the evaluation of complex ideas and situations resulting in appropriate decisions or recommendations.

Best practice suggests that professional accounting syllabuses should use three (rather than six) broad bands of intellectual difficulty to help tuition providers and their students gauge how much preparation is needed, and the level of difficulty students may encounter, when preparing for exams.

Therefore ACCA has chosen to use three ascending levels of intellectual difficulty, where 1 represents knowledge and comprehension, 2 is application and analysis, and 3 is synthesis and evaluation.

What kinds of capabilities are related to these levels?

Level 1
Knowledge and comprehension require demonstration of the following capabilities:

• retention and recall of knowledge
• understanding of major accounting and business ideas, techniques and theories
• use of knowledge and techniques in new but familiar situations
• recognition of fundamental cause and effect in accounting.

Level 2
Application and analysis require demonstration of the following capabilities:

• analysis of unfamiliar situations to prepare reports and solve problems using relevant concepts and theories
• recognition of subtle or hidden information patterns and trends within financial and other information, and the ability to interpret these
• the ability to infer from given information and draw conclusions.

Level 3
Synthesis and evaluation require:

• demonstration of the following capabilities: creation of new ideas from, or new insights into, existing knowledge
• generalisation, comparison and discrimination using complex and unstructured information
• assessment and evaluation of complex information
• use of reasoned argument to infer and make judgements
• presentation and justification of valid recommendations.

Do the modules of the new ACCA syllabus correspond to the intellectual levels?

The new ACCA Qualification syllabus is divided into two main levels, each containing two modules: the Fundamentals level contains the Knowledge and Skills modules; and the Professional level contains the Essentials and Options modules. The Skills module papers are set at a higher intellectual level than the Knowledge module papers while both modules in the Professional level are broadly assessed at the same cognitive level. This is also reflected in the time allowed for the respective exams within these modules.

While there are three broad levels within the syllabus, these do not always match the intellectual levels described above. Therefore, it is not the case that every capability in the Knowledge module is assessed at Level 1, and that all Professional level capabilities are assessed at Level 3.

How does learning develop throughout the qualification?

As students progress through the qualification, they both broaden and deepen their capabilities at all stages.
 
The Knowledge module is predominantly about the breadth and comprehension of knowledge, although there may also be some application or simple analysis. You would therefore expect to see most capabilities set at Level 1, although in some subject areas there may be a few Level 2 requirements, particularly if the area is not developed further in subsequent papers.

In the Skills module, you should expect to see mostly Level 2 capabilities being assessed, but also to find a number of Level 1 capabilities which will be built on. In some exceptional cases, some Level 3 capabilities will be identified, particularly in areas which are not being taken further at the Professional level.

This shows that even within the higher level modules there is still a need to acquire and comprehend new knowledge before more difficult capabilities relating to this new knowledge can be assessed.

At the Professional level, students should still expect to find a few Level 1 capabilities, as new knowledge is introduced, and before this knowledge can be applied, analysed, synthesised, and evaluated.

Learning the language of exams

Bloom and other academics have suggested the types of verbs associated with each intellectual level, and these are:
 
Level 1
Knowledge and comprehension: List, define, describe, explain, select, calculate, identify, compare.

Level 2
Application and analysis: Apply, compare, analyse, compute, derive, reconcile, prepare, interpret, value, contrast, relate, classify, solve, implement.

Level 3
Synthesis and evaluation: Formulate, modify, re-arrange, create, compose, design, develop, highlight, summarise, assess, evaluate, justify, decide, infer, advise, recommend, discuss, report.

Please note that certain verbs (such as describe, explain, calculate) and other verbs found within the Study Guides, may be designated at different levels. This recognises that these verbs need to reflect the varying intellectual demands these requirements may make on students in different situations. For example, under one subject area, a sub-objective might be 'Explain the structure of a T account - which is intellectual level 1. Another could be: 'explain how a warrant works as a derivative financial instrument - which is intellectual level 2.

The verbs given are merely indicative of the capabilities examiners want students to acquire from the Study Guide, in order to meet a range of exam requirements.

The Study Guide will often contain more verbs than an examiner would ever use in an exam. This however, does not mean that students shouldn't develop these capabilities.

In Paper F1, Accountant in Business, learning outcome A1(b) asks students to describe various organisational structures as follows: 'Describe the different ways in which organisations may be structured: entrepreneurial, functional, matrix, divisional, departmental, by geographical area, and by product.'

However, an objective test question might be written as follows: 'Which of the following forms of organisational structure always requires staff to report to both functional and product managers:

a Divisional
b Departmental
c Matrix (correct answer)
d Entrepreneurial?'

To answer the question correctly, the student must understand the nature, scope, and definition of each type of organisational structure. This would have been taught and learned through reading, and possibly writing, an explanation of each. Therefore, although this capability would not need explicit demonstration in the examination, the examiner will assume the successful student has this capability.
 

Should I refer to the Study Guide and to the intellectual levels when using examinable documents?

It is important that you and your students refer closely to both the Study Guide and the designated intellectual level of each capability when looking at examinable documents. This helps in two ways:

• If a document such as an accounting standard or a statute is listed, then you and your students can refer to the area in the Study Guide relating to the content of that document, to identify the specific areas to be covered.
• By noting the intellectual levels and the verbs used, better guidance is given about the breadth and depth of knowledge required for each aspect.

Should students be concerned about the inclusion of intellectual levels?

Please reassure your students that they should not worry about the inclusion of references to intellectual levels within the Study Guides. This new feature is intended to help you and your students tailor their learning and determine the depth required to study various aspects of the syllabus.

The inclusion of intellectual levels is not intended to be prescriptive, and examiners have the freedom to assess the syllabus as they decide, but they will need to refer to the Study Guide when setting their exams.

It is hoped that the inclusion of intellectual levels within the Study Guides will help examiners, tuition providers and students match each other's expectations more closely when setting and taking ACCA exams.

From teach accounting magazine