Continued training for accounting instructors: reflections on the teaching and learning of the double-entry bookkeeping method

This paper aims at describing, explaining and analyzing the results from na investigation that has been proposed in order to improve the teaching practice of accounting instructors at a private higher education institution in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, inthe continued education format. References to the double-entry bookkeeping method's epistemology, to professional training models based on technical and practical rationales, as well as to the complexity of the teaching practice helped us collect and analyze the data extracted from transcriptions of instructors' testimonies in the meetings held for that purpose. A qualitative analysis showed evidence of changes in the teaching practice of the six participants, triggered by discussions of papers related to the teaching-learning process of the double-entry bookkeeping method, and ensuing reflections. Because of the case-study nature of the research, its focus fell upon the improvement of the teaching and learning process of the double-entry bookkeeping method by means of reflections on the teaching practice, and upon the relevance of collective work in the context of continued education. The ad hoc meetings resulted in suggestions for rethinking positions and influencing new conceptions of local education, such as: i) changes in the methodology for Basic Accounting instruction; ii) revision of educational content, once difficulties pertaining to the teaching and learning process were acknowledged; and iii) recognition that continuing education is indispensable for the constant methodological maturation of instructors.