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The Effect of Adopting Case Method with the Modified Consulting Exercise on Students’ Critical Thinking
Disposition and Learning Interest

explore the alternative conditions (i.e., the lecture method precedes the traditional case
method) to gain a comprehensive understanding of case method teaching.
On the other hand, our findings indicate that the students learning with CMMCE
develop higher critical thinking disposition and learning interest than those learning

with either the traditional case teaching method or the lecture method. This implies that
CMMCE transforms undergraduate students from passive learners to active participants.
Thus, this study suggests it is necessary to incorporate the modified consulting exercise in

the early stage of case method teaching.

5. Originality/Contribution

This study contributes to the existing accounting education literature on cased-based

learning contexts. Extant findings in the literature on the comparison between the lecture
method and the traditional case method teaching are, at best, inconclusive. In this study,
we confirm that no difference between these two instructional methods in terms of learning
interest and critical thinking disposition. Notably, although case teaching is not a panacea,

our results indicate that adopting CMMCE improved students’ learning effectiveness
significantly in terms of critical thinking disposition and learning interest when compared
to the other two conditions. Our findings provide insights into case method teaching
and demonstrate educators devising effective pedagogical strategies to increase student

confidence in a case-based learning context.
Moreover, the repeated calls for enhancing students’ soft skills, including critical
thinking skills and teamwork, have been continued for decades by the accounting
profession with little success (Wolcott and Sargent, 2021). Hence, the ability of accounting

educators to teach critical thinking has been questioned (Rebele and St. Pierre, 2019). This
study directly answers their call by identifying CMMCE that shows promise for effectively
facilitating the development of students’ critical thinking disposition and teamwork. In this
method, students develop these skills through the process that emphasizes the modified

consulting exercise preceding the traditional case method teaching.

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