Analytical Thinking in Accounting Education: Student Use of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Navigator Database

The objective of this study is to explore accounting students’ performance on group project tasks, while using a sustainability accounting database. The research question asked is: What is the students’ performance in terms of lower- and higher-level thinking skills at a group homework assignment using the SASB Navigator database? This paper presents examples of student work and an accounting instructor’s account of a SASB Navigator group homework project assigned to two of her Introduction to Financial Accounting classes in the autumn 2020 term at a public university in the United States. A total of 46 students who had limited (just from classroom lectures) requisite knowledge of sustainability accounting and the SASB participated in the research. The paper uses a small-scale case study method. The theoretical framework used is Bloom’s taxonomy. Excerpts from the last five of twelve questions asked of the student groups are used as data. Hand-written notes were taken by the instructor in a notebook during and after the autumn 2020 term, with her impressions on how the students performed at the assignment. The questions asked of students necessitated the use of both lower-order and higher-order thinking skills. The student groups generally displayed satisfactory lower- and higher-order thinking skills. Digitally transforming accounting and business processes should be facilitated by educational projects, such as this.