Abstract In the near future students enrolled in elementary accounting may be taught either in classes composed of a large number of students which may be staffed by professional and experienced teachers or in small classes conducted by graduate students or part-time teachers. The number of accounting teachers is not increasing at the same rate as the increase in the number of students enrolled in accounting classes. Schools which either do not have graduate programs which attract graduate students competent to teach elementary accounting or do not have an adequate number of professors may need to use large sections. Large sections of elementary accounting may help solve budget problems in hiring and retaining competent teachers. A school may be able to pay excellent salaries to a staff of limited size by using large classes for only a few sections of elementary accounting. Another reason for using large classes is to enable persuasive and dynamic teachers to recruit able students to major in accounting and study in the college of business. Still another reason for large classes is to aid in teacher and faculty development.
W. Thomas Anderson (Thu,) studied this question.