“When you see yourself as a teacher, you take a far more responsible attitude toward learning. You are more motivated to learn something when you know you are responsible to teach it. You see yourself not only as a listener and a learner, but also as a teacher and mentor. So you become a much better learner.” This “teach to learn” is the sage advice of the late Dr. Stephen Covey, in his book Primary Greatness and author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective        People, which I had the privilege to train as a certified facilitator some decades back.

I discovered my passion for teaching as a first-time part-time instructor in a community college in the province four decades ago. Since then, teaching became second nature, not an alternative but a creative synergy complementing and enhancing my knowledge and skills as a corporate and public professional in various engagements. “When you cannot manage, teach” was not a mutually exclusive choice.

I usually begin my classes and training sessions with a list of take-away values or lessons. Covey says that much of the money spent on training and development is wasted because participants come away with very little take-home value. Most learning evaporates overnight because few learners teach the material to others. Sharing what one learns with one another effectively cements learning.

My first important lesson is to enable my students to ask the right questions. Asking the right questions leads students to become more creative and learn to think out of the box. We hear different people complain about our “de kahon” mentality and way of proceeding, sticking to old ways and old rules unable to develop solutions to problems that are not in the textbooks or manuals or fancy gadgets and technologies. Creativity in teaching can mean breaking cultural norms. Tom Peters once derisively barked, “if ain’t broke, break it” against the normative “if ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset.

This “disruption” poses a problem in our local cultural setting because we tend to emphasize conformity and blind obedience out of fear of authority and the teacher’s inscrutable belief in his own expertise, which stymies and stifles student creativity and initiatives. When students do not conform, they are labeled as smart-alecky or defiant.

Some accounting teachers fall into this trap of “teacher knows best.” Students are made to sit for hours listening, taking down notes sponging without fully comprehending the teacher on a pure lecture mode even while solving problems. Thus, the students are left out to believe and appropriate unreservedly the only method the teacher had illustrated. There is little room for sharing among students as groups and discovering and exploring cooperatively their understanding of an accounting topic or how an accounting   problem might be approached and solved differently.

Such a trap leads to a palpable disconnect between accounting students theoretical knowledge learned in school and the real world challenges of business where being creative is a must skill.  This is because there is a proclivity for schools to stick to massive accounting curriculum content that is mandated by regulatory agencies. For example, one of the required subjects is a course on accounting research, which to my mind has no immediate and critical importance to becoming a licensed practicing accountant because it consumes time outside of the more important integrated review subjects of the licensure examinations. For me, research as a method of inquiry is or should be incorporated in other non-accounting courses that are part of the curriculum.

To further enhance creativity, it would do well for the teacher to rephrase or reframe the way normative questions are asked. Instead of teaching them “this is the way to do this” the teacher might challenge the students “how would you do this” or “do you think you can do this.” So instead of teacher-centered instruction, it becomes student-centered and experiential which encourages them to explore the topic or the issue at hand through a shared interactive modality. In the process, the teacher becomes an amiable facilitating mentor that enables students to discover, invent and to grow.

Teaching is a vocation and a passion that requires perspiration especially in a highly technical and mechanistic subject like accounting. As such, it requires no parameters as work hour limits or whatever course one teaches, unless it is life itself.

Let me end with this awesome psychic reward, a verbatim quote of a student after my accounting course in the semester. “Sir, this semester has been an absolute pleasure. The way you teach, the way you are able to insert jokes and inspiring messages even as you talk about a subject most of us find intimidating, has been one of the better things of this semester, We will forever treasure the lessons you’ve taught us, and how in a big way, you’ve helped us face our fears. No more fears, just understanding and appreciation. Thank you very much, Sir!”

Dr. Cesar A Mansibang is a long-time business and professional practitioner, management strategy consultant and professor in various university graduate schools of business.