Analysis of the Acquired Cognitive and Abilities and Generic Skills - Assignment Example

Introduction Self-reflective assessment report has been a very vital tool for analysing progress of accounting students. Based on the acquired cognitive and abilities and generic skills, am going to provide accounting benchmark statement basing on one of the module covered; introduction to financial accounting. My accounting benchmark statement intends to serve a number of purposes like being a tool to be used as an internal and external source of reference for advanced or higher education in accounting. It will also attempt to bring out overall guidelines achieving intended outcome for students taking accounting as a programme. Lastly, it will help this institution in pursuit of internal quality assurance. Analysis of the acquired cognitive and abilities and generic skills a. A capacity for the critical evaluation of arguments and evidence Taking the module sections such as Cash book and bank statements has enabled me to develop a superior and critical analysis of arguments and evidence within any given context. This has been done within thorough critical appreciation and evaluations or various materials presented in class and recommended further studies. While reading on my own, I have been able to evaluate relevant theories and researches and thereafter drawing a systematic and creative attempt to relate it to the topics we covered within the modules. Good example of such case involves Financial Statements While on my research, I further proved that I could critically evaluate and argue from wide range of appropriate sources while also being careful with the awareness of their statuses but still achieving significant element of originality. b. An ability to analyse and draw reasoned conclusions concerning structured and, to a more limited extent, unstructured problems from a given set of data Due to the rise in the context of companies and even household from accounting statements I have been able to gather enough knowledge to analyse and even draw sound inferences with regard to any set of problems from whatever set of data. I have been also endowed with the ability to tackle a lot of theoretical aspects regarding accountancy. I can also relate these theories to practice by solving issues like arbitrage and examples of its use. Other issues within my ability are analysing cost of capital principal agency relationships and Fisher separation and capital budgeting criteria. c. Ability to locate, extract and analyse data from multiple sources, including the acknowledgement and referencing of sources For academic progress, I have been able to gain vast knowledge in locating various data from various sources such as company reports, newspapers and financial journals among others. Whenever I do this I have always been able to acknowledge the author or owner of these materials so as to avoid plagiarism. Recently as I was doing a research on some references we were given as further reading, I realised that many scholar have different views regarding the roles of financial accounting. These divergent views were expressed by different reading materials and sources I could locate and extract data from and even give them a reference. For instance, Robert et al. (2001) in the book ‘Financial Accounting’ explains that one role of financial accounting is used to help the managers to manage the business more efficiently by preparing regular financial information like monthly management accounts showing sales, costs and profits against budgets, forecasting cash flows, cost investigations. On contrary, Zeidenberg, M., Jenkins, D., and Calcagno, J. C. (2007) states that it provides stakeholders with legal or and vital information regarding financial accounts, trading account, profit and loss, and balance sheet. d. Capacities for independent and self-managed learning Prior to joining starting in London Metropolitan University, I was a bit naïve regarding what managing independent and self learning. However, the progress I have made on the same has been remarkable. When I joined the university, I realised that independence in learning is a key goal of the university learning, teaching and assessment strategies. The benchmark statement I was introduced to was referring to a student being able to gain skills of independent learning in the accounting as my subject. The four different but co-related levels of self-managed learning abilities were: my ability to come up with autonomous and self-managed learning, if I was able to conduct the end of module independent research assignment and project and be able to develop and demonstrate independence of mind. On doing this, I realised that I was able to discover my own learning resources and even formulate my own problems then decide my on course of actions and decisions regarding these problems. However as part of developing the scope of Capacities for independent and self-managed learning, I would suggest in this report that I still have slight problem due to the fact that my teachers did not encourage me to be self reliant and to develop independent modes of learning early enough. They should design independent learning opportunities such as projects which stresses on learning contracts. When this is done, just like me, many will develop the ability to critically analyse situations and come out with the solution. e. Numeracy skills, including the ability to manipulate financial and other numerical data and to appreciate statistical concepts at an appropriate level My analysis has been involving the interpretation of the data given from statistical and financial functions and procedures available mainly on spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel and any statistical packages. On data I have acquired, I have progressed tremendously in manipulation of accounting and financial data and eve able to give interpretations of are the records of the financial dealings of the business and day to day transactions. A good example of an evidence showing my improvement on giving a valid conclusion on structured data the practice a carried out on data to regarding financial ratios and discounted cash flow analysis. f. Skills in the use of communications and information technology (C&IT) in acquiring, analysing and communicating information My development on the use of communication and information technology has progressed since the start and completion of the module. I realised that much of my course will be dealing with data entries in the spreadsheets which prompted my interest to study more about the spreadsheet. For instance, when the module was tackling profit and loss account, balance sheet and cash flow statements, I could be able to create statistical graphs and sheets regarding financial analyses of various companies. On the same note, I have been able to read and obtain data or acquire information prepared by another accountant from spreadsheets to answer various accounting questions. Another area I have gained proficiency on is the word processing software. On this, I have been able to key in various aspects of statistical data such preparation of tables. Lastly, as much of the information regarding the module is always available on-line I have been able to locate other accounting materials and information available on other company sites. For example, my recent research demanded me to compare and contrast accounting models of two poorly performing oil companies in Middle East. I was to get their annual financial analyses and other relevant information from free on-line databases. g. Communication skills including the ability to present quantitative and qualitative information, together with analysis, argument and commentary, in a form appropriate to the intended audience I boost of good communication skills that has depict itself from the result I have been getting from my assignment and researches. Good communication skills being part of ability to present argument and commentary, the goal of my communication has been focused on mutual understanding of examiners point of view which I integrate within the scope of my own understanding the concept being asked before providing a solution to the problem. Through good communication skills I have gained, I have been able to logically present my understanding of knowledge and understanding of the main current technical and language practices associated with this module and accounting at large. For instance, for better understanding of my communication to other accountants, I have been able to grasp alternative recognition rules and valuable bases and accounting rules followed in other socio-economic domains. h. Ability to work in groups, and other inter-personal skills, including oral as well as written presentation skills This module has helped me develop the ability to work with my colleagues in group while trying to accomplish certain tasks. When tackling nominal or general ledger, we group ourselves into ten categories comprising of four students per group. My group was tackling transaction of a business under the sub-heading of sales of widgets. In this group, each member was supposed to identify one firm, tackle then presents the findings to the group. After compilation of the group findings, the information gathered on nominal ledger was supposed to be prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint to be presented in class. On oral skills, the institution through this module has greatly helped me gain much confidence in presenting my group projects to class. Each group member is always given few minutes to presents his or her findings to the class at the end of each lesson or topic covered. Conclusion This report has tried to show my threshold standards required by any higher institution within United Kingdom so as to be awarded hours of degree in accounting. However, though this is the benchmark assessment set by quality assurers, it is paramount to note that a typical accountant graduates are not supposed to distinguish their employability with the threshold dimensions explained above. Reference List Robert K., Magin, D., Nightingale, P., Andresen, L. and Boud, D. 2001. Financial Accounting SCED paper 77, SEDA. Zeidenberg, M., Jenkins, D., & Calcagno, J. C. 2007. Principles of Financial Accounting CCRC Brief No. 36. New York: Columbia University, Teachers College, Community College Research Center. Read More