SMU‘s Seow Poh Sun, Associate Professor of Accounting (Education) and Associate Dean (Teaching and Curriculum) has been chosen as the first recipient of the European Accounting Association (EAA) Accounting Education Excellence Award.
The EAA Accounting Education Excellence Award seeks to highlight excellent practices in Accounting Education which address thought leadership in the field, innovation and cutting-edge practices in pedagogy, technology, and content.
“I believe that teaching is not just about knowledge transfer. It is about motivating and inspiring students to be curious and excited about learning. To inspire my students, I strive to ignite their interest by demonstrating its relevance in the real world. I believe that learning becomes a joy if I can ignite their interest to pursue knowledge,” says Assoc Prof Seow.
Assoc Prof Seow has done inspiring work in accounting education pedagogy. He is a passionate and creative educator who has contributed significantly to transforming accounting courses through technology-enabled learning and experiential-learning pedagogy. He was the co-creator of world’s first mobile-gaming app in Accounting (Accounting Challenge app, now known as SMU Challenge App), which has 40,006 downloads across 90 countries (as at 31st December 2021).
He also co-created a second gaming app known as the Red Flags Accounting Fraud in year 2019 to help students learn how to identify accounting fraud. To date, Red Flags has logged over 2,700 downloads, and students have reacted positively to the game.
In addition, he has created three online e-Learning tutorials; Resource-Event-Agent (REA) Data Modelling Business Process (Revenue Cycle) and Business Process (Expenditure Cycle) to teach Accounting Information System (AIS) courses. The REA online tutorial received the 2018 Outstanding Instructional Contribution Award from the American Accounting Association Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Section, in recognition of his development of original instructional materials.
Besides technology-enabled learning, Assoc Prof Seow has also designed a student-generated video project (“Using student-generated videos to learn internal controls”) to motivate students to use self-directed active learning. His work positively impacts student learning, and other faculty have rapidly adopted his practice innovations across the world. His work has been recognised extensively by the broader accounting education community, and he has a sustained track record of excellence along with international awards and scholarship outputs.
Anastasia Kopita, Chair of the EAA Education Committee, the Award Committee members made these remarks to Assoc Prof Seow, “We were “impressed by your inspiring work towards the improvement of accounting education pedagogy, your significant contribution to technology-enabled learning and your sustained track record of excellence along with international awards, scholarship outputs and recognition from the accounting education community.”
Professor Cheng Qiang, Dean of SOA, said, “Assoc Professor Seow has inspired many professors and students with his innovative teaching methods. Indeed, we are very proud that he has received yet another international award and we will continue to implement innovative pedagogical practices in our curriculum.”
Assoc Prof Seow, when accepting the award said, “This award would not have been possible without the support of many colleagues. I would like to give special thanks to Professor Stewart Leech and Professor Steve Sutton for writing the support letters. I am also grateful to my Dean, Professor Cheng Qiang, and SMU Centre for Teaching Excellence for supporting and funding my various teaching pedagogy projects. I will continue to explore ways to maximise engagement with my students and create a nurturing learning environment for them.”