Atividades complementares em ciências contábeis: possibilidade de aliar a teoria à prática e flexibilizar a formação

Abstract

The complementary activities are required curriculum components, according to the National Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate courses in Accounting, established by the Resolution CNE / CES 10 of December 16th , 2004. However, there is no regulation that establishes a specific pattern of hours, or any form of organization and administration of those activities. In this context, this study aims to identify whether there is a pattern in carrying out complementary activities in the course of Accountancy, in relation to workload, organization, administration and cost, and by analyzing the contribution of those activities to the student s learning and course quality with respect to the perception of course coordinators. To that end, we set the theoretical framework based on historical concepts of accounting education in Brazil, the concepts of evaluation of teaching, the needs of the labor market, the possibilities of accountants and complementary activities, bearing in mind the importance of flexible teaching and practical activities. With respect to methodology, in this study an option for the qualitative approach of the exploratory-descriptive kind has been made. To conduct the study a sample containing nineteen undergraduate courses in accounting was organized, and it is used as a criterion for the choice of institutions the fact that these are among the nine institutions that got concept five of the Ministry of Education and other institutions had ten concept four. And yet, for choosing this ten that had concept four, it was considered the acceptance of students with respect to the institution's educational project. Data collection was done by means of a questionnaire sent by e-mail to the coordinators of the nineteen courses and by secondary information available on the websites of the institutions participating in the survey. It can be concluded that there is no standard as to the workload, organization and administration of complementary activities; and that complementary activities are used as teaching strategies; and that some institutions consider that the activities generate additional resources for the courses, others are indifferent, but the vast majority believes that they burden the course due to their organization. Thus, the insight gained is that the coordinators of complementary activities assist in professional training and quality of the course