Formação por competências no ensino e aprendizagem da contabilidade: desafios e possibilidades da experiência docente

Abstract

Educational paradigm shifts have led higher education to rethink its formative process. In this context, competency-based education has gained prominence by proposing an educational process that integrates knowledge, skills, and attitudes, fostering integrated, reflective, and reality-oriented learning. In the field of accounting education, this approach is reinforced by the International Education Standards (IES) and, in Brazil, by the new Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais (DCN) for Accounting programs, which guide professional training to meet the demands of the contemporary market and society. The general objective of this thesis was to discuss the challenges faced by professors and the possibilities that emerge from their experiences, as well as their contributions to the implementation of competency-based education in the teaching and learning of accounting. To achieve this objective, the discussion was grounded in the theoretical foundations of Andragogy and Constructivism. The research is characterized as qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive, conducted through semi-structured interviews with 23 accounting professors whose teaching practices reflected a tendency toward competency-based education. The collected data were analyzed using thematic content analysis and the Gioia Method (Gioia, Corley, & Hamilton, 2013), which made it possible to identify categories and explanatory dimensions related to teaching experience. The results revealed that competency-based education is still at an early stage of implementation in accounting education. Moreover, professors face challenges of a social, contextual, educational, and institutional nature, such as resistance to change, lack of pedagogical preparation, difficulty integrating theory and practice, absence of clear institutional policies, and limited incentives for pedagogical innovation. On the other hand, several possibilities were identified as pathways for implementing competency-based education, including curricular integration, educational innovation, teacher training, and institutional support, with emphasis on university extension, active methodologies, closer educational relationships, reflection on teaching practice, and infrastructure improvements, dimensions that emerged from this thesis. Professors also expressed emotions related to professional fulfillment, personal and professional aspects, and career recognition as essential to the realization of the competency-based model. Furthermore, reflection on teaching practice was found to be the starting point for educational transformation, enabling professors to recognize themselves as both mediators and learners in the process of knowledge construction. As a contribution, the thesis proposes a conceptual model that integrates teaching experience with the challenges, possibilities, and pedagogical strategies required to consolidate competency-based education in accounting. The study broadens theoretical and practical discussions on teaching experience and practice and offers pathways for implementing competency-based education in the teaching and learning process of accounting.