Blogue

Passage de l’université au collège

En Ontario, les études collégiales occupent une place aussi importante que les études universitaires. C’est quelque chose qui m’a surprise en me basant sur mon expérience dans mon pays d’origine. J’ai eu l’occasion d’étudier la comptabilité à l’Université. Cela m’a permis d’acquérir des bases théoriques solides. Ensuite, je suis passée au collège pour étudier l’administration des affaires. Au collège, j’ai eu d’excellentes opportunités d’apprendre par l’expérience. Comme nous étions dans de plus petites classes, les professeurs nous invitaient très souvent à prendre la parole en cours pour exprimer nos points de vue lors de tours de table. Suite à quoi ils complétaient nos connaissances par des exemples et des expérimentations. Il faut préciser qu’un grand nombre des professeurs des collèges sont également des professionnels en action. C’est donc un partage de connaissances entre un professionnel dans le domaine et ses apprentis. Il en ressort qu’à la fin des cours je me suis souvenue plus longtemps des notions apprises et j’ai développé plus d’intérêt pour mes cours. Le collège n’est pas plus ou moins avantageux que l’université; ce sont tout simplement différentes manières d’apprendre dans différents types de programmes. Je suis très heureuse d’avoir complété mes études universitaires par un diplôme d’études collégiales. Cela m’a préparé pour le monde du travail. Contrairement à d’autres endroits, les pratiques pédagogiques varient grandement entre les collèges et universités en Ontario. C’est un avantage comme cela permet à des étudiants avec différents styles d’apprentissages de trouver leur place.

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Developing my Critical Thinking Skills

Before coming to Canada, I had never taken an accounting course,. I learned everything here. Our classes went into so much detail that we spent hours on accounting reports such as balance sheets, income statements, equity statements, cash flow statements and additional notes. At each step, we would analyze different aspects and forms of these reports depending on the type of information received from clients. The more I learned about the course, the more excited I became about the logic behind it. Our classes were designed to help us understand the reasoning behind the computer and these formulas, so we could detect errors. Some of our exams involved finding errors in financial statements and correcting them.  We were taught to differentiate between cash and accrual accounting as well. Therefore, we did more than just memorize accounting rules. In Ontario, I was pushed to really think about the logic behind accounting transactions and to question everything.

Transition from University to College

In Ontario, college is just as important as university. This is something that surprised me based on my experience in my home country. I had the opportunity to study accounting in university. This gave me a solid theoretical foundation. Then I went to college to study business administration. In college, I had excellent experiential learning opportunities. As we were in smaller classes, the professors often invited us to speak in class to express our views during round tables. They would then supplement our knowledge with examples and experiments. It should be noted that many of the college professors are also professionals in action. It is therefore a sharing of knowledge between a professional in the field and his apprentices. The result is that at the end of the course, the concepts learned are remembered longer and more interest is developed for the course. College is not more or less advantageous than university; they are both just different ways of learning in different types of programs. I am very happy that I completed my university education with a college degree. It prepared me for the work force. Unlike other places, educational practices are different between colleges and universities in Ontario. This is an advantage as it allows students with different learning styles to find their place.