**6. Conclusions**

This paper is intended to extend the interpretational and the applicable capacity of concept mapping in accounting education, prompted by a knowledge gap that no suitable concept map has filled to interpret the current state of the Accounting Theory curriculum knowledge system, which has undergone rapid and significant development. The key molded by this paper to resolve this problem is a tree-form concept map, which systematically models the progressive curriculum knowledge into a tree-like structure, including the root, the trunk, the branches, the twigs, the sub-twigs, and the bifurcations.

The contribution of this study is trifold. First, it enriches the concept mapping methodology through an exemplary case of the scarcely documented "tree-shaped" mapping method and its application in an accounting education setting. This paper thus informs educators and concept mappers of the values and the characteristics of concept trees, conveying the potential to apply and generalize this particular mapping technique to other curriculums or courses.

Second, the concept tree itself denotes a creative theoretical model that concludes the accounting knowledge system, which has been significantly restructured and advanced by newly emerging theories. Compared to the previous limited mapping work [10], the concept tree assimilates the advanced and the prominent knowledge claims that accountability is theorized as both the base of accounting practices and as the rationale, according to which financial and non-financial accounting contexts/sectors are distinctly classified [12,44]. Furthermore, with a faculty of interpreting the complex interrelationships between concepts, this tree-shaped redisposition provides a reference to a deeper form of wisdom concerning the accounting evolution, the accounting research methodology, and the sector-specific accounting phenomena.

The curriculum development that the concept tree facilitates is the third contribution. The tree-shaped concept map sets visual guidelines for educators to sequence and cohere topics, thereby enabling students to concisely communicate the voluminous and complex information that encompasses many aspects of the curriculum [57]. In addition, this concept tree has proved to be a useful device in designing exam questions, by which the pedagogy is redirected from a memory-test mode toward a meaningful learning track, where students are required to make efforts to comprehend, integrate, and apply their theoretical knowledge into concrete practices.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
