This paper describes an exploratory study of whether and in what way ‘double-edged learning’ can develop from understanding the relationship between structure and judgment and thus capture students’ experience of the audit profession. The study is based on a focus group/individual interviews conducted with students performing their work-integrated learning assignments where they interact with auditors. Identifying two themes defined as Perceiving the profession and auditing and Entering into and forming in the audit profession derived from the data, it appears that when positioned within a work-integrated learning context, students develop awareness of the use of standards and checklists on one hand as well as the importance of discretional judgment on the other. Based on these results, we theorise as to how double-edged learning manifests itself in students’ experiences and understanding of the relationship between structure and judgment.

This paper describes an exploratory study of whether and in what way ‘double-edged learning’ can develop from understanding the relationship between structure and judgment and thus capture students’ experience of the audit profession. The study is based on a focus group/individual interviews conducted with students performing their work-integrated learning assignments where they interact with auditors. Identifying two themes defined as Perceiving the profession and auditing and Entering into and forming in the audit profession derived from the data, it appears that when positioned within a work-integrated learning context, students develop awareness of the use of standards and checklists on one hand as well as the importance of discretional judgment on the other. Based on these results, we theorise as to how double-edged learning manifests itself in students’ experiences and understanding of the relationship between structure and judgment.