This thesis is based on practitioner and action research by the author. A series of iterative case studies identified factors that contributed towards a group of low ability and disaffected pupils being engaged in learning in design and technology. The findings of each case study were analysed and conclusions used to frame the subsequent case study. Findings from these case studies were then used to develop an action research project. Discussion of the relationship between pupils' perceived relevance of an activity and their levels of engagement has appeared on the UK educational agenda, (Ofsted 2005:51-52, Davies et al, 2004:147, Daniels et al 1998:5.5, Denton, 1992), but not with the frequency which might be expected. Initial research at the school found that a group of low ability and disaffected pupils had a very positive perception of the “relevance” of design and technology. In contrast the literature reviewed suggested that pupils in their samples had a low perception of the “relevance” of design and technology. Qualitative methodology was used. This included interviewing teachers and pupils and the development of a semi-structured interview schedule. Analysis of this data was aided by the use of a Likert, (1932) rating scale. A "summated" scale, Trochim, (2006) supported the interpretation of data. Observations were used to record classroom interactions. A Delphi group (Toffler, 1970:462) explored issues emerging during the research and to limit the danger of single observer bias. Pupil understanding of the term “relevance” was explored. The findings identified strategies employed to promote the relevance of the subject. These strategies were developed into an action research project that tested the strategies in three other schools. One school, with a relatively inexperienced teacher, found the strategies had a positive impact on teaching and learning.

Climate change, with the possibility of an ice free Arctic ocean by 2015, has generated a renewed interest in the Arctic. This interest is being driven by the possibility of easier access to the abundant supply of resources such as oil, gas, minerals, and fisheries. Interest in Arctic tourism is also growing. Retreating sea ice will provide opportunities to avail of shorter routes for maritime traffic to and from Asia, North America, and Asia via the Arctic Ocean and Northwest Passage. In addition, the rate of population growth of local inhabitants in the Canadian Arctic is the fastest in Canada and one of the fastest in the world. A growing population will increase the demand for sealift resupply to Canada's northern communities. This work presents the first attempt to examine the role of privatization of icebreaking services in light of the present and projected shortages of infrastructure to support development in the Arctic. A unique combination of multiple methods within marine transportation, comprising of Delphi, grounded theory, and quantitative survey, is applied to investigate the potential for private involvement in the delivery of icebreaking services in the Canadian Arctic. This includes a novel application of Strauss and Corbin's Grounded Theory approach to develop hypotheses and relationships grounded in expert opinion. Although the Arctic Ocean may be ice free during the summers, there is still the issue of winter freezing and the threat of lingering multi-year ice which will impede marine transportation especially during periods of darkness and fog. The research shows that the future growth and development of the Canadian Arctic will undoubtedly require the use of designated icebreakers and ice strengthened vessels. However, Canada's fleet of Arctic icebreakers is ageing and considered unsuitable for future demands. While Canada has earmarked CAD $750M for the construction of one new icebreaker scheduled for delivery in 2017, the research shows that Icebreakers can be built outside of Canada for considerably less money and in less time. Also, the management and operation of the Canadian Coast Guard is under considerable security by the Auditor General of Canada. The research shows that not unlike others Arctic nations, there is potential for the creation of private-public partnerships in the delivery of Canadian Coast Guard services, principally icebreaking, in the Arctic.

In the current international environment characterized by globalization and regionalization, the importance of the transport and logistics system integration which is the basis of regional economic cooperation has been highlighted. Northeast Asian Region which covers 5.7% of the total world’s area and has around 25.8% of the total world’s population has been one of the most active regions of economic and social development in recent two decades largely due to the emergence of China and Russia in the world market. However, different from the EU which provides an excellent example of economic and transport integration, the transport and logistics system in Northeast Asia still has massive room for improvement. The concept of transportation corridor construction has been adopted in the research and the five most important international transportation corridors in Northeast Asia have been fully examined in terms of current situation and major problems and issues. The major issues include inadequate and imbalanced transportation infrastructure, lack of funding as well as insufficient institutional mechanisms. Consequently, the policy and action plans in four sectors are formulated to improve the performance of the transport and logistics system in Northeast Asia. The current research was facilitated by experts mainly from the transport and logistics field in Northeast Asia, through the application of the Delphi Method. The consensus achieved will provide useful guidance for building a well integrated transport and logistics system in Northeast Asia. The political and economic stability of North Korea is a prerequisite for transport and logistics system construction in Northeast Asia. Furthermore, improving basic transport infrastructure, promoting logistics and transport facilities, building a logistics cooperation system and training logistics specialists are the four most important aspects for the development of the transport and logistics system in the region.

The aim of the study is to identify young visitors’ perceptions of the archaeological site of Delphi in Greece by measuring their importance and satisfaction levels from a series of cultural attributes through importance-satisfaction analysis. Even though young people are an important segment of the tourism industry little research has been done concerning their actual behaviour towards culture and cultural destinations. Given their significance, an examination of their perceptions towards cultural destinations can give useful insights. This can be done both academically, for the enrichment of theory, but also practically, for the appropriate management of cultural sites according to their needs and wants. In this study it was found that young visitors consider culture as one of the most important motives for travelling. According to the respondents, attributes related to monuments/exhibits at the site are more important than the facilities and amenities provided by its managers. The research identified that, overall, young people were fairly satisfied with Delphi, particularly with its beauty and landscape, but less satisfied with the man-made interventions. Importance-satisfaction analysis indicated that issues concerning the organisation and promotion of the site have positive levels of satisfaction, while issues concerning education and quality have comparatively negative levels. Factor Analysis derived three groups of attributes that should be considered for the future planning of the destination: ‘Place and Experience’; ‘Amenities and Quality’; ‘Facilities and Operation’. Finally, Cluster Analysis indicated that there are three main segments of young visitors in Delphi which, according to their profile, develop certain behaviours that should also be taken into account for the future promotion of the site; ‘The Greeks’; ‘The Americans and others’; ‘The French’. Therefore, better management strategies according to the needs and wants of this dynamic market would make the site more attractive, contributing to the promotion of cultural tourism in general. The study found that young people are great ‘consumers’ of culture and seek to enrich their knowledge while visiting cultural destinations. If a cultural destination meets their specific needs and wants, greater levels of satisfaction will be generated. Positive levels of satisfaction will lead to a series of positive consequences: loyalty, mouth to mouth marketing and peer influence. This, in addition to the fact that young people are the tourists of the future, can lead to the creation of consciousness for culture while travelling and to the enhancement of the potential visitation of the site in the following years.

Information security research states that corporate security policy and information security training should be socio-technical in nature and that corporations should consider training as a primary method of protecting their information systems. However, information security policies and training are predominately technical in nature. In addition, managers creating security policies rely heavily on security guidelines, which are also technically oriented. This study created a series of information security training videos that were viewed by four groups of managers. One video discussed the socio-technical aspects of security, another discussed only the social aspects of security, the third detailed only the technical aspects of security, and the fourth was a control video unrelated to information security. Each group was shown the video, and after this viewing, each group’s values toward information security were ascertained and converted into security objectives following Keeney (1992)’s value-focused thinking approach. Each group’s list of security objectives were used as the input to Schmidt (1997)’s ranking Delphi methodology, which yielded a more concise and ranked list of security objectives. The results thus obtained, indicate that manager’s objectives towards information security are affected by the nature and scope of the information security training they receive. Information security policy based on each group’s value-based security objectives indicate that manager’s receiving socio-technical training would produce the strongest information security policy when analyzing the value-focused thinking list of security objectives. However, the quality of security policy decreases when analyzing the ranked Delphi list of security objectives, thus providing mixed results. The theoretical contribution of this research states that technically oriented information security training found in corporations today affects manager’s values and security objectives in a way that leads them to create and support technically oriented security policies, thus ignoring the social aspects of security. The practical contribution of this research states that managers should receive socio-technical information security training as a part of their regular job training, which would affect their values and lead to socio-technical information security policy based on the manager’s socio-technical security objectives. The methodological contribution of this research demonstrates the successful use of the value-focused thinking approach as the input to the ranking of the Delphi methodology.

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

The problem of this study is to predict how basic design will be taught in the year 2000 in the United States of America according to the perceptions of design educators who were polled using a Delphi exercise. Basic design is an introductory course in design disciplines covering fundamental principles, components, and applications of design. This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to predict how basic design will be taught in the year 2000 to allow design educators to better prepare for the future. The second is to provide a basis for further research that might address specific areas in the future of teaching design.

O propósito desta dissertação é apresentar algumas idéias sobre o emprego das palavras relacionadas à visão no texto do Livro I das Histórias de Heródoto. O principal destaque é dado à relação entre ver e saber e as investigações de Heródoto. O segundo propósito, decorrente do primeiro, é verificar a importância dos oráculos no Livro I e buscar a relação (se existe) entre oráculos, sonhos, visões e a busca do conhecimento. / The purpose of this dissertation is to show some ideas about the use of words related to sight in the text of HerodotusHistories, Book I . The main focus is given to the existing relationship between seeing and knowing and Herodotus researches. The second purpose, built from the first one, is to evaluate the importance of oracles described in Book I and to seek the relationship of (if it exists) oracles, dreams, visions and the search for knowledge.

Background – As we live in a more digitized world, technological advancements have already taken place and have reshaped many different industries. One of these industries is the audit profession, which is a profession where the digitalization can contribute immensely. The digitalization is an on- going process within the field of audit and have resulted in improved tools and more efficient auditing. However, new emerging risks, such as IT-risks, have progressed along the digitalization. Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore how the digitalization affects the auditing in Sweden, and more precise, how it affects the audit process and the risk that emerges from the digitalization. Furthermore, the study will examine if there are any perceived differences among small and big audit firms in the concept of digitalization. Method – The Delphi method has been used to gather the primary data needed for the study. Practitioners from both the Big 4-firms and the smaller firms have been selected to take part of the study as experts by participating in a brainstorming session and by answering a questionnaire. This classification of the firms will be the two panels of experts within the study. Conclusion – The results indicates that the perception of digitalization of the audit process and the audit risks within the Big 4-firms and the smaller firms are somewhat alike but not ultimately. The two panels agree that the effects of the digitalization have been substantial and that the auditing in the future will be even more efficient. Regarding the risks the panels have more differentiated opinions, where the second panel, consisting of the smaller firms, believes that the digitalization has affected the risks to a larger extent than the first panel. As this thesis aimed to investigate, there is indeed a perceived difference among the Big 4-firms and the smaller firms regarding the digitalization effect on the audit process, although not a substantial one.

Local public transport companies provide important mobility services to the general public. Although these services are usually subsidised, companies rely on revenues generated by ticket sales. Therefore, fare evasion (i.e., people using a transport service without paying for it) and ticket forgery (the production of an illegal ticket facsimile) have considerable influence on the companies' economic sustainability. As existing research regarding the economic perspective is limited, this paper presents a Delphi study that investigates the phenomena with a survey of experts in public transport companies and transport associations in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The findings of the survey provide insights into the overall perception and discuss relevant aspects of both fare evasion and ticket forgery, thereby not only highlighting practical implications, but also helping policy makers shape adequate policies for public transport in societies.