This thesis comprises three research essays. The study documents empirical evidence around the research themes by analysing a sample of the UK’s listed non-financial firms from 2005 to 2018. It applied panel data analysis (fixed or random effects) techniques and the potential endogeneity issue is controlled by using the two-step system, GMM. Earnings-management research holds that manipulating a firm's real activities is more damaging to its long-term growth and value than accruals manipulation. Therefore, by building on agency theory and emphasising board monitoring, first essay investigates the role of independent directors’ tenure and connection to several boards in controlling real earnings management (REM). This study finds that independent directors elected to board before appointment of current CEO are negatively associated with the level of REM. Furthermore, this research provides evidence that REM is higher in those firms whose INDs are connected to several boards at a time. Though economically insignificant in most of the models, this research also shows that the association between INDs’ tenure and REM varies with the phases of their tenure. Directors in the early stage of their tenure are observed as being less effective in controlling REM. However, as INDs’ tenure grows, they employ better oversight over management's conduct, thereby reducing REM. Contrary to this, the extended tenure of INDs is associated with higher REM. These results collectively suggest that the board monitoring role protects the stakes of shareholders/stakeholders by constraining REM; when INDs are free from the influence of CEO, they are not over-committed due to their presence on several boards, and they have moderate board tenure which is neither too short nor too long. Furthermore, drawing on collective contributions and group performance perspectives, second essay explores the role of board diversity in the firm’s R&D investment decisions. Additionally, building on a fault-line argument about a team's demographic attributes, the current research decomposes the impact of demographic and cognitive diversity on R&D spending. The research observes a positive relationship between board diversity and the level of R&D spending. Moreover, this research documents that cognitive diversity is positively associated with R&D investment. However, demographic diversity has an insignificant relationship with firms’ spending on R&D projects. Further, this study confirms that demographic diversity negatively moderates the relationship between cognitive diversity and R&D investment. These results suggest that the board's attributes as a group carry the significance to influence the decisions having strategic importance. The findings on the sub-dimensions of board diversity imply that board functional/cognitive diversity is more relevant to corporate decisions and outcomes than is demographic diversity. Based on the monitoring perspective (agency theory) and resource provision view (resource dependency theory), third essay investigates the role of independent directors’ specific attributes in the corporate propensity to R&D investment. The study documents a positive association between INDs’ moderate (median) tenure and the firm’s spending on R&D projects, but early and extended tenure is observed as being insignificant. INDs with a presence on three or fewer boards are observed to promote R&D investment. However, INDs sitting on more than three boards negatively affect the firm’s propensity to invest in R&D initiatives. Financially expert INDs are negatively associated with corporate R&D investments, suggesting that such directors may resist funding these projects beyond optimal risk level because of their expertise. These results suggest that INDs’ monitoring and advising competence improves as they spend time on the firm’s board, but that extended tenure is counterproductive as it impairs INDs’ impartiality. Furthermore, INDs’ capital (resources) accruing from connection to multiple boards is only beneficial for the firm’s strategic decisions if their monitoring role is not compromised because of their over-commitment (busyness). / Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST)

This dissertation examines the nature, scope, and significance of a new pedagogical approach to teaching of views on nature of science (VNOS) to high school students. Educational approaches based on teaching ‘correct’ VNOS continue to be dominated by the epistemology of logical empiricism and, as I will point out, these approaches are inadequate to address the issues of VNOS. I assert and the findings presented in this dissertation offer evidence that students’ VNOS are dynamic and context-based. In this research I used filmmaking to explore students’ VNOS. High school students, supported by a professional filmmaking crew, completed a short film entitled, The Shadows of Hope; this film explores the use of scientific knowledge in understanding everyday life problems. The filmmaking environment introduced simultaneously a number of contexts in which students’ VNOS were concurrently collected using mixed methods methodology. The results show that contexts sway students’ VNOS and generate a variety of the VNOS for each student. Evidence shows that there is a common, theme-based pattern to individual students’ set of VNOS. The variety of expressed VNOS seemed natural to the students, with no registered discomfort. However, in this study a contrast between students’ VNOS and their ‘school-based’ understanding of science also became apparent. This is evidence that cognitive dissonance is not sufficient to explain the full spectrum of ways in which students learn, deepen knowledge and arrive to conceptual change. I assert that including cognitive contextual expansion in our understanding of conceptual change is essential to provide a framework that allows to integrate cognitive diversity into the theory of learning, reflecting a perhaps more natural way human mind works. The project’s findings offer evidence that students’ VNOS deepened and expanded through filmmaking; students arrived to a more examined and mature VNOS while enjoying the activity of making a film. There is evidence that cooperation with a professional team provided students with a feeling of respect and pride. Filmmaking offers a robust way of learning, based on collaborative work that enlivens a large number of learning-enhancing activities. Additional resources and a Brief Guide For Teachers are added to this text to support teachers in adopting filmmaking as a unique pedagogical method. / Graduate / 0714 / 0900 / 0533 / akottova@uvic.ca