The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a measurement model for Internet information retrieval strategy performance evaluation whose theoretical basis is a modification of the classical measurement model embodied in the Cranfield studies and their progeny. Though not the first, the Cranfield studies were the most influential of the early evaluation experiments. The general problem with this model was and continues to be the subjectivity of the concept of relevance. In cyberspace, information scientists are using quantitative measurement models for evaluating information retrieval performance that are based on the Cranfield model. This research modified this model by incorporating enduser relevance judgment rather than using objective relevance judgments, and by adopting a fundamental unit of measure developed for the cyberspace of Internet information retrieval rather than using recall and precision-type measures. The proposed measure, the Content-bearing Click (CBC) Ratio, was developed as a quantitative measure reflecting the performance of an Internet IR strategy. Since the hypertext "click" is common to many Internet IR strategies, it was chosen as the fundamental unit of measure rather than the "document." The CBC Ratio is a ratio of hypertext click counts that can be viewed as a false drop measure that determines the average number of irrelevant content-bearing clicks that an enduser check before retrieving relevant information. After measurement data were collected, they were used to evaluate the reliability of several methods for aggregating relevance judgments. After reliability coefficients were calculated, measurement model was used to compare web catalog and web database performance in an experimental setting. Conclusions were the reached concerning the reliability of the proposed measurement model and its ability to measure Internet IR performance, as well as implications for clinical use of the Internet and for future research in Information Science.

This paper examines whether US regulation related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) improves firms’ CSR performance. This inquiry is motivated by increasing stakeholder interest in firms’ CSR activities and reporting, as well as questions of increasing regulatory burden over time and government failure to adequately address societal challenges. First, I develop a measure of firms’ CSR regulatory exposure by extracting federal agencies’ regulatory analysis, and applying a machine-learning model for industry classification. Second, I confirm theoretical expectations that more stringent CSR-related rules are associated with higher firm CSR performance in the regulated areas, but with lower CSR performance in the unregulated areas. The result suggests a likely trade-off in firms’ responses to CSR regulation. Cross-sectional tests show that financial constraint (regulatory uncertainty) elevates (reduces) such tradeoffs. Using narrow passage of congressional bills as an exogenous shock to firms’ CSR regulatory exposure, I also provide causal evidence on such tradeoffs.

Magister Educationis - MEd / The study is located within the project: Relevance of School Mathematics Education (ROSME) of the Department of Didactics at the University of the Western Cape. The research is undertaken in the belief that Mathematics enables creative and logical reasoning about contextualised problems in the realm of the physical and social world as well as in the discipline mathematics itself. Relevance of school Mathematics has the implied notion of contextual issues. This research attempts to investigate the contextual issues that teachers have to deal with in Mathematics education. Given the results of the TIMMS report, this research aims to investigate, through comparison, the context preferences between a selected group of practicing teachers in South Africa and those of their counterparts in South Korea.

Informed parent advocates are essential to planning the educational outcomes of their children with special needs in the K through 12 public school system. However, inappropriate instructional techniques used in advocacy training may reduce trainees' learning outcomes by adding complexity and increasing cognitive load. This study examined whether using worked examples to break down complex problems into component parts to build long term schema could lower cognitive load and thus improve learning outcomes for parent advocacy trainees. Based on cognitive load theory, this 2 x 3 factorial design study examined the efficacy of noninteractive video lessons for parent trainees using worked examples to reduce extraneous cognitive load. Research questions explored the relationships between the independent variables of using worked examples and parents' perceived class relevance on the dependent variable, change in cognitive load of parent trainees, as well as the interaction between training type and perceived class relevance. Two groups of 65 adults in advocacy training (N = 130) participated in a video lesson in either the worked examples or nonworked examples format as part of their advocacy training. The NASA Task Load Index and the Perceived Class Relevance Survey instruments were used to measure cognitive load of trainees and perceptions of training relevance. Key findings included a significant main effect between the use of worked examples and change in cognitive load and significant interaction effects with the perception of class relevance. Training was developed for advocacy trainers in the use of worked examples for learners new to a domain. Implications for social change include improved learning outcomes for parents who must learn IEP terminology in beginning classes to effectively advocate for their children.

Bank regulators limit the amount of deferred tax assets includable in the capital ratio calculations which measure the bank’s financial health. The increased balances in bank deferred tax assets after the beginning of the financial crisis raised concerns that applying this deferred tax asset regulatory capital limitation may contribute to the need for banks to raise more capital. Value relevance is the ability of information disclosed in the financial statements to capture and summarize firm value. Deferred tax value relevance literature generally omits the regulated industries. Because fair value accounting plays a much larger role the banking industry, the market value of a bank has a different relationship to its book value than its unregulated counterparts. Using annual bank data from 2004 through 2012 for publicly held banks in the United States, this study empirically examines the value relevance of the banks’ net deferred tax assets and liabilities over time (pre-crisis versus crisis periods). Findings indicate that although the deferred tax liabilities are value relevant in both the pre-crisis and crisis periods, the value relevance of the net deferred tax assets is limited to crisis period (increased net deferred tax asset balances). An additional test shows that investors view the increased levels of net deferred tax assets in relation to total assets as concerns about the bank’s financial health. This study also examines the whether investors value the net deferred tax assets of less financially healthy banks (low Tier I capital ratios) differently from the healthier banks. Findings indicate that the coefficient of net deferred tax assets for the less financially healthy banks is negative and significant. Using another measure of financial health (high probability of failure) finds similar results. This study extends the value relevance literature to the deferred tax accounts of commercial banks. It also shows that the deferred tax asset accounts are valued differently than the other assets, supporting the deferred tax asset limitation for capital ratio calculations. Finally, this study provides information useful to analysts’ valuations of the banks’ deferred tax accounts.

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The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the narratives of 10 students who began an academic course with strong negative attitudes but finished the course with strong positive attitudes. In the beginning of the course, each student exhibited one of these three tendencies: apathetic, compliant, or disillusioned; however, by the end of the course, they exhibited a transformed disposition. This study attempts to answer the question of what the turning points were for their transformation and how they made the change. The findings of this study were that regardless of individual tendencies, the ability to exercise agency was the principal turning point for these students, followed by seeing that relevance in their own lives, and taking the initiative to approach the teacher with problems. An unexpected finding was how students with a transforming tendency tend to see learning as a spiritual activity and that through faith, acknowledging others, reverence, and humility, they can change their strong negative attitudes toward a course.

As the demand for programming skills in today’s job market is rapidly increasing for disciplines outside of computing, CS courses have experienced spikes in enrollment for non-majors. Students in disciplines including art, design and biological sciences are now often required to take introductory CS courses. Previous research has shown the role of growth mindset, self-efficacy and relevance in student success within CS but such metrics are largely unknown for non-majors. In this thesis, we surveyed non-majors in CS1 at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo during the early and late weeks of the quarter to gain insights on their growth mindset, their self-efficacy and the perceived relevance of the course to their lives. In our analysis, we discovered that non-majors’ levels of growth mindset and of self-efficacy decreased throughout the duration of CS1 with additional differences by gender. However, non-majors largely found that the material covered in CS1 was highly relevant to their academic and professional careers despite being challenged by it. These findings provide important insights into the experiences of non-majors learning to code and can help better serve a more diverse population of students.

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