A interpretação de texto é uma atividade que envolve, além da decodificação, a realização de processos inferenciais. Considerando que documentos educacionais oficiais, tanto no âmbito nacional quanto no regional, reconhecem que ler é mais do que decodificar, e que os livros didáticos de Língua Portuguesa (LDLPs) têm procurado explorar de modo mais amplo a interpretação de texto, este trabalho avalia duas seções de interpretação textual: uma pertencente a um LDLP destinado ao 6º ano e outra, ao 9º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Essa avaliação consiste na apreciação crítica das questões de interpretação de texto no que diz respeito à exploração de inferências pragmáticas, mais especificamente, acerca do modo como é abordada a compreensão dos implícitos textuais e dos mecanismos subjacentes a sua produção. A avaliação realizada parte do pressuposto de que a leitura é um processo interacional, valendo-se do paradigma da Teoria da Relevância (TR) para a análise dos processos subjacentes à interpretação de enunciados. A partir da análise de dois textos e suas respectivas perguntas presentes em duas seções de interpretação de acordo com os princípios propostos pela TR, empreende-se uma reflexão sobre o modo como essa teoria pode contribuir para a formulação de propostas didáticas capazes de propiciar ao aluno um maior desenvolvimento de sua proficiência leitora. / Text interpretation involves not only decoding, but carrying out several inferential processes. This is reflected in the fact (i) that most official educational documents recognize that reading is more than deciphering words and (ii) that textbooks of Portuguese (LDLPs) have attempted to explore text interpretation more widely in recent years. This study assesses text interpretation in two different stages, namely, the sixth and ninth grades of middle school (junior high school). This evaluation comprises a critical account of text interpretation questions with regard to the exploration of pragmatic inferences, especially concerning the methods used to approach textual implications and the mechanisms underlying their productions. The assessment carried out assumes that reading is an interactional process. In addition, built on the Relevance Theory (RT), this dissertation analyzes underlying processes in the interpretation of utterances. Based on interpretation tasks present in two texts analyzed in this study, we look into how RT can contribute to the formulation of didactic approaches that may aid students with their reading skills.

São notórias e bem evidentes as dificuldades de aprendizagem no ensino de Cálculo. Algumas tentativas de resolver, ou pelo menos, amenizar, este problema têm sido realizadas tanto no campo pedagógico quanto no âmbito da pesquisa. Muitas dessas ações, inseridas no próprio contexto do ensino superior de Cálculo, partem do pressuposto que essas dificuldades de aprendizagem são de natureza psicológica, internas ao sujeito aprendiz. No entanto, contrariando esta tendência, esta pesquisa pretende mostrar que parte significativa dos problemas de aprendizagem do atual ensino de Cálculo é de natureza essencialmente epistemológica, está além dos métodos e das técnicas de ensino, sendo inclusive anterior ao seu próprio tempo de realização. Diante disto, foram imaginadas duas ações inter-relacionadas, dois mapeamentos que visam ao levantamento e entendimento dessas dificuldades de natureza epistemológica no ensino de Cálculo: um mapeamento conceitual do Cálculo e de suas idéias e procedimentos básicos; em seguida, munido desses elementos, realizou-se efetivamente o mapeamento das dificuldades supracitadas. Assim, a partir do entrelaçamento dos fatos históricos e pedagógicos, e tendo como pano de fundo as dualidades essenciais e os mapas conceituais do Cálculo, foram explicitados e consubstanciados cinco macro-espaços de dificuldades de aprendizagem de natureza epistemológica, cinco eixos que estruturam o ensino de Cálculo, a saber: o eixo discreto/contínuo; o eixo variabilidade/permanência; o eixo finito/infinito; o eixo local/global; e o eixo sistematização/construção. Nesse esforço filosófico, foram estabelecidas relações entre os macro-espaços determinados com os mapas históricos e conceituais do Cálculo, e destes com o ensino de matemática em todos os níveis. Então, pôde-se perceber, em essência, um único lugar-matriz das dificuldades de aprendizagem de natureza epistemológica do ensino de Cálculo: o da omissão/evitação das idéias básicas e dos problemas construtores do Cálculo no ensino de Matemática em sentido amplo. Isto posto, para romper com o isolamento semântico, a subestimação da relevância das idéias e dos instrumentos característicos do Cálculo, propõem-se algumas intervenções didáticas relativas ao ensino básico de Matemática e ao ensino do próprio Cálculo. O que se pretende com isso é possibilitar ao Cálculo exercer no campo pedagógico a mesma função integradora que ele realizou no âmbito científico, no processo de construção do conhecimento matemático. / The difficulties in learning Calculus are noticeable and quite evident. Some attempts to solve, or at least, soften, this problem have been made both in the pedagogical field and in the scope of the research. Many of these actions, within the context of a higher teaching of Calculus itself, assume that such difficulties in learning are of a psychological nature, internal to the learner. However, contrary to this tendency, this research intends to show that a significant part of the problems of learning the current teaching of Calculus is of a nature essentially epistemological, it is beyond the methods and the techniques of teaching, being also prior to its own time of realization. With that in mind, there were imagined two actions interrelated, two mappings which aim the rising and understanding of these difficulties of an epistemological nature in the teaching of Calculus: a conceptual mapping of Calculus and of its ideas and basic procedures; next, having these instruments, the mapping of the previously mentioned difficulties was effectively done. Thus, from the interlacement of the historical and pedagogical facts, and having as background the essential dualities and the conceptual maps of Calculus, there were clarified and consubstantiated five macro spaces of the difficulties in learning of an epistemological nature, five axes which structure the teaching of Calculus, namely: the axis discreet/continuous; the axis variability/permanence; the axis finite/infinite; the axis local/global; and the axis systematization/construction. In this philosophical endeavour there were established relations between the macro spaces determined by the historical and conceptual maps of Calculus, and from these with the teaching of mathematics in all levels. Therefore, one can notice, essentially, a single point of origin in the difficulties in the learning of an epistemological nature in the teaching of Calculus: the omission/avoidance of the basic ideas and the construction problems of Calculus in the teaching of mathematics in an ample sense. So, to break up with the semantic isolation, the underestimation of the relevance of the ideas and of the instruments characteristics of Calculus, some didactic interventions are proposed in the field of the basic teaching of Mathematics and in the teaching of Calculus itself. What is expected from this is to allow Calculus to have in the pedagogical field the same function of integration that it had in the scientific field, in the process of building the mathematical knowledge.

A sociedade, em especial a mídia e os investidores, vem demonstrando certa preocupação com a qualidade das informações evidenciadas pelos entes públicos. Ao final do ano de 2012, algumas operações realizadas pelo governo federal brasileiro, com o objetivo de melhorar o superávit fiscal, não foram bem vistas por bancos e consultorias, que questionaram e ajustaram os números governamentais em seus relatórios. No caso brasileiro, a preocupação demonstrada pelo mercado é uma evidência de que esses agentes podem fazer uso das informações contábeis governamentais, além de se preocuparem com o processo gerador dessas informações. A literatura internacional destaca evidências sobre a capacidade preditiva das informações contábeis governamentais em relação aos mercados de títulos de dívida pública, em especial para os títulos dos governos subnacionais. Todavia, há poucas evidências na literatura acerca do papel das informações contábeis dos governos nacionais. A partir da observação dessa lacuna, a presente pesquisa buscou identificar com que intensidade as informações contábeis governamentais influenciam o apreçamento dos títulos públicos emitidos pelo governo federal brasileiro, negociados no mercado secundário. Nesta pesquisa, foram analisadas as negociações realizadas sem a participação direta do governo federal e registradas no Sistema Especial de Liquidação e de Custódia. Foram verificadas as capacidades preditiva e confirmatória das informações contábeis do governo federal brasileiro, no período compreendido entre 2003 a 2012, em bases mensais. Considerando a abordagem da value relevance, foram desenvolvidos modelos de preços e de retornos para as seguintes séries temporais: (i) LFT - Série Única; (ii) LTN - Série Única; (iii) NTN - Série B; (iv) NTN - Série C; e (v) NTN - Série F. Após a análise da presença de raízes unitárias nas séries de preços e / ou retornos, foram estimadas regressões utilizando o método dos mínimos quadrados ordinários, para as séries estacionárias, e os modelos ARIMAX e ARCH, para as séries não estacionárias. As análises realizadas evidenciaram que as informações contábeis do governo federal brasileiro possuem capacidade preditiva e / ou confirmatória no apreçamento dos títulos negociados no mercado secundário. Todavia, isso não significa que as informações contábeis governamentais são plena e diretamente utilizadas pelos investidores de títulos de dívida, mas que essas funcionam como proxies das informações analisadas pelos investidores no momento de negociar tais títulos, considerando esses investidores como agentes racionais limitados. Evidenciou-se ainda que, apesar da associação entre as informações contábeis governamentais e os valores do mercado secundário, características específicas dos títulos ou do emissor e fatores macroeconômicos exercem influência no apreçamento dos títulos. Apesar da consistência do modelo teórico utilizado, a principal limitação desta pesquisa se refere à não identificação do real modelo decisório dos investidores dos títulos brasileiros. / The society, especially media and investors, has shown some concern about the evidenced information quality by public entities. At 2012\'s end, aiming to improve the fiscal surplus, some operations carried out by the Brazilian federal government were not well seen by banks and consultancies, who questioned and adjusted the government numbers in theirs reports. In the Brazilian case, the concern shown by the market is evidence that these agents can make use of governmental accounting information in addition to worrying about the generating process such information. The international literature highlights evidence on the predictive ability of accounting information in relation to government markets bonds, particularly for securities of subnational governments. However, there is little evidence in the literature about the role of accounting information from national governments. From the observation of this gap, this research sought to identify to what extent accounting information influence the pricing of government bonds issued by the Brazilian federal government, which were traded on the secondary market. In this study, I analyzed the trades without the direct participation of the federal government and registered in the Sistema Especial de Liquidação e de Custódia. I studied the predictive and confirmatory capabilities of Brazilian federal government accounting information, in the period 2003-2012, on a monthly basis. Considering the value relevance approach, I developed prices and returns models for the following series: (i) LFT - Série Única; (ii) LTN - Série Única; (iii) NTN - Série B; (iv) NTN - Série C; and (v) NTN - Série F. After the analysis of the presence of unit roots in the series of prices and / or returns, regressions were estimated using the method of ordinary least squares, for stationary series, and ARIMAX and ARCH models, for non-stationary series. The analyzes showed that the accounting information of the Brazilian federal government have predictive and / or confirmatory capabilities in the pricing of secondary market bonds. However, this does not mean that government accounting information are fully and directly used by bond investors, but these act as proxies of analyzed information by investors at the time of trading such bonds, considering these investors as bounded rational agents. It was evident that although the association between accounting information government and secondary market values secondary market, specific characteristics of the bonds or issuer and macroeconomic factors influence the pricing of bonds. Despite the consistency of the used theoretical model, the main limitation of this research relates to the failure to identify the real decision model of investors of Brazilian securities.

Este estudo evidencia o modo como se organizam as estratégias de cortesia que se manifestam na ocorrência dos marcadores discursivos pues, ya e claro em intervenções orais de adolescentes de duas capitais, Madri e Santiago do Chile, presentes no Corpus de Lenguaje Adolescente (COLA). Considerando a diversidade sociocultural (Bravo, 2004) e que os marcadores discursivos sinalizam a direção em que se deve buscar a relevância dos enunciados (Escandell-Vidal, 1998), esta pesquisa também analisa se adolescentes brasileiros, estudantes de língua espanhola, da região de São Paulo, constroem uma interpretação adequada quanto à presença ou ausência da cortesia, ao entrar em contato com as conversações do material de análise. Como resultado, foram descritos os contrastes entre as amostras das variedades - a santiaguina e a madrilena - de língua espanhola quanto ao uso das partículas pues, ya e claro. Observou-se que essas diferenças se relacionam ao contexto de enunciação e ao processamento discursivo, semântico e pragmático desses marcadores, comprovando que a cortesia apresenta particularidades e possui um valor relativo de acordo com a interação verbal, os traços culturais e o tipo de relação social entre os interlocutores. Através da escuta de alguns diálogos extraídos do corpus e guiados por um questionário, a maioria dos estudantes brasileiros construiu interpretações equivocadas das formações discursivas. Verificou-se que estas construções de sentido concerniram ao desconhecimento da forma ou do uso dos marcadores, que impediu que estes orientassem o processo de interpretação, e à desconsideração das diferenças interculturais e dos modelos de cortesia em diferentes interações verbais. / This study shows how strategies of politeness occurring when discourse markers are used in oral interventions of teenagers from the two capital cities of Madrid and Santiago de Chile contained in the Corpus de Lenguaje Adolescente (COLA) are organized. Considering the socio-cultural diversity (Bravo, 2004) and discourse markers indicate in which direction we should look for the relevance of utterances (Escandell-Vidal, 1998), this research also analyzes if Brazilian teenagers, students of Spanish language in São Paulo region, have a proper interpretation regarding the presence or the absence of politeness when they are exposed to the conversations of the material analyzed. As a result, the differences between samples of Spanish language varieties from Santiago and from Madrid regarding the use of the particles pues, ya and claro were described. Such differences were seen to be related to the context of enunciation and the discursive, semantic, and pragmatic processing of the markers, which confirms that the politeness shows particularities and has a relative value according to the verbal interaction, cultural traits, and the type of social relationship between interlocutors. By hearing some of the dialogs extracted from the corpus and guided by a questionnaire, most Brazilian students had wrong interpretations of discursive formations. Such constructions of meaning were seen to be related to the lack of knowledge of the markers form or usage, which prevented the markers to guide the interpretation process, and the disregard of intercultural differences and models of politeness in various verbal interactions.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2018-03-27T13:34:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 julianapacassinialves.pdf: 5428535 bytes, checksum: f6d7e4a8d4a8a913e181ca92eeebcd6d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2018-04-09T19:21:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 julianapacassinialves.pdf: 5428535 bytes, checksum: f6d7e4a8d4a8a913e181ca92eeebcd6d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-09T19:21:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 julianapacassinialves.pdf: 5428535 bytes, checksum: f6d7e4a8d4a8a913e181ca92eeebcd6d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-12-14 / Esta tese focaliza a interface Linguagem e Teoria da Mente (ToM – do inglês Theory of Mind), buscando-se investigar as demandas cognitivas envolvidas no raciocínio de Crenças Falsas (CFs) por crianças de 5-6 anos em fase de aquisição do Português Brasileiro e de desenvolvimento da ToM. Verifica-se em que medida subclasses de verbos de estado mental encontram-se relacionadas, como o verbo factivo saber e os verbos epistêmicos pensar/achar, na realização de tarefas de CFs de 2ª ordem por crianças nessa faixa etária. Considera-se o conceito de ToM como a capacidade sociocognitiva de o indivíduo reconhecer seus próprios estados mentais e os dos outros e, a partir deles, predizer ações ou comportamentos (ASTINGTON & GOPNIK, 1988, 1991; WELLMAN, 1991, 2017). Assume-se uma concepção minimalista de língua (CHOMSKY, 1995 – atual) e, de forma mais específica, de faculdade da linguagem, nos termos de Hauser et al. (2002). Propõese uma investigação acerca da interface gramática-pragmática, adotando-se uma teoria pragmática formal de natureza cognitiva, conforme a perspectiva da Teoria da Relevância (SPERBER & WILSON, 2001; 2002). A hipótese que norteia este estudo é a de que perguntas prévias de compreensão e orientação, inseridas em testes clássicos de CF de 2ª ordem, minimizam a sobreposição de demandas cognitivas linguísticas e não especificamente linguísticas envolvidas nesses testes. Parte-se da proposta de de Villiers (2004, 2005 e 2007), para quem a sintaxe de complementação é um pré-requisito para o desenvolvimento da ToM, propondo-se a existência de outros fatores diretamente relacionados ao domínio dessa habilidade. O objetivo geral deste estudo é o de propor, em termos metodológicos, estratégias que permitam à criança organizar/recuperar informação disponível na memória e distinguir pontos de vista, habilidades cognitivas necessárias ao raciocínio de crenças falsas. Para tanto, foram elaborados dois conjuntos de experimentos, subdivididos em 4 etapas cada um, com vistas a investigar especificamente: (i) se a estrutura sintática da pergunta-alvo do teste clássico de CF de 2ª ordem, com um ou dois verbos epistêmicos, interfere no desempenho das crianças que realizam a tarefa; (ii) se o tipo de verbo epistêmico (pensar ou achar) da pergunta-teste, com apenas um encaixamento estrutural, contribui para a compreensão de CFs de 2ª ordem; (iii) se alterações metodológicas na aplicação da tarefa clássica, por meio da inserção de perguntas prévias à pergunta-teste, auxiliam o raciocínio de CF de 2ª ordem; e (iv) em que medida a factividade se correlaciona com a atribuição de crenças falsas. Os resultados sugerem que a adaptação da tarefa, com a inserção de perguntas de orientação, contribui para a condução do raciocínio de CF de 2ª ordem, havendo maior índice de acertos, sobretudo, no grupo que realizou o experimento com a pergunta prévia com o verbo factivo saber. Além disso, com base no desempenho melhor das crianças na tarefa realizada com o verbo pensar, quando comparado ao verbo achar, os resultados indicam que o verbo epistêmico pensar pode ser uma pista linguística eficiente à criança para a compreensão de diferentes pontos de vista. Esta pesquisa pretende contribuir para aprofundar as discussões acerca da relação entre Linguagem e Teoria da Mente, na medida em que apresenta uma proposta de modificação metodológica para as tarefas comumente realizadas como meio de investigação do desenvolvimento da ToM. / This thesis project focuses on the interface Language and Theory of Mind (ToM), seeking to investigate the cognitive demands involved in the reasoning of False Beliefs (FBs), conducted by children in the acquisition stage of Brazilian Portuguese and the development of the ToM. It is verified to what extent subclasses of mental state verbs are related, such as the factive verb saber (to know) and the epistemic verbs pensar/achar (to think), in the realization of the tasks of 2nd-order FBs by children in this age range. The concept of the ToM is understood as the sociocognitive capacity of an individual to recognize his/her own mental states and those of the others, and thus, to predict actions or behaviors (ASTINGTON & GOPNIK, 1988, 1991; WELLMAN, 1991, 2017). The theoretical perspective assumed is a minimalist conception of language (CHOMSKY, 1995 - present) and, more specifically, of language faculty according to Hauser et al. (2002). The Grammar Pragmatics interface is investigated based on a formal Pragmatics theory of cognitive nature, in line with the Relevance Theory (SPERBER & WILSON, 2001; 2002). The hypothesis that guides this study is that which previous comprehension and orientation questions, inserted in classic FB tests of 2nd-order, minimize the overlapping of linguistic cognitive demands and the ones not specifically linguistic involved in these tests. The starting point of the proposition of de Villiers (2004, 2005 e 2007), to whom the syntax of complementation is a pre-requisite for the development of the ToM, by proposing the existence of other factors directly related to the mastering of this ability. The aim of this study is to propose, in methodological terms, strategies that allow children to organize/retrieve information available in their memory, and distinguish points of view, cognitive abilities necessary to the reasoning of false beliefs. Therefore, two sets of experiments have been devised, divided into 4 stages each , in order to specifically investigate: (i) whether the syntactic structure of the target-question in the classic test of 2nd-order, with one or two epistemic verbs, interferes in the performance of the children who did the task; (ii) whether the kind of epistemic verb (pensar or achar) of the test-question, with only one structural nesting, contributes to the comprehension of FBs of 2nd-order; (iii) whether methodological changes in the application of the classic task, by inserting questions, previous to the test-question, help in the reasoning of FBs of 2nd-order; and (iv) to what extent the factivity correlates to the attribution of false beliefs. The results suggest that the adaptation of the task, along with the insertion of orientation questions, contributes to the conducting of the reasoning of 2nd-order FB, having a greater accuracy rate, especially in the group that performed the experiment with a previous orientation question with the factive verb saber. Besides, based on the better performance of the children in the task done with the verb pensar, when compared to the verb achar, the results indicate that the epistemic verb pensar can be an efficient linguistic clue to a child for understanding different points of view. This research intends to contribute to further the discussions about the relation between Language and the Theory of Mind, inasmuch as it presents a proposition of methodological change to the tasks usually performed as a means of investigating the development of the ToM.

SAMMANFATTNING   Titel: Den integrerade rapporteringens påverkan på värderelevansen av den finansiella informationen – En kvantitativ studie av 280 företag i Sydafrika och Frankrike   Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi   Författare: Lina Ingesson och Maria Rönnbäck   Handledare: Jan Svanberg   Datum: 2017 – september   Syfte: Företags rapportering kring hållbarhetsarbete har ökat och många organisationer publicerar redan frivilligt allt mer hållbarhetsinformation, antingen som fristående rapport, eller integrerat med den finansiella rapporteringen. Förespråkare av den integrerade rapporteringen menar att denna förbättrar den finansiella rapporteringens användbarhet för investerare. Det föreligger en avsaknad av empiriskt material som styrker detta. Syftet med studien är därför att undersöka om en integrerad rapportering förbättrar värderelevansen av den finansiella informationen och därmed förstärker användbarheten för investerare.   Metod: Denna studie utgår från ett positivistiskt vetenskapsteoretiskt perspektiv med en hypotetiskt-deduktiv ansats. Studien är av kvantitativt slag med en longitudinell design. De data som använts i undersökningen är av sekundär art och har hämtats från Thomson Reuters Datastream samt Thomson Reuters ASSET4. Statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS har använts för att genomföra analyserna.   Resultat & slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att en integrerad rapportering delvis förbättrar värderelevansen av den finansiella informationen och därmed delvis förstärker användbarheten för investerare. Denna slutsats kan dras genom iakttagelsen att efter att finansiell information och information och hållbarhet genom lagstiftning integrerats i en rapport kan en signifikant ökning av värderelevansen av rörelseresultatet observeras.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Vi uppmärksammar behov av vidare studier inom ett par områden: vi finner det motiverat med forskning som undersöker tillämpningen i Sydafrika respektive Frankrike var för sig för jämförelser och belysande av eventuella skillnader i institutionell kontext. Vi anser även att det vore intressant med en studie där värderelevansen av integrerad rapportering jämförs med värderelevansen av fristående hållbarhetsredovisning. Vidare forskning kan också studera effekterna på företags kapitalkostnad mer på djupet.   Uppsatsens bidrag: Studien bidrar till att fylla det forskningsgap vår litteraturstudie identifierat genom att bidra med empiriska bevis på att värderelevansen av den finansiella informationen delvis förbättras genom en integrerad rapportering. Studien bidrar till redovisnings- och hållbarhetslitteraturen genom att indikera att sammanförande av ett företags finansiella information med tidigare separat och till stora delar icke bokförd hållbarhetsinformation ökar värderelevansen av rörelseresultatet. Studiens resultat kan intressera dels JSE, Euronext Paris och andra finansmarknader likväl som IIRC och reglerare inom redovisningsstandarder samt bidrar till den akademiska debatten om integrerad rapportering. / ABSTRACT   Title: The impact of an integrated reporting on the value relevance of financial information. A quantitative study of 280 companies in South Africa and France.   Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration   Author: Lina Ingesson and Maria Rönnbäck   Supervisor: Jan Svanberg   Date: 2017 - September   Aim: The number of companies reporting on sustainability performance has increased and many organizations already voluntarily publish more sustainability information, either as a stand-alone report or integrated with their financial reporting. Advocates of integrated reporting mean that such reporting will improve the usefulness of financial reporting for investors. There is however a lack of empirical evidence to support this. The aim of this study is, therefore, to investigate whether integrated reporting improves the value relevance of financial information, and thereby enhances the usefulness for investors.   Method: The study is based upon a positivistic science theory perspective with a hypothetical deductive approach. The study is quantitative with a longitudinal design. The data used in the survey are secondary and are retrieved from Thomson Reuters Datastream and Thomson Reuters ASSET4. IBM SPSS Statistics is used to carry out the analysis.   Result & Conclusions: The results of this study show that integrated reporting partially improves the value relevance of the financial information, and thereby partially enhances the usefulness for investors. From the observations, the conclusion can be drawn, that after financial information and sustainability information has been integrated into one report the value relevance of earnings significantly increases.     Suggestions for future research: We find a need for future research in the following areas: we notice that research to investigate the application in South Africa and France each separately for comparison and highlighting of potential differences in institutional context is motivated. We also consider it interesting to study the value relevance of an integrated reporting compared to the value relevance of stand-alone sustainability reporting. Further research can also study the effects of companies’ capital costs more in depth.   Contribution of the thesis: This study contributes to filling the research gap that our literature study has identified by contributing with empirical evidence that the value relevance of the financial information partially improves through integrated reporting. The study contributes to the accounting literature by indicating that bringing together a company’s financial information with earlier separate and not posted information on sustainability increases the value relevance of the earnings. The results of this study may be of interest to JSE, Euronext Paris and other capital markets as well as IIRC and regulators of accounting standards and contributes to the academic debate on integrated reporting.

Chatroom conversations often elicit an initial impression of chaos. This is probably chiefly due to disrupted adjacency sequences, but also a result of the language being rich in non-standard linguistic forms and grammar. This study explores chatroom conversations with reference to Grice’s (1975) cooperative principle and the maxims that accompany it, and compares them to real life conversations. The aim is to see whether they differ from real life conversations to the extent expected, and whether these differences give rise to any compensational strategies to ensure successful communication. The results reveal a slightly higher amount of maxim undermining in the chat room than in the real life conversations, but not as high as expected. Accordingly, few compensational strategies need be adopted. It is suggested that the main explanation for these findings is that chatroom users have adapted their conversation patterns to the medium.

Professional bodies represent practitioners who continually seek guidance on industry related problems and challenges. Each professional body adopts values that are aligned to their own field of expertise. The operations of professional bodies are generally similar in many aspects and demands proficiency in order to maintain credibility and relevance. Research has revealed that professional bodies are lacking in effectiveness and need to improve so that maximum benefit can be relished by practitioners. This research attempts to develop a framework that can be utilised as a guide by professional bodies so that they can achieve excellence. The aim of the study was to develop a framework that can be used for the management of professional bodies by exploring the views and opinions of a total of 748 participants from management and members of professional bodies locally. The data was collected from interviews, and two separate questionnaires, one for professional bodies and the other for practitioners. The data was analysed statistically primarily using factor analysis to determine the significant factors that contributed to the developed framework for professional bodies. The questionnaires espoused questions related to the demographics of the respondents, management, mandate of professional bodies, offerings and benefits, assurance mechanisms, role of members, needs of members and more. The research instrument used the seven point Likert scale for the respondents to rate each question. The questionnaires were posted online for the respondents to participate. The research significant factors for professional bodies and practitioners emanated separately through factor analysis. The factors were then combined resulting in a total of 14 research overall factors that were used to develop a framework for professional bodies. The beneficiaries of this study are primarily professional bodies. The framework will also be useful to management in industry since it addresses partnership and collaboration efforts between industry, professional bodies and training authorities. / Business Management / DBL

Magister Educationis - MEd / One of the key ideas in the research on mathematics education is that the mathematical knowledge that learners acquire is strongly tied to the particular situation in which it is learnt. This study investigated the contexts that learners in grades eight, nine and ten prefer to deal with in the learning of mathematics based on their personal, social, societal, cultural and contextual concerns or affinities. The study is situated in the large-scale project called the Relevance of School Mathematics Education II (ROSMEII), which is concerned with the application and the use of mathematical knowledge and processes in real life situations. It is based on a survey of learners from ten (10) secondary schools in the Oshana and Khomas regions of Namibia. The ten schools that were sampled represent the spectrum of schools in Namibia in both urban and semi-urban areas. The Rasch model of data analysis is employed to provide some insight into the contextual situations learners would like to deal with in their mathematical learning. The data obtained for this study was analysed using the WINSTEPS Version 3.65.0 suite of computer programs. The current study arises from a concern about the absence of the voices of learners in the contextual situations in mathematics selected by adults such as mathematics teachers, inspectorates and curriculum and materials developers. The assumption is that the inclusion of learners’ insights into mathematics curricular might enhance mathematical learning. The study reveals that school children have an intrinsic desire to learn about mathematical issues embedded in real-life contexts. Several items which Namibian learners have shown interest in are issues they experience in life out of school which are not directly dealt with in school, such as managing personal and financial affairs, health matters, technology, construction, engineering and government financial matters. However, learners indicated to have a low preference in contexts like lotteries and gambling, national and international politics, cultural products, all kinds of pop music and dancing. This thesis contends that the inclusion of contexts in the mathematics curriculum which are of interest to learners will go a long way in facilitating good performance of learners in mathematics. / South Africa

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This research study investigates optimization of IRS to individual information needs in order of relevance. The research addressed development of algorithms that optimize the ranking of documents retrieved from IRS. In this thesis, we present two aspects of context-awareness in IR. Firstly, the design of context of information. The context of a query determines retrieved information relevance. Thus, executing the same query in diverse contexts often leads to diverse result rankings. Secondly, the relevant context aspects should be incorporated in a way that supports the knowledge domain representing users’ interests. In this thesis, the use of evolutionary algorithms is incorporated to improve the effectiveness of IRS. A context-based information retrieval system is developed whose retrieval effectiveness is evaluated using precision and recall metrics. The results demonstrate how to use attributes from user interaction behaviour to improve the IR effectiveness