Varannan revisorsassistent blir underkänd på auktorisationsprovet och det finns ett godkännandegap mellan stora och små revisionsbyråer. På grund av att varannan tentand blir underkänd på auktorisationsprovet syftar denna uppsats till att identifiera vilka förutsättningar som revisionsbyråer ger revisorsassistenter under utbildningsprocessen upp till auktorisationsprovet. Frågeställningen är huruvida dessa förutsättningar skiljer sig mellan stora och små revisionsbyråer, och i så fall hur. Studien har antagit ett abduktivt tillvägagångssätt med en kvalitativ metod och en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi. Resultatet har tagits fram genom en innehållsanalys av godkända utbildningsplaner och semi-strukturerade intervjuer av fyra stora respektive fyra små revisionsbyråer. Uppsatsen följer Revisorsinspektionens struktur vid bedömande av utbildningsplan, nämligen att använda områdena Kompetens, Individuell anpassning, Resurser samt Utbildningsmiljö. Genom analysen läggs även området Förberedelse inför prov till. Genom en tvåstegsanalys identifieras 24 förutsättningar. Skillnader i förutsättningar mellan stora och små revisionsbyråer är att större revisionsbyråer generellt har mer resurser och intern kompetens samt har en strukturerad och styrd utbildningsplan, medan mindre revisionsbyråer är mer flexibla och anpassar utbildningen mer efter individen. Slutsatsen i denna studie är således att förutsättningar i sig är inte det som bidrar till en bättre utbildning inför auktorisationsprovet, utan det är hur de implementeras. Begränsningar i studien är huruvida tre av fyra intervjuade kontor verkligen representerar en stor revisionsbyrå väl och att det finns risker att intervjua individer för ett byråperspektiv. Förslag för framtida forskning är att studera nyligen auktoriserade revisorer för att kontrollera att de upplever att förutsättningarna identifierade i denna studie har bidragit till deras kompetensutveckling. / Every other audit assistant fails the audit exam and there is a gap in the passing percentage between big and small firms. Because every other audit assistant fails the audit exam, this paper aims to identify which prerequisites an audit firm can present to their audit assistants up until the audit exam. This paper seeks to answer if these prerequisites differ between big and small audit firms and how. This study has adopted an abductive approach with a qualitative method and a positivistic philosophy. The results were produced by analyzing text documents of approved education plans and semi structured interviews with four big and four small audit firms. The paper follows the structure Revisorsinspektionen uses when approving education plans, that is by using the areas Competence, Individual adaptation, Resources and Educational environment. From the analysis another area is added, Preparation for the Exam. A two-step analysis was used to identify 24 prerequisites. The difference in prerequisites between big and small audit firms is that big audit firms generally have more resources, internal competence and implements a more structured and controlled education plan, while smaller audit firms are more flexible and adapt the education plan after the individual. The conclusion in this paper is that prerequisites alone are not what adds to a better education for the audit exam, but rather how they are implemented. Limitations in this study are about whether three out of four interviewed offices really represent a big audit firm well, and there are risks about interviewing individuals from an audit firm's perspective. Proposal for future research is to study newly certified auditors to control whether they experience that the prerequisites identified in this study have contributed to the development of their skills.

This study was conducted using a quantitative, non-experimental, correlation design to explore the relationships between student-patient encounters with Diabetes Mellitus and the scores on the Diabetes Mellitus OSCE during Family Medicine clerkship. The focus of the research was to explore relationships between various methods of competency measures of third-year medical students during their Family Medicine clerkship as they encountered patients diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus (DM). A paradigm shift in medical education is taking place and driven by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME). These changes are fueled by the public outcry demanding verification of competency of our physicians. The study's focus is on the competency outcome measures from a new educational design, moving away from patient-centered education to competency-based, student-centered education and away from a norm-referenced assessment to a criterion-referenced assessment. Relevant literature on the need for competency-based medical education and various methods for implementation informed this study, including Miller (1990); Barman (2005); Barrows (1993), De Champlain, Margolis, Macmillan, and Klass (2001); Harden and Gleeson (1979); and Howley and Wilson (2004). More direct observation of student performance must be instituted with documentation of student clinical skills. Findings revealed no differences are seen in medical student competency acquisition during encounters of patients diagnosed with DM, in terms of cognitive, psychomotor, neck exam or affective measures, during the VCU SOM Family Medicine Clerkship. Significant differences are noted in the psychomotor subscale scores of the DM OSCE as the result of suburban clerkship site placement, as opposed to rural or urban sites. Finally, students at non-residencies see more patients with DM than at residency clerkship sites. Implications for further research were discussed focusing on 1) why differences were found only found in suburban clerkship sites; 2) the possibility that cultural competency understanding may play a role in these differences; 3) how do students learn about DM prior to the FM clerkship; 4) the possibility that the OSCE does not reflect community FM practice models.

Exam failures of the students in a specific network may influence not only the future performance of the student but also all students from their friendship networks, affecting the overall cohort's performance. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the whole network responses to failure. The difficulty of such analysis is incorporated in the probability of the failures being highly endogenous. In this paper, I am applying the novel identification and estimation approach to deal with such endogeneity. I am exploring the dynamic data on the students' networks in HSE, Nizhniy Novgorod. The results suggest that, on average, the exam failure of the friend have a negative effect on future performance. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / Across the nation, most states are implementing a new set of standards- and accountability-based reforms: the Common Core State Standards and their accompanying assessments. Unfortunately, the perspectives of school-based educators are largely missing from policy and implementation decisions about the Common Core. To address some of the gaps in previous research, the purpose of this dissertation—a comparative case study of two middle schools on the East Coast of the United States—was to describe and analyze school-based educators’ perceptions of and responses to the Common Core and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Exam. Data analysis revealed that educators in the two schools generally worked from an inquiry stance on teaching, learning, and schooling (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009) in that they collectively and critically analyzed the intentions of educational policy and practice based in part on their beliefs about student-centered, constructivist teaching and learning. Consistent with this perspective, they made sense of the Common Core and SBAC based on the degree of alignment they perceived between their own educational values and beliefs, on the one hand, and the values and beliefs that animated the policies, on the other hand, which I conceptualized as “principled sensemaking.” How the educators actually implemented the Common Core and SBAC was the result of the intersection of their principled sensemaking of these standards-based reforms and the degree of agency they had over policy implementation. I termed this type of response to policy “principled implementation.” Four types of principled implementation were identified: principled adoption, principled neglect, principled compliance, and principled resistance. New understandings of school-based educators’ unique, critical, and nuanced perceptions of the Common Core and SBAC and how they believe the Common Core and SBAC influence teaching and learning have the capacity to inform decisions about the future of the Common Core in schools, and contributes to a broader understanding of how school-based educators take up and respond to standards- and accountability-based reforms. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This thesis investigates why accountancy graduates are not preferred by large accountancy firms. This investigation is underpinned by two key factors sought by large accountancy recruiters: the ability of trainees to pass professional examinations (paper 1) and the development of non-technical skills by prospective trainees at the recruitment stage (paper 2 and paper 3). Paper 1 investigates the factors influencing the performance of Big 4 trainees in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland’s (ICAS) Test of Professional Skill Examinations with the key finding being that there is no significant difference in performance between accounting and non-accounting graduates. Through a questionnaire to Big 4 trainees, paper 2 finds that non-accounting graduates perceive their development of intellectual skills at university significantly higher than accounting graduates although accounting graduates perceive their development of team working skills superior to non-accounting graduates. These findings are explored further through interviews with 11 Scottish academics who have oversight of accountancy degrees. The interviewees identify that they needed to prioritise which non-technical skills to develop due to limited space available after satisfying the normative pressure of accreditation. In the remaining unaccredited space, interviewees revealed a priority for interpersonal and communication skills which may detract from intellectual skill development. Paper 3 expands on the interviews from paper 2 to establish the existence of economic and education logic in Scottish undergraduate accountancy education and investigates how the balance of these impacts on course content decisions made by Scottish accountancy degree providers. Accreditation, a carrier of economic logic, is identified as the key driver of course content. In addition, Paper 3 identifies and explores a number of institutional conflicts between accreditation and carriers of education logic, along with coping strategies employed in relation to these conflicts.

Test anxiety is an individual personality trait, which results in elevated state anxiety in situations of performance evaluation. For school-age children, high-stakes examinations occurring at the culmination of programmes of study are where they frequently experience such evaluation. Alongside its impact on an individual's wellbeing, heightened test anxiety has been reliably linked to deficits in performance on examinations and assessments. Attentional bias has been shown to be an aspect of many forms of anxiety and is considered to have role in the maintenance of state anxiety, though the mechanisms underlying this are not fully clear. However, Attentional Control Theory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007) implicates preferential allocation of attention to threat in its explanation of performance deficits associated with test anxiety. The presence of attentional bias in test anxiety appears theoretically plausible with some empirical support (e.g. Putwain, Langdale, Woods and Nicholson, 2011); however, its reliability is under question. This study aims to investigate the presence of attentional bias in test anxiety, with a view to further understanding its underlying mechanisms and informing the development of interventions to ameliorate its effects. To ensure ecological validity, this study was conducted in schools and colleges, with a sample of 16-18-year olds following high-stakes programmes of study. Full investigation of test anxiety requires individuals to experience heightened state anxiety through performance evaluation threat; hence, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) was modified to make it applicable to this context and population. This study was conducted in two experimental phases, both of which adopted a mixed methodological approach to provide quantitative and qualitative data. The preliminary phase evaluated the materials and anxiety manipulation protocols. The main phase employed the modified-TSST in collaboration with a dot-probe task to investigate participants' attentional bias when under high performance evaluation threat. No patterns of attentional bias were uncovered to indicate a consistent relationship to either trait test anxiety or attentional control. However, there was a level of congruence between how some individuals describe themselves in evaluative situations and the attentional bias they displayed. Further investigation employing mixed methodological approaches such as Single Case Experimental Design is recommended to identify and address attentional bias in test anxiety.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / A aprovaÃÃo no Exame da OAB à exigÃncia legalmente imposta a todos os bacharÃis em direito que almejem exercer a advocacia. Desde a sua imposiÃÃo, ela foi alvo de diversas crÃticas acerca da sua legalidade, necessidade e, atà mesmo, eficÃcia. Enquanto guardià da profissÃo de advogado, a OAB, como jà ocorre em outros paÃses, utiliza uma prova como mecanismo para selecionar apenas os candidatos que demonstram o conhecimento, capacidade e habilidades indispensÃveis ao exercÃcio da advocacia. Por outro lado, a efetiva avaliaÃÃo do ensino superior, em toda a sua totalidade, à tarefa precipuamente executada pelo MEC atravÃs do SINAES, sendo o ENADE o componente utilizado para a avaliaÃÃo dos estudantes. A presente pesquisa analisou as provas do Exame da OAB e do ENADE à luz da taxonomia dos objetivos educacionais de Benjamin Bloom, atravÃs do mapeamento dos objetivos educacionais exigidos nesses testes aplicados no ano de 2012. Os dados obtidos indicaram que os Exames da OAB trabalham no nÃvel da categoria do conhecimento, ao passo que o ENADE explora mais a categoria imediatamente superior, a da compreensÃo. / The approval in the OAB exam is a legal requirement to all law school bachelors that aim to be a lawyer. Since its adoption, it has undergone several critical about its legality, necessity and even effectiveness. Just like in other countries, the OAB, the guardian of the attorneyâs profession, uses a measurement test to select only candidates who demonstrate the essential knowledge, skills and abilities to the practice of law. The effective higher educationâs evaluation is a task performed by the MEC, through SINAES, in which ENADE is the component used to measure the studentâs evaluation. Through Bloomâs educational objectives taxonomy, this research proposes to find the real nature of the OAB exam, in comparison to ENADEâs one, by mapping the educational objectives required in both tests in the years of 2012. Data obtained from the analysis of the instruments shows that the OAB exam worked in the category of knowledge, and the ENADE focused on the next one, the comprehension

Esta pesquisa insere-se no âmbito dos estudos sobre formação docente. Tem como propósito ampliar a compreensão dos processos que a envolvem, focalizando as modalidades formativas que têm se configurado como etapas de concursos para o ingresso na carreira docente. A investigação abrange concursos públicos realizados no Brasil com professores de ensino fundamental e/ou médio em todas as secretarias de educação dos estados brasileiros e no Distrito Federal, no período de 2009 a 2012. Com vistas a melhor compreender como as políticas executadas por esses níveis governamentais são traduzidas em nível local, optou-se por desenvolver uma pesquisa em moldes de estudo de caso, abordando o Curso de Formação Específica do Concurso Público para provimento de cargos de PEB II do Quadro do Magistério da Secretaria da Educação do Estado de São Paulo com o objetivo de compreender seus propósitos, bem como sua função no campo da formação docente. Os procedimentos envolvem pesquisa bibliográfica e documental tomando como fontes informações e documentos provenientes de órgãos gestores das esferas citadas. Efetuou-se um levantamento bibliográfico sobre concursos públicos de ingresso na carreira do magistério, procurando-se identificar a ocorrência de processos de seleção que previssem cursos de preparação obrigatória como etapa de admissão dos candidatos aprovados para o exercício do magistério. Foram realizadas entrevistas, com roteiro semi-estruturado, junto a profissionais da Escola de Formação e Aperfeiçoamento de Professores do Estado de São Paulo Prof. Paulo Renato Costa Souza (EFAP) que participaram da execução do curso objeto deste estudo e/ou atuaram na sua implementação. Os temas abordados versaram sobre: EFAP; concurso de ingresso na carreira docente; Curso de Formação Específica; Programa Currículo e Prática Docente; estágio probatório e formação docente. Dentre os conceitos e temáticas que nortearam as análises destacam-se: argumento da incompetência (Souza); neoliberalismo (Gentili, Silva, Frigotto); políticas educacionais (Shiroma, Evangelista, Freitas, Kuenzer, Gatti, André); formação docente (Gatti, André, Freitas, Shiroma). Conclui-se que o Curso de Formação Específica estrutura-se de tal modo que pode ser considerado como uma formação tamanho único: propõe como base um currículo oficial para todas as escolas, independentemente da sua realidade e proposta pedagógica; desconsidera a experiência profissional do docente; apoia-se em apostilas e pretende uniformizar práticas pedagógicas para professores e alunos; utiliza-se de sistemas de exames padronizados baseados em referencial pré-determinado; pauta-se em sistemas de avaliação externa; e ao organizar-se dessa forma, pretende retirar do professor o controle e o planejamento sobre seu próprio trabalho. O objetivo maior desta ação, ao que tudo indica, é o alinhamento, o treinamento dos profissionais para a execução das políticas educacionais definidas pelo Estado de São Paulo, particularmente a implementação do currículo oficial nas escolas da rede de ensino paulista. / This research belongs to the field of the studies on teacher education. It has as its purpose to expand our understanding of the processes involved in teacher education, focusing on the formative modalities that have been configured as stages of entrance exams to the teaching career. The investigation covers public exams conducted in Brazil with teachers from Fundamental Education and/or Secondary Education in all Secretariats for Education of Brazilian states and of the Federal District in the period between 2009 and 2012. Aiming at a better understanding of how the policies conducted by these governmental spheres are translated at the local level, we have chosen to develop a research shaped around case studies, focusing on the Course of Specific Education of the Public Exam for Filling PEB II Posts in the Teaching Staff of the Secretariat for Education of the State of São Paulo, with the objective of understanding its purposes, as well as its function in the field of teacher education. The research procedures comprised bibliographic and document surveys, using as sources information and documents from the administrative bodies of the above-mentioned governmental spheres. A bibliographic survey on public entrance exams to the teaching career was developed, trying to identify the occurrence of selection processes that specified preparation courses as a mandatory stage for the admission of candidates approved for the exercise of teaching. Interviews with a semi-structured script were conducted with professionals from the School of Teacher Initial and Continued Education of the State of São Paulo Prof. Paulo Renato de Costa Souza (EFAP), who took part in the conduction of the course object of this study and/or worked in its implementation. The themes dealt with in the interviews included: the EFAP; entrance exam to the teaching career; Course of Specific Education; Curriculum and Teaching Practice Program; probationary period and teacher education. Among concepts and themes that guided the analysis, we should note the argument of incompetence (Souza); neoliberalism (Gentili, Silva, Frigotto); education policies (Shiroma, Evangelista, Freitas, Kuenzer, Gatti, André); and teacher education (Gatti, André, Freitas, Shiroma). We conclude that the Course of Specific Education is structured in such way that it can be seen as a one size fits all kind of education: it recommends one official curriculum as the basis for all schools, independently of their realities and pedagogic proposals; it disregards the professional experience of teachers; it is based on ready-made workbooks and seeks to homogenize pedagogic practices for teachers and pupils; it makes use of systems of standardized exams based on predetermined references; it is based on external evaluation; and by being organized in such form, it aims at taking away from teachers the planning and control over their own work. The ultimate objective of this action, it would seem, is the alignment and training of professionals in the execution of education policies devised by the State of São Paulo, particularly the implementation of the official curriculum in the São Paulo public school system.

Esta pesquisa insere-se no âmbito dos estudos sobre formação docente. Tem como propósito ampliar a compreensão dos processos que a envolvem, focalizando as modalidades formativas que têm se configurado como etapas de concursos para o ingresso na carreira docente. A investigação abrange concursos públicos realizados no Brasil com professores de ensino fundamental e/ou médio em todas as secretarias de educação dos estados brasileiros e no Distrito Federal, no período de 2009 a 2012. Com vistas a melhor compreender como as políticas executadas por esses níveis governamentais são traduzidas em nível local, optou-se por desenvolver uma pesquisa em moldes de estudo de caso, abordando o Curso de Formação Específica do Concurso Público para provimento de cargos de PEB II do Quadro do Magistério da Secretaria da Educação do Estado de São Paulo com o objetivo de compreender seus propósitos, bem como sua função no campo da formação docente. Os procedimentos envolvem pesquisa bibliográfica e documental tomando como fontes informações e documentos provenientes de órgãos gestores das esferas citadas. Efetuou-se um levantamento bibliográfico sobre concursos públicos de ingresso na carreira do magistério, procurando-se identificar a ocorrência de processos de seleção que previssem cursos de preparação obrigatória como etapa de admissão dos candidatos aprovados para o exercício do magistério. Foram realizadas entrevistas, com roteiro semi-estruturado, junto a profissionais da Escola de Formação e Aperfeiçoamento de Professores do Estado de São Paulo Prof. Paulo Renato Costa Souza (EFAP) que participaram da execução do curso objeto deste estudo e/ou atuaram na sua implementação. Os temas abordados versaram sobre: EFAP; concurso de ingresso na carreira docente; Curso de Formação Específica; Programa Currículo e Prática Docente; estágio probatório e formação docente. Dentre os conceitos e temáticas que nortearam as análises destacam-se: argumento da incompetência (Souza); neoliberalismo (Gentili, Silva, Frigotto); políticas educacionais (Shiroma, Evangelista, Freitas, Kuenzer, Gatti, André); formação docente (Gatti, André, Freitas, Shiroma). Conclui-se que o Curso de Formação Específica estrutura-se de tal modo que pode ser considerado como uma formação tamanho único: propõe como base um currículo oficial para todas as escolas, independentemente da sua realidade e proposta pedagógica; desconsidera a experiência profissional do docente; apoia-se em apostilas e pretende uniformizar práticas pedagógicas para professores e alunos; utiliza-se de sistemas de exames padronizados baseados em referencial pré-determinado; pauta-se em sistemas de avaliação externa; e ao organizar-se dessa forma, pretende retirar do professor o controle e o planejamento sobre seu próprio trabalho. O objetivo maior desta ação, ao que tudo indica, é o alinhamento, o treinamento dos profissionais para a execução das políticas educacionais definidas pelo Estado de São Paulo, particularmente a implementação do currículo oficial nas escolas da rede de ensino paulista. / This research belongs to the field of the studies on teacher education. It has as its purpose to expand our understanding of the processes involved in teacher education, focusing on the formative modalities that have been configured as stages of entrance exams to the teaching career. The investigation covers public exams conducted in Brazil with teachers from Fundamental Education and/or Secondary Education in all Secretariats for Education of Brazilian states and of the Federal District in the period between 2009 and 2012. Aiming at a better understanding of how the policies conducted by these governmental spheres are translated at the local level, we have chosen to develop a research shaped around case studies, focusing on the Course of Specific Education of the Public Exam for Filling PEB II Posts in the Teaching Staff of the Secretariat for Education of the State of São Paulo, with the objective of understanding its purposes, as well as its function in the field of teacher education. The research procedures comprised bibliographic and document surveys, using as sources information and documents from the administrative bodies of the above-mentioned governmental spheres. A bibliographic survey on public entrance exams to the teaching career was developed, trying to identify the occurrence of selection processes that specified preparation courses as a mandatory stage for the admission of candidates approved for the exercise of teaching. Interviews with a semi-structured script were conducted with professionals from the School of Teacher Initial and Continued Education of the State of São Paulo Prof. Paulo Renato de Costa Souza (EFAP), who took part in the conduction of the course object of this study and/or worked in its implementation. The themes dealt with in the interviews included: the EFAP; entrance exam to the teaching career; Course of Specific Education; Curriculum and Teaching Practice Program; probationary period and teacher education. Among concepts and themes that guided the analysis, we should note the argument of incompetence (Souza); neoliberalism (Gentili, Silva, Frigotto); education policies (Shiroma, Evangelista, Freitas, Kuenzer, Gatti, André); and teacher education (Gatti, André, Freitas, Shiroma). We conclude that the Course of Specific Education is structured in such way that it can be seen as a one size fits all kind of education: it recommends one official curriculum as the basis for all schools, independently of their realities and pedagogic proposals; it disregards the professional experience of teachers; it is based on ready-made workbooks and seeks to homogenize pedagogic practices for teachers and pupils; it makes use of systems of standardized exams based on predetermined references; it is based on external evaluation; and by being organized in such form, it aims at taking away from teachers the planning and control over their own work. The ultimate objective of this action, it would seem, is the alignment and training of professionals in the execution of education policies devised by the State of São Paulo, particularly the implementation of the official curriculum in the São Paulo public school system.

Abstract The concept of waiting has received limited attention in the world of research. In modern society, waiting has become a commonplace event, especially in healthcare. Although the waiting experience can produce anxiety, healthcare environments can be easily manipulated in order to increase human comfort and reduce situational anxiety. One such way of accomplishing this is to introduce music to an environment. This paper will discuss the findings related to short wait periods, anxiety, and music within the literature, and the findings within this research study. This study found listener-selected music to be statistically effective in reducing anxiety for patients waiting in the exam room to be seen by a primary healthcare provider in an urgent care clinic.