Aim: Auditor objectivity in the auditing process is an important part of the IASB and FASB framework as well as in the SOX act. It is unclear whether auditor’s self-efficacy through selection of negotiation strategy affect the auditor’s objectivity. The purpose of the study is to improve the understanding of what impacts auditor objectivity and as a result show new strategies on how to increase it. Method: Deductive approach with a literature review as secondary data and a web-based questionnaire carried out among 3,264 Swedish auditors as primary data. Analysis was done with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and reported in the SmartPLS and SPSS software. Result & Conclusions: Prior negative negotiation experiences have a detrimental effect on both distributive and integrative negotiation self-efficacy. Distributive negotiation self-efficacy and auditing self-efficacy increase objectivity mainly through the mediation of contending strategy. No relationship between integrative negotiation self-efficacy and negotiation strategy or auditor objectivity was found, possibly due to weak theoretical constructs. No causal claims are posed on these relations. Bandura’s four main sources of influence on self-efficacy can be considered as guides on how to shield the auditor from the detrimental effect of failures and build up self-efficacy to perform better in negotiation. Suggestions for future research: Develop stronger constructs for PNE, ISE and expanding-the-agenda-of-issues strategy. Using multiple imputation instead of mean replacement for missing data is highly recommended. Gather at least 400 responses in order to gain stronger statistical power. Introduce a prior auditing experiences construct for ASE to raise awareness of potential differences in how prior experiences affect DSE, ISE and ASE. Contribution of the thesis: This paper uniquely contributes to the literature on factors influencing auditor objectivity. Its main use to auditors, accounting legislators, researchers etc. at the moment is to add to the discussion about objectivity.

As melhorias alcançadas na Educação através do uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação são inegáveis. Entretanto, os avanços em direção a um ensino personalizado e direcionado às preferências, ao nivelamento (saneamento das dificuldades e pré-requisitos de conteúdo) e aos interesses dos estudantes são pequenos. Desta forma, através da identificação dos conhecimentos prévios dos alunos, bem como dos conteúdos (conceituais) buscou-se aprimorar o processo de ensino para que cada aluno alcance, a seu modo (de forma personalizada) o aprendizado e possa avançar na disciplina/ano em questão. Como é humanamente impossível um professor conhecer as características e dificuldades de conteúdo de todos os seus alunos, é interessante que o ambiente virtual que apoia o professor possa auxiliar para um atendimento mais personalizado, permitindo que o aluno interaja no seu próprio ritmo de estudo, acesse os conteúdos necessários ou aprofunde-se em algum conteúdo que ele já domine. Esta tese propõe um método de uso das ferramentas disponíveis de ambientes virtuais, principalmente do MOODLE, para alcançar a personalização do ensino e conduzir o aluno em sua própria trajetória individual rumo ao aprendizado significativo, sanando dificuldades de conteúdo. Seguindo o objetivo de melhorar a qualidade do ensino sem necessidade de grade investimento de desenvolvimento de ambiente nem aporte financeiro. Para validar o método foi realizado um projeto piloto mais dois experimentos, todos no Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre que totalizaram a participação de 256 alunos. Os resultados demonstraram a viabilidade do método, medido através da melhora nas notas (análise quantitativa) e da análise qualitativa dos dados e dos questionários (respondidos pelos alunos e professores). Destaca-se como vantagem educacional o desenvolvimento do método que pode ser aplicado a qualquer disciplina ou modelo de ensino e como vantagem computacional o uso do MOODLE para personalizar o ensino. / The use of information and communication technologies made undeniable advances in education. However, advances towards personalized learning and directed to the preferences, the leveling (improvement of difficulties and prerequisites) and to the interests of students are small yet. Thus, it is intended, by identifying the students' prior knowledge and content (conceptual) to improve the process so that each student reach, at their mode (personalized) the learning and make progress in discipline/year in question. We know that is humanly impossible for a teacher to know the characteristics and difficulties of content of all his students. So, the virtual environment that supports the teacher should have the flexibility to customize interactions with each student, which allows the student to interact at his/her own study pace, access the necessary content or deepen in some content that he/she has mastered. This thesis proposes a method for using the available virtual environments tools, especially the MOODLE, to achieve the personalization of teaching and to lead the student in his own individual trajectory toward meaningful learning, healing content difficulties. Following the objective of improving the quality of education without the need for large investment in environmental development or financial contribution. To validate the method was carried out a pilot project plus two experiments, all occurred at Military College of Porto Alegre, with a total of 256 students. The results showed the viability of the method, measured by the improvement in grades (quantitative analysis) and the qualitative analysis of data and questionnaires (answered by students and teachers). It is highlighted as an educational advantage, the development of the method that can be applied to any discipline or teaching model and as computational advantage, the use of MOODLE to customize teaching.

The practice of promoting food to children via advergames is a highly topical issue which attracts much concern due to the low nutritional value of the promoted foods. This thesis examines the effects of customised food advergames on children’s affective, cognitive and conative responses. It also investigates the role persuasion knowledge and prior brand usage have in children’s interaction with advergames. In particular, whether children’s persuasion knowledge acts as a barrier to those responses. This research is situated within the domains of marketing communications, consumer behaviour and consumer socialisation. It adopts an affect transfer theory, the Dual Mediation Hypothesis (DMH), to explain the transfer of affect from an advergame to children’s responses. Three versions of the same advergame were designed for the purpose of this thesis with different levels of customisation (i.e. control, low and high experimental conditions). An experiment among younger (5-7 year olds) and older (11¬12 year olds) children reveals that customisation in advergames has a detrimental effect on children’s affective, cognitive and conative responses. It was the control condition, without customisation options, that rendered a positive impact on brand attitudes and preferences relative to the other two experimental conditions. Persuasion knowledge does not influence children’s affective, cognitive or conative responses. This implies that children’s understanding of the persuasive intent of an advergame does not act as a barrier against its effects. Age had a significant role on children’s attitudes towards the advergame, but not on their other responses to it. Finally, prior brand usage has a positive impact on children’s responses apart from on advergame attitudes. This thesis has implications to policy and practice. It is evident that children from two distinct age and cognitive developmental groups cannot protect themselves from advergames’ effects. Therefore, regulators should broaden the scope of concern to older and younger children alike.

abstract: Collaborative learning is a common teaching strategy in classrooms across age groups and content areas. It is important to measure and understand the cognitive process involved during collaboration to improve teaching methods involving interactive activities. This research attempted to answer the question: why do students learn more in collaborative settings? Using three measurement tools, 142 participants from seven different biology courses at a community college and at a university were tested before and after collaborating about the biological process of natural selection. Three factors were analyzed to measure their effect on learning at the individual level and the group level. The three factors were: difference in prior knowledge, sex and religious beliefs. Gender and religious beliefs both had a significant effect on post-test scores. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

Os assuntos que envolvem o ensino de ciências são capazes de despertar a curiosidade das crianças de maneira envolvente. Quando são aplicadas no contexto escolar atividades dinâmicas e participativas o aluno torna-se agente do seu aprendizado. O desenvolvimento desta disciplina deve considerar que os alunos já trazem concepções, a cerca deste campo do conhecimento, de suas experiências cotidianas. Esta dissertação é composta por um estudo de caso que busca investigar as relações estabelecidas pelos alunos, a partir de uma estratégia de ensino, entre suas concepções prévias e o conhecimento científico. Esta estratégia foi aplicada na disciplina de ciências em duas turmas de quinta série do ensino fundamental, onde a mestranda era a professora regente das classes. O conteúdo da Hidrosfera foi desenvolvido no decorrer do segundo trimestre de 2008, sendo este, integrante do currículo de ciência, nas escolas onde o projeto foi aplicado. Os alunos realizaram atividades diversificadas, nas quais foram consideradas suas concepções prévias com relação a conceitos científicos pré-selecionados pela professora. Buscou-se aplicar na sala de aula uma metodologia com características construtivistas e interacionistas na intenção de identificar o mecanismo de aprender ciências como um processo paralelo de idéias que resultem em explicações alternativas, os quais são utilizados em momentos e situações adequados, com o objetivo de promover uma mudança entre as concepções prévias dos estudantes e o conhecimento escolar. A análise do questionário de sondagem foi de natureza quantitativa, e a seqüência dos outros materiais produzidos pelos alunos foi realizada de forma qualitativa. Com esta metodologia buscou-se informações a partir das construções dos alunos, para uma interpretação adequada das mesmas, visando atender aos objetivos da pesquisa. Com base na análise das produções dos alunos, é possível afirmar que estes demonstraram motivação quando convidados a participar das atividades educacionais que compuseram o conjunto do projeto. O processo se caracterizou por proporcionar ao grupo uma maneira diferente de pensar o conhecimento da disciplina de ciências, aproximando este campo do conhecimento das questões cotidianas que envolvem a água. Este foi o primeiro contato destes alunos num ambiente onde a ciência produzida na escola foi socializada, compartilhada. Onde não houveram respostas corretas retiradas do livro didático, mas um ambiente de ação e construção de análises e observações. O processo de aprendizagem desenvolveu-se através do envolvimento ativo dos aprendizes. Através das respostas apresentadas pelos alunos nos diferentes instrumentos da pesquisa foi possível observar a evolução do perfil conceitual do grupo. Este novo perfil incluiu, não de forma exclusiva, novas idéias científicas, compostas por um vocabulário adequado para este campo do conhecimento. Foi possível observar que os alunos apresentaram diferentes idéias sobre um mesmo conceito, as quais foram utilizadas no contexto de sala de aula e na visita a estação de tratamento de água. / Science teaching encompasses subjects that are capable of rousing children’s curiosity in an involving manner. When dynamic and participative activities are applied in the school context, students become agents of their learning. The development of this subject must take into consideration the fact that students already carry conceptions about this field of knowledge from their daily experiences. This thesis comprises a case study that seeks to investigate the relations established by students, from a teaching strategy, between their prior conceptions and scientific knowledge. This strategy was applied in the science subject with two classes from the fifth grade of elementary education, where the masters undergraduate was the ruling teacher of the classes. The Hydrosphere content was developed during the second quarter in 2008, subject which integrates the science curriculum at the schools where the project was applied. The students performed diversified activities in which their prior conceptions were considered in relation to scientific concepts that were pre-selected by the teacher. A methodology was sought with constructivist and interactive characteristics to bring about a change between students’ prior conceptions and school knowledge. The analysis of the survey questionnaire was of a quantitative nature, and the sequence of the other materials produced by the students was performed in a qualitative fashion. Through this methodology information was sought from students’ constructions for their adequate interpretation aimed at meeting the research objectives. Based on the analysis of students’ productions, it is possible to state that they appeared to be motivated when invited to take part in the activities that made up the project set. The process was characterized for providing the group with a different approach to think about the knowledge of the science subject, bringing that field closer to the daily issues that involve water. This was the first contact these students had in an environment where the science produced at the school was socialized, shared, where there were no correct answers taken from the didactic book, but an environment of action and the construction of analyses and observations. The learning process was developed through active involvement of learners. From the answers presented by the students in the different research instruments it was possible to observe the evolution of the group’s conceptual profile. That new profile included, not exclusively, new scientific ideas comprising an adequate vocabulary for that field of knowledge. It was possible to observe that students presented different ideas about a same concept, ideas which were used in the class room context and a visit to a water treatment station.

The use of technology has become fairly integrated into our personal, educational, and professional lives. Students with disabilities attending postsecondary institutions may require the use of Assistive Technology (AT) for their educational pursuits and access to other technology. This study quantified students' general knowledge of AT and specific knowledge of Dragon NaturallySpeaking software. In addition, this study examined the relationship between disability support services received and current knowledge of AT among students with disabilities in a postsecondary environment. Participants were recruited from those who received disability support services at a midsize university in Illinois. An online survey was administered to 41 participants that included the Prior Knowledge of Assistive Technology Instrument (PKATI). Results indicated that participants' knowledge was influenced by three factors; prior training in AT within a postsecondary institution, access and availability to AT within postsecondary environments, and personal confidence in understanding of AT.

This dissertation examines the shifting and multi-scalar governance of oil and gas projects in Peruvian Amazon. Using cases studies of oil extraction in blocks 1AB (192), 8 in Loreto (2006 to 2015), and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process for the expansion of the Camisea gas project in block 88 in Cusco, this dissertation explores how environmental decision-making processes of oil and gas projects are structured and enacted. In doing so, this study sheds light on the shifting interactions, negotiations, struggles and (at times) open conflicts between actors that define why, how and where hydrocarbon projects take place in the Amazon. Recognizing the variety of actors, I organize my analysis around government institutions, indigenous mobilizations, environmental assessments and the economic distribution of revenues from oil and gas projects. From my analysis I argue that resource extraction is changing substantially the relationship between the government and the indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon. These changes involve profound changes in indigenous rights and the creation of new institutions and capacities in the state to address the social-environmental effects of extractive industries. The surge of social-environmental conflicts and the influence of international finance institutions have prompted the Peruvian government to reform the institutional framework regulating resource extraction. This reforms are taking place amid the globalization of indigenous rights, discourses, and laws (such as the Prior Consultation Law) granting special rights to indigenous peoples. However, power-knowledge asymmetries in the decision-making processes (such as the environmental assessments) tend to increase the sense of mistrust among the local populations, resulting in increasing social-environmental conflicts. In addition, the uneven distribution of benefits from resource extraction is creating regional disparities, increasing the dependency of some regions on resource extraction. An examination of the implementation of the Environmental Impact Assessment process for the expansion of the Camisea project in block 88 exposes unresolved practices of representation and citizenship of the indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation. However, overall, Amazonian indigenous people’s struggles are shifting the traditional national, social, and political life. They are ethnic minorities and citizens struggling for their rights to participate in decision-making processes and in the distribution of economic benefits from extraction, both particularity and equality.

This study explored the implementation of the recognition of prior learning (RPL) at Unisa by investigating the strengths and weaknesses of the RPL methodology, instruments and processes when taking students through the RPL process. The successes and challenges experienced by the RPL academic advisors and the academic assessors were determined and guidelines provided for the effective implementation of RPL at Unisa. The empirical research design was exploratory within a qualitative framework employing participant observation, focus group interviewing, individual interviewing and the distribution of questionnaires that consisted of open-ended questions. The research sample comprised 26 purposefully selected participants. With regard to the research findings, the challenges include a lack of administrative support, a lack of support from top management and the academic staff, and a lack of communication between management and the RPL department. The strength of the RPL department lay in its well-documented process manual. / Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Education Management)

As melhorias alcançadas na Educação através do uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação são inegáveis. Entretanto, os avanços em direção a um ensino personalizado e direcionado às preferências, ao nivelamento (saneamento das dificuldades e pré-requisitos de conteúdo) e aos interesses dos estudantes são pequenos. Desta forma, através da identificação dos conhecimentos prévios dos alunos, bem como dos conteúdos (conceituais) buscou-se aprimorar o processo de ensino para que cada aluno alcance, a seu modo (de forma personalizada) o aprendizado e possa avançar na disciplina/ano em questão. Como é humanamente impossível um professor conhecer as características e dificuldades de conteúdo de todos os seus alunos, é interessante que o ambiente virtual que apoia o professor possa auxiliar para um atendimento mais personalizado, permitindo que o aluno interaja no seu próprio ritmo de estudo, acesse os conteúdos necessários ou aprofunde-se em algum conteúdo que ele já domine. Esta tese propõe um método de uso das ferramentas disponíveis de ambientes virtuais, principalmente do MOODLE, para alcançar a personalização do ensino e conduzir o aluno em sua própria trajetória individual rumo ao aprendizado significativo, sanando dificuldades de conteúdo. Seguindo o objetivo de melhorar a qualidade do ensino sem necessidade de grade investimento de desenvolvimento de ambiente nem aporte financeiro. Para validar o método foi realizado um projeto piloto mais dois experimentos, todos no Colégio Militar de Porto Alegre que totalizaram a participação de 256 alunos. Os resultados demonstraram a viabilidade do método, medido através da melhora nas notas (análise quantitativa) e da análise qualitativa dos dados e dos questionários (respondidos pelos alunos e professores). Destaca-se como vantagem educacional o desenvolvimento do método que pode ser aplicado a qualquer disciplina ou modelo de ensino e como vantagem computacional o uso do MOODLE para personalizar o ensino. / The use of information and communication technologies made undeniable advances in education. However, advances towards personalized learning and directed to the preferences, the leveling (improvement of difficulties and prerequisites) and to the interests of students are small yet. Thus, it is intended, by identifying the students' prior knowledge and content (conceptual) to improve the process so that each student reach, at their mode (personalized) the learning and make progress in discipline/year in question. We know that is humanly impossible for a teacher to know the characteristics and difficulties of content of all his students. So, the virtual environment that supports the teacher should have the flexibility to customize interactions with each student, which allows the student to interact at his/her own study pace, access the necessary content or deepen in some content that he/she has mastered. This thesis proposes a method for using the available virtual environments tools, especially the MOODLE, to achieve the personalization of teaching and to lead the student in his own individual trajectory toward meaningful learning, healing content difficulties. Following the objective of improving the quality of education without the need for large investment in environmental development or financial contribution. To validate the method was carried out a pilot project plus two experiments, all occurred at Military College of Porto Alegre, with a total of 256 students. The results showed the viability of the method, measured by the improvement in grades (quantitative analysis) and the qualitative analysis of data and questionnaires (answered by students and teachers). It is highlighted as an educational advantage, the development of the method that can be applied to any discipline or teaching model and as computational advantage, the use of MOODLE to customize teaching.

The most common type of confirmatory trial is a randomised trial comparing the experimental treatment of interest to a control treatment. Confirmatory trials are expensive and take a lot of time in the planning, set up and recruitment of patients. Efficient methodology in clinical trial design is critical to save both time and money and allow treatments to become available to patients quickly. Often there are data available on the control treatment from a previous trial. These historical data are often used to design new trials, forming the basis of sample size calculations, but are not used in the analysis of the new trial. Incorporating historical control data into the design and analysis could potentially lead to more efficient trials. When the historical and current control data agree, incorporating historical control data could reduce the number of control patients required in the current trial and therefore the duration of the trial, or increase the precision of parameter estimates. However, when the historical and current data are inconsistent, there is a potential for biased treatment effect estimates, inflated type I error and reduced power. We propose two novel weights to assess agreement between the current and historical control data: a probability weight based on tail area probabilities; and a weight based on the equivalence of the historical and current control data parameters. For binary outcome data, agreement is assessed using the posterior distributions of the response probability in the historical and current control data. For normally distributed outcome data, agreement is assessed using the marginal posterior distributions of the difference in means and the ratio of the variances of the current and historical control data. We consider an adaptive design with an interim analysis. At the interim, the agreement between the historical and current control data is assessed using the probability or equivalence probability weight approach. The allocation ratio is adapted to randomise fewer patients to control when there is agreement and revert back to a standard trial design when there is disagreement. The final analysis is Bayesian utilising the analysis approach of the power prior with a fixed weight. The operating characteristics of the proposed design are explored and we show how the equivalence bounds can be chosen at the design stage of the current study to control the maximum inflation in type I error. We then consider a design where a treatment arm is added to an ongoing clinical trial. For many disease areas, there are often treatments in different stages of the development process. We consider the design of a two-arm parallel group trial where it is planned to add a new treatment arm during the trial. This could potentially save money, patients, time and resources. The addition of a treatment arm creates a multiple comparison problem. Dunnett (1955) proposed a design that controls the family-wise error rate when comparing multiple experimental treatments to control and determined the optimal allocation ratio. We have calculated the correlation between test statistics for the method proposed by Dunnett when a treatment arm is added during the trial and only concurrent controls are used for each treatment comparison. We propose an adaptive design where the sample size of all treatment arms are increased to control the family-wise error rate. We explore adapting the allocation ratio once the new treatment arm is added to maximise the overall power of the trial.