Aplicando análise de envoltória de dados -DEA à avaliação de desempenho acadêmico: um estudo em programas de pós-graduação em engenharia mecânica e produção no Brasil

This Master of Science Thesis deals with applying DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) to the academic performance evaluation of graduate programs in Brazil, exploring it on a Mechanical and Production Engineering Program 2001-2003 data. The data used is that of the national assessment carried by CAPES, the governmental body in charge for graduate program assessment and certification. It is used the CCR output oriented DEA model, the CCR-Output with Assurance Region, and Window Analysis. The main findings are first that the CCR has the concerning problem of zero values of weights of outputs that is not appropriate in a sense that a graduate program has the higher efficiency score zeroing some output (e.g., number of academic papers published). Secondly, the Assurance Region method proved useful. Third, the Window Analysis also gave some light to the consistency of the performance in the time frame analysed. Also, the analysis results in the understanding that the Mechanics and Production Engineering should not be assessed jointly like currently applied by CAPES and rather should be assessed in its own field separately. Finally, the result of the DEA analysis showed some serious inconsistencies with the CAPES method. Graduate programs considered excellent has got low performance score and vice versa. This Thesis provides a strong argument in order to use DEA at least as a complimentary methodology for graduate program performance evaluation in Brazil

Tendências de sucesso no percurso acadêmico do alunado na UFRN

Enter the University and remain in it is a challenge for all students who leave high school and enter this level. The aspiration for a graduation occur by several factors, which have decisive impact on the personal lives of individuals who acquire training in higher education, both as regards the professional capacities as economic opportunity. There are several possible trajectories to get into a college. Students can be classified by their success or failure in performance due to multiple intervening factors that interact among themselves. The purpose of this work is to identify and characterize the factors that reveal trends of success and failure in academic performance of UFRN students. From this general goal, broke out the following specific objectives: to analyze the problems of expanding access to and restructuring of higher education in Brazil and UFRN; explicit definitions of success and failure in higher education; identify national trends and international help to determine the success and failure of students in UFRN. Therefore, we conducted an extensive literature review on the subject and analyzed secondary data from official national, regional and local statistical sources on the subject. In the delimitation of the data, the research population refers to students who entered the UFRN through the vestibular, in the years 2000 to 2010, and who attended at least one (1) semester. In the light of the analysis, the theoretical framework interpretation and the investigative data, it was possible to identify the major factors that affect the categories of success and failure in this university, which highlight the following: the policies adopted by UFRN have provided access mechanisms and student assistance policies, trying to supply the needs of students for them to have a good academic performance, or success in their courses; in addition, the chosen focus of analysis showed that, within the same area, there is not significant difference in the performance of students coming from less favored social and educational contexts, which does not occur when analyzing the success rates between students from different areas of knowledge. The trajectory of interpretative analysis of the results presented in this paper enables to raise points of discussion in various forums and higher councils in order to increase the academic indices of its students. It also enables to promote strategies of guidance and student support for that he persists in his choice

Rendimento acadêmico e sua relação com os estilos de personalidade de estudantes universitários

One of the Psychology challenges, especially among the assessment and educational areas, is to understand and predict individual differences. In this context, this research aimed to verify the personality styles of students with high and low academic performance. The study included 236 university students from Petrolina-PE and Juazeiro-BA campus of the UNIVASF (Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco). They were uniformly distributed in four disciplines (medicine, psychology, administration and civil engineering), 10 students from each semester (five highest scores average students and five lowest scores average students) took place of the sample. The Millon Index Personality Styles (MIPS) was applied to analyze the personality/behavioral styles of the students. The MIPS is a 180 dichotomous (true/false) item scale. It was also developed and applied a questionnaire about the students characteristics and their academic information. Descriptive and central tendency statistics analysis (mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage) were done to provide sample information. Then we performed a Mann-Whitney test in the overall sample and in each course and a factorial ANOVA. The results suggest that the university population is heterogeneous and there are significant differences (p <0.05) between the personality styles of students with high and low academic performance, when analyzing the overall sample and in courses of different areas of knowledge. Students of Medicine who have higher performance as personality styles prevalent the conformism and compliance, while students with lower income in this course, the styles are: innovation and discrepancy. Psychology students with higher income are more systematic and lower income students to score significantly on accommodation. The civil engineering students of the two groups differed only in personality style intuition, being such a style more characteristic of higher income students. Students of Management with higher yield stand out more in the style of the doubt and lower yields in these styles: individual, reflection and discrepancy. This study is correlational, but had an exploratory nature because there are no studies about this relationship in Brazil. Therefore, it provided a better understanding of the action characteristics of students with high and low academic performance. Further studies using the Big Five Personality Factors instruments are required because it is the most used model in understanding the influence of personality on students performance. This way, the relation between personality and academic performance will be better discussed. Otherwise, it will be possible to compare with the existing studies in the area

Pressão de sono e perfil acadêmico de estudante de medicina do 1º período da UFRN

Academic demands, new social context, new routines and decrease of the parental control, are factors that may influence the sleep pattern of freshman students at the University. Medical students from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) have a full-time course, subjects with high-level content, and, at the first semester, classes begin at 7 a.m. This group composed by young adults who still suffering with delayed sleep phase, common in adolescence, indicating that this class schedule can be inappropriate at this age. The reduction of nocturnal sleep during school days, and the attempt to recover sleep on free days – social jet lag (JLS), suggests that in the first semester, students suffer from high sleep pressure. High sleep pressure may reflect on cognitive tasks and performance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sleep pressure and the academic profile of medical students from the first semester of UFRN, characterizing this population socio-demographically and investigating possible impacts on therestactivity rhytm and academic performance. A sample of 88 students, healthy men and women awswered the following questionnaires: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Horne & Ostberg Chronotype (HO), Munich Chronotype (MCTQ) and “Health and Sleep” adapted. Actigraphy was used during 14 days to make actogramas and obtain non-parametric variables of the rest-activity rhythm and the grades of the morning schedule were used as academic performance. The JLS was used as a measure of sleep pressure. Statistics significance level was 95%. The population was sociodemographic homogeneous. Most students have healthy lifestyle, practice physical activity, use car to go to the university and take between 15 and 30 minutes for this route. Regarding CSV, most were classify as intermediate (38.6%) and evening (32%) chronotypes, needs to nap during the week, suffer daytime sleepiness and have poor sleep quality. 83% of the sample has at least 1h JLS, which led us to divide into two groups: Group <2h JLS (N = 44) and Group ≥ 2h JLS (N = 44). The groups have differences only in chronotype, showing that most evening individuals have more JLS, however, no differences were found in relation to sociodemographic aspect, rest-activity rhythm or academic performance. The homogeneity of the sample was limited to compare the groups, however, is alarming that students already present in the first half: JLG, poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness, which can be accentuated through the university years, with the emergence of night shifts and increased academic demand. Interventionsaddressingthe importance of good sleep habits and the change of the class start time are strategies aimed to improve student’s health.

O impacto das tarefas de aprendizagem mediadas pela lousa digital interativa na motivação situacional de aprendizes de inglês

Some authors have suggested that learning tasks conducted in L2 classes can motivate learners in different ways. Similarly, Interactive Whiteboards (IWB) have already been linked as drivers to engagement and enthusiasm in L2 classes, which may cause some impact on affective variables that influence learning (e.g. motivation). This crosssectional mixed-methods study aims to understand how situational motivation caused by learning tasks mediated by the IWB impact participants. We seek to answer the following research questions: (1) How does motivation as a personality trait of the learner relate to his/her additional language learning performance?, (2) How does the type of learning task mediated by the IWB impact the learner s motivation?, (3) How does motivation vary along the learning task mediated by the IWB? and (4) What is the relation between the learning task motivation and the learners perception about the task mediated by the IWB? Data collection lasted four months with 29 learners from a private language school. The instruments used were the following: (a) an initial questionnaire (adapted from the Attitudes/Motivation Test Battery by GARDNER, 2004), (b) situation-specific on-line scales to assess learners motivation in three moments: before, during and after the task, and analyze how motivation varies along the task; (c) class observations and field notes resulting from these observations, (d) participants end-of-course grades to understand the connection between academic success and their motivational profiles and (e) a final questionnaire with the qualitative purpose to know learners perceptions about the tasks mediated by the IWB. Our theoretical framework is based on Task-Based Learning and cognitive aspects present in tasks (WILLIS, 1996; SKEHAN, 1996), theories on motivation and second language learning (GARDNER, 2001; DÖRNYEI e OTTÓ, 1998; DÖRNYEI, 2000; 2002) and conceptions about L2 learning mediated by technology (GIBSON, 2001; OLIVEIRA, 2001; MILLER et al, 2005). Our results do not point out to a significative correlation between learners end-of-course grades and their motivational profiles. However, they indicate that there is some variability in situational motivation along the tasks, even among learning tasks from the same type. Furthermore, they show that learners report different perceptions for each learning task and that the impact of the IWB on participants did not have a large proportion

Avaliação do padrão do ciclo sono-vigília e a cognição em estudantes de medicina com diferentes esquemas de horários de aulas

The sleep patterns of students entering the university, is accompanied by many factors that can lead to changes in sleep habits, such as academic demands, new social opportunities, reduced parental care and irregular teaching schedules. The irregular pattern of sleep-wake cycle is usually accompanied by several daytime consequences, for example, reduced levels of motivation, performance, concentration, alertness and mood as well as increased fatigue and sleepiness.Thus, there are numerous reasons to support the fact that these students may suffer damage in their academic performance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sleep-wake cycle (SWC) and cognition in medical students with different schemes teaching schedules. One group started classes at 08am, while the other started at 07am. We analyzed the data from 88 volunteers, 39 from each group. However, only those who participated in both stages of the study (n = 78) underwent cognitive testing. For subjective evaluation of the SWC was used questionnaires to check the quality of sleep, chronotype, daytime sleepiness and sleep habits. For objective evaluation was used actigraphy. For cognitive assessment was used the test MoCA (Montreal Cognitive Assessment). The results indicate that the group has class earlier had a greater irregularity of the SWC and a worse performance in cognitive testing. There was a difference between the schedules the week and weekend in the subjective variables, bedtime, wake up and sleep duration in both groups. The objective variables, time in bed showed difference between the schedules the week and weekend to the group started class at 08am and the variables bedtime, get up time, actual sleep time, time in bed and wake bouts in the class at 07am. In the cognitive test, there were differences between the groups in overall score and in the areas of executive function and memory recall. Thus, it is suggested that the class starting time may cause irregularity of the SWC and the irregularity may cause mild cognitive impairment. Moreover, cognitive testing MoCA was sensitive to detect differences among students, although the difference between the schedules is small

Cultura organizacional e desempenho dos colaboradores :um estudo exploratório no setor hoteleiro

This work focuses on the relationship between organizational culture and quality culture in the hotel sector of NATAL/RN with respect to employee performance. The themes organizational culture and quality have been the research focus of administration theorists and a constant concern of professional managers, since the Japanese demonstrated effective forms or western management. In this study, the Competing Values Model (C.V.M.) (Quinn e Cameron, 1996; Quinn, 1998; Santos, 1998, 2000; Teixeira, 2001), which was tested on north-American organizations and considered a high value academic and professional instrument, was applied. The model maps the organizational culture on a profile with four elements: clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy. The C.V.M., associated with the taximetrics created by Cameron (which classifies quality culture in for levels: status quo, error detection, error prevention and perpetual creative quality) has been related with organizational performance. In this study, these two models are used jointly and tested in the hotel sector. The results indicate that the strongest element of the profile is clan, which is characterized by internal focus, participation and people involvement, followed by the adhocracy element, which has an external focus, emphasizes flexibility and is characterized by dynamic enterprising and creativity. Regarding the level of the culture s quality in the hotel, the highest level, that of perpetual improvement and creativity, which attempts to enchant and to surprise the clients, was most frequently cited, followed by the error detection level, which has as its goal to discover and correct mistakes, trying, consequently, to reduce waste. The results suggest that employee performance as measured on some indicators is related to elements of the organizational culture profile and quality level

O desempenho da compartimentação horizontal seletiva na promoção da segurança contra incêndio em edificações

The thesis presents the results of research that addresses the performance of selective horizontal partitioning to promote Fire Safety in Buildings - FSB. Horizontal partitioning is a passive protection measure, settable in the early stages of the design process and controlled by the architect. However, there is a frequent reconfiguration of the rooms in academic buildings to adjust them for the space demand. Thus, large classrooms could turn into two or more smaller rooms, for example. Regardless when the subdivision occurs in the design phase or during the occupation of the building, the regulations just ensures the compartimentation of the room if all fireguard devices are present in the room. Knowing the fire's first minutes are the most important for life protection, we defend the hypothesis that a kind of partitioning ignored by regulatory standards is able to favoring the building vacancy and occupants rescue, for promote the room’s smoke exhaust. The performance of the selective horizontal partitioning due different blend of openings for smoke outlet was simulated on CFD software. The results indicate that selective horizontal partitioning is able to promote an upper smoke free layer and delay the indoor temperature growth.

O desempenho da compartimentação horizontal seletiva na promoção da segurança contra incêndio em edificações

The thesis presents the results of research that addresses the performance of selective horizontal partitioning to promote Fire Safety in Buildings - FSB. Horizontal partitioning is a passive protection measure, settable in the early stages of the design process and controlled by the architect. However, there is a frequent reconfiguration of the rooms in academic buildings to adjust them for the space demand. Thus, large classrooms could turn into two or more smaller rooms, for example. Regardless when the subdivision occurs in the design phase or during the occupation of the building, the regulations just ensures the compartimentation of the room if all fireguard devices are present in the room. Knowing the fire's first minutes are the most important for life protection, we defend the hypothesis that a kind of partitioning ignored by regulatory standards is able to favoring the building vacancy and occupants rescue, for promote the room’s smoke exhaust. The performance of the selective horizontal partitioning due different blend of openings for smoke outlet was simulated on CFD software. The results indicate that selective horizontal partitioning is able to promote an upper smoke free layer and delay the indoor temperature growth.