This thesis presents the work of developing and testing a programming tool specially designed for children. The purpose of this tool is to make children capable of creating visual simulations and games that consist of actors interacting in a virtual world. The name of the programming tool is Behavior Cards, which comes from the fact that actors are programmed by giving them cards representing different kinds of behaviors. Behaviors are to some extent pre-programmed and can include general events specifying how the actors should act in different situations, in contrast to specifying every possible situation that can occur. The idea is that Behavior Cards should be easier to use than a more traditional text based programming tool, but it should also be expressive within the domain of visual games.

Utbildningsradion (Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company) is a public service broadcaster with a mandate to produce and distribute educational programmes. 80% of Swedish teachers use its products either during lessons or for professional development. Utbildningsradion?s guidelines, set by the Swedish parliament and government, state that the company?s programmes should meet the interests of the country?s whole population, regardless of their background.The purpose of this study is to examine how Utbildningsradion?s products that are intended to be used in a classroom setting for ages 6 to 9 represent the variety of children that live in Sweden and thus reflect the aforementioned guidelines. The main focus of this research project was further defined to only include the company?s television programmes produced in Sweden between 2006 and 2011 that do not have social issues as the main subject.50 programmes were analyzed using quantitative content analysis and the following results were further interpreted using mainly Kydd?s and Snead?s models for discussing representation.

This study investigates the internet habits of students in the Swedish gymnasium. The part that internet plays in their lives and their attitude towards the educational system is reflected upon the philosophical background that stretches from Kant to postmodern philosophers such as Baudrillard. The aim is to create knowledge about how the social aspects of the internet affects their concepts of reality and their own and others identities. The method used for the collection of empirical data has been semi-structured interviews, preformed with students in a Swedish gymnasium. The data is then interpreted against the theoretical and philosophical background.

Försvarsmaktens budget blir allt mindre, detta innebär att man inte kan öva i samma omfattning med riktig ammunition och fordon. Intresset för digitala krigsspel och simulationer har därmed ökat. Men för att använda sig av spel i utbildning måste man veta hur man skall använda dem.Syftet med uppsatsen har således varit att undersöka om man kan använda sig av digitala krigsspel i sig självt som en bärare för lärande. Kan deltagarna lära sig taktik genom att bara spela ett spel? Det finns flera olika synsätt som stöder alternativt motbevisar om hur lärande sker då man använder sig av spel för lärande.

This essay follows a Media Teacher in her work as a coordinator and an artistic leader for a European project called Legalopoli concerning laws and ethics in a senior level school for 13-16 year-olds in Mora, Sweden. The students write film stories about how their characters have to make choices in ethical dilemma situations. Then the learners create interactive computer games together through practical film work. At the same time we can see how the educator also gets into difficult ethical situations, when she is working with the students. This forces her to self-reflection.

This study investigates the internet habits of students in the Swedish gymnasium. The part that internet plays in their lives and their attitude towards the educational system is reflected upon the philosophical background that stretches from Kant to postmodern philosophers such as Baudrillard. The aim is to create knowledge about how the social aspects of the internet affects their concepts of reality and their own and others identities. The method used for the collection of empirical data has been semi-structured interviews, preformed with students in a Swedish gymnasium. The data is then interpreted against the theoretical and philosophical background.

The major focus in this study is structural inequalities in primary school in Sweden. UNESCO points out that in many developing countries, up to 40% of the children perform at or below the lowest proficiency level in language and mathematics. Sweden has been criticized by the UN about the large differences in educational achievements between different regions. Based on an official study Sweden considers that those differences are related to ethnically segregate residential areas. My research question is whether the Swedish government takes adequate consideration of the impact that socioeconomically aspects have on educational achievement.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe and analyse the origin and development of the library of Workers´ Educational Association in the community of Oskarström. This library is special because the organisation run it much longer than usual, until 1977, and to find an answer to why, we have the following questions: Why does the library of Workers´ Educational Association start their activity in Oskarström, and how does it develop, in relation to premises, librarians, financing, the stock of books and the numbers of books out on loan? What is the reason that the library in Oskarström is municipalized as late as 1977? The methods we use are hermeneutics and evaluation of the sources. The library is founded in 1914 and become important for the workers. Important sources of income are the subventions given by the state, municipality and other associations.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how preschool teachers can reach the goal of the swedish educational plan to prevent traditional gender roles for children ages 3-6 through drama in education.This is answered by four hypothesis based on Judith Butler's queer theory, George Herbert Mead's social psychological theory and Gavin Bolton and Dotothy Heathcotes drama pedagogical theories. The hypotheses are tested against four teachers' examples of their work.The hypotheses areHypothesis 1: By using the expert's mantle and active observation in teacher-in-role indrama educational exercises, we can see how the children internalize the heterosexualmatrix and the outline of the internalized other.Hypothesis 2: By using the "mistakes" that occur when children repeat performativeacts that do not fit with the heterosexual matrix, these other possible behaviors can bestrengthenedHypothesis 3: Through drama exercises that are not normative teachers can widen theheterosexual matrixHypothesis 4: Through drama pedagogical methods like teacher-in-role teachers canprovide possibilities of other performative acts and the creation of a more tolerantinternalized other.The analysis show that the respondents work within all these hypotheses in different ways and thathypotheses 2 is the one with the weakest support in the interwievs. The examples are also weakregarding the use of Boltons drama pedagogical methods, but that there are a number of othermethods in use.Some of the conclusions are that more theoretical knowledge in the preschool drama pedagogics tocounteract traditional gender roles and patterns, as well as the drama of educational theory need tobe linked to queer and social psychology research. There is also no monitoring of the long term effects of the work..

How do gender and socioeconomic backgrounds affect students? academic performance, educational choices and attitudes towards education? Moreover, does class play the same role for girls and boys? In order to find this out, I surveyed students in a small province located in the northern inlands of Sweden. The survey was answered by nearly every student in the ninth grade of that year, a total of 160 people. The results revealed that girls in this area have less faith in their capabilities than boys, despite getting much better grades. Many more girls than boys want to go onto college or university studies.

This study indicates that research about men and masculinity does not appear to have advanced as far as research about women and femininity. Similarly to attitudes concerning women and femininity, clear norms and attitudes regarding men and masculinity pervade society. Hence, there is a clear need for further research within this field to be carried out. This study, with the support of previous research, looks at gender norms which exist in educational material and the impact it might have on students. Against this backdrop, the author has focused the analysis on one textbook as educational material at upper secondary level with particular emphasis on masculinity and its associated norms.

A rhetorical analysis of the educational interactive film ?Riskprofilen?, produced by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (Swedish: Myndigheten för Samhällsskydd och Beredskap). This essay uses the theories and methods of Procedural Rhetoric, as described by Professor Ian Bogost, and Visual Rhetoric, as described by Professor Brigitte Mral to analyse the interactive and visual component parts of the artefact, and compares them to the intended purposes of the artefact as stated by documents pertaining to its creation, found to be those of educating the public; marketing the agency; and driving traffic to its webpage. The artefact is through analysis found to fulfil the purposes of marketing the Agency and of likely increasing traffic to the website upon which it is hosted. Regarding the primary, educational purpose this analysis finds that the artefact does not teach a user the accident-avoidance strategies it claims to do, but is dependent upon further materials..

This is a thesis in Personal- och Arbetslivsprogrammet at Dalarna University with thepurpose of evaluating an education initiative in Borlänge kommun. The educationCoaching Leadership is an initiative for the managers in the organization to exercisegood leadership and the education also serves as an incentive for managers. Eightbusiness managers and one from the HR staff have completed the training. Out of thetotal 9 participants in the training, six of them took part in this evaluation. Based on thethesis aim and questions we wanted to explore participants' attitudes to the education,and what skills and abilities they have acquired on the basis of educational goals andcontent.

The aim of thesis was to, through a action research study and through individual interviews with five students, clarify their perspective on educational assistance in high school. The study shows that students prefer teaching in small groups outside of regular whole class because it gives the them access to the factors they consider crucial for a functioning support-time whit a skilled and dedicated teatcher, in a calm and safe environment. Moreover, the students claim the importance of technical equipment especially in the Swedish subject, but also in other subjects. Today the educational assistance varies from an outside-the-class teaching situation to a whole-class situation with teacher support as well as technicaal equipment. When the student were asked to describe the cinditions under which studies can be conducted with the whole class they tried to imitate the learning environment they have in a small group.

AbstractThe purpose of my study was to examine how four social studies teachers in upper secondary school interprets the democratic educational mission and core values, and if they believe that the same values are tools to influence the students' democratic approach and if they think it is possible. It is also the study's minor purpose to make an analysis of my findings and previous research in the area to explain any similarities or differences in the social studies teacher's interpretation and practice of the democratic educational mission and core values. I used qualitative semi-structured interviews as a method in which the interview questions were based on my research questions. The two criteria I had for my sample of respondents was that there would be social studies teacher at a upper secondary school and that I wanted to have two of each sex. Their interpretation and how they think they practice the democratic educational mission and core values are similar.