Human capital is professional service firms' most valuable resource and its quality is closely linked to the quality of its services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional service firms appraise their employees. A comparative study between an architecture firm and a management consulting firm is conducted with the aim to identify and explain similarities and differences in performance appraisal. Two qualitative case studies are performed and interviews as well as documents are used to explore the area. The thesis builds on a critical perspective and it has an explorative approach.

Title: A study about conditions for leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Authors: Cecilia Ekström and Niklas SandbergKeywords: Leadership, knowledge-intensive firm, hierarchies, followers.Background: Leadership is becoming one of our greatest social myths and is considered a total solution for many problems that occur in an organization. The view of leadership is usually from a top-down perspective, which contributes to an often underestimated view of the follower. Just as it is important to understand the leader's view of leadership, it is important to understand how employees view the structure from which the leader derives its legitimacy. The existing conditions in knowledge-intensive firms, such as autonomy, place special demands on the formal leadership.Purpose: The purpose of this study takes an employee perspective, to understand what the conditions are for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms.Method: A qualitative research method was used and empirical material was collected through interviews with employees in knowledge-intensive firms. The empirical material was analyzed by the respondents? mental images which were set against the theoretical framework of the thesis.Conclusions: The conditions for formal leadership in knowledge-intensive firms make it advantageous to have a leader with a withdrawn role.

This project has aim to examine how students experience their concentration ability during mathematics lessons in the mornings and afternoons, and how students? learning can be in-fluenced by the concentration ability during mathematics lesson in the morning and after-noons respectively? Which role do the methods of learning play in mathematic depending on which time it is carried out during mornings or afternoons with regard to student concentra-tion ability? In order to find out those issues, I used two methods; (interview and observa-tion).Interview with 4 students and 3 teachers and observations of 4 mathematics lessons based on a qualitative method. In order to measure students' concentration ability during ma-thematics education on various times, I distributed questions to 23 students and repeated it during each lesson that I have observed from a quantitative approach in two classes in a sec-ondary school. In the literature I discuss the definition of concentration, and factors affecting the concentration negatively and positively. What is the relationship between concentration, learning and type of activity and how individuals can improve their learning and attention? In addition I studied two earlier studies on the concentration.

The aim of this study is to investigate into the use of discussions in the classroom to help the pupils develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and operations. The empirical data contain interviews with two teachers and observations from their lessons. The purpose of the interviews was to find out what importance the teachers ascribed to the ability of their pupils to talk about mathematics, and how they organised their classes to encourage mathematical discussions. With the observations, I was able to see the interaction in the classroom and hear discussions between the teacher and the pupils, as well as between the pupils themselves.The interviewed teachers proved to share my own belief in the results of researchers like Malmer (1999) and Löwing (2006) about the importance of verbal discussion, argumentation and reflection during mathematics classes. But convictions derived from the research of others are one thing, the practical application of the wisdom in the classroom another.

Mathematics is a central topic in today?s society. There are many different approaches each teacher has their own way. In this essay, I compare four teachers? mathematics teaching in two different countries with regard to ways of learning, particularly in the four operations.

The purspose of this study is to investigate how teachers are working to individualize mathemathics education relative to high-performing students and how they define the therm individualization. According to the Swedish curriculum the teaching process should be based on the students prevoius knowledge and experiences. The teachers should in their preperation take every student in to consideration. To be able to investigate these subjets I prepared following questions:What does the concept of individualization in mathematics mean for the teachers?What does it mean to work with an individualized mathematics teaching?How does teachers individualizes teaching mathematics relative to high performing students?This study is based on a qualitative method with both interviews and observations.

There have been debates on the big differences in mathematics knowledge concerning pupils in Sweden and Finland. Especially, one common issue in the discussions of education is the Pisa test results, which take up in the media. In the Pisa research the Finnish pupils get through well year after year. Because of the discussions about the distinct school systems in Sweden and Finland, I found it interesting to investigate the divergence of the curriculums in these two countries. The main research questions asked were, what are the main differences and similarities in the Swedish and Finnish curriculums in primary school? Such as, is the assignment of primary school similar in Sweden and Finland?In my study I analyzed and compared by means of the curriculum especially mathe-matics teaching in primary schools in grade three in Sweden and in grade two Fin-land.

This study investigates the teaching strategies of four teachers, and determines which teaching strategies give better results in mathematics at the middle school level? Result here means the knowledge level of the students. The result has been measured through leave out a mathematical test, which I leave out designed. Teaching strategies have been assessed through interviews with teachers and observations of their lessons.My study shows that to go through the lessons thoroughly in the traditional way, and open discussions with the whole class are best for students achievements.The information available, however, is too limited to draw some general conclusions, but my study can be seen more like a counter-example to the general praxis that is short lectures and individual assessment with one to one communication when teaching mathematics..

This paper conducts a qualitative examination based on interviews with four high school librarians. The purpose is to illustrate their professional role in proportion to that of the teachers from working with students? reading comprehension and from their role, if any, in the school?s educational activity. The work is based on the following questions:- How does the high school librarian describe his or her work to increase the students' reading comprehension and contribute to their reading development?- How does the high school librarian describe his or her involvement in the schools? educational activity?- How can one understand the high school librarians' relation to the teachers with reference to the librarians? jurisdiction and the formal and actual legitimacy of the school library profession?The theoretical framework constitutes of the concept of jurisdiction and of formal and actual legitimacy.

Syftet med denna studie var att ta reda på elevers uppfattningar om laborativt material i matematikundervisningen. Även hur liknande form av undersökning kunde gynna läraren till att få reda på vilken typ av undervisning som eleverna föredrar. Motivationen som låg till grund för studien var erfarenheter utifrån VFU (verksamhetsförlagd utbildning) samt erfarenheter av forskningslitteratur. En stor del av forskningen har påvisat att elever som arbetar med laborativt material i matematik presterar bättre än elever som inte arbetar med laborativt material. Därför förespråkar forskningslitteraturen inom detta område att lärare borde arbeta med laborativt material under alla åren i skolan.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the recruitment process and its complexity. The study also aims to examine whether there are any problem areas with a recruitment process which is emotionally based and if so, how these can be resolved. Four issues have been presented, in regard to solving the study?s purpose and problem definition.Theoretical framework: The chapter begins by briefly illustrate the concept of employee turnover and the economic aspects a staff turnover can bring. Thereafter, the importance of a formal preparatory work for recruitment is presented.

The purpose of this study has been to compare the present with the future syllabus of mathematics. With a text analytical approach has questions about how the structure is different, how the look at knowledge has changed and which learning theory that characterizes the two syllabus been answered. As a theoretical framework I adopt three different learning theories, behaviourism, cognitivism and the socio-cultural perspective. The pervious research I have looked at is the concept of knowledge an the underlying theories to previous curriculum. During the increase results in the greatest difference seen in the structure.

Det verkar råda stor konsensus om att matematikundervisningen är viktig för att Sverige skall kunna hävda sig och kunna konkurrera i en global värld. Samtidigt visar det sig att eleverna i allt större utsträckning har svårt att nå målen för undervisningen. En undervisning, som forskningen visar, är hårt styrd av den matematikbok som används.I Finland har det visat sig att vilken lärobok som används i undervisningen får statistiskt signifikanta konsekvenser för elevernas resultat. I uppsatsen undersöks om samma statistiskt signifikanta samband även föreligger i Sverige. 149 skolor omfattande 13 408 elever ingår i den statistiska kvantitativa studien.

Studien syftar till att beskriva hur lärare i matematik upplever att de praktiskt hanterar elevers olika förutsättningar i sin matematikundervisning. Undersökningen genomfördes som en fallstudie av två lärare i matematik i grundskolans senare år. Det empiriska materialet består av fyra klassrumsobservationer, som analyserades för att identifiera olika typer av individualisering, samt fyra intervjuer, för att belysa lärarnas upplevelser av och tankar kring individualisering. Det framkom att det förekommer flera olika typer av individualisering. En del individualisering var ett resultat av lärarens medvetna val, men det förekom även individualisering som lärarna delvis var omedvetna om..

The study aims to investigate student participation as a tool for democratic development in secondary school from a student perspective. Furthermore, students' perceptions of the school's work with student participation in formal and informal contexts are also investigated, with basis in the teaching structure. The results are based on interviews conducted with students who all attend the same class in their last year of high school. Subsequently, an analysis is made based mainly on three different theories: democracy, curricula and sociocultural theory. The result shows that students feel that they are able to practice student participation but the amount of influence they get differs between individuals depending on devotion and commitment.