This study was designed to describe and understand how children perceive and explain mathematical situations. During our work based training we have met several students who have been insecure in the subject of mathematics and therefore come to think that it's difficult and boring. The questions we have asked ourselves are why and how this insecurity occurs. In preschools around the country teachers actively worked to create opportunities for children to meet and discover mathematics. The question is whether the teachers are aware of how children perceive mathematics and how children think in mathematical situations. We chose to conduct a qualitative study using different methods of data collecting in order to approach the children's world.

The purpose of this study is to examine how primary school teachers work with the oral communicative ability of students who are quiet or unwilling to communicate freely in the classroom. This study aims to answer the question: which methods and strategies are most beneficial for the quiet students and how do teachers discover and assess these students?A qualitative method using semi-structured interviews will be used as the primary means of answering this question. The purpose of these interviews is to document the teachers? experiences working with quiet students.It appears that the teachers interviewed have or have had quiet students in their classes.

Today there is a keen competition between regions in the world for companies and inhabitants in order to improve regional development and economic growth. In many regions there is an active effort to create a good home base for companies and inhabitants. Since 2003 municipalities in nine counties in Sweden have come together in co-operative agencies in order to work towards more efficient regional development.This essay focuses on the relation between the state and the co-operative agencies in the regional development policy and which possibilities the state gives the co-operative agencies to pursue an efficient regional development policy, both legally and financially. I have researched and analysed this through models and ideas on how the state governs the administration and through the translation theory. The result of my study is that the co-operative agencies have a relatively large amount of freedom to make there own priorities, but the ability to act efficiently within regional development is limited..

Diabetes mellitus type 2 and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) are two of the most common diseases in the world and the amount are increasing. The treatments of these diseases are self care and a change of lifestyle. For this to be successful there is a need for the person to have knowledge about the diseases and a motivation for making changes in his or her lifestyle. Most of this information is given by the district nurse at the health centre. It is important to get a better knowledge of these persons experiences and how they used the information given to them.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, which affects mostly women. RA is also a chronic disease and the treatment is focused on moderating the immunological process. RA-patients experience daily pain which affect their prosperity. The aim of this literature study is to illuminate some factors that influence the well-being of patients with RA. The factors that have been studied are pain, nutrition and need of knowledge about nutrition.

This thesis explores and compares the former armed opposition groups; Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO), Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) transformation processes into political parties. The first question addressed is; What factors determines the ability of these armed opposition groups to transform into political parties after armed conflict? The question is addressed through four structural and organizational factors; international involvement, the organizations ideology and identity, their ability to change inter-elite relationships and their ability to change collective incentive strategies. The second question addressed is if the transformations process can affect the parties? degree of institutionalization? The degree of institutionalization is examined through the party's adaptility, complexity, autonomy and coherence.

When a leader changes to a new post in another kind of organisational culture, what happens then? Could a leader use the same kind of leadership when leading different kinds of groups? Different cultures have different needs and ways to handle things and in the end it all comes to situational leadership. Both leaders and theorists claim that the leader must adjust to what the organisation and its members needs. This paper contains an inquiry of how officers have handled their new assignments as leaders in the civilian world of the municipality. The research shows that a former military leader must also be able to lead another kind of group if they change to a civilian career.

Målet med vårt examensarbete var att ta reda på vad elever i grundskolans tidigare år har för attityd till matematik. Vi ville även veta varför och hur attityden förändras, om den förändras genom åren. Som bakgrund till undersökningen har vi använt oss av litte-ratur som handlar om elevers attityd och motivation till matematik. För att ta reda på vår problemställning besökte vi två olika skolor i södra Sverige där vi gjorde observationer och eleverna fick besvara enkäter. När vi sedan sammanställde resultaten och analyse-rade dem jämförde vi de svaren vi fått in genom våra enkäter med det vi såg när vi ob-serverade, samt de teorier vi använt oss av.

The aim of this study is to illuminate and discuss a case of political steering, specifically Managment-By-Objectives (MBO) in Swedish municipalities, from a democratic perspective. The essay examines a discrepancy between MBO in the Swedish municipalities and democratic theory.To fulfil the aim of the study one leading politician and one leading civil servant from five municipalities have been interviewed on this matter. This material is discussed in the light of a democratic theory constructed specifically for this essay. The democratic theory consists of three main democratic values in the democratic process: debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability.The main conclusion is that there is a contradiction in the use of MBO and the democratic values of debate, transparence and the ability to demand political accountability. MBO has resulted in a lack of debate and transparency and furthermore, it has made it increasingly more difficult to demand political accountability..

The word mathematics is often associated to addition, subtraction, division or multiplication. This is not the kind of mathematics that belongs to pre-school. In my essay I have chosen to write about how mathematics is used in pre-school. In the literature it is written that the best way of becoming familiar with mathematics, is to integrate it in the every day life but that there are educators that use traditional mathematics education in pre-school. The questions I would like to answer are:1.

Background: An evaluation of analysts´ forecasting ability is interesting since their estimates constitute an important part in stock valuation and investment decisions. The recent years´ development in the stock market has lead to criticism of analysts? deficient forecasts. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate analysts´ forecasting ability concerning companies quoted at Stockholmsbörsen between 1987 and 2002. We also intend to discuss possible explanations for analysts? behavior in case of deficient accuracy.

The purpose of this literature review was to demonstrate the results of recent studies of the nurses ability to interpret younger childrens (0-6 years of age) experiences of pain in the postoperative stage. There is a lack of knowledge concerning young childrens ability to express themselves verbally and the nurse has to rely upon the parents knowledge about the child. Consequently, the teamwork between the nurse and the parents is of great importance in the care of the younger child. Therefore we intend to illuminate this aspect in this paper. This study aims to nurses of all categories, since patients with lack of verbal communication are frequently occurring.

Previous research has indicated that intellectual disabilities and parenting is not socially accepted and compulsory care of children often occurs in families where one or both parents have an intellectual disability. This study aims to, thru a document analysis, investigate ideas and representations of parents with intellectual disabilities that emerge in Swedish legal cases. The legal cases is about children who are taken care of according to LVU § 2, where one or both parents have a intellectual disability. The results of the study revealed that people with intellectual disabilities are seen as not capable of developing parenting ability, in some cases aroused concerns about parenting during pregnancy, these suggesting stereotypes of parents with intellectual disabilities. Of the documents reveals that social workers word overrides in the decision-making, this leads to a position of power where the parents are at a disadvantage..

Syftet med min studie har varit att undersöka om fritidshemmet kan utgöra en matematisk lärandemiljö. Jag har studerat vilka aktiviteter som kan eller skulle kunna bidra till att barn utvecklar grundläggande matematiska kunskaper. Dessutom har jag försökt identifiera hinder för fritidshemmet som matematisk lärandemiljö. För att undersöka detta har jag använt mig av deltagande observation som metod samt intervjuer. Datamaterialet har samlats in på två fritidshem i två olika kommuner.

Title: Inflation and Investments, with Focus on Inflation-linked Bonds.Investors face many types of risks when allocating assets in a portfolio, e.g. volatility and inflation risk. Inflation risk will mainly affect investments in the long perspective. This thesis will examine those risks that an investor is commonly exposed to when allocating assets in a portfolio and in particular inflation-linked risk and how to eliminate it. We examine the correlation between different assets and inflation to determine the assets? ability to hedge inflation risk.