The purpose of this study was to examine and compare what six preschool teachers thought about their opportunities to take advantage of children's interest in natural sciences and technology, across four kindergartens. The following questions were explored in order to achieve the aim of the study: How do the preschool teachers interviewed describe their work with science and technology in the preschool and what these preschool teachers think about the meaning of motivation in the children?s learning of natural sciences and technology in preschool.  The study used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews and interviewed a total of six trained pre-school teachers from four kindergartens with different profiles. The first kindergarten focuses on mathematics, science and technology.

Laser scanning is a method of surveying that has evolved rapidly in recentyears. The technique is based on a laser scanner set up, which can document a structureusing pulsed laser beams. Each time the laser hits a surface it is partly reflectedback to the scanner that stores the point. By using strategically placed targets, storedpoints from different scans can be merged into a point cloud. A point cloud is avisualization of the scanned object with a very high accuracy.

Single vehicle accidents are one of the most common types of accidents that occur on the Swedish road network. Depending on the design of the road, the presence of a crash barrier and embankment on the roadside, the outcome of a roadside collision can lead to serious injuries and even deaths.The aim of this project is to investigate the possibility of improving road safety by designing the optimal roadside area based on the results of a life cycle cost analysis (LCC).The questions that have been answered during the duration of this project are:1) Describe the current technical solutions for roadside area design and the various barrier types used in Sweden.2) Complete an existing mathematical model that has been developed by Hawzheen Karim, for calculating life-cycle costs for various roadside areas.3) Calculate and compare the life cycle costs for the side area with a barrier and without a barrier.By performing an analysis of the documentation on the current guidelines and rules for shaping the roadside, was it possible to describe the current technical solutions for the formation the roadside as well as the current roadside barriers in use today. A mathematical model for calculating the life cycle costs of different barrier types had already been developed by Hawzheen Karim. This model was supplemented so that it could calculate life-cycle costs of the roadside region with and without a barrier. After the model was completed, an analysis was performed to obtain life-cycle costs of a roadside with and without a barrier.The result showed that there is a clear relationship between the slope inclination, fill height, and the rate at which the costs rise.

This research is about six pedagogue´s and their reflections about the size of the children´s group in the preschools. Then I will discuss the pedagogue?s recommendation on the significance of the size of a children´s group learning and development and it´s practical significance for the preschool function. The pedagogue?s statements will be discussed in relation to The Swedish National Agency for Education (TSNAE) guidelines on group size.The theoretical framework of this essay will take an overview of the social cultural perspective, the group size and its significance for both the children´s learning and development, for interaction and communication and TSNAE advice and guidelines.

This study focuses on oral communication in the classroom involving discussion and dialogue amongst pupils, but also between teacher and pupil. The overall aim is to study the choices regarding the group composition and working methods that might occur in four individual teachers? lessons plans with the intention of increasing the pupils? knowledge through oral communication. The main focus is to explore what the teachers think of the choices they make and how they believe these changes affect the pupils. It is also focused on how the teachers perceive their pupils? learning is improved by oral communication and how they incorporate all pupils, especially the pupils who rarely participate in classroom activity.The methods used are qualitative studies using interviews and observations.

This study is based on interviews with five directors of educational administration within the Stockholm County. The purpose is to investigate how the directors of educational administrations, in the different municipalities, describe the relationship between the administration and the local school units. Moreover, the aim is also to describe the administration director?s work in relation to the various levels of the administration. To what extent can it be identified as a dimension of the learning organization described in this report.The study shows that skepticism is usually directed upwards toward the next level in the organization and that the decision-making right for local schools is consistently safeguarded.

The purpose of this essay is to show the opportunities and difficulties of teaching within distance education. I will show this from two different parts of the world. One being Sweden and the other Australia, both countries run a distance education program with similar reasons students whom travelling, some living hundreds of miles from any schools and some students with health and or social disadvantages. This study is based on the actual teacher?s accounts and experiences the opportunities and difficulties in teaching in distance.

This study started with my interest in drama pedagogy practices. The aim is to investigate the teacher's conceptions of children's play and learning activities in drama pedagogy practices. Basically drama pedagogy means children and teachers creating play worlds together, usually based on various literary works, where they portray and play. Previous research shows that drama pedagogy as a method can enrich and develop children's play. Also, drama can be important for children's linguistic, social and aesthetic development.In this study, overall three interviews and two observations at different occasions was carried out.

This bachelor thesis consists of an analysis of museum environment. In the research, case studies have been done at the, Stockholm based museums, Swedish museum of Natural history?s exhibition Natur i Sverige (Nature in Sweden) and the Nordiska museet?s (Nordic history) exhibition Modemakt (Power of fashion) and learning environment Lekstugan (playhouse). The purpose of the research was to study how cultural heritage is used and developed within the museum pedagogy aimed at children. The research is based on a multimodal approach with focus on learning resources.The research examines the museums focus on children and youngsters, what the goals for this focus looks like on respective museum and how the focus is visible in the actual museums.

It is extremely important that the construction of the environment where children and youngsters spend the majority of their days supports the progress of their mentality. That is why I in this study will investigate what a certain amount of teachers consider of the interplay between learning and environment and how they thought a satisfactory environment structure eras of learning and also what the teachers consider to be missing at this point.The schools where I gathered my material are located in Thailand but they use the Swedish curriculum as a starting point and the students at these schools are mostly Swedish speaking.An important element that I came across was the impact of the surrounding on how to shape and use the environment as a tool in the teaching. Thailand?s climate is different than the Swedish climate; I want to investigate if that has any effect in the teaching.The educational environment in schools includes not only the classrooms but also every other space closely connected. Earlier scientific research as well as those people that I used as objects for interviews agrees regarding the fact that a suitable and stimulating environment are one of the most impact on how well children learn.

The aim of the study is to show how a selected part of the European Language Portfolio, ELP, can support the assessment process for teachers. All the checklists at level A1 and My Language Goals from the Language Biography, a part of the ELP, are implemented and communicated in teaching in a 4th grade class of students. Two teachers are interviewed and both of their classes are compared in the study. One group worked for two weeks with the selected part of the Language Portfolio and the second group followed the regular curriculum for the same period of time. The teachers are interviewed before and after the ELP through support of mind maps.Results show that by using checklists at level A1 and My Language Goals students become aware of their own learning process.

AbstractIn the research made on the subject, homework, there are a lot of differences in the opinions regarding the meaning of homework/home assignments in the educational system today. Do they fill a purpose or do they only create social rifts and injustice.For my essay I chose to find out what attitude senior-level teachers have towards homework and what meaning it is considered to have on the students learning ability.My research is based on interviews with six senior-level teachers who all teach different subjects.The results showed that all of the interviewed teachers used some kind of home assignments in their teaching.Ultimately, the conclusion I reached is that the homework should be well prepared and given a lot of thought. The homework should also be interesting and meaningful to the students to promote the learning process..

This thesis examines the implications of a shorter  intensive action research  project on  the formative assessments  key  strategies  four  and  five  that  are  activating  learners  as  learning  resources  for  one another and activating learners as owners of their own learning.  The research questions were ?How do the pupils experience the formative approach?? ?What didactic consequences does the formative approach  mean  for  the  role  of  the  teacher??  and  ?How  does  the  formative  approach  affects  the pupils?  results  on a  short term??. The results were that the  majority of the pupils liked the approach and that they felt like their efficiency increased. The didactic consequences were that the teacher had to spend more time on evaluation but had more time during the lesson to listen to and discuss with the pupils. The pupils? results were not changed in comparison with the control group..

The purpose with this study was to analyse students' conception of living things, and to establish how a social constructivist learning situation affect their conceptions. The method consisted of questionnaires, followed by group discussions and a final survey. The main result was that students have everyday conceptions about scientific phenomena that are reinforced by the social interaction. Some students were positively influenced by the interaction with their peers, where non-scientific conceptions were replaced by conceptions of a scientific nature. Furthermore, the cultural artifacts are of very good means, but the study showed a strong need for a knowledgeable person, e.g.a teacher, to guide students in the right direction during the discussions.

Structuring education so that students can discover connections between schoolwork and their everyday lives is a crucial task for a teacher. This is especially true in today?s school system that seeks to foster a spirit of lifelong learning, since educational motivation depends on being able to connect to the tasks at hand. In a system where these connections are not present, students will be motivated only by institutional mechanisms such as test results and grades. This leads to them using a number of techniques for ?optimizing the system? by getting maximal results for minimal effort. This essay looks at two pedagogical movements that aim to decrease the gap between schoolwork and students? reality.