This thesis is based on research and observations of children on a preschool when playing in the free-play. What do the children choose to play with, when they get to choose for themselves? And how do they play? Do boys and girls together or do they divide themselves up? How important is the free-playing for the development of the child? Genus is also an important element which is interesting to observe and to see different patterns in. The abidance?s have been made while the children have been playing, and from discrete observations notes have been taken.I have been working with material, and literature from distinguished researchers within the subject.

In this thesis, we are concerned with the many different professional roles that a public librarian, working at a small library, has. More specifically, the purpose is to find out which different roles that librarians believe they have, and which view they have upon those. Furthermore, we are exploring the tendencies that librarians discuss in relation to these professional roles. To pursue this goal, we have used the methodology of focus group interviews, with the unconventional twist that our interviews were done using web chats. This may have the advantage that the informants may present more honest views than when using ordinary interviews due to the anonymous character of chatting.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the children?s mathematics learning through play. The questions to be answered are: how can teachers facilitate children?s mathematics learning through play? How can play affect children?s math learning? Are the children aware of the role of play in their mathematics learning?My method is based on interviews and observations. My informants are three teachers who work in two different preschools.

According to the curriculum the Swedish school system should aim to let the democratic values permeate the school as a whole, and the school should assume each student's individual abilities in teaching. (Lpo -94) Democratic education is what the pragmatist John Dewey strongly encourages in his book Democracy and Education, which is why he stands for the theoretical framework of the concept of democracy in the school context. This study aims to examine whether and if so, the social roles in a classroom can affect students' opportunities for learning. The main research questions asked were:How can the social roles affect students' opportunities for learning in a classroom? How do students perceive that the social roles in the classroom affect their opportunities for learning? This has been investigated by two complementary perspectives.  Partly thru a student perspective to raise the students 'own experiences, and partly from an outside perspective to show how I, as an observer can see that social roles affect students' opportunities for learning.

The aim of this study was to explore and gain understanding of the situation between managers in different forms of human service organizations. I chose to use a qualitative method and conducted semi-structured interviews with five professional middle managers in the public sector. To accomplish my purpose, I worked on the basis of several questions. The questions dealt with the role of middle management and what it involves, how it is perceived and what the middle managers think of the specific requirements for them and their leadership in organizations that provide services relating to people.  As a result of the analysis I have used the theory of social roles that describes the meaning of the different roles and role conflicts that arise in connection with various and conflicting expectations. The review of the results shows that middle managers in human service organizations experience to have to deal with a complex leadership role.

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the availability of construction materials affect children's constructions and play. Observations were made when the children were allowed to play and build with very little and much of the material play-doh dough in preschool. The study is aimed at children aged 3 ? 5 years. Interviews were also conducted with educators in departments where the children spent time to give support to this study.The result shows that the children create as many designs of any material amount.

A reward cycle for investigating the emotional status in animals has been developed and it requires that animals go through three main phases, i.e. anticipation, consumption and relaxation. The reward cycle has not been tested previously for access to play in pigs. Therefore, the aim of this Master thesis was to investigate if growing pigs showed more behaviours indicative of excitement than pigs that were not allowed to play, performed play in a play arena and showed more behaviours indicative of relaxation after play when they were back to their home pen than pigs that were in their home pen the whole time. Forty undocked piglets (10 litters of Specific Pathogen Free half pure-bred Yorkshire and half hybrids of Yorkshire x Landrace balanced for breed between two treatments were used.

The purpose of this study is to gain knowledge and a broader understanding for how pre-school teachers describe the importance of planned play environments including in what manner children are given influence. By qualitative interviews with five pre-school teachers from four different units I was able to gather data that shows how the planning process concerning a specific play environment had worked and why it looked as it did. The results show among other things that the pre-school teachers viewed the play environment as a vital part of the daily operation and pointed out that it was of vital importance that it came from the children?s interests. Depending on how the play environment had been organized and what its purpose was it offered different amounts of affordances..

Abstract   In this thesis, my aim was to investigate how preschool teachers view their involvement in children's free play. In order to answer this, I chose to do semi-structured interviews with four preschool teachers in three different preschools. My interviews has revealed similarities and support for as how history of research looks at the involvement of educationists. Both research and my results stresses the importance of being active in children's free play and to be a supportive teacher, particulary in conflict situations. For those children who have difficulty entering into the free game its the educationists task to co-play and help the children find the game.

In Swedish school library research, the role of the school library has seldom been studied in a subject-specific context. When it has been, the subject has usually been a theoretical subject such as Swedish or Social studies. The purpose of this master's thesis is to study what role or roles the school library can play in a different context, in the program-specific subjects at a trade oriented program in the Swedish upper secondary school, and to determine what factors affect the possibility for the school library to play a role in such a context. The Food Programme was selected as the specific program to be studied. In this program, the students learn a trade, in this case bakery, and the teaching in the program-specific subjects can be expected to be practical in nature.

This study deals with play and the importance of meaning of play in the learning process. The aim is to look in to and analyze four preschool teacher´s beliefs and views about the importance of play for children´s learning and development. The study looks at two different preschools, one based on Reggio Emilia- and the other on Montessori- pedagogy, and the aim is to compare the different views and ways of working that the preschool educators have.The theoretical basis for this study is both rooted in a socio-cultural and constructivist perspective, and deals with the relationships between theoretical concepts mean as play, learning, way of working and pedagogy.The study is based on qualitative research methods that consist of interviews and participant observations. The person?s participants in the study consisted of four active preschool educators, who work in two different preschools.The results of the investigation show that the educators have similar views on the importance of play for the children´s learning process, and this also applies to their way of working.

The purpose of this master?s thesis is to examine whether the role of a public library in a rural community is different from that of a town library. To answer this, a case studie of two public libraries has been made. Interviews, collection of documents and observations were carried out on location in one public library located in a rural area, and one public library, situated in a town. A modified version of an analysis model, originally developed by Andersson and Skot-Hansen, was used to analyse the data.

New technology has created new opportunities for journalists working with web TV. Changes in the work processes have led to new professional roles. According to the theory of media logic such events become news that suits media organizations and working conditions. How does the media logic affect the editorial workflow and how does it affect professional roles? In light of my own experience in various roles in television journalism, I examine how the web TV format shapes the work of journalists.

The purpose of my study is to describe how educators think about the play environment, the nature and its importance for the children's development and learning in preschool. The study is based on qualitative interviews with four active educators. The results of the study show that the teachers regarded the children's interests to a great extent when the different play environments were structured. They are also based on different themes that they have seen that the children were interested in, such as the fire station, hair salon or shop and café. Educators designing not only these play areas for different types of play for the children, but the different environments also have a learning purpose. The outdoor environment however attracts greater interest from children, to where they have more space to move freely in and outdoors, there are no limits to the children.

Free play is a term that often common in educational activities. The definition of the term is difficult, but it is about the children themselves decides the scope, content and process in their play. On an after-school, this may mean that it is the children are given the opportunity to freely choose their own activity in the leisure constraints. Free play can be an alternative to other, more controlled activities where adults control framework. The purpose of this study is to investigate the variations in how some children perceive and experience the phenomenon of free play in the after-school and how the children perceive the teacher´s role in the free game.