In this thesis we study four groups of students in grade 8, 9 and 10 when they try to solve a classical mathematical problem: Which rectangle with given circumference has the largest area? The aim of the study was too see how the students did to solve a mathematichal problem?The survey shows that students have rather poor strategies to solve mathematical problems. The most common mistake is that students don?t put much energy to understand the problem before trying to solve it. They have no strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to create increased understanding of how pupils learn statistics. This includes gaining insight into pupils' use of their own experience and group experience to help to get a better understanding of statistical problem solving. The study's research questions are about how pupils learn to work with data in tables and diagram and how pupils learn to work with measures.The theoretical framework consists of two approaches to studying learning. One approach is based on pupils? cognitive conditions, called set-befores, and the pupils' previous experiences, called met-befores.

The Swedish teacher education is continuously changing along with the understanding of learning. The teacher education at Södertörn University has an intercultural profile, which is considered modern and innovative. In this essay, students? experiences from their practical training are analyzed to examine the correspondence between teacher practice and the modern teacher role conveyed by the University. The results show that some students have experienced practical training where the standards of the University?s teacher role were met, whereas others feel that they have not received the practical guidance needed to be able to wholly use their education in their future employment.

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.

This degree project documents the meeting of four high-school students with working life before and during the practical training period, which is a mandatory part of the Swedish media curriculum. We looked into practical training, which we qualify as the crossroads between school and working life, from a student?s perspective. We chose to approach the problem theoretically via hermeneutics and we used the case study method for our field research. The foundation of our pre-understanding of the media curriculum?s practical training period lays on previously published research, the study of specialist literature, own experience gained during practical training and teaching experience at high-schools as well as a pre-study we carried out.

Practical and theoretical learning are methods that are used in schools as a way to prepare students for the working life. Within the practical learning knowledge is not only acquired to learn in practice, but the students must also be able to apply their theoretical knowledge to what he/she does. Against this background, the aim of the study was to investigate the importance of practical learning for students in college / university level and how they are experiencing the stress that may arise out of the loss of practical learning during their education, as well as their vision for working life after completing their education. The population of the study consisted of N = 36, which 18 of these had used both practical and theoretical learning and the remainder had only used theoretical learning. The method was a questionnaire survey with a high proportion of fixed alternative answers according to likert scales.

Practical and theoretical learning are methods that are used in schools as a way to prepare students for the working life. Within the practical learning knowledge is not only acquired to learn in practice, but the students must also be able to apply their theoretical knowledge to what he/she does. Against this background, the aim of the study was to investigate the importance of practical learning for students in college / university level and how they are experiencing the stress that may arise out of the loss of practical learning during their education, as well as their vision for working life after completing their education. The population of the study consisted of N = 36, which 18 of these had used both practical and theoretical learning and the remainder had only used theoretical learning. The method was a questionnaire survey with a high proportion of fixed alternative answers according to likert scales.

Undersökningen omfattar företag som har tagit emot elever både under den traditionella och under den nya praon. praon är skolans samverkan me dnäringslivet och syftet är att ge en blid över hur företagen i kommunen ser på den nya praon och dess förändring. Det finns en allmän verdertagen uppfattning om att lärare och elever har mottagit den nya praon med visst missnöje. En enkät har utformats och sänts till 65 företag, kommun och landsting. Av de 65 företag, kommun och landsting svarade 37 stycken.

The purpose with this study is to gain understanding about student´s view of mathematical education, in the later years of nine-year compulsory school, and the motivation factors that can be identified when student´s gives opportunity to express their own thoughts due to the mathematical education. From experiences we have gained during the practical part of our teachers education we got the impression that student´s think that the mathematical education is boring and uninteresting. Through qualitative methods such as survey and discussions in focus group we have analyzed student´s views of mathematical education and pointed out witch motivation factors that are expressed when student´s gives opportunity to influence over their own education. The results are shown from the answers and comments that student´s gave, during the survey and focus group, and is divided into two main parts, both with focus on motivation ?Mathematics and motivation? and ?Student´s influence and motivation? and also a summery part ?Motivated for mathematical education when the student is given influence over the education?. The study showed that student´s wants to have more difference in the work methods that are used in their mathematical education such as problem solving, games, more work in groups and pairs and more use of IT. In conclusion the study also gives suggestions to other studies that can be made in the same genre as this study in the way that IT can be used in mathematical education and how student´s interest can be used in the education to gain more motivated student´s..

Syftet med studien var att ta reda på vilka strategier elever väljer när de ska lösaett matematiskt problem. Vi genomförde en observation och nio individuellaintervjuer med elever i årskurs 3. De fick lösa ett matematiskt problem somobserverades. Utifrån elevernas lösningar genomförde vi sedan intervjuer för attta reda på vilka strategier de valt att använda för att lösa problemet. Resultatet avelevernas lösningar visade på flera olika lösningsstrategier.

Aim:               Our aim is to make a critical review of the glorification of leadership, by describing the practical work of leaders, compared to what is written in management literature.    Method:         We have applied a qualitative approach in our study and implemented seven interviews to illustrate our respondents? experiences and opinions. All of our respondents have leading positions with their current companies. To analyse the results from our interviews, we have compared them with literature written in the subject, mostly management literature.                   Results & Conclusions:  We have concluded that there is a connection between the theory and our empirical material.

The purpose of this study was to, from the teacher's point of view; discover pupils with reading difficulties in connection with text assignments in mathematics, the teacher's support for these students, if difficulties coincide and whether it's the mathematics teacher's responsibility to make sure pupils with reading difficulties develop their reading ability. The study is based on a qualitative method and five semistructured interviews with mathematics teachers and one language support teacher.The result shows there is a strong connection between the pupils' reading ability and their ability to manage text assignments in mathematics. A weak reading ability affects the pupil in a negative way when solving text assignments in mathematics due to wrong reading technique if the teacher is absent. It is not unusual that reading difficulties and mathematics difficulties coincide. The teacher's most important role in the learning process is to teach the pupils understanding about the reading technique in different ways and to give the pupils opportunity to get spoken texts.

This essay deals with the issue of children and stress, and the impact that stress can have on children. The purpose has been to explore how I, in my role as teacher, can prevent children from developing stress in preschool, and how I can prevent stress to develop inside of my own department. My essay is structured as follows: First, I describe my practical work with children. Then I analyze some research literature on stress, and finally I reflect over what I have described earlier and try to connect the practical with the theoretical.In the practical part of this essay I describe the various events that I have observed during my work in preschool, where I have seen how stress can affect both children and teachers. Then I describe how the increasing size of children?s groups can create stress because of the noisy environment of the department.

The investigation aims to clarify to what extent non-conscious thought has efficacy in e.g. decision making and also examine some aspects of the question whether decisions are caused by free will. This will be conducted through an analysis of new research pertaining to neuroscience, economics, the combination of the two within neuroeconomics; evolutionary theory and especially the new theory of Unconscious thought (Nordgren & Dijksterhuis 2006) which will enjoy special scrutiny due to its recentness in the scientific field. A decision strategy ought to put high-level conscious cognition to use where it's most effective and this is on a different level than the canonized one. Meta decision making is decision making pertaining to which decisions ought to be made consciously.

The aim of the study was to investigate the students´ attitudes towards mathematics, their knowledge in the subject area they find the least interesting and whether laborative/practical working methods could awaken their interest and curiosity. During our work, we have looked into previous studies regarding girls´ and boys´ attitude and performance in mathematics. We handed out surveys to students in grade 9 at a School with many people from other cultures and nationalities in Malmö in order to find the answers to our questions. The result showed that most of the students thought that the subject area "scaling" was the least interesting. The implemented action program was a laborative/practical task within the "scaling" area.