In the school subject of the natural sciences it is imperative that the students are given opportunities to ?talk science?, since the dialogues that occur in the classroom have a significant importance for the students? abilities to engage in meaning-making in their learning process. Hence, the student and teacher interaction in the classroom and the feedback given there play a significant role in the students? learning process. The aim of this study is to contribute to the development of formative assessment tools that can mediate the students? meaning-making in natural sciences subjects in upper-secondary school.

The aim of the study has been to explore certain aspects of implementation perspectives and to analyse the introduction of an environmental management system called ecoBUDGET in the Municipality of Växjö. A framework has been developed through thorough studying of earlier research in the field of policy implementation in public administrations. The framework is made up of the steering relationship between politicians and public administrators, decision making and implementation and the ability, want and understanding of how and why decisions should/could be implemented. By using this framework in combination with interviews held with individuals that host valuable knowledge and experience of the system these questions were to be answered:-What factors in the implementation process of ecoBUDGET can be seen to have facilitated alternativly hindred the integration of the environmental management system within the municipalitys administration and companies?- In what direction has the integration of a sustainable devleopment thinking for the environment thru ecoBUDGET evolved within the organisation?The result came to be that sustainable development and the strive for this is more and more amalgamated in to the everyday work within the municipal organisation and that the environmental management system is likely to have played a part in this..

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to develop an understanding of why non-users do not use public libraries by studying their information and culture habits and their relationship to public libraries. One of the motivating factors behind this choice is the lack of earlier research on the subject, particularly qualitative research. The theoretical framework is stratified into three associated levels with Brenda Dervin?s sense-making theory on an individual level, Marianne Andersson?s and Dorte Skot-Hansen?s model of the roles of public libraries on an institutional level and Pierre Bourdieu?s theoretical apparatus on a social level.

After emergencies involving chemical spills it is of great importance that correct measures are taken with short notice, both for the security of people and in order to minimize future environmental consequences. The RIB-unit at the Swedish Rescue Services Agency initiated this study, the aim of which is to propose changes to the existing chemical transport calculation tool: Chemical Spill 3.4, included in RIB - Integrated Decision Support for Civil Protection, so that it can be used for decision support as well as in preventive work. A rough estimation of chemical transport in the subsurface is considered being of great importance when making decisions during emergency response operations.The proposition presented in this report is a non site specific chemical transport model which is designed to give a rough estimation of NAPL flow in homogenous isotropic soil shortly after an instantaneous release. The model can be used at two levels; both in situations without access to information on subsurface properties, and with more accuracy in situations with knowledge of the included parameters. For that reason the user can choose among predefined alternatives or assign the parameters a numeric value to increase the quality of the model output.

Purpose: The aim with the report is to investigate if the South East Asian customer on the food processing market base their investments on Total Cost of Ownership and if so, which are the cost drivers considered most vital. Moreover, do these cost-drivers diverge from the perception FP Ltd has, and if so, can a Total Cost of Ownership-model help to achieve a mutual understanding? Methodology: First a descriptive approach will be taken, identifying FP Ltd?s employers? perception on how to meet the customer. This will later be compared to our empirical findings of the actual customer behaviour in Thailand and Vietnam. Thorough analyse of the gap between the two parts will give us the outcome whether or not FP Ltd will have any use of presenting a quantitative model justifying their higher price.

The aim of this study is to examine what social workers consider as ?challenging behaviour? among adolescents, but also to examine the connection between investigation and intervention in cases where such behaviour is being displayed. The questions of the study are to examine what social workers think of the instrument of assessment BBIC (Children?s Needs in Focus) and how the usage of BBIC affect social workers understanding of challenging behaviour. Moreover, it is a qualitative study and the respondents are all social workers with various length of professional experience who work with making decisions in juvenile welfare cases.

Problem discussion: That empowerment and autonomy can lead to desirable effects on employees is clear. Previous research has found correlations between empowerment and e.g. motivation, job satisfaction, productivity, loyalty and commitment. However, a control problem arises when employees have more freedom in decision-making which could potentially lead to undesirable outcomes. It thus becomes a type of dilemma for management and managers where you have to try to balance a restrictive use of the control system (to maintain control) and an enabling use (to promote empowerment).Purpose: The purpose of this study is therefore to identify how a company can use its control system in order to achieve empowerment while maintaining acceptable levels of control.

The use of digital devices are widely spread among us. Children have an iPad in their hands before they learn how to talk and we bet you look at your smartphone more times a day then you would like to admit? Interaction through these devices have become so natural in our daily life that we get confused when a retailer does not offer a website or an app. The habit of searching for information in the most accessible channel and buying in the one that offers the benefit of convenience, and of course, saves you money and time, is a common way of shopping these days. This is referred to as multi-channel shopping.

With the increased significance of information technology (IT) in today?s society the term ?electronic democracy? (e-democracy) has gained much importance within the democracy theory. Naturally, there are several competing views on how the technology should be used for democratic purpose. One aspect of this is the somewhat revitalized claim for direct democracy in accordance with the hypothetical opportunity to finally realize it as a democratic system. The ideal of direct democracy combined with the almost total credence in the potential of technology constitute the idea of a ?push-button democracy?.

This thesis reports on the methodology and results of a study with one retailers 73 units to investigate factors of the store managers leadership that influence productivity performance in store. The study determine the impact of ten independent variables in terms of the store managers leadership on four performance measures: (3) three productivity measures: Sales Over Labor (SALOL), Sales Over Inventory (SALOI) and Sales Over Square-metre (SALOS) and (1) one profit measure: Contribution Income Over Square-metre (CIOS). The result shows that the leadership factors give no more explanation to the economic results after factors of local market condition and the store attributes are taking in to account. The store manager's leadership can though influence his or her decision-making in-store. The store manager's decision to staff the store more intense (higher service-intensity) can increase the level of contribution income over square metre in-store..

This essay is a philosophical investigation of the relation between children and their play. My aim is to see if children are autonomous when it comes to their play. Is there a moral boundary between those who take part in the play and those who do not? This topic is especially important when it comes to the moral status of a child in the Swedish pre-school. How should educationists act when it comes to children?s play?  Through an analysis of the notions of play and autonomy I show that play can be understood as something of a moral value to the child and if children should be seen as autonomous when it comes to their play.

The main aim of this thesis is to investigate the implications and dynamics behind consistency between individual resource allocation decisions and corporate strategy concept. The telecom industry, a high-velocity environment going through an extensive deregulation process, is put under the magnifying glass. Japanese telecom giant NTT Group is compared to its German counterpart Deutsche Telekom. Potential antecedent factors in the strategic decision-making process to consistency are studied. It is also examined whether there is a direct interplay between consistency and economic performance.

This essay puts its focus on examining vendors? underlying decision criterias when choosing an estate agent at the purpose of selling an apartment. The purpose is on one hand to expound the knowledge of the vendor?s decision process and on the other hand to evaluate how the choice of an estate agent is perceived to the vendor. By nine interviews we explored what reasons made vendors choose their agents and whether they were contented with their choice.

In todays' society e-commerce is growing at a rapid speed. 4,6 % of all retail sales on the Swedish market are done on the Internet. In the makeup category, which will be the category of focus in this study, 9 % of all the sales were done on the Internet during the last quarter of 2011. As it is today many suppliers do not have enough knowledge about e-commerce and instead of focusing on the development of the channel the focus should instead be on the development of the users of the channel.The purpose of this study is to understand the buying process with respect to the existing theories. The focus will be on the two stages information search and evaluation of alternatives.

Vi har gjort en fallstudie som utforskar hur ledarskapet påverkar och påverkas vid entillämpning av ISO 14001, samt hur tillämpningen av standarden är utformad påstudiens företag. Analysen har genomförts med hjälp av institutionell teori somteoretisk referensram. Vi kom fram till att ISO 14001 inte leder till eninterorganisatorisk homogenisering mellan olika företag, inomsamhällsplaneringsbranschen som vårt fallföretag agerar i. Vidare fastslog vi även enparadox i utformningen av ISO 14001-systemet hos företaget; otydliga istället förtydliga krav ökar chansen för att behålla certifieringen. Till sists kom vi också framtill att ledarskapets svårighet att kommunicera aktörernas rätt att översätta ISO 14001i sin praktik, beror på att ISO 9001 och ISO 14001 hos vårt fallföretag är utformatsom ett gemensamt system.