The concept of function represents a major part of mathematics and becomes more significant in school during high school. Throughout history, it has been a difficult concept to define and may create challenges for contemporary students. This literature study aims to identify students' difficulties with the concept of function, as well as to account for how the definition of a function has evolved historically. The literature study has been conducted through database searches in ERIC, Education Research Complete and MathSciNet via EBSCOhost, as well as through chain searching. The study results in identifying that students' difficulties with the concept of function primarily include the graphical and algebraic forms of representation.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the usage of and attitudes towards electronic books among graduate and PhD students at Karlstad University. The main questions are: How do graduate and PhD students use electronic books? To what extent are electronic books used compared to printed books? To find the answers, a user study was carried out at Karlstad University library. The results show that a majority of the respondents are aware of the possibility to use electronic books but prefer to use printed ones if they have to choose. Many respondents also complained about difficulties reading a text on the computer screen.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand and examine the problem andreason why second language pupils have difficulties reaching the goals of thecurriculum in ?Swedish as a second language?. The study is based on interviews withtwo second language teachers and Vygotskijs and Antonovskys theories. The interviewswith teachers gave a broader view on why these difficulties exist and whatconsequences might occur. This analysis shows that there can be different reasons as towhy pupils can not reach the goals in their second language that are set for them.

The aim of this Masters thesis is to investigate the notions and use of non fiction literature of children 9-11 years old. Moreover, this study tries to dissect the underlying concepts that exert influence over the target groups notions and use of non fiction literature. The method and empirical basis of this study is qualitative, with interviews of eight children within the target group. We use a theory of reading exchange to highlight the different areas of usability of non fiction for children. To emphasize how children use non fiction as representative for actual facts, or as non fiction with fictional content, we use a four-field correlation model.

This Bachelor paper deals with skeletal diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. 24 medieval individuals from the block Banken 1 in Visby, Gotland were chosen for an osteological analysis. Osteoporosis affects the bone with low bone mineral density and can lead to possible fractures and Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease. A DEXA reading was done at Dr. Roland Alvarssons Doctorial practice in Visby and the results from the DEXA reading showed that none of the individuals suffered from osteoporosis, but one suffered from osteopenia.

The aim of this master?s thesis is to categorize the publisher readers? views about reading to distinguish a conceivable change of these reviews compared to a historical context during 20 years. I will examine a number of reviews of children?s literature written by publisher readers from BTJ in order to distinguish the assumptions that readers have about children?s reading from how these assumptions appear. The reviews that have chosen is from the years 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001 and 2006, with the purpose of studying if there are any legible changes in these assumptions for the past 20 years.

According to the Swedish preschool policy documents all children should have the same opportunities to develop their early language skills regardless of their social background. The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers work with children's early literacy and language development with focus on reading aloud. The reason is to investigate how the preschool teachers work to create an environment that stimulates children's literacy and language development. Another intention is to study how often reading aloud occurs in the children's home environment and what the preschool teachers thoughts are about that. The study is based on interviews with four preschool teachers and surveys that were answered by parents.

The aim of this study is to investigate parents attitudes towards picture books and childrens reading. The study is based upon qualitative interviews with seven parents, 29-44 years of age, who have children between 3 and 6 years of age. The study is hermeneutic. The conceptual framework used in this study, is Uffe Seilmans categories of different kinds of attitudes towards childrens sparetime occupations, for example reading. These are the authoritarian, the laissez-faire and the democratic attitudes.

Societies are surrounded by unaware attitudes and views about what is masculine and what is feminine and this can contribute to people being raced differently. Boys and girls are shaped to think and act in different ways from an early age because of their gender. According to the curriculum in the Swedish school system, the school has an important task to prevent such perceptions young people have about sex and gender. Reading books are still a central source where students gather information in the Swedish school. Therefore, I find it interesting to examine how gender is produced in three Swedish reading books from three different periods (1950s, 1970s and 2000s) to see what similarities and differences there are between the texts and the study has been based on three questions:How are men/boys and women/girls described in the reading books based on their characteristics, interests and pursuits?How much space in the texts are represented by men/boys and by women/girls?What masculinities and femininities can be found in the texts and which ones are the most desirable?I have used a text analysis in my research to analyse the three reading books and based my theory on that gender is a social construction.

In this essay I analyse three of my own texts included in an unpublished collection entitled till Narcissus' minne. Genres are discussed and a detailed study of how the writing process has progressed is done. The essay does not follow any specific literary or scholarly method of analysis, but to some extent the sphere of interpretation is explored. By associative interpretation the special logic of dreaming, the activity of the unconsciousness and the expansive accessibility of the memories, which characterize the texts, is traced. These structural features open a link to the way of psychoanalytical interpretation, but the essay does not strive for a complete account.

My point of origin concerning this thesis was an interest for how school may develop students? reading comprehension. International surveys show that the results for Swedish students? performance regarding reading comprehension have declined and the current curriculum, Lgr-11, emphasizes the importance of incorporating this into all school subjects. The special teacher education programme has raised the awareness concerning the importance of including the students and that learning is achieved in an interactive setting.

This essay is about reading among patients in hospital. The aim of the essay is to find out what part reading and the library play for patients in hospital. An additional aim is to find out in what ways the collaboration between hospital librarians and hospital staff could be developed. The starting-point of the problem is one main question: What part does reading play for the patient during the stay at the hospital? On the basis of the answers to this question I have also looked for possibilities of enhanced co-operation between hospital libraries and hospital staff.The method for the essay is qualitative and fifteen persons in three different wards at University Hospital in Malm have been interviewed.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine adults? fictionreading habits. The focus is finding out what differencesexist between men and women to study the significance offiction to readers. The study is based on a questionnairesurvey with men and women coming in to a public library.We used Sten Furhammar?s reading dimensions andcategories to describe the importance of the respondentsreading experience and describe the ways that men andwomen read.Our result shows that the genres men and women prefer arenovels, detective stories/thrillers and biographies.

This essay is about the development process I have undergone during my experience-based preschool teacher education. I write about my internal process, about how I as a childcare worker go from assertiveness and believing in myself into fighting doubts, thoughts and feelings as a preschool teacher. The purpose with this essay is to make the difficulties with managing new knowledge and practicing it in real life visible, and at the same time overcome your uncertainty in a new professional role. The essay is based on two stories from my professional life where I, in the first one portray my actions and behavior as a childcare worker and in the second one as a preschool teacher. Based on my stories I try to answer questions as what does the individual learning process look like when going from one professional role to another in the same profession? What impact does theoretical knowledge have on practical knowledge?I have used reflection and writing as methods for my paper.

In Sweden, many children in compulsory school attend after-school recreation centres. All children are offered local after-school recreation centre attendance in the age 6-12 during their parents? work hours. Our aim with this Master thesis is to investigate how after-school recreation centres can use libraries to stimulate children?s own interest to read.