Abstract Title:                       Grades at Primary School ? A study of local politicians' arguments in                       connection with the division into grades at Swedish primary schools.Author:                       Annie LinderUniversity of KalmarC-essay in Social StudiesAutumn 2011 The study aims to investigate local politicians' decisions since municipalities took overSwedish primary education in 1990/91. The arguments put forward in support of how stages are organised have been studied, likewise whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions.Six municipalities are included in the survey. They were divided into three educational categories: lower, middle and high level schools; previous and recent schools and F9 schools with pre-schools and primary schools integrated.Minutes from politicians' and civil servants' meetings have been studied and categorised according to arguments for and against. The most common supportive arguments are about economy and organisation, others concern school premises, trends and the wish for a comprehensive compulsory school.

In this report a study is carried out with the aim to identify added values of EPC projects implemented in schools in order to increase the interest of EPC projects on the market. The report examines how the planned maintenance, supervision, maintenance and corrective maintenance is affected, how insurance premiums and terms are affected, the indoor environment and how the tasks of the operating staff is changing. A literature study of energy savings, energy use in schools, maintenance and insurance as well as how energy efficiency improvements are related to the Swedish environmental objectives has been made. Visits were carried out in Ludvika, interviews were also carried out with operation technicians and local strategists in Ludvika as well as employees of insurance companies.Schools often have neglected maintenance and problems with ventilation and indoor environment. Schools also have a large energy saving potential due to their low utilization, mainly because they are empty parts of the year.

The purpose of this research has been to study and find out if a diagnose AD/HD is of importance. Does a diagnostic significance matter for how to support and respond to children in school? Are diagnosed children with signs of AD/HD treated differently than children without diagnosis? My study is based on input from teachers, special educators, from two different schools and also one doctor and one parent.I have interviewed teachers, special educators, one physician and one parent. I have been using qualitative interviews with tape recorders and emailed them with open questions. I have been using literature; see bibliography.

In this essay we discuss how the decentralisation of the Swedish school system affects the concept of ?equal opportunity school?. We investigate the development from both a historical and contemporary perspective, in order to identify changes over time. The central question of the essay is how the decentralisation of the school system affects the teacher?s perspective and experiences of the government?s framework about ?equal opportunity school?? The analysis is based on four qualitative, semi structured, direct interviews with respondents both active in municipal schools situated in the Malmö council and with more than thirty years of experience in their profession. Our analysis of the interviews show that both respondents experience the overall situation in the schools has deteriorated from an equal opportunity aspect since the decentralisation of the school system.

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.

To support uniform and fair assessment of Swedish students? English language competences, mandatory National tests are provided both for secondary and upper secondary education. The current thesis may be seen as a contribution to the further development and validation of these tests, with regard to the likely introduction of computerized testing methods. The aim is to gain further knowledge from current research in the field, to study and elucidate international experiences of implementation, and to gather and analyze feedback from students and teachers. Based on my findings, some tentative conclusions will be drawn, and recommendations made concerning future developments.

The purpose of this research has been to study and find out if a diagnose AD/HD is of importance. Does a diagnostic significance matter for how to support and respond to children in school? Are diagnosed children with signs of AD/HD treated differently than children without diagnosis? My study is based on input from teachers, special educators, from two different schools and also one doctor and one parent.I have interviewed teachers, special educators, one physician and one parent. I have been using qualitative interviews with tape recorders and emailed them with open questions. I have been using literature; see bibliography.

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.

The aim of this two years master's thesis is to examine public librarians? views of their pedagogical role towards school children, and to illustrate the relationship between public libraries and schools as a background for the role of the public librarians. The theoretical framework is Carol Cullier Kuhlthau?s theory of the roles of librarians as mediators in reference work (Levels of Mediation) and in education (Levels of Education). The main question of the study is: How do public librarians view their pedagogical role towards elementary school pupils and high school students? Related questions regarding the use of the public library for school purposes, the communication and cooperation between the public library and the schools, the difference between public libraries and school libraries and the librarians? view of pedagogical work are also made.The method used is qualitative interviews.

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 study presents some teachers' views on whether today's school is a school for everybody or not. It has also looked into what special resources that are put in for children in special needs. The purpose of this study is to find out some teachers' views and thoughts on the concept of "an Education for everybody" and how these teachers said they worked with children in special needs. After taking part of and processed recent research results and literature, I chose to examine this through qualitative interviews. I interviewed three teachers, one primary school teacher, one special education teacher and one preschool teacher.The conclusions were that the concept of education could be understood in different ways.

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.