The aim of this thesis is to describe the thoughts and attitudes that parents have regarding reading aloud. In today?s society the positive effects of reading aloud are often pointed at and in the perspective of the new learning theories I found the issue even more interesting.The two main questions posed are: How do the parents describe the practice of reading aloud?Is the parents? life situation and background visible in their descriptions and in that case how does it show in their thoughts about reading aloud?The theoretical perspective of the thesis is sociocultural and can be divided into two themes. The first theme concerns the learning process that can be the result of reading aloud and the second theme focuses on social aspects. The results of the study show that parents think that reading aloud is valuable and positive.

I denna studie är syftet att undersöka hur och varför pedagoger tillämpar ett inkluderande arbetssätt av förskolebarn med hörselnedsättning. Detta görs utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv där språk och interaktion anses grundläggande för lärande. För att kunna svara på forskningsfrågorna har observationer samt intervjuer utförts. Utifrån resultatet kan vi se att ett frekvent användande av tecken och förstärkning är av stor vikt för att kunna inkludera barn med hörselnedsättning och ge dem samma förutsättningar att ta del av sammanhanget som övriga barn. I resultatet går att utläsa miljöns påverkan och hur den utnyttjas i utformningen av verksamheten för att anpassas till de enskilda individernas förutsättningar.

The aim of this study was to examine ways in which High School Students approach academic writing. Both discursive and critical-analytical levels in 21 PM-texts and 14 investigating literary essays were analyzed through a genre theoretical and sociocultural framework in order to widen the understanding of students? usage of explicit textual and interpersonal markers as well as their techniques of writing abstracts. The results showed that nearly 25 percent of the putative abstracts consisted of sampled and reshaped text sequences. The majority of these were on the other hand results of a creative process in which the students reshaped utterances from different sources.

The main purpose of this Master?s thesis is to investigate the experience of art students and their attitudes and use of information during the last years of their Master?s degree. I also examine their opinions about the art education in general. The theoretical framework encompasses a sociocultural approach within the field of psychology-pedagogy and library- as well as information science. The empirical material has been collected through qualitative interviews with seven students studying at an art school in Sweden.

This study was about how pupils described their school situation with special education. The specific focus was on pupils which are described as ?troubled pupils?, unconcentrated pupils?, pupils in social and emotional difficulties or characterised by similar concepts. The study was based on a Sociocultural perspective and an interactional perspective. The empirical material consisted of interviews with eight pupils in age between 9 to 12 years old and who had special education.

The purpose with this study has been to get a previous knowledge about how pre-school teachers look at the impact of the picture book for children and their language development and participation at the age of three to five years. The study was carried through inquiries at a pre-school in a west Swedish urban district. The study proceed from the sociocultural theory which means that children learn by teamwork with other more experienced individuals. The result shows that the pre-school teachers consciously let the interest of the children guide the choice of books. At the same time they push for the meaning of conversation with the children.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how four 3rd grade pedagogues allow communication in the teaching of mathematics and how these pedagogues allow their students to use and expand their language of mathematics. It has also been an aim to investigate these four pedagogues? opinions about the significance of communication and of the language of mathematics for students? mathematical learning.The study is based on a Sociocultural perspective of Vygotskij?s. The theory implies the importance of using the language and communication for students? learning.

The purpose of this study has been to describe and analyze how seven Swedish preschool teachers and two special education teachers think and work with children who show a lack of social skills. The study method has been semi-structured interviews with the educators which have been analyzed and sorted under different themes/categories. The theoretical framework used in this study is sociocultural, relational and categorical perspectives. These perspectives have been chosen in order to better understand how teachers see their role in supporting children in need of special support. The environment in the preschool is found to be of great help and the teachers? approach is of great importance.The research emphasizes the importance of integrating thinking, feeling and behavior.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate what distinguishes the views of staff at centres for learning as regards users? motivation at centres for learning in public libraries. The following questions were asked:? How do staff at centres for learning view the users? motivation to studies?? How do staff at centres for learning view causes for lack of motivation and obstacles for motivation to studies?? What methods do staff at centres for learning use to motivate potential users to studies and to market the learning centres? ? What distinguishes these views of staff on users? motivation at centres for learning in public libraries?The methods used in this study are: literature studies, qualitative interviews and questionnaires. Interviews and questionnaires were done with six employees at six centres for learning.

How do special educators work to include children with special needs in preschool? That was the question that our thesis proceeded from, and the purpose was to get an insight in the methods used by the special educators to achieve inclusion. Our questions were: ? Is Swedish preschool a place for inclusion? ? How are special educators work organized and focused? ? Which experiences do special educators have working with children with special needs in preschool, and what role do they mean that inclusion plays in this work? Our procedure in this enquiry was to perform semi-structured interviews with 5 different special educators in two different cities. Interpretation and analyis proceeded from three different theories: Urie Bronfenbrenner?s ecological systems theory, John Bowlby?s theory of attachment and Karsten Hundeide?s sociocultural theory. The result showed support for the idea of the Swedish preeschool as a place with many opportunities for inclusion. We have also seen how both money and political decisions has an impact on which possibilities the preschools receive to work with inclusion. In addition it became apparent that the methods used by special educators differed depending on both cities and districts.

This paper examines the possibilities of using video games as a tool for education of virtue ethics. By comparing learning aspects in Marc Prensky?s theory Digital Game-Based Learning and Aristotelian virtue ethics, this paper tries to look for similarities in how each theory looks at learning. Prensky?s theory is about how one can use video games in education, which is why it is used here.

This essay is about classroom environment, what kind of impact it has on pupils? learning, how to create a good classroom environment and how the style of leadership relates to the classroom environment. This is a qualitative study conducted by four informants.This essay is based on Lev Vygotiskijs perspective of the "Sociocultural perspective", which is based on the theory that humans act upon their knowledge and experience, depending on the opportunities that the environment provides.The purpose of this study is to examine how three teachers, who teach younger ages, organize the environment in their classrooms. The goal of this study is to find out what the interviewed teachers perceive as good classroom environment. Also how the environment affects pupils? learning and what the teachers keep in mind when they furnish their classrooms.

The aim of this work is to gain understanding of how predictions and images of future are created and maintained and how they are changed in society. An interdisciplinary approach to cultural and social aspects is used to examine how collective images about future are created. The distinction between collective images and private images is problematised. The subject matter is extracted from a previous explorative examination about Do It Yourself and OpenSource culture which are concepts of collective learning. That work is described in the foreword.The question ?How is a collective image about the future created?? is central for this paper.The interdisciplinary approach is a cross reference synthesis of philosophies, educational studies, film studies, strategicstudies and future studies.

The purpose of this master's thesis is to find out what support students of Swedish for Immigrants (sfi) think they get from the public library during their study of the Swedish language. One important aspect in this essay is to examine whether the library can meet the need of Swedish-speaking meeting places where the sfi-students can practise their new language. The method used in this study is qualitative interviews. Nine sfi-students, one sfiteacher and one librarian have been interviewed. A Sociocultural perspective on learning has served as a theoretical starting point.

The study aims to investigate student participation as a tool for democratic development in secondary school from a student perspective. Furthermore, students' perceptions of the school's work with student participation in formal and informal contexts are also investigated, with basis in the teaching structure. The results are based on interviews conducted with students who all attend the same class in their last year of high school. Subsequently, an analysis is made based mainly on three different theories: democracy, curricula and sociocultural theory. The result shows that students feel that they are able to practice student participation but the amount of influence they get differs between individuals depending on devotion and commitment.