The gap between practise and theory is often described in negative words in teachers’ professional lives. Learning study is a model for teachers´ professional development where a theoretical framework is used to enhance practice. The theoretical framework used by teachers in learning study is variation theory. In this study the research object is variation theory and the aim is to present how variation theory becomes a guiding principle to understand teaching and learning processes. Two questions are in focus in this study: In which different ways do teachers understand variation theory? Which are the critical aspects of understanding the variation theory for these teachers? Seven teachers with different experiences of learning study and variation theory have been interviewed. A fenomenographic approach was used to describe different understandings of the phenomena variation theory. To understand and to analyze the data, variation theory also has been used. As a result of the analysis three qualitative different ways in understanding the theory was found; variation is related to teaching activities, variation is related to pupils understanding and variation is related to an object of learning. Through these three categories, critical aspects of understanding variation theory were identified and these aspects point out two learning processes. The implication of this work shows that variation theory becomes a guiding principle to understand teaching and learning, when teachers relate variation to an object of learning, its critical aspects and pupils´ understanding in focus at the same time. The theory becomes a framework for analyzing and for developing teaching and learning when the theory is used in practice. When teachers use the theory in practice, they create knowledge about what is necessary for pupils´ learning. In this way practice create knowledge about the theory just as teachers are learning more about variation theory. The findings can be seen as a contribution to the discussion about theories relevance for teachers´ professional development.

This examination intends to find out what thoughts children in around 12 years of age thinks about their own television consumption. To examine this, the questions in issue is: “What does the children watch on television?” “Why do they watch the programs they do?” “How do the children speak about their own consumption?” “What does the children learn from TV?” ”Are the children concious of the impressions they take from TV?” “Do they speak critical about TV?” ”Is there anything indicating on some kind of influence from the childrens television consumption?” .To answer these questions I have chose to hold qualitative interviews, to let the children’s own thoughts be the foundation of the examination. The theories in this examine are that the person who does the consumption from different forms of television takes the information personally out of her own reality. Meaning that the person watching is the judge of how she applies the information to herself. Still the theories also want to shed a light on some of themethods that is used in media to sell some sort of irrational messages to the public, such as commercialism or norms. The television is a tool of communication that is interacting with itspublic and thus for that the public will take some sorts of impressions from the different programs on TV. The results will show the importance of reflection and communication about what is going on under the different forms that media is distributed.

In this investigation, I discuss how students can examine and reflect on themselves through aesthetic practice in various pedagogic situations. The field study took place over two months in the international settlement of Auroville in the south of India, where I visited schools and observed various pedagogical methods. In this study, I focus on two of these pedagogical methods: Play of Painting and Awareness Through the Body. In both, the body is considered an important part of the student’s learning and development. These experiences form the background for this investigation. I investigated Play of Painting and Awareness Through the Body through focussing on one lesson from each method. I describe how the methods are organised and practised in Auroville schools with observations, visual material, and interviews from my field study.  In this investigation, I use a phenomenological and aesthetic perspective together with a brief introduction to the theory of Integral Education. I believe that aesthetics can be used in many different ways in a school context. In this thesis, I use the term aesthetic practices to understand and study Awareness Through the Body and Play of Painting. I see these methods as two examples of how aesthetic practices and conditions for aesthetic learning processes with different ways of reflection can be encouraged in an educational environment.  The children in Play of Painting and Awareness Through the Body learn about themselves through the experience of practising aesthetics with their whole bodies and senses. Through creating conditions for aesthetic practice as in Awareness Through the Body and Play of Painting, children can reflect on themselves together with others.  The purpose of this investigation is to research how aesthetic practices can be used in pedagogic situations through the methods Play of Painting and Awareness Through the Body. I focus on how pupils can examine and reflect on themselves through aesthetic practice in these two methods.

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to explore and describe the opportunities and challenges that can arise when integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) awareness, in the building of a international joint venture as an entry more to developing countries -low and middle income countries, in terms of the contribution to the economic, social and environmental development of these countries. Theoretical framework – The literature used as a base for this academic paper includes concepts and theories on international joint ventures and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Consequently, from all those theories, the authors build the concept of sustainable international joint venture (SIJV), which is the theoretical base of the paper. The SIJV concet focuses on the integration of CSR awareness to the different components (environment, individuals, process and organization) of international joint venture, in order to contribute to the sustainability of the local context where the joint venture is created. Methodology – For the purpose of this research, a holistic single case study is implemented. The case study is about the international joint venture M&D Bygg created in Kenya between the Swedish company, Mattias Bygg AB, and the African company, M&D Home. To approach the case study, four face to face, 3 skype/online interviews and one telephone interviews were conducted based on semi-structured interview questions. Findings –The empirical findings of the case study comply with the concept of sustainable international joitn venture proposed by the authors in the theoretical framework. However, in some component, the authors found additional aspects that should be taken into consideration when building an international joint venture. For instance, in the individuals stage, the findings showed that “the supporters” is a new category that should be addressed and in the process stage, besides the ”negotiation of the agreement”, another category about ”external financing”. Conclusion – CSR awareness is a needed linking aspect that need to be transversally included in every component of a joint venture formation. This means that the environment, individuals, process and organization of the joint venture, need to be linked by the common interest adding economic value to the partners involve and at the same time, to the society. This in the end, contributes to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the host country.

Att vara ute i naturen medför inte bara rekreation utan kan kanske även bidra till en ökad miljömedvetenhet. Dock visar forskning skilda resultat i frågan. En ökad miljömedvetenhet är är viktigt för att främja en hållbar utveckling, därför är det intressant att undersöka hur ungdomar ställer sig till miljöfrågor. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan olika friluftsaktiviteter och miljömedvetenhet hos ungdomar. I studien inkluderades enkäter (n=433) från högstadie- och gymnasieungdomar i en medelstor kommun i södra Sverige. Data samlades in och kodades om till siffror för att sedan analyseras med Spearman rank colleration och Mann - Whitney U - test. Resultatet visade att det fanns skillnader mellan årskurser men att ungdomar har en låg miljömedvetenhet och att friluftsaktiviteter inte har något eller svagt samband med miljömedvetenhet.

Detta examensarbete är en del av ett utbyte mellan skolor i Sverige och skolor i en kåkstad i Sydafrika. Syftet med examensarbetet är att undersöka matematiklärares medvetenhet om sitt matematiska språk och lärarnas uppfattning om betydelsen av det matematiska språket för elevernas lärande. Betydelsen av det matematiska språket är inskrivet i både svenska och syd-afrikanska läroplaner för matematik på gymnasiet. Tolv lärare har blivit intervjuade bland annat om sin medvetenhet och om de tror att det matematiska språket är viktigt för elevernas lärande. Resultaten visar att alla intervjuade lärare är medvetna om sitt matematiska språk men även att lärare väljer att använda sig av det matmatiska språket på olika sätt. Det finns delade åsikter om hur viktigt det matematiska språket är för elevernas lärande av matemati-ken, vissa lärare anser att språket är viktigt för eleverna för att de ska förstå matematiken me-dan andra lärare anser att språket inte är det viktigaste för elevernas lärande. / This thesis is a part of a twining program between schools in Sweden and schools in a town ship in South Africa. The purpose with the thesis is to study math teacher’s awareness of their mathematical language and their opinion about the importance of the mathematical language for the learners learning of math. The importance of the mathematical language is written into the curriculums of high school mathematics in both Sweden and South Africa. Twelve teach-ers have among other things been interviewed about their awareness of their mathematical language and about their opinion if the mathematical language is important for the learner’s mathematical learning. The results show that the teachers are aware of the mathematical lan-guage, but how the teachers are using the language differs. It is shared views on the im-portance of the mathematical language for learners learning of mathematics, some teachers says that the language is important for the learners to understand mathematics while other teachers says that the language is not the most important thing for the learners learning.

This paper critically reviewed the literature on the relationships between Pinyin and Chinese bilingual and monolingual children’s phonological awareness (PA) and identified areas of research worth of further investigation. As the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet providing pronunciation of the universal Chinese characters, Pinyin facilitates children’s early reading development. What research has found in English is that PA is a reliable indicator of later reading success and meta-linguistic training improves PA. In Chinese, a non-alphabetic language, there is also evidence that PA predicts reading in Chinese, which confirms the universality of PA’s role. However, research shows the uniqueness of each language: tonal awareness is stronger indicator in Chinese while phonemic awareness is stronger indicator in English. Moreover, Pinyin, the meta-linguistic training, has been found to improve PA in Chinese and reading in Chinese and possibly facilitate the cross-language transfer of PA from Chinese to English and vice versa.

Examining the neural correlates associated with the moment a stimulus enters or exits conscious awareness is one way to potentially identify the neural mechanisms that give rise to consciousness. In the present study, we examined neural activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings while participants observed a bilateral shape-from-motion (SFM) display. While the display is in motion, the observer perceives an object that is immediately segregated from a noisy background. After the motion stops, the observer’s experience of the object remains momentarily in awareness, before it eventually fades out of consciousness back into the noisy background. Consistent with subjective reports of perceptual experience, we observed a prominent sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN), but only in conditions associated with sustained awareness. Importantly, the amplitude of the SPCN was correlated with individual differences in visual awareness, suggesting that this activity plays a significant role in the maintenance of objects in consciousness.

This paper critically reviewed the literature on the relationships between Pinyin and Chinese bilingual and monolingual children’s phonological awareness (PA) and identified areas of research worth of further investigation. As the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet providing pronunciation of the universal Chinese characters, Pinyin facilitates children’s early reading development. What research has found in English is that PA is a reliable indicator of later reading success and meta-linguistic training improves PA. In Chinese, a non-alphabetic language, there is also evidence that PA predicts reading in Chinese, which confirms the universality of PA’s role. However, research shows the uniqueness of each language: tonal awareness is stronger indicator in Chinese while phonemic awareness is stronger indicator in English. Moreover, Pinyin, the meta-linguistic training, has been found to improve PA in Chinese and reading in Chinese and possibly facilitate the cross-language transfer of PA from Chinese to English and vice versa.

Examining the neural correlates associated with the moment a stimulus enters or exits conscious awareness is one way to potentially identify the neural mechanisms that give rise to consciousness. In the present study, we examined neural activity using electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings while participants observed a bilateral shape-from-motion (SFM) display. While the display is in motion, the observer perceives an object that is immediately segregated from a noisy background. After the motion stops, the observer’s experience of the object remains momentarily in awareness, before it eventually fades out of consciousness back into the noisy background. Consistent with subjective reports of perceptual experience, we observed a prominent sustained posterior contralateral negativity (SPCN), but only in conditions associated with sustained awareness. Importantly, the amplitude of the SPCN was correlated with individual differences in visual awareness, suggesting that this activity plays a significant role in the maintenance of objects in consciousness.