Det finns flera olika orsaker till varför elever har och utvecklar matematiksvårigheter. Det är dock skolans ansvar att skapa undervisningssituationer som är anpassade till elevernas olika förutsättningar och behov. Syftet med studien är därför att identifiera och undersöka vilka undervisningsmetoder som, enligt tidigare forskning, anses vara gynnsamma för elever med matematiksvårigheter. Den systematiska litteraturstudien genomfördes i databasen ERIC och resultatet visade att det finns sju olika undervisningsmetoder som anses vara gynnsamma för elever med matematiksvårigheter. För att undervisningsmetoderna ska anses vara gynnsamma för eleverna behöver de däremot vara anpassade till deras olika förutsättningar och behov. En del av undervisningsmetoderna var dessutom resurskrävande. / There are many reasons why children have and develop mathematical difficulties. However, it is the school’s responsibility to make teaching situations that suits the children’s differential conditions and needs. The purpose of the study is to, according to previous research, identify and investigate which instructions that is considered as favorable for children with mathematical difficulties. The systematic review of literature was performed in the database ERIC and the result of the study showed that there were seven different instructions that were considered as favorable for children with mathematical difficulties. On the other hand, the instructions have to suit the children’s differential conditions and needs to be considered as favorable. Furthermore, some of the instructions were demanding many resources.

The purpose of the study was to develop objective grading tools in the areas of key, range, rhythm/meter, tempo, dynamic and intonation control. Each area was considered separately for 17 different instruments of the band. The study included the development of a computer program capable of permitting a band director to objectively analyze the strengths and weaknesses of his/her band, scan all of the compositions which have been entered into its data bank, and then list appropriate matches. A formative evaluation design was used to develop and refine the evaluation tools. The steps of the formative evaluation design included (a) a predevelopment review, (b) the design of the system, and (c) the development and revision of a series of prototypes including a modified delphi-approach for the establishment of content validity, a pilot study, and a field study. The study found that the difficulty of band music can be assessed via objective criteria. The results of the pilot and field studies provide evidence that each band composition contains many characteristics which are not uniform across all instruments of the band. The objective analysis of criteria gave evidence of substantial differences between instruments in every category, with the exceptions of Key and Tempo. The computer system was effective in storing, processing, and comparing the evaluation data generated by the evaluation tools. The computer program also proved successful in locating appropriate matches for ensembles of varying levels of performance proficiency. The ability of the computer program to discriminate in terms of 17 instruments represents a significant improvement in the manner in which band music is currently being selected. The computer-based system gives band directors the ability to locate individual compositions which are ideally suited to the strengths and weaknesses of their individual bands.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The traditional engineering career has been defined by two career paths: technical and managerial. An entry level engineer typically did not elect his/her career path until at least five years into a career. This meant that only a portion of engineers needed to learn management and leadership skills and then usually not until in the professional environment. Since this career distinction was not made until years into an engineer's professional life universities were not developing leadership/management skills in their students. Times have changed. With the globalization of the economy, and the increased competition in the marketplace, companies have realized that they need entry level engineers that are capable of working on multi-functional and multi-cultural teams,leading small work groups, and understanding the business and societal impact of engineering decisions. These skills are so critical that every engineer, regardless of their chosen track will need them to have a successful career. Universities are now being pressured to develop these skills in all of their engineering students. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the difficulties experienced by engineers as they transition into formal management positions in order to help universities and industry direct their efforts in the development of key leadership/management skills. The survey used for this study was centered on two works of research. The first is research conducted by Allen Howard for his PhD dissertation in which he identifies 9 common points of difficulty, or pain points, experienced by engineers transitioning into management. The second is a managerial aptitude test developed by Hans Thamhain. The survey was distributed to 220 engineering managers at a large engineering company. The results of the survey were statistically analyzed and significant results were found among a number of factors. Among the independent variables found to significantly affect the transition were engineering discipline, graduate degrees, one's managerial aptitude, the reason one chose to enter management, and graduation year. Perhaps the most beneficial result is that one pain point was found to be highly correlated to every other pain point.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis investigates predictions from prominent conflict theories of cognitive control that information experienced under high conflict conditions should be better encoded. More specifically, recent research suggests that selectively attending to relevant stimuli while ignoring conflicting stimuli can lead to better memory. These ideas have been broadly discussed in the desirable difficulty literature – described by instances where increasing difficulty during initial task performance leads to better later memory. As a growing number of studies have attempted to produce these effects with mixed success, calls for more focused investigations into the underlying mechanisms have been made. This encoding benefit for high-control-demand or high-difficulty situations has been broadly conceptualized as a task-general property, where all activated representations should be better encoded. The goal of this thesis was to investigate whether memory-enhancing effects of difficulty manipulations depend on inducing additional cognitive control at particular information processing stages. This thesis documents some of the first work showing that the within-task locus of conflict and attentional control is critical to whether later memory benefits are seen – conflict/control focused on semantic item representation produces better memory, but conflict/control focused away from item representations at response selection gives no memory benefit. These findings and theory are then extended to physiological measures of pupil dilation and sequential (Grattron-like) conflict/control situations. This thesis proposes a stage-specific conflict-encoding model which complements and extends current leading theories of conflict-driven cognitive control. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / There is an intuitive notion that making a learning experience hard will hinder memory of that information later on. Contrary to this belief, in certain circumstances, making learning difficult can actually enhance the memory of that information – this has been termed desirable difficulty. The issue with these desirable difficulties is that they are only sometimes effective. Originally it was proposed that general task-wide difficulty would lead to an enhancement in memory. This thesis, however, provides evidence suggesting that task difficulty is stage-specific in nature, meaning that for the difficulty to enhance memory, the difficulty needs to be at a specific stage of cognitive processing. For difficulty to have a beneficial effect on memory, the particular difficulty needs to focus an individual’s attention on the core meaning of what they are trying to remember, or else the difficulty will direct attention away from this important information causing a possible decrease in memory. These findings provide a framework for how and when to use difficulty as a means to enhance learning.