Den rumsliga gestaltningen på en plats påverkar människor upplevelse av miljön, mer eller mindre. Kortfattat sker detta genom tolkningsprocesser av information i hjärnan som samlats in genom människans sinnen, vilket innefattar den visuella perceptionen. Sjukhusentréer spelar en viktig roll som besökarens första fysiska möte med verksamheten. Det är viktigt att upplevelsen känns välkomnande och trygg eftersom det påverkar upplevelsen av sjukhusets vårdkvalitén på. Mälarsjukhuset har mottagit indikationer om att deras huvudentré upplevs brista i trygghet och välkomnande. Ett problem som genererade ett delprojekt och samarbetsmöjlighet med Mälarsjukhuset. Studien har därför undersökt Mälarsjukhusets huvudentré för att förstå varför miljön orsakar den upplevelsen hos besökare och hitta gestaltningens problemområden. Genom en HCD process har det sedan gjorts ett sökande efter gestaltningsfaktorer som kan bidraga till en tryggare och mer välkomnande upplevelse. Metoder som användes till att hitta lösningar var omvärldsanalys, frågeformulär och workshop som innehöll moodboards. Sammanställningen av studiens teori och empiri resulterade i en samling generella gestaltningsfaktorer och ett specifikt gestaltningsförslag för Mälarsjukhusets huvudentré. / Spatial design affects people’s experience of an environment, to lesser or greater degree. In short this is done through processes in the brain that interpret data gathered via the senses, including the visual senses. Hospital entrances play an important role as the visitor’s first physical encounter with the facility. It is important that the experience feels welcoming and safe as this can affect theoverall experience of the hospital’s quality of care. Mälarsjukhuset (Eskilstuna’s regionalhospital) has received indications that their main entrance is perceived to be lacking this safe and welcoming feeling. A problem that created a subproject and collaboration opportunity with Mälarsjukhuset. This study has therefore investigated the main entrance area to the Mälarsjukhuset to understand what in this environment causes a negative experience for visitors, and to identify problem areas in the spatial design. An investigation has been made, through an HCD process, to find spatial design factors that could contribute to a safer and more welcoming experience. The methods used to find solutions include example analysis, questionnaires and a workshop involving moodboards. The study's theory review and collected data resulted in a selection of generally applicable design factors and also a specific design proposal for the main entrance to the Mälarsjukhuset.

Eudaimonic well-being, which leads to personal functioning, finds increasing attention in entrepreneurshipresearch. Its positive effects suggest that eudaimonia helps individuals to overcome difficulties andchallenges which the entrepreneurial process brings. Based on the self-determination theory, individualswith higher eudaimonic well-being can also be expected to be more likely to enter self-employment asoccupational choice proactively. Thus, this thesis builds a construct which shows the influence ofeudaimonic well-being on the process of entering and sustaining in self-employment. The methodologicalapproach to measure eudaimonic well-being is built on existing research. Using eudaimonia to predictentrepreneurial entry and persistence is novel and tested on a large panel dataset from Australia.The findings show, contrary to the literature, no difference in eudaimonic well-being of those who changefrom paid employment to self-employment compared to those who stay in paid employment. The resultsalthough fail to reject the hypothesis that eudaimonic well-being influences the likelihood of entrepreneurialpersistence. Higher eudaimonic well-being shows, statistically not significant, positive impact on thechances to sustain in self-employment. This adds evidence to existing literature on entrepreneurialpersistence and eudaimonic well-being. Activities that increase eudaimonia can therefore be seen asbeneficial to create long-term persistent entrepreneurs and businesses.

This dissertation empirically studies market design based centralized school choice. Chapter 1 explores the dynamic relationship between school choices made at different educational stages and how it affects racial segregation across schools. It uses New York City (NYC) public school choice data to ask: "How does the middle school that a student attends affect her high school application and assignment?" The paper takes two approaches to answer the question. First, it exploits quasi-random assignments to middle schools generated by the tie-breaking feature of the admissions system. It finds evidence that students who attend high-achievement middle schools apply and are assigned to high-achievement high schools. Second, based on this empirical evidence, the paper develops and estimates a novel dynamic two-period model of school choice to decompose this effect and analyze the equilibrium consequences of counterfactual policies. In the model, students applying to middle schools are aware that their choices may affect which high schools they eventually attend. Specifically, the middle schools that students attend can change how they rank high schools (the application channel) and how high schools rank their applications (the priority channel). It finds that the application channel is quantitatively more important. Using the estimated model, the paper asks if an early affirmative action policy can address segregation in later stages. It finds that a middle school-only affirmative action policy can alter students' high school applications and thus their assignments, contributing to desegregating high schools. This finding suggests that early intervention in the form of middle school admissions reform can be a useful tool for desegregation. Chapter 2 studies the relationship between the popularity of selective exam schools and their academic performance measures. NYC specialized high schools are highly selective and popular among students and parents. Nevertheless, the reason why those schools are so popular compared to non-specialized high schools has not been studied yet. This paper aims to answer the question in the context of academic performance by studying the relationship among three factors: preference of specialized high schools applicants, peer qualities, and causal effectiveness of those schools. First, a unique feature of the NYC public high school admission system enables linking applicants' preferences on specialized high schools and non-specialized high schools and hence jointly estimating those using their rank-ordered lists. Next, it estimates the value-added measures of high schools and finally links them back to the estimated preference in the first step. The paper finds that the additional valuation that students/parents put on specialized high schools relative to non-specialized high schools is mostly related to the higher peer quality of specialized high schools. Chapter 3 develops a method of inferring students' preferences from school choice data. Recent evidence suggests that market participants make mistakes (even) in a strategically straightforward environment but seldom with significant payoff consequences. This paper explores the implications of such payoff-insignificant mistakes for inferring students' preferences from school choice data. Uncertainties arise from the use of lotteries or other sources in a typical school choice setting; they make certain mistakes more costly than others, thus making some preferences---those whose misrepresentation would be more costly and would thus be avoided by students---more reliably inferable than others. The paper proposes a novel method of exploiting the structure of the uncertainties present in a matching environment to robustly infer student preferences under the Deferred-Acceptance mechanism. Monte Carlo simulations show that the method is superior to existing alternative approaches.

This study was designed to validate a speech screening device entitled the Oregon School Entrance Speech Screening Test. The OSESST was developed to identify quickly those children entering first grade who are in need of speech and language intervention. The present study sought to determine what proportion of children with speech and language disorders was not detected by the screening test and what proportion of children without speech and language disorders failed the OSESSI. In addition, this study undertook to determine whether results of this investigation are consistent with those obtained on the OSESST in areas of articulation, syntax, language reception and expression, voice, and speech fluency. Subjects for this investigation were forty children just entering first grade in Tillamook County. Twenty-one were randomly selected from those who passed the screening test and nineteen from those who failed. This investigator received the forty subjects in random order and without prior knowledge of which children passed or failed the screening test.

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The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between college retention and completion and the number of college credit hours students earn before graduating high school. The number of credit hours a student earned was analyzed along with selected demographic characteristics and academic performance indicators to determine if any one of the variables was more of a predictor of retention and completion of college than the others. The data for the study (12,834 records) were obtained from the Student Information System from five Tennessee Board of Regents Universities. An initial analysis of the data incorporated simple descriptive statistics in the form of frequency tables. Cross tabulation and chi-square were used to compare the gender and ethnicity population of dual/joint-enrolled students and nondual/joint-enrolled students. To determine if dual/joint-enrolled students had greater academic success than nondual/joint-enrolled students, a t-test for independent samples was used to compare high school grade point average, the standardized test score average, and first semester and last semester attended grade point average of the two groups. Chi-square was used to analyze if there was a difference in the retention rate and the time it took to obtain a four-year degree between dual/joint-enrolled students and nondual/joint-enrolled students. A one-way ANOVA was used to determine if the number of college credits earned while in high school had any influence on the time it took to finish a four-year college degree. Multiple Linear Regression was used to see if any of the variables could predict academic performance for a studentÆs first and last semester grading period. Discriminant Analysis was used to determine if any of the variables in the study were predictors of completing a four-year degree. The researcher found that students who participated in dual/joint-enrollment programs had more academic success and a higher retention and graduation rate than those students who did not participate in such programs. The study also revealed that dual credit hours had a significant influence on time to completing a degree.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of dual-enrollment participation on students' postsecondary achievement as measured by various factors. The researcher explored an approach to learning that allows students to navigate the invisible barriers between high school and college. The population consisted of 901 students in a community college in northeast Tennessee during the fall of 2007 following high school graduation the previous academic year. Data gathered from dual-enrollment participants were compared to data of peers of comparable ability level who chose not to participate in the program. The major findings of the study included the following: dual-enrollment participants were (a) slightly more likely to enroll full time rather than part time, (b) significantly less likely to be enrolled in remedial and developmental courses, (c) no more likely to complete the fall semester, (d) slightly more likely to complete the spring semester, (e) more likely to showcase a slightly higher fall semester grade-point average (GPA), and (f) no more likely to have a higher spring semester GPA.

Each year shows an Increased enrollment in the universities and colleges of California. The compulsory education law has served to keep more students in high school a longer time and upon graduation many of these pupils desire to attend an institution of higher learning. This fact, together with the influx of people into California from all parts of the United States and abroad to make their homes, has added materially to the numbers of prospective college students. It has been the policy of the colleges and universities in the State of California to admit graduates from accredited high schools without examination if the applicant hag the unqualified recommendation of the principal of the high school from which he graduates. This group Is designated as recommended students, a group which in most high schools comprises not more than twenty to fifty per cent of the graduating classes. The majority of the higher institutions of California have allowed the decision as to who should he recommended to remain with the secondary school principal. The College of the Pacific has followed the policy of accepting recommended graduates of accredited high schools who present fifteen entrance units, at least twelve of which must be of recommended grade.

The evolving nature of education emphasizes the importance of fostering 21st-century skills. To align with the requirements of the contemporary era, Uzbekistan introduced its new competency based National Curriculum, highlighting the development of 21st century skills. Despite the National Curriculum's emphasis on contemporary skills, a gap persists due to the exam-focused education system in Uzbekistan, with university entrance exams largely dictating classroom practices. This qualitative study, through students’ lenses and experiences, aims to explore how preparation for these exams, particularly in English, aligns with the goals of National Curriculum. Washback, defined as the influence of tests on teaching and learning, has been utilized as the study’s conceptual framework. Reflexive thematic analysis has been employed as the method for data analysis. The participants include first-year public university students in Uzbekistan. The findings revealed a multifaceted, complex and context-specific nature of washback. Key observations include a negative washback effect of high stakes public university entrance exams, leading to the prioritization of exam subjects at the expense of holistic education, a misalignment between English instruction and the curriculum, high-stakes entrance exam induced stress, and broader educational context factors, such as lack of teacher qualification and competence, low teacher salary, contributing to poor quality education. The study also highlights the crucial role of private tutoring in preparing for higher education and the emergence of unethical practices in schools. While the exams fostered certain 21st-century skills in students, an overemphasis on rote memorization limits deeper cognitive competencies. Positive washback is observed in lyceum education and among students preparing for the IELTS exam - an alternative pathway to fulfill the English language requirement for public HE, advocating for measurement-driven instruction and comprehensive language skill development. The study concludes that positive changes in Uzbekistan’s public university admission system could be achieved through a more holistic assessment of students’ skills and competencies and measurement-driven approach to education. The study recommends incorporating students' school performance as an admission criterion, offering a more comprehensive assessment of their abilities and knowledge.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Schendel / Higher education institutes have seen massive growth over the decades in terms of student enrollment. To maintain the quality of education provided to students, scholars, and practitioners have advocated for students to submit an entrance exam as a part of the admission application. This study analyzed trends in all national and standardized entrance exams (N= 119) to see which areas of knowledge and methods of assessments are most commonly utilized in entrance exams around the world. The areas of knowledge that were looked at in this study: English, Language Arts, Math, History, Government Studies, Religion, and Hard Science. The methods of assessment that were looked at in this study: Supplied response, Selected response, Practical, and Oral. Data was collected through publicly available documents and entered into a database to then analyze and recognize trends. The findings of this study show that the most common area of knowledge that is tested is Language Arts (N = 107) and the most common method of assessment is supplied response (N = 81). / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2023. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.