In this study, I investigated seven and eight-year-old children’s interest in the boreal forest in Yukon, Canada. This research attempts to provide insight on this topic by giving students autonomy over their movement in a diverse natural landscape, and by investigating where they go and what they do in a forest context. A mixed methodology approach was used to explore children’s interest in the boreal forest, and data were analyzed from the geospatial technology that was affixed to each child, and by inquiring about what the children enjoyed doing in the forest. Key findings from the study included: the importance of play as a primary means of interacting socially with the environment, children’s affiliation and fascination with living things as strong motivators for exploration, and the affordances the landscape offered the children, specifically loose parts (e.g., sticks, berries) and the diverse topography (e.g., hills for running, dense forest for hiding). Based on these findings, I contend that it is becoming increasingly important for educators, parents, and policy makers to understand the child-nature relationship and its relevance to young children. / Graduate

This study examined the mathematical thinking of English learners as they were taught mathematics vocabulary through research-based methods. Four English learners served as focus students. After administering a pre-performance assessment, I taught a 10-lesson unit on fractions. I taught mathematics vocabulary through the use of a mathematics word wall, think-pair-shares, graphic organizers, journal entries, and picture dictionaries. The four focus students were audio recorded to capture their spoken discourse. Student work was collected to capture written discourse. Over the course of the unit, the four focus students used the mathematics vocabulary words that were taught explicitly. The focus students gained both procedural and conceptual knowledge of fractions during this unit. Students also expressed elevated confidence in their mathematics abilities.

This Master´s Thesis deals with the issue describing preparatory work for a construction contract submitted for a public tender. Its main objective is to demonstrate the negotiation procedure with sub-suppliers the purpose of which is to obtain more advantageous offer and the assignment of a contract. Last but not least, the thesis analyses appropriate steps leading to financial savings. The theoretical part is dedicated to the explanation of basic terms and definitions circumscribing public contracts, their contracting authorities, types of public contracts and the tendering procedure and its actions. The practical part then analyses and demonstrates on the specific example preparatory work of the contract for a public tender, its assessment and potential ways of financial savings.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka elevers relation till läsning av skönlitteratur på fritiden och i skolan för att få bättre kunskap om hur en framgångsrik litteraturundervisning kan bedrivas. Undersökningen utgörs av en enkätundersökning som distribuerades till fyra klasser från olika program på en gymnasieskola i Jämtland. Mot en bakgrund av att unga läser i allt mindre utsträckning samt att skönlitteraturen hålls som självklart nyttig av skola och samhälle har frågor formulerats för att undersöka elevernas läsvanor och attityder till läsning generellt och läsning i skolan i synnerhet. Undersökningen visar att elever gör stor skillnad mellan att läsa hemma och att läsa i skolan och att det senare uppfattas som mer styrt. Enligt eleverna är fritidsläsningen en underhållande verklighetsflykt medan skolläsningen främst handlar om de efterföljande uppgifterna. Som teoretiskt ramverk för uppsatsen valdes John Deweys teori om lärande genom inquiry och de idéer om en elevstyrd undervisning som kallas pragmatismen. Det framgår i denna uppsats att om man vill få elever att läsa mer och dra lärdomar av det lästa bör man ge dem större frihet i valet av litteratur och arbetssätt. Det framgår också att elevers egna funderingar och frågor på det lästa är viktiga att arbeta med. Ett större fokus på en elevstyrd litteraturundervisning främjar elevernas läslust och kan bidra till en mer framgångsrik litteraturundervisning.

Constructions of race, reproductive health, and gender have been inextricably linked in the United States since the beginning of the nation. Today, these linkages remain evident in the marked racial and gender inequities in reproductive health outcomes that persist in the U.S. To better understand how these meanings and material outcomes are negotiated and produced by actors on the ground, this study asked: “How do reproductive healthcare providers (RHPs) communicate about the intersections of race, reproductive health, and policy?” I conducted semi- structures interviews with 24 RHPs, resulting in over 35 hours of recorded interviews. Drawing on critical-cultural communication, Reproductive Justice, Narrative Medicine, and Postcolonial theories, I developed a novel approach to narrative inquiry—Critical Narrative Analysis—to explore my data. Here, I present an in-depth analysis of 8 narratives shared by my participants. I conclude that participants communicated about race, reproductive health, and policy by engaging with dominant cultural narratives around these topics. While some participants contested dominant narratives, most upheld the foundational logics of oppressive systems in the stories they shared. To advance reproductive justice, I argue that new approaches to teaching clinicians, which engage with both narratives and sociopolitical structures affecting these narratives, are needed. By sharing my participants’ stories and contextualizing them within dominant narratives and social institutions, I aim to identify future research and practice opportunities for creating new stories about reproductive health and physician identity, stories which could suggest more equitable and just ways of doing reproductive health care.

The thesis is focused on four levels of the Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE). The first chapter describes IBSE in detail and also highlights the studies focused on the efficiency of IBSE. Pendulum and hydrostatic pressure experiments worksheets were created on the four levels of IBSE. A questionnaire reflecting some aspects of students' personalities were created and students were split into groups according to their answers. Another questionnaire about experiments and understanding of the physical phenomena was created. The central theme of this thesis focuses on the students' activities while they were working on the created worksheets. First year students from high school experimented following the created worksheets and they were recorded on the video during their work. We used codes to describe and differentiate the activities in the videos and we studied their distribution afterwards. From the recordings we then obtained information about the students' activities during experimentation at different levels of IBSE.

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