The aim of this bachelor thesis is to investigate how collection development implemented in a changed media landscape affects the professional identity of librarians. The study is based on three questions: Which problems, quandaries or possibilities are librarians experiencing in collection development? What does the idealistic view of collection development look like - and how does it relate to librarians’ actual work? How does all these factors related to collection development affect the profession of librarianship? Former research indicates that collection development is not that uncomplicated, and it discusses all kinds of practical issues. There is though a lack of former research in the relationship between collection development and profession, which is the aim of this investigation taking place in small public libraries in the north of Sweden. To answer our questions six librarians were interviewed in a ”semi-structured” way. In the analysis we applied Roger Säljös construction of the sociocultural theory and related it´s concepts to lines of reasoning in our result. The results and analysis showed that in the current media landscape there are many factors and considerations affecting the collection development process. First there are fundamental documents and policies, written based on the democratic mission of the library and then, because there is a certain ambiguity in the directives, there are the librarians’ interpretations, which sometimes might be based on personal ideologies. All this in combination with failing collection development tools forces the librarians into a certain controlling role.

Esta pesquisa focaliza as concepções de língua e escrita de alunos de um curso de escrita em inglês fundamentado na perspectiva conceitual (FERREIRA, 2005), uma abordagem para o ensino da escrita em língua estrangeira que alia a escola australiana de gêneros textuais a uma pedagogia baseada na teoria da atividade, conhecida como MAC (Movimento do Abstrato para o Concreto). Com base nos pressupostos da perspectiva vygotskiana (VYGOTSKY, 1978, 1987) e tendo como referência as concepções de língua e escrita subjacentes às três principais abordagens para o ensino da escrita em inglês, tradicional, processual e social (cf. FERREIRA, 2005, 2011), buscou-se verificar se ocorre ou não mudança nas concepções de língua e escrita dos alunos ao longo do curso. Planejado e ministrado pela própria pesquisadora, o curso intitulado Praticando a escrita em inglês por meio de gêneros textuais: a argumentação, foi oferecido como curso de extensão em uma universidade pública do estado de São Paulo. Participaram da pesquisa seis alunas, com idades entre 23 e 51 anos. A maioria possui graduação em Letras e apenas uma não é pós-graduada. A seguinte pergunta de pesquisa foi elaborada: houve mudança nas concepções de língua e escrita dos alunos ao longo do curso? Para responder a essa pergunta de pesquisa, foram identificadas as concepções de língua e escrita das participantes no início (1ª etapa da análise) e ao longo do curso (2ª etapa da análise). Os dados coletados no início do curso correspondem às respostas das alunas às perguntas feitas pela instrutora em uma Ficha de Identificação e em um Teste de Proficiência. A análise desse primeiro conjunto de dados revelou concepções tradicionais de língua e escrita por parte das alunas, decorrentes, principalmente, 1) de sua crença na necessidade de conhecimentos relacionados à gramática e a vocabulário, 2) da apresentação de objetivos categorizados como escolar e emocional, 3) da experiência mecânica e descontextualizada que tiveram com a escrita no contexto escolar e 4) da ausência quase total de usos significativos da escrita em seu dia a dia. Os dados coletados ao longo do curso correspondem às declarações e respostas das alunas às perguntas feitas pela instrutora em seus diários dialogados. A análise desse segundo conjunto de dados revelou, por sua vez, o início de um processo de mudança propiciado pelas reflexões realizadas em aula e em seus diários. Podemos dizer que esse estudo confirmou a importância do foco nas crenças e, principalmente, na mudança de crenças no processo de ensino e aprendizagem de línguas considerando-se, sobretudo, a precariedade do ensino da escrita nos dias atuais, como revelam estudos recentes nessa área (FERREIRA, 2011; RIOS, 2010). / This research investigates the conceptions of language and writing of six students in an English writing course based on the conceptual approach (FERREIRA, 2005), a perspective for teaching second language writing which joins the Australian school of genres with a pedagogy based on Activity Theory called Movement from the Abstract to the Concrete (MAC). Based on Vygotskys theory (VYGOTSKY, 1978, 1987) and on the conceptions of language and writing from the three main approaches for second language writing teaching (see FERREIRA, 2005, 2011), this study analyses the changes in students conceptions of language and writing along the course. Planned and organized by the researcher herself, the course named Praticando a escrita em inglês por meio de gêneros textuais: a argumentação, was offered as a short-time course in a public university in the city of São Paulo. The participants were between 23 and 51 years old. Most of them were graduate students of Language and only one was not yet post graduated. The following research question was formulated: Was there any change in the students conception of language and writing along the course? In order to answer this question, we identified the students conceptions of language and writing in the beginning and along the course. The data collected in the beginning of the course corresponded to the students answers to questions formulated by the instructor in a Identification Form and in a Proficiency Test. The analyses of this group of data revealed traditional conceptions of language and writing on the part of the students, represented, mainly, by 1) their beliefs in the necessity of grammatical and lexical knowledge, 2) by the presence of objectives categorized as scholastic and emotional, 3) by their mechanical and de-contextualized experience with writing in school and 4) by the absence of significant uses of writing in their ordinary life. The data collected along the course corresponded to free declarations and the students answers to questions formulated by the instructor in their dialogue journals. This second group of data revealed the beginning of a changing process in the students conceptions of language and writing as a result of the reflections done in class and in their dialogue journals. We can say that this research confirmed the importance of focusing on beliefs and, mainly, on beliefs changes in the process of language teaching and learning, considering the problems faced by the teaching of second language writing, as recent studies have shown (FERREIRA, 2011; RIOS, 2010).

Bland ungdomar i åldrarna 16-18 i Sverige har den psykiska ohälsan ökat de senaste åren och förväntas att fortsätta öka. Sverige är ett av de mest digitaliserade länder där 99 % av de svenska ungdomarna har tillgång till och estimeras använda sociala medier från två till över sex timmar dagligen. Tidigare forskning på området påvisar ett samband mellan användandet av sociala medier och uppkomsten av psykisk ohälsa. Syftet med studien var att belysa vilka upplevelser ungdomar har om hur sociala medier och de rådande hälsonormer som framställs på sociala medier påverkar ungdomars självupplevda psykiska hälsa. Studien har en socialkonstruktivistisk utgångspunkt med abduktiv ansats. I studien har fyra fokusgruppsintervjuer med sammanlagt 17 informanter genomförts som sedan har analyserats med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultatet visade att ungdomarna upplever att sociala medier främst har en negativ påverkan på deras självupplevda psykiska hälsa då de är rädda för att missa saker medan de också konstant jämför sig med andra på sociala medier vilket framkallar stress och ångest. Ungdomarna upplever också att deras självupplevda psykiska hälsa främst påverkas negativt av de rådande hälsonormer som florerar på sociala medier då normer kring kroppsideal och livsstil främst leder till känslor av ångest, krav, press, besvikelse, misslyckande och otillräcklighet. Studiens slutsats är därmed att ungdomarna främst påverkas negativt av vad de ser på sociala medier och de rådande hälsonormer som framställs på sociala medier relaterat till den självupplevda psykiska hälsan. / Among adolescents aged 16-18 in Sweden, mental illness has increased in recent years and is expected to continue to increase. Sweden is one of the most digitized countries, where 99 % of Swedish teenagers have access to and are estimated to use social media from two to over six hours daily. Previous research in the field demonstrates a connection between the use of social media and the emergence of mental illness. The purpose of this study was to highlight what experiences adolescents have about how social media and the prevailing norms of health portrayed on social media affect their self-perceived mental health. The study has a social constructivist basis with an abductive approach. In the study, four focus group interviews with 17 informants were carried out, which were then analyzed using a qualitative content analysis. The result showed that the adolescents feel that social media primarily have a negative impact on their self-perceived mental health since they are afraid of missing things while also comparing themselves with others on social media. The adolescents also experience that their self-perceived mental health is mainly negatively affected by the prevailing norms of health that flourish on social media, since norms about body ideals and lifestyles primarily lead to feelings of anxiety, demands, pressure, disappointment, failure and inadequacy. The study's conclusion is that the adolescents are mainly affected negatively by what they see on social media and the prevailing norms of health that are portrayed on social media related to their self-perceived mental health.

In today's Swedish preschool and elementary school all children are entitled to an inclusive education, where they receive the support and are presented with the educational challenges they are perceived to be in need of. To meet the needs and preconditions of all children, the educational mission of teachers today involves the apply of special educational tools, such as for example the use of visual support. The aim of this study is to analyse teachers experiences of visual support and the results they have experienced from using visual support in the learning environment. The study involves a preschool and an elementary school in a municipality in Sweden, and is based on interviews with three preschool teachers, three elementary school teachers, the headmaster of the preschool, and the headmaster of the elementary school. The results have been analyzed using sociocultural theory and a relational perspective on special education. The overall results show that teachers have used visual support for the children as a group, combined if necessary with visual support for individual children. Furthermore the results show that the use of visual support originates from a necessity to address pedagogical dilemmas and problems that have arisen within the learning environment. Both the headmasters and the teachers describe that the use of visual support has been beneficial for improving the learning environment for all of the children as well as the working environment for the teachers. In accordance with sociocultural theory and a relational perspective on special education, visual support has been used by the teachers participating in this study, as a tool to promote inclusion of all children, and as means of adapting the learning environment according to difficulties children experience within that context. The results of this study confirms that the use of visual support for children as a group can be considered a good example of what Jensen (2017) describes as reversed inclusion, meaning that the learning environment is adapted on a group level to meet the needs and preconditions of children in need of special support.

This thesis explored the introduction of a new physics curriculum in New Zealand secondary schools. It was part of a nationwide overhaul of the whole school curriculum from primary to secondary schools, initiated in the early 1990s. The study of curriculum change is inextricably woven with teacher change, as the teacher is seen as central to any real change in curricula in the classroom. Some theories of teacher change are reviewed here and synthesised into a list of criteria relevant to bringing about effective change in teachers and their practices. A sociocultural perspective emerged as being a useful theoretical approach in analysing and explaining these processes of curriculum change and teacher change because it takes a holistic approach that deals with 'people, places and things' and the discourses involved therein. In particular, Wenger's sociocultural theory was used to study the introduction of a new senior physics curriculum. His terms 'reification' and 'participation' were seen to apply to this research: the curriculum document was taken to be a reified communication artifact, and 'participation' is involved in every stage of its development and implementation. In the context of this theorising, data was procured from in-depth interviews with the three curriculum writers and ten physics teachers in and around a provincial city in New Zealand. The teachers were interviewed three times over a period of three years: before, during and after the first year of implementation; namely 1996 to 1998. The interviews showed that most of these ten physics teachers did not undergo any significant change in their teaching because of the introduction of 'Physics in the New Zealand Curriculum'. The reasons or barriers identified, such as lack of guidelines and clarity, and contentment with their own existing practice, were aligned with factors that have been identified by other researchers as important influences on teachers undergoing change, such as clarity of change and need for change. Three key elements were identified from these issues emerging from the data as necessary conditions or resources for teacher change: knowledge, support and time. In the present study, there was very limited knowledge held by the teachers about 'what', 'how' and 'why' changes were being implemented. Secondly, there was little social and system support for the curriculum change. Finally, teachers had little time to focus on and reflect on the change. A model of curriculum change, incorporating Wenger's notions of 'reification' and 'participation', but extended to include 'dereification' emerged from the data. 'Dereification' highlighted an important stage whereby the curriculum document as an artifact, needed to be incorporated into the plane of lived experiences of teachers. The introduction of the term 'dereification' supported the development of this model of curriculum change incorporating teacher change whereby the model outlined processes of reification and dereification involved in a mandated curriculum change. The model of curriculum change developed here also contained a screen that symbolises the lack of intersubjective linkage between teachers and the designers of the new curriculum. There was no follow-up teachers' guide, not enough explanation of the curriculum document, no direct communication between the writers and the teachers, and insufficient professional development for the teachers using it. The research findings led to three propositions: the curriculum document as a key artifact was not sufficient to effect a curriculum change; the lack of transparency of the curriculum document development was a constraint on teachers' commitment to the curriculum change; and the lack of support for teachers in their dereification of the curriculum document impacted negatively on curriculum change. The key elements of knowledge, support and time identified as crucial for teachers to effect any real change in their practice are critical at different points in the model of curriculum change. It is suggested that using such an interplay between the factors underlying teacher change and the sociocultural analysis of curriculum change, might enable more pro-active intervention at the various stages of the process of a curriculum change to effect a real change.

<p>One of the big problems of the Swedish nine-year compulsory school is the large number of pupils who fail to achieve a satisfactory standard in mathematics. One explanation that has been increasingly considered over the last ten years is that the pupils have dyscalculia. Some research suggests that 6 per cent of compulsory school pupils suffer from this dysfunction, which would in that case make it one of the Swedish school’s greatest teaching problems.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to examine this problem area from two aspects. First of all by examining the concept of dyscalculia by means of a review of the literature from 1992 onwards. The second perspective has as its starting point a case study where the purpose was to give a detailed picture of the pupil with mathematics problems. The latter part of the study was carried out over a six-year period when 200 pupils, 13 of them with particular mathematics problems, were studied in detail.</p><p>A point of departure for the study was provided by a large database where as much information as possible was collected about pupils from Year 5 of the nine-year compulsory school to Year 2 of the three-year upper secondary school. The pupils were asked to fill in regular questionnaires and classroom observations were made of roughly 100 mathematics lessons, 40 of which were recorded on video. Finally there were in-depth interviews of the 13 pupils on two occasions, the final one being during Year 2 of the upper secondary school.</p><p>The review of the research showed a series of dubious and indistinct circumstances surrounding the dyscalculia concept, and also ambiguity with regard to the diagnosis of dyscalculia. The conclusion of the review was that the concept of dyscalculia ought at present to be used with great caution, or perhaps not at all. Admittedly the review does not provide grounds for totally dismissing the dyscalculia concept, but as long as it remains impossible to determine the concept unambiguously, and I have not been able to do this in the course of this study, there are no good scientific grounds for using the term dyscalculia in practice.</p><p>The empirical study shows the complexity of the problem area. Both the causes suggested by the pupils as the origin of the problem and the measures that helped them to obtain their mathematics grades form a complex pattern. The low work input of the pupils during mathematics lessons, an unsettled working environment, large classes, problems of stress and anxiety prior to tests, and obstructive gender patterns are among the causes suggested by the pupils as explanations of the occurrence of the mathematics problems. Good teachers, in other words teachers who can explain, set limits and give encouragement, were a significant factor in reversing the downward trend. Positive experiences of school changes, where the pupil felt that he or she could start again from the beginning, were also mentioned as significant by several pupils. Collaboration with fellow-pupils and the fact that the pupils themselves decided to get to grips with the problems were other important reasons for the change. The prospects of students with specific problems in mathematics nevertheless being able to leave compulsory school with satisfactory grades appear, however, from the results of this study, to be bright. All the pupils left the compulsory school with satisfactory mathematics grades and also completed mathematics studies at upper secondary school, despite major problems in the subject at intermediate school (age 10-13) stage.</p><p>The study indicates the need for research closer to the actual practical situation and to the importance of emphasizing good examples in practice. As the students themselves emphasize discrete communication between them as significant in the subject of mathematics, this is also an important area for future research.</p>

The aim with this master’s thesis is to examine the information practices and information literacies among social workers in the field of the social services and in the work with child welfare investigations. This is in this study related to their ambition to fulfill the requirements of an evidence-based practice. On a theoretical level, the study is based on three theories grounded in the idea of situated learning and of human activities based in a social context. These are the sociocultural theory, the theory of communities of practices and the theory of information practices. On a methodological level the survey is carried out, and the empirical material is extracted, by using semi-structured interviews with five social workers in two different social offices. The result of the analysis shows that the social workers see the need of, search, share, evaluate and use several sources of information. They include information from the social workers own working experience and expertise, information from the clients and their social network, colleagues and professionals in institutions and agencies external to the social offices. The survey also shows that scientific research information is searched, used and evaluated by the social workers to a low degree. This is connected to the information barriers found in the empirical material, including lack of time and lack of access to digital databases. The main conclusion is that the social workers see the need of scientific research and the academic information literacy related to this, and that the information barriers at the same time force them to evolve an information literacy fitted to the practical work situation. For an evidence-based practice, the social workers see the need to incorporate more of the academic information literacy and practices with the information literacy and practices of the workplace. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archive, Library and Museum studies.

ABSTRACT Existing approaches to teaching `culture' in the realm of Distance foreign language (FL) instruction and gaps within; under-researched Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) tool of webquests; and Mediation in Sociocultural Theory (SCT) have all led to the following case study. This study was guided by the constructs of `culture' in FL instruction, Sociocultural Theory, and literature in CALL and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). This study examines how CMC-embedded webquests (asynchronous and synchronous CMC components built into webquests) developed online students' knowledge and understanding of German culture. Additionally, this study examines what mediating strategies (Lidz, 2002) were used by the online students of German in their asynchronous and synchronous online discussions of German culture, that were part of their CMC-embedded webquests' tasks. A web-based survey was administered to all students in an online German II course to elicit information about each student's past travels to Germany or other German-speaking countries and comfort level with various technologies. Based on their participation levels and the information elicited from this web-based survey, the online class was divided into groups of four, such that maximum variation was achieved in each group. Five such groups were formed with four students in each group. Two content-based CMC-embedded webquests were developed and created for this purpose and were administered over a period of four weeks, with two weeks for each content based CMC-embedded webquest. The first CMC-embedded webquest revolved around `Our Environment' or Umwelt, and the second was called `Germany, before and after the wall.' For each CMC-embedded webquests, the tasks included pre- and post CMC-embedded webquest essays, participation in discussion forums over a period of one week, and online chats. The guiding questions developed for each CMC component were separate. Based on the word count generated by each group, two groups (one with less than optimal and one with more than optimal levels of interaction) were chosen iteratively. In other words, pre- and post essays written by these eight participants, transcripts of asynchronous and synchronous online discussions with respective group members, transcripts of their online interviews, and field notes journal became the data sources for this multiple embedded qualitative case study (Yin, 2003). Findings emerging from a constant comparison method analysis indicate that the CMC-embedded webquests played a significant role in advancing the online students' knowledge and understanding of German culture. Apart from the cognitive benefits of this dynamic CALL tool, affective benefits included that students appreciated and enjoyed learning about the target culture in way that they retained the information even two months after they were completed, and particularly found the web resources useful and videos engaging. More importantly, since all participants were distant learners of German, they valued the opportunities provided by the two CMC-embedded webquests to interact with their respective group members in asynchronous and synchronous modes of communication. Results of collapsing all asynchronous and synchronous `e-turns' into Lidz' (2002) mediating strategies indicate that mediating strategies of `Sharing of Experiences,' `Affective Involvement,' and `Joint Regard' were higher for synchronous `e-turns.' This confirms that synchronous online discussions evoke a higher `sense of community' and `groups', `sense of purpose' for online learners (Carabajal, LaPointe, and Gunawardena, 2007). On the other hand, higher frequencies of `Praise/ Encouragement,' `Task Regulation,' and `Challenge,' in asynchronous `e-turns' demonstrates that distance learners are able to produce more cohesive and detailed responses in asynchronous online discussions. These results highlight the dynamic nature and potentiality of CMC-embedded webquests that can be especially useful to teach culture, an often neglected aspect of FL instruction, and the importance of creating groups and peer interaction in distance FL instruction. Additionally, findings of this study have implications on the purpose of the synchronous and asynchronous online discussions, culture model in FL instruction and design of CMC-embedded webquests.

Within the paradigm of Sociocultural Theory, and using Activity Theory as a data-gathering and management tool, this microgenetic case study examined the processes - the growth, change, and development - engaged in by student-teachers in a foreign language education program as they worked together to complete an activity. The activity involved digital video recording and editing, mediators which were intended to facilitate the iterative review of and subsequent reflection and action upon the content of the video during its creation. By investigating the process of contextual interaction between learners and the mediational elements of their environment as the activity progressed, this study intended to further understanding of preservice teacher development in at least two important ways. The aims of this study were to discover a) tangible evidence of cognitive transformation (development in the form of regulation), as well as b) aspects of professionalization into a community of skilled second language teachers (as evidenced by activity). The present study took place in a graduate-level foreign language/TESOL education practicum course. The activity involved the making of a digital video to explain and exemplify a given second language instructional approach, as well as the rationale behind and methods of targeting a specific language skill. Using theoretical constructs previously shown to be effective in the pedagogy of teacher preparation, the creators of this task endeavored to design a socially- and artifact-mediated activity with the potential to broaden and deepen student-teachers' pedagogical and professional knowledge. The student-teachers failed to engage in meaningful dialogical or critical reflection as they engaged in the task, and made no perceptible regulative movement. What ultimately was revealed in the case of the study participants was a disconnect between the intentions of the core-task designers and the outcomes effected by the student-teachers. The data gleaned from this close examination of student-teacher processes was revelatory in terms of the quantity and types of factors that appeared to significantly impact the outcomes of the project. These factors have the potential to inform the process of translating socio-cultural theory into pedagogical practice, and should be of interest to anyone involved in the development of student-teachers, including those who design or deliver preservice teacher curricula. Discussed are the possible explanations for the disconnect between the designers and administrators of the activity and the participants in the study. Also considered are the potentially serious implications for second language teacher education programs and their curricula in terms of the application of sociocultural constructs to learning tasks and environments. Recommendations include increased scaffolding by the course professor through direct guidance, as well as by structuring tasks to facilitate students' ability to collaborate and to perceive and resolve the conflicts, contradictions, and tensions that arise during the course of the activity. On a broader level, serious examinations of teacher education programs and curricula are also recommended to look for ways to better understand, align, and achieve the goals of teacher developers and those of their student-teachers.

One of the big problems of the Swedish nine-year compulsory school is the large number of pupils who fail to achieve a satisfactory standard in mathematics. One explanation that has been increasingly considered over the last ten years is that the pupils have dyscalculia. Some research suggests that 6 per cent of compulsory school pupils suffer from this dysfunction, which would in that case make it one of the Swedish school’s greatest teaching problems. The purpose of this thesis is to examine this problem area from two aspects. First of all by examining the concept of dyscalculia by means of a review of the literature from 1992 onwards. The second perspective has as its starting point a case study where the purpose was to give a detailed picture of the pupil with mathematics problems. The latter part of the study was carried out over a six-year period when 200 pupils, 13 of them with particular mathematics problems, were studied in detail. A point of departure for the study was provided by a large database where as much information as possible was collected about pupils from Year 5 of the nine-year compulsory school to Year 2 of the three-year upper secondary school. The pupils were asked to fill in regular questionnaires and classroom observations were made of roughly 100 mathematics lessons, 40 of which were recorded on video. Finally there were in-depth interviews of the 13 pupils on two occasions, the final one being during Year 2 of the upper secondary school. The review of the research showed a series of dubious and indistinct circumstances surrounding the dyscalculia concept, and also ambiguity with regard to the diagnosis of dyscalculia. The conclusion of the review was that the concept of dyscalculia ought at present to be used with great caution, or perhaps not at all. Admittedly the review does not provide grounds for totally dismissing the dyscalculia concept, but as long as it remains impossible to determine the concept unambiguously, and I have not been able to do this in the course of this study, there are no good scientific grounds for using the term dyscalculia in practice. The empirical study shows the complexity of the problem area. Both the causes suggested by the pupils as the origin of the problem and the measures that helped them to obtain their mathematics grades form a complex pattern. The low work input of the pupils during mathematics lessons, an unsettled working environment, large classes, problems of stress and anxiety prior to tests, and obstructive gender patterns are among the causes suggested by the pupils as explanations of the occurrence of the mathematics problems. Good teachers, in other words teachers who can explain, set limits and give encouragement, were a significant factor in reversing the downward trend. Positive experiences of school changes, where the pupil felt that he or she could start again from the beginning, were also mentioned as significant by several pupils. Collaboration with fellow-pupils and the fact that the pupils themselves decided to get to grips with the problems were other important reasons for the change. The prospects of students with specific problems in mathematics nevertheless being able to leave compulsory school with satisfactory grades appear, however, from the results of this study, to be bright. All the pupils left the compulsory school with satisfactory mathematics grades and also completed mathematics studies at upper secondary school, despite major problems in the subject at intermediate school (age 10-13) stage. The study indicates the need for research closer to the actual practical situation and to the importance of emphasizing good examples in practice. As the students themselves emphasize discrete communication between them as significant in the subject of mathematics, this is also an important area for future research.