Studien fokuserar på multiplikativt tänkande hos elever i årskurs 3. Multiplikativt tänkande är abstrakt (Clark & Kamii, 1996) och innebär användning av strategier för lösningar av multiplikations- och divisionsuppgifter. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur elever använder sig av olika strategier inom multiplikativt tänkande vid multiplikation och division. Studien har inspirerats av Grounded Theory. Utifrån teorierna gjordes en semistrukturerad intervju, observationer samt en analys av data. I studien deltog åtta elever i intervjuerna och en pilotstudie inledde undersökningen. Materialet som samlades in bestod av elevernas lösningar av multiplikations- och divisionsuppgifter, anteckningar från observationer av elevernas lösningar samt ljudinspelade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att nästan alla elever använde sig av en additiv strategi i lösningar av multiplikations- och divisionsuppgifter. Det visade även att det endast var fyra av åtta elever som kunde uppvisa förståelse av ett samband mellan de två räknesätten. Resultatet visar att eleverna har olika strategier och lösningar inom multiplikativt tänkande även om de har haft samma matematikundervisning. / This study focuses on multiplicative thinking among pupils in grade 3. Multiplicative thinking is abstract (Clark & Kamii, 1996), involving applying strategies to solve multiplication and division tasks. The purpose of this study is to examine how pupils use different strategies within multiplicative thinking for multiplication and division. This study was inspired by Grounded Theory. From this theory, a number of semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of data were made. Eight pupils participated in the interviews, after an initial pilot study. The collected material was based on the pupils' solutions of tasks in multiplication and division, notes from observations of the pupils' solutions and audiotaped interviews. The results show that almost every pupil uses an additive strategy in their solutions of multiplication and division tasks. It also show that only four out of eight pupils could show understanding 0f the connection between the two basic arithmetic operations. From the results, the pupils showed different strategies and solutions within multiplicative thinking, even though they have had the same mathematic education.

Many of the Swedish gazelles never leave the domestic market and often have a problem with leaving the start-up phase. One problem for the gazelles is that many are stagnating within a couple of years and few ever reach more than 50 employees. The purpose of this research is to extend the knowledge on how Swedish gazelle companies can continue to grow through internationalization. The thesis has used a qualitative method with an abductive approach. The research is based on a multiple case study of three gazelle companies where the data was collected through in-depth interviews.

Communication between a patient with hearing loss and a health care provider can be challenging and potentially contribute to poor health outcomes. This document describes an audiology doctoral project with clinical innovation emphasis on the development of a guide and interprofessional training for health care providers to communicate effectively with patients with hearing loss. A preliminary assessment of provider needs for training was followed by the development and implementation of an interprofessional training on hearing loss and communication strategies for the University of Arizona-St. Luke's Home Interprofessional Education and Practice Program (Spring, 2015). Additionally, video training segments on effective communication in a health care setting were developed. Evaluation of the interprofessional training included administration of pre- and post-training questionnaires (n = 11). Results indicated a significant change in trainee confidence levels in screening for hearing loss and the use of appropriate communication strategies for communicating with hard of hearing patients. These results support further development and research on hearing loss and communication training for health care curriculums, interprofessional education, and in-service training meetings. Implementation of communication trainings may lead to improved patient-provider communication, with positive impact on health care experiences and outcomes for patients with hearing loss.

Forskare menar att mediers alltmer betydelsefulla roll i ungdomars liv kan bidra till att stärka och sprida fördomar om olika religioner. Det finns dock begränsad forskning om hur mediers skildringar av religioner och dess utövare kan hanteras i religionsundervisningen. Studien syftar således till att undersöka på vilket sätt  mediers skildringar av olika religioner och dess utövare hanteras i religionsundervisningen i årskurs 4-6. Studien är inspirerad av en fenomenologisk ansats och utgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem religionskunskapslärare i årskurs 4–6. Intervjuerna har spelats in, transkriberats och sedan analyserats med inspiration från en fenomenologisk analysmodell. Ur resultatet framkommer att alla lärare enbart diskuterar religiösa företeelser i medier som kopplas till islam, exempelvis IS terrordåd och den pågående flyktingkrisen. Studien visar också att lärarna inte använder sig av specifika tillvägagångssätt för att analysera mediers skildringar av religioner utan behandlas främst genom diskussioner med eleverna, där diskussionerna inte enbart sker i religionsundervisningen. Lärarna är eniga om vikten av att diskutera mediers skildringar av religioner eftersom det annars finns risk för att eleverna generaliserar och relaterar alla muslimer till de våldsamma konflikter som skildras i medier idag. / The media's increasingly important role in young people's lives can according to scientists help to strengthen and spread prejudices about different religions. However, there is limited research on how media portrayals of religions and its practitioners can be handled in religious education.  The study thus seeks to examine how media portrayals of different religions and its practitioners are handled in religious education in grades 4-6. The study is inspired by a phenomenological approach and consists of semi-structured interviews with five religious teachers in grades 4–6. The interviews have been recorded, transcribed and then analyzed with inspiration from a phenomenological analysis model. The result shows that all teachers only discusses religious media phenomena linked to Islam, such as the IS terrorist attacks and the ongoing refugee crisis. The study also shows that the teachers do not use specific approaches for analyzing media depictions of religions, but is treated primarily through discussions with the pupils, where the discussions do not solely take place in religious education. Teachers agree on the importance of discussing the media´s portrayals of religion as otherwise there is a risk that students generalize and relate all Muslims for the violent conflicts depicted in the media today.

The aim of the study is to examine which reading comprehension strategies by the teaching material "A Reading Class" a teacher in second grade tutors about and how the teacher tutors, and which reading comprehension strategies pupils in second grade state that they use when they read on their own, and in what whey they use those reading comprehension strategies. Therefore this study proceeds from the following questions: Which reading comprehension strategies does the teacher tutor about and how does the teacher tutor about those strategies? Which reading comprehension strategies do the pupils state that they are using when they are reading on their own? How do the pupils use the reading comprehension strategies when they read on their own, according to themselves? The investigation is based on three observations of the tutoring about reading comprehension strategies and six interviews with a total of eleven pupils. The theoretical basis is composed of theories about the sociocultural perspective, scaffolding, zone of proximal development and reciprocal teaching. The result showed that the teacher tutored about the reading comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. She encouraged the pupils to create inner images and to make text connections (text-to-self, text- to-text, text-to-world). She tutored about the strategies by the model "think aloud". The pupils seem to use the strategies predicting and clarifying most frequently when they are reading on their own but also creating inner images. For example, they use the strategy predicting when they are choosing books to read and the strategy clarifying when they don’t understand words while they are reading. A lot of the pupils seem to have trouble explaining how to use the strategy summarizing, and also seem to find it hard to summarize after reading, but skillful readers seem to accomplish that better than less skillful readers. The pupils seem to use the reading comprehension strategies in greater occurrence when they are reading on their own than they are aware of.

Background: Procurement as a main part in supply chain management is supported through information technology traditionally. With the usage of Internet and e-commerce technologies, procurement is experiencing a revolution from a conventional paper-based process to e-procurement. E-procurement is increasingly becoming recognized due to its abilities to improve the management of business operation, which in supply chain allows organizations to take use of Internet source to procure indirect and direct materials, and handle value-added service such as quality validation. However, although e-procurement solutions are adopted by many industries currently, no previous study is about e-procurement adoption in Swedish food companies. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the adoption of e-procurement from the perspective of Swedish food wholesalers. Through exploring the e-procurement adoptions with the aspects of benefits, strategies and barriers in three food wholesale companies, similarities and differences in these three aspects are analyzed to find the current situations in e-procurement adoption settings in Swedish food wholesale companies. Method: This thesis was conducted by using qualitative semi-structured interviews, and a deductive approach. Both primary and secondary data are collected. Three sampling examples are involved in for a multiple and holistic case study. Conclusion: Through the study of this thesis, the most important benefits with e-procurement adoption that Swedish food wholesalers can perceive include planning control, time savings and cost savings. With e-procurement solutions, accurate data information can better forecast demands of customers. However, cost savings could only be achieved obviously after adopting e-procurement more than three years. Almost all food wholesale companies use both direct and indirect purchases with e-procurement adoption. Also, independent portal or online trading communities are not the mainstream for food wholesalers. Swedish food wholesalers play the role in both buy-side and sell-side, and webshops are owned by all of them. As for e-procurement approach, wait and see approach with e-procurement adoption are more attractive for Swedish food wholesalers from a strategic perspective. Aggressive approach could be used for the food wholesale companies that are in development stage. After researching, the most serious barriers for Swedish food wholesalers could be low assurances with problems such as suppliers standards, services or delivery capabilities, two or more systems with overlapped functions, and unstable e-procurement systems.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires all students; regardless of poverty level, learning disability, limited English proficiency, or racial/ethnic origins; to be in general education classrooms meeting high standards of proficiency in reading/language arts and mathematics by 2013-14. Meeting high standards of proficiency in a general education classroom is particularly challenging for students diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders, such as Asperger's syndrome. Limited interests, inflexible language, and social skills deficits without a history of cognitive or language delays before the age of three characterize the disorder. Other symptoms, such as clumsiness, unusual sensory reactions, and talk in unusual ways or with an odd tone of voice are present early in life, Asperger's syndrome is typically not diagnosed until school age and on average the age is 11 years old. Various teaching strategies and assistive technologies encourage positive learning environments allowing for students with Asperger's to be productive in a general education classroom. A quantitative survey research design was the guiding methodology. Utilizing SurveyMonkey, two cross-sectional surveys were created and sent to Tennessee's 150 special education district supervisors with a request to forward to both special education and general education teachers. The surveys had three distinct components based on students with Asperger's syndrome; teaching strategies implemented, current assistive technologies being used, and how eReaders, tablets, and mobile applications are being utilized as assistive technologies. The results were tallied and evaluated. A comprehensive set of teaching strategies and assistive technologies used in the general education classroom to improve reading/language arts for secondary students diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome was compiled.

Swedish wood product industry contributes significantly to the economy of the country. This industry adds more value to the sawn timber produced in order to manufacture different wooden products. Companies in Swedish wood product industry are presently seen as underdeveloped in terms of investments and developments in automation technologies. Automation technologies are seen by companies as a solution for improving productivity, product quality, manufacturing cost reduction and ultimately improving competitiveness. This has driven competing companies to pursue automation technologies that improve manufacturing processes. Literature in the Wood product industry field shows that there is need for extended automation technologies. The wood product industry has high degree of handcraft; for instance, some Swedish wood product manufacturers still have an essentially manual manufacturing process. This study seeks to understand the role of automation in the Swedish wood product industry and mainly focuses on the factors that drive and restrain companies in this industry to adopt and use automation technologies. An abductive research approach was applied, consisting of a literature review and multiple empirical case studies. The literature review was conducted to provide theoretical background on the general view of automation and the factors that affect adoption of new technologies in companies. The case studies were performed in collaboration with four wood product manufacturers within different business areas in order to analyse and compare similarities and differences in the factors that drive and restrain adoption of automation technologies. The findings imply that companies in the Swedish wood product industry face different factors that drive and restrain them from adopting automation technologies. The factors are both internal and external to the companies. Among the noticeable ones are the high product variety, lack of automation strategies, heterogeneous material property of wood, low competence levels regarding automation technologies, varying demands from the customers, and relationship with the suppliers of automation technologies. Regardles of the restraining factors faced by companies in the Swedish wood product industry, there is a great opportunity to improve their production systems in terms of automation technologies. There is now a growing treand in these companies to prioritise automation technologies as a competitive factor. This study contributes to the knowledge regarding the factors that drive and restrain the adoption of automation technologies and how companies could deal with such factors in the Swedish wood product industry.

Studien utgår från en kvalitativt inriktad analys och metod, där syftet är att undersöka vilka huvudräkningsstrategier som 3 svenska respektive 3 engelska lärare undervisar i, inom addition. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer som sedan har transkriberats och analyserats. Studien har låtit sig inspireras av ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv kombinerat med Grounded Theory. Hermeneutiskt perspektiv innebär att all data som finns i studien har tolkats och analyserats. Grounded Theory är ett vanligt sätt att analysera kvalitativ data och genom denna teori har kategorier skapats utifrån det resultat som framkommit. Resultatet av studien visar att de svenska lärarnas vanligaste val av strategier är: talsorter var för sig och algoritmer. De engelska lärarnas vanligaste val av strategier är: tiokamrater, additionstabellen och algoritmer. Av resultatet framkommer även de skillnader som finns mellan de intervjuade lärarnas val av strategier. / The study is based on a qualitatively directed method and the main aim is to investigate, and examine the mental arithmetic strategies of both Swedish and English teachers. In particular, the methods they use, to teach addition. The empirical data within this research is based on first hand interviews with six teachers; three from Sweden, and three from England. The study is inspired by a Hermeneutic Perspective in combination with Grounded Theory. The word hermeneutic, means that all of the data contained in the study has been interpreted and analyzed by the researcher. Grounded Theory is a common method used to analyze qualitative data. With this theory, categories have been created on the basis of the results obtained within this study. The results of the study show that Swedish teachers' most common choices of strategies are; partitioning method, and algorithms. In contrast, the English teachers’ strategies are the following; number bonds, the additiontable and algorithms. The results of this study also illustrate the differences between the Swedish and the English teachers’ choices of strategies.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences