In this study, I have looked at pupils attitudes to reading based on an assumption from me that children seem to have a negative attitude to reading and that they don’t read much. My assumptions are based on my experience and research on reading, mainly reports from the National Agency (Skolverket, 2009) & (Skolverket, 2007). The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of why they don’t read. My study is based on a survey in which students in third grade participated, and then based on the survey, two students were selected to participate in an interview. The results showed that students actually do read and they don’t really have anything against it, but they'd rather choose something else to do. These students chose to play computer, watch movies, or sit with the iPad instead of reading. The reason was simply that it was more enjoyable and less tiring than it is to read. One of the students said that the only way he saw for him to read more, was that the options he would rather chose simply disappeared.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the meaning of music education to middle school students in general music classrooms.Specifically, this study addresses the following questions:1. What meaning do middle school general music students derive from their musical education?2. Do underlying dimensions exist in this meaning? If these dimensions do exist, what are they and what relationships exist among them?To answer these questions, a two-part study was proposed. In part one, a survey instrument was created by gathering middle school students' responses to an open-ended question. The 178 participants generated 670 responses. These responses were analyzed and then reduced to 147 relatively distinct statements of meaning. Responses were analyzed qualitatively by grouping the items with others that appeared similar. In the second part of the study, student responses were used to construct a survey, called the Music Meaning Survey (MMS). The survey was first piloted in Tucson, Arizona with a sample of students (N = 96), in order to test the clarity and usability of the MMS. The results of the pilot survey were factor analyzed using principal components analysis and a varimax rotation. The factor analysis confirmed the existence of five factor categories: Psychological, Future Music Goals, Academic-Musical, Performing/Music Making and Integrative (social).A total of 50 statements of meaning were used for the final version of the Music Meaning Survey. The MMS was then administered during the spring of 2005. According to the MMS, subjects did ascribe particular meaning to music education. In particular, it was found that the meaning students derived from their music education experience could be assimilated into four categories: Vocational (career-oriented outcomes for learning about music), Academic (academic aspects of music class such as reading music, learning about composers, and musical styles), Belongingness (social interactions between individual students and groups of students), and Agency (related to students' self-esteem, motivation, and emotional development). The primary conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that for middle school students, music class can be a meaningful and multi-faceted experience.

På samma sätt som saker och ting kategoriseras, grupperar sig människor till ”vi” och ”dem”. Tidigare forskning har visat att både en gärningsman och ett vittnes etniska ursprung har avgörande betydelse för hur en gärningsman bedöms vid ett brott. Denna studie undersökte om deltagarnas och gärningsmannens etniska ursprung inverkade på attityden till att vittna vid ett brott. Studien var en kvasiexperimentell enkätundersökning där sammanlagt 166 skolelever i årskurs 9, varav 81 av utländskt ursprung fick besvara påståenden utifrån en fiktiv berättelse då gärningsmannens etnicitet manipulerades. Ingen skillnad kunde påvisas mellan de olika etniska gruppernas attityd till att vittna beroende på gärningsmannens etnicitet. Dock påvisades en skillnad mellan de olika etniska gruppernas attityd till att vittna oberoende gärningsmannens etnicitet. Således gav hypoteserna inget stöd. Resultatet kan bero på att skoleleverna i studien kom från heterogena skolor, och på så vis kunnat utveckla en social samhörighet med varandra.

The objective of this research is to study different novel developed techniques for spacecraft attitude determination methods using star tracker sensors. This dissertation addresses various issues on developing improved star tracker software, presents new approaches for better performance of star trackers, and considers applications to realize high precision attitude estimates. Star-sensors are often included in a spacecraft attitude-system instrument suite, where high accuracy pointing capability is required. Novel methods for image processing, camera parameters ground calibration, autonomous star pattern recognition, and recursive star identification are researched and implemented to achieve high accuracy and a high frame rate star tracker that can be used for many space missions. This dissertation presents the methods and algorithms implemented for the one Field of View 'FOV' StarNavI sensor that was tested aboard the STS-107 mission in spring 2003 and the two fields of view StarNavII sensor for the EO-3 spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2007. The results of this research enable advances in spacecraft attitude determination based upon real time star sensing and pattern recognition. Building upon recent developments in image processing, pattern recognition algorithms, focal plane detectors, electro-optics, and microprocessors, the star tracker concept utilized in this research has the following key objectives for spacecraft of the future: lower cost, lower mass and smaller volume, increased robustness to environment-induced aging and instrument response variations, increased adaptability and autonomy via recursive self-calibration and health-monitoring on-orbit. Many of these attributes are consequences of improved algorithms that are derived in this dissertation.