Studiens syfte är att undersöka vilka förutsättningar som finns för entreprenörers informella lärande iinkubatorer och att öka förståelsen för hur informella lärandet där kan främjas. Undersökningen har en kvalitativ ansats och datainsamlingen genomfördes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Sammanlagt utfördes sex intervjuer med entreprenörer som är med i inkubatorer och fyra med anställda i inkubatorer. Resultaten visade olika individuella och kollektiva faktorer som i inkubatorn bidrar till reflektion och erfarenhetsbaserat lärande. Vidare visar studien att inkubatorn bör planera tillfällen för att möten och informellt lärande ska ske. Inkubatorn bör också skapa strukturella och kulturella förutsättningar som till exempel en positiv stämning för att den dialog som bidrar till reflektion och erfarenhetsbaserat lärande ska kunna skapas. En av de viktigaste slutsatserna är att den diskussion entreprenörerna har med andra entreprenörer starkt bidrar till reflektion och erfarenhetsbaserat lärande genom utmaning till reflektion, kollektiv intelligens, erfarenhetsutbyte och återkopplingar. Det är därför väsentligt för inkubatorn att skapa förutsättningar och tillfällen för att möten som bidrar till informellt lärande ska ske. En annan slutsats är att det är viktigt att det stöd entreprenörerna får är anpassat till deras behov. Slutligen bidrar den stödperson (coach eller mentor) de regelbundet träffar starkt till reflektion och erfarenhetsbaserat lärande. / The study’s purpose is to investigate the conditions that exist for entrepreneurs' informal learning in incubators and increase the understanding of how informal learning can be promoted in incubators. The survey has a qualitative approach and the data collection was carried out with the help of semi-structured interviews. A total of six interviews were conducted with entrepreneurs who are part of incubators and four with employees in incubators. The results showed various individual and collective factors that in the incubator contribute to reflection and experience-based learning. Furthermore, the study shows that the incubator needs to plan opportunities for meetings and informal learning to take place. The incubator also needs to create structural and cultural conditions such as a positive atmosphere for the dialogue that contributes to informal learning to be created in incubators. One of the most important conclusions is that the dialog entrepreneurs have with other entrepreneurs strongly contributes to reflection and experience-based learning through collective intelligence, exchange of experience and feedback. It is therefore essential for the incubator to create conditions and opportunities for meetings that contribute to informal learning to take place. Another conclusion is that it is important that the support the entrepreneurs receive is adapted to their needs. Finally, the coach or mentor they regularly meet strongly contributes to their reflection and experiential learning.

<p>The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of how self employed entrepreneurs (hereafter referred to as “entrepreneurs”) develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. The main question is: How do these entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space? Other questions relevant for the study are: How important is the social environment for these entrepreneurs and how do they interact with their social environment in order to develop their competence. The study has a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with six entrepreneurs were conducted, during March and April 2008. The main finding of this study is the process by which the entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. This is done through interaction with the entrepreneurs’ social environment. With a specific work task in mind, the entrepreneur evaluates his/her own competence in order to solve the task at hand, and in parallell search for the needed competence in his/her social environment. The social environment is therefore found to be very important to the entrepreneurs in the study. The active and conscious interactions lead to learning and in turn to development of the individual competence. This approach is essential for the entrepreneur to keep up-to-date and to stay attractive on the work market. Another finding in the study is how the entrepreneurs are forced to be more selective in the development of their competence, compared to a traditional employee, i.e. the entrepreneur needs to be more aware of whether he or she will gain anything from engaging in the specific activity. The responsibility for development of the individual competence lies solely on the entrepreneur. The development of the competence is however not separated from the overall responsibility of the business, but can be seen as part of the daily work.</p>

Ett övergripande mål för gymnasieskolan har länge varit att fostra eleverna till medborgare i ett demokratiskt samhälle. Därför gäller numera att elevernas ansvar för att planera och genomföra sina studier samt deras inflytande på såväl innehåll som arbetssätt skall vara viktiga principer i undervisningen. Syftet med studien är att studera elevernas inflytande i centrala undervisningsfrågor. Specifika forskningsfrågor i anslutning till syftet är: - Hur sker val av innehåll och arbetssätt och vilket utrymme ges åt elevernas inflytande? Förekommer det någon skillnad mellan olika ämnen? - Vilka kunskaper och vilket lärande lyfts fram och efterfrågas av elever respektive lärare i situationer då respektive grupp har inflytande över innehållet? - Hur uppfattar eleverna möjligheten till inflytande i olika arbetssätt? - Vilka faktorer uppfattar elever och lärare har betydelse för elevernas inflytande över val av innehåll och arbetssätt? Resultaten visar att kursplanerna har stor betydelse för innehållet i undervisningen. Elevernas möjlighet till inflytande kommer till uttryck bl. a. genom att påkalla handledning, avgöra svårighetsgrad på arbetsuppgifter och konstruera instuderingsfrågor. Förutsättningarna för att påverka kvaliteten på kunskaper och lärande varierar med ämnets legitimitet, elevernas studiekompetens och möjlighet till interaktion med läraren. Elevernas utrymme för eget ansvar, deras möjlighet till handledning och en variation avseende gruppsammansättning, arbetssätt och beslutsfattande är viktiga faktorer för att eleverna skall känna sig motiverade och intresserade av arbetet i skolan. Det visar sig finnas flera faktorer som inverkar negativt på elevernas möjlighet till inflytande exempelvis stoffträngsel och otillräckliga baskunskaper. Eleverna påtalar behovet av undervisning och handledning för att komma vidare i sina studier och kunna utöva inflytande. Avslutningsvis diskuteras resultatet i förhållande till John Deweys utbildningsfilosofiska tankar och relateras till läroplanen som styrfaktor, erfarenheten som grunden för undervisningens innehåll, frihet och möjlighet till växande och handledning som en nödvändig interaktion. / One of the overarching goals of Swedish upper secondary education is to foster students to become citizens in a democratic society. It is, therefore, essential that the students learn to take responsibility for planning and carrying through their studies. The aim of this study is to investigate whether students have any influence on central teaching matters such as the choice of subject matter and working methods and what types of knowledge and learning students and teachers, respectively, request in situations where either of these groups is in charge of the contents. The study is based on field work, interviews and document analysis and it is carried out in one upper secondary vocational class. The results demonstrate that the syllabi are very important for the contents of teaching. The students‘ opportunities to influence the choice are expressed, for instance, in asking for tutoring, in deciding the level of task difficulty, and in constructing advance questions. The conditions for influencing the quality of knowledge and learning vary with the legitimacy of the subject, the study competence of the students, and their possibilities to interact with the teacher. The students‘ possibilities to take responsibility and to be supervised by the teacher, as well as a variation as regards group composition, working methods, and decision making are important factors for the students to be motivated for and interested in schoolwork. There seems to be several factors that are important for the students‘ possibilities to influence, e.g., crowding of contents, and insufficient basic knowledge, and the students also comment on the need of teaching and tutoring in order for them to get further in their studies. In conclusion, the results of the study are discussed in relation to John Dewey’s educational philosophy, i. e. the national curriculum, experiences - the point of departure of the contents of teaching, freedom and opportunities to grow, and tutoring - the necessary interaction.

The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of how self employed entrepreneurs (hereafter referred to as “entrepreneurs”) develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. The main question is: How do these entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space? Other questions relevant for the study are: How important is the social environment for these entrepreneurs and how do they interact with their social environment in order to develop their competence. The study has a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews with six entrepreneurs were conducted, during March and April 2008. The main finding of this study is the process by which the entrepreneurs develop their competence based on their perceived learning space. This is done through interaction with the entrepreneurs’ social environment. With a specific work task in mind, the entrepreneur evaluates his/her own competence in order to solve the task at hand, and in parallell search for the needed competence in his/her social environment. The social environment is therefore found to be very important to the entrepreneurs in the study. The active and conscious interactions lead to learning and in turn to development of the individual competence. This approach is essential for the entrepreneur to keep up-to-date and to stay attractive on the work market. Another finding in the study is how the entrepreneurs are forced to be more selective in the development of their competence, compared to a traditional employee, i.e. the entrepreneur needs to be more aware of whether he or she will gain anything from engaging in the specific activity. The responsibility for development of the individual competence lies solely on the entrepreneur. The development of the competence is however not separated from the overall responsibility of the business, but can be seen as part of the daily work.

The aim of the thesis is to investigate and analyse students’ expressions of pleasure and displeasure and how these are manifested in actions in the teaching of textile sloyd in lower secondary education. The study’s focus is on students’ expressions of pleasure and displeasure in social action in the working processes of textile sloyd and on how these expressions can be related to learning. The empirical material consists of observations, video and audio recordings, individual interviews and focus group interviews, where video and audio recordings were used as stimulated recall. In all, 32 lessons in textile sloyd and 49 students aged 14-15 years were observed at four different schools. Theoretically, the thesis is based on Mead’s practical intersubjectivity and on Dewey’s theory of experience-based learning and dependence on emotions and actions. Pleasure and displeasure constitute valuating partial aspects of emotions. Based on a socio-cultural perspective, emotions are regarded as practices which arise from different predispositions’ dependence on the social context. The study’s analytical approach is hermeneutical. Critical incidents regarding students’ expressions of pleasure and displeasure in social action found in observations and video and audio recordings were analysed in terms of Mead’s concept of gestures. The events were combined with what the students describe as critical incidents of pleasure and displeasure in the interviews and focus group talks. The material was then thematised. Several situations were then subjected to deeper analysis based on sociality and a change in perspective and related to different concepts of learning. The result of the thesis shows a tripartite semantic structure where students’ pleasure and displeasure in textile sloyd are mainly based on textile sloyd’s specific educational community, students’ relationship to the sloyd object and their experience of the working process. Social interaction, humour and mutual acknowledgement proved to be of importance for the function of pleasure and displeasure in the students’ working processes. The students’ experience of pleasure and displeasure depended on their control of the work, the characteristics of different craft techniques and their awareness of time. Pleasure and displeasure in textile sloyd found an expression in four overarching emotional practices with decisive importance for the students’ opportunities for learning: the repudiating, insecure, accepting and incorporating emotional practice. The study also provides an insight into how different cultural factors enable a certain scope for pleasure and displeasure. In this connection, social changes in relation to objects are discussed, as are changes in sociality and emotionality. Based on the pair of concepts of authenticity and ephemerality and closeness and intensity, cultural changes are visualised that are conceivably important for the students’ experiences of pleasure and displeasure in textile sloyd.

The Swedish Armed Forces’ Flying School has been training future pilots for a long time. For almost 60 years, the SK 60 aircraft (SAAB 105) has been used to train fixed-wing pilots. The Flying School has a flight simulator of type BITD (Basic Instrument Training Device), named FlightBook, as a tool to help students practise their flying and to learn through experience. Experiential learning is used in various kinds of education, one of which is flying training. David A. Kolb has developed a learning cycle that explains the process of experiential learning. The learning cycle starts with concrete experience followed by reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. This study analyses FlightBook using Kolb’s learning cycle to see if it is appropriate for use in flying training. The results of this study show that FlightBook is an effective tool for practising some elements of flying training. FlightBook is necessary for emergency training because of the high risk and it being impossible to conduct some of the training during actual flying. For landing an aircraft, FlightBook is not as suitable as it is for emergency training but is still an effective tool for the initial steps, prior to the final stage. For the final stage, when the aircraft is getting close to the runway, FlightBook does not have the credibility that flying instructors and students wish it had. In real flying, pilots use feel and balance to get things right before landing, which is not possible with FlightBook. Experience gained when practising with FlightBook is essential for future pilots so that the training can continue to be as effective as possible. Otherwise the training may be even more delayed and that will cause problems for the Swedish Armed Forces. / Försvarsmaktens flygskola har under en lång tid utbildat blivande piloter. I nästan 60 år har skolflygplanet SK 60 (SAAB 105) använts för utbildning av transport- och stridspiloter. Flygskolan har en flygsimulator av typen BITD (Basic Instrument Training Device - Grundläggande instrumentträningsstation), vid namn FlightBook, som hjälpmedel i flygutbildningen. I FlightBook lär sig flygeleverna genom erfarenhetsbaserat lärande. Erfarenhetsbaserat lärande används i flera utbildningar. Flygutbildningen är en av dem. David A. Kolb har skapat en modell som förklarar processen som sker under erfarenhetsbaserat lärande med hjälp av en lärcykel. Lärcykeln inleds med att konkreta erfarenheter samlas in och följs därefter av reflekterande observationer, abstrakta konceptualiseringar och aktivt experimenterande. Arbetet analyserar FlightBook med Kolbs lärcykel och resultatet visar att FlightBook är ett bra hjälpmedel för att öva vissa moment i flygträning. Vid övning av nödträning är FlightBook väsentlig, framförallt för flygsäkerheten, eftersom de flesta momenten inte är lämpliga att öva i verkligheten. Vid övning av landning är FlightBook inte lika lämplig som vid nödträning eftersom de sista momenten under landning skiljer sig från verkligheten. Trovärdigheten som lärare och elever önskar under de sista momenten saknas. I verkligheten använder sig piloterna av känsla och balans för att komma rätt inför landning vilket inte är möjligt i övning med FlightBook. Momenten inför landning är dock lämpliga att öva. Erfarenheterna som erhålls när eleverna övar i FlightBook är nödvändiga för att flygutbildningen ska fortsätta vara så effektiv som möjligt. Förseningar i flygutbildningen kan genom fortsatt effektivisering förhindras och därmed undvika problem för Försvarsmakten.

Förväntan på att företag arbetar aktivt med att minska sin miljöpåverkan växer sig större för var dag. Med en miljöcertifiering kan företag visa sig ansvarsfulla inför sina intressenter och chanserna för en säkrad plats på framtidens marknad kan öka. Miljöcertifikat såsom ISO 14001-standarden inkluderar behovet av ständiga förbättringar av en organisations processer och miljöstrategiskt arbete. Begreppet ständiga förbättringar har sitt ursprung i Toyota Motors framgångsrika arbetssätt - kaizen - och innebär att allt kan göras lite bättre än i nuläget. På så sätt klingar det väl med miljöförbäattringsarbete eftersom vi fortfarande är på en resa mot det mest miljövänliga sättet att leva på. Två företag inom elinstallatörsbranchen har genom den webbaserade applikationen System C2 TM utmärkt sig i sitt arbete med ständiga förbättringar inom miljö. Eftersom en framgångsfaktor för ständiga förbättringar är utbildning kan det antas att dessa två företag har genomgått ett lärande som har lett till denna framgång, men vad som kännetecknat detta lärande är inte specificerat. Syftet med detta examensarbete är därför att undersöka vad en sådan utbildning bör innehålla för att inte bara leda till fler miljöförbättringar, utan även för att skapa förutsättningar för ett lärande inom ekologisk hållbar utveckling. För att generera kunskap kring detta genomfördes kvalitativa fokussamtal i två omgångar, med två  olika företag. Samtalen analyserades med hjälp av en tematisk analys. Resultaten visar att en utbildningsinsats som ämnar leda till ett aktivt miljöförbättringsarbete och ett kontinuerligt lärande ska sträcka sig över flera utbildningstillfällen. Tillfällena i insatsen bör ta vara på verksamhetens kunskap genom inklusion av medarbetare, knyta miljöfrågan till verksamheten, drivas av en engagerad ledning och ta vara på medarbetarnas personliga engagemang. Dessutom ställs krav på företagets kultur i form av att den ska vara öppen för ifrågasättande av rutiner samt drivas av en vilja att utvecklas. Resultaten visar även på likheter mellan konceptet ständiga förbättringar och lärande, och vidare föreslås djupare studier kring dessa likheter. Vidare forskning föreslås även i form av att testa de faktorer som detta examensarbete har resulterat i. / The expectations for a company to actively work on reducing their environmental impact are higher today than ever before. With an environmental certification, companies can show their responsibilities towards the environment to their stakeholders, and improve the chances to securing a position on the future market. An environmental certification, such as the standard ISO 14001, includes the need for continuous improvements to an organization’s processes and strategic environmental work. The term continuous improvements origins from Toyota Motors successful way of working - kaizen. It implies that everything can be madea little better than it is right now. This interpretation of continuous improvements goeswell together with environmental improvements in business since we are still on a journeytowards the most sustainable way of living. Two electrical contracting companies have through the web-based application System C2TM excelled in their work with continuous environmental improvements. Since a success factor to continuous improvements has proven to be education, one can assume that the two studied companies have a learning culture in their workplace that has led to this success. However, this learning culture is not specified. The purpose of this study is to examine what a training session in ecologically sustainable development should involve, not only lead to continuous improvements, but also to continuous learning. To generate knowledge about this, a qualitative study has been made. Two focus group conversations with each of the studied companies were made to gather data about their work with continuous environmental improvements. The data from the focus group conversations were analyzed through a thematic analysis. The results show that a training session that aims to lead to continuous improvements and learning within the organization consists of several sessions. The training sessions should make use of the knowledge within the organization, connect the environmental issue to the organization, involve an engaged leadership, and make use of the personal engagement amongst the coworkers. Apart from this, demands on the company culture are being made in order to create a learning organization. The culture should be open to challenge the existing routines and strive to develop the company to the better. The results from this study show that there are similarities between continuous improvements and learning. Suggested as further research is to examine the similarities between learning and continuous improvements. Another example for further research is to test the factors presented in this study, in a training session about ecologically sustainable development.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka och skapa förståelse kring processerna för hur ledare lär sig vara ledare. Studien har som ambition att undersöka vad ledarna har lärt sig och hur dessa lärprocesser skett i ledarnas vardag. Nio stycken semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med etablerade ledare inom olika branscher. En tematisk analys skildrade hur erfarenheter genom handlande i vardagen tillsammans med reflektion var de främsta processerna som ansetts avgörande för hur ledarna lärt sig vara ledare. Dessutom har villkor som viljan att leda och viljan att lära haft en central roll. Resultatet visade att förmågor som studien tolkar som mer mjuka värden har utvecklats över tid hos ledarna. Ledarna indikerar att personlig mognad, erfarenhet, reflektion och en vilja att lära varit bidragande till deras lärande och utveckling. / The purpose of the study is to investigate and create an understanding of the processes by which leaders learn to be leaders. The study also aims to examine what the leaders have learned and how these learning processes have occurred in the leaders' everyday lives. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with established leaders in various industries. A thematic analysis depicted how experiences through actions in everyday life together with reflection were the main processes considered decisive for how the leaders learned to be leaders. In addition, conditions such as the will to lead and the will to learn have played a central role. The result showed that abilities that the study interprets as softer values have developed over time in the leaders. The leaders indicate that personal maturity, experience, reflection and a willingness to learn contributed to their learning and development.