<p>Background: To be better able to meet the new competition, companies are seeking new competitive advantages, wich is forcing them to review and, in time, change both working methods and corporate structures. This has led to an increased interest in the development of strategies within the field of Knowledge Management. Objective: The objective of this thesis is to improve understanding of how learning in a company occurs over internal boundaries and to investigate whether individuals need to be motivated in this regard. We also aim to give recommendations as to how this can be developed. Furthermore, we will work out a model that explains the learning process. Definitions: Our study is based solely on the divisions at the marketing department of the company investigated. We have not included external parties, nor the aspect of Knowledge Management that focuses on IT. Method and results: This study has been carried out with the help of interviews and surveys. The thesis has resulted in a model that illustrates how learning in an organisation occurs over internal boundaries. Since individuals are driven to share their knowledge to varying degrees and for different reasons, we believe that companies ought to model their systems in such a way that motivates and rewards knowledge sharing. Knowledge can then be spread through different working methods, such as projects, meetings, cross-functional working pairs, and mentorship.</p>

Detta är en studie om lärande- och skapandeprocesser. Mer specifikt innefattar studien en observation av hur jag arrangerar 3 låtar för olika instrument under en tidsbestämd period. De frågor som behandlas är vilka tekniker jag använder, vilka problem som uppstår och hur det fungerar att arrangera på tid. Slutsatsen av hela observationen har visat att det är en bredd av faktorer som samspelar i kompositionsprocessen. Det har visat sig att jag applicerar intuition, diskursivt tänkande, musikteoretisk teknik och erfarenhet i arrangeringen av musik. Observationen är till stor del belyst av det fenomenologiska perspektivet och fenomenologisk metod används i analysen av mitt observerade material. / This is a study about learning and creative processes. More specifically, the study contains an observation of how I arrange three songs for different instruments within a specific time limit. The questions that are accounted for in this study are what techniques I use, which problems arise and how the time limit affects the result. The result of this study shows that a variety of factors are present during my composition/arranging process. It shows that I apply intuition, discursive thinking, music theoretical techniques, and experience in the field of arranging music. The observation is, to some extent, analysed from phenomenological perspective.

Studiens syfte är att utforska en musikers kroppsspråk vid instuderingen av en orkesterstämma. Detta har observerats under instuderingen av förstaflöjtstämman i fjärde satsen av Brahms andra symfoni. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i det designteoretiska perspektivet och har genomförts med hjälp av videoobservationer under repetitionsperioden av verket. Jag har även fört loggbok under processen av självobservationen. Resultatet av studien visar att de kroppsliga resurserna kan hjälpa, men också stjälpa, den musikaliska processen och dess uttryck. I diskussionen tar jag bland annat upp hur resurserna används sett ur det designteoretiska perspektivet. / The purpose of this study is to explore a musician's body language when studying an orchestral part. The observation took place during my own practice of the first flute part in the fourth movement of Brahms' second symphony and also during the rehearsal with the orchestra. The study has its basis in the perspective of design theory and I have used video observations during the rehearsal period of the work. I have also written a logbook during the process of self-observation. The result shows that the physical resources can help, but also hinder the musical process and its expression. In the end I discuss among other things how resources are used, seen from the design theory perspective.

A continuous service innovation such as Cloud Computing is highly attractive in the business-to-business world because it brings the service provider both billions of dollars in profits and superior competitive advantage. The success of such an innovation is strongly tied to a consumer’s adoption decision. When dealing with a continuous service innovation, the consumer’s decision process becomes complicated. Not only do consumers need to consider two different decisions of both whether to adopt and how long to adopt (contract length), but also the increasing trend of the service-related technological improvements invokes a forward-looking behavior in consumer’s decision process. Moreover, consumers have to balance the benefits and costs of adoption when evaluating decision alternatives. Consumer adoption decisions come with the desire to have the latest technology and the fear of the adopted technology becoming obsolete. Non-adoption prevents consumers from being locked-in by the service provider, but buying that technology may be costly. Being bound to a longer contract forfeits the opportunity to capitalize on the technological revolution. Frequently signing shorter contracts increases the non-physical efforts such as learning, training and negotiating costs. Targeting the right consumers at the right time with the right service offer in the business-to-business context requires an efficient strategy of sales resource allocation. This is a “mission impossible” for service providers if they do not know how consumers make decisions regarding service innovation. In order to guide the resource allocation decisions, we propose a complex model that integrates the structural, dynamic, and learning approaches to understand the consumer’s decision process on both whether or not to adopt, and how long to adopt a continuously updating service innovation in a B2B context.

Technologijų edukologijos magistro baigiamojo darbo tema aktuali, nes būtina toliau tęsti ir įgyvendinti mokinių vertinimo / įsivertinimo reformą. Tinkamai organizuotas vertinimas / įsivertinimas gali tapti puikia mokymosi motyvacijos skatinimo priemone. Svarbu siekti, kad ji būtų kuo palankesnė ir įvairesnė ir svarbiausia skatintų mokinių norą mokytis. Įsivertinimo metodų pagalba mokiniai gali patys atsakyti už savo ugdymosi procesą ir jo rezultatą. Tokiu būdu jie geriau suvokia savo padarytą pažangą. / This thesis focuses on students’ assessment and self-assessment. Assessment and self-assessment may motivate students and encourage them to live up to their true potential. Moreover, using different methods of assessment, students may control their learning process and results. Assessment has to be used to promote learning – not just measure it.

This thesis presents a study on how fourth graders can learn and use metaphor to create meaningful and expressive artworks. It is intended to investigate how students can understand the idea of metaphor and how they can use it to illustrate their own thoughts and ideas within their artworks. Jean Piaget believes much abstract thinking does not occur until the Formal Operations Stage of eleven to thirteen years of age. This study sought to question the ideas of Piaget by introducing the abstract thought of metaphor to fourth graders who are at the approximate age of nine. It set out to demonstrate that students may understand the idea of metaphor while applying it to create meaningful artworks that demonstrate their own opinions, thoughts and beliefs. Concepts about metaphor were introduced to the students through a number of interactive lessons to develop their ability to implement metaphor into their own artworks. This unit taught students how to interpret metaphor and apply the use of metaphor to their own artworks.

Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv, få en överblick, samt större förståelse för min egen lärandeprocess i a prima vista-spel. I bakgrundskapitlet beskrivs några metoder och strategier för att utveckla a vista-spel, samt tankesätt kring a vista-spel i dagens musiksamhälle. För att observera min övning i a vista-spel, användes videoinspelningar, loggbok samt självobservation. I övningen användes pedagogiska a vista-träningsböcker samt visböcker, med blandad repertoar. Resultatet visade att användning av redskap såsom; metronom, träningsböcker, kropp, samt noter ledde övningen framåt. God kroppshållning och teknik visade sig också vara avgörande för ett mer säkert a vista-spel. I diskussionsdelen jämförs temaresultat, metronom, material, kroppshållning, omtagningar samt noter med tidigare forskning och litteratur. / The purpose of this study is to observe and understand my learning process in sight-reading from a socio-cultural perspective. The second chapter is about the methods and strategies which can improve sight-reading and about the thoughts of sight-reading by musicians of today. Video recordings and a logbook were used to observe my practice in sight-reading. In this practice pedagogic sight-reading materials and songbooks with a wide repertoire also were used. The result showed that the use of tools like; metronome, work of material, the body, and notes of music improved my practice. For a good result a good posture and technique also proved to be important. In the last chapter my theme results, metronome, material, posture, retakes and notes of music were compared with previous research and literature.

A model of learning in a simple game playing context is simulated with the aim of gaining insight into a pattern learning process rather than the subtleties of the particular game. The simulation consists of a model of a learning player able to ask help of a (human) teacher when unable to make its own decisions on the basis of previously learned knowledge. An opponent is provided by either a human player or another example of a simulated player. To begin with, the learning player is new to the game and asks many questions of its teacher. As its playing experience increases, so it relies less on external advice, making more of its own decisions based on advice given in similar game situations encountered previously. The system can be set up to allow fully automated trials between simulated players with varying learning experience in order to compare their performance. The difficulty of conveying to the learning model the intention of the teacher's advice, even in the context of a simple game, highlights more general problems in Artificial Intelligence. The problem is a fundamental difference in the mechanisms of human and computer activity. Having done this work it is possible to conclude that the world of a computer, and the natural world, impose such different constraints that they encourage the development of very different mechanisms.

This study explores the relatively new concept of &ldquo / The Learning Economy&rdquo / in the context of system of Innovation, which provides a basic understanding of all elements and their relations necessary to enhance the innovative capacity. This thesis aims to examine the structure and characteristics of ASELSAN (Electronic Industries Inc.) including i.e., firm-level technological activities. In the &lsquo / Learning Economy&rsquo / , rapid learning is the key factor for accelerating innovative capabilities and competitiveness for firms and nations. On the other hand, this concept is closely correlated with the &lsquo / New Economy&rsquo / , ICT (Information communication Technologies) that enhances the knowledge dissemination and learning. In this perspective, ASELSAN acquired high-level technological capabilities and rapid development such that it can be considered as a model for other firms in Turkey. Furthermore, this research aims to point out the &lsquo / Learning Process Model of ASELSAN&rsquo / comparing it with the catching-up firms in South Korea and emphasize transformation of technology and institutional structure in the period from 1980 to 2002. As an individual firm, &lsquo / ASELSAN&rsquo / is a leading firm in the defense industry as a system integrator / and the next step may be &lsquo / network-based&rsquo / learning process model. In summary, there could be policy lessons to be taken for other firms to become a &lsquo / learning organization and &lsquo / innovative firm&rsquo / .

This thesis reports on a research program to study learning in economics utilising non-traditional research methodology. The study aimed to achieve four inter-related objectives. Research in other disciplines (Meyer and Cleary, 1998; Meyer and Eley, 1999; Eley and Meyer, 2004) show that there are important factors influencing learning that are unique to the discourse of a discipline. The first objective of this study was to construct an instrument that captured students' cognitive ability that was specific to learning in economics. The psychometric properties and validity of this construct (called economic thinking ability), and the influence of students' pre-course economic thinking on their learning approaches and academic performance were investigated. Traditional economics education research typically utilises a single end-of-semester score as a measure of learning output. This research program utilised multiple measures of academic performance. By investigating the determinants of academic performance in three assessment types commonly used in introductory economics, namely essay assignment, multiple choice question (MCQ) exam and exam essay, it examined the limitations of the traditional single-score approach. Most traditional input-output learning models in economics education bypass the learning 'black box' (Shanahan et al., 1997), which is the learning approach the student utilises. The third objective of the research program was to construct a learning approach instrument that was sensitive to different assessment contexts so as to investigate the mechanism by which the learning inputs influenced academic performance in economics. This research program also measured students' general learning approaches for assessments utilised before the commencement of their economics unit, and investigated the stability and changes of learning approaches. Based on empirical research evidence and survey findings, it has been observed that many economics students do not possess the ability to apply economic concepts in real world situations. The fourth objective of this research program was to explore the issue of knowledge transfer in economics education. To investigate this issue, students' economic thinking ability was examined at the end of the course using both quantitative and qualitative methodology. The key findings obtained from this research program are: The discipline-specific construct of economic thinking ability possesses sound psychometric properties and predictive validity. Students' pre-course economic thinking ability was found to measure cognitive ability different from pre-course academic aptitude and have important effects on learning approaches. The determinants of academic performance were shown to be assessment specific. This observation provides an explanation of the inconsistency of findings by the traditional input-output approach that utilises a single measure of learning output in economics education. By examining the mediating role of learning approaches in the learning process, it was found that there were important differences in the mechanism by which different personal learning inputs impacted on academic performance in different assessment contexts. Lastly academic performance and post-course economic thinking ability were found to measure different dimensions of learning outcome. The thesis concluded that economics education as investigated in this research program focused mainly on acquisition and reproduction of knowledge and technical skills in routine academic situations rather than making connections of economic concepts to real world experiences. Implications for teaching and further research in economics education were also discussed in this thesis.