This dissertation uses a three-manuscript style, and the ultimate purpose was to support critical thinking teaching in K-12 education from a systematic view concerning the lack of critical thinking in the young generation. The three manuscripts included in this dissertation were entirely or partly adapted based on three published or submitted research papers. The first research paper is a literature review article with an introduction to a development framework of nine principles, which provided a new view to developing critical thinking in younger children based on conceptual understanding of critical thinking. The second research paper is a study I coauthored with J. Michael Spector, which calls for more attention to the development of human intelligence given the rapid development of artificial intelligence and proposed that developing inquiry and critical thinking is a key to develop human intelligence. The third research paper reports an investigation over middle school educators' conceptualization of critical thinking and its alignment with the established theory and research. The major purpose was to connect the established theory and research with educational practices regarding what critical thinking constitutes. The significance of this study is to reveal the issues behind the abstract understanding of critical thinking and address the insufficient critical thinking teaching phenomenon from the perspective of educational practices.

Main target of the diploma thesis is to provide proposals how to improve the current system of the development of employees in the chosen organization. For this purpose, the unnamed organization based in South Bohemian region has been chosen. The diploma thesis consists of two parts - theoretical part includes information dedicated to the topic of the system of the development of human resources which were found both in Czech and international sources. Practical part includes the analysis of the system of the development of operators in the chosen organization - necessary data were provided by the employees of the human resources and production departments. Another data has been collected from the survey that was focused on operators. Analysis has provided the base for proposals for improvements of the current system of the development of operators.

This study used a design based-research (DBR) methodology to examine how an Instructional Systematic Design (ISD) process such as ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation) can be employed to develop a web-based module to teach metacognitive learning strategies to students in higher education. The goal of the study was twofold: (a) to examine the use of a systematic ISD process, ADDIE, to develop a web-based module that would be considered valid and effective, and (b) to use the design-based research (DBR) methodology to create relevant outcomes for practitioners in the field of IT while adding to the body of IT research. As in other DBR studies, a large amount of qualitative data was collected. DBR studies usually call for a variety of data collection instrument. In this study, a total of two interviews and twelve questionnaires were used to gather data. The outcomes of the study suggested that using a systematic approach such as ADDIE to develop a valid and effective interactive web-based module was still viable. Additionally, although the outcomes from this study did not form a basis to propose a new ISD model, it highlighted five key activities that could be added to the ADDIE process to accommodate development of a quality interactive web-based product. The five activities are as follows: (1) to conduct a detailed front-end analysis, (2) to develop a prototype early in the process, (3) to integrate formative and summative evaluations, (4) to assimilate iterations of "design-evaluate-refine" cycles throughout the process, and (5) to accommodate flexibility within the process. Furthermore, using the DBR methodology yielded results that added to the body of IT research and it provided support of the use of this methodology within the instructional technology discipline.

This master thesis studies and applies the systematic development process. The process is initially described in general, creating a template for the process, and later on applied on a real case scenario to show the performance. Finally eventual advantages, drawbacks and suggestions for future improvements are given. The systematic development approach has been performed at Laxå Special Vehicles, who produce truck cabs and special truck chassis for Scania CV AB. The project has focused on the cabs, i.e. the Crew Cabs and the Low Entry. Crew Cabs are extended normal truck cabs, containing four doors to make additional passengers possible, suitable for fire trucks etc. Low Entry is a lowered normal truck cab, lowering the approaching height, making this cab type suitable for city applicable usage where the driver or passengers enter and leave the cab frequently. The task given was to develop the current cab rotation unit to be able to handle both cabs, which from the beginning only could handle the Crew Cabs, called CC28 and CC31. The major goal of this project has been to enable rotation of the Low Entry too. Five phases – pre-study, concept generation, embodiment design, material selection and optimization – were carried out. The pre-study generated a fundamental base of knowledge, according to both the systematic development process and information about the tilt. The concept generation contained a problem degradation, generation of possible solutions and finally an evaluation of these. During the embodiment design the best suited concept was described and developed in detail to allow a suitable material to be selected during the material selection phase. The optimization process consisted of investigating properties according to mechanical strength and stiffness. Two construction solutions to accommodate the mounting points height and length difference between the Crew Cab and the Low Entry were developed. These were a covering plate, called K4, and a mounting plate, called K100, handling the problems occurring for length and height respective. The development process is thus considered to be well operating. It generated a useful result, although possibilities for further improvements exists. / Denna masteruppsats studerar och förklarar den systematiska utvecklingsprocessen. Processens olika steg beskrivs inledningsvis generellt, för att sedan appliceras på ett reellt fall för att demonstrera genomförandet. Avslutningsvis ges fördelar, nackdelar och eventuella förbättringsförslag på metoden. Projektet genomfördes på Laxå Special Vehicles som producerar hytter och chassin för fordonstillverkaren Scania. Projektet fokuserade på hytterna som kallas Crew Cab och Low Entry, där den först nämnda är en förlängd hytt med fyra dörrar istället för två. Detta ger mer hyttutrymme, plats för fler passagerare och är därför vanlig i tillämpningar som till exempel brandbilar. Low Entry är en tvådörrarshytt vars insteg är lägre än för vanliga tvådörrarshytter, vilket gör den användbara i stadsnära miljöer där passagerare eller förare ofta lämnar och går in i hytten. Uppgiften som skulle lösas, och därmed målet, var att anpassa en rotationsenehet, även kallad tilt, för även kunna rotera LE. Ursprungligen var den endast anpassad för de två hyttvarianterna av Crew Cab, som kallas CC28 och CC31. Arbetet behandlade fem faser – förstudie, konceptgenerering, designspecificering, materialval och optimering – vilka skulle genomföras för att nå ett användbart resultat. Förstudien fokuserade på att erhålla kunskap om den systematiska utvecklingsprocessen, hur denna skulle genomföras, samt information om hur rotationsenheten fungerade. Konceptgenerering innehöll en problemnedbrytning, konceptskapande och utvärdering av de genererade koncepten. Under designspecificeringen gavs det bästa konceptet/koncepten dimensioner och specificerade funktioner för att under materialvalsprocessen erhålla passande material. Under optimeringsfasen genomfördes analysering och optimering, med avseende på styrka och styvhet. Två konstruktionslösningar utvecklades vilka löste var sitt delproblem som var höjd- och längdskillnad för den bakre monteringspunkten mellan Crew Cab och Low Entry. En omgjord monteringsplatta visade sig lösa höjdskillnaden bäst, kallad K100. Längdskillnaden togs om hand genom att applicera en längre glidskena som skulle täckas av luckor, kallade K4. Eftersom ett väl fungerande resultat erhållits visade den systematiska utvecklingsprocessen sig fungera som efterfrågat men med förbättringspotential.