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- Bergwall, Andreas, 1972-
(författare)
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Proof-related reasoning in upper secondary mathematics textbooks : Characteristics, comparisons, and conceptualizations
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Proofs and proving are difficult to learn and difficult to teach. A common problem is that many students use specific examples as evidence for general statements. Difficulties with proofs are also part of the transition problems that exist between secondary and tertiary schooling in mathematics. As mathematics teaching often follows a textbook, the design of textbooks has been pointed out as one possible cause of the problems, and international textbook research suggests that proofs often have only a marginal place in textbooks.This thesis focuses on proofs and proving in upper secondary mathematics textbooks. It also addresses theoretical and methodological questions about what marks an opportunity to develop proving competence, and which properties of such opportunities are relevant to investigate and characterize. The thesis is based on data from four Swedish and Finnish textbook series for upper secondary school, and focuses on sections on logarithms, primitive functions, definite integrals, and combinatorics. It examines how addressed mathematical principles are justified, and whether the textbooks’ exercises offer opportunities to develop proof-related skills such as formulating and investigating hypotheses, developing and evaluating arguments, identifying and correcting errors, and finding counterexamples.The results show that just over half of the mathematical principles addressed in the analyzed textbook material are justified, and that only half of the justifications are general proofs. Few exercises are proof-related (10%), and those that include reasoning about general cases even fewer. General proofs are more common in the Finnish books, but proof-related tasks are more common and of a more varied nature in the Swedish ones. The most common form of proofs are direct derivations of calculation formulas, while reasoning about existence and uniqueness is unusual, as are contrapositive proofs and proofs by contradiction.Based on the results, explicit suggestions are offered as to what teaching can pay more attention to. For the analysis and design of proof-related activities, a framework consisting of four main categories is proposed: develop a statement, investigate a statement, develop an argument, and investigate an argument. Several properties that such activities may have, regardless of which category they belong to, are discussed. Finally, three areas for future research are suggested: how worked examples can support students’ learning of proof, how textbooks can be designed to stimulate formulation as well as the formal proving of hypotheses, and mapping of differences regarding proof between upper secondary and university textbooks.
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| 2. |
- Blomberg, Helena
(författare)
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Mobbning, intriger, offerskap : att tala om sig själv som mobbad i arbetslivet
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is a study of bullying narratives, mainly co-produced in a process of ongoing interaction. The focus is on how narrators rhetorically organize their storytelling and identity work by using discursive resources. The empirical material consists of 12 interviews with, and 12 written stories by people who have been exposed to workplace bullying plus information from three websites about bullying, and previous research. The overarching aim of the study is to identify how a bullying discourse is produced, reproduced, challenged and negotiated in bullied persons’ narratives. Specific aims are to determine how bullying is portrayed publicly, how narrators with experience of being bullied build their stories, how the narratives stand in relation to victimization, what makes it possible to talk about vulnerability and what are its limits, and finally to develop a narrative approach.Theoretically and methodologically, the study has its basis in narrative analysis, discursive psychology, conversation analysis, and metaphor analysis. The study shows how the narrators categorize themselves as active, competent, and consensus seeking. They resist being victimized, but by their use of the interpretative repertoire and a standard story of bullying, they nevertheless become indirectly victimized. What’s at stake, in the narratives, is the question of guilt, which they rhetorically evade by the use of different metaphors. These metaphors depict bullying as a mystery, a lifelong source of suffering, a transformation, a learning experience, a battle, a contagious virus, and a trap. The narrators are constrained by the narrative conditions, the interpretative repertoire, standard story, and narrative form and content – a story of good and evil when creating their own story. The narrative conditions at the same time set the limit for expressing oneself in the identity work. This also means we are part of the production and reproduction of the bullying discourse when I, as a researcher, and the narrators use the repertoire and the standard story in mutual understanding.
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| 3. |
- Brav, Agneta, 1955-
(författare)
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Industrial work groups : the impact of job design, leader support and group processes on initiative and self-organization
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- From an organizational perspective the issue of which organizational solutions will benefit productivity, efficiency and the innovation process is central. Work groups can be an effective means. The general aim of the thesis from a psychological perspective is to examine work conditions and thereafter investigate how such conditions impact on whether or not work groups redefine stipulated tasks to incorporate initiative-taking and self-organization, thus enabling them to implement meaningful change.Based on action regulation theory, detailed work task analysis is assumed to be worthwhile as it provides data that cannot be captured with interviews or questionnaires exclusively. Data is based on work task analyses and questionnaires administered to work groups at four Swedish industrial organizations. In Study I a theoretical model of the relations of job design, work routines and social routines and reflexivity and learning processes was tested. Results showed that job design and work routines strongly impacted on reflexivity and learning processes. In Study II this model was extended into a theoretical inputprocess- output model to include group initiative and self-organizational activities as outcomes of job design, mediated by group processes. The model provided substantial, but not complete, support. Job design strongly impacts on reflexivity, and reflexivity directly impacts self organizational activities. To explore the importance of leadership support and potency longitudinally for group initiative, in Study III two data collections were included. The findings showed that potency, compared to perceived autonomy and support from leader, was the best predictor of group initiative. Together the studies show that the dimensions of job design, support from leader, reflexivity, and potency as well as cooperation and social support are important for the outcomes of work groups if the organization wants groups to take initiative and engage in self-organizational activities. It is also advocated that job design contains an inherent potential for learning and the possibility to make use of one’s resources. Main findings, strengths, limitations, practical and theoretical implications, directions for future research and when it will be worthwhile to invest in group work are included in the discussion.
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| 4. |
- Dag, Munir, 1968-
(författare)
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Unga människor med rörelsehinder : förankring, marginalisering och social exkludering
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the thesis was to describe the specific barriers young people with disabilities experience in their ambition to get a job. The aim was also to investigate how these young people’s social and economic situation has been affected by their disability. The results are based on two reports: one qualitative, consisting of interviews with 12 individuals with physical disabilities, and one quantitative in the form of a questionnaire answered by 706 persons. In the case of the questionnaire, the response rate was 48 per cent. Both reports are based on the same criteria, namely, that the respondents should have a physical disability, be 20–35 years of age and be participating in some form of employment policy program. The results from both studies show that individuals with physical disabilities encounter different types of barriers on the labour market, which can be categorised as being either at the individual level or at the social level. The barriers at the individual level are low education, long-term unemployment, grave physical disability and lack of work experience. The barriers identified at the social level are primarily poorly adapted workplaces, a too high working pace, employers’ negative attitudes, insufficient knowledge of the competence of disabled persons and an overly generous social welfare system. All these factors constitute a direct obstacle to employing persons with a physical disability. The results from the interview study show that the respondents have few social relations. The majority of the respondents have social intercourse solely with family members or parents. Most of the respondents in the questionnaire study state that they have frequent social relations with friends and acquaintances. Both the interview study and the questionnaire study reveal that the respondents’ financial position has worsened as a result if their physical disability. Conclusions that can be drawn from this thesis are that young people with physical disabilities encounter different barriers in their attempts to get a job and to maintain social relations. Based on the results, some of the respondents can be regarded as being socio-economically marginalised.
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| 7. |
- Henningsson, Johan, 1965-
(författare)
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Fund Managers as Cultured Observers
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- During the last few decades, Intellectual Capital (IC) has been recognized as an important resource in firms. In order to improve IC reporting, a number of guidelines have been initiated in Europe and in Japan. The capital market has been one important target group for these initiatives. However, actors on the capital market seem to be ambivalent towards IC information. They both demand and find such information useful, and at the same time, they seem to lack interest in it. This thesis contains five papers that aim to explore how actors on the capital market deal with IC information. A qualitative research approach is applied involving interviews with 14 fund managers in Stockholm. In the analysis of the data, fund managers are seen as ‘cultured observers’, meaning they are influenced by social forces when they observe IC information. Three social forces were identified as being imposed on the respondents. These forces represent social logics that are created in the relationship between the fund managers and · the organization in which they work · the market price and rationale · the agendas around certain companies The seemingly increased complexity of IC information does not always bother fund managers. The rationale of interacting social networks reduces this complexity in order for the information to make sense in their meaning-based reproduction. With respect to ethical funds, this thesis suggests that the rationales of the three social forces above do not seem to have changed in order to include social aspects. Instead, these aspects are taken care of elsewhere in organizations, leaving fund managers outside of their potential for compromising market rationales. Furthermore, fund managers tend to reduce the complexity of information concerning personnel and the working environment by depending on having the right management in organisations. This thesis contributes by increasing our understanding of how the social environment influences fund managers when they observe IC information. By regarding fund managers as ‘cultured observers’ it explores how complexity is dealt with, an approach that contrasts with assumptions within finance theory about profit maximizing actors. Here, the market price and rationale represent one social force among many.
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| 8. |
- Hort, Sofia, 1984-
(författare)
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Skrivprocesser på högskolan : Text, plats och materialitet i uppsatsskrivandet
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this study is to explore how students in a higher education context handle the writing of their final essay. Applying a sociomaterial approach, the study offers comprehensive case studies of students’ writing processes. The thesis attempts to show how student writers handle writing challenges through different technologies and at different places. It does so by implementing the Mobile Technologies Process Logs (MTPL)-method, wherein participating students take an active role to create and gather data on their own writing processes.The results show that some students’ textual work could be described in terms of being comprehensive, and hence handled through varied writing technologies at various writing places. These students write a lot of texts to move the writing process forward. Other writers take a more product-oriented view in their writing, and hence write through fewer technologies, at a few places, and with a wish to finish their final text product directly. Many of the students make explicit how they process the literature through writing texts. The knowledge production, the analysis, which is central to academic writing, seems however more implicit and difficult for the students to handle, specifically if having a product oriented view on writing. The results also show how students mobilize different textual actions to meet challenges that writing an (digital) essay implies. This work is clearly emplaced ,at diverse or at more homogenous writing places.It is significant to make textual strategies as well as the functions of writing technologies and place visible to all students. It seems vital at times where higher education, as well as the students entering this institution, are put in front of a raft of (new) challenges. At the same time as the idea of the bad student writer is prevailing, higher education institutions seem not to teach how an academic writing process could be managed in successful ways. This thesis contributes to this field of inquiry with results on how students’ writing processes can be characterized.
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| 9. |
- Höglund, Linda, 1972-
(författare)
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Discursive practices in strategic entrepeneurship : discourses and the use of repertoires in two firms
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a thesis in marketing concerned with entrepreneurship in established firms and the discursive practices that take place within a perspective of strategic entrepreneurship. The study of discursive practices in this context assumes a concern with how different aspects of entrepreneurship are produced and consumed by people in text and talk. Strategic entrepreneurship can be seen as an organisational form of entrepreneurship. The latest contribution within strategic entrepreneurship tends to focus on opportunities and advantages in organisations as two processes that need to be considered and managed jointly.In this thesis, I have studied the discursive practices of how scholars position strategic entrepreneurship through an enhanced literature review and by means of a close analysis of assumptions made within strategic entrepreneurship, but also by studying two firms and their discursive practices of constructing opportunity and advantage positions. The results have then been analysed with reference to discourse theory and previous research within entrepreneurship based on European traditions that builds on the linguistic turn.By conducting an empirical study of two firms, I have studied discourses in use, and how they are produced by people. In so doing, two main findings emerge in the discussion of the empirical results: 1) Opportunity and advantage positions emerge in social interaction and are co-constructed. 2) Opportunity and advantage positions are constructed by the use of multiple discourses, on different levels of discourse and for different functions. The main purpose of the thesis is to enhance the understanding of entrepreneurship in established firms and the activities labelled as strategic entrepreneurship. In addressing the purpose, seven theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to research emerge in areas of strategic entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship and the enterprising self.
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| 10. |
- Johansson, Ann-Christin
(författare)
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Psychosocial factors in patients with lumbar disc herniation : enhancing postoperative outcome by the identifiction of predictive factors and optimised physiotherapy
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Psychosocial factors have been advanced as an explanation for the development of chronic disability in 20 to 30% of patients treated by lumbar disc surgery. Aims: The overall aim of this thesis was to study the role of psychosocial factors in patients undergoing first-time lumbar disc surgery in relation to the outcome of both surgery and subsequent physiotherapy. Methods: Sixty-nine patients with lumbar disc herniation undergoing first-time disc surgery participated in the studies; in addition, Study I included 162 knee patients for comparison. Psychosocial factors were assessed preoperatively, as was the activation of the physiological stress response system. Pain, disabil-ity and quality of life were assessed before, and 3 and 12 months after surgery. Coping and kinesiophobia were analysed before and one year after surgery. The results of two different postoperative training programmes were compared. Results: There were no differences between disc and knee patients regarding the presence of psychosocial stress factors preoperatively (Study I). Disc patients with low diurnal cortisol variability had lower physical function, perceived fewer possibilities to influence their pain and were more prone to catastrophise than patients with high diurnal cortisol variability (Study II). The results of clinic-based physiotherapy and home training did not differ regarding postoperative disability and pain 3 months after surgery. The home-based group had less pain and higher quality of life in comparison to the clinic-based group 12 months after surgery (Study III). Patients’ expectations of returning to work could best predict pain, disability, quality of life and sick leave one year after surgery (Study IV). Psychosocial factors were only weakly asso-ciated to pain, disability, quality of life and sick leave preoperatively. However, these associations were stronger in patients with residual pain one year after surgery. Conclusion: Psychosocial factors and, in particular, patients’ expectations regarding outcome are associated with the results of lumbar disc surgery. Assessing psychosocial factors preoperatively and developing an active home training programme after surgery could create options leading to better results for these patients.
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