| 1. |
- Eriksson, Helena, 1965-
(author)
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Att utveckla algebraiskt tänkande genom lärandeverksamhet : En undervisningsutvecklande studie i flerspråkiga klasser i grundskolans tidigaste årskurser
- 2021
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to develop and explore teaching possible to promote algebraic thinking together with young, multilingual students six to twelve years old. One underlying assumption for the aim is that algebraic thinking can be developed by students participating in learning activities that are characterized by collective mathematical reasoning on relations between quantities of positive whole and rational numbers. Two overall research questions support this work: (1) What in students work indicate algebraic thinking identified in learning activities and as experiences of algebraic thinking? (2) How can learning models manifest in learning activity, in what ways do learning models change and enhance, and which characteristics of learning actions are enabled? Data was produced by interviews and from research lessons with students in lower grades in a multilingual Swedish school. The research lessons were focused on learning activity as suggested by Davydov (1990, 2008/1986), aimed at developing theoretical thinking – here algebraic thinking. They were staged in two research projects conducted as networks of learning studies. In these learning studies, the group of teachers iteratively designed and revised learning activities whereby the students could identify mathematical knowledge and collectively solve mathematical problems. The findings in the articles signal that learning models were developed as rudimentary, preliminary, prototypical and finally symbolic. Rudimentary models were grounded in algebraic thinking when the students analysed problem situations and identified the problem. Preliminary and prototypical models were developed by initiating and formalising actions understood as algebraic thinking. Different tools were initiated by the students and the teachers. These tools were formalised by the students. The students used algebraic symbols and line-segments to think together when comparing different quantities (Article 2). They carried out operations using unknown quantities when reflecting on additive and multiplicative relationships (Article 3). The students also used algebraic symbols to reflect on subtraction as non-commutative (Article 3). The different tools they used interacted on different levels of generalisation (Article 1). Algebraic thinking grounded the students reflections but interacted with, for example, fractional thinking in their arguments during the development of their learning models (Article 4). The different ways of thinking interacted in arguments when developing the rudimentary, the preliminary and the prototypical models. However, in the conclusion of their collective reasoning and in the development of the symbolic learning models, these different ways of thinking were intertwined in the same arguments (Article 4).As a conclusion, the four articles signal that learning models including algebraic symbols developed in a learning activity can be used by newly-arrived immigrant students to reflect on structures of numbers.
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| 2. |
- Florin, Ulrika, 1964-
(author)
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Från idé till gestaltningsförslag : fallstudie från Projekt Konstpaus
- 2010
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Populär sammanfattning I vårt samhälle finns många offentliga konstverk. Dessa verk har kommit till på olika sätt men gemensamt är att konstverken i de allra flesta fall upphandlats med utgångspunkt i någon form av skiss. Skissen föregår det kommande konstverket och tjänar som underlag för beslut om upphandling av verket i full skala. Kunskapen om hur skisser kan tydas varierar och dessutom förekommer flera typer av skisser som var för sig fordrar olika sorters insikter av betraktaren (beslutsfattaren) för att kunna tolkas. Det övergripande temat för avhandlingen är kommunikationsprocesserna i relation till utvecklingen av 12 konstnärers gestaltningsförslag, tävlingsbidrag, samt hur juryns bedömning av dessa ser ut. Studien är baserad på material insamlat från de deltagande konstnärernas processer i Projekt Konstpaus, ett projekt delfinansierat av EU. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för hur konstnärer utformar sina gestaltningsförslag, samt hur dessa förslag används och värderas. För att göra detta har tävlingsbidragen analyserats och konstnärerna intervjuats. Konstnärliga gestaltningsprocesser har synliggjorts liksom kommunikationen mellan beställare och konstnär.Bland annat har det framkommit att det finns en större potential att förmedla ett komplext gestaltningsinnehåll till en jury med stöd av digitala skisser, än vid användande av traditionella skisser. Det har visat sig att det kommande konstverkets kvaliteter blir synliga, men också att de brister som finns i gestaltningen tydliggörs i 3D- skisserna. Liksom teknologier tidigare i historien haft sin påverkan på bildutvecklingen, tolkningen och seendet har också övergången till digitala skisstekniker denna inverkan. Det har också visat sig att den text som tillhör respektive tävlingsbidrag haft avgörande betydelse för utfallet av jurybedömningen. Muntliga och skriftliga presentationer, bilagor och brev har påverkat juryn i sina beslut.Studien har också visat hur konstnärer kan tolka och förmedla resultat av en inventering och genom sina skisser förmedla dessa tolkningar. Konsten som tolkare av miljö, tid och tanke, kan gestalta information om en plats och i och med detta också fungera värnande för ett samhälles identitet i olika faser av en utveckling.Studien har bidragit med en djupare inblick i konstnärliga gestaltningsprocesser och hur de kan beskrivas samt i och med detta också en fördjupad förståelse i allmänhet av kreativa processer.
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| 3. |
- Axelsson, Karin, 1969-
(author)
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Entrepreneurship in a School Setting : Introducing a Business Concept in a Public Context
- 2017
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Entrepreneurship has during the last decades gained an immense interest in academia, politics and practice. It is argued from politics that more entrepreneurs are necessary for the economic development. In addition, nowadays entrepreneurship is also perceived as a solution to social and societal challenges. This drives a need for entrepreneurial people everywhere in society who can cope with the inconstant and uncertain world of today. As a consequence, there are around the world numerous educational initiatives trying to inspire and fuel an entrepreneurial mind-set. Here, educations of all kind become relevant contexts since they provide an opportunity to affect children, youth’s and adult’s interest and attitudes towards entrepreneurship, and as such give a possibility to reach a vast number of people.Sweden is no exception, and in 2009 the Swedish Government launched a ‘Strategy for entrepreneurship in the field of education’ in which entrepreneurship is said to run like a common thread throughout education. The main focus is that self-employment is to become as natural as being an employee. As such the Government took an active stand for implementing entrepreneurship in the school setting on a broad front, from preschool to adult education.This development can be seen as part of New Public Management; a development where concepts from the private sector are lent and transferred to the public sector. Thus, when introducing entrepreneurship in the Swedish educational system, this at the same time means introducing a traditional business concept in a public setting. Therefore, the overall aim of this thesis is to increase knowledge of and insights on how a business concept – entrepreneurship – is operationalised and constructed in a public setting.When placing entrepreneurship in new societal contexts other questions arise and complexity intensifies. In this qualitative research, the empirical context in focus are schools. It investigates how entrepreneurship is constructed among teachers in their work. But also how this business concept is included in a non-business setting by studying how the entrepreneurship strategy is operationalised in educational practice.As such the thesis and its findings contribute to the scientific discussions on societal entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship education, as well as on strategy and strategising in a public context. The research also aspire to serve inspiration, insights and food for thoughts on discussions and reflections on entrepreneurship within the school practice. This compilation thesis include five papers. To be able to fulfil the aim this research use a broad theoretical base and multiple qualitative research methods. The combination of methods include semi-structured interviews, in-depth interview using the stimulated recall method, focus group interviews, participative meetings, observations, document studies, digital questionnaires, written inquiries, analysing texts and critical incidents questionnaires.
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| 4. |
- Florin, Ulrika, 1964-
(author)
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Konstnärskap i samspel : om skapande arbetsprocesser i myndighetsledda samverkansprojekt
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Artists in interaction: creation processes in official collaborative projects is a doctoral thesis that explores the creation processes of artists, when the project owner defines the purpose, theme and framework. The area is explored from the artists' perspective and the overall research question deals with the opportunities and obstacles that artists face when working in collaborative projects.To be able to explore the artists' working processes, in which sketches and models were tools, concepts from the visual research field were combined with knowledge theories that derive from the area of practice-based research. The knowledge theories draw on an updated understanding of ancient philosophy developed by, among others, the philosopher Martha Nussbaum. Rudolf Arnheim’s concepts of visual thinking are also vital for the interpretation of the visuals.The results indicate that skills in different sketching techniques build trust and enable communication. However, the artists experienced that it was more difficult to integrate the more indefinable parts of their knowledge, which relates to improvisation and intuition, even though this was highlighted as the most vital force in their working processes. The consequence is that the artists have not always followed their artistic intentions, which in some cases also meant compromising the quality of the works of art they produced. The collaboration between the artists and the project-owner representatives could be more enriching for both parties if the artists' implicit knowledge is respected as a resource and given some room, although this may involve certain risks.The study also provides results regarding the interpretation of models and sketches, and discusses in what way different sketches can support (or hinder) communication in different stages of a design process, i.e. what aspects are important to consider when sketches are used to support communication. Particularly interesting is that the findings demonstrate that spoken and written language has a significant impact on how sketches are interpreted; the use of verbal language is therefore an important factor in presentations built on visuals.
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| 5. |
- Franker, Qarin, 1952-
(author)
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Litteracitet och visuella texter : Studier om lärare och kortutbildade deltagare i sfi
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of knowledge concerning the adult basic literacy education in the Nordic countries and broaden research on literacy from its traditional focus on verbal texts to include images and visual texts. The thesis comprises a research survey concerning adult literacy and two empirical, exploratory studies focusing on the use of visual texts in the basic Swedish language programme for adult immigrants, Svenskundervisning för invandrare (sfi). The first study presents international and Nordic research on literacy with a focus on current sociocultural, and critical perspectives. Together with the three concepts of mutual respect, meaningfulness and participation, an ‘expansive’ model for adult literacy instruction is also presented. The second study deals with the teachers´ views on appropriate visual materials for second language and literacy teaching. The results show an extensive but diversified usage of visual material but also that literacy teachers pay very close attention to participants´ sociocultural background in their image selection but tend to underestimate their cognitive ability. From a critical perspective the teachers´ statements can be regarded as part of a discursive practice in which they unintentionally contribute to a discourse construction of an identity of deficiency of the learners. The third study examines and compares, how adult second language learners interact with and understand a number of Swedish election posters. The analyses identify processes and variations in the learners´ interaction. The results show that the reconstructions of the visual texts are influenced by the participants´ linguistic, educational and cultural ‘repertoires’, as well as the posters´ graphic, visual and textual design. A certain level of linguistic proficiency as well as formal schooling and knowledge of the current discourse seem to be indispensable for making the intended interpretations.
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| 6. |
- Gottlieb, Laura
(author)
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Designing Tools for Joint Inquiry : Making and thinking together
- 2020
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Licentiate thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Positioned within the research program and subject area of Innovation and Design, this research focuses on the relationship between tools and joint inquiry. Joint inquiry – the collaborative exploration and definition of problems and possible solutions – plays an important part in Participatory Design processes. Tools, usually involving the making or using of artefacts in workshops, are developed and used to support joint inquiry between different actors. The aim of this research is to contribute to the deliberate design and systematic evaluation of tools for joint inquiry. This work addresses the literature gap comprising a lack of systematic evaluations in Participatory Design research and a need to evaluate designed activities and environments in relation to emerging designer-participant collaborations.This research is a starting point towards developing a systematic approach for designing tools for joint inquiry and introduces two frameworks for this purpose. The first is the Communities of Inquiry framework, from the field of computer-mediated communication in distance education, which is used to identify indicators in joint inquiry. The second framework is a categorisation used to distinguish different aspects of a tool. Combining the two frameworks aids the understanding of the relationships between tools and indicators for joint inquiry. A Research through Design and Research for Design approach is used to study conversations between people and in interaction with tools. Nine design experiments are described, all of which involve the design and testing of tools to support the initiation of joint inquiry. The tools were primarily created and tested within an academic context with design students and researchers, with a focus on the topic of co-production – that is, close collaboration between academia and external actors. One tool was created and used within a museum with youth and researchers.The results from the design experiments show that the tools supported the Communities of Inquiry indicators in the following ways: eliciting metaphors stimulated humour and encouraged contributions, renegotiating artefacts provoked brainstorming, commensality promoted phatic communication and humour, the relationship between material properties and metaphors prompted problem recognition, and formats directed towards personal experiences led to self-disclosure and emotional expression. The tools were a hinderance to the Communities of Inquiry framework when there was dominant participation and when the tools were considered to be inappropriate for certain work contexts. Future research will continue to develop means of systematically evaluating and designing tools that support communicative practices in Participatory Design processes.
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