| 231. |
- Rinne, Ilona
(författare)
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Pedagogisk takt i betygssamtal
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to explore how grades are explained and understood in grade conferences between teachers and students in Swedish upper secondary school. The empirical material is based on 149 video-recorded conferences of nine teachers and their students and was collected during spring semester of 2007. The theoretical frame of the study is phenomenology and hermeneutics, which means that grades are understood as lived. The analysis focuses on existential aspects of teachers’ and students’ interaction according to van Manen’s (1991) description of the tact of teaching. Two intertwined dimensions of teachers’ work are considered in analysis: curriculum-based and ethical. The results are presented in two parts: the first part consists of general descriptions of characteristics of the conferences. By means of a hermeneutic process of interpretation, two themes were revealed: conferences that end in agreement between the teacher and the student, and conferences that end in disagreement. Dissatisfaction with the teacher’s grading was showed by students in only seven of 149 conferences. This division between agreement and disagreement forms the basis for the second part of the thesis. It is divided into two sections. In the first section five themes are defined: grades as taken for granted, grades as responding to students’ presumed wishes, grades as encouragement, grades as “borderline”, MVG as a starting point for grading. In the second section three themes are analysed in relation to grade conferences that end in disappointment: teachers try to avoid disappointing students, teachers handle disappointment, teachers respond to criticism. The analysis of conferences that do not end in agreement shows that students can not affect teachers’ decisions about grading unless teachers let them. The results show several existential aspects of grading. A common starting point for grading among teachers is to assume that students should get the highest grade, which is not always the case among students. A central aspect of grade conferences is teachers’ benevolence towards students. This aspect indicates that grading includes dimensions that are not expressed in the policy documents. Grading is, in a broader sense, a human-existential action where student’s emotions, in particular, are taken into consideration by the teacher. Grades can be given with the purpose of encouraging students and teachers seem to try to avoid disappointing their students by giving a lower grade than students expect. The results give rise to several questions. Why do teachers act as they do? Why do they seem so concerned about making sure that students are satisfied with their grades? One possible explanation can be seen in the relational aspects of the profession, another in the intimacy of the conference, where teachers and students meet face to face. In such a situation teachers attempt to avoid ending up in an awkward position where they disappoint their students. Teachers can also be pressurized by their principals or students’ parents into giving high grades, which can be explained by the increased influence of economic factors in schools and growing competition among schools. This study provides an understanding of the complexity of grading, that grading is not such an unequivocal action as is suggested by politicians and policy makers. Further research about the aspects of teachers’ work related to existential aspects of grading is therefore suggested.
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| 232. |
- Rocksén, Miranda, 1968
(författare)
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Reasoning in a Science Classroom
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In research on science education, there is a need to further understand the relation between longer and shorter processes of teaching and learning in the classroom. With a theoretical framework based on dialogical theories of communication, this thesis investigates three aspects of the formation of a science classroom practice: the making of conceptual distinctions, classroom organisations and the making of connections between lessons. The empirical material consists of eleven video recorded lessons on biological evolution in grade 9 (15 year old students). The analysis connects different levels of classroom interaction and patterns in the communication over several lessons as well as the details of particular situations. The empirical findings of the thesis are presented in three studies. The first study shows co-existing meanings of the word explanation and three conversational structures that the teacher used for making distinctions between them. The second study shows how small-group activities are used for coordinating the pace of students’ participation in these lessons. The third study shows strategies for link-making and a topic trajectory including questions that were raised in relation to survival and extinction of species. The conclusions point to the significance of coordinating the communication so that patterns such as those described can provide learning opportunities for students.
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| 233. |
- Rolfe, Victoria, 1987
(författare)
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Exploring socioeconomic inequality in educational opportunity and outcomes in Sweden and beyond
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This doctoral thesis aims to explore Sweden’s achievement gap in international assessment and how this may have developed in the context of a network of educational inequalities. Theoretically grounded in the Model of Potential Educational Experiences (Schmidt, Raizen, Britton, Bianchi, & Wolfe, 1997), the thesis investigates how the relationship between the intended and attained curriculum is moderated by actions at the classroom level. Teacher implementation of the curriculum provides opportunities for students to learn yet is a source of inequity in the school system. Student socioeconomic background and the amount of subject content (or Opportunity to Learn – OTL) they are exposed to are judged to significantly influence student outcomes. Socioeconomic inequality of outcomes has been perennially observed in educational assessment and has been a topic of investigation since the mid-twentieth century, while a body of literature suggests that there is an equality gap in OTL, with more advantaged students offered more content coverage through their mathematics lessons. This compilation thesis features an integrative essay and three empirical studies, which apply statistical analysis to data from two international large-scale assessments, PISA and TIMSS. Study I investigated the measurement of socioeconomic status over time in Sweden. After establishing which questionnaire items consistently appeared in PISA, a measurement model bespoke to Sweden was constructed from 2000 data. The model was found to be replicable and trustworthy over time, establishing an alternative measure of SES applicable to 15 years of Swedish PISA data. In Study II socioeconomic inequalities in opportunity and outcomes in mathematics and science, and the question as to whether unequal opportunities perpetuate unequal outcomes were investigated in 78 countries using 4 cycles of TIMSS data. Achievement gaps were observed near universally. These achievement gaps were strong and increased across the cycles of TIMSS. Opportunity gaps were less frequently observed, and evidence that schooling exacerbates socioeconomic inequalities in outcomes was confined to a select group of countries including England, Malta, Scotland, and Singapore. Sweden’s achievement gap was consistent across the time points, and an opportunity gap was only observed in half the cycles. Finally, schooling mediated the effects of SES on achievement in only the 2003 cycle for Sweden, suggesting equitable mathematics provision in Sweden. Teachers are essential to the implementation of the curriculum, and their actions affect the experiences of students. Multiple inequalities in Swedish classrooms were explored in Study III. The 2015 TIMSS cycle was grouped by whether or not teachers were mathematics specialists. Overall, Swedish mathematics students experienced substantial gaps in achievement, opportunity and teacher quality. However, differing patterns of inequalities emerged in the grouped model. Among classes with specialist teachers there was a moderate opportunity gap, while those with non-specialists had a teacher quality gap. In both groups there was a socioeconomic gap in teacher perception of school ethos towards academics. The findings of this study underscore the importance of having high-quality teachers in mathematics classrooms as a temper of outcome inequity. Collectively, the findings of the constituent studies confirm the persistence of the achievement gap in Sweden and globally, contextualize the opportunity gap in Sweden, and underline the importance of item choice and construct measurement when modelling inequality using international data. Suggestions are made for further research integrating the thesis’s contribution to construction measurement into trend analyses of opportunity gaps, and combining register and international data to parse how changes in teacher education may affect equality in Swedish classrooms.
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| 234. |
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| 235. |
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| 236. |
- Runesdotter, Caroline, 1951
(författare)
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I otakt med tiden? Folkhögskolorna i ett föränderligt fält
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Folk high schools have often been out of synchronisation: both behind the times and as pioneers, and always eager to keep up with their unique identity. There have been variations over time and simultaneously. Folk high schools are diverse. Folk high schools are economically vulnerable and dependent on external funding. Reduced governmental subsidies and new forms of governance introduced in the 1990s have challenged the institutionalized ways to consider and to run the Folk high schools. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate changes in instutituional logica and identities over time. As the title of this thesis, Folk High Schools in a changing field, suggests, one of the key concepts of the discussion is organizational fields. Organizational fields are perceived as organizations with common structures and aims, operating in a nonlocal environment, kept together by a common meaning system and the conviction that they need each other. The concept of organizational fields is one of the fundamental ideas developed within new institutionalism in organization theory. New institutionalism’s focus has shifted from the individual organization to interaction between organizations and the environment. An organizational field is kept together by cultural frames or patterns of meaning. By employing the concept of organizational field as a tool it has been possible to analyze how the ideas and identities of folk high schools are constructed. The results show that a comprehensive diversification of folk high schools has taken place. The schools have differentiated themselves over time and from each other in terms of their activities and owners. Their relations to the environment are increasingly based on business commissions. The results also show that the school’s activities are increasingly short term focused and quickly carried out. This leads to new and more temporary relations. In the long term, this challenges the common meaning system and the very idea about folk high schools’ uniqueness.
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| 237. |
- Ryberg, Ulf
(författare)
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Att urskilja grafiska aspekter av derivata – hur elevernas möjligheter påverkas av innehållets behandling i undervisningen
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to investigate in what ways students’ opportunities to discern graphical aspects of the concept of derivative can be related to the design of instruction. The thesis is based on two empirical studies that together included 144 Swedish upper-secondary students who were enrolled in the course in which the derivative is first introduced. Study 1 was conducted in natural settings and involved collaboration between researchers and teachers. The study generated three different 120-min lesson designs, all of which concerned the same mathematical content, the relationship between a graph and its derivative graph. The designs were equivalent regarding organization and teaching methods. However, the content was handled differently during instruction. Design 1 used multiple representations and graphs of polynomial functions. Design 2 restricted instructions to fewer representations but used a broader variety of graphs. Design 3 was a hybrid of Designs 1 and 2 and contained limited variation regarding both representations and graphs. The results of the study, which were based mainly on qualitative data consisting of observations and students’ explanations on posttest questions, suggested that Design 2 offered the best opportunities to discern graphical aspects of the derivative. The results of Study 1 were further tested in Study 2 wherein Design 1 and a slightly modified Design 2 were implemented in more controlled experimental conditions. Quantitative as well as qualitative data were collected. Statistical analyses of quantitative data showed that the students who participated in Design 2 performed significantly higher posttest scores. However, further analyses also showed that the effect of Design 2 was dependent of students’ prior knowledge. For students with less prior knowledge, the design was not a significant predictor in relation to the posttest. The results of the statistical analyses were strengthened by qualitative data. Analyses of student interviews suggested that Design 2 offered better opportunities to discern graphical aspects of the derivative. However, in line with the quantitative data, the interviews suggested that to what extent discernment took place was dependent of students’ prior knowledge. Overall, the results of the studies highlight the importance of examining how the handling of the content may affect students’ learning of mathematics. In particular, they challenge the assumption that the use of multiple representations is always beneficial and suggest that how to use representations during instruction concerned with the derivative is an important topic for further investigation, both with regard to practice and research.
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| 238. |
- Rystedt, Hans, 1951
(författare)
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Bridging practices: Simulations in education for the healtcare professions
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The gap between formal education and work is often referred to as an obstacle for learning proficient work performance. The possibilities of simulations to create virtual worlds for learning have been assumed to be beneficial, especially in complex technological environments in which the demands on safety for humans are extensive. In spite of extensive prior research on simulations, it is argued in this thesis that there is still a need for improved understandings of the concrete conditions for how simulations may contribute to bridging the gap between education and work. An educational program for registered nurses to become nurse specialists served as the empirical case. These students were situated in a phase of transition between different professional identities, achieving their specialist qualification by means of theoretical studies and by practicing in clinical settings. Of central concern is the question as to how the use of simulations may change the relations between these realms of education and work and the consequences thereof. Part One of the thesis provides an explanation of concepts in the design of simulations and an overview of the results of prior research on learning with simulations. The theoretical framework described places the analytical focus on interactively accomplished processes of sense-making and the significance of technologies and other resources in these processes. There are also summaries of the included studies and a discussion of the results. Part Two includes the four studies. The first one is an interview study of registered nurses and concerns how central tasks in nursing practice could be learned by means of simulations. The dynamic and complex character of many tasks was stressed, and simulations were judged to be useful for capturing and learning to manage this complexity. The second study addresses how students’ framing of simulated assignments is fundamental in learning processes. It shows how work experiences can contribute to a framing of assignments as authentic, but also how the one-sided reliance of such experiences is problematic for collaboration and for managing problems in accordance with educational goals. The third study has a methodological focus. It is intended to show how detailed analyses of how participants interactively make sense of simulated events can provide new answers on what students learn from simulations. It is argued that such an approach provides concrete and specific understandings of learning processes that are of great concern in the understanding and design of simulation-based learning environments. The fourth study addresses how the use of simulations may contribute to overcoming the encapsulation of formal education. It highlights how several aspects of the integration of simulations in curricula are decisive for this to take place. It is concluded that simulations provide possibilities for creating new forms of boundary practices that offer unique conditions for learning. Participation in simulation activities affords ways of dealing with the problems on many of the premises of work practice, and also to elaborate these with theoretical means. Simulations can thus be used for bridging the gap between education and work by bringing unfolding patient problems into the seminar room. The development of methods for supervision and the integration of simulations with theoretical content and clinical practice are emphasised as being of crucial importance in realising these possibilities.
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| 239. |
- Samuelsson, Katarina, 1972
(författare)
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Teachers' work in times of restructuring: On contextual influences for collegiality and professionality.
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The research in this thesis is situated in the intersection of teachers’ work and contexts of education. It departs from an interest in contextual influences on teachers’ work and professionality under restructuring. It is to be understood as a criticism of a widespread focus, sometimes met in research and in policy, on teachers as individuals and a simplification of teachers’ work. It also departs from a questioning of representations: who has the right to problematize teachers’ work and on what basis? I explore how teachers deal as agents with changes in governance in an era of educational restructuring in order to gain knowledge about influences on teachers’ work and professionality. More specifically, the analyses show how teachers’ work is enabled or constrained by external models of governance. The thesis consists of three sub-studies, involving responses to governance, in terms of organizational structures and expectations in different contexts of education. Theory of institutional logics provides me with a contextually sensitive profession theory that deals with influences on governing work. The intention is that by studying teacher responses to educational governance in different contexts of education through theories of institutional logics the emergent characteristics of teachers’ work and professionality under restructuring can be identified and commented on. I align with research on contemporary education policy and the teaching profession and explore influences on teachers’ work under restructuring with contradictory professional expectations. Thus, in the three articles, the focus is not on the governing or educational system as such but on contextual influences on responses to organizational structures and expectations. There is rather a broad conceptual framing of governing in regard to educational restructuring in terms of marketization, privatization, governing by results and new public management.
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| 240. |
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