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| 24. |
- Bentley, Per Olof, 1945
(författare)
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Mathematics Teachers and Their Conceptual Models - A New Field of Research
- 2008
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Swedish mathematics teachers’ knowledge for conceptual teaching is the issue of the present study. Anglo-American research in this field shows that teachers lack this particular knowledge to a high degree. The aim was to study firstly, a number of mathematics teachers’ conceptual understanding, secondly, their knowledge of pupils’ conceptual understanding, thirdly, a number of their pupils’ conceptual understanding and fourthly, to try to develop a comprehensive theory of conceptual understanding for school mathematics. The fourteen interviewed teachers were selected by means of theoretical sampling in order to reach theoretical saturation. The data were transcribed and analysed within an extended Phenomenographic framework. By comparing the teachers’ own understanding with their knowledge of pupils’ understanding of the concepts of variable and proportionality, the variation consisted in two principally dissimilar patterns. Characteristic of the first pattern was that the teachers’ own understanding coincided with their knowledge of pupils’ understanding. Typical of the second pattern was that the teachers not only exposed mathematically qualitatively well-developed ways of understanding the concepts but also an awareness of pupils’ less developed ways of understanding. In order to compare teachers’ predictions of pupils’ understanding of the two concepts, variable and proportionality some of the teachers and a number of their pupils were interviewed altogether 15 persons. The teachers’ predictions displayed a high precision. It was shown that a decisive influence on the pupils’ ways of understanding the fraction concept was exerted by the conceptual models of vulgar fractions applied by the teachers in their instructional practice. It was possible to characterise each individuals’ conceptual understanding by taking the descriptive categories on group-level as a point of departure and by using each individual’s data. Whether or not a certain way of understanding will be exposed is determined by the powerfulness of the experiment problem. The results suggest that not all teachers have the necessary knowledge for conceptual teaching. Subsequently, the aim is reached. With few exceptions, the categories of conceptual understanding are in harmony with research. Since conceptual models were proved to influence pupils’ conceptual understanding, it would be fruitful to study how teachers apply the models in their teaching and how they are understood by pupils. Therefore, there are reasons for putting forward the role of conceptual models in school mathematics as a new field of research.
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- Berg, Christina, 1963
(författare)
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Influences on schoolchildren's dietary selection : focus on fat and fibre at breakfast
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- One important aim of the Swedish Action Programme for Nutrition is to increase the consumption of dietary fibre and decrease fat intake. The currently available extensive range of fat-reduced and fibre-enriched foods makes these dietary practices possible, but also makes the selection of a health promoting diet more complex. This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of psychosocial influences on schoolchildren?s food choice, with specific attention to fat and fibre content. The focus was on breakfast because typical Swedish breakfast foods are important sources of fat and fibre. The Theory of Planned Behaviour formed the theoretical basis of the studies. All pupils in the 5th, 7th and 9th grades in M?lndal municipality (N=1730) were asked to complete a questionnaire and a 7-day food record. Interviews were performed with 181 of those subjects. A picture-sort interview technique, the ?stacking box methodology?, was employed to describe perceptions and habitual choices. Assessing diets of children and adolescents is not an easy task. As in all dietary surveys, reporting and participation biases may exist. The present study using food records illustrates several such biases, which should be taken into consideration in the design, analysis and interpretation of future studies. The ?stacking box methodology? seems promising, and appeared to have some advantages compared to traditional methods. However, the two dietary assessment methods generally yielded similar results. Reduced-fat choices of milk and margarine were common, although a considerable number of subjects consumed full-fat products. When it comes to the consumption of bread and cereals, the low-fibre alternatives dominated. At the age of 11 as well as 15, children?s own attitudes and underlying beliefs were of importance for breakfast food choices, as was parental influence. Parents influenced food choice by controlling food availability, acting as models and encouraging the child to consume. The perceived parental norms supported dietary changes towards products with more fibre but not towards fat-reduced products. However, the perception of parents? own consumption seemed to favour consumption of fat-reduced milk. Participants? attitudes were associated with health beliefs as well as taste perceptions. In general, the results suggest that taste may be a barrier to the consumption of high-fibre products, while consumption of low-fat products appears to be impeded by health beliefs. Contrary to several other studies, the present results suggest that some aspects of young people?s dietary behaviour are related to their knowledge. Specifically, the choice of high-fibre products was associated with knowledge of fibre sources and the choice of fat-reduced milk products was associated with a positive attitude towards limited fat intake.
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- Björklund, Elisabeth, 1945-
(författare)
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Att erövra litteracitet : Små barns kommunikativa möten med berättande, bilder, text och tecken i förskolan
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is based on an ethnographic field study among a group of monolingual children from one and a half to three years old at a pre-school in a Swedish village. The primary aim of the study has been to gain knowledge about how young children conquer and express literacy in their everyday lives. One assumption was that children are active and competent in their search for meaning when dealing with texts, signs and images. A second aim has been to investigate whether children’s literacy could have an impact on the social and cultural context of pre-school.Research questions addressed in the study focus on children’s participation in literacy events and their actions in literacy practice. An additional question was whether children were contributing to literacy practice when interacting with other children in the group.The theoretical framework draws upon socio-cultural theory. The empirical material consists of video recordings and the focus of observation has been on children’s actions related to literacy, expressed as early literacy, including reading and writing as well as telling and retelling narratives, singing and other verbal and non verbal communication. In children’s literacy events and literacy practice the specific context was of central interest. All the material collected has been transcribed and transferred into text and constitutes the basis for analyzing what children are performing in actual events and practices. The guiding principle for description was at first to give a close reproduction of children’s verbal utterances and their acting linked to the concept of early literacy. Secondly, the aim was to describe and analyze whether the utterances and actions could be linked to the specific social and cultural context.The analysed material demonstrates how children participate and interact with each other while engaged in literacy and the material also displays the content of their communication. Two different kinds of literacy appear: one is narrative tellings and the other is reading and drawing/writing. A deeper analysis shows that children are building knowledge of telling and also creating a specific manifesto of literacy. The children also underline what they are doing through verbal expressions where they defined themselves as both readers and writers.The result gives a contribution to new knowledge and an understanding of early literacy among very young children as something they have created in pre-school as a social and cultural environment. Literacy in the studied group of children uncovers many more expressions, including several actions with regard to written material, than we usally relate to the youngest children in pre-school.
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