| 1. |
- Lidar, Malena, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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The Transformation of Teaching Habits in Relation to the Introduction of Grading and National Testing in Science Education in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: Research in science education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0157-244X .- 1573-1898. ; 50:1, s. 151-173
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden, a new curriculum and new methods of assessment (grading of students and national tests) in science education were introduced in grade six in 2012/2013. We have investigated what implications these reforms have for teachers’ teaching and assessment practices in order to explore the question of how teachers transform their teaching habits in relation to policy reforms. Interviews with 16 teachers teaching science in Y6, over three years after the reforms were introduced, were analyzed. Building on the ideas of John Dewey, we consider teachers’ talk about their everyday practice as expressions of their habits of teaching. Habits of teaching are related both to individual experiences as well as institutional traditions in and about teaching. A categorization of educational philosophies was used to teachers’ habits of teaching to a collective level, and to show how habits can be transformed and developed over time in specific sociocultural contexts. The teachers were categorised as using essentialist and/or progressivist educational philosophy. In the responses to the introduction of grading and national testing, the teachers took three approaches: their habits being reinforced, revised or unchanged in relation to the reforms. Although the responses were different, a striking similarity was that all teachers justified their responses with wanting to do what is best for students. However, how to show care for students differed, from delivering scientific knowledge in alignment with a essentialist educational philosophy, to preparing students to do well on tests, to supporting their development as individuals, which is in alignment with a progressivist educational philosophy.
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| 2. |
- Almqvist, Jonas, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Analysing validity : The case of Swedish national tests in year 6 science
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to analyse and discuss standardized tests in biology, physics and chemistry with a special focus on their content validity. In the article we describe and discuss three different tensions between the Swedish curricula and standardized tests in science: (1) Curricular intentions and assessment choices, (2) The ‘knowledge requirements’ specified in the curriculum and the marking scheme used in the assessment and (3) The intention of the evaluation system and its actual result. These tensions have consequences for the validity of the tests. Hence, it is necessary to regard these tests as only one of many resources teachers can use in their teaching and assessment practices.
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| 3. |
- Almqvist, Jonas, 1968-, et al.
(författare)
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Teaching Traditions in Classroom Practice : A Comparative Didactic Approach
- 2023
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Ingår i: Didactics in a Changing World. - Cham : Springer Nature. ; , s. 55-65, s. 55-65
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Teachers make a lot of choices and handle different kinds of didactical dilemmas in their everyday teaching. Research on teaching traditions in classroom practice show that didactical challenges often do not have any clear or obvious solution, but rather needs to be made visible, problematized and discussed by teachers. In this chapter, we illustrate and discuss how comparative didactics as a growing research area may contribute to a deeper understanding of teaching in different subjects. We take our departure in research in the Nordic and French traditions of didactics and describe how research contribute to analyses, critical discussions about and development of teaching and classroom practice. More specifically, we argue that comparative didactics should be seen as a way of dealing with questions about similarities and differences in teachers’ selection of content and manners of teaching and how these selections may influence classroom practice and students’ learning. In the chapter, we focus on, illustrate and discuss two characteristics of comparative didactics. First, one of the overall ambitions of comparative didactics is to analyze what is taken for granted in different educational practices and to identify things not possible to see without doing the comparisons with other practices. Second, the comparisons between educational practices contribute with knowledge of a wide range of alternative ways of selecting goals, content and manners of teaching and can be used in the development of teaching. We focus on these questions with the specific ambition to focus on issues about teaching, classroom practice and educational content.
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| 4. |
- Enoksson, Helen, et al.
(författare)
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Studier i en främmande skolkultur
- 2019
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Ingår i: Didaktisk utvecklingsdialog. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144125749 ; , s. 49-66
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Lidar, Malena, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Classroom meaning making with text : Practical epistemology analysis of lab work instructions
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this article, a method for investigating the role of texts in student meaning making is developed. A central methodological standpoint in the article is that texts get their meaning in encounters with the users and it is shown how this can be studied by using practical epistemology analysis. The practical epistemology approach is combined with a transactional theory of reading, a theory that puts emphasis on the contributions of both text and the reader in the two-way, dynamic process of reading. The texts analyzed empirically in this study are laboratory instructions. The empirical material is made up of video recordings from a Science Education class in year 7 and 8, doing laboratory work from the written instructions. On many occasions in practical work, the laboratory guide plays an important role for the students’ activities and the opportunities for learning they get. Instructional texts are often supposed to be easy to understand and unproblematic to use. However, by focusing on different problematic situations that may arise when students are expected to follow laboratory instructions it is possible to discuss the different meanings that can arise in the encounters between student and text. In laboratory work, many more actions than those comprised in the instructional text are necessarily performed. Consequently, the way students are able to make the instructions intelligible will direct their further meaning making. With analyses of practical epistemology we can show that students need to know the procedures, certain attentiveness and to re-actualize relevant knowledge.
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| 7. |
- Lidar, Malena, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Kunskap och makt i fysikundervisningen
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Detta bidrag handlar om inkluderings- och exkluderingsprocesser i fysikundervisningen. Forskning visar att många elever har svårt att identifiera sig med fysik och väljer bort naturvetenskap som en möjlig karriärväg. Vi undersöker därför fysikundervisning på högstadiet, eftersom det är där många elever tappar intresse för ämnena, och gymnasiet då eleverna väljer om de vill fortsätta med vidare studier inom ämnet, med forskningsfrågan att se hur kunskapsutveckling och maktrelationer är sammanlänkade i klassrummet.När någon deltar i undervisning i fysik, lär de sig potentiellt mycket mer än kunskapsinnehållet som undervisas; de lär sig vad som räknas som relevant kunskap i fysik, de lär sig om normer och värderingar i fysik, och vem som kan vara en fysiker. Vilket innehåll och vilka metoder som privilegieras får konsekvenser för vad eleverna ges möjlighet att läsa sig, och kan således betraktas som aspekter av makt. Vi analyserar maktaspekter genom att identifiera handlingar som vägleder eller styr andras handlingar, och därefter analysera likheter och skillnader i olika klassrum i fråga om hur styrning sker och vilka potentiella konsekvenser denna styrning kan få.Analyserna görs på videoinspelningar och fältanteckningar från klassrumsaktiviteter i tre högstadieskolor i årskurs 8 och 9, samt i en gymnasieklass i år 1. Resultaten visar att vid en första anblick ter sig undervisningen i alla fyra klassrummen inkludera ett ganska traditionellt fysikinnehåll. Men en mer ingående analys visar att eleverna i de olika klassrummen ges väldigt olika möjligheter att delta i undervisningen och skapa relationer till innehållet. Vad som framstår som önskvärda sätt att handla på ger olika förutsättningar för meningsskapande. Därmed ges olika förutsättningar för deltagande i ett allt mer individualiserat, senliberalt samhälle där människor förväntas vara aktiva, reflekterande och göra val för sitt eget personliga bästa.
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| 8. |
- Lidar, Malena, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Nationella prov i biologi, fysik och kemi - hur påverkas undervisningen?
- 2010
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- National tests in biology, physics and chemistry: potential influence on teachers’ teaching practices National tests in biology, physics and chemistry are now introduced in year 9 in Swedish comprehensive school. These tests aim at supporting teaching, learning and development of school practice in direction towards the goals in national curriculum. The introduction of national tests is used by the government in order to raise the standards, make more students reach the goals by strengthening the follow-up of student knowledge and at the same time create a more equal and fair assessment and grading of students. This is described as necessary since Swedish students’ results are cut back in national measurements and they achieve lower scores relatively to students in other comparable countries (e.g. TIMSS). We propose a project that will investigate if and in which way the introduction of national tests in science education influence teachers’ opinions of what is ‘good’ education in science and how this effects teachers’ instruction and assessment of students. This paper will be devided in two parts. The first part present an outline for a research project and the second part present the results of a pilot study with the aim to study how two focus groups of teachers have experienced the try-outs of national tests in 2009. The outlined project would firstly conduct a survey identifying different teaching traditions, or selective traditions, among the Swedish teachers. This is done by constructing a questionnaire which aims at identifying teachers teaching practice according to teaching goals, choice of content and methods used in the classroom. Secondly, elected teachers from different teaching traditions will be interviewed and observed when teaching. Analyses from the material will be made with the concept of ‘curriculum emphases’ to identify what is considered to be important knowledge. Analyses of the actual national tests will be carried out using the same tools. The results of the investigations will be discussed in relation to research on ‘scientific literacy’, which relates to socioscientific issues. This project will make it possible to identify potential systematic differences in teachers’ opinions and practice between teachers belonging to different teaching traditions regarding the effects of national tests. In the pilot study carried out during autumn 2009, groups of teachers in two different schools were given the task to discuss their experiences from performing try-out national tests in physics, chemistry or biology. They were asked questions about if and how they imagined theirs and others teaching would be affected by the introduction of national tests and if the content of instruction would change as a consequence. Preliminary results show that the group of teachers that preformed the chemistry test, identified everyday knowledge as privileged. These teachers used textbooks in their teaching, which according to them do not use this emphasis, they expressed the students were insufficiently prepared. The teachers made the prediction that the textbooks will probably change as a consequence. The teachers who have carried out the physics test expressed that the test helped them to see what had been missing in their teaching, according to both content and teaching methods. They also state that the national tests might function as a model when constructing questions concerning higher order thinking (MVG). The preliminary results from the pilot study will provide a background to find relevant and precise questions to a future survey, give insight into different positions teachers may take on and point to which changes are possible.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Lidar, Malena, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
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Teachers’ responses to the introduction of grading and national testing in Sweden
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reforms to the assessment system in Swedish schools were implemented in 2012. The reform requires that pupils receive grades, rather than comments only, at Y6 (age 12-13). Previously this happened from Y8. Also, national tests were introduced in Biology, Physics and Chemistry. The national tests, marked locally using a marking scheme, are intended to support teachers in the assessment of students’ knowledge and to be supportive of consistent grading between schools. This study investigates whether, and if so in what way, the introduction of this centralized control influences the local teaching and assessment practices in science. Interviews were conducted with 12 teachers exploring their teaching practice after the first round of local grading and national tests. In some Swedish schools pupils are taught science by subject specialist teachers; in others by a ‘generalist’ teacher. Questions explored what they considered as characteristic about science teaching, how they select teaching content and assessment approaches, in addition to their thoughts on the reforms.Our theoretical framework is based on curriculum theory and research on educational traditions, showing that there are often patterns in the choices made by teachers in classroom teaching, and the purposes underlying these (i.e. Fensham 2009, Lundqvist et al 2012, Roberts 2011). For example, some teachers demonstrate a tradition of more emphasis on introducing pupils to scientific concepts and relations, while others focus on using scientific knowledge to explain, and deal with, situations in everyday life. In the interviews, teachers expressed different teaching goals. For example, some teachers simply talk about the goal of enabling students to understand the world around them. Other teachers focus on enabling students to draw upon scientific knowledge to inform decisions around socio-scientific issues, e.g. environmental sustainability. Other teachers focus on preparing students for future science study or careers. Teachers also value the content in the national tests differently, e.g. in terms of agreeing /not agreeing with what they consider to be valid knowledge at Y6. This was expressed either as the tests being examples of good practice that a teacher aims to match, or that the tests were fragmenting the science content and detaching it from its social context. These differing responses resulted in shifts in local teaching and assessment practices.Our study has implications for the reform of national testing regimes in other countries. This includes the UK, where a variety of national testing systems are in place, with ongoing changes.
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