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- Eriksson, Ann-Marie, 1964
(författare)
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Formulating knowledge: Engaging with issues of sustainable development through academic writing in engineering education
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Given that knowledge in society is increasingly shaped by textuality and dependent on texts, higher education holds a special responsibility for introducing and guiding students into text practices contingent on disciplinary fields and their knowledge traditions. On a general level, this doctoral thesis investigates how participation in such text practices at university functions as a means for engaging students with knowledge that is new to them. Two aims have been pursued across three empirical studies in the setting of supervision of an academic writing assignment in engineering education. First, the thesis aims at illuminating challenges involved as students and teachers are engaging with knowledge through text practices. Second, the thesis aims at making visible what communicative work such challenges entail. The empirical material comprises video recorded supervision sessions where sequential drafts of an academic writing assignment on issues of sustainable development are being discussed. Given the sociocultural and dialogical perspective this thesis is grounded in, text production is understood as a mediating activity and a process of gradual appropriation of disciplinary practices. Methodologically, such premises imply a detailed investigation of text production as practical work, empirically analysed as interactional, communicative processes and from the participants’ perspective. The studies have provided insights into three salient challenges in this type of text production. Study 1 addresses the problem of how supervisionprovides a site for taking initial steps into a disciplinary field and its knowledge traditions. Study 2 focuses on referencing as a contextualizing and recontextualizing practice where knowledge of a field needs to be transformed for new purposes. Study 3 addresses challenges involved in grounding conclusions in alignment with a particular knowledge field. The analyses show that formulating knowledge is a demanding process for both students and teachers. Writing a report on issues of sustainable development exemplify advanced practices that do not lend themselves to easy explanations and straightforward instruction. Dealing with specific matters about specific issues, negotiating alternative ways of formulating text and testing alternative solutions to specific textual problems seem to have the potential of guiding students into dialogue with a field. Based on the conclusion that this type of orientation seems to require time and recurrent encounters where gradually more concrete aspects of epistemic practices can be unfolded and experienced, it is argued that an orientation of this kind may be difficult to take on one’s own - especially for someone in the role of a student.
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| 2. |
- Thorsen, Cecilia, 1976-
(författare)
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Dimensionality and Predictive validity of school grades : the relative influence of cognitive and social-behavioral aspects
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of the thesis is to investigate the relative influence of cognitive and social-behavioral aspects on compulsory school grades and the importance of the different dimensions for the predictive validity of grades. Data is retrieved from the Gothenburg Educational Longitudinal Database (GOLD) and the Evaluation Through Follow-up (ETF) database. The sample in Study I consisted of three cohorts each of about 100 000 students in Grade 9, in Study II of about 4000 students in Grade 9, and in Study III of about 9000 students who were followed-up through compulsory school. All analyses were conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM). Both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced compulsory school grades were found to be multidimensional, reflecting both subject-specific dimensions and a common-grade dimension, cutting across grades and teachers. The common-grade dimension, which in previous research has been found to be related to social-behavioral aspects, contributed to predict study success in upper secondary school, indicating that social-behavioral aspects partly contribute to explain the predictive power of school grades. The influence of cognitive aspects was substantial. Fluid abilities had a continuous direct influence on the development of knowledge and skills throughout compulsory school, which is in line with the predictions from Cattell's (1987) Investment theory. Substantial indirect effects of fluid abilities on school grades were found, although no direct effects. In sum the results in the present thesis show that both cognitive and social-behavioral aspects contribute to explain the predictive validity of school grades.
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| 4. |
- Godhe, Anna-Lena
(författare)
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Creating and Assessing Multimodal Texts. Negations at the Boundary
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Digital technologies are becoming increasingly common in educational settings. The availability of such tools facilitates the creation of multimodal texts in which several kinds of expression are combined. In this thesis, the activities of creating and assessing multimodal texts in the subject of Swedish at upper secondary school level are analysed in order to illuminate how these activities relate to established practices of creating and assessing texts in educational settings. When the tools that the students work with, as well as the outcome of their activities are altered, the meaning of these altered activities in the educational setting needs to be negotiated. Encounters between new ways of working and educational environments require modification and appropriation of both the technologiesand the educational settings. Literacy and assessment are central concepts in this thesis. Spoken and written words have been central in conventional perceptions of the concept of literacy. However, as the communicational landscape has changed, there is a need to broaden this concept. Likewise, the necessity to broaden the concept of assessment has been discussed. When literacy and assessment are regarded as situated, the settings in which they occur have to be considered, because the concepts both affect and are affected by the environment. The aim of this thesis is to illuminate the relationship between technology, literacy and the educational setting by exploring the activities of creating and assessing multimodal texts. The empirical foundation of the thesis comprises four articles, in which the empirical material has been analysed to answer questions of how the multimodal texts are created and assessed. The empirical material has been collected in an iterative research process in which classroom interactions and interviews with students have been video and audio recorded. The theoretical framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) has been utilized in the analysis, focusing on how the components of activity systems affect and constitute each other. Tensions and contradictions in and between the different components, as well as between different activity systems, may lead to transformations. By studying these tensions and contradictions, insights can be gained into what enables and constrains transformations. The analyses show that it is mainly the spoken word that is negotiated and assessed in the multimodal texts. This mirrors conventional conceptions of the kinds of expressions that are regarded as valuable in language education. In the subject of Swedish, there is a hierarchy in the subject culture where the spoken and written words are regarded as primary in meaning making. Other kinds of expressions are largely overlooked when the multimodal texts are assessed. Thereby, the multimodal texts may reinforce the primacy of the written and spoken language in educational settings, instead of contributing to the evaluation and incorporation of different ways of expressing meaning in language classrooms.
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| 7. |
- 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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| 8. |
- Bredmar, Anna-Carin, 1966-
(författare)
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Lärares arbetsglädje : Betydelsen av emotionell närvaro i det pedagogiska arbetet
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to explore teachers’ ‘work enjoyment’ and thereby deepening our understanding of teachers’ work and professionality. Positive emotions in teachers’ work are an underestimated and under-researched dimension of teacher practise and professionality. Through interviews that have generated the empirical material, the work enjoyment of nineteen teachers is focused on and analyzed from a phenomenological lifeworld approach. The results are presented in two parts; the first one consists of descriptions of teachers’ work enjoyment that reveal seven themes of meanings that signify joy in teachers’ work. The themes include Supporting meanings, which are mood, power source and presence awareness, as well as Widening meanings, which are context and connectedness, rhythm and balance, opening and after heat. In the second part of the result the meanings of the phenomenon are interpreted further and conclusions are drawn. The conclusions highlight the importance of the relation between lived experiences and teachers’ work enjoyment. These themes are To be present, To feel a rhythm, To be “occupied” by work, To be both personal and professional and Teachers’ work as a tapestry of life. Enjoyment of work is fundamental; i.e. like a safe floor to stand on. The experience of joy also means opening and involves an expectant foreshadowing. Based on a safe floor, teachers can open up to different options of how to be or to act. Joy as opening extends across time and space through the longing and hope that it is connected to. In times of struggle, joy enables teachers to find their way back to what is meaningful in their work. Teachers’ work enjoyment is related to the involvement in children’s development and learning. The result shows how work enjoyment provides emotional presence in teachers’ work, both letting oneself be involved by work and involving oneself in the work. Emotional responsiveness is enjoyment of work; it makes the teachers relate to their work with openness and insight. Such responsiveness contributes with sensitivity to the whole classroom situation and towards what is essential in their work, and shows how the emotional and the rational are intertwined. This study provides an understanding of the meanings of teachers’ work enjoyment and what lived experiences of joy can imply for ordinary schoolwork. Given the results of this study it is problematic that positive emotional dimensions of teachers’ work are a relatively unexplored area. The study indicates that work enjoyment is of fundamental importance to teachers’ work.
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| 9. |
- Eklöf, Anders
(författare)
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Project work, independence and critical thinking
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- This thesis studies how students do projects in a Swedish upper secondaryschool. The students have to produce products and at the same time provethem self as independent in relation to the teachers, and negotiate therequirements of the project setting and the written instructions within thegroup. The study focuses on what comes out as problematic for the students,how they solve these dilemma situations and what resources are used in orderto do so.A choice was made only to analyse student group interaction in parts ofthe project process where the teachers were not physically present thus fillinga research gap.The empirical material was collected during three years in sex secondaryschool classes through filmed sessions of groups or pairs working with theirproject.Each of the four articles primarily focuses a special dilemma; structure,independence, instructions and critical thinking. By combining Goffman’sframe analysis with the concepts of risk and uncertainty from a Risk – societyperspective, issues related to what it means to do project work asindependent, critical 21st-century learner are illustrated and discussed.The choice to look only at situations in which students have to managewithout the aid of a physically present teacher illuminates several practicalconsequences like an unwillingness to go to the teacher and ask questions andan increased concentration on and interpretation of the written instructions. Adevelopment of Miller and Parlett’s (1974) discussion of student approach tocues are suggested. The concept of the cue choosing student are constructedin order to better respond to demands from an individualised interactionsociety. The study also emphasises how the students have to balance differentframeworks in order to be both authors and assessed students. Byimplementing a risk society perspective new ways of analysing andunderstanding independence and classroom interaction is suggested and arecontextualization of critical thinking proposed.
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| 10. |
- Langelotz, Lill
(författare)
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Vad gör en skicklig lärare? : en studie om kollegial handledning som utvecklingspraktik
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis takes its departure from the on-going debate about teachers´(collective) ‘continuing professional development’ (CPD). Teachers’ CPD through an imposed nine-step model of peer group mentoring (PGM) is focused on. The study draws on data from a two and a half yearlong interactive project that took place in a teacher team in a Swedish school. The general aim of the thesis is to study a practice of professional development in a teacher team involving peer group mentoring and to find out how and what kind of teachers’ expertise that is constructed. Furthermore, the aim is to examine how the PGM-practice was constrained and enabled and what kind of CPD was made possible. The theoretical and methodological framework is mainly based on practice theory. Practices and practitioners are seen as mutually interrelated. Practice architectures (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008) are used to uncover the relations between the PGM-practice and its historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive conditions. Furthermore, Foucault’s notion of power was adopted as an analytical tool to examine how power came into play during the mentoring sessions and how the teachers’ discursively constructed a ‘good teacher’ and teachers’ expertise. The methodological approach is action research. A main finding of the thesis is that professional and personnel development may be imposed through peer group mentoring. Furthermore, democratic processes increased during the PGMmeetings and seemed to have an impact on classroom practice and the practice of parent-teacher meetings. The results show how the PGM–practice and its outcomes are deeply interconnected to global and local historical, material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements which constrained and enabled it. When economic cut downs (i.e. materialeconomic arrangements) began to take effect in the local school, along with a neo-liberal discourse (i.e. cultural-discursive arrangements), democratic processes were challenged and threatened. The focus in the PGM discussions shifted from the teachers’ perceived need for pedagogical knowledge development to talk about students as costs. The constrained nine-step model disciplined some individuals more than others. The teachers disciplined each other through e.g. confessions, corrections and differentiations. Inconsistent discourses about good teaching and teachers’ know-how were constructed and the teachers positioned themselves and each other as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ teachers. The interactive research approach partly enabled the PGM-practice but at the same time effected the teachers’ positioning of each other. The interactive research approach disciplined both the teachers and the researcher. Anyhow, power relations became fluent and mutual among the participants. A collegial approach and the ability to carry out reflexive cooperation were both fostered by the model and articulated in the PGM-practice as important teacher skills.
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