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- Tjernberg, Catharina, 1953-
(författare)
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Specialpedagogik i skolvardagen : En studie med fokus på framgångsfaktorer i läs- och skrivlärande
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a praxis-oriented case study of written language activities in Forms 1–5 in the nine-year Swedish compulsory school. The emphasis is on pupils at risk of developing reading and writing disabilities. The aim of this study is to analyse the factors underlying successful reading and writing education and the pedagogical conditions promoting reflective didactic skills, focusing on the students’ development of reading and writing abilities. The praxis-oriented approach is expressed by means of working with classroom observations and reflective communication with the teachers. Four classes at the junior and intermediate levels of the nine-year compulsory Swedish school have been studied for two years. Both the schools and the teachers have been chosen strategically. Quantitative and qualitative data indicate that the selected schools have special qualifications. The teachers were chosen because they have proved particularly successful in developing reading and writing abilities of their pupils, including those with documented reading and writing disabilities. Reports from the National Swedish Agency for Education, as well as large international surveys, indicate that the consensus concerning reading and writing education achieved by science during the past decade has had very little impact on everyday classroom activities. One of the underlying questions is how research results are successfully implemented in everyday school work. The results show that the teachers use a wide variety of methods in response to the wide variety of students´ requirements. The lessons are characterized by intense activity on the part of both teacher and pupils, and of a high level of interactivity in communication, reading, writing and counting. A surprising pattern is that the teachers very consciously work with oral presentation in various topics and genres. This gives students with reading and writing difficulties an opportunity to succeed. The instruction is notable for being well-structured, with a balance between form and function, a high level of challenging tasks and visibilization of individual progress. The special needs education aspect of the instruction appears in the teachers’ abilities to arrange pedagogical situations in which a wide variety of abilities can be expressed and developed. The teachers show a positive belief in their students and strive to make them successful in a social context. This study indicates the importance of a solid theoretical background, enabling the teacher to identify the developmental stage the student is at and to adapt the instruction accordingly. Another important factor is the ability of the teacher to instantly see and grasp pedagogical opportunities and to interpret and utilize the diagnostic signals in the classroom. One important conclusion is that reading and writing education, in order to be successful, must be viewed in a context of language development as a whole, involving both its oral and its written aspects. This study also demonstrates that research results are perceived as more accessible and relevant by the teachers when the researchers’ focus is on applied pedagogics, allowing theory and practical applications to interact. This opens up the possibility of establishing and incorporating scientific theories on learning in everyday, practical school work.
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| 2. |
- Cramér-Wolrath, Emelie, 1954-
(författare)
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Signs of Acquiring Bimodal Bilingualism Differently : A Longitudinal Case Study of Mediating a Deaf and a Hearing Twin in a Deaf Family
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation based on a case study explores the acquisition and the guidance of Swedish Sign Language and spoken Swedish over a span of seven years. Interactions between a pair of fraternal twins, one deaf and one hearing, and their Deaf[1] family were video-observed within the home setting.The thesis consists of a frame which provides an overview of the relationship between four studies. These describe and analyze mainly storytime sessions over time. The first article addresses attentional expressions between the participants; the second article studies the mediation of the deaf twin’s first language acquisition; the third article analyses the hearing twins acquisition of parallel bimodal bilingualism; the fourth article concerns second language acquisition, sequential bimodal bilingualism following a cochlear implant (CI). In the frame, theoretical underpinnings such as mediation and language acquisition were compiled, within a sociocultural frame. This synthesis of results provides important information; in the 12- and 13-month sessions simultaneous-tactile-looking was noted in interchanges between the twins and their mother; mediation of bilingualism was scaffolded by the caregivers with the hearing twin by inserting single vocal words or signs into the language base used at that time, a finding that differs from other reported studies; a third finding is the simultaneousness in which the deaf child’s Swedish Sign Language skill worked as a cultural tool, to build a second and spoken language.The findings over time revealed actions that included all the family members. Irrespective of the number of modes and varied types of communication with more than one child, mediation included following-in the child’s initiation, intersubjective meaningfulness and encouragement. In accordance with previous research, these factors seem to promote the acquisition of languages. In conclusion, these findings should also prove useful in the more general educational field.[1] Deaf with a capital ‘D’ is commonly used for cultural affiliation whereas lower case ‘d’, as in deaf, refers to audiological status (Monaghan, Schmaling, Nakamura & Turner, 2003).
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| 3. |
- Heimdahl Mattson, Eva, et al.
(författare)
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Students with reading difficulties/dyslexia: a longitudinal Swedish example
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Inclusive Education. - London : Routledge. - 1360-3116 .- 1464-5173. ; 14:8, s. 813-827
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal development of studentshaving difficulties with reading and their decoding ability in Swedish compulsoryschool. Another aim was to relate this to the experiences of educational activitiesexpressed by students and parents. The decoding ability was assessed by a wordchain test given at three occasions and was compared with results on a letter chaintest. Retrospective interviews were performed with students and parents. Thedecoding ability tended to improve for most of the students over time, althoughsome of them failed to improve or even decreased their scores, indicating a lackof environmental adjustment. Special educational support was according tostudents and parents organised in small and often very heterogeneous groupswhere the students sometimes received adequate support but often felt deviantfrom friends in their regular classes. The responsibility for helping the childrenwith their schoolwork was allocated to the parents. Research in this areademonstrates the necessity of a well-structured and stimulating learning situation.Yet, the development of these students’ decoding abilities, personal experiences,and parental involvement indicate that competence and resources at schoolregarding children at risk for developing reading difficulties are often lacking in the Swedish educational system.
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| 4. |
- Tjernberg, Catharina
(författare)
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Framgångsfaktorer i läs- och skrivlärande : En praxisorienterad studie med utgångspunkt i skolpraktiken
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to analyse the factors underlying successful reading and writing education and the educational conditions promoting reflective didactic skills, focusing on the students’ development of reading and writing abilities. Large international surveys indicate that the consensus concerning reading and writing education achieved by science during the past decade has had limited impact on classroom activities. Thus, an underlying question is how research results can be implemented in everyday schoolwork. This study uses a praxis-oriented approach by working with classroom observations and reflective communication with teachers about learning processes and pedagogical methodology. The importance of the teachers having a solid theoretical background is underlined since it enables them to identify the students’ developmental stage, to adapt the instruction accordingly and to instantly grasp pedagogical opportunities to interpret and utilize the diagnostic signals. Another conclusion is that successful reading and writing education must be viewed in a context of language development as a whole, involving both its oral and its written aspects. This study also demonstrates that research results are perceived by teachers to be more accessible and relevant when the focus is on applied pedagogics, allowing theory and practical applications to interact. The teachers’ professional development is shown to be an on-going, interactive, social process in which organisation, time and communicative meetings play an important part. Abduction proves to be an effective learning strategy in the development of professional competence whereby academic knowledge and on-the-spot know-how are allowed to coalesce in practically useful knowledge. The study’s praxis-oriented approach has made it possible to define the teachers’ experience-based knowledge at the same time as the theoretical knowledge in the field has developed. This opens up possibilities for scientific theories to establish themselves in practical school work.
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