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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. |
- Danielsson, Louise, 1949-
(författare)
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Det teckenspråkiga klassrummet : en arena för möte mellan elever och lärare
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction in sign language in a classroom in the special school for deaf and hard of hearing pupils. Three questions are of particular interest: What characterizes interaction in educational situations where the whole class is present compared to half the class and when the pupils in small groups are solving problems given by the teacher? How are a hearing and a deaf teacher interacting in the classroom? And How are boys and girls interacting in different educational situations?Theoretically the study is based on an educational interaction model. Of particular interest in this model are restrictive and permissive aspects of teaching and factors stimulating pupil participation. Symbolic interactionism has been used in the interpretation of face-to-face interaction in sign language.Video recordings of classroom interaction in natural sciences were documented in a class in the special school comprising 17 pupils and three teachers. A total of seven lessons were recorded consisting of whole class teaching, half class teaching and problem solving in small groups. Of the pupils ten were girls and seven were boys and of the teachers one was hearing and one was deaf. The third teacher was only temporarily in the class and was not included in the analysis. The recorded material was transcribed and analyzed in six steps.The results show that the teachers are most restrictive in whole class teaching while there is more participation from the pupils in half class teaching. In the small group problem solving the teachers seem to be more interested in the group process than in getting an answer to the problem. This gives a lot of room for individual actions and interaction of a relational kind rather than educational. There tend to be some visible differences between the hearing and the deaf teacher. The former uses a more individual approach towards the pupils, I-Gaze, which leaves room for the pupils to be engaged in other activities. The deaf teacher on the other hand keeps all the pupils engaged by using a group approach, G-Gaze. Other differences are the use of literacy tools where the deaf teacher situates the material and keeps the attention of the pupils by telling a narrative. Concerning differences between boys and girls it is evident that the boys are more dominant in whole class and half class interactions while the girls tend to take over the teacher role in small group interaction. These results are discussed in relation to theoretical background and research on classroom interaction in the compulsory school and in schools for deaf pupils.
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- Herkner, Birgitta, 1951-
(författare)
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Läsutveckling i årskurs 2–6 belyst genom standardiserade test och nationella provet i svenska i årskurs 3
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this study is to analyse and describe reading ability from the second to sixth year of schooling in Sweden (ages 8–13). An introductory study presents the pupils’ reading profiles and also the extent to which teaching in reading comprehension is given at their schools. In a second study, the results and effects of the national test in Swedish in grade three (age 9) are studied and compared with other recognised test data on the development of children’s reading. A total of 428 pupils at four schools participated in the study. Each child was tested once a year during two consecutive school years. In addition to collecting results on the national test for all the pupils in their third year, standardised tests of word decoding ability and reading comprehension were administered to all students in the study. A questionnaire dealing with teaching reading and skills development was answered by 23 teachers. The study reveals that there are stronger links between phonological tasks and reading comprehension for pupils in their first three years than for those in years 4–6. The study also shows that the national test identifies some pupils with reading difficulties but not all of them. A number of pupils who have problems with word decoding nevertheless attain the national test threshold for reading comprehension tasks in the third year. There are also pupils who cannot manage the age-adapted reading comprehension tasks but who still pass the national test in their third year. The findings reveal that teachers work with reading comprehension exercises to only a small extent in both the first three years and second three years of schooling. The study indicates the importance of using a diagnostic approach, so that early and effective measures can be adopted to prevent the emergence of reading comprehension problems.
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- Krantz, Helena, 1946-
(författare)
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Barns tidiga läsutveckling : En studie av tidiga språkliga och kognitiva förmågor och senare läsutveckling
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this study is to analyze and describe the reading of a group of pupils in a preschool class and grade 1 and to search for links between preschool language and cognitive skills and early literacy development. A total of 49 pupils participated in the study and their literacy development was analyzed over two consecutive years in preschool class and grade 1, partly by teacher evaluations and partly by reading tests. In the autumn term of the preschool class the pupils’ phonological awareness, letter knowledge, impressive and expressive vocabulary, short-term memory and syntactic skills were tested. The main aim was to examine how these skills predicted reading in preschool class and grade 1. Single correlation analyses revealed that phonological awareness, letter knowledge, short-term memory and syntactic skills were significantly related to literacy development, whereas these patterns of prediction were not found regarding verbal skills. When analyzing the unique contribution of every single predictor to explain variations in reading ability, phonological awareness gives a specific additional contribution to reading ability in preschool class, whereas letter knowledge gives an additional contribution both in preschool class and grade 1. These patterns of prediction were not found regarding more general verbal skills or memory. When prior reading ability is also taken into consideration, the prediction of the analyzed preschool skills declines and it is mainly the prior reading ability that is significantly related to literacy development. This study indicates the importance of success in early literacy development. To make this possible for all students the teachers must be able to identify the developmental stage to build upon. An important conclusion is that reading education must rely on a solid theoretical basis and the use of a diagnostic approach.
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- Luttropp, Agneta, 1945-
(författare)
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Närhet : Samspel och delaktighet i förskolan för barn med utvecklingsstörning
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose was to study if children with intellectual disability interact or participate differently with preschool staff and peers compared to their non-disabled peers and how preschool teachers experience interaction and participation for children with intellectual disability and children with typical development. The results from study I show that there are more similarities than differences between the groups. There are no differences between the groups neither in engagement nor in what kind of material the children use or in what setting they play. The results indicated that children with intellectual disability interacted in the same contexts as their peers. Significant differences were found, indicating that the children with intellectual disabilities communicate less and especially less with peers. Children with intellectual disability are more often close to a teacher than children with typical development. Teacher’s communication indicates that teachers communicate and initiate more often to children with intellectual disabilities. Results from study II showed that the main difference between the target child and the control child expressed from the teachers was in the area communication. Participation differed in structured and unstructured situations even if it is not significant. The child with intellectual disability was less involved in his/her live situation in unstructured situations. The results from Individual Plans showed that goals and methods about communication were more common as a goal than interaction even if the teachers expressed that interaction is the child’s main problem.
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- Olofsson, Helén, 1965-
(författare)
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Skriftbruk i fordonsverkstaden : En studie av läs- och skrivstrategier i mötet med arbetslivets texter
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the study was to describe the reading and writing activities that takes place in vehicle repair workshops and to elucidate how people experiencing low reading-and-writing ability describe their encounters with text in working life. Reading and writing are considered in the study from an educational-philosophical and special educational perspective. This study of literacy was inspired by ethnographic methods. The empirical material consists of field notes from ten participatory observations in vehicle repair workshops, photographs from the workshops and three interviews. To see patterns in how literacy was used, literacy events were taken as the unit of analysis. The literacy environment, community of practice, reading path and technical surroundings are analytical concepts in the thematic presentation of results. Central literacy practices were characterized primarily by reading, often via computer, for information needed for solving problems. The type of reading was often non-linear, given the multimodal texts and choices in computer environments. In addition, semiotic systems and several languages were interpreted. It is important to understand how information is organised and how to handle the technology. Technology provides support structures e.g. pictorial support and translation programmes. Writing out words, button-pushing and keyboard entry to register and search for information through the use of measurement instruments and in computer-generated text environments, were central. Literacy events were embedded in the work tasks and in ongoing learning, and many literacy practices included items of both reading and writing. Social skills, plus recognizing one’s problems and asking for help, were useful strategies for handling the demands of reading and writing in working life, as were allowing time and creating concentration for the task. Interpreting pictorial matter, using technology, copying text and noting down things to remember were further strategies. Implications of the study are that effective strategies for managing the demands of reading and writing that are required in the working place should begin in school. Significant is the teachers’ approach to handling the students’ frustration when studies are not working out as expected. Caring teachers, positive energy and not giving up make a difference. General education teachers need special educational resources in the upper-secondary school in order to counteract school failure and to enhance students’ learning.
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