| 1. |
- Bagger, Anette, 1974-
(författare)
-
Prövningen av en skola för alla : nationella provet i matematik i det tredje skolåret
- 2015
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents the contribution to research that my doctoral education led to. My starting point was a large scale qualitative research project (here after called the VR-project) which reviewed the implementation of national tests in the third grade on the subject of mathematics. The VR-project investigated how the test affected the pupils with a special focus on pupils in need of special support. An urge to look further into issues concerning the support, the pupil in need and the test was revealed in he initial VR-project. These issues therefore constitutes the problem area of this thesis. The VR-project studied a total of 22 classrooms in two different municipalities' during 2010- 2012. The methodology used for this project was inspired by ethnography and discourse analysis. The raw data consisted of test instructions, video observations of the actual test subjects, interviews from teachers and pupils about the test, the support that was given throughout the testing as well as the observations and interviews of the pupils requiring special assistance. Activated discourses and positions of the participants were demarcated. The results revealed that a traditional testing discourse, a caring discourse and a competitive discourse are activated during the tests. The testing discourse is stable and traditional. Much of what was shown and said in classrooms, routines and rules regarding the test were repeated in all the schools and in all the classrooms. The discourse on support is affected by ambiguity, which is revealed especially when issues of pupils’ equity is put against the tests equality. This is connected to the teachers restricted agency to give support due to the teacher position as a test taker. The positions in need that are available to students are not the same in pupils, teachers and steering documents. The situation is especially troublesome for pupils that do not manage Swedish good enough to take the test and for pupils in need of special support. Some of the conclusions from this thesis is that the national test format: Disciplines not only the pupil, but also the teacher, the classroom and the school at large. Results indicate that the test:Activates a focus on achievementLeads attention away from learning Activates issues of accountability Influences pupils and teachers with stakes involvedBesides evaluating knowledge, the test disciplines not only the pupil, but also the teacher, the classroom and the school at large. Discussing the national test as an arena for equity might be a way towards attaining equality in education for all pupils.
|
|
| 2. |
- Nyroos, Mikaela, 1973-, et al.
(författare)
-
Exploring the presence of test anxiety and its relation to mathematical achievement in a sample of grade 3
- 2012
-
Ingår i: Skrifter från Svensk förening för matematikdidaktisk forskning. - Linköping : Svensk förening för matematikdidaktisk forskning. - 1651-3274. ; , s. 151-160
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study aims at exploring if a sample of Swedish grade 3 pupils reported any test anxiety and whether there were any relations to performance in different mathematical areas. Overall, test anxiety explained 20% of the variance for the total mathematical score, with the subscale “thoughts” as the significant predictor. The model of test anxiety also explained Number understanding, Mass and Time, Patterns, and Mathematical problems; however Mental arithmetic and Written arithmetic algorithms were not significantly explained by the model. Test anxiety seems not to be a major problem in this sample; still, significant negative correlations were found, which likely might influence the pupils in some aspects.
|
|
| 3. |
- Silfver, Eva, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
-
An 'appropriate' test taker : the everyday classroom during the national testing period in school year three in Sweden
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Ethnography and Education. - : Routledge. - 1745-7823 .- 1745-7831. ; 11:3, s. 237-252
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article draws on data from a bigger project where we explore what is taking place in the daily life of classrooms during the national testing period in mathematics for nine- to ten-year-old children in Sweden. Data was produced by observations, video-recordings, and interviews with children. The article shows on a micro level how assessment trends, on a macro level, affect children. It further focuses how children through different repertoires of time position themselves as 'appropriate' test takers.
|
|
| 4. |
- Silfver, Eva, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
-
Changing Our Methods and Disrupting the Power Dynamics : National Tests in Third-Grade Classrooms
- 2013
-
Ingår i: International Journal of Qualitative Methods. - Edmonton, Canada : University of Alberta, Int. Inst. of Qualitative Methodology, Edmonton Clinic in Health Academy, Edmonton, Canada. - 1609-4069. ; 12, s. 39-51
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper reports on a research project relating to the newly implemented mandatory Swedish national mathematics tests for third-grade students (aged nine and ten). The project’s main research concerns the students’ ideas about and reactions towards these tests and how the specific test situation affects their perception of their own mathematical proficiency. Drawing on theories which suggest that identities are more fluid than static, we want to understand how students with special needs are ‘created’. The specific aim of this paper is to discuss how our research methods have been refined during the various phases of data collection and the resulting implications. It discusses issues surrounding child research and how methods involving video recording and video stimulated recall dialogue (VSRD) can contribute to research on children’s experiences. Particular attention is given to methodological and ethical issues; how to disrupt power relations, for example. In this paper we argue that the context of the test situation not only impacted upon the students but also affected how we changed, developed and adapted our approaches as the project evolved.
|
|
| 5. |
- Silfver, Eva, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
-
Classroom bodies : affect, body language, and discourse when schoolchildren encounter national tests in mathematics
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Gender and Education. - : Routledge. - 0954-0253 .- 1360-0516. ; 32:5, s. 682-696
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this paper is to analyse how Swedish grade three children are discursively positioned as pupils when they are taking national tests in mathematics and when they reflect on the testing situation afterwards. With support from theories about affective-discursive assemblages, we explore children's body language, emotions, and talk in light of the two overarching discourses that we believe frame the classroom: the 'testing discourse' and the 'development discourse'. Through the disciplinary power of these main discourses children struggle to conduct themselves in order to become recognized as intelligible subjects and 'ideal pupils'. The analysis, when taking into account how affects and discourses intertwine, shows that children can be in 'untroubled', 'troubled', or ambivalent subject positions.
|
|
| 6. |
- Sjöberg, Gunnar, 1958-, et al.
(författare)
-
Disciplined by tests
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Nordisk matematikkdidaktikk, NOMAD. - Göteborg : Nationellt centrum för matematikutbildning (NCM). - 1104-2176. ; 20:1, s. 55-75
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article reports on a Swedish research project on the reintroduction of national tests in mathematics for nine- to ten-year-old pupils. Data were collected over a period of three years (2010-2012) by video recording test situations in different classrooms and by conducting video-stimulated recall interviews with children. The aim is to explore and analyse the testing situation and how it creates different positions for children. We conclude that discourses of testing, caring and competition, sometimes strengthening and sometimes shadowing each other and thereby, produce knowledge in children about success and failure in mathematics, positioning children as ‘winners’ or ‘losers’. The tests are interpreted as a technology – a form of disciplinary power that functions at the level of the body (Foucault, 1980).
|
|
