| 1. |
- Rasmusson, Maria, 1973-
(författare)
-
Det digitala läsandet : Begrepp, processer och resultat
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this doctoral dissertation project has been to investigate and describe the reading comprehension of digital texts related to the reading of traditional texts by gender differences, computer-game playing, and socioeconomic background factors. The dissertation is based on four studies. In the first study, the results from a reading comprehension test delivered on screen is compared to a test delivered on paper and administered to 235 Swedish students 14-15 years of age. The students managed the test in the paper mode slightly better than that in the screen mode. The difference was particularly evident for boys. The second study used Swedish data from the PISA 2009 survey in an analysis conducted with a structural equation modelling technique. A digital reading factor nested within the overall reading was identified. A gender difference in favour of boys was found in this factor. This difference was perfectly mediated by the larger amount of time that the boys spent on computer-game playing. The third study, conducted on Swedish and Norwegian PISA data from 2009, focussed on equity aspects in reading comprehension and indicated that the unique aspects of digital reading were not influenced by cultural capital, neither on the student nor on the school level, in contrast to what was the case for traditional reading comprehension. The fourth study, using qualitative data, aimed at exploring the abilities and skills important for digital reading. The analysis resulted in five categories: traditional literacy, multimodal literacy, pathfinding, IT abilities, and information abilities. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the overall conclusion drawn from the results of the four studies was that reading comprehension of digital texts has unique aspects in addition to those required for reading comprehension of traditional texts. Three other important conclusions were pointed out as well. The first was that reading comprehension is influenced by the context of the texts; the second was that particular skills and abilities are required for digital reading; and the third was that there seems to be less of an influence of background factors on the performance of digital reading compared to traditional reading among Swedish (and Norwegian) youth. The results are discussed in relation to a Dual Level Theory formulated by Leu et al., as well as the validity issues with an outset in Bachman’s conversation analysis. The implications for schooling have been considered.
|
|
| 2. |
- Nzima, Ibrahimu, 1977-
(författare)
-
Competence-based Curriculum (CBC) in Tanzania : Tutors' Understanding and their Instructional Practices
- 2016
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of the study is to investigate tutors’ understanding of a competence-based curriculum (CBC) and how they train the student-teachers to implement CBC in actual classroom situations in ordinary level (O-level) secondary schools in Tanzania.The study employed a qualitative research approach informed by the interpretive paradigm. It involved a total of 12 methodology tutors. The tutors were purposively and conveniently selected from four teachers’ colleges in Tanzania that offer the Diploma in Secondary Education. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and document review methods. Deductive and inductive approaches as well as the hermeneutic phenomenology tradition informed data analysis and interpretations, respectively.The findings, in brief, reveal that in certain respects tutors understand CBC in relatively different ways and thus give it different meanings. Two main understandings with regard to CBC’s meaning and intentions are identified: CBC as an application-oriented curriculum and CBC as an activity-based curriculum. In the former, CBC is understood as a curriculum emphasising the building of learners’ ability to become practical, creative, and applying the skills they receive to solving real problems in daily life and become functional in society. In the latter, CBC is understood as nothing but a curriculum emphasising learning through activities in the classroom. The key difference between the two categories of understanding is that, in the latter category, tutors are less sensitive to applying what is learned beyond classroom and subject contexts. As for reasons for the CBC introduction in Tanzania, five categories of understanding are identified, such as education being too theoretical, coping with global trends, the desire for a creative and independent generation, external influences, and poor academic performance. Interestingly, all tutors held an understanding that the teaching approaches relevant for CBC are learner-centred approaches.Moreover, the findings reveal that tutors’ instructional practices contradicted their understanding of CBC as a curriculum that basically emphasises invisible pedagogic practices. The tutors’ instructional practices could be described as more teacher-centred, theoretical, and maintaining instructions of an authoritarian, rather than a learner-centred character, as the new curricula seem to emphasise. Lecture-dominated instructions characterised by strong framing and classification are the norm. The findings of tutors’ understandings and their instructional practices can be attributed to the various contextual factors coined as administrative, pedagogical, and physical and ecological factors. The results show that contextual cues are possibly more powerful factors to explain tutors’ instructional practices and they may thus need to be accorded due attention. The tutors proposed some conditions to establish a long-term framework for tutor learning to support educational change. The tutors’ ideas are theorized in a framework constituting a combination of such conditions as reflection, community, conceptual inputs, action, and an institution dealing with education change.
|
|
| 3. |
- Reierstam, Helena, 1972-
(författare)
-
Assessment in Multilingual Schools : A comparative mixed method study of teachers’ assessment beliefs and practices among language learners - CLIL and migrant students
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents the results from two research projects on teachers’ assessment beliefs and practices in multilingual education. Study I involved teachers of biology, history or English as a foreign language (EFL) in Swedish upper secondary Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) schools, grades 10-12, where English is used as the medium of instruction. In Study II teachers from schools with newly-arrived migrant students (NAS) grades 7 to 12 in the natural and social sciences participated. In both contexts, students are learning the language of instruction at the same time as they are expected to develop subject area knowledge why issues in relation to the role of language in assessment come to the fore. The aim is to contribute to the knowledge of an underexplored research area on subject matter assessment in multilingual schools and draw attention to the consequences varying language policies and pedagogies may have on fairness in access opportunities and validity in assessment outcomes.In this thesis teachers’ language beliefs and practices as expressed in interviews, questionnaires and assessment samples were compared and analyzed in relation to the cognitive and linguistic requirements of language functions in syllabi and the assessment tasks. Whereas Study I was mainly qualitative in nature, involving 12 teachers, a mixed method approach was adopted in Study II where 196 teachers participated in a survey and 13 in follow-up interviews. The responses in the survey were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Thematic content analysis was used for the interview data, the assessment samples and open-ended survey questions.The findings from the two studies indicate that although teachers state that language is not part of the assessment, they maintain that students need to use language to show proof of critical thinking and more advanced analytical skills. All teachers regardless of discipline shared the weight attached to covering course content as expressed in syllabi which points at a shared accountability culture. One of the main concerns expressed by the teachers is how to construct assignments where language does not represent a hindrance to show content knowledge. Teachers in both studies claimed to focus mainly on subject concepts, not general academic language, and the assessment beliefs and practices seemed to be closely related to the character of the subject. The non-parametric tests of association revealed that teachers with a dual language and subject content certification displayed significantly higher results in relation to all activities involving a visible language pedagogy, e.g. looking at useful sentence structures and providing model texts. Oral follow-up was used by all teachers to remedy poor written results. Although the use of the students’ strongest language is advocated in guidelines for the instruction of NAS, most teachers in Study II referred to a monolingual Swedish language norm. In a society where the educational discourse has become characterized by diversity, inequality and segregation, these two studies underline the need for a shared language policy and pedagogy across subjects and school contexts. They also suggest that an organization and teacher profession with an explicit responsibility for academic language is needed to provide equal access to subject content and validity and comparability in assessment in multilingual schools.
|
|
| 4. |
- Westlund, Barbro, 1953-
(författare)
-
Att bedöma elevers läsförståelse : En jämförelse mellan svenska och kanadensiska bedömningsdiskurser i grundskolans mellanår
- 2013
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of the study is to describe and analyze what assessment discourses of reading comprehension are more prominent by comparing five Swedish and five Canadian teachers in the province of BC in Canada. Based on a teacher perspective on how to develop and assess reading comprehension, the investigation concentrates on teacher discourses and their alignment with other discourses of reading comprehension within the two school systems.The method used is mainly based on classroom observations and transcriptions of tape-recorded interviews. The ten teachers in grade 4 were interviewed for 30 minutes almost every day in the afternoon during a school week. The analysis of the teachers answers were made in three steps: within each singe interview, within the Swedish and the Canadian teacher group respectively, and between the two compared teacher groups. The theoretical perspectives used to analyze the data were Critical Discourse Analysis, theories of feedback, and socio-cognitive theory.The answers within each teacher group showed a homogeneous pattern, but the comparison between the two groups showed considerable differences. The results demonstrated that the Swedish teachers seemed to be more of “instruction givers” and “assessment controllers”, while the Canadian teachers seemed to be more of “comprehension instructors” and “ongoing assessment controllers”. The teacher discourses in both groups were aligned with other assessment discourses in their respective school systems. The Canadian teacher group used a much more elaborated meta-language when talking about reading comprehension assessment. In their way of referring to feedback they also focused on their own teaching in a way that was not found within the Swedish teacher group.
|
|
| 5. |
- Carm, Ellen, 1954-
(författare)
-
Caught in Culture? : Cultural Transformation through HIV/AIDS Prevention Education in Zambia
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study explores the role and contribution of education in developing a localized and relevant HIV/AIDS prevention strategy through a multi-voiced approach, involving the educational institutions, as well as the traditional leaders, community-members, including parents. The study comprised all public schools in one Zambian province from 2002-2008. The study explores, among other factors, the role of traditional culture in mitigating and exacerbating the spread of the disease.Zambia was one of the countries hardest hit by the HIV/AIDs epidemic, and one of the few countries in the region that, in 2002, had a clear policy on the role of education in fighting the epidemic. Through the process of developing and implementing a learner-centered interactive HIV/AIDS education program in the province. based upon MOE`s HIV/AIDS policies and strategies, syllabi, and teachers guides, and at the same time emphasizing the broader community as a point of departure.The qualitative and interpretivist research was conducted within a constructivist grounded theoretical approach. The study applies comprehensive and multilayered perspectives while utilizing a broad range of methods. Documentary analyses, structured and semi-structured interviews, in depth conversations with traditional and educational leaders, teachers, parents and pupils, were all carried out during the period of the study. Nvivo, a computer-supported data analysis tool was used to support the process of categorizing the qualitative data and the study applied Cultural- and Historical Activity Theory for analytic purposes.The study revealed the mismatch between the decentralized, national HIV/AIDS prevention education approach, as stated in the policy documents and the global UNAIDS, centralized and cross-sectoral strategies favored by the Zambian government. The uncoordinated efforts did not reach the grassroots level, where professionals, at district and school level, perceived and applied policies in highly different ways, if at all reaching students and the communities.The main categories of drivers of the epidemic were of socio-cultural and economic character, e.g. polygamy, sexual cleansing, local healing, gender inequality and poverty, sexual violence, multiple concurrent sexual partners and prostitution, but there were also variety of local drivers, depending upon context.When analyzing the participatory approaches of the HIV/AIDS prevention strategy, predominantly, at the school-community level, the findings revealed that the traditional leaders, being legitimate leaders in their kingdoms, and the custodians of culture and traditions, were found to be gate openers to promote behavioral change and cultural transformation in their villages.The traditional leaders worked hand in hand with the schools and the villagers. Their involvement legitimated that discourses and HIV/AIDS prevention actions were taken at school as well as within their own chiefdom. Utilizing their traditional leadership structures, the chiefs sustained their cultural rites, e.g. cleansing, in order to chase away the evil spirits, by turning the rites into practices that do no put people at risk for contracting HIV. Particularly at the global and state level, culture has been seen as drivers of the epidemic. The study revealed that the traditional leaders used their role as significant others, became gate-openers, using their legitimate role as custodians of culture to transform cultural rites and practices.
|
|
| 6. |
- Dwyer, Helen, 1963-
(författare)
-
Children at risk Securitization theory and special education reforms
- 2018
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Special education is to a significant extent based on special education programmes and support to children who are identified as children at risk. These programmes and support are often framed in educational reforms that aim to reduce risk and barriers to equal opportunities for learning and wellbeing. This thesis sets out to explore processes of special education reforms, with a special focus on the implementation of certain reforms. Here, a theoretical framework almost unknown in special education – securitization theory – is introduced, drawing on a tradition of securitization studies within the fields of Political Science and International Relations. The Copenhagen School’s theory of securitization referred to in the thesis describes the handling of vulnerabilities, insecurities and perceived threats through the initiation and implementation of securitization processes, such as, for example, education reforms. In short, securitization theory helps us understand processes of educational reforms in terms of identified threats, such as, for example, those against equal education for a specific group of pupils. Firstly, the reforms themselves are understood as securitization projects aimed at reducing threats to the young generation and as a consequence for society. Policies that concern children who are at risk by not receiving equal education, are handled differently among various securitization actors depending on how they perceive threats and education reform as a way to handle the perceived threat. Secondly, I introduce a new term into the examination of securitization processes – extended securitization actor. This assists the comprehension of additional implementation procedures and turns of securitization processes in the analytical procedure. Thirdly – and here I also add to the existing securitization theory – I show how a specific reform might itself be experienced as a threat to the goals and interests of actors at the lower levels of the implementation chain, which as a consequence, produces counter securitization processes that seem to influence the implementation of the education reform. The empirical parts of the thesis consist of empirical studies from South Africa and Sweden. Discussed are those education reform policies between the mid 1940s and 1970s in South Africa and Sweden that were directed towards the indigenous populations. Children “at risk” here concern educational issues linked to identity- and ethnic belonging and access to equal education for all children. Another study brings up the perception of environmental threats and international claims of incorporating Education for sustainable development (ESD) into national education. Children at risk can here be understood as those exposed to environmental hazards and in exposed land areas. Still another study deals with threats concerning political and societal exclusion of ethnic and vulnerable groups. Education reform should here be seen against the historic background of former Apartheid policies and the need for democratic development with a special emphasis on teachers’ attitudes towards inclusion and perceived threats by teachers in connection with implementing inclusive education.
|
|
| 7. |
- Melander, Erik, et al.
(författare)
-
Differential Blood-Brain Barrier Transport and Cell Uptake of Cyclic Peptides In Vivo and In Vitro
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Pharmaceutics. - : MDPI AG. - 1999-4923. ; 15:5
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The blood-brain barrier (BBB) poses major challenges to drug delivery to the CNS. SFTI-1 and kalata B1 are cyclic cell-penetrating peptides (cCPPs) with high potential to be used as scaffolds for drug delivery. We here studied their transport across the BBB and distribution within the brain to gauge the potential of these two cCPPs as scaffolds for CNS drugs. In a rat model, SFTI-1 exhibited, for a peptide, high extent of BBB transport with a partitioning of unbound SFTI-1 across the BBB, K-p,K-uu,K-brain, of 13%, while only 0.5% of kalata B1 equilibrated across the BBB. By contrast, kalata B1, but not SFTI-1, readily entered neural cells. SFTI-1, but not kalata B1, could be a potential CNS delivery scaffold for drugs directed to extracellular targets. These findings indicate that differences between the BBB transport and cellular uptake abilities of CPPs are crucial in the development of peptide scaffolds.
|
|
| 8. |
- Stenlund, Karin, 1950-
(författare)
-
Läsning på mellanstadiet : En studie med fokus på elevers läsförmåga
- 2011
-
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study describes the reading ability of 26 middle school students, and the ways in which their reading development is supported in two different classrooms. In order to scrutinize results of students at different reading levels, three focus students were selected.This thesis has four aims. One is to use tests to examine the students’ reading ability as regards their decoding skills and reading comprehension as well as to study other cognitive skills related to reading ability. Another is to describe the students’ reading ability and attitudes towards reading from their own as well as their teachers’ perspectives. A third aim is to analyze how the results of different parts of the study are related to one another. The fourth and final aim is to analyze the classroom activities with a special focus on how reading ability is supported.The study combines quantitative analyses of the students’ reading ability with qualitative analyses of classroom activities. The quantitative sections of the study include various reading tests as well as the teachers’ assessment of the students’ reading development and their answers to selected questions in a student questionnaire concerning their view on reading.The results reveal that several of these students haven´t automated their decoding ability in Grade 4, but that nevertheless most of the students attain their grade level in a reading comprehension test in Grade 4 as well as the goals of a national reading test in Grade 5. However, most of the questions in these two tests require answers that can be explicitly found in the text and do not require any deeper reading comprehension such as inference making for instance. The results also show that these students are unable to assess whether reading is easy for them, but can assess their own reading ability if the purpose is to compare their reading skills with their classmates. The classroom observations indicate that despite quite extensive text work in the classrooms, students who need to develop their decoding abilities receive little support, and that although classroom work focusing on text comprehension is quite frequent, this does not often include deeper levels such as inference making.
|
|
| 9. |
- Stenlund, Karin, 1950-
(författare)
-
Läsutveckling under mellan- och högstadiet : En longitudinell studie av läsfärdigheter hos elever med och utan lässvårigheter
- 2017
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation consists of two studies, a middle school study and a follow-up study. In the middle school study, the reading ability of a group of middle school students, of which some have reading difficulties, is described and analyzed along with the classroom conditions the students are given for the development of their reading abilities. The overall aim of the follow-up study is to describe and analyze the reading ability development in the same group of students from the beginning of middle school to the end of lower secondary school, as well as examine the students’ use of strategies in grade 9.In lower secondary school decoding, vocabulary and reading comprehension were tested like in middle school. Students’ reading comprehension was tested on both stages based on a reading comprehension test and a national test. Since the use of strategies seems to be important for students’ reading comprehension, even the use of learning strategies were examined by including a question from the PISA (2009) student questionnaire. Furthermore, six students who in the beginning of middle school had shown poor results in one or more of the reading aspects were, referred to as the small sample group and, were interviewed in grade 9 regarding their use of comprehension strategies when reading an age-appropriate historical factual text in a textbook.Analyses show that there is a small development in reading comprehension from the beginning of middle school to the end of lower secondary school. Even the development of correct reading and vocabulary is relatively small. The largest development is shown for the reading rate, but analyses show that the reason for that is not merely a more automated process of decoding. A comparison between the results in the reading comprehension tests and the national tests at both stages show higher results for the national tests, which can depend on the different aims of the two tests. Regarding learning strategies, the entire study group stated in the questionnaire that they mostly use the deeper monitoring strategies, while the students in the small sample group reported that they tended to use the more superficial memory strategies. The results of the interviews show that the small sample group as a group found it more convenient to use comprehension strategies for superficial rather than for deeper comprehension.
|
|
| 10. |
- Tjernberg, Catharina
(författare)
-
Framgångsfaktorer i läs- och skrivlärande : En praxisorienterad studie med utgångspunkt i skolpraktiken
- 2013
-
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.
|
|
