| 1. |
- Shukia, Richard, 1973-
(författare)
-
Learning and Teaching to Read in Kiswahili in Pre-Primary Classes in Tanzania : Teachers' Beliefs and Instructional Practices
- 2014
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Teachers’ beliefs have the potential to influence teachers’ instructional decisions and or even accept, resist or renegotiate the mandated curriculum intentions. Knowledge about these relations in pre-primary education in Tanzania is largely lacking. The purpose of this study is to investigate pre-primary teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching to read Kiswahili in Tanzania, and then examine how these beliefs are related to instructional practices and curriculum intentions. Knowledge about teachers’ beliefs in relation to instructional practices and curriculum intentions is a gateway to improving pre-primary reading instructional practices, curriculum and learning to read early. The study was inspired by Vygotskian socio-cultural framework and its allied activity theory.Twenty one pre-primary teachers participated in the study. Of these, 3 were males and 18 were females. Of the participants, six had primary teacher education background whereas two had attended a 1 year pre-school training course. Other participants were ‘little’ trained through experiences as they had no formal teacher education background. Empirical materials were generated over a period of six months through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, post observation video-stimulated interviews, and content analysis of lesson plans and curriculum. Abductive analytical approach and hermeneutic phenomenology informed data analysis and interpretations, respectively.Findings reveal that teachers’ beliefs about learning and teaching reading revolve around direct and systematic phonics-syllabic/bottom-up instruction accompanied with repeated practices, songs, use of pictures, look-and-say, and integration of reading and writing activities. Findings also show that teachers believe that most children can learn to read, only a few experience difficulties due to a number of factors outside teachers’ realm: mental impairment, immaturity, mother tongue, lack of parents’ involvement, and scarcity of teaching-learning materials. To help pupils with such experiences teachers cited strategies like supplemental instruction, within-class mixing, retention, and ability grouping. Though there were concerns, teachers have a feeling of on-going and summative assessment of reading progress. Moreover, the findings indicate that teachers’ beliefs and day-to-day instructional practices are reciprocally informing and are influenced to a large extent by teachers’ own experiences, and the classroom conditions. The findings further suggest that, teacher’s beliefs were not wholly consistent with their instructional practices and the curriculum intentions. The inconsistencies could be attributed to teachers’ beliefs and socio-contextual factors within and outside classroom context such as time constraints, large classes, lack/inadequate professional training, limited curriculum guidance, and school inspectors and parents’ expectations.The study recommends for on-going teacher in-service training to provide teachers with the opportunities to reflect on their beliefs and practices in relation to curriculum intentions. The study also indicates a need to review the curriculum intentions, supportive environment and efforts aiming at addressing contextual factors which interrupt teaching. The review might seek to harmonise teachers’ beliefs, curriculum intentions, and insights discussed in this study as effective in promoting early reading skills.
|
|
| 2. |
- Benfatto, Mattias Nilsson, et al.
(författare)
-
Screening for Dyslexia Using Eye Tracking during Reading
- 2016
-
Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 11:12
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental reading disability estimated to affect 5-10% of the population. While there is yet no full understanding of the cause of dyslexia, or agreement on its precise definition, it is certain that many individuals suffer persistent problems in learning to read for no apparent reason. Although it is generally agreed that early intervention is the best form of support for children with dyslexia, there is still a lack of efficient and objective means to help identify those at risk during the early years of school. Here we show that it is possible to identify 9-10 year old individuals at risk of persistent reading difficulties by using eye tracking during reading to probe the processes that underlie reading ability. In contrast to current screening methods, which rely on oral or written tests, eye tracking does not depend on the subject to produce some overt verbal response and thus provides a natural means to objectively assess the reading process as it unfolds in real-time. Our study is based on a sample of 97 high-risk subjects with early identified word decoding difficulties and a control group of 88 low-risk subjects. These subjects were selected from a larger population of 2165 school children attending second grade. Using predictive modeling and statistical resampling techniques, we develop classification models from eye tracking records less than one minute in duration and show that the models are able to differentiate high-risk subjects from low-risk subjects with high accuracy. Although dyslexia is fundamentally a language-based learning disability, our results suggest that eye movements in reading can be highly predictive of individual reading ability and that eye tracking can be an efficient means to identify children at risk of long-term reading difficulties.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Björn Milrad, Marianne
(författare)
-
Studenter med läs- och skrivsvårigheter som deltagare i högre utbildning
- 2010
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The emphasis on higher education (HE) in today’s knowledge society has increasedthe amount of students enrolled in universities in Sweden. Two percentof these students are people with disabilities, of whom more than half are studentswith dyslexia. Dyslexia is a disability that involves difficulty with writtentext which is the essence of HE. The disability affects these students’ readingand my assumption was therefore that their possibility to complete their educationon an equal footing with their peers was limited.The overall aim of this thesis is to illuminate the prerequisites for participationfor Swedish students with dyslexia in higher education, and to analyse if support,and information about support, offered by higher-education institutionsare accessible to them. Due to lack of previous research, this is a descriptivestudy using the theoretical framework of cultural-historical activity theory(CHAT), a theory that can be summarized in five principles: an activity systemis the unit of analysis, it has historicity, multi-voicedness, it views contradictionsas sources of change, and it has the potential for expansive transformation.To orient myself within the large field of HE and dyslexia, the following questionshave guided my work: What HE measures are taken to ensure accessibilityand participation for Swedish students with dyslexia? What tensions, as definedwithin CHAT, may be found in the HE activities in relation to studentswith dyslexia? How do students with dyslexia regard the support offered? Inorder to answer these questions, I have listened to some of the voices withinHE, by collecting data through a questionnaire sent to all coordinators for studentswith disabilities; by having focus group interviews with university teachers,as well as having individual interviews with students with dyslexia. Thedata were collected and analysed within a CHAT activity system, which depictedHE activities by coordinators and teachers in relation to students withdyslexia. The graph was used in the final discussion to formulate some ideas forexpansive transformation.
|
|
| 6. |
- Einarsdottir, Elisabet, et al.
(författare)
-
Mutation in CEP63 co-segregating with developmental dyslexia in a Swedish family
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Human Genetics. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0340-6717 .- 1432-1203. ; 134:11-12, s. 1239-1248
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Developmental dyslexia is the most common learning disorder in children. Problems in reading and writing are likely due to a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors, resulting in reduced power of studies of the genetic factors underlying developmental dyslexia. Our approach in the current study was to perform exome sequencing of affected and unaffected individuals within an extended pedigree with a familial form of developmental dyslexia. We identified a two-base mutation, causing a p.R229L amino acid substitution in the centrosomal protein 63 kDa (CEP63), co-segregating with developmental dyslexia in this pedigree. This mutation is novel, and predicted to be highly damaging for the function of the protein. 3D modelling suggested a distinct conformational change caused by the mutation. CEP63 is localised to the centrosome in eukaryotic cells and is required for maintaining normal centriole duplication and control of cell cycle progression. We found that a common polymorphism in the CEP63 gene had a significant association with brain white matter volume. The brain regions were partly overlapping with the previously reported region influenced by polymorphisms in the dyslexia susceptibility genes DYX1C1 and KIAA0319. We hypothesise that CEP63 is particularly important for brain development and might control the proliferation and migration of cells when those two events need to be highly coordinated.
|
|
| 7. |
- Fouganthine, Anna, 1970-
(författare)
-
Dyslexi genom livet : Ett utvecklingsperspektiv på läs- och skrivsvårigheter
- 2012
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis reports a follow-up study from eight years of age to adulthood for a group of students with dyslexic problems compared to a matched group of students without such problems. The empirical basis of the thesis is provided by the research project, Reading Development in Kronoberg, which has been supplemented by data from adulthood in the form of questionnaires, test results and interviews. The thesis comprises three studies. In Study I, the aim is to examine how reading and writing disabilities emerge during the first school years. The Simple View of Reading, was used to classify the poor readers into various subgroups. In Study II, the reading development of students with reading disability was examined at group and individual levels. The theme of Study III is a comparison of the living conditions of adults in a group of dyslexics compared to a group without difficulties, and to investigate how the participants in the study have tackled their problems. The results reveal a development pattern among dyslexic students, with early phonological problems persisting into adulthood in spite of substantial special education measures, in school Baseline performance at eight years of age is by far the best predictor of adult skills. No clearly discernible subgroups were found among the dyslexic students. The result profiles indicate a great variation among the participants, both regarding function and degree of impairment. Nevertheless, a number of students in the dyslexic groups have achieved surprisingly good word decoding abilities. In addition to the degree of impairment, factors such as reading development, the teaching of reading demands for reading and writing in adult life, and individual coping ability affect the outcome of the perceived difficulties. It is of the utmost importance that special needs education in the future be guided by a thorough assessment and follow-up program where manifest reading and writing skills as well as underlying cognitive functions are profiled. Moreover, intervention should follow evidence-based methods in order to prevent educational failure and social maladjustment among pupils. The thesis demonstrates that reading and writing disabilities have major consequences for educational achievement and working life outcomes, in addition to many other aspects of adult livelihood.
|
|
| 8. |
- Gadler, Ulla
(författare)
-
En skola för alla - gäller det alla? : Statliga styrdokuments betydelse i skolans verksamhet
- 2011
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis aim is to visualize and understand what happens to intentions formulated in national steering documents to be interpreted and implemented in schools to give every pupil without exception access to an equivalent education.The principal starting point is that the individual official, or “street bureaucrat”, working inside school is the key person in interpreting steering document content. A theory-based analysis model was constructed from the different levels of national school steering systems, including knowledge appropriation and knowledge transfer as theoretical concepts. In the model, state, municipality, school and pupil constitute separate institutional concepts forming four frames, with three levels, macro, meso and micro, with school and pupil on the latter level. Following the process involving national steering documents, the actual steering of schools and the interpretation and implementation of the mission at different system levels highlights these documents’ importance.The empirical material comprises five studies: Study 1, a literature study focusing on the expression A school for everyone; Study 2, a document study on the steering of schools in two systems; Studies 3 and 4, two mutually independent questionnaire studies about national steering documents involving school leaders undergoing school leadership education and special needs teachers-to-be during their education and Study 5, a document study of pupil assistants’ role as officials in the two steering systems.The conclusion of the thesis may be that the pedagogical significance of the steering documents depends on how administrative and school officials, individually and collectively, interpret and implement the mission among the pupils. Claiming that A school for everyone applies to everyone requires routines in whichever system which ensure that all steering process officials absorb the steering document content and agree on a common pedagogical foundation about who are all pupils, which ones need special support and what measures will give all pupils access to an equivalent education.
|
|
| 9. |
- Gustafsson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
-
Effekter av vinterdäck : en kunskapsöversikt
- 2006
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Choice of winter tyres has, from mainly being a matter of safety and economic costs for wearing of road pavements, during later years also become a matter of inhalable particles formed during pavement wear from studded tyres and their negative effects on public health. Further, the tyres' effects on environment and noise have been illustrated in several studies. The issue is also complicated by the fact that tyre choice effects on traffic safety have several components, including such diverging parameters as friction and behaviour. Finally all aspects have to be evaluated from a socioeconomic point of view for society to be able to decide which kind of distribution of tyre types that is the most profitable. This report is a summary of current knowledge in this complex research field.
|
|
| 10. |
- Herkner, Birgitta, 1951-
(författare)
-
Läsutveckling i årskurs 2–6 belyst genom standardiserade test och nationella provet i svenska i årskurs 3
- 2011
-
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.
|
|
