| 1. |
- Stenliden, Linnéa, 1964-
(författare)
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Visual Storytelling Interacting in School : Learning Conditions in the Social Science Classroom
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this compilation thesis is to understand how technology for visual storytelling can be shaped and used in relation to social science education in primary school, but also how social dimensions, technical and other matters create emerging learning conditions in such an educational setting. The visual storytelling technology introduced and used in the study is ‘the Statistics eXplorer platform, a geovisual analytics. The choice of theoretical perspectives to inform and guide the study is a socio-cultural view of human action, but also actor network theory is used to take account also of activities of technology and other matters. The study builds on three empirical materials that generate data from 16 social science teachers, and 126 students from five social science classrooms, in three Swedish primary schools. It contains field notes from the introduction of the technology; focusgroup interviews with teachers; think-aloud interviews with students and two kinds of video recordings from the classrooms (with an ordinary video camera and with software that capture activities at the computer screen, students’ activities and the audio as well). The analysis shows that the visual storytelling technology is shaped in relevant ways for social science teachers. The analysis also illustrates that the visual educational material are usable for primary school students in their social science education. They illustrate further how teachers, students, technology, information, tasks, data types, etc. together and in in close relation create highly complex learning conditions. The technology can therefore be seen as appropriate for the educational practice, but the complexity together with students’ apprehension of how to announce knowledge distribute severe problem spaces in the learning activities. The technology can therefore be assumed as a catalyst for educational change, but to achieve its potentials, reflections on didactic design and knowledge formation is requested to support the quality of students’ knowledge in relation to visual analysis.
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| 2. |
- Borg, Farhana, 1967-
(författare)
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Caring for people and the planet : preschool children’s knowledge and practices of sustainability
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Children across the globe today are continuously being exposed to and affected by various kinds of real-world complexities and challenges; however, research on their knowledge and practices in terms of sustainability is limited, in particular with regards to how preschool- and home-related factors are associated with their learning for sustainability. Since 1998, different types of eco-certification have been awarded by the Swedish National Agency for Education and Keep Sweden Tidy Foundation to promote education for sustainability (EfS) in all areas of education and learning. Despite certificates having been granted in Sweden since 1998, no studies have been conducted at the national level to investigate whether eco-certification has any role to play in children’s learning for environmental and sustainability issues. This knowledge is important to develop pedagogical activities to engage young children meaningfully in learning for sustainability at preschool. This study was undertaken so as to address this research gap in a Swedish context.The overall aim of this study was to enhance the existing knowledge about preschool children’s learning for sustainability in Sweden. The objectives of this study have been to investigate and compare the knowledge and self-reported practices of sustainability among children attending eco-certified and non-eco-certified preschools, respectively, and to explore the extent to which preschool- and home-related factors are associated with children’s knowledge and practices of sustainability. Further, this study explored children’s perceived sources of such knowledge. The term ‘knowledge’ in this text refers to the descriptions of children’s ideas and thoughts. Similarly, eco-certified preschool refers to a school that work explicitly with EfS.The study was designed from a "child’s perspective": this means that it was designed by adults to understand children’s perceptions and actions. Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory and Bruner’s (1961) iconic (image-based) modes of representation were applied in various stages of the study. A conceptual framework was developed within the three-interlocking-circles model of sustainability that illustrates how environmental, social and economic dimensions are interconnected. The concept of sustainability was operationalized in four themes: economic equality, resource sharing, recycling and transport use.With the use of illustrations and semi-structured questions, final-year preschool children (n=53), aged five to six years, and the directors (n=7) at six eco-certified and six non-eco-certified preschools were interviewed, while guardians (n=89) and teachers (n=74) filled out questionnaires. Qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed using content analysis and Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), respectively. The quality and complexity of children’s responses were assessed and classified using the SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982).The results showed that by the time the children completed preschool, many had acquired some knowledge about how to use money, about the sorting of different recyclable items at home and at preschool, and about the impact of different modes of transport on the environment and people’s lives. They also had ideas about the lives of other children in the world and what it can mean to share resources with other people. There was a positive relationship between children’s declarative (understanding) and functional (practice) knowledge of sustainability issues and the involvement of teachers and guardians in sustainability-related discussions and activities. No statistically significant differences between eco-certified and non-eco-certified preschools in terms of children’s declarative and functional knowledge were found. Parents were reported to be the main sources of children’s knowledge along with the children themselves, teachers and media.The findings offer support for integrating environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability into the daily pedagogical activities of preschools and for giving children opportunities to participate in discussions and practical activities that concern their lives. Further studies are needed to investigate the extent to which different educational activities contribute to developing children’s understanding and behavior when it comes to a sustainable society.
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| 3. |
- Eriksson, Annika
(författare)
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Förutsättningar blir till erbjudanden : belyst genom utformning och genomförande av förskolans temainriktade arbetssätt
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study was to develop knowledge on the influence of preschool working conditions, i.e. social and political factors and factors within the individual preschool, on offers afforded to children. To illustrate this influence, I chose to investigate the design and implementation of preschool theme work. The study examined preschool pedagogues’ motives, organisation, contents and methods that underlie their teaching in the theme work and the influence of working conditions in this process. Ethnographic methods have been applied, including observations and interviews with preschool pedagogues in four preschool settings. The study had a theoretical starting point in curriculum theory, with Bernstein’s concept of classification and framing as well as frame factor theory used as tools in analysing the material. The results show that a combination of various working conditions affects offers afforded to preschool children in theme work. The pedagogues make decisions that underlie their teaching partly in relations to social and political changes and reforms, and partly in relation to processes formed historically. The children are offered an organisation, contents and methods in the theme work that arise from pedagogues’ understanding of their mission, curriculum and the childrens’ interests and needs.
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Elin, 1980-
(författare)
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Undervisning med stöd av förproducerade material : Ett närmande av naturvetenskap i förskolan
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to develop an understanding of the possibilities and challenges pre-produced teaching materials present to teachers and the learning opportunities children are offered in teaching that uses such materials. To do this a study of preschool teachers and children from three preschool departments in Sweden was carried out. The study focuses on the preschool teachers’ descriptions of their planned teaching as well as their realization of their teaching when they use the pre-produced teaching material titled “Science and Technology for All”. The teacher guides to this material, used by the preschool teachers, are also examined. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of interviews, video observations and the teacher guides. The theoretical foundation is based on a pragmatic view from the ideas of John Dewey and the theoretical concepts ultimate and proximate purposes and continuity is used in the analysis.The results of the thesis show that, even though the preschool teachers drew on the same teaching material, they displayed three different teaching practices, each of which created different opportunities to learn natural science for the participating children. The results highlight specific teaching actions that appear to either promote or hinder children's opportunities for learning natural science. The results also show that the teacher guides are vague and ambiguous, thus opening the possibility of different interpretations regarding what should be focused on in the teaching. The study concludes by stressing the importance of clear and unambiguous teacher guides. The results of the study are relevant for teaching in preschool, and other early-years educational settings for example the early school years. The results also have a general validity across a wide range of subject areas.
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| 5. |
- Lindgren Eneflo, Elisabeth, 1956-
(författare)
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Dokumentationens dilemman : förskollärare samtalar om pedagogisk dokumentation
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Pedagogical documentation is a certain procedure for documenting that, in recent years, has been embraced in several Swedish preschools. Teachers document children’s actions and conversations usually by photos or video recordings. This documentation is to be used for a pedagogical purpose. However, studies and governmental inspections have shown that pedagogical documentation gives rise to many questions among preschool teachers. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into what is being expressed when preschool teachers discuss pedagogical documentation, focusing on themes of content and on the participants’ expressions of their points of view. The data is comprised of transcriptions from audio recordings of discussions conducted in a research circle. The participants are eight preschool teachers that met over the course of one year. Each meeting focused on the documentation provided by a different participant. In that way the contents of the discussions were framed by the teachers own questions and narratives. Theoretically, the study departs from Social Constructionism and Discursive Psychology. The preschool teachers’ utterances have been analyzed using concepts of interpretative repertoires and ideological dilemmas. The results show the main themes to be: Knowledge content in a preschool setting, children’s learning, the teacher’s role and implementation of pedagogical documentation. The participants’ joint position is that the knowledge content at the preschool level is defined by the curriculum for the preschool. Concerning children’s learning and the teacher’s role, two main standpoints are disclosed. Ideologically those standpoints derive from two opposing theories of education. Based on how the standpoints have been expressed I have called them ”predetermined learning” versus ”non-predetermined learning”. One main distinction between the standpoints is that predetermined learning emphasizes the results of learning, while non-predetermined learning emphasizes the processes of learning. The participants’ utterances show that teachers tend to subscribe to the idea that there is only one acceptable way of working with pedagogical documentation. This sometimes creates performance anxiety and feelings of not succeeding and has led to arguments advocating an alternate approach; pedagogical documentation can be done in many ways. The ideological dilemmas within the discourse can be perceived as resources by which the participants argue about knowledge, learning, teaching and about the implementation of pedagogical documentation.
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| 6. |
- Olsson, Annie, 1973-
(författare)
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Läroboken i historieundervisningen : en fallstudie med fokus på elever, lärare och läroboksförfattare
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate why history textbooks are used the way they are and to identify possible reasons for the contradictions and dilemmas regarding the role of the textbook in history education. This thesis describes a case study of the history teaching at an upper secondary school class and investigates the attitudes of the pupils, teachers and textbook authors towards history, the teaching of history, textbooks and the use of textbooks. The study also investigates the textbook used in the history class and the attitudes that the authors expose in the textbook. The analyses are based on interviews with the pupils and teacher, the pupils’ responses in a questionnaire, lesson observations, parts of the textbook, and some other teaching materials used in the lessons. In addition to constituting research on attitudes, this study is also linked to cognitive dissonance theory since it highlights dissonance among the attitudes of the teachers, pupils and textbook authors.The study shows that one main dilemma is the fact that the textbook is frequently being used in the classroom, but many pupils find it dull and uninteresting. Other dilemmas are basically explanations for this and are discussed as such. The study also shows that the pupils prefer history lessons that follow certain strategies and that these strategies are only reflected in the textbook to a limited extent. However, these strategies are used to a large extent in the teaching and when other teaching materials are used instead of the textbook. Sometimes the language used in the textbook seems to prevent the pupils from being able to take in the content but they are not given any help to cope with this difficulty. However, the pupils are exposed to other teaching resources, such as films and lectures, which helps them to understand the subject matter and they appreciate such resources more than the textbook. Moreover, the use of this type of learning resources is combined with methodology that is popular among the pupils and they get help from each other and from the teacher when interpreting and working with these resources. The textbook is used primarily individually and some of the pupils find it difficult to understand. In addition, the textbook is used with teaching methodology that the pupils find dull. This could explain why films and lectures are the main focus of the history lessons while the textbook is used primarily as a supplementary factual resource. This may also be a reason why the pupils have a negative attitude towards the textbook.
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| 7. |
- Persson, Anders, 1974-
(författare)
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Lärartillvaro och historieundervisning : innebörder av ett nytt uppdrag i de mätbara resultatens tid
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Swedish compulsory school has recently been subjected to a number of political reforms. Between 2011 and 2014, for example, earlier grades, more national tests and a new curriculum plan (Lgr 11) were to be implemented. This thesis aims to examine those changes as they were experienced by teachers who teach history in Swedish upper primary schools. The theoretical framework is in-spired by existential philosophy, primarily as formulated in the works of Martin Heidegger and Hanna Arendt. In this way, the study highlights the teachers’ lived experience by making use of the concepts yearning, appearance, acting and mood.The study comprises of 36 interviews with 26 informants. The interviews were carried out and transcribed during 2014. The questions focus on both the existential being of the teachers’ lives as well as the ideological function of the history subject. This highly renders in the issue of how lived experiences of a specific school reform corresponded to the teachers’ own perception of a mean-ingful history education. Both the yearnings that were expressed by the participants and their de-scriptions of what they have experienced, have been related to the overall educational ideological functions stated by Gert Biesta (socialisation, subjectification and qualification) and Jonas Aspelin (existentialisation).Although the teachers’ narratives were greatly varied in some aspects, their interpretations of the new assignment seemed to be quite homogenous. Most of the teachers portrayed a situation characterised by performativity. Measurable knowledge and more frequent documentation seemed to be prioritised. Some of them stressed that they experienced less autonomy. In terms of history, the new curriculum was associated with more content knowledge, cognitive skills and procedural abilities. From the teachers’ perspective, pure qualification, rather than subjectification and social-isation, characterised the new curriculum.Still, the teachers’ feelings towards the curricular changes showed a great deal of divergence. Some of them embraced most of the new aspects. They claimed that clearly formulated require-ments in the history curricula provided them with security. They declared that their history teaching to some extent became more professional. In line with such beliefs, some teachers asserted that the strengthened focus on analytical skills improved their teaching. Particularly those who ex-pressed that they preferred such analytic procedural approaches described their experience in terms of confirmation and approval. Others appeared to struggle with the changes. While a few teachers even tried to resist the curricular changes, some found themselves forced to endure what appeared to be a totally new situation. They expressed disbelief, frustration and pain. Notably it was those most devoted to the existentialisational function of history teaching that usually seemed to express such alienation. As argued, they appeared to long for a lost possibility to engage their pupils, to bring history alive and to make meaning of the past.
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| 8. |
- Stormats, Karen, 1968-
(författare)
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Flipp i tal och handling : En fallstudie om undervisningsmetoden flipp i tre gymnasielärares tal och handling
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Flipped Classroom (flipp) is described in both school and scientific contexts as a new teaching method where the individual pupil and her active learning is placed at the center and where lesson time to a greater extent is used for discussion and laboratory work, while information gathering takes place outside lesson time via ICT. Flipp has in recent years become widely spread in Sweden, which is why it is interesting to investigate flipp in a Swedish context. This has so far been made to a very limited extent. This study aims to deepen the understanding of flipp as a teaching method as the method appears in the speech and actions of upper secondary school teachers who claim they use flipp when they teach. The study addresses three general issues. First, teachers' purposes with flipp are explored, second, the roles that emerge in flipped teaching is investigated and third, individualization in teaching where flipp is applied. The study is a case study based on interviews and observations with three upper secondary school teachers who flip their teaching. The study is based on social constructivist theory formation and Dewey's progressivist philosophy of education is the discussion partner in this study. Previous research suggests that in the development of flip, inspiration was drawn from pedagogical ideas from the early 1900s, which makes it advisable to discuss possible points of contact between flipp as expressed in the case study, and progressivism. Previous research presents flipp as a method for creating flexibility and individualization as well as a method that helps the teacher and students spend more time together for laboratory work and discussions. The teachers express that flipping helps the students to become active during lessons. Observations, however, show that there are significant problems with the students not preparing for the lesson to the extent that was expected, which will have negative consequences for the opportunities to work and discuss during lessons as intended. The study thus shows evidence that there is a discrepancy between the image that the teachers produce and the image of the flip that has been observed.
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| 9. |
- Thorp, Robert, 1976-
(författare)
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Historical Consciousness, Historical Media, and History Education
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis by publication contains an introductory summary chapter and three papers. The first paper presents a study of how the concept of historical consciousness has been defined, applied, and justified in Swedish history didactical research. It finds that there is consensus regarding the definition of what a historical consciousness is, but that there is variation in how the concept is applied. It is suggested that this variation makes historical consciousness a complex and vague concept. The second paper uses the results presented in the first paper as a point of departure and from thence argues for a broadened understanding of the concept of historical consciousness that incorporates its definition, application, development, and significance. The study includes research about historical consciousness primarily from Sweden, the UK, the USA and Canada. The paper presents a typology of historical consciousness and argues that level of contextualisation is what distinguishes different types of historical consciousnesses and that an ability to contextualise is also what makes historical consciousness an important concept for identity constitution and morality. The third paper proposes a methodological framework of historical consciousness based on the theory of historical consciosusness presented in the second paper. It presents arguments for why the framework of historical consciousness proposed can be useful for the analysis of historical media and it discusses how aspects of the framework can be applied in analysis. It then presents a textbook analysis that has been performed according to the stipulated framework and discusses its results regarding how textbooks can be used to analyse historical consciousness and its development.
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| 10. |
- Thorp, Robert, 1976-
(författare)
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Uses of History in History Education
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This compilation thesis contains an introductory chapter and four original articles. The studies comprising this thesis all concern aspects of how historical culture is constituted in historical media and history teachers’ narratives and teaching. It is argued that the teaching of history is a complex matter due to an internal tension resulting from the fact that history is both a product and a process at the same time. While historical facts, and knowledge thereof, are an important aspect of history, history is also a product of careful interpretation and reconstruction. This study analyses and discusses how history is constituted in history textbooks and popular history magazines, i.e. two common historical media, and in teachers’ narratives and teaching of history.The study finds that the historical media studied generally tend to present history as void of perspective, interpretation and representation, suggesting this to be the culturally warranted form of historical exposition. Moreover, the teachers studied also tend to approach history as if it were not contingent on interpretation and reconstruction. These results indicate that the history disseminated in historical media and history classrooms presents history in a factual way and disregards the procedural aspects of history.Applying the history didactical concepts of historical consciousness, historical culture and uses of history, this thesis argues that an essential aspect of historical understanding is an appreciation of the contextual contingency that characterises history. All history is conceived within a particular context that is pertinent to why and how a certain version of history is constructed. Furthermore, all history is also received within a particular context by people with particular preconceptions of history that are contextually contingent, in the sense that they are situated in a certain historical culture. Readers of historical media are members of societies and are thus affected by how history is perceived and discussed in these contexts. This thesis argues that an awareness of these aspects of history is an important factor for furthering a complex understanding of history that encompasses the tension highlighted above.
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