| 1. |
- Björkholm, Eva, 1955-
(författare)
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Konstruktioner som fungerar : En studie av teknikkunnande i de tidiga skolåren
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to explore the meaning of technical knowing in primary technology education. This is done by identifying and describing ways of knowing in relation to specific content (so-called objects of learning) of the school subject of technology. The purpose is to contribute to the body of teachers’ professional knowledge concerning primary technology education. In this thesis, the subject of technology is seen as representing technical knowledge traditions, characterized by specific ways of developing knowledge. Moreover, the knowledge is to a great extent embedded in actions. This perspective on technical knowing challenges the traditional distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge. Data were generated through two Learning studies conducted in primary schools. Learning study is a classroom-based, interventionistic research approach, in which teachers collaborate with a researcher, focusing on specific objects of learning, that is, on what the students are supposed to learn. In the studies, the capability to evaluate the fitness for purpose of technical solutions, and to construct a linkage mechanism allowing for transferring and transforming movement were examined. Students’ actions were video-recorded in order to document verbal and physical expressions of knowing.The data were analysed using phenomenographic analysis, resulting in descriptions of specific ways of knowing in terms of complexity, as well as critical aspects to discern in order to develop the knowing. The findings from the first study describe knowing in terms of discerning functions related to different types of users, as well as aspects of the construction in order to realize functions. The second study identified technical knowing as a specified analysis of the construction in terms of location and separation of joints in relation to different functions. These findings were then used to identify technical knowing in video material generated within another teaching context. The results suggest that knowledge concerning knowing of specific objects of learning related to the evaluation and construction of technical solutions is partly generalizable. In addition, the specified knowledge concerning the meaning of the object of learning generated during the Learning study process was described. This knowledge is suggested to be an important knowledge product of Learning studies.
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| 2. |
- Landahl, Joakim, 1974-
(författare)
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Auktoritet och ansvar : Lärares fostrans- och omsorgsarbete i historisk belysning
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- How has teachers’ work changed during the 20th century? This question is addressed in this dissertation that deals with two aspects of teachers’ work: moral education/discipline and care. The two aspects relate to two distinct, yet sometimes interconnected problems: the norm-breaking and the suffering child. Drawing on a rich source of material, consisting of handbooks, magazines and journals for teachers, interviews, life histories, school memories, novels, commission reports etcetera, and theoretically interpreted within a frame of mentalities, modernity and institutional features of schooling, the process of change is described in terms of contrasts between “the past” and “the present” or between the modern and the late modern condition. The results are presented in two parts, dealing with discipline (part II) and care (part III). Part II deals with changes in the meaning of discipline or moral education by focusing on the changes of what has been seen as a discipline problem, and the ways in which discipline problems can be counteracted. The question of the meanings of discipline problems is first illustrated by the “rise and fall” of the lying school child. The emphasis is on the ways in which the lie was held to be problematic in the early 20th century, but the fundamental aim is to understand the process of change whereby lies came to be seen as less important and dramatic as a problem for moral education. The meaning of discipline is further analysed in a study of conceptions of the school class. Contrasting the concept of bullying with the idea that the school class is characterised by a high level of solidarity (common in the first part of the 20th century), the changes of moral education are analysed. Further, the transformations of the school punishment are discussed, with a focus on ideas on the good punishment. After concluding the chapters on moral education, the focus shifts towards the teachers’ responsibility toward the suffering school child (part III). The point of departure here is that the problem of the suffering school child is not a self evident problem in the same way as the problem of the norm-breaking child. This means that the analysis of changes in caring relationships in schools has to focus on the ways in which suffering is made visible as a responsibility for the teachers. First there is an analysis of how the attitudes towards the value of being happy at school can shift historically, and how these changes can be related to shifting views on schooling as a phase of preparation. Further the process of making suffering visible is investigated. It is argued that contemporary teachers are both expected to and able to see the suffering of the child in a new way. Another chapter deals with school hygiene and “crisis pedagogy”. These are two different ways of speaking about what it means to work for wellbeing in schools that belong to two different historical time periods. The two projects are both about wellbeing, but the first had “sickness” as the fundamental concept, whereas the later has “sorrow” as its fundamental concept. The former is characterised by a belief in progress and segregation, whereas the latter is characterised by a belief in inclusion and close personal relationships. In describing aspects of teachers work that have often been perceived as difficult to handle, the dissertation’s object, in the widest sense, is to give new perspectives on the meaning of working conditions, and by implication, the historical changes of these conditions. In an even more general sense the aim is to give new perspectives on schooling in late modern societies.
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| 3. |
- Nyberg, Gunn
(författare)
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Ways of knowing in ways of moving : A study of the meaning of capability to move
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall aim of this thesis has been to investigate the meaning of the capability to move in order to identify and describe this capability from the perspective of the one who moves in relation to specific movements. It has been my ambition to develop ways to explicate, and thereby open up for discussion, what might form an educational goal in the context of movements and movement activities in the school subject of physical education and health (PEH).In this study I have used a practical epistemological perspective on capability to move, a perspective that challenges the traditional distinction between mental and physical skills as well as between theoretical and practical knowledge. Movement actions, or ways of moving, are seen as expressions of knowing.In order to explore an understanding of the knowing involved in specific ways of moving, observations of actors’ ways of moving and their own experiences of moving were brought together. Informants from three different arenas took part: from PEH in upper secondary school, from athletics and from free-skiing.The results of the analyses suggest it is possible to describe practitioners’ developed knowing as a number of specific ways of knowing that are in turn related to specific ways of moving. Examples of such specific ways of moving may be discerning and modifying one’s own rotational velocity and navigating one’s (bodily) awareness. Additionally, exploring learners’ pre-knowing of a movement ‘as something’ may be fruitful when planning the teaching and learning of capability to move. I have suggested that these specific ways of knowing might be regarded as educational goals in PEH.In conducting this study, I have also had the ambition to contribute to the ongoing discussion of what ‘ability’ in the PEH context might mean. In considering specific ways of knowing in moving, the implicit and taken-for-granted meaning of ‘standards of excellence’ and ‘sports ability’can be discussed, and challenged.
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| 4. |
- Ahlstrand, Pernilla, 1967-
(författare)
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Att kunna lyssna med kroppen : En studie av gestaltande förmåga inom gymnasieskolans estetiska program, inriktning teater
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Theatre has been a school subject in the Swedish upper secondary school's national arts program since 1992 and has its own syllabus and grading criteria. The National Curriculum in theatre emphasises the development of performative capability, which is the focus of this dissertation. This study aims to contribute to the improvement of teachers’ subject-specific language, and concerns certain aspects of student ways of knowing.Theatre encompasses tacit knowledge (Lagerström 2003) and as an art form belongs to a tradition of practical knowledge. Knowledge in theatre has traditionally been acquired within a master-apprentice tradition (Johansson 2012, Järleby 2003). When theatre as an art form becomes a school subject the conditions of the art form change through a didactic transposition (Chevallard 2005). The previous two curriculum reforms in Sweden have developed competency-based syllabuses. To meet the school's requirements for planning teaching activities with colleagues as well as assessing and giving feedback to students, theatre knowledge needs to be articulated. Research is therefore needed to develop a professional language among teachers within the subject of theatre.I have chosen to work with Learning study, which is a collaborative and iterative research approach which enables the articulation of teachers and students knowing. Data is analysed using foremost phenomenographic analyses. The results generated in this study could be useful for teachers in the process of planning lessons, giving feedback to students, for assessments and grades, for discussing the content of lessons with other teachers, and ultimately for us to begin to recognize different levels of knowing.
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| 5. |
- Berggren, Jessica
(författare)
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Learning from Giving Feedback : Insights from EFL Writing Classrooms in a Swedish Lower Secondary School
- 2013
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present thesis aims to describe teenagers as peer reviewers and explore possible benefits of giving feedback. My study was carried out in two EFL classrooms in year eight in a Swedish lower secondary school, where the pupils were engaged with the written task to write an informative reply letter in English. The teaching unit included negotiations of a joint criteria list, feedback training, peer review, and the production of first and final drafts of the reply letter. Data were collected from multiples sources: texts produced in class, audio- and video-recordings, questionnaires and interviews.My main findings suggest that pupils can learn about writing from giving feedback. By adopting a reader perspective, the pupils raised their genre and audience awareness. Moreover, the peer-reviewed reply letters served as inspiration both in terms of transfer of structure, such as rhetorical organisation, and of ideas and content. Self-reports indicated that the pupils in my study enhanced their ability to self-assess and edit their own writing, which suggests that transferable skills were developed as a result of peer review. As regards micro-level aspects of writing, reading and commenting on peers’ reply letters seemed to influence a smaller number of pupils to transfer patterns and spelling. In their role as peer reviewers, the pupils successfully identified strengths and weaknesses in their peers’ writing, but the feedback comments did not include much specific formative information.My findings contribute to research on L2 writing and peer feedback by showing that younger learners can benefit from giving feedback. This is significant since previous research has mainly been carried out at university and college level. In addition, by combining text analyses, classroom observation and pupils’ self-reports, my study offers a comprehensive understanding of peer review.
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| 6. |
- Flodin, Veronica
(författare)
-
Epistemisk drift : Genbegreppets rörelser i några av forskningens och undervisningens texter i biologi
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Det övergripande syftet med denna uppsats är att utveckla förståelsen för relationen mellan den kunskap som tas fram i forskning i biologi och den kunskap som det sedan undervisas om, i kurser på universitetet. Arbetet i denna uppsats är begränsat till den del av forskning och undervisning som är inriktad mot användningen av vetenskapliga begrepp i texter, och vilka innebörder användningarna leder till. Arbetet baseras på två studier.I den första studien visas att i en enda, mycket använd lärobok i biologi, kan man finna (åtminstone) fem olika innebörder av hur genbegreppet används. Det som är intressant är att dessa olika innebörder kan knytas till framväxten av olika biologiska discipliner. Det kan tyckas självklart när man ser det som resultat, men faktum är att genbegreppet inte framskrivs som kontextberoende. Detta borde i sin tur leda till att förståelsen av genbegreppet försvåras, eftersom betydelsen varierar med sammanhanget och dessutom kan olika innebörder blandas i ett och samma sammanhang. De lärandeproblem som tidigare studier har visat på, kan bland annat ha sin grund i ett innehållsproblem. Det vill säga, innehållet i sig är vagt och otydligt.I den andra studien baseras analysen på en fallstudie av användningen av genbegreppet i fem vetenskapliga artiklar. Olika innebörder av genbegreppet återfinns på samma sätt som den tidigare studien gjort gällande för en lärobok i biologi. Men även nya kategorier beskrivs. I läroboken kunde de olika innebörderna knytas till olika subdiscipliner. I de vetenskapliga artiklarna knyts de nya kategorierna snarare till olika kunskapsprojekt. Genen och genbegreppet fyller olika funktioner i relation till forskningsproblemen, frågorna och metoderna. Man kan säga att olika aspekter av genen används i olika kunskapsprojekt. Men kategorierna används inte renodlat. Både de tidigare kategoriserade innebörderna och nya kategorier används. Blandningen föreslås bero på att kunskaper om gener inte försvinner, utan lever vidare och används sida vid sida med nyutvecklad kunskap, vilket leder till att genbegreppet är utsatt för en epistemisk drift.Transformationen av innehåll mellan forskningstexten och lärobokstexten, diskuteras sedan utifrån resultaten i studie ett och studie 2 i termer av rekontextualisering. När innehållet ”transformeras” till läroboken, finns variationerna av genbegreppet kvar, men inte det vetenskapliga sammanhanget i form av frågor och metoder. De olika sätten att veta om gener förekommer blandat i forskningstexterna, men forskarna föreslås kunna använda sin disciplinbaserade kunskap till att utläsa sambanden. Det kan betyda att det som framstår som luddigt, blandat och oklart för en utomstående, inte är det för en fackman som befinner sig i den aktuella praktiken.
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| 7. |
- Gustavsson, Laila, 1947-
(författare)
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Att bli bättre lärare : hur undervisningsinnehållets behandling blir till samtalsämne lärare emellan
- 2008
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis reports results from a study that focuses on teachers’ professional development during an in-service training period. The aim is to analyse and describe how the teachers talk about and handle lesson content. The first question concerns changes in relation to a specific object of learning. The second question concerns how they relate to a theoretical framework and the third question concerns differences in the students’ learning outcome and if it can be understood in relation to the teachers’ development. The variation theory is the theoretical framework that is used for lesson planning as well as when analysing results. The basis of the study is that learning always is the learning of something and that the teachers’ activity as well as the students’ activity constitutes the space of variation that decides what is possible to learn concerning a delimited object of learning, i.e. the enacted object of learning. The object of learning is seen as a capability and it can be defined by its critical features. The constitution of the meaning aimed for the critical features of the object must be discerned. The intentional object of learning describes the teachers’ intention with the lesson, and the lived object of learning is what the students really discerned. The theoretical assumption is that learning always assumes an experienced variation where learning is seen as a change in the learners’ possibility to experience the world in a certain way. You have to have experienced a phenomenon’s variation to understand its meaning, i.e. what we experience is how something differs from something else. The method is Learning study and it can be described as a hybrid of the Japanese Lesson study and Design experiment. A Learning study is theoretically grounded and the primary focus is on an object of learning. The learning study group consisted of three teachers and most often two researchers. Each member had equal status in the group. The object of learning seen from the teachers’ perspective was the variation theory that was gradually introduced by the researchers. The empirical material was generated from audio-taped discussions and from videotaped lessons. The findings should be seen as a contribution to the discussion about teachers’ professional development. The teachers participated in a collective construction of professional knowledge and it can be stated that the teachers had no problem changing their discussions to focus on a specific object of learning when the theoretical framework was used in relation to their own practices. Another finding is that the change in how the teachers handled the object of learning influenced the students’ learning in a positive way although the results were subtle.
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| 8. |
- Gåfvels, Camilla, 1977-
(författare)
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Skolad blick på blommor : Formandet av yrkeskunnande i floristutbildning
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This article-based thesis focuses on the formation of vocational knowing within adult and upper secondary floristry education in Sweden. Three articles explore classroom interaction and assessment actions; a fourth considers changes in vocational subject matter during the period 1990–2015. While the first three articles draw on empirical data in the form of video and audio recordings in combination with participant observation, the fourth is based primarily on material-based interview data. All four articles share a sociocultural perspective on educational practice (Wertsch, 1998; Säljö, 2011, 2013) and a relational view of knowing (e.g., Carlgren, 2015; Molander, 1996), in combination with the use of conversation analysis (Goodwin & Heritage, 1990; Sahlström & Melander, 2010) as a tool to illuminate the formation of vocational knowing. The interaction between teacher, student, and floral arrangement is foregrounded to facilitate analysis of the formation of vocational knowing. The results contribute to our understanding of the schooling of the gaze (Goodwin, 1994; Grasseni, 2009, 2011) as appropriated by participants in the interaction. Floristry vocational knowing is shown to evolve in the temporal dimension, encompassing (a) financial and aesthetic values, (b) verbal and non–verbal communication, (c) botanical material and tools, and (d) making. The respective roles and interrelations of these four components of vocational knowing in floristry are discussed. The contribution of the thesis is twofold. First, these articles contribute to the understanding of vocational education through close appraisal of the formation of vocational knowing. Second, in exploring the previously under-researched field of Swedish floristry vocational education, the thesis bridges a gap in existing knowledge of the evolution of Swedish vocational education. As floristry education is little researched internationally, the thesis also contributes to the wider body of international research.
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| 9. |
- Hultén, Magnus, 1970-
(författare)
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Naturens kanon : formering och förändring av innehållet i folkskolans och grundskolans naturvetenskap 1842–2007
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation analyses the science curriculum in Swedish compulsory school 1842–2007. National curricula, textbooks, textbook adverts, and handbooks are analysed. These all have a strong position in defining the school curricula and their contents, methods and aims, and can therefore be called canonic texts. What contents, methods and aims have dominated the curricula? How have these changed? The aim of the study is to contribute to the understanding of what ideologies have dominated compulsory school science texts and how these ideologies have been shaped by social, pedagogical and cultural currents in society.The start of this study is set by the issuing of the first Statute on Common Schools in Sweden, June 18, 1842. In this statute a natural science based subject was present. Even though the subject wasn’t new to the public school system, the year 1842 marked an important step in the formation of a “science for the people” in Sweden.Six different canons are discerned in the history of the science subject in compulsory school: God’s canon (1842–1900); The canon of the physical environment (1900–1919); The canon of the national landscape (1919–1936); The canon of the citizen (1936–1962); The canon of science (1962–1980); and The canon of the bricoleur (1980–2007).On a broad scale, these canons have been shaped by on the one hand natural science and on the other hand broad social, cultural and pedagogic currents in society. While researchers have mainly focused on the first source of influence, the latter have to a large extent been neglected. In the thesis I show that there have been major changes in the curriculum genre over time and that these changes first and foremost must be understood as shaped by pedagogic, social and cultural forces.
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| 10. |
- Johansson, Patrik, 1972-
(författare)
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Att tolka spåren från det förflutna : Innebörder, lärande och meningsskapande av historisk källtolkning i gymnasiet
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This licentiate thesis explores the activity of historical reasoning in terms of primary source analysis among upper secondary school students. The thesis is a compilation of two scientific articles in history didactics. Two Learning studies, a theory-informed and interventionistic research methodology, were organised to explore historical reasoning. Three research questions are ad- dressed: (1) what does it mean to be able to analyse historical primary sources, (2) what is critical to discern when learning primary source analysis, and (3) what is characteristic for the processes of learning and meaning- making when students work with source analysis assignments? The first article uses phenomenography to explore fifteen students’ perceptions of a historical primary source and the difficulties they face when examining the source. Data was collected through a series of group interviews where stu- dents were asked to respond to a historical letter. The analysis resulted in four qualitatively different categories of perceptions of the source and three critical aspects that emerged between the categories. It is suggested that it is critical to (1) discern and separate the historical perspective, (2) to discern and separate the perspective of the historical actor and (3) to discern and separate the subtext of the source in relation to the historical context. The second article uses a form of content focused conversation analysis to ex- plore the processes of learning and attributing meaning when students work with primary sources. Data was collected through audio recordings of stu- dents’ collaborative work on two assignments. The main results are descrip- tions of the students’ learning and meaning making processes. For instance, when students discern and separate the historical perspective and historical actors’ perspectives. An interesting finding was a strategy used by students to take on the roles of hypothetical historical agents. It is suggested that cer- tain aspects of school culture might inhibit students’ learning of primary source analysis and that students’ life-world perspective is vital in creating meaning. Finally, historical reasoning is discussed in relation to the concept of historical consciousness and it is argued that historical reasoning should include the perspectives of deconstruction, subjectivity and interpretation to better comply with history teaching.
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| 11. |
- Morawski, Jan
(författare)
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Mellan frihet och kontroll : om läroplanskonstruktioner i svensk skola
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to explore how different competing discourses inthe historical context of the Swedish education development have qualifiedand disqualified different constructions of national curriculum. How andafter what kind of principles is the curriculum constructed? What qualifywho are going to be recognized as the author and addressee of the curriculum?These key questions of the study are discussed in the first part of thethesis. My point of departure is that the curriculum can be understood as arelation between freedom and control. In an educational system this relationshipreflects the problematic tension between the external demandsfrom an authoritative center and the local need to independently reflectover educational issues. How these concepts are defined by the prevailingsocial discourses affect specific relations and constructions of curricula as asteering tool and a producer of specific teacher identities. In this sense, Iclaim that curriculum is constructed in different ways depending on whichof the didactic questions are emphasized and answered and who is judgedas the legitimate author. Based on this, three models of curriculum constructionare formulated; the content based, the result based and the processbased. These models are subsequently used as an analytical tool to examinethe historical development of Swedish national curricula.The second part of the thesis investigates the Swedish education systemand the production of the national curriculum as a product of rival discourses.The historical investigation begins 1842 when the first state curriculumwas issued and the inquiry concludes in 2008. The findings indicatethat no one single construction has been totally dominant and thatthere has been an on-going discursive struggle between different alternativeand opinions about what teachers must do and be.
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| 12. |
- Ståhle, Ylva, 1956-
(författare)
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Pedagogiken i tiden : Om framväxten av nya undervisningsformer under tidigt 2000-tal – exemplet Kunskapsskolan
- 2006
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study concerns the new educational activities that emerge within the deregulated school system at the beginning of the 21st century. Which ideas guide the work? How is the activity formed? What does one hope to achieve? The aim of the thesis is to explore these educational practices in one of the larges independent schools in Sweden – Kunskapsskolan.The study was based upon a sociocultural perspective on learning and on twenty situated interviews with seven principals. Tools central for the activity in Kunskapsskolan were used as basis for the interviews. A qualitative analysis has been used; one of the methods for analysis applied is phenomenography.The study shows how the school, with the help of centrally developed tools, organised the teaching and the environments for learning that were implemented in all schools of the company. Individually organised teaching is the foundation for all teaching, where the students are expected to be self-regulated and self-correcting and use the tools provided for their learning. With regards to the students’ learning, the teachers’ role is mainly related to individual tutorial conversations. Thereby the tools intended to create freedom and control for the students, also create problems and obstacles. Students who do not learn to use the tools have difficulties in managing their studies.The new tools also affect the teachers’ work. In comparison with other schools, the teachers are expected to submit to the educational model and a centrally controlled planning. The teaching is centrally planned in subject specific stages or subject integrated courses. Teachers can influence the central planning by working collaboratively in teacher teams but not individually. The main commission of the teachers is to follow the educational model decided by the company.In comparison with the traditional school, both teachers and students are given new roles. When learning is individually organised for the students, the teachers are expected to develop their knowledge collectively. According to the results, both students and teachers have different approaches to the system – they can submit to the system or approach it in a more independent and reflective way.
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| 13. |
- Andrée, Maria, 1974-
(författare)
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Den levda läroplanen : en studie av naturorienterande undervisningspraktiker i grundskolan
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this thesis is to develop knowledge about what students actually learn in lower secondary school science, regardless of intentions and policies. This is conceptualized as a study of the lived curriculum. During the last decades, new ways of organizing classroom work have evolved in Sweden. Students are to an increasing extent expected to take responsibility for what, when, and how they study. The aim of this thesis is therefore delimited to the study of which lived curriculum is constituted in such an individually organized science classroom practice.The theoretical foundation is a cultural-historical activity-theoretical perspective on human learning and development. The point of departure is that what we learn must be understood as an aspect of the activities we engage in. The research approach is ethnographic; field studies were conducted in two science classes, grades six and seven (ages 12 to 14 years old), in a Swedish midsized compulsory school during one school-year.The first result is that two different practices are discerned in the studied science classroom. One classroom practice is a criteria-based practice, where students work individually with local school criteria determining what students must be able to do in order to get a pass or a pass with distinction in the natural science subjects. The other classroom practice is a laboratory practice, where students do laboratory experiments and write laboratory reports. The second result is that students, in both practices, participate in different actions; either production and reproduction of correct answers or development of conceptual relations. These actions correspond in varying degrees to different motives; as a consequence, different scientific formation is made possible in the two different actions. A third result is that classroom practice supports student participation in the action of reproducing correct answers; while participation in the development of conceptual relations is a more risky and uncertain endeavour. However, there is evidence that students’ ways of participating can change, to a more qualified, as conditions for work change.A conclusion is that work in science classroom practice cannot, as suggested in previous research, be comprehended in terms of cultural border-crossings, between a culture of science and student cultures. Rather, work in science classroom practice must be conceptualized in terms of schooling.
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| 14. |
- Gustavsson, Laila, 1947-
(författare)
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Att bli bättre lärare : Hur undervisningsinnehållets behandling blir till samtalsämne lärare emellan
- 2008
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis reports results from a study that focuses on teachers’ professional development during an in-service training period. The aim is to analyse and describe how the teachers talk about and handle lesson content. The first question concerns changes in relation to a specific object of learning. The second question concerns how they relate to a theoretical framework and the third question concerns differences in the students’ learning outcome and if it can be understood in relation to the teachers’ development. The variation theory is the theoretical framework that is used for lesson planning as well as when analysing results. The basis of the study is that learning always is the learning of something and that the teachers’ activity as well as the students’ activity constitutes the space of variation that decides what is possible to learn concerning a delimited object of learning, i.e. the enacted object of learning. The object of learning is seen as a capability and it can be defined by its critical features. The constitution of the meaning aimed for the critical features of the object must be discerned. The intentional object of learning describes the teachers’ intention with the lesson, and the lived object of learning is what the students really discerned. The theoretical assumption is that learning always assumes an experienced variation where learning is seen as a change in the learners’ possibility to experience the world in a certain way. You have to have experienced a phenomenon’s variation to understand its meaning, i.e. what we experience is how something differs from something else. The method is Learning study and it can be described as a hybrid of the Japanese Lesson study and Design experiment. A Learning study is theoretically grounded and the primary focus is on an object of learning. The learning study group consisted of three teachers and most often two researchers. Each member had equal status in the group. The object of learning seen from the teachers’ perspective was the variation theory that was gradually introduced by the researchers. The empirical material was generated from audio-taped discussions and from videotaped lessons. The findings should be seen as a contribution to the discussion about teachers’ professional development. The teachers participated in a collective construction of pro-fessional knowledge and it can be stated that the teachers had no problem changing their discussions to focus on a specific object of learning when the theoretical framework was used in relation to their own practices. Another finding is that the change in how the teachers handled the object of learning influenced the students’ learning in a positive way although the results were subtle.
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| 15. |
- Hultén, Magnus, 1970-
(författare)
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Nature's Canon : The Formation and Change of the Science Curriculum in Swedish Compulsory School 1842–2007
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation analyses the science curriculum in Swedish compulsory school 1842–2007. National curricula, textbooks, textbook adverts, and handbooks are analysed. These all have a strong position in defining the school curricula and their contents, methods and aims, and can therefore be called canonic texts. What contents, methods and aims have dominated the curricula? How have these changed? The aim of the study is to contribute to the understanding of what ideologies have dominated compulsory school science texts and how these ideologies have been shaped by social, pedagogical and cultural currents in society.The start of this study is set by the issuing of the first Statute on Common Schools in Sweden, June 18, 1842. In this statute a natural science based subject was present. Even though the subject wasn’t new to the public school system, the year 1842 marked an important step in the formation of a “science for the people” in Sweden.Six different canons are discerned in the history of the science subject in compulsory school: God’s canon (1842–1900); The canon of the physical environment (1900–1919); The canon of the national landscape (1919–1936); The canon of the citizen (1936–1962); The canon of science (1962–1980); and The canon of the bricoleur (1980–2007).On a broad scale, these canons have been shaped by on the one hand natural science and on the other hand broad social, cultural and pedagogic currents in society. While researchers have mainly focused on the first source of influence, the latter have to a large extent been neglected. In the thesis I show that there have been major changes in the curriculum genre over time and that these changes first and foremost must be understood as shaped by pedagogic, social and cultural forces.
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| 16. |
- Lindberg, Owe
(författare)
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Talet om lärarutbildning
- 2002
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation can be described as threefold, (i) to problematice the ways in which we talk about, or, the discourses of, teacher education, (ii) to analyse contemporary discussions about teacher education as it has taken shape in relation to the present teacher education reform in Sweden, and (iii) to develop points of references for alternative ways to talk about teacher education, on the basis of (i) and (ii), and in relation to Stephen Toulmin’s analysis of the modern project.The dissertation consists of twelve chapters divided into four parts. Part I is an introduction to the field of research and to the dissertation. Part II is an analysis of contemporary Swedish discussions about teacher education and teachers. Part III is an attempt to deepen the analysis by adding international and historical perspectives. Part IV, finally, takes the discussion another step further by using Toulmin’s analysis of the modern project as a lens through which to read the discourses about teacher education and teachers.Through a series of analyses the dissertation ends up in a discussion about how we could talk about teacher education within the spirit of the third modernity. The discussion is centred around five metaphors, “Teacher education as a public dialogue”, “Teacher education as the education of teachers”, “The education of teachers as an offer about Bildung in a citizenship perspective”, “The education of teachers as teachers education” and “Teachers education as communication”. In relation to these metaphors two lines of talk are suggested. We could start to talk about teachers work as if it was a profession with communicative and deliberative characteristics seen in the perspective of citizenship in terms of belonging and participation and we could start to talk about teachers education as if it was meant to create good conditions for becoming teachers to develop their capacity to make sound judgements in relation to their work by participating in critical, constructive and challenging dialogues.
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| 17. |
- Wedin, Ann-Sofi, 1961-
(författare)
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Lärares arbete och kunskapsbildning : Utmaningar och inviter i den vardagliga praktiken
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to enlarge knowledge concerning teachers´ knowledge creation in their everyday practices. Of central importance are questions concerned with what a teacher’s daily work looks like, to what areas does the knowledge a teacher develops in her/his daily work belong and what is their content. The major area of interest involves how the day-to-day knowledge is created as well as which type of teaching that dominates. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork. That implies the use of a wide range of data from different sources, in my case, participating observations, different kinds of interviews and informal conversations. I followed two senior level teachers over time, one for half a year and the other for almost a whole year. Teachers´ work. The results show that teachers’ work is immediate, unpredictable, intensive and oriented by action. The relational character of the work is in focus however. Teacher’s work on building relationships with their pupils is continuously ongoing the whole time and everywhere. Relationships are created and upheld. The teaching, which is the teachers’ main task, does not take the pure form that one could assume but in many respects consists of relationships, even if at a first glance this does not appear to be the case. I have found that beyond a teacher’s actions there is often a relationship-based explanation. Yet another task that takes another form than that one could imagine and that is continually present in the everyday work is that which I call work related to grade-setting. Teachers´ knowledge. I have discovered a number of dimensions of teachers’ practical knowledge that can be considered as ”new”. These originate principally from two main areas: Pupils and teaching. The pupil-related knowledge consists of four categories: individual knowledge, “reading” knowledge, relational knowledge and care knowledge. The teaching-related categories of knowledge are: tactical didactic knowledge, subject-didactic knowledge, meta-knowledge and survival knowledge. I regard all these forms of knowledge as contextual. They are also personal as they are created by the teacher in a unique environment. My impression is that the forms of knowledge are also use-oriented and that most of them comprise a social dimension. Teachers´ knowledge creation. My findings show that teachers´ knowledge creation in everyday practice takes place within three areas, relational work, practical didactic improvement and work related to grade-setting. What I mostly find in the teachers is knowledge creation of an extremely refined manner. They test, adapt, change and improve both for their own sake and for the pupils. I use the term refinement learning for this process. Most of the knowledge creation in teachers takes place through interaction foremost with individuals, but even with texts and objects. This is explained by the profession’s relational character. The situations the teachers are involved in are never exactly the same but demand modifications to strategies previously used. Learning is here seen as invite-initiated and is best understood from a situated perspective. The interplay processes alone however cannot explain the knowledge creation that occurs. The teachers’ reflections about their teaching, which lead to new lesson elements is one example. The creation of knowledge can then best be explained from a constructivist perspective even if it also has its origin in interactive situations. Here, learning is more self-initiated. Knowledge creation can be regarded as necessary, as all the situations the teacher is involved in require solutions. They can also be regarded as natural situations as the teacher is obliged to promote both the pupils’ learning and development. This forces them to formulate explanations in all possible ways and means so that the pupils understand, as well as their creating a favourable environment so that both learning and development are encouraged. Thus teachers’ knowledge creation arises when they are working. They must learn in order to be able to handle the job itself.
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