| 1. |
- Björklund Boistrup, Lisa, 1960-
(författare)
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Assessment Discourses in Mathematics Classrooms : A Multimodal Social Semiotic Study
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This is a study of assessment in mathematics classrooms and assessment is here regarded as a concept with broad boundaries including e.g. diagnostic tests, portfolios, and acts in teacher-student communication. The study’s purpose is to analyse and understand assessment acts in discursive practices in mathematics classroom communication in terms of affordances for students’ active agency and learning. Five mathematics classrooms are visited and the main data consists of video-recordings and written classroom material. In the study, I examine assessment acts, focuses of assessment acts, and roles of semiotic resources (symbols, gestures, speech etc.). With these findings as a basis, four discourses of assessment in mathematics classrooms are construed. A main conclusion is how the construed discourses hold different affordances for students’ active agency and learning. One discourse, “Do it quick and do it right” has similarities to a traditional discourse of assessment described in previous research. In a second discourse, “Anything goes”, students’ performances that can be regarded as mathematically inappropriate are left unchallenged. In both these discourses the affordances for students’ active agency and learning of mathematics are considered low. In a third discourse, “Anything can be up for a discussion”, the focuses of assessment acts are mainly on mathematics processes and available semiotic resources are connected to these focuses. The fourth discourse, “Reasoning takes time”, takes it one step further with a lower pace and an emphasis on mathematics processes such as reasoning and problem-solving. In these two latter discourses the affordances for students’ active agency and learning of mathematics are high. I contend that there is positive power in an increased awareness of discourses like these. The four discourses of this study can be powerful in discussions about, understandings of, and positive changes in assessment practices in mathematics classrooms.
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| 2. |
- Insulander, Eva, 1972-
(författare)
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Tinget, rummet, besökaren : Om meningsskapande på museum
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The main purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse how museum visitors engage with and make meaning from what is being offered to them in terms of the various resources made available in two exhibitions. Yet another purpose is to describe and analyse the design of these exhibitions. The empirical data stems from observational studies at the Museum of National Antiquities in Stockholm, and includes the investigation of two exhibitions: Prehistories I and II. Eight ‘visiting pairs’ were videotaped and the tapes were multimodally transcribed and analysed. Data also includes digital photos and maps produced by the visitors. In a comparative analysis, descriptions of the exhibitions and their analysis and the visitor study are discussed in relation to earlier research and to the issue of learning.A design-oriented and multimodal perspective on learning is used as a theoretical and methodological framework. The different visits are compared and the visitors’ responses are discussed as different forms of engagement. The results are interpreted within an institutional perspective connected to contemporary discourses within museum studies. The exhibitions are considered as an expression of the museums’ ambition to adjust to a pressure for change. Both exhibitions are, in a greater or less degree, considered as examples of ‘new’ exhibitions in that they rhetorically put forward visitors’ participation, cultural rights, post colonial perspectives and immaterial aspects of cultural heritage.The study presents learning as a social and sign-making activity. It stress how meaning-making and learning happens as a transformation in several steps. As visitors engage in different semiotic resources in the exhibitions’ design, they form new signs through their representations – as a ‘re-design’ of the exhibition – which in turn give them new possibilities for making meaning.
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| 3. |
- Jonsson, Olof Gustaf, 1954-
(författare)
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Bilden och texten : En studie av ljusets och seendets pedagogik
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis deals with a reading tradition that can be traced to medieval times, a tradition in which images and text, intertwined, convey the message to the reader. The strength of the coupling between image and text has varied over time. Initially closely interconnected, the connections between image and text were later separated. If text and image represent two diverse ways of organizing human memory, one serial and the other structural, we could say that the first focuses on reproduction and the other on detection. The relation between them is essential for pedagogical action as well as for pedagogical reflection. The aim of this work is to illustrate how this variation in strength changed the pedagogy and prevailing understanding of how images and texts are read. During the emergence of the Swedish elementary school, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a form of education referred to as ‘visual experience-based teaching methods’ (åskådningsundervisning, Anschauungs-Unterricht) was introduced, a philosophy of education that revitalized traditions from the Middle Ages, with a strong coupling between image and text. The idea of using the image as a tool for education developed into the tradition of ‘school posters’ (skolplanscher), which were used in Swedish education up the implementation of the comprehensive school system in 1962. The development of visual argumentation expressed through the use of school posters is analyzed by tracing the development of the school posters in parallel with normative texts, such as curricula documents and protocols from the school inspectors and the Swedish parliament (Riksdag). The introduction of visual experience-based instruction in the Swedish elementary school in the curriculum (normalplan) of 1878 gave rise to a tension between the new method and the earlier tradition of how texts and even letters should be read. The new teaching method related to the senses, especially the visual faculty and the visual memory, and served as a tool to break up a strong literacy tradition. This had repercussions for the entire school system. The consequence of an altered basic content of the concept of reading also involved a transfer of the right of examination from the church to the community. With the implementation of the curriculum of 1919 the content of the visual experienced-based teaching methods was moved to a new subject called ‘local history’ (hembygdskunskap) which strongly reduced the linkage to the teaching of reading. The visual lines of this argumentation after the curriculum of 1919 are primarily structural in nature, expressed by using the perspectives in the image.
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| 4. |
- Falkevall, Björn, 1953-
(författare)
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Livsfrågor och religionskunskap : En belysning av ett centralt begrepp i svensk religionsdidaktik
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis focuses on “livsfrågor” (questions of life) a typical Swedish concept introduced in the RE syllabus in the curriculum for compulsory schools in 1969. The study poses three questions: what can qualify as a “livsfråga”, why are they regarded important, and how do they fit into teaching? The main purpose is to study differences of the concept in two materials. Primarily interviews with Teacher educators all over Sweden and, secondly in the R.E. syllabus for compulsory and secondary schools from 1962 until today. Finally, the two materials used, will be brought together, and foci are recognized with the help of a tool for thought. The study is using the concept dialogicity from Bachtin. Syllabus are viewed as compromises in accordance with a German tradition. In the syllabus, “livsfrågor” is one within many different words used with none what so ever stringency. It is not necessarily the most important term, as “livsåskådningsfrågor” (questions within philosophies of life) is often dominating in objectivities. Also “existential questions” etc is used. The relation between the words are never made clear. The syllabus are in one sense monologial as different meanings of the word are not made explicit, and other utterances are not invoked. In the interviews the dialogicity is more obvious. Philosophy is mentioned, eg.. Martin Buber, Viktor Frankl, theology (Paul Thillich), but also literature (Lars Gyllensten) and existentialism in a general sence. Other words are not as frequent – but “livsåskådningsfrågor” are of course mentioned, eg. Faith vs. knowledge. In the last chapter “livsfrågor” is problematized with the help of Andrew Wright and his three metanarrativies within the modern R.E. And the assumption, especially in the syllabus, of “livsfrågor”, as common between cultures and over time is problematized with the help of . feministic theory of knowledge.
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| 5. |
- Johansson, Cecilia
(författare)
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Högstadieungdomar skriver historia på bloggen : undervisning, literacy och historiemedvetande i ett nytt medielandskap
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to study the literacy formed when a class blog is used as a tool for students studying history and explore how this particular literacy is used to generate historical knowledge. The study was conducted during the course of a project in which ninth-grade students contributed entries to a common blog in the form of a diary written by individuals who experienced the Second World War. Its three major objectives were to study the students' perception of the blog in relation to their gender and level of historical knowledge; how they and their teacher esta-blished and used the formed literacy; and how the students related to this in the production of historical knowledge.In analyzing the results, a concept of literacy was used based on seven writing practices all linked to the new medium and history education. The study was based on a questionnaire, interviews and various student texts. In order to perform a content analysis on the study results a theoretical framework for historical conscious-ness was included. The results show that in using the writing practices a literacy characterized by colla-borative authorship was formed. The study concludes that this affects both what and how the students learn. Together they show each other that history is comprised of many small stories, not necessarily strictly coherent with the general history as told by their textbooks. Examining the students’ blog entries made a new learning process visible that enabled the enhancement of their historical consciousness.
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| 6. |
- Kjällander, Susanne, 1976-
(författare)
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Designs for Learning in an Extended Digital Environment : Case Studies of Social Interaction in the Social Science Classroom
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis studies designs for learning in the extended digital interface in the Social Science classroom. The aim is to describe and analyse how pupils interact, make meaning and learn while deploying digital learning resources. Together with the thesis a multimodal design theoretical perspective on learning has developed: Designs for Learning. Here learning is understood as multimodal transformative processes of sign-making activities where teachers and pupils are viewed as didactic designers. A model called Learning Design Sequence has been developed and serves as a tool for data collection and analysis. Video observation material from five ICT-advanced schools with pupils aged 6-17 was multimodally transcribed and analysed. In conclusion the thesis, among other things, indicates that: - Social Science acquires informal features and pupils are independently designing their own digital Social Science material. - Pupils’ interactions are significantly multimodal and the digital learning resource becomes a third element in interaction. Pupils are constantly active and very responsive to each others’ representations. They cooperate as if learning in the extended interface is a collective responsibility. - Pupils’ learning is also significantly multimodal. Being digital natives, they engage in colours, sounds and images to represent some of their learning. - Learning represented in modes other than text and speech becomes invisible and disappears in the digital divide. - Pupils are simultaneously designing parallel paths of learning. One path represents the formalised education which is the path initiated, promoted and assessed by the teacher. The other path is guided by pupils’ interests and by affordances in the digital interface. This represents the extended learning that goes on below the surface. The thesis ends with a discussion about didactic complexities in The Online Learning Paradigm.
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| 7. |
- Nylén, Annika, 1959-
(författare)
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Grammatisk kompetens och kommunikativ språkundervisning : Spansklärares värderingar, dilemman och förslag
- 2014
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis aims to describe teachers’ opinions about the role grammatical com-petence plays in communicative language teaching. Since the breakthroughs of the Sixties in functional, meaningful and communicative foreign language teaching, instruction of grammatical structures has changed. In addition, the Swedish national syllabus offers poor descriptions of possible models for pedagogy of grammar; as a consequence, it is likely that the importance of grammatical competence varies in Swedish foreign language classrooms. Subject matter didactic theories (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) combined with Teacher Thinking research, form the theoreti-cal framework. Thirteen Spanish teachers were interviewed about their instructional values, dilemmas and ideas. The patterns that were found indicate that all teachers emphasize the importance of the grammatical structures for language learning and a communicative goal for the courses. Most of the informants practiced or strived for a focus on form approach. The how, what and when questions concerning the role of the grammar were for some teachers important to discuss and a tighter connection to research is suggested to develop and deepen teachers’ practice. Most of the teachers interviewed emphasized subject matter didactics instead of a more general didactic view when it came to the design of their lessons when teaching grammar. It was found that teachers mainly draw upon their own experiences as pupils, stu-dents and teachers when the role of grammar in learning a language was to be con-cretized in actual lessons. It was further discovered that hardly any influences from teacher education programs or other research results were referred to. These results indicate the need to take into account the professional knowledge and teachers’ questions as a basis for improvements in language teaching more firmly upon peda-gogical content knowledge. The results also raise the question whether shared pro-fessional content knowledge should (or should not) be represented in the national syllabus.
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| 8. |
- Åkerfeldt, Anna, 1974-
(författare)
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Didaktisk design med digitala resurser : En studie av kunskapsrepresentationer i en digitaliserad skola
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In digital-classroom practices, pupils design their learning processes in collaboration with their peers, employing different semiotic resources when representing signs of learning in a constant flow. There still remain differences, however, between learning practices and the way pupils are formally tested. During tests, knowledge is regularly represented individually and often by delimited resources in contrast to digital learning practices where technologies enable redesign with a broader mix of written text, images, colours, graphs etc.In this thesis I investigate the increased access to and the frequent use of digital resources in schools and how these challenges contribute to tensions between and among school practices. In addition I discuss how digitalised learning environments can be studied in educational research. The aim of my thesis is to add to the existing knowledge about how the use of digital resources shapes knowledge representations and also the pupils’ possibilities to represent their knowledge. Knowledge representations are seen partly as an expression of the pupils’ knowledge in school and partly as an expression of products that are designed to be used in education such as digital educational games, two of which I will study in this thesis.My theoretical understanding draws on a design-oriented multimodal perspective on learning. Findings are discussed in relation to didactic design and Learning Design Sequence model (LDS). A developed LDS model is presented that summarises and highlights my findings. In the thesis I also discuss some of the challenges for a researcher when studying learning in a digitalised school with a focus on interaction and communication and how multimodal data can be transcribed, analysed and presented in a publication.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Mindedal, Annika, 1958-
(författare)
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Texter i NO - finns de? : En studie om textanvändning och textrelaterade samtal i ett fysiktema i skolår 5
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis describes a field study in which one teacher and one class in Grade 5, with special focus on four pupils, are observed throughout four lessons of about 80-minutes in Physics. The lessons together deal with a project on Magnetism. The main aim of the thesis is to investigate how the teacher uses texts as a resource when designing and implementing Science lessons (Learning Design Sequences). A further aim is to study what texts are used and produced by both the teacher and the pupils, and how these texts are used. The four lessons were recorded with a video camera and the recordings supplemented by field notes and interviews. All the texts used were copied or photographed. A design theoretical frame and a sociocultural perspective have been applied to analyse both the presence of texts during different stages (activities) of the lessons, and to analyse the text-related interaction and communication that has taken place in the classroom. The results confirm several previous studies and show that the teacher is the main producer and consumer of texts before and during the Science lessons. Textbooks, and texts on the Internet, are only used by the teacher to design the lessons, and are then mediated by the teacher during classroom interaction. The pupils mainly read questions, which they write brief answers to, and also read and copy texts written by the teacher on the white board. One interesting finding is that dialogue concerning texts increases the scientific content, which means more empirical or theoretical descriptions and explanations. To become scientifically literate it is therefore argued that pupils need more practice reading and writing in combination with dialogue and activities in the science classroom.
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