| 1. |
- Boström, Agneta, 1948-
(författare)
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Sharing lived experience : How upper secondary school chemistry teachers and students use narratives to make chemistry more meaningful
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation concerns the place of teachers’ and students’ narratives in making school chemistry more meaningful to students. The material was collected at upper secondary school courses and consists of interviews with six experienced chemistry teachers, five adult students attending evening classes and six younger students. The methodological and theoretical approach is mainly inspired by John Dewey’s (1925, 1938) notion of continuity and by narrative inquiry as formulated by Clandinin & Connelly (2000). In defining narratives as a way of knowing, Bruner’s (1996, 2002) distinction between paradigmatic and narrative cognition is used, as well as his ideas about the past, the present and the possible.The findings show how teachers use narratives from their own lived experience as well as from other people’s lives in order to make chemistry more meaningful. Moreover, they use a narrative format to make their scientific explanations meaningful. Students use narratives or stories connected to their own lived experience to make sense of chemistry. These results show how chemistry can be made part of a meaningful context through sharing lived experience by means of storytelling. Narratives are used to make everyday life and chemistry class experiences continuous in the sense suggested by Dewey (1938). In accordance with his thoughts on experience, narratives are of help in the science classroom not only in making science more relevant and interesting, but also easier to understand. In the dissertation numerous examples of such stories are given and their role in learning chemistry is discussed.The stories of the teachers and students in the study are retold and analysed according to additional analytic tools in order to further document their role in teaching chemistry. It is argued that the collected narratives constitute an ingredient in teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, PCK, according to Shulman (1986). How they can be used in different content areas of science and chemistry is discussed. The content of the narratives is also related to the Swedish curriculum, to the findings of the ROSE project and to Roberts’s (1982) knowledge emphases. The content analyses show that narratives make chemistry in class pluralistic in allowing the lived experiences of teachers and students to interact with the scientific facts.The final discussion concerning narrative inquiry is inspired by what Clandinin & Connelly (2000) wrote about “clashes at the boundaries”. The specific boundary in this dissertation is situated between canonical science teaching methods on the one hand and the use of narratives in teaching and narrative inquiry as research method on the other hand. Reductionism alone cannot explain nature and the complexity of life (Dewey 1925, 1938 and Midgley 2004), and the results of this dissertation show that narratives are used by both students and teachers in order to make sense of chemistry. Narratives constitute a way to make the reductionist knowing of science part of a more meaningful whole in accordance with Dewey’s holistic ideas about education.The results of this study suggest that teaching narratives can – and should – be used in science as a complement to other, more scientifically oriented educational methods. Thus, it supports many of the efforts made within context-based approaches, such as Case Studies, LCP (Large Context Problems), PBL (Problem-Based Learning), the Salter’s method and the Storyline method. Further implications of the results for teaching, learning, teacher education and research are explored.
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| 2. |
- Engström, Lil, 1943-
(författare)
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Möjligheter till lärande i matematik : Lärares problemformuleringar och dynamisk programvara
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents the first Swedish empirical evidence on how teachers employ a dynamic mathematical software when teaching mathematics in upper secondary school. The study examines: a) How teachers formulate mathematical problems? b) How they use the experience the students have gained? and c) What use they make of the software’s potential? These questions are examined through classroom observations followed up by discussions with the teachers.The study comprises three teachers and shows that they have very different mathematical experiences and teaching skills. A questionnaire was sent to the teachers prior to the classroom visits to collect relevant background information; e.g., the teachers were asked to describe their teacher training, their view of mathematics and of how a dynamic software could contribute to their teaching.The results show that the teachers’ ability to pose thought-provoking openended problems is the most important factor as it significantly influences what the students learn. The way a mathematical problem is formulated could, in conjunction with a dynamic software, actually limit the students’ achievement.However, this study confirms that it could also provide an opportunity for students to discover new mathematical relations, draw conclusions, generalise and formulate hypotheses. This could in turn lead to an in formally proving a mathematical relation. A conclusion of the study is that to be successful, teachers need a good mathematical background with a firm knowledge base and an understanding of the software’s potential, but they also need the skill to formulate open-ended problems that will enable their students to work successfully with a dynamic mathematical software.
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| 3. |
- Jakobson, Britt, 1951-
(författare)
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Learning Science Through Aesthetic Experience in Elementary School : Aesthetic Judgement, Metaphor and Art
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis considers the role of aesthetic meaning-making in elementary school science learning. Children’s aesthetic experiences are traced through their use of aesthetic judgements, spontaneous metaphors and art activities. The thesis is based on four empirical studies: the first two examining children’s language use, i.e. the role of aesthetic judgements and the significance of spontaneous metaphors while learning science and the latter two dealing with how art activities mediate what elementary school children learn in science and what a variety of art activities with different purposes afford elementary school children to learn in science.The theoretical stance emanates from pragmatist theories and includes Dewey’s definition of an aesthetic experience, Wittgenstein’s later work on language-games, and socio-cultural perspectives. The analytic approach used is a practical epistemology analysis developed by Wickman and Östman. The empirical data consists of audio- and video recordings of elementary school children’s (aged 6–10 years) discussions in pairs or small groups during science lessons and photographs of children’s pictures, sculptures and poems from a total of 14 different elementary school classes.The main findings of the empirical studies show how aesthetic meaning-making is continuous with elementary school children’s scientific learning. The thesis shows how elementary school children’s aesthetic experiences are related to whole activities and are crucial for the direction that learning takes. Aesthetic experience is important in terms of how and what elementary school children learn aesthetically and normatively in science class, which has consequences for cognitive learning, the possibility of participating in science class and learning the genre of science. Moreover, it can be seen how children’s prior experiences are recurrently reconstructed and transformed through imaginative processes.
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| 4. |
- Lundegård, Iann, 1955-
(författare)
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På väg mot pluralism : Elever i situerade samtal kring hållbar utveckling
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation highlights and discusses some essential aspects of young people’s meaning-making deliberations on future issues and sustainable development. In the first two of four articles, recurring components of the discussion that appear to be important for its progression are both identifi ed and illustrated. In the two latter articles these components are then used to study how the identities of the conversers are constituted through the deliberations and to describe how the individual participants assume their place in them as free political subjects. The dissertation’s theoretical starting point has been the pragmatist arguments and positions mainly found in Dewey’s concept of experience, Rorty’s anti-representationalistic perspective of meaning-making and Wittgenstein’s discussions relating to language games. A methodological attempt developed from these arguments is transaction analysis – originally formulated by Wickman and Östman and later called practical epistemology. The study begins with this analysis and develops it further. The empirical data included in the dissertation’s studies is based on recorded interviews and students discussions. The students who participated either attended upper secondary school or a folk high school. The results of the dissertation’s four articles show that human confl icts of interest and value relations should be regarded as central stages in students’ discussion processes on sustainable development. The dissertation also shows how these components can be used to study pluralism and how students’ collective identity is constituted. In the dissertation’s conclusion, a number of tools are developed that are suitable for research where one intends to further analyse how students create meaning about future issues and sustainable development through discussion. The conclusion also describes eight educational points that need to be taken into account when creating constructive discussion situations that support students’ learning in the field of sustainable development.
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| 5. |
- Sund, Per, 1958-
(författare)
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Att urskilja selektiva traditioner i miljöundervisningens socialisationsinnehåll - implikationer för undervisning för hållbar utveckling
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Discerning selective traditions in the socialization content of environmental education – implications for education for sustainable developmentThis thesis offers an empirical contribution to research on content issues in environmental education. One way of approaching content issues is to study the socialization content. Socialization content forms an educational context in which subject matter content can develop into meaning. Through their different actions teachers communicate companion meanings to students, which together constitute the socialization content. These are messages about the subject and about education, such as the importance of students’ participation.One important starting point for this thesis is that the learning of subject matter and socialization content is simultaneous. Learning is often regarded as an inner individual process, while socialization is more often understood as an external fostering. By using the concept of meaning making, learning and socialization can be regarded as both simultaneous and mutual.The thesis has two main purposes, namely, methodological development and a more substantial study of socialization content. An interview method and analytical tool for researchers has been developed as a result of conducting a literature review and interviewing upper secondary school teachers involved in a general science course. This tool can be used to study the qualitative aspects of socialization content by examining shifts in five important educational aspects, and has been applied to the empirical data collected from teacher and student interviews.The analytical tool can also be transformed into a reflection tool for teachers to render their educational habits more visible. Teachers’ collective habits can develop into selective traditions in environmental education. Socialization content can be regarded as an important value-laden content that needs to be critically examined in an open democratic school system. These discussions could facilitate the development of a more pluralistic environmental education, which in turn could be further developed into an education for sustainable development.
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| 6. |
- Hansson, Lena, 1975-
(författare)
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Enligt fysiken eller enligt mig själv? : Gymnasieelever, fysiken och grundantaganden om världen
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- I avhandlingen studeras elevers grundantaganden om världen, samt de grundantaganden som eleverna förknippar med fysiken. Det är utifrån de grundantaganden vi gör om hur världen är beskaffad som vi försöker tolka och förstå nya fenomen och företeelser vi möter, t.ex. i den naturvetenskapliga undervisningen. I avhandlingen ligger intresset primärt på grundantaganden som vanligtvis tas för givna i naturvetenskapen samt sådana som är av intresse för relationen mellan naturvetenskap och religion. För de empiriska studierna har ett specifikt område, nämligen universums uppkomst och utveckling samt existentiella frågor relaterade till detta, valts som ram för elevernas resonemang. Avhandlingen bygger på två studier. I den första studeras elevers skriftliga svar och uttalanden under intervjuer och i den andra studeras elevers gruppdiskussioner. Eleverna som deltar i de båda studierna går alla det tredje året på gymnasiet och läser kursen Fysik B.Resultaten visar att det finns elever som beskriver sin egen och fysikens syn på olika sätt. Detta gäller såväl frågor om universums uppkomst och utveckling som frågor om t.ex. relationen mellan naturvetenskap och religion. Resultaten visar vidare att de grundantaganden som vanligtvis underförstås i fysiken inte med självklarhet associeras med fysiken av eleverna. Detta kan göra det svårt för dem att förstå resonemang och modeller i fysiken. Resultaten visar vidare att det är vanligt att elever associerar scientistiska synsätt med fysiken. Scientism innebär att man menar att ingenting utom det som är åtkomligt för naturvetenskapen existerar. Detta uteslutet möjligheten att andra möjliga dimensioner av verkligheten än den materiella existerar. Att förknippa fysiken med antaganden som inte av nödvändighet måste förknippas med fysiken (t.ex. scientistiska synsätt) kan göra att elever, som inte själva delar dessa antaganden, får svårare att identifiera sig med fysiken och kanske t.o.m. väljer bort studier i fysik när möjlighet ges.
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