| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Spante, Maria, 1967-, et al.
(author)
-
Find The Drive : On Co-Designing Practice And Experience Of A Research And Development Project Driven By Municipalities And University
- 2018
-
In: ICERI2018 Proceedings. - : IATED. - 9788409059485 ; , s. 10347-10356
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper aims to highlight challenges and opportunities connected to collaboration between municipal school administrators, principals, teachers and researchers. The current study was formulated in cooperation between researchers and administrators from two rural Swedish municipalities. The study was based on their concern on large gender gap in grades, and on a notion held by some principals and teachers that the motivation for school is low for many students, especially among low-achieving boys.The project was co-designed in close collaboration between administrators, principals and researchers. The negotiated purpose was thus collaboratively broadened to include not only gender patterns but also other sociological aspects that affect learner identities and motivation. Project information was provided through on-site visits where the project was presented for all staff members at each school in each municipality. During the first year, observations were carried out in grade 6 in five schools, and grade 9 in three schools. Two researchers followed each class one week, by teacher invitation. The focus was on the conditions for learning and motivation offered in class, and on factors supporting and hindering the learning and motivation of girls and boys with different backgrounds and resources. Semi-structured interviews with teachers in the targeted classes (N=18) were held. The interviews focused on the teachers' notions of student achievement and motivation in regard to gendered norms, curriculum and classroom practices. Teachers were also asked to reflect on the possibilities to change prevailing patterns. Semi-structured interviews with students, mostly in pairs (N=70; 39 girls, 31 boys) were carried out. The topics for these interviews were the students' notions of how school, home and peers interplay with their views on learning, motivation and their aspirations for the future. In addition to the practice-based research activities, organizational development and competence building were key ambitions in the cooperation between the two municipalities and the university. The model for this was a one-day workshop for the entire pedagogical staff in the schools at the respective municipality (N=195, N= 65). During these days, local experiences and observations were discussed in relation to presented research concerning study motivation and gender patterns.Groups of teachers sat together and shared their understandings and reflections. All group conversations were documented in shared online documents for capturing and spreading thoughts and understandings. These shared documents provided a source for further discussions after the actual competence development day. The same model for data gathering will be carried out in year two of the project in order to have a solid foundation for analysis and further recommendations and suggestions. So far, our mutual experience from the range of roles participating in the project, is that the model for co-designing a project combining competence development arrangements with research activities is a fruitful cross-fertilizing process for knowledge creation and professional learning.
|
|
| 3. |
|
|
| 4. |
- Spante, Maria, 1967-, et al.
(author)
-
Triggering sustainable professional agency : using change laboratory to tackle unequal access to educational success collectively
- 2021
-
In: Journal of Workplace Learning. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1366-5626 .- 1758-7859. ; 34:2, s. 162-175
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose This study aims to depict how a change laboratory (CL) promotes sustainable professional practice at the workplace to tackle unequal access to educational success.Design/methodology/approach The empirical findings are from a CL focusing on school professionals’ agency and a follow-up study one year after the CL.Findings The study shows how the staff gained insight that professional agency is a collective and relational practice. Furthermore, the staff explored how to make a difference with viable means to create new workplace models for students’ success despite experiencing a conundrum.Research limitations/implications This study examined participants’ perspectives in workplace change and provided support for further research examining how professionally and collectively designed models gain sustainability in schools.Practical implications This study provides empirical data of how professional agency for change driven by collective visions can be accelerated with the interventionist method CL among school professionals.Social implications This study emphasizes the value of professional collective learning at the workplace, driven by several professional groups in school, and the need to follow up to detect sustainable change.Originality/value This study emphasizes the value of professional collective learning at the workplace, driven by several professional groups in school, and the need to follow up to detect sustainable change.
|
|
| 5. |
- Varga, Anita, 1966-, et al.
(author)
-
Expansive Learning And Transformative Agency For School Professionals
- 2020
-
In: INTED2020 Proceedings. - Valencia : The International Academy of Technology, Education and Development. - 9788409179398 ; , s. 1419-1428
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The current study has been formulated in cooperation between researchers and school officers from a rural Swedish municipality, based on their concern that there is a large and growing gender gap in the results, and on a notion held by some principals and teachers that the motivation for school is low for many students, especially the low-achieving boys. The school officers as well as the teachers suggested that the problems are the result of an interplay between norms and conditions in the local society which foster negative attitudes to education generally, and unfavorable but amendable premises for learning that prevail in many schools and classrooms. To generate knowledge of have to change the situation researcher, principals, teachers and other professionals' such as school nurse and union representatives have worked together in finding tools to deal with the gender gap in grades. In this paper we present the result from the first, in a series of five (CL:1-CL:5), activity based formative interventions. The participants' in CL:1 have been school professionals' who works with students in 7-9 grade. The theoretical and methodological framework is Change Laboratory (CL), which is a specific form of activity based formative intervention where actionable knowledge is understood as a collaborative and generative possibility knowledge intertwined with transformative action (Sannino & Engeström 2017). Focus is on the participants expanding learning and the aim to generate and implement new models and instruments for activity. The core ideas of the CL is about professional empowerment and empowering in ways not experienced before and insert hope that change is possible also at the systematic level when working together. Based on the result from CL:1, the aim of this paper is to highlight challenges and opportunities connected to the use of Change Laboratory as a method for work integrated learning.
|
|
| 6. |
- Varga, Anita, 1966-
(author)
-
Likvärdighet och bildning i SVE och SVA. : En demokratifråga
- 2020
-
In: Bildning, utbildning, fortbildning.. - Linköping : Linköpings Universitet. - 9789179298449 ; , s. 287-301
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Skolan har ett viktigt kompensatoriskt uppdrag och ska enligt läroplanen kompensera för elevers olika bakgrunder och andra skillnader i förutsättningar (Skolverket 2011). Det kompensatoriska uppdraget är avgörande för att erbjuda alla elever en likvärdig utbildning, vilket alla barn har rätt till enligt svensk skollag (2010:800 1 kap 9 §). Vad betyder då en likvärdig utbildning i en svenskämneskontext där vi idag har två olika svenskämnen, Svenska (SVE) och Svenska som andraspråk (SVA) och där det ställs betydligt högre krav för att få ämnesbehörighet i Svenska än i Svenska som andraspråk för undervisning på högstadiet? Och vilka konsekvenser får detta utifrån ett bildningsperspektiv och för elevers möjligheter att erövra medborgarkompetens? Föreliggande artikel belyser och diskuterar grundskolans kursplaner i SVE och SVA f-9, Lgr 11 med utgångspunkt i bildningsbegreppet och med hjälp av Bernsteins begrepp horisontell ochvertikal diskurs som analysverktyg. Fokus vilar på de delar som rör läsning av skönlitteratur.Studien visar att kursplanerna i SVE och SVA skiljer sig åt vad gäller de delar som rör skönlitteraturen och att eleverna som läser SVE i betydligt högre utsträckning stöds i att utveckla kunskaper som ingår i en vertikal diskurs. Följden av detta är att de elever som läser SVE i betydligt högre utsträckning än de som läser SVA stöds i att utveckla viktiga kunskaper och förmågor kopplade både till bildningsbegreppet och begreppet medborgarkompetens och på så sätt kompetenser som krävs för att kunna agerai ett demokratiskt samhälle.
|
|
| 7. |
- Varga, Anita, 1966-, et al.
(author)
-
Läsfrämjande undervisning i gymnasieskolan : ett utvecklingsprojekt i samverkan mellan Högskolan Väst och Kunskapsförbundet Väst vårterminen 2022
- 2023
-
Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Den här rapporten är ett resultat av ett samverkansprojekt mellan Högskolan Väst och Kunskapsförbundet Västs fyra gymnasieskolor Magnus Åberggymnasiet och Nils Ericssongymnasiet i Trollhättan samt Birger Sjöberggymnasiet och Birger Sjöberggymnasiets kommunala vuxenutbildning i Vänersborg under vårterminen 2022. De fyra skolorna har sedan några år tillbaka arbetat i förbundsövergripande ämnesgrupper för att utveckla verksamheten och i ämnesgruppen i svenska är litteraturundervisningen i fokus. För att komma vidare i detta arbete vände sig lärare vid Kunskapsförbundet Väst till Högskolan Väst, vilket ledde fram till det samarbete som redovisas i rapporten. Läsfrämjande undervisning i gymnasieskolan är både ett forsknings- och ett utvecklingsprojekt. Den del av projektet som beforskades handlar om hur elevers flerspråkighet kan tillvaratas i undervisning om och med skönlitteratur. Denna studie kommer att publiceras separat som en vetenskaplig artikel. I den här rapporten redovisas endast den del av projektet som fokuserar på fortbildning och verksamhetsutveckling, med särskilt fokus på hur lärare kan stödja elevers läsutveckling och stimulera deras läsintresse genom aktiviteter i klassrummet.Tyngdpunkten har vilat på att stärka lärarnas egen ämnesdidaktiska kompetens genom:• motivationsteorier,• litteraturdidaktisk forskning,• samtalsstrategier,• transspråkande pedagogik.Utvecklingsprojektet genomfördes främst i form av forskningscirklar, där forskare och lärare tillsammans har diskuterat aktuell forskning inom litteraturdidaktik, andraspråksdidaktik och motivation samt metoder för hur litteraturdidaktisk undervisning kan planeras och genomföras i syfte att främja såväl elevers kunskapsutveckling som deras läsintresse inom ramen för ämnena svenska och svenska som andraspråk. Dessa metoder har sedan prövats i verksamheten under projektet gång.Sammantaget genomfördes fem forskningscirklar, varav en i samband med Kunskapsförbundets Västs förbundsövergripande K-dag. De diskussioner som fördes under forskningscirklarna visar att det redan idag bedrivs stimulerande och läsfrämjande undervisning av ett lärarkollegium bestående av mycket kompetenta lärare, varav flera har många års erfarenhet av undervisning om och med skönlitteratur i gymnasieskolan och/eller på vuxenutbildningen, både i svenska och svenska som andraspråk. Att utvärdera effekten av utvecklingsprojektet är dock alltför tidigt att göra. Det rör sig om ett systematiskt arbete över tid för att såväl lärare som elever ska ges möjlighet att komma in i nya sätt att arbeta.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
- Varga, Anita, 1966-
(author)
-
Metacognitive perspectives on the development of reading comprehension : a classroom study of literary text-talks
- 2017
-
In: Literacy. - : Wiley. - 1741-4350 .- 1741-4369. ; 51:1, s. 19-25
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The current study is a contribution to reading research dealing with tuition in reading comprehension and specifically with the issue of arranging tuition to support the development of metacognition. The empirical findings referred to in this study are from textual discussions of works of fiction in grades 6 and 7. The specific focus of the study is the correlation between the linguistic strategies used by the teacher and the pupils' opportunities to develop metacognitive perspectives as a consequence of these strategies. The study shows how the teachers, by use of a series of linguistic strategies, can offer pupils support in order to (1) identify and visualise the premises of their personal queries; (2) observe and verbalise their processes of interpretation together with their emotional reactions when reading; (3) survey, adjust and communicate their use of reading comprehension strategies and (4)recognise the text as an aesthetic construction and the interaction/transaction between texts and the reader.
|
|
| 10. |
- Varga, Anita, 1966-
(author)
-
Metakognitiva perspektiv på läsförståelseprocessen : en studie av skolans textsamtal kring skönlitteratur
- 2015
-
In: Nordisk Tidskrift för Allmändidaktik. - Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet. - 2002-1534. ; 1:1, s. 43-60
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Offering tuition to help pupils enhance their reading proficiency is one of the most important tasks of education. Within research into reading processes the impact of metacognitive aspects on reading-comprehension has been emphasised. Research has been able to identify a clear connection between the ability to apply metacognitive strategies when reading and a highly developed reading capacity. The current study is a contribution to reading research dealing with tuition in reading-comprehension, and specifically with the issue of arranging tuition to support the development of metacognition. The empirical findings referred to in this study are from text-talks in grades 6-7. The specific focus of the study is the correlation between the linguistic strategies used by the teacher and the pupils’ opportunities to develop metacognitive perspectives as a consequence of these strategies. The study shows how the teachers, by use of a series of linguistic strategies, can offer pupils support in order to: 1) identify and visualise the premises of their personal queries, 2) observe and verbalise their processes of interpretation together with their emotional reactions when reading, 3) survey, adjust and communicate their use of reading-comprehension strategies and 4) recognise the text as an aesthetic construction and the interaction/transaction between texts and the reader.
|
|
