The purpose of this study was to determine if there were differences in standardized test scores, expressed as percentage passing, in math, reading-language arts, science, and social studies by comparing 6th grade students in K-8 schools with those in 6-8 schools. The data were gathered from an analysis of 6th grade student' scores on the 2006-2007 TCAP standardized assessment test in the state of Tennessee. The relationship between grade configuration (6-8 or K-8) and percent of 6th grade students scoring at the below proficient, proficient, or advanced level in each subject area was examined. The analysis was based on 5 research questions. A t-test for independent samples was used to identify the relationships between the independent variables, configuration of the school (K-8 or 6-8), and the dependent variables, the percent of students scoring below proficient, proficient, or advanced. A chi square analysis was used to identify the relationship between the proportion of K-8 schools meeting AYP versus the proportion of 6-8 schools meeting AYP. The study showed no relationship between grade configuration (6-8 or K-8) and percent of 6th grade students scoring at the below proficient level in math, reading-language arts, and social studies. Similarly, there was not a significant difference between grade configuration (6-8 or K-8) and percent of 6th grade students scoring at the proficient level in math and reading-language arts and the advanced level in math, reading-language arts, and science. However, there was a significant relationship between grade configuration (6-8 or K-8) and percent of 6th grade students scoring at the below proficient level and the proficient level in science and the percent of 6th grade students scoring at the proficient level and advanced level in social studies. In science, a lower percentage of 6th grade students in K-8 schools scored below proficient than did 6th grade students in 6-8 schools. In science, a higher percentage of 6th grade students in K-8 schools scored proficient than did 6th grade students in 6-8 schools. In social studies, a higher percentage of 6th grade students in K-8 schools scored proficient than did 6th grade students in 6-8 schools. However, a higher percentage of 6th grade students in 6-8 schools scored advanced than did 6th grade students in 6-8 schools. The study showed a significant difference in the proportion of K-8 schools meeting AYP versus the proportion of 6-8 schools meeting AYP.

The aim of this study was to investigate what formative assessment means and get information about how teachers’ assessment practice in formative assessment can look like, based on five key strategies. I have observed five teachers in grade 4 to 6 during a week of their mathematics teaching. Formative assessment is assessment for learning and has the purpose to support students’ knowledge development. There are five key strategies for formative assessment and all strategies should be used to create as good conditions as possible for the students’ knowledge development. Key strategy 1 is that teachers must clarify intentions and knowledge criteria for students. Key strategy 2 involves the teacher to elicit evidence of students’ learning through questions for example. Key strategy 3 is that the teacher should give feedback that moves the student forward. Key strategy 4 is to activating students as resources for each other and finally key strategy 5 is to activate students as the owner of their learning. The results show that teachers use all strategies but some use them more than other teachers. Teachers use about one third of the time of a full week teaching time to work with key strategies. The first key strategy is the most common strategy and the fourth strategy is given most of the time, even if it’s not used during all lessons. / Syftet med mitt examensarbete var att beskriva vad formativ bedömning innebär och få en inblick i hur lärares bedömningspraktik för formativ bedömning kan se ut utifrån fem nyckelstrategier. För att ta del av detta har jag observerat fem lärare i årskurs 4-6 under en veckas matematikundervisning. Formativ bedömning är bedömning för lärande och har syftet att stödja elever i deras kunskapsutveckling. Det finns fem nyckelstrategier för den formativa bedömningen och alla strategierna bör användas för att skapa så bra förutsättningar som möjligt för elevers kunskapsutveckling. Nyckelstrategi 1 är att lärare ska tydliggöra mål och kunskapskriterier för elever. Nyckelstrategi 2 handlar om att läraren ska synliggöra elevers lärande. Nyckelstrategi 3 är återkoppling som för eleven framåt. Nyckelstrategi 4 ska läraren aktivera eleverna som resurser för varandra och till sist nyckelstrategi 5 ska eleverna aktiveras som ägare av sitt eget lärande. Resultatet visar att alla strategier används av lärare men vissa mer än andra.  Lärare använde ungefär en tredjedel av en veckas av matematikunder-visningens tid för arbetet med nyckelstrategierna. Första nyckelstrategin är mest förekommande i undervisningen medan fjärde nyckelstrategin tillägnas mest tid även om den inte är återkommande vid varje lektion.

I dagens samhälle är i stort sett alla texter multimodala. Forskning visar att elever har svårt med läsförståelse när det gäller texter med flera modaliteter. Syftet med föreliggande uppsats är att ta reda på vad lärare har för strategier när de tillsammans med elever läser texter bestående av flera modaliteter där text samt illustrationer, tabeller, symboler och grafer kombineras, samt om de läser texterna på olika sätt beroende på om de fått kompetensutveckling/utbildning eller inte.  Undersökningen bygger på gruppintervjuer med totalt fem verksamma klasslärare i årskurs 4–6 med lärarutbildning och minst tio års erfarenhet. Tre av lärarna har dessutom fått kompetensutveckling inom området multimodala texter.  Resultatet visar att lärare har specifika strategier när de läser multimodala texter tillsammans med eleverna och att dessa grundas på tradition, tidigare erfarenhet samt kunskaper som lärarna fått genom kompetensutveckling. Det framgår också att de lärare som inte fått kompetensutveckling saknar de kunskaper som krävs för att på ett bra sätt undervisa i hur man läser multimodala texter. / Nowadays, almost all texts are multimodal. Research show that pupils have a hard time understanding texts with several modalities. The aim of this thesis is to figure out teachers’ strategies in reading multimodal texts which consists texts combined with illustrations, charts, symbols and graphs, and examine if they are reading multimodal texts differently depending whether they have completed in-service courses or not.  The analysis is based on group interviews with teachers from five different classes teaching 4th to 6th grade. All teachers have a teachers-degree and they have at least ten years of experience. Three of them have taken part in in-service courses within the area of multimodal texts.  The results show that it appears that teachers have strategies while reading multimodal texts with their pupils and those strategies are founded in tradition, experience and knowledge obtained through in-service courses. It also appears that teachers who do not have completed in-service courses, lack the skills needed to teach in how to read multimodal texts.

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical consciousness and the use of history among pupils in 6th grade, in Swedish elementary school. To do this, the aim is to answer the following questions: Which types of history use are to be found among 6th graders, and how are these expressed? What historical consciousness/historical thinking do 6th graders display, and how is this expressed? What interest do 6th graders have in history? The method used in this study is a survey, which has been answered anonymously by 60 pupils in four different classes, from four different elementary schools, and in four different Swedish suburbs. The final analysis is based on theories on historical thinking/historical consciousness, uses of history, and history cultures, described by important historians, such as Rüsen, Ammert, and Karlsson. The study has led to the conclusion that, although a large majority of the pupils say that they are interested in history and think it is relevant, very few of them can mention uses of history outside the school context. The answers do not reveal a notably developed historical consciousness, even though there are signs expressing historical consciousness to a limited extent. One of the main characteristics of historical consciousness among the pupils is their use of concepts for historical change, such as development and consequence.

A percepção de que alunos do Ensino Fundamental não se interessavam pela Língua Inglesa (LI) constituiu o problema de pesquisa, que foi norteada pela seguinte pergunta: Quais representações da LI são construídas por alunos do 6 ano (antiga 5 série) de escolas públicas? O pressuposto foi de que, conforme as representações da LI, os alunos poderão se interessar mais, ou menos, pela matéria. O objetivo foi identificar quais eram as representações de LI e, por meio delas, propor atividades e materiais didáticos que pudessem deslocar e ampliar tais representações, a partir de seus interesses culturais e de suas posições sociais. A base teórica da pesquisa foi a Análise de Discurso de linha francesa, campo teórico que considera que toda produção de linguagem apresenta lastros com o social, histórico e ideológico de quem a produz, considerando, assim, que há uma relação intrínseca entre o sujeito, tudo o que o constitui, e sua enunciação. A hipótese da pesquisa é de que o desinteresse dos alunos se deve por tomarem o ensino de LI como disciplina escolar. O corpus da pesquisa foi constituído pelas respostas a um questionário social, a partir do qual se procurou detectar o nível social e cultural dos alunos, bem como se já haviam tido algum contato de maneira sistemática e regular com a LI; e pelas respostas a duas questões dissertativas, uma constante da avaliação do 1 bimestre e a outra, de uma atividade didática que realizaram após trabalhar com um material elaborado a partir de placas de trânsito e de um centro comercial da cidade. Participaram da pesquisa, aproximadamente 90 alunos de três classes de 6 ano, de duas escolas públicas e periféricas de São José dos Campos, SP. Com a análise dos registros do corpus, foi possível detectar quais as representações de LI por eles construídas e verificar que as condições de produção dos discursos dos alunos sustentam tais representações. Após esse levantamento inicial, foi elaborado material didático específico, que foi trabalhado com os alunos. Posteriormente, foi possível detectar pequenos deslocamentos dos alunos em relação às representações de LI. / The perception that elementary school students were not interested in English language (LI) was the research problem, which was guided by the following question: What representations of LI are built by students of the 6th year (old grade 5) public school? The assumption was that, as representations of LI, students may be more interested or less by the matter. The goal was to identify which were the representations of LI and, through them, propose activities and materials that could pan and zoom such representations from their cultural interests and their social positions. The theoretical basis of the research was the analysis of French Discourse, theoretical framework that considers all language production presents ballasts with the social, historical and ideological who produces it, considering, well, there is an intrinsic relationship between the subject, all that is, and his enunciation. The research hypothesis is that the students disinterest is due to take teaching as LI school discipline. The research corpus was constituted by social responses to a questionnaire, from which we tried to detect the social and cultural level of the students, as well as whether they had had contact in a systematic and regular manner with LI; and the responses to two essay questions, a constant review of the 1st quarter and the other, a didactic activity performed after working with a material made from road signs and a shopping center. Participated in the survey, approximately 90 students from three classes of 6th grade, two public schools and outlying São José dos Campos, SP. With the analysis of the corpus records, it was possible to detect which representations of LI built by them and check the conditions of discourse production students support such representations. After this initial survey was devised specific didactic material, which was working with the students. Later, it was possible to detect small shifts of students in relation to representations of LI.

In this study, the aim has been to investigate how different educational materials in the nature science subjects are designed with the intention of how many and what types of laboratory activities the pupils will encounter to contextualize the abstract nature of science to develop their understanding of the content and working methods of science. In order for the pupils to have the opportunity to develop a scientific understanding, it is necessary that they have the opportunity to use their senses to interpret the text that is presented to them. Through various sensual, experimental, and practical activities, pupils can gain an understanding of the abstract phenomena, concepts, and explanatory models of natural science. In today's schools, there are many teachers who use educational materials as their point of departure when teaching science. Educational materials have an important role in science teaching, but depending on how the educational materials are designed, they provide different conditions for learning. In this study, the number of laboratory activities, that appear in different educational materials for science teaching, is investigated, as well as whether these laboratory activities are designed in terms of their degree of freedom and openness. The following questions have been addressed in order to achieve the purpose of the study: - How many laboratory activities can be found in the various educational materials?-  Are there more laboratory activities in any of the three nature-oriented subjects, biology, physics, or chemistry? - What types of laboratory activities do the pupils encounter in the educational materials and what degree of openness and freedom do they include? The investigation has been carried out through a qualitative and quantitative text and content analysis where various educational materials have been analyzed based on the context-based learning (CBL) theory and the theory of laboratory classification. The results of the qualitative and quantitative text and content analysis showed that certain educational materials give the pupils more opportunities to connect the scientific content to real experiences. The results also showed that some educational materials have a greater variety of different laboratory forms where the pupils have the opportunity to develop an understanding of the different working methods and content of the natural sciences. The conclusion that can be drawn after this study is therefore that it is important that teachers carefully review the various2educational materials to gain insight into their design. Through insight into the design of the educational materials, the teacher can then supplement the educational materials with, for example, laboratories of varying degrees of openness and freedom to give the pupils the opportunity to fulfill the goals in the curriculum.

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