This thesis examines change of classroom climate in lower secondary school. In the theoretical part, issues of classroom climate, experiential pedagogy, adaptation courses and form teacher lessons are described from the perspective of different authors. The thesis introduces basic approaches for diagnosing classroom climate. It also gives instructions for management of form teacher lessons. B-3 questionnaire determines the current classroom climate and subsequent effects of the adaptation course among the respondents. Form teacher lessons are reported in this thesis, whose effect is also measured by the B-3 questionnaire in a longer period of the adaptation course. The results of the questionnaire investigation point to the need for regular form teacher lessons, in which the formation of a friendly climate in the classroom is realized.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / F. Todd Goodson / The purpose of this study was to determine what social factors influenced ninth-grade students asked to participate in dramatic oral reading activities in the context of their high school English classroom. Participatory action research was completed in cooperation with a classroom teacher and his student teacher. A grounded theory design advised the transcription, coding, and data analysis of the study. In 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation formed Poetry Out Loud, a National Recitation Contest where high school students around the country recited poetry in a contest form. This study used materials and some curriculum from Poetry Out Loud, but rather than memorizing and reciting the poems, the students were asked to perform dramatic oral readings of them. This focus on reading stemmed, in part, from studies completed by Rasinski (2005) claiming ninth-grade students still lacked fluency in their reading in addition to work in the areas of Automaticity (LaBerge & Samuels, 1974) and Prosody (Schreiber, 1991). These students participated in six weeks of activities designed to build skill in dramatic oral reading. Field notes were taken throughout the project. Performances were recorded using video and audio devices, student interviews were recorded and transcribed, and teacher interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data revealed fourteen categories during the open coding stage that contributed, through axial coding, to three different themes: family versus dysfunctional family, positive performance conditions versus adverse performance conditions, and literate identity versus anti-literate identity. These three themes and each respective antithesis were progressively contingent on each other when laid out in a lateral manner with the results of the project being that students either developed a literate identity when the conditions were in place or developed a decidedly anti-literate identity. This theory, grounded entirely in data collected during the study, provided an understanding of the social context at play in this classroom. This study provided qualitative insight necessary for continuing to explore dramatic oral reading fluency at the high school level by revealing the importance of community in asking students to perform in front of their peers, a potentially socially jeopardizing situation.

Across North America concerns have been raised about the social, emotional, and mental health of our youth. Many primary prevention programs have been proposed to address these issues, however, few have met the criteria for effective interventions, including being longitudinal, cross-curricular, emphasizing specific concepts and skills, and being within the skills and understandings of teachers and the school system at large (McCombs, 2004). The Respecting Diversity (RD) program is a social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention designed by teachers that uses a Multiple Intelligences (MI) framework to develop self-awareness, self-respect and respect for diverse others. It teaches skills such as goal setting, meta-cognition, and perspective taking that underlie SEL. The program is designed to develop, a safe, positive classroom climate to begin the school year, and facilitate social and academic learning. The study herein was intended to explore emotional and behavioral outcomes of the RD program. The study involved 218 intermediate (grades 4-7) students and their teachers, divided into intervention and control groups. Students were assessed pre and post intervention for the development of self-awareness, self-respect, awareness of others, and respect for others. Measures of classroom climate were also included. Students completed several measures of SEL, and a selected sample were interviewed to obtain detailed information about their experiences in inclusive diverse classrooms, and with the RD program itself. Data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods, including thematic content analysis procedures and repeated measures MANCOVA’s. Both students and teachers indicated that the RD program significantly increased students’ self-respect, awareness of others, and respect for others, while students in control classrooms decreased in these factors. Classroom climate also significantly improved for treatment classrooms, and, similarly, decreased in control classrooms. Results are discussed in terms of their educational implications, limitations, and suggestions for further research. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Hur får matematiklärare tillsammans med specialläraren, ungdomar att efter upprepade misslyckanden med matematik att fortsätta kämpa. Svaret på den frågan kan vara matematisk elasticitet. Matematisk elasticitet är något som skulle vara värt att utveckla hos ungdomar i Sverige. De fyra grundpelarna matematisk elasticitet står på är att eleven har vetskap om: Tro på att hen kan lära sig matematik, värdet av kunskap i sitt framtida liv, för att utvecklas i matematik behöver eleven lägga ner tid på träning i matematik, och att våga bege sig in i utvecklingszonen och att stanna kvar där med hjälp av stöttning från läraren är viktigt. I den semistrukturerade intervjustudien ingick sju personer. Från intervjuerna sorterades citat in i sju kategorier enligt följande: tid, negativa känslor, positiva känslor, motivation, externmiljö, internmiljö och förhållningssätt. Studien visade att trots upprepade misslyckanden så går det att övervinna svårigheter. Ingenting är omöjligt. Det fanns elever med en inre motivation som tack vare det lyckades att klara matematiken trots tidigare misslyckanden. Mycket tack vare matematisk elasticitet. Som speciallärare i matematik är det lätt att fokusera på enstaka saker i matematik som måste läras ut, och att se helheten är lätt att glömma bort. Att istället fokusera på matematisk elasticitet är ett sätt att lära eleven självhjälp och inte bli beroende av vilken lärare som hen har. Komvuxlärarna jobbade med matematisk elasticitet fast de inte var medvetna om begreppet och vad det innebär, instinktivt gjorde de det ändå. / How do the mathematics teacher together with the special teacher get pupils to struggle after repeated failures? Mathematical resilience could be the answer. In a Swedish context this is something needed to develop pupils in mathematics. One way out of this is to focus on three important themes: value, struggle and growth. From this it develops four different knowledges such as having a growth mindset, mathematics can be valuable, struggle and support to stay in the growth zone. Seven persons were interviewed using semi structured interviews. Selected quotes were sorted in seven categories as follows: time, negative feelings, positive feelings, motivation, extern-, intern-environment and treatment. The study shows that if a pupil has difficulties with mathematics things are not hopeless. There were pupils with intrinsic motivation who succeeded after several failures with the help of mathematical resilience. This is valuable to know for special teachers. The math teachers at the adult-school was not aware of that they worked with mathematic resilience, but instinctively they did.

The thesis is entitled ,,Disciplinary problems in school management class.'' The goal is verify the functionality of educational proces, which is based particular the methods and techniques of drama that can be used in school practice and from which it can be expected contribute to the formation of positive relationships and reducing disciplinary problems. The theoretical part evaluated the concept of discipline in the classroom, prevention of disorderly behaviors and drama education as a prevention of disciplinary problems. The practical part is divided according to different research methods, whichc ar described in a detail and analyzed. Finally the end of the thesis demonstrate the evaluation of targets and their validation.

Die wissenschaftliche Begleitung des Schulversuchs „Deutsch-Italienische Gesamtschule Wolfsburg“ hat u. a. eine empirische Untersuchung zur Leistungs- und Persönlichkeitsentwicklung der Schüler an der Modellversuchsschule durchgeführt. In den Jahren 1996 bis 2006 erfolgten sowohl Quer- als auch Längsschnitterhebungen mit diversen Schulleistungstests sowie schriftliche Befragungen zu ausgewählten Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen der Schüler. An diese quantitativen Untersuchungen schlossen sich im Mai und Juni 2006 leitfadengestützte Gruppeninterviews mit Schülern der ersten drei Einschulungsjahrgänge an, die nach der 10. Klasse auf die gymnasiale Oberstufe eines Wolfsburger Gymnasiums gewechselt waren. Ziel dieser Interviews war es ein spezifisches Bild der „Deutsch-Italienischen Gesamtschule“ aus der Perspektive derer zu gewinnen, die einerseits zehn Jahre lang an dieser gelernt und gelebt haben, andererseits Erfahrungen an einer anderen Schule sammeln konnten. Als Ergebnisse lassen sich u.a. festhalten, dass der Entwicklung des Sozialverhaltens der Schüler an der Schule viel Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wurde. Daher ist die Mehrheit der Befragten auch der Meinung, ein höheres Maß an sozialer Kompetenz zu besitzen, als andere Jugendliche. Obgleich die befragten Schüler ihre Kompetenzen in den Fächern Deutsch und Italienisch als gut bis sehr gut einschätzen offenbaren sich gleichzeitig Übereinstimmungen bezüglich der Defizite der Ausbildung in einigen Unterrichtsfächern. Dies betrifft in erster Linie die naturwissenschaftlichen Fächer einschließlich Mathematik sowie Englisch. Bilanzierend beschreiben die interviewten Schüler die „Deutsch-Italienische Gesamtschule“ als einen Ort, an dem sie sich immer sehr wohl gefühlt und den sie gern besucht haben. Ihre Beziehung zu den Lehrern bezeichnen die Schüler übereinstimmend als sehr eng und freundschaftlich, das Verhältnis unter den Schülern als geprägt von Vertrautheit und einem starken Gemeinschaftsgefühl.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka rutiner kring elever med neuropsykiatriska anpassningar och kollegialt lärande med särskilt fokus på NPF-anpassning för gynnsam lärandemiljö. Denna studies frågeställningar söker svar på vilket sätt som skola och fritidshem kan ge en personlig utveckling för elever med diagnosen neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar (NPF) samt hur kollegialt lärande kan vara ett led i arbetet med NPF-anpassningar i skolan. Med ett fokus kring anpassningar och kollegialt lärande undersöks och analyseras verksamheternas möjligheter att vidareutveckla skolpersonal för att ge förutsättningar till en positiv studiemiljö för alla elever, men särskilt för de elever i behov av anpassningar. Teorianknytning i denna studie kan kopplas till den relationella pedagogiken. Studien har genomförts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer i fokusgrupper på två grundskolor med två lärare i varje grupp på respektive skola. En av skolorna var belägen i stadsmiljö och den andra skolan var belägen på landsorten i en närliggande kommun. Resultatet ger indikationer på den långvariga, men även direkta nyttan i elevernas mående av att få anpassningar i tidigt skede för att få positiv personlig utveckling. Studiens resultat pekar även på fördelarna med generella anpassningar i förebyggande syfte utifrån kollegialt lärande med lektionsstrukturer som ett mål. Sammanfattningsvis kan resultaten visa tecken på att det relationella arbetet i skola och fritidshem är av yttersta vikt för att bidra till en gynnsam lärandemiljö för alla elever inte enbart de elever med underliggande diagnoser.

This embedded mixed method study addresses the problems teachers have reported in believing themselves capable to implement the Common Core State Standards with students in special education. This study examines the effect professional development on implementing the Common Core State Standards had on the participating teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. The participants (N=21) in this study were drawn from a 20-day professional development for teachers based on implementing the Common Core State Standards. The instrument used in the study was the Teacher Efficacy Beliefs System-Self. Data were subject to both statistical and qualitative analysis. The results of this study provide insight into the self-efficacy beliefs of the participants during and shortly after professional development about implementing the Common Core State Standards with students in special education. The Wilcoxon test of signed ranks revealed a significant increase in the TEB-S subscale areas of Accommodating Individual Differences and Managing Learning Routines, but not in Positive Classroom Climate. Qualitative analysis of data found both support for the statistical findings and also contradicted the statistical findings. Further qualitative analysis showed that practices presented in the professional development such as using the arts, formative assessment, and technology were effective in maintaining their teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs after professional development. Factors unrelated to the professional development, such as support from administrators and colleagues and poorly working technology were not supportive in carrying over the increase in teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in implementing the Common Core State Standards with students in special education. The study is framed by Social Cognitive Theory and organized into 5 parts. Chapter I provides an overview of the study. Chapter II includes a review of literature related to teachers’ self-efficacy belief’s Common Core State Standards, and professional development. Chapter III describes the methodology of the study. Chapter IV presents the results of the analysis of data. Chapter IV reports the findings of the study and presents the conclusions of the study and ideas for future research.

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This graduation thesis has a theoretical and an exploratory character. The theoretical part is focused on the knowledge in the field of school evaluation and self- assessment of pupils. It defines the basic concepts, types, forms and functions of evaluation and self-assessment. The main aim is to define ways and various strategies to develop self-assessment skills of children in the beginning of primary school. The research questions and methods of investigation are formulated in the theoretical part. It presents results of long-term research about development of self- assessment skills of children from the beginning of 1st grade to the end of the first half of 2nd grade. One of the most significant parts of the research is devoted to specific strategies of the teacher, which positively affect the development of self- assessment skills of pupils, as well as involving parents in this process during a common consultation of teacher, student and parent.