Environmental issues are highly topical today and most people are more or less concerned. It is important to start with environmental work and environmental studies in early ages, already in school. The purpose of this essay is to examine what a school can do for the environment and to see how a school can work with these issues. Furthermore, what is passed on to the pupils and how involved are they in the work for a sustainable future? The study was conducted by the means of qualitative interviews with four teachers and the head of environmental questions at the school. The school is new since fall 2006 and they have just started with the environmental work, says the ones I interviewed. But they all think it will be better in the near future. At this school both adults and children are very interested and involved in the environmental work. The school has several recourses to facilitate the practical environmental work, both children and adults are fully engaged. The recycling process is well developed at the school, they rather recycle than consume. The higher grade students have more classes about global environmental issues while the lower grades do concentrate on the nearby environment, on a level that fits the children. The lower grades at this school are more involved in the work for the environment than the higher grades. At the school there is a good will to develop the environmental work and they have a great potential to do so. / Miljöfrågor är högst aktuellt och det är något som berör oss alla. Det är viktigt att vara medveten och delaktig redan i tidig ålder för att göra arbetet för ett hållbart samhälle vardagligt och det är därför viktigt att börja med miljöarbete och miljöundervisning redan i skolan. Syftet med arbetet är att få kunskap om vad en skola kan göra för miljön, hur en skolas miljöarbete ser ut, vad förmedlas till barnen och hur medvetna och delaktiga är de i skolans miljöarbete. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av kvalitativa intervjuer med fyra pedagoger och skolans miljöansvarig. Skolan är ny sedan hösten 2006 och har därför inte mer än kommit igång med sitt miljöarbete påstår de intervjuade, men alla är överens om att det kommer att se bättre ut framöver. På skolan är både vuxna och barn intresserade och engagerade i miljöarbetet. Skolan är utrustad med flera verktyg för praktiskt miljöarbete och dessa används både av personal och elever. Källsortering är ett väl fungerande system på skolan och de återanvänder istället för att förbruka. I undervisningen på högstadiet pratar man mer om den globala miljön än i de lägre stadierna. I de lägre stadierna arbetar de med miljö på barnens nivå, de pratar om och arbetar med sådant som barnen kan relatera till och som barnen kan vara med och påverka. De lägre stadierna är över lag mer engagerade i miljöarbetet jämförelsevis med högstadiet. På skolan finns en vilja att förbättra miljöarbetet och det finns en stor potential för att genomföra detta.

This study investigates how Swedish pupils meet science (chemistry and physics) and technology in compulsory school. It explores girls' and boys' actions in and thoughts about these subjects. The study has a feminist perspective focusing on girls. Two teaching groups were followed from the start in grade 7 in compulsory school, when the pupils were 13 years old, until they made their choice of study programmes in upper secondary school in grade 9. The main methods were classroom observations and taped interviews. The results have been divided into the following four parts: the pupils' family background and recreation interests, classroom interactions, girls' and boys' approaches to science, and their choices of study programmes in upper secondary school. Girls and boys have different experiences and interests when they first meet science in grade 7 and boys have, thanks to their recreation interests, greater opportunities to participate in or take an interest in science/technology. The pupils come from different worlds determined by gender and social background. In the classroom girls get and take upon themselves the role of keeping the lessons together, thus fostering a responsible rationality, while boys strive to dominate the public arena. The process of shaping diligent, working, responsible girls as opposed to more childish, playful and competing boys continues in grades 7-9. Girls and boys prefer different subject areas. Boys have a practical while girls have a more theoretical approach to science. Even if there are important differences between girls, primarily owing to family background, there are significant differences between girls and boys. Girls seek "connected knowledge" and even the successful girls question their own understanding, which can be interpreted as a result of their learning style but also of their knowledge of the historical construction of women as unfit for science. The majority of the girls have, over the years, come to construct femininity - and maturity - as being opposed to enjoying experiments which are regarded as boys' play and as part of the masculine world. Boys also criticize girls for both failure and success and they try to get power over the subject content and the apparatus. This is interpreted as a reconstruction of the masculinity of the subjects. Girls who, nevertheless, take an interest in physics and chemistry often have supporting scientist fathers or at least parents with a higher education. Technology is rejected by all girls. The mutual construction and reconstruction of gender and of science/technology contribute to gendered choices of study programmes in upper secondary school. / digitalisering@umu

Studien syftar till att öka musiklärarens förståelse för elevernas uppfattning om fördelar och nackdelar med dagens gängse undervisningsmetoder. Jag har i min undersökning utgått från faktorer som jag funnit i tidigare undersökningar som visat sig vara viktiga för musikundervisningens kvalité. Genom en intervjuundersökning har ett antal elever fått beskriva vad de uppfattat av specifika moment, som att lära sig sitt första ackord på gitarr. Samt skillnaden mellan att lära sig spela nya ackord på gitarr nu och i början. Svaren har sedan jämförts med vad som tidigare framhållits som viktiga faktorer för att uppnå god kvalitet på undervisningen. Resultaten av denna jämförelse visar en överensstämmelse med tidigare forskningsresultat. Fler av de faktorer som angivits i tidigare forskning var genomförda på den undersökta skolan, vilket avspeglade sig i elevernas resultat. Slutsats av detta är, att med en genomtänkt plan för musikundervisningen ges eleverna bra förutsättningar för att lyckas. Vilket kan göra att skillnader mellan resursstarka och resurssvaga elever minskar. Ett didaktiskt dilemma som lyfts fram i min undersökning är hur läraren ska hjälpa eleverna med att hantera ett instrument, inom ramen för klassundervisningen. / This study aims to enhance the music teacher’s understanding of student's perception of the advantages of today's conventional teaching methods. In my study I have assumed elements that I have found in previous studies that have shown to be important for music education quality. Through interviews, a number of students had described their understanding of specific tasks, like learning his/her first chord on the guitar. The difference between learning to play new chords on the guitar now and in the beginning. The results of the interviews were then compared with what was previously highlighted as important elements in achieving good quality music teaching. The results of this comparison show a consistent with previous research. A lot of elements mentioned in previous research were already implemented in the school studied, which was reflected in the results of the interviews. The conclusion of this is that with a well prepared plan for music education students are given good opportunities to succeed, which can make the difference between high achieving and low achieving students decreases. A didactic dilemma highlighted in my research is how the  music teacher should deal with individual help.

I detta examensarbete har jag främst försökt besvara två olika frågeställningar: Vad anser lärare på högstadiet om jämställdhet och jämställdhetsarbete i skolan? Och används några metoder för att jobba med jämställdhet och i så fall vilka?        För att besvara dessa frågor valde jag att skicka ut enkäter till 91 yrkesverksamma högstadielärare i Karlstads och Trollhättans kommun. Av dessa 91 enkäter fick jag in 30 svar vilka i sin tur utgör grunden för denna undersökning.  Av svaren framkom bland annat att 83% av pedagogerna ansåg sig dagligen eller flera gånger i veckan jobba medvetet med att främja jämställdheten i skolan och att 80% av lärarna har uppfattningen om att pedagoger på högstadiet i allmänhet tycker att jämställdhetsarbetet är viktigt. Men det framkom också att 85 % av pedagogerna tycker att skolan endast delvis uppfyller läroplanernas mål om jämställdhet och att 77.7 % anser att de har fått för lite utbildning inom området. 70% av pedagogerna i undersökningen kunde ge exempel på olika metoder som de använde sig av för att främja jämställdheten i skolan. / In this report I have tried to answer two different questions: What do senior level teachers think about the ability of schools work to promote equal opportunities between the sexes ? Do teachers use any methods to promote equal opportunities between the sexes? And if so, which methods do they use?            To answer these questions a questionnaire was distributed to 91 senior level teachers in Karlstad and Trollhättan.  Of these 91 questionnaires 30 answers came in, and these 30 answers underlie the results of this report.  The results of the questionnaires showed that 83% of the senior level teachers consider themselves to promote equality between the sexes every day or several times a week and 80% of the teachers think that senior level teachers in general consider the work to promote equality between the sexes important. But the results also showed that 85% the senior level teachers think that schools only partly fulfil the schools goal to promote equality between the sexes and 77.7% thinks that they have had too little education in how to work with this problem. 70% of the senior level teachers could give example of method they use to work with equality between the sexes.

Education is a long-term effort. The children and teenagers are the pillar-to-be in our nation. Moreover, the popularization of national education can contribute to the enhancement of national competitiveness. Thus, the Article 21 of the Constitution of Taiwan regulates that the people shall have the right and duty to receive national education, which means anyone shall have the right to receive national education and the duty to receive national education as long as he or she is a citizen of Taiwan. Furthermore, to practice education drastically, the nation promulgates the Compulsory School Attendance Act. It allows local governments to establish ¡§committee of compulsory school attendance¡¨ to manage the dropouts from elementary and junior high schools, targeting ¡§zero dropout.¡¨ However, the good faith of the regulations can not be implemented well for every citizen in terms of ¡§the right and duty to receive education,¡¨ especially for the students who drop out of school. It is affected by complicated factors, such as personal value, society, economy, peers, indigenous people and new immigrants. Dropping out has concerned the field of education the most, and it has also brought related problems to the society and public order. Therefore, it is necessary to research and to discuss how to organize an effective legal system of dropout counseling management. Based on the 5 major frameworks of administration law, including administrative principles, administrative organization, administrative authority, administrative remedy and administrative supervision, this study aims at examining the legal system of junior high dropout counseling management to redress the deficiency of current law with researching by reference, historical analysis, comparative analysis and induction analysis in different aspects. Meanwhile, by learning from advanced countries, such as the U.S., Japan and Korea, some specific manners and suggestions, such as establishing dedicated organizations or offices, paying attention to secondary education and reinforcing the function of halfway schools, are expected to be provided for the government, schools, private organizations and future researchers. Through the above-mentioned manners, the situation of dropouts can be redressed and corrected. Moreover, the spirit of the Constitution, namely, the right and duty to receive national education for all citizens, can be fulfilled.

The intention of this study is to describe some pedagogue`s expectations of the strategies, methods and approach the work from when it comes whit mentally retarded pupils and how thet plan their education. The study is based on four half stuctured interviewswhit very experienced pedagogues that work in a compulsory school for children with intellectual disabilities. The four interviews are recorded and adapted. To analyse and expound the data collection, a socio-cultural approach was used. The conclusion of my study was that the pedagogues who work in compulsory school fpr choldren with intellectual didabilities proceed from pupil`s level of development and pupils preundersrandning to consolidate new knowledge. The pedagogues attach particular importance in detailed planning so the education will be clear and structuralized. Communication, pictures and technical equipment are the tools that are used for the knowledge development of the pupils int the compulsory school for children with intellectual disabilities. With a socio-cultural view on teaching the pedagogues work with knowledge development. The teaching occurs during interaction with others. Group education is an aspiration of the pedagogues.

(On the shift of responsibility for compulsory schooling. The path to management by objectives and results and some of its consequences). The aim with this thesis is to contribute to the discussion about the responsibility for compulsory schooling in the 1990s. The decade began with a shift of responsibility for the compulsory school, a process generally referred to as 'municipalization', which on an everyday basis makes it perfectly clear where the responsibility lies. This thesis probes a little further into the problems of the distribution of responsibility, through investigating how the issue of responsibility for the nine-year comprehensive compulsory school has been discussed and motivated over time, in order to analyse more precisely the conditions at hand as the municipalities were to take over responsibility for the different schools in the 1990s. As a sequel to the fundamental direction of this study it enters into a discussion about the consequences following the distribution of responsibility: the effects of management by objectives and results on the school's cognitive approach and problematizing the issue of power and influence under the new model of responsibility. The thesis contains an analysis of how the issue of responsibility for compulsory schooling has been discussed in official commission reports over time, with the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the compulsory school in the 1990s, and its conditions. The historical study thus focuses on the school reform conducted in the early 90s and the three concepts seen as central to the discussion about responsibility for the compulsory school towards the end of the twentieth century: municipalization, decentralization and turning the school into a goals and achievement-related organisation. The analysis is founded upon an outlook based on discourse, aiming to distinguish any changes in the meaning of those three key expressions as well as to define shifts and discursive breaks in textual references to the responsibility for comprehensive school.

A veiled space - Ideological Images of Society in Swedish Compulsory School Civics Lars Sandin  This study deals with the ideological dimension of education in the Swedish compulsory school [grundskolan]. By focusing on the images of the social world which are configured in the content of education, the study pays attention to the reproduction of an ideological dimension which is latent in our social imaginary. The theoretical problem was formulated as a question about if, and in what form, critical knowledge content is offered as part of the reproduction of the social imaginary that takes place in education. The empirical aim was to interpret the images of society configured in policy documents and teaching practice in compulsory school civics [samhällskunskap] with regard to how the differentiation of social space appears in these images. A hermeneutic approach was used. In the first of the two parts of the study, a number of policy documents – curricula and syllabi – were interpreted. In these documents, the differentiation of social space was found to be made visible selectively. The gender dimension and the dimension termed “cultural diversity” were highlighted, while the link between social differences and the uneven distribution of resources could only be glimpsed sporadically. A clear pattern of individuality could also be interpreted. The second of the two parts of the study was designed as a multiple case study. In this, the teaching of two teaching contents in civics, politics and economics, were studied as two separate cases. Three different images of society could be interpreted: a rationalist, a functionalist and a socio-political image. Of these, only the socio-political image offered a transparent view into the differentiated social space. However, the socio-political image was given a weak and unclear legitimacy in the teaching. The dominance of the rationalist and functionalist images were related to traditions that embed the teaching of civics. In the discussion the results from the two parts of the study were taken together and related to the problem. Among other things, the results were interpreted as an example of a conflict between contemporary reproduction and historical reproduction in education.

Several studies have demonstrated that substantial learning gains are possible when teachers use formative assessment in their classroom practice. At the heart of most definitions of formative assessment lies the idea of collecting evidence of students’ thinking and learning, and based on this information modifying teaching to better meet students’ needs. Such regulation of learning processes would require skills to elicit the thinking underlying students’ oral and written responses, and the capacity to make suitable instructional decisions based on this thinking. When the continuation of the teaching is contingent on the information that appears in such assessments additional knowledge and skills are required compared with a more traditional approach to teaching. Today, sufficient knowledge about how to help in-service teachers and pre-service teachers develop their formative classroom practice is lacking. In the pursuit of gathering research evidence about the specific content and design of professional development programs and teacher education courses in formative assessment, it is important that we know what kinds of skills and knowledge teachers need to successfully orchestrate a formative classroom practice. The aim of this study is to identify activities and characterize the knowledge and skills that a teacher of mathematics uses in her formative assessment practice during whole-class lessons. The study is a case study of a teacher’s formative assessment practice during mathematics lessons in year 5. The data were analysed by identifying a) the formative assessment practice b) the teacher’s activities during the formative assessment practice and c) the teacher knowledge and skills used during the activities. The main result of the study shows that the formative assessment practice is a very complex, demanding and difficult task for the teacher in several ways. For example, during short term minute-by-minute formative assessment practice the teacher uses knowledge and skills to eliciting, interpreting and use the elicited information to modify instruction to better meet student learning needs. She also helps students’ to engage in common learning activities and take co-responsibility of their learning. In the minute-by-minute formative assessment practice the teacher also handles new mathematics (to her), unpredictable situations and makes decisions about teaching and learning situations in a matter of seconds. / Ett flertal studier har visat att implementering av formativ bedömning ökar elevers lärande i matematik. I hjärtat av de flesta definitioner av formativ bedömning finns iden om att samla belägg om elevers tänkande och lärande, och utifrån beläggen anpassa undervisningen så att den möter elevernas behov. En sådan reglering av lärandeprocessen kräver kunskap om hur man framkallar den typ av svar som visar hur elever tänker. Det krävs också förmåga att välja ett lämpligt sätt anpassa undervisningen. När undervisningen kontinuerligt anpassas efter den typ av bedömning som beskrivits, så behövs ytterligare kunskap jämfört med den kunskap som behövs för att genomföra en mer traditionell undervisning. Idag saknas tillräcklig kunskap om hur man kan utbilda och stödja lärare och blivande lärare att utveckla sin formativ bedömningspraktik. För att veta vilket innehåll och vilken design kompetensutbildningar i formativ bedömning bör ha så är det viktigt att vi vet vilka specifika kunskaper och förmågor en lärare behöver för att kunna genomföra en framgångsrik formativ bedömning. Studiens syfte är att identifiera aktiviteter och att karaktärisera de kunskaper och förmågor en matematiklärare använder i sin formativa bedömningspraktik under lektioner i helklass. Fallstudien följer en lärares formativa bedömningspraktik under matematiklektioner i årskurs 5. Data analyserades med avseende på a) lärarens formativa bedömningspraktik b) lärarens aktiviteter under denna praktik och c) de kunskaper och förmågor som läraren använde för att genomföra dessa aktiviteter.  Studiens huvudresultat visar att den formativa bedömningspraktiken är mycket komplex, krävande och svår på flera sätt för läraren att göra. Till exempel, under en formativ bedömningspraktik som sker minut-för-minut så använder läraren kunskaper och förmågor för att framkalla, tolka och använda den informationen för att bättre kunna möta elevens behov. Läraren hjälper också eleverna att engagera sig i och ta ansvar för sitt lärande under lärandeaktiviteter. Under denna praktik så hanterar läraren även för henne ny matematik, oförutsägbara situationer och fattar beslut om undervisning inom loppet av sekunder.

Denna studie belyser likheter och skillnader i användningen av digitala verktyg på grundskola och grundsärskola. Med tanke på att dessa två olika verksamheter där både läroplan, arbetssätt samt resurser skiljer sig åt markant vill jag ta reda på vad det egentligen är som är orsaken till en obalans i arbetet med digitala verktyg samt hur stor chans till en likvärdig utbildning eleverna får utifrån deras tillhörighet till olika skolformer. Denna fråga undersöks med hjälp av en kvalitativ forskning där fyra grundskolelärare mot fritidshem som jobbar på grundskola och grundsärskola bidrar med sin kunskap om arbetet med digitala verktyg på sina respektive verksamheter. Studiens utgångspunkt tar sin teoretiska grund i de aktuella utvecklingspedagogiska teorierna; “Learning by doing” teorin av John Dewey och teorin om den “proximala utvecklingszonen” av Lev Vygoskij. Det empiriska materialet belyser en varierad utvecklingskompetens bland pedagoger som i sin tur leder till en obalans i arbetet med digitala verktyg i form av okunskap och oro. Sammanfattningsvis skapar tillgång till resurser en likvärdighet mellan grundskola och grundsärskola men kvalifikationer bland pedagoger avgör en obalans i undervisningen. / This study shows similarities and differences when using digital tools in elementary andelementary special schools. Considering these two different programmers where both thecurriculum and the teaching methods are unalike. I would like to explore what is that leads toimbalance in working with digital tools as much as how great is the chance that students atboth school forms receive a tantamount level of education. I strive to answer this questionwith help of a qualitative research, where four teachers that take care of school-age educare inboth compulsory school for pupils with learning disabilities, share their knowledge withworking with digital tools at their workplaces. The starting point for this study is; ‘’learningby doing’’ by John Dewey and The Zone of Proximal Development by Lev Vygotsky. Theempirical material that I’ve gathered shows the teachers’ varied competence that can lead towrong usage of digital tools. To summaries it’s the equal access to digital tools the facilitateslearning in elementary and elementary special schools but the teachers’ qualifications canhinder the learning process.