<p>In this essay, I will look at three different Compulsory comprehensive schools in one community and I will compare final grades from students who graduated in spring 2006. I will also examine how the three schools work with students, and in what way they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, so that they could reach goals set by The Swedish National Agency for Education. The aim with this essay is to show differences between schools in the same community and my question is if it is the way you approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties that affects the student’s grades and results.</p><p>The study is concentrating on three schools in one community and students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties that went to those schools. I have spoken to remedial teacher at each school about how they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, what kind of methods the use, how they investigate if a student is in need of special help and how they grade their students who are in need of special teaching because of their learning disabilities. This essay will also present different ways of defining dyslexia and how to approach the pedagogic difficulties that will appear in situations where students with reading- and writing difficulties gets exposed and are in need of special education or help.</p><p>The results of this study can only be connected to those schools that have been studied for this exam. The results can not in any way be generalising for all schools in Sweden. However did the study results show that students that went to school 2 reached higher goals than students that went to school 1 or 3. The study also shows that these schools use different ways to work with students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties. But to compare numbers and grades can’t give a fair picture of how each school work with each student so that they develop those skills and knowledge that is seen as necessary to become a democratic member of the society. Because numbers and grades cant tell anything about the student’s disabilities or what kind of knowledge or skills the student is in possession of. Nevertheless can this study when comparing grades, in the most general way, say that students that go to school 2 are more likely to reach goals that are set by The Swedish National Agency for Education.</p>

<p>The setting of pupils' final grades in the Swedish upper secondary school system is the responsibility of their teachers and once grades are set, they are not open to appeal. This can be compared with the British system where an external, central examination board sets the final grades based on the result of externally marked examinations (A-levels). These grades are then open to appeal if it is felt that an injustice has been made.</p><p>This research paper has been an investigation into how pupils in one Swedish upper secondary school attempt to influence their teachers in the grade-setting process and how these teachers are affected by these different methods. Five teachers in total were interviewed in a qualitative case study. The study has also taken up the controversial issue of how grades, which are set individually by thousands of teachers across the country, can be deemed to be fair and equivalent.</p><p>The study revealed that pupils employ many different methods when trying to influence their teachers in the grade-setting process e.g. bribery and negotiation, threats of physical violence, psychological pressure and blackmail as well as flattery. It was established though, that out of all the interviewed teachers, not one of them claimed to have been influenced by the pupils' behaviour. However, all the teachers admitted that their emotional wellbeing was affected negatively in one way or another by the psychological strain.</p><p>Finally, whilst the study showed that the interviewed teachers set grades fairly and equivalently in that they were not influenced by the pupils' behaviour, none of them believed that the system had a chance of functioning effectively on a nationwide basis due to grading discrepancies occurring between teachers and schools.</p>

This dissertation is focussing on students’ experiences of assessments, which means that the assessments are related to studying. The assessments particularly investigated are the main types of assessments used in the application and selection for higher education in Sweden – the grading in schools on secondary level, and the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test (SweSAT). The literature review is an analysis of previous knowledge, resulting in a model of orientations to studying. The empirical investigation consists of interviews with 100 students in upper secondary school, municipal adult education and folk high schools. The interviews are analysed with a phenomenographic approach, and the analysis results in categories describing ways of experiencing what it means to study, ways of experiencing the grades, and the SweSAT. In addition to this, the analysis gives a description of relations between components within categories, relations between categories, and relations between phenomena. The main patterns in the students’ experiences of the assessments are the following: The different categories, describing the experiences of the assessments per se, are focussing on assessment of performance, assessment of personal qualities (including developed knowledge), or uncertainty in relation to the assessment. There are four main aspects of the students’ experiences of the value of assessments, i.e., the relation to future plans, the relation to the student’s personal context, the possibility to influence your result, and the relation to other assessments used in the selection. The final result of the empirical investigation is a reconstructed model of five orientations to studying, where the empirical results are integrated with previous knowledge. The five categories are the knowledge orientation, the duty orientation, the participation orientation, the qualification orientation, and the resistance orientation. These orientations are also described as adaptive and/or non-adaptive in relation to the demands of the education. A further analysis in relation to three social science perspectives shows how assessments can contribute to the colonization of the educational lifeworld, how assessments can be seen as instruments of discipline, and how assessments can be seen as disembedding mechanisms.

The setting of pupils' final grades in the Swedish upper secondary school system is the responsibility of their teachers and once grades are set, they are not open to appeal. This can be compared with the British system where an external, central examination board sets the final grades based on the result of externally marked examinations (A-levels). These grades are then open to appeal if it is felt that an injustice has been made. This research paper has been an investigation into how pupils in one Swedish upper secondary school attempt to influence their teachers in the grade-setting process and how these teachers are affected by these different methods. Five teachers in total were interviewed in a qualitative case study. The study has also taken up the controversial issue of how grades, which are set individually by thousands of teachers across the country, can be deemed to be fair and equivalent. The study revealed that pupils employ many different methods when trying to influence their teachers in the grade-setting process e.g. bribery and negotiation, threats of physical violence, psychological pressure and blackmail as well as flattery. It was established though, that out of all the interviewed teachers, not one of them claimed to have been influenced by the pupils' behaviour. However, all the teachers admitted that their emotional wellbeing was affected negatively in one way or another by the psychological strain. Finally, whilst the study showed that the interviewed teachers set grades fairly and equivalently in that they were not influenced by the pupils' behaviour, none of them believed that the system had a chance of functioning effectively on a nationwide basis due to grading discrepancies occurring between teachers and schools.

The main aims of the thesis are: to explore the development of Swedish university students’ vocabulary knowledge, size and depth and vocabulary use (i.e. lexical richness) in their written output, to examine the relationship between these, their relationship to examination grades, and to investigate how these relationships develop over time. The results showed that over one year of university studies stronger links between the two dimensions of vocabulary knowledge, size and depth are established. No relationship was found between informants’ vocabulary size and lexical richness. However, a modest relationship was found between depth and the lexical richness of student essays. Furthermore, there was a modest relationship between vocabulary knowledge and academic performance. A weaker significant, relationship was found between lexical richness of student essays and academic performance as reflected in the course grade. However, the study did not show evidence of a relationship between lexical richness and essay grade, which seems to indicate that lexical richness, is not an essential criterion in teachers’ assessment of essays. In regard to the development of the informant’s vocabulary knowledge, there was a significant growth in their productive size and depth of vocabulary knowledge after both one and two terms. The informants’ receptive size was found to only develop over two terms of study. Moreover, they produced lexically richer essays in their second term than in their first term of study. The results of the study are discussed in light of the effect of similar learning experience at university and the onset vocabulary ability of the informants. Moreover, the findings are discussed from the perspective of pedagogical implications and vocabulary assessment.

In this essay, I will look at three different Compulsory comprehensive schools in one community and I will compare final grades from students who graduated in spring 2006. I will also examine how the three schools work with students, and in what way they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, so that they could reach goals set by The Swedish National Agency for Education. The aim with this essay is to show differences between schools in the same community and my question is if it is the way you approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties that affects the student’s grades and results. The study is concentrating on three schools in one community and students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties that went to those schools. I have spoken to remedial teacher at each school about how they approach students with dyslexia/reading- and writing difficulties, what kind of methods the use, how they investigate if a student is in need of special help and how they grade their students who are in need of special teaching because of their learning disabilities. This essay will also present different ways of defining dyslexia and how to approach the pedagogic difficulties that will appear in situations where students with reading- and writing difficulties gets exposed and are in need of special education or help. The results of this study can only be connected to those schools that have been studied for this exam. The results can not in any way be generalising for all schools in Sweden. However did the study results show that students that went to school 2 reached higher goals than students that went to school 1 or 3. The study also shows that these schools use different ways to work with students with dyslexia and reading- and writing difficulties. But to compare numbers and grades can’t give a fair picture of how each school work with each student so that they develop those skills and knowledge that is seen as necessary to become a democratic member of the society. Because numbers and grades cant tell anything about the student’s disabilities or what kind of knowledge or skills the student is in possession of. Nevertheless can this study when comparing grades, in the most general way, say that students that go to school 2 are more likely to reach goals that are set by The Swedish National Agency for Education.

The relation between temperament and happiness in children aged 8-12 was examined. Participants included 311 students in Grades 4-6 and their parents, recruited from public and private schools in the Central Okanagan. Parents rated their children’s temperament using the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey (Buss & Plomin, 1984) and rated their children’s happiness using a single-item measure. Children rated their own temperament using the EAS Temperament Survey and the Piers- Harris Self Concept Scale for Children, Second Edition (Piers-Harris 2) (Piers & Herzberg, 2002). Children also rated their own happiness using a single-item measure, the Oxford Happiness Scale, Short Form (Hills & Arygle, 2002), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). Confirmatory factor analyses established that parent and child ratings on the EAS Temperament Survey conformed to the four-factor structure proposed by Buss and Plomin (1984). Multiple regression analyses revealed that temperament accounted for between 9-29% of the variance in children’s happiness depending on the rater (i.e., parents vs. children) and the measure of happiness. Individual temperament variables that predicted a unique amount of the variance of children’s happiness over and above the combined effect of all temperament variables varied with the rater of children’s temperament (i.e., parents vs. children) and with the measure of happiness. Children who were more social, less shy, less emotional, and more free from anxiety rated themselves, and were rated by others, as happier. Children who scored higher on the activity temperament rated themselves, and were rated by others, as happier. The results of the current study parallel results of research investigating the relation between happiness and personality in adults. It establishes a strong relation between temperament and happiness, and iii supports the use of self-reports with children. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to examine pupils´ experiences from getting grades in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities and which impact this has on these pupils how they form and get formed as schoolchildren. Four pupils in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities in a Swedish community have participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. All analysis that has been made has focused on these pupils´ stories about getting grades. I have asked openly formulated questions so that the pupils themselves have had the possibility to highlight those experiences that they want to share. Three categories that I have used, with starting point from the questions in this study, to analyze the answers in the interview material is how the pupils talk about the bases for grading, the pupils´ self-awareness when they talk about their own grades and the pupils´ view when they talk about the importance of grades. The theoretical base of the study is policy enactment. One conclusion of this study is that both teachers and pupils in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities often is based on other factors than what different policy documents says about what should be the ground for teachers grading. One other result with the study is that the pupils in this type of school have a relatively positive view on grades. The result of the study also shows that the pupils that have been interviewed experience grades as something that is important for them even though they don´t seem to be especially aware of their own grades. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka erfarenheter elever inom gymnasiesärskolan har av att få betyg samt vilka konsekvenser detta får för hur elever formas och formar sig som skolelever. Fyra elever som går på en gymnasiesärskola i en svensk kommun har deltagit i kvalitativa halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Samtliga analyser som gjorts har fokuserat på dessa elevers berättelser om att få betyg. Jag har ställt öppet formulerade frågor så att eleverna själva har getts möjlighet att lyfta fram de erfarenheter de själva vill. Tre kategorier som jag har använt mig av, med utgångspunkt från denna studies frågeställningar, för att analysera svaren i intervjumaterialet är hur eleverna berättar om grunderna för betygsättning, elevernas självinsikt i sina berättelser kring sina egna betyg samt elevernas syn i sina berättelser på betygens betydelse. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är policy enactment. En slutsats i denna studie är att såväl lärare som elever i gymnasiesärskolan ofta utgår från andra faktorer än vad som anges i olika policydokument för vad som ska ligga till grund för lärares betygsättning. Ett annat resultat med studien är att eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan har en relativt positiv syn på betyg. Studiens resultat visar även att eleverna som har intervjuats upplever att betygen är viktiga för dem trots att de inte verkar vara särskilt medvetna om sina egna betyg.

This single-case study compared the effects of a typical practice baseline phase to those of a treatment phase. Seven students with learning disabilities (LD) in Grades 4 and 5 participated in the two-school-site study. Each student had basic word-reading proficiency and a distinct deficit in comprehension. Baseline lessons consisted of text reading with corrective feedback, a text-based summary with corrective feedback, and a daily quiz. In treatment, students read text with corrective feedback, used a graphic organizer to study and teach the content to the instructor, and completed a daily quiz. The baseline and treatment lessons were influenced by direct, systematic, and explicit instruction. Analysis indicates that an experimental effect was present for all students when the daily quiz results for baseline and treatment phases are compared. Percentage of non-overlapping data (PND) results were 100% for five students, which is characterized as a highly effective treatment according to single-case standards. Two students had minimal overlap between baseline and treatment, but their scores indicate that the treatment was effective at improving informational text learning. On a cumulative pre/post social studies test, students at School A improved from 26% to 56%, and at School B, students scored 28% on pretest and 81% on posttest. Results indicate that treatment components that were previously effective for students with LD in secondary school are promising for enhancing informational text learning for students in upper elementary school. A social validity questionnaire indicated that students perceived graphic organizers as an efficacious practice for improving learning potential. / text

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of middle school students particularly focusing on the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students. Existing data show that there is an increasing cohort of school children experiencing poverty, either short or long term. For poor middle school students, the risk for school failure is amplified by the general risks associated with middle school transition and early adolescence development. The cumulative nature of these risks is often associated with undesirable school outcomes including grade retention, behavior problems, absenteeism, delinquency, teenage pregnancy, school dropout, fewer years of schooling, and lower academic achievement. However, there is evidence that some students succeed in spite of adversity, which is often attributed to protective factors present in the students’ own immediate environment – school, home, and community. This current study, therefore, examined the relationship between two potential protective factors–parent involvement and school belonging–and student achievement. Previous research has established that parent involvement and school belonging are both associated with positive school outcomes including academic motivation, self-efficacy, internal locus of control, pro-social and on-task behavior, school engagement, educational aspirations and expectations, and better academic achievement. Consequently, this study examined three main questions: (a) How is parental involvement associated with academic achievement for economically disadvantaged eighth grade students? (b) How school belonging associated with academic achievement for economically disadvantaged eighth grade students? (c) Do the relations between parent involvement, school belonging, and eighth grade achievement vary as a function of prior achievement and middle school? To answer these research questions, this study used the nationally representative longitudinal data from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Class of 1998/99. The findings for this study showed that when parent involvement and school belonging were considered together, the association between parent involvement and student achievement diminished while school belonging consistently emerged as a significant predictor of achievement. However, while school belonging emerged as a significant predictor of achievement, this study established that students’ prior achievement was the single strong and significant factor explaining achievement for poor eighth grade students. / text