The aim of this essay is to examine why and how three teachers who work in elementary classes choose to use ability grouping during math lessons and what they think of ability grouping as a method to individualize the activities according to the pupil’s needs. I chose one main question for this study that is the following: What is the teacher’s point of view and experience of ability grouping in teaching mathematics? And three sub-questions: What are the motives behind the choice of ability grouping? What are the advantages of ability grouping? What are the disadvantages of ability grouping? In order to be able to answer my questions, I used the qualitative method. I interviewed three teachers who work in the elementary classes (First to fifth grade) to find out what they think about ability grouping and how it is experienced in mathematic teaching.The result shows that the common thing between these three teachers is that they don’t use ability grouping as the only teaching method. They all agree that the whole class teaching has many benefits for the pupils. Regarding the teachers’ views on advantages of ability grouping, they all regard it as a method that contributes to differentiating the math activities according to the pupil's personal needs. My conclusion is that the teachers’ different experiences of ability grouping have an impact on their point of view of ability grouping.

Enligt läroplanen (Lgr11) och skollagen (SFS 2010:800) är det lärarens uppdrag att individanpassa sin undervisning. Dessa styrdokument är tydligare kring den individanpassade undervisningen än vad tidigare styrdokument har varit. Min erfarenhet var att detta inte gjordes fullt ut som det förväntades. Med detta som bakgrund ville jag undersöka lärares förståelse av individanpassad undervisning. Därmed blev mitt syfte att undersöka och studera lärares skilda uppfattningar av individanpassad undervisning. Detta valde jag att göra genom en kvalitativ metod med intervju som datainsamlingsteknik. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i fenomenografin. I studien har fyra verksamma lärare intervjuats. Resultatet visade två skilda uppfattningar av individanpassad undervisning: Individanpassad undervisning som generell princip för undervisning och Individanpassad undervisning som utopi. Det som blev tydligt i resultatet är att kategorin Individanpassad undervisning som generell princip för undervisning är den kategori som var mest frekvent förekommande i det empiriska materialet, det vill säga lärarna uppehöll sig i intervjuerna kring resonemang som kan hänföras till innehållet i den beskrivningskategorin. Lärarna ger alltså uttryck för att de använder sig mycket av individanpassad undervisning. Innan studien antog jag att lärarna i större utsträckning skulle se den individanpassade undervisningen som något som de ville jobba med, men inte ansåg sig ha tid, resurser eller möjligheter till. Vid en analys av relationen mellan de skilda uppfattningarna kunde det konstateras att kategorin Individanpassad undervisning som generell princip för undervisning kan betraktas i ett elevperspektiv som mer utvecklande än kategorin Individanpassad undervisning som utopi. / According to the curriculum (Lgr11) and Education Act (SFS 2010:800) is the teacher's assignment to individualize their education. These policy documents are clearer about the individualized education than previous policy documents have been. My experience was that this wasn´t done fully as it should. With this as background, I wanted to investigate teachers' understanding of individualized education. This made my purpose to examine and study the teachers' different conceptions of individualized education. This, I chose to do through a qualitative approach to interview data collection techniques. The study was based on phenomenography. The study has four active teachers interviewed. The results showed two different conceptions of individualized education: Individually tailored teaching as a general principles of teaching and individualized education as a utopia. What became clear in the results is that the category Individually tailored teaching as a general principle of teaching is the category most frequently occurring in the empirical material. The teachers expressed that they use a lot of individualized education as a general principle of teaching. Before the study, I assumed that teachers in the greater would see the personalized education as a utopia, as something they wanted to work with, but felt they had time, resources or opportunities. When analyzing the relationship between the different positions, was it clear that the category Individually tailored teaching as a general principle of teaching can be seen in a student perspective as more developed than the category Individually tailored teaching as a utopia.

The purpose with this examine was to study the teachers perception of leadership in the classroom and also how they experience the conditions of this. The method used was qualitative, and builds on a total of six interviews. Stensmos five leadership tasks in the classroom that constitute leadership context have provided the theoretical basis of this study. The leadership tasks have therefore been used as theoretical tools in this study to analyze the teachers’ reasoning about their own leadership style. In general, results showed that the teachers talk about dissimilar qualities within different kinds of leadership tasks which results in different consequences and effects on the pupils, the teaching and on the teacher leadership in the classroom. The study also shows that some teachers reason about leadership styles in a way that I would like to call autocratic situational leadership and democratic situational leadership. The concept is based on the finding that teachers who advocate the application of an autocratic leadership style express the standpoint that it is the circumstances and the situation in the classroom that demands this kind of leadership style. This is the reason why teachers interpret the autocratic leadership style as an application of a situation related leadership. The teachers that articulate a democratic approach also express the necessity to adapt their leadership style to the level of the pupils and thereby the teachers interpret the democratic leadership style to be situational leadership as well.

Then the language learning process and the approach in a preparatory class differs itself from a general class. The methods conducted in a preparatory class are not just focused on teaching as in a more traditional method. Achieving the objectives in a preparatory class depends on the individual student and the cohesion in the group. Students have different backgrounds and knowledge level, therefore it is extremely important that the teachers use different work methods in order to achieve and to promote the students' language development. The aim with this survey is to get the knowledge about what education methods is being used by teachers in a preparatory class. The study will be based on three teachers work from different schools and the focus will be on the education methods, operation methods and the individualization degree of the education methods.  As we will see the operation methods of all the teachers are based on the same plan and the difference between them are small. The education method on the other hand differs between teachers and depending on the class the teacher will reform the methods to more accommodate the needs of the students in the class. As for the individualization degree of the education methods the study will show that the goals of the methods do not get achieved due to lack of resources. The teachers do not have the time to individualize the education for each student to the degree that is written in the national school plan.

Background: In the schools today it is common that teachers talk about children with special needs and children with “Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” – ADHD. You can often hear people discuss about children with ADHD from the teachers point of view, that pupils are hard to handle and that they do not know how to create a good relationship with them. But you seldom hear anyone talk about school from the children’s perspective, how they feel, think and experience their school attendance.  Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how a functional disability like ADHD can effect a childs schooling and also to show how pupils with ADHD themselves experience their school attendance and how they are being treated by teachers and other pupils. Method: In order to investigate this, five interviews was carried out with students in the the ages of 16-25. I was interested in their experiences from their years in compulsory school, first to ninth grade. The theoretical basis in this study has been Vygotskijs socio-cultural perspective and concepts such as self-esteem and individualization. Result: The result of the interviews shows that large classes and disturbing noises in the classroom affected the pupil’s concentration in a bad way. They felt that their teachers did not listen or understood their complex of problems, which resulted in frustration, disappointment and anger, which often led to conflicts. They also felt that the teachers very often criticized and punished them, which resulted in more frustration and decreased self-esteem. All respondents felt a kind of alienation because of the treatment from teachers and other children. Conclusions: One of the conclusions in this study is that the teachers did not have enough knowledge, understanding or competence to give the pupils the support they required, and therefore, this study emphasizes the importance of further education for teachers.

Denne masteroppgaven undersøker forholdet mellom kikking, selvstudie og rollespill i Olaug Nilssens roman Vi har så korte armar (2002). Hovedpersonene Liv og Ølgjer blir spionert på av en tohodet vi-forteller gjennom hele romanen. Samtidig observerer både Liv og Ølgjer seg selv utenfra og reflekterer over hvordan de fremstår (eller ønsker å fremstå). Ved hjelp av nærlesning og tekstanalytisk arbeid ser jeg nærmere på denne blikkvekslingen og knytter den til hovedpersonenes identitetsutprøving. Jeg konsentrerer meg i hovedsak om romanens innhold, men i oppgavens andre kapittel behandles også bruddestetikken i romanen. Den kjennetegnes blant annet ved en blanding av ulike sjangre, et usammenhengende plot og en uklar fokalisering. Gjennom å analysere komposisjonen, typografien og sjangerblandingen kommer jeg frem til at romanen kan leses som bruddstykker av en fortelling om de to hovedpersonene, som små puslespillbrikker i en større fortelling om selvidentitet og sosial identitet. Kikking er gjennomgående motiv og tema i Vi har så korte armar. I kapittel 3 ser jeg nærmere på de voyeuristiske sidene ved romanen og på forholdet mellom sosialt blikk og selvblikk. Sistnevnte kan leses som en form for selvoppdagelse; som et forsøk på å forstå og realisere seg selv og finne mening i tilværelsen. Det sosiale blikket som følger hovedpersonene, sier noe om hvilke normer, forventninger og verdier Liv og Ølgjer må forholde seg til. Det kan også knyttes til moderne digital kikking og en medialisert selvforståelse. Nilssen evner slik å problematisere den ekshibisjonistiske kikkerkulturen vi lever i. Liv og Ølgjer prøver å finne seg til rette som studenter i byen, og de vurderer konstant identiteten sin knyttet til det å komme fra bygda. I det fjerde kapitlet knytter jeg denne identitetsutprøvingen til teorier om sosialt rollespill og performative selviscenesettelser. Vi har så korte armar kommenterer, går i dialog med og til tider kritiserer den også sosiologiteorien og –forskningen. Slik fungerer romanen som en annerledes utforsking av identitetsproblematikken enn den sosiologien tilbyr. Nilssens formspråk underliggjør og problematiserer ulike fremstillinger av identitetsbegrepet, narsissisme og medias innvirkning på hvordan vi samhandler og forstår oss selv.

Syfte: Vi vill ta reda på hur teknikutvecklingen relaterad till VoD påverkar beteendet hos unga vuxna och hur detta beteende förändrar tv-tittandet i denna målgrupp. Teori: Denna studie använder huvudsakligen två teorier för att undersöka problemet. Den första teori som tas upp är Diffusion of innovation, Rogers (2003) som diskuterar innovationers spridning och påverkan i samhället. För att vidare undersöka beteendet hos unga vuxna används Jakob Bjurs avhandling Transforming Audiences (2009) som undersöker individualiseringens mönster inom tv-tittande. Metod: En kvalitativ empirisk fallstudie baserad på intervjuer av fokusgrupper samt personintervju. Detta stöds av en kvantitativ undersökning i syfte att skapa en triangulering för att minimera risken för en felaktig tolkning av resultatet. Resultat: Unga vuxna vill inte längre anpassa sig till tv-tablåer. Generationen blir allt mer individualiserad och vill därför välja helt på egen hand var och när de skall titta på exempelvis ett tv-program. Medieföretagen är medvetna om detta skifte från linjär-tv till VoD och således finns ett fokus på att utveckla ett mer individ-anpassat tittande. Trots individualiseringen och de förbättrade VoD-tjänsterna vill många se bland annat nyheter, större sportevenemang samt melodifestivalen via linjär-tv. Slutsats: Den största anledningen till att många gör denna övergång från linjär-tv till VoD är att de söker en flexibilitet som linjär-tv inte kan erbjuda. Flexibiliteten har gjorts möjlig genom den teknikutveckling som skett inom datorer, smarttelefoner och surfplattor. Det som lockar många VoD-användare till att fortfarande titta på linjär-tv är de sändningar som är viktiga att se i realtid. Tack vare dessa kommer förmodligen tv-tittandet finnas kvar en tid framöver, dock ser vi sjunkande tittarsiffror i de yngre generationerna vilket gör framtiden för linjär-tv oviss.

Syftet med denna studie är att belysa den senmoderna skolans värdegrund och urskilja dess samhälleliga funktion. Ideologi kommer således att vara ett centralt begrepp för att ringa in värdegrundens funktion varpå det metodologiska avstampet har gjorts i den ideologikritiska traditionen. Vidare baserar sig studien på ett teoretiskt ramverk som diskuterar såväl individualismens som kapitalismens inflytande på skolan i relation till dess syfte som fostrare och förmedlare. Ideologikritiken och teorin appliceras sedan på material från Skolverket, Skolinspektionen och likabehandlingplaner från olika svenska gymnasieskolor med intentionen att belysa relationen mellan det fostrande anspråket och kunskapsförmedling. Studiens resultat tyder på en skola och en värdegrund som befinner sig i förändring, vilken kan härledas till en brist på ett verkligt anspråk gentemot sitt syfte, eller en ”brist på en meningsfull helhet”. Utifrån studiens tes och Skolverkets material kan sålunda ett moralistiskt uttryck skönjas. Värdegrunden fyller därigenom en ideologisk funktion då den tillhandahåller en illusion som ger upphov till en snedvriden världssyn vari anspråket på godhet fortsatt kan uppfyllas utan något egentligt innehåll utanför fantasins sfär.