Teknik är betydelsefullt och är en välintegrerad del av varje individs liv. Det moderna samhället begär tekniska kunskaper för att individen ska kunna delta och agera i samhället. Kompetens inom området är starkt efterfrågat och teknik i Sverige har länge varit en avgörande faktor för en god ekonomi. Trots den efterfrågade kompetensen inom området och den ambition för tekniken som finns i samhället så påträffas en förtroendekris bland ungdomarna. Ett utav de centrala problemen är att ungdomar inte kan anknyta teknikens samband med egna intressen och karriärval. Skolans teknikundervisning har därmed en viktig roll för att frambringa ett intresse för teknik. Med detta i bakgrund är syftet med detta arbete att undersöka vilket bidrag som en teknikbok för högstadiet ger i diskussionen om att främja ett teknikintresse bland ungdomar. För att besvara detta användes följande två frågeställningar: - Vilket innehåll visar en lärobok i teknik för högstadiet i sina bilder? - Hur skildras aspekter av teknik i bilder i den läroboken? Frågorna besvarades med hjälp av inspiration från det sociokulturella perspektivet. Undersökningen utgår ifrån en kvalitativ bildanalys där en lärobok för högstadiet i teknik analyserades. Resultatet visar att innehållet i bilderna kan inkluderas inom 12 kategorier som urskiljdes i analysen. Det innehåll som huvudsakligen skildrades och som var av dominerande karaktär i boken var bilder som innehöll Människokroppen; Illustrerade bilder som konkret beskriver fakta; Verktyg, komponenter och material samt bilder som hade historisk koppling. De aspekter av teknik som framkom var att teknik är i ett ständigt samband med människan, stereotypa föreställningar av tekniken kunde befästas i lärobokens bilder samt att teknikutvecklingens historia är väsentlig för dagens samhälle. Dessutom skildrades aspekter av teknik som ålderdomligt och det var en brist på modernare karriärmöjligheter. / Technology is an essential part of the individual’s life, but also a well integrated part of the society. Knowledge within the subject is highly demanded, not only for enabling the individual’s participation in questions and decisions regarding the society but also for the success of the society. Despite the fact that technology had and has a significant part in the Swedish economy and prosperity, the adolescents nowadays, due to lack of ability to identify the connection with their own interests and career opportunities with technology, have a low interest for the subject . With this in view, the aim of this study is to investigate the textbook’s contribution to students’ interest in technology. To approach an insight within this, two questions were used: - What content does the lower secondary school technology textbook show in their pictures? - How are aspects of technology depicted in pictures in the textbook? The questions were answered with the help of inspiration from the socio-cultural perspective. The study is based on a qualitative image analysis in which a textbook for the upper level lower secondary school in technology was analyzed. The result shows that the content of the images can be included in 12 categories as identified in the analysis. The aspects that were mainly depicted and which were of a dominant part in the book were pictures that contained the Human body; Illustrated images that specifically describe facts; Tools, Components and Materials as well as pictures that had historical linkage. The aspects of technology that emerged were that technology is in constant connection with the human, stereotypical representations of technology could be fortified in the textbook's pictures and also that history of technology development is essential to today's society. In addition, aspects of technology were depicted as obsolete and there was a lack of modern career opportunities.

The Swedish curricula for compulsory school science emphasize laboratory inquiry-based science teaching (IBST) to develop pupils’ critical thinking. In contrast, several studies indicate that teachers within the Swedish teaching tradition almost solely emphasize laboratory work as a way to gain students understanding of traditional science content. In this thesis the aim is to investigate how this gap emerged in lower secondary science teaching and to investigate possible ways to bridge this gap between curricula and tradition. Two studies were carried out. In the first study, the aim was to explore how science teachers met the curricula’s expectations of involving pupils in IBST. The result is based on twelve teachers reflecting in groups about their own inquiry activities. Two strategies were identified. Hybridization (existing laboratory activities were transformed) and imitation (investigative inquiry as carried out on national tests was imitated). The way scientific practices are represented in such activities is probably limiting pupils’ potential for critical thinking in everyday life. In the second study, possibilities to bridge gaps between the laboratory tradition and IBST in curricula were explored within a teacher professional development program. Tensions between key ideas of laboratory work in Swedish teaching tradition and IBST, as discussed in international literature, were made explicit. It was then used as a point of departure to negotiate upon the purposes of involving students in laboratory work. The result was based on ten teachers divided in three groups. Eventually, two out of the three groups did explicit articulated awareness of different purposes linked to different types of laboratory activities. The third group showed limited awareness although they developed similar activities as the two other groups. This indicates that teaching tradition is an important variable when implementing new ideas and worthy taking into account and challenge. / Baksidestext Grundskolans läroplan för naturämnena betonar laborativt undersökande arbete i syftet att utveckla elevers kritiska tänkande medan undervisningstraditionen betonar laborationer i syftet att ge ökad förståelse för ämnesinnehåll. Syftet med denna avhandling var att undersöka hur detta glapp gestaltar sig i senare delen av grundskolan och hur detta glapp kan överbryggas. I delstudie ett utforskades lärares sätt att tillmötesgå förväntningar om undersökande arbete. Två strategier identifierades: hybridisering (befintliga laborationer omformades) och imitering (nationella prov härmades). Det finns risk för att dessa aktiviteter framställer naturvetenskapliga praktiker på ett sätt som ger begränsade förutsättningar för kritiskt tänkande i vardagsliv. I delstudie två utforskades möjligheten av att använda spänningar mellan läroplan och laborationstradition som utgångspunkt för att överbrygga glapp mellan läroplan och tradition. Spänningar synliggjordes och var utgångspunkt för förhandling om syften med laborationer. Resultatet visade att två utav totalt tre grupper i slutändan explicit skiljde på olika syften med olika laborativa aktiviteter. Detta indikerar att laborationstraditionen är en viktig faktor, värd att ta med i beräkningen, när undersökande arbete ska införlivas.

EFL classrooms in Sweden are multilingual spaces which consist of a wide range of learners with different backgrounds; constantly forcing teachers to adapt their practices to what they believe will be most beneficial for the students’ learning outcomes. This study focuses on teachers' language practices in EFL classrooms in lower secondary education. The study will present if English teacher practices involve translanguaging patterns or not through classroom observations. The observed practices will be examined and compared with additional data from post-observation interviews to gain context and the teachers’ beliefs to the observed practices. The study aims to map and increase our understanding of teachers' language practices in the EFL classroom, focusing on the perspectives of the teachers. Three different teachers were observed at two different schools in Stockholm, working with students in grades 7 and 9. Field notes and results showed that the observed practices were mainly English only and connected to “English as a base language” + Swedish. Only one teacher translanguaged but all teachers were aware and conscious of their teaching choices and their impact on students’ learning outcomes. Two out of three teachers could imagine incorporating translanguaging patterns in their teaching, while the third teacher believed in an English only approach with ultimate language immersion for proficiency development. The study showed that there is a slight difference in the role of the English language in the observed classrooms, which was expected since the syllabus (Lgr22) neither encourages nor prohibits the use of Swedish when teaching English; so naturally the different teachers use their linguistic resources differently. However, all teachers proclaimed to be aware and have conscious thoughts behind their teaching decisions and they all emphasised on “being understood” as the most important aspect. Lastly, it was revealed that students mirror the teachers' linguistic behaviour even if the teacher specifically tells them not to.

Naturvetenskapsundervisning idag tenderar att måla en bild av att allt redan är förklarat och alla samband är upptäckta inom naturvetenskap. Skolans jobb handlar bara om att lära ut alla förklaringarna. Medan skolans undervisning fokuserar på att återge de rätta svaren ärforskare ofta djupt engagerade i frågor som ännu inte har något svar. Bland forskare inom naturvetenskap uttrycks även att en viktig drivkraft i deras arbete handlar om förundran inför det som studeras. Är det då möjligt att inom ramen för skolans undervisning använda sig av förundran som ett pedagogiskt verktyg, där det skapas en medvetenhet om att det finns mer att utforska? Ett växande forskningsfält rör förundrans betydelse för lärande i egenskap av epistemisk känsla och hur det kan integreras i undervisningen. I denna rapport undersöks hur elever på högstadiet upplever förundran i fysikundervisningen och deras syn på effekten och betydelsen av förundran för att lära sig fysikämnet. Studien har genomförts genom gruppintervjuer med elever där underlaget analyserats utifrån ett fenomenologiskt ramverk. Analysresultatet återger att essensen av elevernas upplevelser är att förundran upplevs om än inte så ofta. När det gäller vad som stimulerar förundran är essenserna flera sinnesintryck och elevens agens. I synen på effekterna och betydelsen av förundran anges sambandet mellan förundran, intresse och lärande som essensen, där speciell tonvikt läggs på att lärandet gynnas av att möta förundran tidigt. Slutsatsen av rapporten föreslår en uppgradering av begreppet förundran inom lärarutbildning, en medveten användning av undersökande arbetssätt för att stimulera förundran samt att förundran kan vara en nyckel till att starta en lärandeprocess. / Today's science education tends to portray a picture of science where everything has already been explained and all relations discovered. The task of schools is just to teach these explanations. While school education focuses on giving the right answers, scientists are often deeply engaged in questions that have not yet been resolved. Among scientists, wonder in relation to the object of study is expressed as an important motivation for their work. Is it then possible to use wonder as a pedagogical tool in school science, where an awareness is created that there is more to be discovered? An expanding field of research concerns wonder as an epistemic emotion and its implications for teaching. In this report, students' experiences of wonder in physics teaching and their view of the effects and significance of wonder in the learning of physics are investigated in lower secondary school. The study has been carried out using group interviews with students and the data set has been analysed through a phenomenological framework. The results of the analysis suggest that the essence of the students' experiences include that wonder is experienced but not so often. The found essences of what stimulates wonder are perception from several senses and students' agency. Regarding students' view of the effects and significance of wonder, the connection between wonder, interest and learning are noted as the essence, where there is a special emphasis on the claim that learning is facilitated by starting with wonder. The conclusions of the report propose an upgrade of the concept of wonder in teacher education, an intentional use of inquiry-based teaching to stimulate wonder and wonder as a key concept to start a process of learning.

TITLE: Didactical situations in mathematics at lower secondary level. The classification of quadrilaterals based on selected characteristics. AUTHOR: Bc. Kateřina Vladyková DEPARTMENT: Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Education SUPERVISOR: Prof. RNDr. Jarmila Novotná, CSc. ABSTRACT: This thesis deals with the possible use of the Theory of didactical situations in mathematics at the lower secondary level of Czech school. It is specifically focused on the classification of quadrilaterals based on selected characteristics. The thesis consists of two parts, theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals mainly with the introduction of Theory of didactical situations, defining and explaining their basic concepts. The thesis also briefly introduces currently existing curricula in the Czech Republic, in which quadrilaterals were the author's main focus. Furthermore, the topic is analyzed from educational materials (textbooks) used in Czech primary schools. In the experimental part of the thesis the author presents a detailed script of educational unit. It is a practical demonstration of a particular theory of didactic situations in teaching mathematics at the Czech elementary school, which is developed and implemented according to the principles of the theory of didactic situations. The thesis...

The specific learning disabilities with the primary focus on dyslexia as one of the special educational need are characterised in the thesis. The theoretical part provides thorough clarification of the individual disabilities as well as the enumeration and explanation of the re- educational approaches towards the specific learning difficulties aimed at the process of teaching English as a foreign language. The qualitative research conducted on the second stage of the basic school constitutes the empirical part of the thesis. The major aim of tracing the needs of the learners with dyslexia was achieved by combining the results of the analysis of the textbooks and the self-created worksheets, observations from the lessons and the interviews with the participants. The main research question, discussing the degree of appropriateness and suitability of the created material in opposition to the regularly used textbooks, was answered in favour of the designed worksheets. Moreover, the thesis provides well-structured and comprehensive summary of the recommendations to enhance the learning process of the learners with dyslexia. Key words Dyslexia, foreign language teaching, lower secondary level, re-education, special educational needs, specific learning disabilities

My theses called Divisibility at second grade - textbooks and knowledge of the pupils is devoted to different aspects of schooling of this topic at elementary schools. This work is divided into three chapters. Whilst the first chapter is dedicated to the theory, the subject of two other chapters are two different researches conducted under the divisibility theme. Theoretical resources common to both parts of the research can be found in the first chapter. Among the topics mentioned in this chapter are for example the differences between formal and informal knowledge, constructivist and transmissive way of teaching or the process of solving word problems. The essence of my first research are the textbooks for elementary school concerned with the divisibility theme. Except the part devoted to a textbooks search (all the textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports which deal with divisibility), this chapter also contains the propaedeutics of divisibility and interviews with teachers, in which I have tried to cover the most important moments in the schooling of divisibility. Second part of my research is focused on checking of the pupils' knowledge of divisibility with a special emphasis on formal and informal knowledge. I have used the test to this purpose, which was...

This diploma thesis deals with the risk factors of cardiovascular diseases in children and their prevention. It briefly describes the influenced risk factors of these diseases and the prevention of their occurrence. It also focuses on preventive programs of cardiovascular diseases in our country and in the world and describes them in more detail. It also provides an overview of current biology textbooks for the lower-secondary school and their evaluation based on whether and to what extent they deal with the issue of cardiovascular diseases. The aim of the thesis is to create a program directed at the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in children at the lower-secondary school, to use it in practice at a selected lower-secondary school and to evaluate its effectiveness in a subsequent questionnaire.

What do history teachers teach about? How do they represent it? Why do they choose to teach the way they do? The main purpose of this study is to analyse what teaching patterns and strategies history teachers in lower secondary schools use in their history teaching for pupils aged 13-16. An additional aim is to get hold of how teachers transform their knowledge and experiences into history teaching. The results are then compared to previous research concerning teaching strategies for history teachers in upper secondary schools. The language the teachers use when they talk about their teaching is also compared to the language found in the field of history didactic research.   Through interviews with five experienced history teachers in two different school contexts their own speech about what they regard as the aim of the teaching of history, what they choose to teach about and what methods they use in history teaching make the foundation for this empirical study. It is the teachers’ words about their own practice, i.e. the thought processes of experienced teachers that are in focus.   Although the study is based on the method of semi-structured qualitative interviews and in some aspects can be regarded as a Grounded Theory study, one theoretical point of view is developed from the thoughts around transformation of the subject history. It concerns how the teachers approach history teaching and what factors the teachers talk about as the main factors of influence.   The study shows both similarities and differences between the teachers’ teaching patterns and strategies as well as between the teachers at lower secondary schools compared to those who teach at upper secondary schools. There seem to be individual patterns for each teacher where their subject matter competence alongside with their personal experiences and interest for the subject history are factors that seem to influence the way the teachers teach. The pupils are one main factor that seems to be important for the teachers in lower secondary schools, as is the use of the national curriculum when planning their teaching. Concerning transformation the question about what methods to use is observed to be the most central. The didactic why, what and how-questions in history teaching are found to be intertwined, and together they build what can be viewed as a teacher’s subject didactic teaching pattern. There are only hints that some of the teachers have developed more sustainable and consequent strategies for their history teaching. One result is that teachers, although they in some sense talk about historical didactic concepts, lack a historical didactic vocabulary to talk about their teaching. / Baksidestext Vad väljer historielärare att undervisa om, vilka metoder används och varför gör lärarna de val de gör? I denna studie intervjuas fem erfarna högstadielärare i två olika skolkontexter. Lärarnas tal om vilka mål, vilket innehåll och vilka metoder som har varit mest centrala under deras senast genomförda historieundervisning ligger till grund för en beskrivning och tolkning av den didaktiska processen där lärare omformar sina ämneskunskaper och erfarenheter till konkret undervisning. De termer och begrepp lärarna använder när de talar om sin historieundervisning är liksom de omformningsfaktorer som påverkar lärarna i den didaktiska processen också av intresse. Resultatet visar att lärarna har funnit särskilda sätt att hantera skolämnet historia vilka kan betraktas som en lärares undervisningsmönster eller, i de fall där mönstret är mer varaktigt och sammanhållet, kan benämnas undervisningsstrategi. Studiens resultat visar både likheter och skillnader mellan lärarna, samt i jämförelse med tidigare studier av gymnasielärares undervisningsstrategier. Det språk lärarna använder liknar snarare den vokabulär som syns i läroplaner och läroböcker än det språk som används i historiedidaktisk forskning.

<p>Denna avhandling har fokus på 88 elevers föreställningar om vad som händer i kroppen då de äter en smörgås, dricker vatten och sväljer en värktablett. Sedan har jag studerat hur dessa föreställningar påverkar deras kunskaper vad det gäller kroppens fysiologi och deras ställningstagande i hälsofrågor. Enkäter av olika slag samt intervjuer har använts vid datainsamlingen. Studien bekräftar till vissa delar den forskning som är gjord i främst Europa. Det som är nytt och tidigare inte har publicerats är det som fokuseras i denna sammanfattning av licentiat avhandling - Elevers föreställningar om kroppens organ och kroppens hälsa utifrån ett skolsammanhang.</p><p>Eleverna hade mycket svårt att se sambanden mellan de olika organsystemen i kroppen. Detta visade sig då eleverna ombads att beskriva hur vattnen tar sig genom kroppen. Studien visade det att endast ett fåtal elever kunde länka ihop: matspjälkningsystemet - blodsystem - njurarna. Det var något lättare om än inte enkelt för eleverna att överföra sin kunskap om matspjälkningssystemets funktion, som i fallet då de beskrev en smörgåsens väg genom kroppen, och överföra denna kunskap till hur en värktablett transporteras genom kroppen. Eleverna har visat att de har lättare att överföra kunskap från ett sammanhang till ett annat, som i fallen smörgåsen och värktabletten, än att föra samman flera olika organsystem som i fallet med vattnets väg genom kroppen.</p><p>En grupp elever beskrev ett system för vattens transport i kroppen som helt saknar naturvetenskaplig förankring. Dessa elever ritade ett rör som transporterade vatten direkt från munnen ner till njurarna. Detta hade konsekvenser för hur eleverna sedan svarade på andra frågor, dessa elever hade svårare att förstå njurens funktion och de hade också mer vardagsnära förklaringar exempelvis på frågan varför vi människor svettas.</p><p>När det gäller hälsorelaterade frågor kunde man se att några elever anser att kroppen lagrar näring och energi då de avstår en måltid. Detta resultat är intressant då de har en annan syn på hela näringsupptagningen i kroppen än den vedertagna naturvetenskapliga förklaringen.</p><p>En grupp elever som hade en mera utvecklad förståelse av hur värktabletter transporteras genom kroppen, var de som främst ansåg att värktabletter kunde ersättas med smärtstillande krämer. Denna grupp angav också spontant färre alternativ för att lindra smärta, så som massage etc.</p><p> Över hälften av de eleverna som intervjuades ansåg att det fanns näring vatten men de kunde inte närmare precisera vad denna näring skulle bestå av. Den andra mindre hälften ansåg antingen att det inte fanns näring i vattnet eller angav olika mineraler och grundämnen. Jag fann också en föreställning bland eleverna om att man måste dricka vatten för att bekämpa bakterier.</p><p>När eleverna tillfrågades vad de ansåg att de fått sin kunskap om kropp och hälsa ifrån fann man skolan som den absolut viktigaste källan och där efter föräldrarna och på tredje plats TV:n. Andra alternativ som Internet, tidningar och så vidare var det betydlig färre elever som angav som kunskapskällor.</p> / <p>The focus point of this thesis lies on 88 pupils’ idea of what happens when we eat a sandwich, drink water or swallow a painkiller. I have analyzed how these ideas affect their knowledge regarding the physiology of the body, and regarding health issues.</p><p>The study confirms some parts of the research already carried out, principally in Europe, but it is the new and never before published research that I discuss in this summary of my licentiate's dissertation. The pupils were asked what happens in the body when you drink water. It was revealed that one group of pupils had an idea about an alternative system for fluids. These pupils drew a tube from the mouth connected directly to the kidneys. These pupils had troubles understanding the function of the kidney, and they also had more simple explanations to why, for example, humans sweat.</p><p>Regarding water’s way through the body, some pupils had difficulties showing the connection between the digestive system, the blood circulation system and the kidneys. It was somewhat easier for the pupils to transfer their knowledge about the function of the digestive system regarding a sandwich's path through the body in relation to what happens if you swallow a painkiller. In these cases it was easier for the pupils to transfer their knowledge from one context to another, as in the case with the sandwich and the painkiller, than to connect different organ systems, as in the case with the water's path through the body.</p><p>Regarding health related issues, it was revealed that a few students believed that the body stores nutrition and energy when they skip a meal. This result is interesting since they had a different view on the assimilation of food in the body than the accepted scientific explanation.</p><p>The pupils with a more advanced understanding of a painkiller’s way through the body were those who believed that pills primarily could be replaced by pain-relieving creams. This group spontaneously gave fewer alternatives to painkillers than other pupils.</p><p>Over half of the interviewed pupils believed that there is nutrition in water, but they were unable to specify what this nutrition would consist of. The rest of the pupils believed either that there was no nutrition in water, or specified different minerals and elements. There was also an idea that you have to drink water to fight off bacteria.  </p><p>When the pupils were asked where they thought their knowledge about body and health came from, they gave school as the primary source, the parents as the secondary source, and TV as the third source. Other alternatives like the Internet, newspapers etc. were less frequent.</p>