This study focuses on, and explores the curriculum content and resources used when teaching on the European Union (EU) and EU-questions within civics education at lower secondary level in Sweden. The research findings have been examined from a ‘best practice’ perspective in relation to subject matter which is seen as positive in the context of political participation. The content, which includes polity, policy and politics, has together with an approach to treat the content as domestic politics, been viewed as a successful model leading to political participation. In order to assess to what extent the taught content facilitates pupils political participation, the EU content taught at lower secondary education is compared to national politics. In addition, as it can be expected to have an impact on what is taught, the context and actual content what is taught about EU and national politics is also compared. The results, based on information and findings collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with teachers from six different municipalities show that EU education does not compare well when contrasted against the educational content taught in relation to national level polity, policy and politics. The curriculum content taught on the EU illustrates primarily that it is the polity dimension which is dominating whereas all EU education is framed more as foreign policy politics rather than as part of domestic politics. Swedish national politics on the other hand, to a larger extent, show signs of the three dimensions and has clear characteristics of domestic politics. The citizen’s ability to influence politics is at the core of education in relation to national politics. However, this does not seem to be the case when it comes to education in relation to the EU. The politics of Swedish political parties advocated at a national level is, for example, explored in detail; however, none or very little of their politics at EU level is addressed. The dominant question, in relation to EU studies, is if Sweden should be a full member of the EU or not. The educational design in relation to national politics comes across as better planned when compared to EU studies. What is brought into the educational content in relation to EU studies depends to a large extent on the context and subject area in which it is being raised.

The thesis focuses on eating habits of adolescents and their knowledge of nutrition. In the theoretical part, the bio-psycho-social development of growing up individuals is characterized. From the nutritional behaviour's point of view, factors are mentioned that may influence eating habits of individuals along with nutritional recommendations for adolescent individuals. Data from research focused on nutritional behaviour of adolescents conducted in Czech republic and the consequences of insufficient and excessive nutrition is included into the theoretical part. The last part clarifies the implementation of nutritional themes into the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education and education programmes and projects focusing on supporting healthy eating habits intended for schools. Goal of the practical part is to map the eating habits and knowledge of eight and ninth grade second stage students of three primary schools in Prague and third and fourth grade students of two grammar schools. To test this goal, the quantitative approach of questionnaire survey and qualitative methods of analysis of school curricula were used. The research result says that the knowledge of the selected research sample of students does not have a significant impact on their eating habits. KEYWORDS: adolescence,...

8 Abstract About fifteen years ago, the Czech education system underwent a curricular reform. Thanks to that, schools have gained more freedom, but also responsibility how education will look in their case. The implementation of the reform was accompanied by various expectations but also by misunderstandings and problems. A revision of Framework Education Programme (FEP) is now planned. At the moment, however, it is not yet clear what will be the subject or the goals of this revision. This work aims to examine the current situation in the field of natural science and to subject selected school educational programs (SEP) to quantitative analysis. SEPs are understood here as one of the possible indicators of how some ideas from the Framework Educational Programs for Lower Education were conceived and developed by teachers. The thesis focuses mainly on areas that have been newly accentuated by the curricular reform. These are topics of key competences, interconnection of subjects (either within cross-curricular topics or interdisciplinary links through selected curriculum) and last but not least the topic of methods and forms of teaching and work with the content itself. All online SEPs of Prague lower secondary schools (plus ten unpublished on the school websites) were analyzed, taking into account only the...

I aim to describe how teachers' beliefs and practices influence the way mathematical argumentation is conducted in lower secondary mathematics classroom within the Czech curricular context. I present results of two studies: the first one characterises the Czech curricular context, namely, the national curricular document and aspects of justification of mathematical statements in selected series of mathematics textbooks. The second study reports on characteristics of teachers' beliefs and practices as related to argumentation on an example of six purposefully selected teachers, via interviews and observations of their lessons. Finally, I select three teachers with differing approaches to teaching and describe specific observed instances in their practices in relation to classroom norms regarding argumentation, justification of general mathematical truths, and aspects of arguments. I show how teachers' beliefs, a textbook and pupils may influence the observed arguments. The studies show that a teachers' emphasis on efficiency (fulfilling school curriculum demands) on one hand and on sense-making on the other lead to distinct implemented curricula. The curricular context and teachers' practice analysis suggest that justification of general truths is generally seen as important but without clear cognitive aims...

The aim of the thesis is to compare the educational systems of two European states with different state institutions, history and current political-historical situation. The work will be of comparative character and will be based mainly on the work with the studied literature. The work will use both Czech and Spanish literature. The main benchmarking tool will be the International Standard Classification of Education at ISCED 2011. In the practical part, this classification will be applied to both education systems, and at the end of each level of education there will be comparisons. The result will be a simultaneous evaluation and comparison of the education system of the Kingdom of Spain and the Czech Republic. KEYWORDS: ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education by UNESCO), education system, early childhood education, primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary education, short cycle of tertiary education, bachelor or other equivalent, master or other equivalent).

This diploma thesis deals with national assessment of language abilities of hearing impaired pupils and closer focuses on pre-lingual deaf pupils at the ends of the primary and lower secondary schools. Based on the definition of the characteristics of the national assessment, the diploma thesis also focuses on an overview of currently used language tests, both at international level as well as it gives information about the practice in selected foreign education systems. Special attention is devoted to information that deal with the assessment of language abilities in the Czech Republic, and the form of participation of deaf pupils in such testing . The practical part is done by a research which was done to find out the views of those involved in the education of pupils with hearing disorders just the current assessment practice language skills of the pupils. In the final part of my diploma thesis is a possible outline for innovations for testing related to information from the preceding parts of my diploma thesis.

This study examines the subject civics (social studies) in interaction with other subjects in interdisciplinary projects. By studying three different integrated projects in the grades 7-9, the study examines how subjects interact with one another. The aim of the study is to describe and analyze the character and function of civics in interdisciplinary projects. The results are used to discuss the relationship between subject and integration. In the world of education, there are two endeavors that may seem to counteract each other: on the one hand, focus on more clearly subject-specific knowledge and, on the other, the pursuit of cooperation and interaction between subjects in different forms of interdisciplinary organization of teaching and learning. Integration between subjects can be seen as an opportunity to address the complex problems and challenges of today's citizens in a changing global world. The results of the study describe three dynamic interdisciplinary projects that all contain a movement between different types of interaction between subjects with various degrees of integration. These types are predisciplinary, helping, correlated, shared and reconstructed. In addition, the study shows that civics in the three projects is emerging as an obvious main subject that aims to develop the pupils’ abilities to orientate (facts and concepts), analyze and discuss. So far integrated teaching appears to result in both what subject-specific teaching reaches and, moreover, it seems to form a synthesis knowledge that can be difficult to measure, but that relates to the main goals of the curriculum beyond subjects. These abilities to act can be used to describe the synthesized knowledge citizens need in order to act in the world. / Baksidestext I denna studie av hur samhällskunskapsämnet tar sig uttryck i ämnesintegrerade projekt i grundskolans årskurs 7-9, undersöks de till synes motstående strävandena att dels fokusera ämnesspecifika kunskaper, dels ge utrymme för samspel och integration mellan ämnen.  Resultaten visar en ömsesidig relation där ämne och ämnesintegration förutsätter varandra. Projekten innehåller en rörelse mellan olika typer av ämnessamspel – förvetenskapligt, hjälpande, sammankopplande, förenande, omskapande – med olika grad av integration mellan ämnen. Delar av projekten domineras av ämnesspecifika kunskaper där samhällskunskapsämnet framträder som tydligt huvudämne utifrån de ämnesdidaktiska profilerna orienteringsämne, analysämne och diskussionsämne. Andra delar av projekten domineras istället av integrerade synteskunskaper som relaterar till övergripande läroplansmål. Begreppet handlingsämne används för att beskriva denna syntetiserade kunskap medborgare behöver för att kunna agera i världen. Licentiatuppsatsen har skrivits inom CSD-FL, Forskarskolan för lärare i geografi, historia, religionskunskap och samhällskunskap, en särskild fortbildningssatsning för yrkesverksamma lärare. Centrum för de samhällsvetenskapliga ämnenas didaktik (CSD) vid Karlstads universitet har ansvarat för forskarskolan.