<p><p>The aim of this study is to investigate and compare teachers’ attitudes to the current testing regimes for the 14-19 age cohorts in England and Sweden. A literature review reveals the historical and political contexts to the prevalent testing regimes in the two countries. One important finding is that the central tests in Sweden have clearly defined objectives whereas the tests’ objectives in England are, at best, insufficiently communicated but at worst not clearly thought through. The study also comprises a questionnaire with the purpose of collecting comparable material of teachers’ attitudes in both countries. Despite the small sample, the results clearly highlight significant discrepancies between objectives and achievements on the one hand and between English and Swedish attitudes on the other. Differences arose between the two countries on how well the objectives of tests are being met. English respondents are more positive towards external marking; meanwhile teaching to the test is seen as a lesser problem in Sweden. Many of these discrepancies and differences in attitudes can be explained from historical and cultural differences to education and assessment systems.</p></p>

<p>National tests have an important function in ensuring reliable grades, and grades at many schools function as a sorting instrument to upper secondary school and higher education, the purpose of this essay has been to investigate if the assessment of English national tests is fair and consistent. The purpose has also been to find out if teachers consider the national test as an important basis when determining a student’s final grade.  This particular investigation showed that national tests are assessed differently by different teachers. The investigation also showed that final grades are strongly influenced by national test grades.  It is of great importance that the assessment of the national test is fair and consistent and that the result of the assessment will be the same no matter who carries it out; however the result shows that it is open to question if the national test can be considered to contribute to comparability and fairness of grades.  The assessment differences indicate otherwise.</p>

National tests have an important function in ensuring reliable grades, and grades at many schools function as a sorting instrument to upper secondary school and higher education, the purpose of this essay has been to investigate if the assessment of English national tests is fair and consistent. The purpose has also been to find out if teachers consider the national test as an important basis when determining a student’s final grade.  This particular investigation showed that national tests are assessed differently by different teachers. The investigation also showed that final grades are strongly influenced by national test grades.  It is of great importance that the assessment of the national test is fair and consistent and that the result of the assessment will be the same no matter who carries it out; however the result shows that it is open to question if the national test can be considered to contribute to comparability and fairness of grades.  The assessment differences indicate otherwise.

Gender equality has long been a part of the curriculum for the Swedish school system. The subject is meant to permeate all aspects of school operation and teachers' education in the classroom. History as a subject is no exception. Although it is part of the school curriculum and practice, there is a lack of studies concerning the topic. Moreover, there is a lack of studies concerning how students perceive and think about these practices and subjects.  This study examines how Swedish students experience and express thoughts about gender equality in an historical, contemporary and future perspective. The method in hand has been a content analysis, used on 110 student-answers from the Swedish National test within the history-subject of 2015. Within this method, narrative theories constructed by Jörn Rüsen have been used to study and categorize students' historical consciousness in the form of their temporal orientation. In order to examine how students perceive gender equality, we have primarily made use of the political definition provided by the Swedish government and the separation between quantitative and qualitative gender equality described by Victoria Wahlgren.   Results of this study shows that students' attitudes regarding gender equality today are often linked to their identification within the subject of history. The same is also true for their thoughts about the future. Differences between boys and girls are identified, with girls being more nuanced about modern gender equality. This difference underlines the connection and importance of knowledge about the past in order to understand questions at hand. Differences regarding gender can be seen in how students define gender equality. In general, all students seem more focused on quantitative gender equality questions. Nevertheless, girls tend to discuss the subject in a more qualitative way.  Finally, there is a discussion of how these results influence history teachers' practices. Aspects such as the consequences these practices may have on students of different genders is also discussed. Furthermore, we want to highlight the need for additional research about gender equality in school operation and historical education.

In the last few years there have been many reports on students lack of reading comprehension in Sweden. Reading comprehension is crucial in today’s society. It is as central for school as it is for being able to be a part of society and work. The aim of the study is to compare and examine whether there is correspondence between two reading comprehension text books and the national test of reading comprehension in 2012. Through text analysis and theories of readability, question types and reading strategies the comparison was made. The text analysis is performed in accordance with Hellspong (2001) and Hellspong och Ledin (1997) model for text analysis, where the language formation is studied. The following research questions are answered: Which similarities and differences are found regarding the readability of the narrative texts and the factual texts? Which similarities and differences are found regarding the type of questions that are asked in relation to the narrative texts and to the factual texts? Which reading strategies are tested in the national test and which reading strategies are practiced through the teaching materials? The results of the analysis show both similarities and differences between the national test and the textbooks. The texts in the national test are less easily read while the textbooks consist of more types of questions and enables practice of more reading strategies. In the textbooks multiple reading strategies was found to be required in order to answer the questions, whilst the national test generally only needed one strategy for most questions. In this way partial correspondence is found between the textbooks and the national test. However, the textbooks are useful for practicing reading comprehension since they have a lot more type of questions and reading strategies, than the national test. A conclusion up for discussion is that the textbooks leave it to the teacher to provide practice of more complicated and longer texts since the texts in the national tests has shown to be more complicated to read.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how some teachers in multicultural school environments reflecton and experience the educational work with national tests in the third grade for students who do not have Swedish as their native language. The research questions I have chosen to work with are: How do teachers experience working with national tests in groups of students where there are children with Swedish as a second language? How do the teachers reflect on the students linguistic preconditions relating to the national tests in these groups of students? What strategies in their teaching on national tests do the teachers use when it comes to students with Swedish as a second language? In this study I have chosen to use a qualitative interview method. Since the purpose of the study is to understand how teachers reflect on students with Swedish as a second language the obvious choice was to interview teachers who work in a multicultural school. In my thesis I have chosen to use sociocultural theory, Cummins four quadrant model and context for theoretical approach. In Swedish schools national tests are implemented annually in the third grade for the subjects Swedish, Swedish as a second language and mathematics. The different subjects in the national test are mandatory and the results are used as an assessment of the students’ knowledge. While national tests are supposed to be equal for all students in the elementary school the curriculum emphasizes that the teaching should be individualized according to each student’s needs and experience. The linguistic requirements differ for students with a different native language than Swedish. The teachers’ work with students who have Swedish as their second language may differ from each other.

This paper sets out to examine the most common errors in the national test and whether the students make the same errors in English course B as in English course A at Upper Secondary School in Sweden. The method used for this study is quantitative where nine grammatical features are used to count the errors made. Twenty national tests were used to carry out this study; ten national tests are from English course A and the other ten from English course B. Results from all features from English course A are compared with some features from English course B. The results show that the most common errors made in the national test are subject verb agreement and tense. Those two features had also a worsening in the English course B. The genitive errors have also doubled in English course B. The best improvement happened with the capital letters. Other features either stayed the same or improved slightly. One of the solutions for grammatical errors could be that teachers and students pay more attention to it and that the teachers include more grammar in their lessons so that the students have an opportunity to improve.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the teaching of non-fiction texts looks like in grade 3 in three different classes and how the students in these classes are being prepared for the subsample that tests the ability to write a non-fiction text in the national test in Swedish and Swedish as a second language. I have, based on the purpose, issued three question that form the basis of this study. They are: What tasks does the students in these classes implement in Swedish lessons dealing with non-fiction? What models are used in Swedish teaching in these three classes dealing with non-fiction? How are the students being prepared for the subsample that tests the ability to write a non-fiction text in the national test in Swedish and Swedish as a second language? The methods used to carry out this study are observation and interview. The purpose of using these methods are to gain knowledge and to be able to explain a social phenomenon, in this case how the teaching of non-fiction texts looks like in grade 3. The theoretical concepts that are relevant for the implementation of this study are the writing discourses of Genre and Process. The result is that all of the teachers that featured in this study prepared their student for the national test in Swedish by implementing similar tasks in their teaching, which the students face in the national test. The students read non-fiction texts, selected relevant words from the texts and wrote their own non-fiction text during the lessons I observed. I detected two separate models used in the teaching, which are Genre pedagogy and Process writing. None of the teachers in this study used the models fully, but used some parts of them in their teaching.

Abstract This study aimed at investigating some of the possible effects of the computer on adolescents’ language development. As a base for the study Sundqvist’s (2009) study on extramural English (EE) was used. The work of David Crystal provided a substantial background on the English language, which was complemented by the work of Halliday among others.          In the study ten national writing tests were examined and analyzed, and a small survey of the ten students’ Internet habits was performed. The mistakes and errors made by the students in the tests were compared to their value of exposure to Internet English (EIE) in order to establish possible links between their Internet habits and their writing mistakes. The study found that the five boys that took part spent more time online and engaging in activities where English was used than the girls of the study. It was also found that the students who spend the most time online made substantially more errors and mistakes regarding the apostrophe, mainly in contractions. It was also found that the students who spent little time online and had a low value of EIE were more likely to make mistakes and errors regarding verbs and agreement.                       Although the study was too limited for any generalizations to be made, it hinted at some possible links between Internet habits of adolescents and their performance on the national test and their general language proficiency.

The aim of this study is to investigate and compare teachers’ attitudes to the current testing regimes for the 14-19 age cohorts in England and Sweden. A literature review reveals the historical and political contexts to the prevalent testing regimes in the two countries. One important finding is that the central tests in Sweden have clearly defined objectives whereas the tests’ objectives in England are, at best, insufficiently communicated but at worst not clearly thought through. The study also comprises a questionnaire with the purpose of collecting comparable material of teachers’ attitudes in both countries. Despite the small sample, the results clearly highlight significant discrepancies between objectives and achievements on the one hand and between English and Swedish attitudes on the other. Differences arose between the two countries on how well the objectives of tests are being met. English respondents are more positive towards external marking; meanwhile teaching to the test is seen as a lesser problem in Sweden. Many of these discrepancies and differences in attitudes can be explained from historical and cultural differences to education and assessment systems.