The thesis “The coexistence in primary schools” aims to analyse the difficulties encountered by primary schools in Catalonia in terms of coexistence. It also focuses on the various proposals for improvement that school centres carry out and the difficulties of implementing them. The current study concludes that although the conflicte in primary schools is low, we must work thoroughly to prevent possible conflicts and resolve the already existing ones both in the classroom and the school centre itself. It also presents a wide range of actions undertaken by the school centres, both in prevention and resolution, putting into evidence the high priority that schools give to improving relationships. It also highlights the need to ensure the involvement of the whole educational community in the various actions undertaken, as well as the fact of tracking the process. / La tesi La convivència escolar a primària pretén analitzar les dificultats de convivència que trobem a les escoles de primària de Catalunya, així com les diferents propostes de millora que els centres duen a terme i les dificultats de posar en marxa aquestes accions. El present estudi conclou que malgrat la conflictivitat a les escoles de primària és minsa, cal treballar a fons per tal de prevenir possibles conflictes i resoldre els existents tant a l’aula com en el propi centre. Així mateix presenta un gran ventall d’accions que realitzen els centres, tant a nivell de prevenció com de resolució, tot posant en evidència l’elevada prioritat que els centres atorguen a la millora de la convivència. També destaca la necessitat de vetllar per la implicació de tota la comunitat educativa en les diferents accions endegades, així com el fet de fer-ne un seguiment durant tot el procés.

Abstract   Title:                       Grades at Primary School – A study of local politicians' arguments in                       connection with the division into grades at Swedish primary schools. Author:                       Annie Linder University of Kalmar C-essay in Social Studies Autumn 2011   The study aims to investigate local politicians' decisions since municipalities took over Swedish primary education in 1990/91. The arguments put forward in support of how stages are organised have been studied, likewise whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions. Six municipalities are included in the survey. They were divided into three educational categories: lower, middle and high level schools; previous and recent schools and F9 schools with pre-schools and primary schools integrated. Minutes from politicians' and civil servants' meetings have been studied and categorised according to arguments for and against. The most common supportive arguments are about economy and organisation, others concern school premises, trends and the wish for a comprehensive compulsory school. The arguments against are few. Those most often put forward are about about the difficulties of organising B-language tuition for grade six pupils. The Rational Actor Model has been used to study whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions. A third of the six municipalities have acted rationally.   Key words: municipality, primary school, grade, stage, rationality.

This study, a document analysis with a qualitative approach, explores children, under 18years, who have been subject to measures of child welfare in the city of Malmö during theyears 1935-1937. It also explores the school's role in this context. The questions that the studyis guided by is: How was children described in the Child Welfare documents in Malmö duringthe years 1935-1937? And what role did the school have in Child Welfare work and whatmotivated this? The theoretical approaches are Foucaults theories of power, control anddisciplining.It appears from the study that the school and child welfare authorities had a close cooperationwith the purpose to control the upbringing and disciplining of the children. It was through theupbringing that the deviant child would become a "normal", docile and good, industriouscitizen. The school, as well as the board, had to shoulder a part of the upbringing when theparents skills in their upbringing of the children was questioned by society.This study can hopefully provide knowledge and understanding of our social history, it mayhelp us to understand the great changes that have occurred and what is still unchanged.

This study examines a primary school teacher’s ambitions within science education and how those ambitions manifest in the classroom. This is being examined by interview with the mentioned teacher and by observations as a participant within four of the teacher’s science classes. The results of this study is categorized and analyzed with assistance of scientific literacy, vision I and vision II, fundamental scientific literacy and Roberts’ curriculum emphases. The results of the study points at both similarities and indifferences between what the teacher expresses as ambitions, and how science classes are being constituted and organized. In the light of this result, a discussion takes place around what these similarities and indifferences can be products of.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att ta reda på elevers och pedagogers erfarenheter och föreställningar kring klasstorlekens betydelse i arbetet med att skapa goda förutsättningar för lärande i grundskolans tidigare år. Detta gjorde jag genom kvalitativa intervjuer. Jag genomförde en gruppintervju med 3 pedagoger som alla är klasslärare i grundskolans tidigare år, samt 3 gruppintervjuer med elever från årskurs 2-4. Mitt resultat visar att eleverna och pedagogerna anser att gränsen för en liten/stor klass går vid tjugo elever, vilket alla tre involverade klasser överstiger. Det blir också tydligt att det är övervägande negativt att gå i en stor klass när det handlar om förutsättningar för lärande. Till största del så handlar det om pedagogers oförmåga att hinna med varje elev och elevers saknad av hjälp från pedagogen. Slutsatsen, dragen från resultatet och den litteratur jag tagit del utav, blir att lärandet skulle förbättras om elevantalet i en klass minskade. Detta både ur ett elev- och pedagogperspektiv. Eleverna säger bland annat att de koncentrerar sig bättre när de är färre elever i klassrummet och att de då dessutom får mer hjälp utav pedagogen, medan pedagogerna berättar hur de saknar tid att ägna åt varje elev under en skoldag. / The purpose of this study was to determine students' and educators' experiences and conceptions regarding the class size significance in the efforts to create good conditions for learning in the early primary school. I did this through qualitative interviews. I conducted a group interview with three teachers, all class teachers in primary education, and three group interviews with students from grades 2-4. Lyssna Läs fonetiskt   Ordbok - Visa detaljerad ordbok My results show that students and educators believe that the limit for a small / large class goes at twenty students, which all three involved classes exceed. It also becomes obvious that it is negative being apart of a large class when it comes to opportunities for learning. For the most part, it refers to educators' inability to keep up with each student and students' loss of support from the educator. The conclusion, drawn from the results and the literature I´ve read, is that learning would improve if the number of pupils in a class decreased. This is both a student and educator perspective. Students say, among other things, that they concentrate better when they are fewer students in the classroom and that they also get more help of the educator, while educators tell how they don´t have enough time to devote to each student during a school day.

Abstract The school today has an assignment to offset traditional gender patterns as well as to create opportunities for all pupils to achieve the same good results in school regardless of sex, ethnicity and conditions. The educator’s assignment is determined by governing documents, and the educator plays a role in helping the pupil find their equal role in society. This means that the educator needs to work in a way that offsets traditional gender patterns and require approaches that would benefit equal opportunities for both boys and girls to achieve good results. The purpose of the study was, through interviews, to get an idea of how primary school teachers from a gender equal perspective perceive how they see them relate to boys and girls in their teachings. The study is based on the presumptions that the pupils have but focusing on the relationship between school achievements and equality. The study brings up concepts like gender theories, equality, the biological sexes, the history of the schools development and changes in acceptance of boys and girls and the role of the governing documents to reach acceptable achievements. The collected material was processed and analyzed using literature which addresses the concepts. The result of the study shows that the teachers approach partially was shaped by their own experiences. It also occurs that the educators to some extent lacks awareness that differences in school achievement between boys and girls could be connected from a gender perspective. The study also shows that the educators feel that they are missing needed recourses, education and tools to be able to work on issues related to equality from a school perspective.  This could be part of the reasons to why the traditional gender pattern is reproduced and that gender related differences in school achievements continues. / Sammandrag Skolan har i dag ett uppdrag att motverka traditionella könsmönster samt att skapa möjligheter för alla eleverna att nå samma goda resultat i skolan oavsett kön, etnicitet eller förutsättningar. Pedagogens uppdrag vilar på styrdokumenten, där pedagogen spelar aktör i elevernas arbete med att själva skapa sig en jämställd roll i samhället. Detta innebär att pedagogen ska arbeta på ett sätt som motverkar traditionella könsmönster och kräver förhållningssätt som förutsätter att pojkar och flickor får samma möjligheter att nå goda resultat.   Syftet med studien har varit att genom samtalsintervjuer få en insyn i hur grundskollärare, utifrån ett jämställdhetsperspektiv, uppfattar att de förhåller sig till pojkar och flickor i sin undervisning. Studiens har lagts med utgångspunkt i de förutsättningar som eleverna har och med fokus på relationen mellan skolprestationer och jämställdhet.   Studien tar upp begrepp som teorier kring genus, jämställdhet, det biologiska könet, skolans historiska utvecklingar utifrån pojkar och flickors perspektiv samt styrdokumentens roll för att uppnå en godtagbar prestation. Det insamlade materialet har sedan bearbetades och analyserats utifrån litteratur som behandlar dessa begrepp.   Resultatet av studien visar att lärarnas förhållningssätt, till del, formats av den egna erfarenheten. Det framkommer även att pedagogerna delvis saknar en medvetenhet om att en skillnad i skolprestation, mellan pojkar och flickor, skulle kunna kopplas till ett könsperspektiv. Det framkom även att det ur pedagogens perspektiv saknas resurser, rätt utbildning och verktyg för att kunna arbeta med frågor kring jämställdhet utifrån ett skolperspektiv. Detta kan vara delar av skälen till att det traditionella könsmönstret reproduceras och att könsskillnaderna i skolprestationer kvarstår.

The purpose of this study was to explore and investigate perceptions and needs of the primary school teachers&rsquo / in 4th and 5th grade public schools in Yenimahalle and &Ccedil / ankaya districts related to the teaching and assessment methods based on individual differences in science and technology classes. Furthermore this study investigated the teachers&rsquo / perceptions on new science and technology curriculum in Turkey and their perceptions on individual differences. The research type of this study include survey, causal-comparative, and also qualitative research in nature which are non-experimental research methods. The study was conducted in the 2005-2006 academic year in Ankara. Three data collection methods were used to collect data from primary school teachers. First, a needs assessment questionnaire was administered on 155 primary school teachers. Then, the researcher carried out in depth interviews with 13 primary school teachers. Furthermore an observational case study including video typing in two science and technology classes was carried out. Quantitative part of the study was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics by using SPSS (e.g., frequences, percentage analysis, and analyses of variance). Qualitative part of the study was analyzed by using qualitative methods (Generating categories, themes, patterns and coding the data). The findings from quanitative and qualitative data indicated that primary school teachers have various needs to apply teaching and assessment methods based on individual differences related to knowledge, experience, students, parents, administrators, resources, opportunities, time, and science books. Also teachers mostly use new approaches in new Science and Technology Curriculum such as individual presentations.

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate environmental literacy of 6th, 7th and 8th grades primary school students in public schools of Bodrum, Turkey. The study was carried out during the spring semester of the 2006-2007 academic years. A total of 848 students enrolled in four public primary schools completed the 49-item Environmental Literacy Questionnaire (Kaplowitz &amp / Levine, 2005). The components of environmental literacy which are defined as knowledge, attitude, use and concern of students about environmental issues were examined by means of frequency distributions. Results displayed that although students had low levels of knowledge about the environent, they displayed positive attitudes and high levels of concern toward the environment. They were also aware of the importance of interaction between humans and the environment. Relationships among the components of the ELQ (knowledge, attitudes, uses, and concerns) have been analyzed by means of zero order correlations. The strongest correlation found between &lsquo / attitude and use&rsquo / and &lsquo / use and concern&rsquo / variables among the components of the ELQ indicating that the students with positive attitude towards environmental issues have positive views on environmental uses and service and students concerning about environmental problems have more positive views on environmental use and service. Canonical correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship, if any, between the background characteristics of students and the set of environmental literacy variables in the questionnaire. The results showed that students who were interested in environmental issues, who gave importance to environmental problems, who thought they had good knowledge about environmental issues, whose parents&rsquo / were interested in environmental issues and involved in environmental activities had better knowledge about environmental issues, more positive attitude towards environmental issues, more positive view on environmental uses and service and concern environmental problems. In addition, the results of analysis by means of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) demonstrated that female students had more positive attitudes towards environmental issues, more positive views on environmental use and more concern about environmental problems than male students&rsquo / had but same level of knowledge on environmental issues.

International discussions on the conservation of the twentieth-century architectural heritage emphasize the diversity of the whole of the built environment of the entire century, rather than limiting consideration to canonic examples of the architectural historiography during the identification and assessment of the properties to be conserved. In contrast to this international holistic and inclusive approach, the approach to the identification and assessment of the properties in Turkey has in general been selective and exclusive. The early Republican architectural heritage of Turkey is defined through canonical examples drawn from the architectural historiography. On the other hand, more modest, anonymous examples, which constitute the great majority of the built environment of the period, are excluded from conservation status. The main argument of this dissertation is that the current exclusive approach, which selects only some important properties for conservation according to their physical characteristics, is far from understanding the political, institutional and social transformations of the early Republican period, as well as the role of architecture in this transformation. On the basis of this idea, a new assessment approach is proposed in this dissertation which could enable to gain conservation status to the whole diversity of early Republican architecture including more modest examples as well as the canonical ones. Contrary to the current exclusive approach which assesses the end product of a process according to its physical characteristics, the proposed approach is inclusive, taking into consideration the formation and usage processes with all their participating meanings and values and considering these processes along with the final physical form of the building itself. The proposed new approach is tested here on the specific case of the primary school buildings of Izmir, the great majority of which are currently remain out of conservation status due to their rather modest physical qualifications. The dissertation concludes that these buildings are an integral part of the education policies of the early Republican period, of the cultural and social transformations informed by these policies, and of the role of architecture in this process, and that these buildings are the tangible evidences of the meanings and values of this formation process. It then goes on to reveal the necessity of understanding the formation process through extensive research in order to be able to incorporate these meanings and values into the assessment phase.

In recent years, as sensitivity for human rights and diversity in society increased, inclusion has become an important subject matter for discussions both in wider social context as a parameter reflecting more conscious and democratic understandings of human world, and in particular context of different disciplines. Inclusion has become a widely discussed theme of inclusive education practices both internationally and in Turkey, as well as a central theme for Universal Design approach. In education, inclusion is a challenge which calls for a comprehensive institutional restructuring and demands adaptations in physical education environments. This condition implicitly challenges architects to take action for developing effective design approaches in order to create inclusive education environments. This thesis is a search for a common framework for education and architecture for promoting inclusive education in primary schools. Despite the potential of Universal Design principles for bringing education and architecture together for this common goal, Universal Design approach remains limited for promoting a comprehensive understanding of inclusion. Through a comprehensive review of legislations, literature and a case study carried out for conceiving practical concern of inclusive education, this study broadens the notion of inclusion and claims that inclusion is an ongoing process during which students develop their capacities with the provision of equal opportunities of access to educational resources, supportive services, teachers, professionals and effective education environments. Depending on this thesis&rsquo / process-based and student-centered understanding of inclusion, Universal Design principles are differentiated by focusing on design aspects which maximize students&rsquo / individual strengths during inclusive education process.