<p>The purpose of this essay is to investigate different types of feedback and how they are used in schools, and to see which of them are preferred when it comes to error correction. Feedback is used in schools every day even though it is difficult to know if students really learn from it. Students tend to only glance briefly at the paper or test when it is returned and then throw it away. They are interested in how they scored but not really in how to improve their errors until next time. In this study, students wrote essays which were corrected with four different types of feedback and handed back to the students. The students got a chance to revise them and then the result was analyzed. The students were also given a questionnaire in order for me to find out what kind of feedback they liked the most and compare it to the result of the essay corrections. The different feedback types worked well with different students in general, although, underlining with description did not only work best, it was also chosen as the best type by most students. They seemed to think that this type was good for learning something from the feedback. Most students wanted to look for errors themselves instead of getting the correct answer from the teacher.</p>

The aim of this study is to explore how young people act and the organisation of school practice, and what possibilities they have of influencing the content and the forms practiced. The study focuses on how the pedagogic practice is organised in two classes in their first year of upper secondary school, one Social Science programme class and one Vehicle programme class. This embraces questions as: How, where, when and for what cause do students act to influence, and then with what result? Are students offered influence, and in that case which students? How does the organisation of and the content in the pedagogic practice prepare students to act in order to be able to exert influence in the future? These questions have been studied with focus on differences between the programmes with regard to social background and gender. The thesis has its theoretical base in Bernstein’s theory of pedagogy and code (1990, 2000), feminist perspectives (Arnot, 2006; Arnot &amp; Dillabough, 2000; Connell, 1987; Gordon, 2006; Gordon, Holland &amp; Lahelma, 2000) as well as theories of structuration (Giddens, 1984). The empirical material of the thesis was ethnographically produced during one school year, through classroom observations, individual interviews with students, teachers and head teachers, and the gathering of school and teaching material. The main results in the analysis are that actions taken to gain influence were rare, that the organisation of and the content in the pedagogic practice was mainly focused on students as becoming, i. e. it focused students possibilities to be able to influence in the future and not the present. Furthermore, changing of pedagogic content or pedagogic forms was dependent on students’ own actions.   There was a lack of teacher organisation to promote student influence. Finally, what was evaluated in the pedagogic practice, i.e. factual learning, did not promote student influence. The thesis demonstrates how pedagogic practice was gendered and classed, which had consequences for how students could influence and how students were prepared to influence in the future. Since the Social Science programme mostly attracts students from a middle-class background and the Vehicle programme those with a working-class background, the content in the programmes contributed to reproducing hierarchical social relations. The content for the Vehicle students proved to be simplified, personal and context dependent, whereas the content of the Social Science programme was more advanced, general and context independent, knowledge which, in argumentation for influence, is usually highly valued. In previous research, working class masculinities have often been associated with opposition towards study-oriented   subjects.   However, the current  study indicates that there is an interest in studying Swedish, English and maths. The students argued that it was necessary for future employment, and that the Vehicle industry is now asking for this kind of knowledge.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the lower secondary school teaching in religion leads to a positive understanding and openness, concerning different religions and cultures. We want to study how pupils in grade eight and nine in two lower secondary schools in a multicultural community comprehend different religions. Since we choose a pupils perspective we decided to do a questionnaire to get a wide ground. As a complement we interviewed twelve pupils and also did observations during their religion classes. During our study we focused on three different themes. These themes are the abrahamitic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) Hinduism &amp; Buddhism and attitudes to religion. Our theoretical point of view is the intercultural perspective. Therefore we have studied government’s documents and propositions about intercultural education and we have also used an anthology by Pirjo Lahdenperä called Interkulturell pedagogik i teori och praktik (2004). We aim to investigate if the teaching in religion is compatible with the intercultural education. The thesis reveals that there are lots of prejudices among the pupils in these two schools. We think that it is important that the teaching in religion must focus not only at the Christianity in younger ages. The subject must contain other religions like Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism in much earlier age. Otherwise the pupils will create their own picture of the different religions through media. The Swedish governments goals about school (LPO 94) and the document about the teaching in religion (kursplanen i religionskunskap) both can, according to us, be used as tools for intercultural education. The problem is that the teachers do not know how to use these tools. The methods of intercultural education must be clearer and the teachers more conscious. Before that happens, we can not state that the education is totally intercultural. We have a big challenge in front of us when we finally will step out on the labour market!

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Abstract This qualitative study is designed to examine how the 8 university students (from 8 different secondary schools) define their high school experiences. The study focuses on how the 8 study participants’ unique identities shape their experiences of secondary schooling. The three paradigms, students’ heterogeneity, multiple worlds, and identity conceptually framed the study. Through the focus group interactions and two sets of individual interviews, each student’s unique identity and agency were revealed; both individual-social-collective entities that were developed in relations to others. The other sources of data were school websites, relevant media reports on schools and their communities, and policy documents on academic and international baccalaureate programs; finally, field notes were also taken. In so doing, the research critically explores participants’ voices on heterogeneity, multiple worlds of family, neighbourhood, peers,cultural and multicultural identities. Finally, the 8 young people also reflect on their 8 schools, their academic programs, overall educational experience, and particularly, how young people articulate their belonging in high schools. Findings of the study suggest that participants’ identities of who they were often echoed their class, race, and ethnicity, and in turn, affected their academic engagement and identity. Despite the public invitation of all schools on their websites for students to participate in the school communities, the participants painted an altogether different picture; not all adolescents had equal access to schooling. The study makes recommendations for policy-makers, schools, and their districts which address the issues of inequity raised in this study. Specifically, schools need to be aware of the cultural,socioeconomic, and ethnic issues and the challenges that are in the way of minority adolescents’ progress so that secondary schools can extend their support to low income and immigrant students.

According to the core contents in the curriculum for the compulsory school 2011 for the subject Physical Education grades 7-9, teachers of the subjects shall give their students knowledge about body ideals within sports, and the society as a whole. The purpose of this study was to examine and analyze the attitude toward body ideals of the students soon to leave secondary school. The study was based on a quantitative survey with 70 participating students from three different schools. The results show that the schools, according to the students, do not inform the students about body ideals. However, the result shows that the students consider body ideals as an important topic that needs to be dealt with in school, since they consider the adolescences of today are living with a pressure telling them what to look like. The students consider body ideals to be healthy as long as they have received information about it and know how to deal with it. The famous people portrayed in media influence adolescents' body image. The study has shown that the 9th graders are not happy with the body ideals and thinks that it is an important topic for the school to bring up.

This study attempts to explore how schools’ handles and prevents cyber-bullying among pupils. The purpose in this study was to investigate how the school staffs work in secondary schools with grades sixth to ninth. How do the schools discover, prevent and stop cyber-bullying? Do the schools’ have any experiences of cyber-bullying? How do the schools work with anti-bullying concepts – have the new phenomenon cyber-bullying affected and changed the schools´ anti-bullying work in connection with the guidelines and in relation to the "new technology"? This study attempts to examine how this is handled within several secondary schools with three different municipalities. The theoretical starting-points have been an inductive theory which later has resulted in four other theoretical models, Meyrowitz two media-models which are describing social environments and several knowledge theories with a sociology perspective. In this study, the methods have been: conversational interviews with school staff –teachers and counselors. The analysis of the empirical material has been primarily content analysis with categorization of sentences which was mainly guided by empirics. The results shows that the schools does not have much experiences of cyber-bullying, they discovers, prevents and stops the phenomenon with same guidelines like the "regular" bullying. The major obstacle in the study showed a lack of resources, mainly among the teachers, such as time pressure and insufficient education on the subject. There also seems to be a lack of collaboration with agents outside the schools, primarily the social services, because the school does not feel that this type of cooperation works. The study provides several issues and several perspectives as a starting point for further research, such as experiences of cyber-bullying at school among pupils and parents.

This study investigates the effectiveness of two computer games as learning tools in comparison to established learning tools teaching two different topics in the course Social Studies 1b of the Swedish Upper Secondary School Curriculum. The use of computer games in education is placed in the context of changing ideas of the aims for education systems in the 21st Century with regard to student skills rather than content, including digital skills. The findings indicated that using these particular computer games as learning tools for these topics was at least as effective as the alternative, more established, lessons. Focus group discussions with students after the study lesson indicated a preference for variation in teaching methods and the desire for learning activities that require active student participation.

The overall aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of teachers of English and Modern languages towards assessment and the grading process. The inspiration comes from the notion that grades are not set on an equivalent basis in upper secondary schools. The syllabi for the subjects are formulated in a way that enables interpretation, and they have been constructed this way in order for the goals to be re-written on a local basis to better suit the needs of the specific students. This step in the process, formulating a local work plan from the national syllabus, is however often omitted and many teachers have no local work plan to base their teaching on and instead use the generalized syllabi as a base, which in turn are interpreted subjectively. This leads to the situation where there is a lack of equivalence in both education and assessment. In anticipation of the new Education Act including new syllabi and grading criteria teachers have also been asked their opinions and expectations on these, and if they think things will change. The results and analysis conclude that the only way equivalence in grading can be reached is through extensive cooperation between teachers, which would lead to greater objectivity.

The aim of this thesis is to study and analyse how the manifestation of the British colonial era is presented and interpreted in Gambian secondary school history teaching. The sources used in this study are the history syllabus, history textbooks and a few teachers. The research questions are: To what extent is the colonial era projected in the history teaching, if so, why is so much emphasis focused on the colonial times? What attitudes do the people have regarding the colonial era and the British; what is positive and what is negative with the strong focus on the colonial times? The reason why I have chosen to study the colonial era and its magnitude and impact in the history teaching in the Gambia, is that this is an unexplored subject and I found it interesting to focus on this subject and put it in relation to such a small country as the Gambia. The reasons mentioned above is what it makes it interesting to study how the colonial era is viewed in the history teaching in the Gambia and how teachers handle this subject. How do they handle this period of history in a former colony? In this study I have used the qualitative method. My empirical material has been collected through history schoolbook analysis, interviews with three teachers and participated classroom observations in the history subject. My theoretical framework includes concepts like learning procedure, learning dilemmas and attitudes about colonialism, which are described and discussed. The colonial era is frequently emphasised in the history teaching in the Gambia, almost all the history teaching consist of this subject area. Furthermore, the attitude towards this era and the British colonisers varies among interviewed teachers. One conclusion is that it is important to convey both a positive and a negative view about this matter.