This study used explanatory mixed methods to examine the effects of two computer-based reflection writing scaffolds, question prompts and writing process display, on preservice teachers’ levels of reflection in their online reflective journal writing. The scaffolds were embedded in a system simulating the Professional Accountability Support System Using a Portal Approach (PASS-PORT). The outcome measure was the level of reflection achieved in participants’ writing. The researcher collected data at the College of Education of a major southern university in the United States. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in a technology integration course in fall 2007. Sixty-five preservice teachers participated in quantitative phase of the study; sixteen out of the 65 preservice teachers were purposefully selected to participate in qualitative phase of the study. The majority of the preservice teachers were white females between the ages of 20-29 in their junior year. During the quantitative phase of the study, participants in control group and two treatment groups were randomly and evenly assigned to one of three different Web pages associated with their treatment conditions. The participants reflected on a critical incident that happened during their practical teaching. Two raters, blind to the participants’ treatment conditions, coded the highest level of reflection achieved in their writing samples using the reflection rubric developed by Ward and McCotter (2004). The researcher employed ANOVA to assess the group differences in the highest level of reflection reached and in the length of the reflective writing in the number of words. The alpha level was set at .05 for all analyses. During the qualitative phase, the researcher conducted open-ended interviews with the participants as a follow-up to their reflection writing. The participants’ reflection writings and interviews served as data sources. Miles and Huberman's (1994) data analysis procedures guided the qualitative data analysis. The quantitative results indicated that computer-based scaffolds significantly enhanced preservice teachers’ levels of reflection in their online journal writing. Preservice teachers who used the scaffolds wrote longer reflection than those in the control group. Correlation analysis revealed that there was a positive relationship between the level of reflection and the length of journal writing. Three overarching factors emerged from the qualitative data analysis that explained how and why the computer-based scaffolds enhanced their reflective journal writing. The factors included (a) the specific requirements conveyed in the scaffolds; (b) the structure of the scaffolds; and (c) the use of the critical incidents to anchor reflective journal writing. How to improve preservice teachers’ critical reflection capability and skills remains an actively debated topic. Recent years have witnessed an emergence of research and development in Web-based educational systems to help prepare highly qualified teacher candidates. However, the articulative/reflective attribute of meaningful learning does not seem to be evident in most of these systems. Although there is considerable research on the potential for embedding scaffolds in technology-enhanced learning environments, mechanisms intended to facilitate reflective practice in such environments also seems to be lacking. In order to help fill this gap, it is hoped that the analyses and results of the current study can be used as a building block for research on how to leverage the affordances of computer-based scaffolds to enhance preservice teachers’ reflective practice in technology-enhanced educational systems.

Denna studie har som syfte att undersöka hur resurspedagoger arbetar med elever i behov av särskilt stöd i årskurs F-3 och vilka faktorer som påverkar motivationen hos dessa elever i arbetet med svenskämnet. Resultatet visar att det råder en viss samsyn hos resurspedagoger om vad i arbetet som utgör framgångsfaktorer i det dagliga arbetet i svenskämnet, men att det finns förbättringsmöjligheter. Sammanfattningsvis fungerar det väl att använda resurspedagoger som ett stöd för elever i behov av särskilt stöd, men det krävs förtydliganden från huvudman och rektor i samråd med ansvariga lärare för hur arbetet ska ske.

Sammanfattning  Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur mikrokulturer i klassrum påverkar elevernas resultat inom matematik. I denna studie observerades och intervjuades tre lärare kring deras undervisningsmetoder och användning av extra resurser.  I studien framkom att de tre lärarna hade flera olikheter i sin undervisning. Det hade skapats olika mikrokulturer. Mikrokulturerna påverkade innehållet på genomgångarna, hur lärarna använde extra resurser. I studien framkom även att lärarna hade olika syn på vad som motiverar eleverna och på vad som var framgångsfaktorer i elevernas utveckling. Två av de observerade lärarna använde specifika elevgrupper baserade på elevernas kunskapsnivå medan den tredje läraren inte gjorde detta. För att mäta elevernas kunskapsnivå genomfördes ett delprov från ett tidigare frisläppt Nationellt prov från 2013. Provresultaten analyserades sedan för att se om eventuella kunskapsskillnader kunde kopplas till lärarnas undervisningsmetoder, studien visade att elevernas resultat påverkades mest hos lärarna som använde fokusgrupper. Lärare A:s fokusgrupp undervisades i högre grad på avanceradnivå och eleverna presterade bättre på uppgifterna med avanceradnivå. Lärare B:s fokusgrupp undervisades till största del på grundnivå och eleverna presterade bättre än genomsnittet på uppgifterna på grundnivå. Medan lärare C inte hade fokusgrupper och elevernas resultat både på grund- och avanceradnivå var något lägre. / Abstract  The purpose of the study was to investigate how micro cultures was created in teachers’ classrooms and how it affected the students' results in mathematics. In this study, three teachers were observed and interviewed about their teaching methods.  The study revealed that the micro cultures that had been created influenced the content of the lectures and how the teachers used extra resources. Two of the observed teachers used specific student groups based on the students' level of knowledge, while the third teacher did not. Also a test was conducted and analyzed to see if any knowledge differences could be linked to the teachers' teaching methods. The test was a part from National test from 2013. The study showed that the students' results were most affected by the two teachers who used focus groups. Teacher A's focus group was taught in advanced level and the students performed better on the tasks in the advanced levels. Teacher B's focus group was taught for the most part at the basic levels and the students performed better than average on the tasks with basic levels. While teacher C did not have focus groups and the students' results at both the basic level and advanced level were slightly lower.

Sammanfattning Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur några lärare, speciallärare och specialpedagoger organiserar läsförståelseundervisning för elever med autismspektrumtillstånd för att identifiera framgångsfaktorer. Studien har utgått från forskningsfrågorna: 1.  Hur kan läsförståelseundervisning organiseras för att barn med AST i åldrarna 6-10 år ska få tillgång till en gynnsam undervisning och utveckla sin läsförståelse?  2. Hur kan grundlärare samverka med speciallärare och specialpedagoger på svenska grundskolor för att erbjuda elever med AST i åldrarna 6-10 år en gynnsam läsförståelseundervisning?  Studien har en kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer med 2 specialpedagoger, 2 speciallärare och 2 klasslärare på grundskolor i södra Sverige. Intentionen är att bidra med kunskaper kring framgångsfaktorer som framkommit i lärares och speciallärares/specialpedagogers berättelser. Materialet analyserades utifrån en tematisk analys. Analysen har en deduktiv ansats och utgick från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv där lärande sker genom samspel och kommunikation med andra. Resultatet visar att samtliga lärare belyser vikten av att vara tydlig och explicit i sin undervisning för att hantera utmaningar med de exekutiva förmågorna. Resultatet visar även att flera respondenter beskriver samlärandet som en gynnsam metod för att hantera svårigheter med att koppla läsningen till egna erfarenheter, där eleverna kan lära av varandra och ta del av varandras erfarenheter. Vikten av en god samverkan mellan klasslärare, specialpedagog och speciallärare framkommer även av studiens resultat. / Abstract The purpose of this study is to examine how some teachers, special teachers and special educators organize their teaching regarding reading comprehension for students with Autism spectrum disorder in order to identify success factors. The study is based on the following research questions:  1. How do we organize reading comprehension teaching for students with ASD aged 6-10 in order to generate the most favourable conditions to develop their reading comprehension? 2. How can the collaboration between teachers, special teachers and special educators look like at Swedish schools in order to offer students with ASD aged 6-10 a favourable teaching in reading comprehension? The study has a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews with 2 special educators, 2 special teachers and 2 teachers at elementary schools in the south part of Sweden. The intention is to contribute with knowledge of success factors which the respondents have pointed out in their answers. Thematic analysis was used during analyzing the data. The analysis has a deductive approach and is based on a sociocultural perspective in which learning takes place through interaction and communication with others. The results showed that all teachers described the importance of being explicit in their teaching in order to handle challenges with the executive abilities. Another similarity was that several respondents described co-learning as a beneficial method for dealing with difficulties in connecting the reading to their own experiences, in which students can learn from each other and take part in each other’s experiences. Moreover, the result also indicated the importance of a well-functioning collaboration between teachers and teachers with special pedagogical knowledge.

The successful development of literacy skills is of great importance to the knowledge development of students in all school subjects. It is vital to identify students who risk literacy difficulties early in order to be able to offer the right support. Early initiatives can have a big impact on studentsʼ continued development. The aim of this research is to study how teachers teaching in the early school years describe their work identifying and supporting students who risk developing literacy difficulties. To broaden this aim the following questions have been used: How do teachers work with literacy instruction? How do teachers identify students who risk developing literacy difficulties? What types of support do teachers perceive as being important for the advancement of studentsʼ literacy development? What support does the teacher use in their work in order to identify and support students who risk developing literacy difficulties? This research is a qualitative study which uses partially-structured interviews with teachers in the early school years. The theoretical starting point for this research is the sociocultural perspective. The following expressions have been used as analytical tools: the proximal zone of development and scaffolding. The result shows that teachers use both synthetic and analytical methods in the teaching of literacy in the early school years. In order to identify studentsʼ literacy capacities teachers use tests and development schedules. To be able to support students who risk developing literacy difficulties teachers adapt their teaching methods and use various teaching aids to support the students. As support to the students there also special pedagogical initiatives made by a special education teacher. The teachers describe their colleagues, special education teachers, the student health team and specialized training as their support in working to identify difficulties and support students.

The aim of the study is to examine which reading comprehension strategies by the teaching material "A Reading Class" a teacher in second grade tutors about and how the teacher tutors, and which reading comprehension strategies pupils in second grade state that they use when they read on their own, and in what whey they use those reading comprehension strategies. Therefore this study proceeds from the following questions: Which reading comprehension strategies does the teacher tutor about and how does the teacher tutor about those strategies? Which reading comprehension strategies do the pupils state that they are using when they are reading on their own? How do the pupils use the reading comprehension strategies when they read on their own, according to themselves? The investigation is based on three observations of the tutoring about reading comprehension strategies and six interviews with a total of eleven pupils. The theoretical basis is composed of theories about the sociocultural perspective, scaffolding, zone of proximal development and reciprocal teaching. The result showed that the teacher tutored about the reading comprehension strategies: predicting, clarifying, questioning and summarizing. She encouraged the pupils to create inner images and to make text connections (text-to-self, text- to-text, text-to-world). She tutored about the strategies by the model "think aloud". The pupils seem to use the strategies predicting and clarifying most frequently when they are reading on their own but also creating inner images. For example, they use the strategy predicting when they are choosing books to read and the strategy clarifying when they don’t understand words while they are reading. A lot of the pupils seem to have trouble explaining how to use the strategy summarizing, and also seem to find it hard to summarize after reading, but skillful readers seem to accomplish that better than less skillful readers. The pupils seem to use the reading comprehension strategies in greater occurrence when they are reading on their own than they are aware of.

To recall educational content from a lecture or textbook is an efficient way to learn (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011), which is referred to as retrieval practice (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). It is currently seldom used among students (Karpicke, Butler, & Roediger, 2009), even though it provides benefits such as reducing test anxiety (Agarwal, D’Antonio, Roediger III, McDermott, & McDaniel, 2014), longer lasting memories (Karpicke & Blunt, 2011), and also benefit future learning (Pastötter & Bäuml, 2014). But, in order for retrieval practice to work efficiently, the students must not fail to recall too much of the educational content (Kornell, Bjork, & Garcia, 2011). So in order to help students use retrieval practice, I suggest they are provided with an outlining of the educational content, as this probably helps them remember and recall more of it. In this thesis, I conclude with an experimental approach that it is possible to help students remember such knowledge outlines, and how it can be done. Furthermore, since knowledge such as knowledge about the human anatomy, can be catalytic in the sense that it can enhance future learning (Hattie, 2009; Van Overschelde & Healy, 2001), I also suggest that catalytic knowledge should be identified and made memorable by educators using similar techniques as in this study.

I dagens samhälle och skola finns det elever med flerspråkighet. Vårt samhälle innehåller språkliga resurser i en stor variation men de flerspråkiga eleverna får inte alltid den stöttning de behöver i det svenska språket. Det primära syftet med litteraturstudien är att tydliggöra hur lärare kan stötta flerspråkiga elever i deras andraspråksutveckling. Metoden som använts är en systematisk litteratursökning för att undersöka tillämplig forskning inom vårt valda område. Denna studie har identifierat några av de viktiga faktorerna för stöttning i andraspråksundervisning: modersmålsundervisning, höga förväntningar och krav, tydlighet i kommunikation och val av undervisning. För vidare forskning inom detta område behöver vi se och förstå stöttningens betydelse ur elevernas perspektiv, det vill säga att undersöka vad flerspråkiga elever själva anser att de behöver för att vidareutvecklas i sitt andraspråk.

From the very creation of the term by Czech writer Karel Capek in 1921, a "robot" has been synonymous with an artificial agent possessing a powerful body and cogitating mind. While the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics have made progress into the creation of such an android, the goal of a cogitating robot remains firmly outside the reach of our technological capabilities. Cognition has proved to be far more complex than early AI practitioners envisioned. Current methods in Machine Learning have achieved remarkable successes in image categorization through the use of deep learning. However, when presented with novel or adversarial input, these methods can fail spectacularly. I postulate that a robot that is free to interact with objects should be capable of reducing spurious difference between objects of the same class. This thesis demonstrates and analyzes a robot that achieves more robust visual categorization when it first evolves to use proprioceptive sensors and is then trained to increasingly rely on vision, when compared to a robot that evolves with only visual sensors. My results suggest that embodied methods can scaffold the eventual achievement of robust visual classification.

Syftet med studien var att på ett systematiskt sätt, i tidigare forskning, undersöka framgångsrika scaffoldingmetoder för utvecklingen av ett andraspråk, samt undersöka faktorer i andraspråkselevens omgivning som har av betydelse för scaffolding utifrån följande forskningsfrågor: För det första, vilken eller vilka olika strategier av scaffolding är framgångsrika för andraspråksinlärning? För det andra, Vilka faktorer i andraspråkselevens omgivning har betydelse för framgångsrik scaffolding? Data från 17 studier publicerade mellan 1994 och 2017 identifierades och kategoriserades i en latent innehållsanalys som baserades på en kombination av exempel från Eriksson Barajas m.fl., (2013) och Friberg (2006). Utifrån studiernas resultat identifierades gemensamma nämnare över framgångsfaktorer för utvecklingen av ett andraspråk samt faktorer kring andraspråkseleven och i skolan. Dessa sammanställdes en modell som bestod av fem teman; grundläggande färdighet, motivation, klassrummets sociala klimat, scaffoldingmetod och ZPD. Temana delades därefter in i totalt fem kategorier. Resultatet av granskningen visar att framgångsrika faktorer för scaffolding är motivation, ett gott socialt klimat i klassrummet och stöd från lärare och kamrater. När lärare successivt överlämnar ansvaret för inlärning till eleverna, inom elevens proximala utvecklingszon är också en framgångsfaktor. Resultaten visar också att läraren bör göra eleverna medvetna om inlärningsstrategier för inlärning av ett andraspråk eftersom det kan öka elevernas förståelse för språkinlärning och språkanvändning. Scaffolding verkar vara en betydande framgångsfaktor i inlärningen av ett andraspråk. Den här studien kan därför ses som ett kunskapsbidrag till den tidigare forskningen inom framgångsrika metoder för undervisningen av ett andraspråk, samt öka förståelsen för rollen scaffolding har i undervisningen av ett andraspråk.