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The purpose of the thesis is to look at the presentation of vocabulary related to new technologies in four French and four Spanish textbooks for first-year university students to examine the relevance of the language presented in terms of its authenticity to French and Spanish as it is used today. The focus is on authenticity to show the correlation between what is presented to students versus what they will need to communicate effectively in ways that are linguistically, socially, and sociopragmatically appropriate with native speakers. The thesis also provides teachers with a pedagogical framework that will help them integrate new technologies and their related vocabularies into curriculum when textbooks fail to do so.

This study aims to investigate how science textbooks and a digital tool from NTA presents the space for children in primary school. NTA stands for science and technology for everyone, it is a school development program in the subject of science, technology and mathematics. This study will also investigate how frame factors can affect the use of digital tools and science textbooks in the classroom. The following questions will be asked to answer the aim of this study: How is the earth´s, the sun´s and the moon´s relationship to each other presented in NTA´s digital tool and in science textbooks for children in primary school? How can time and knowledge as frame factors affect the use of digital tools in comparison with science textbooks in the classroom? To analyze the empirical material, the theory Ammert´s uses to analyze textbooks will be used. The content will be analyzed by categorizing it as established, explaining and reflecting/analyzing representation forms. To analyze the pictures in the textbooks and the digital tool Wallin Wictorin´s theory about pictures in textbooks will be used. The result of the study showed that the most used representation form of the textbooks was the established one, sometimes the explaining and the reflecting/analyzing representation form was used, but for the most part it was the established one. The result also showed that the digital tool often used the established representation form in the text they had, but the assignments had the reflecting/analyzing representation form for the most part.

The aim of this study is to examine how social science textbooks for upper secondary schools portrays the term “democracy”. Additionally, the study aims to examine the similarities and differences between the textbooks and determine the prevailing overall perspective on democracy. To help do this an analytical tool consisting of five criteria has been constructed based on Robert A. Dahl's theory on democratic processes and John Dewey's view on the role and importance of education for a democracy. These five criteria are: Effective participation/enlightened understanding, voting equality, control of the agenda, inclusiveness, and the role of education in a democracy. A total of six textbooks, based on the latest curriculum from 2011, have been examined and analysed.  The result and analysis of the study generally shows that the textbooks mainly focus on describing the formal democratic decision-making processes and principles without presenting any deeper reasoning for why these are important for democracy. In this context, representative democracy and direct democracy are often highlighted and compared to each other. The informal areas of society where democratic decision-making are made are generally only mentioned in passing or receive minor presentations. The role and importance of education for democracy are only mentioned in some of the textbooks, though school is often used as an example of an area of society where direct democracy is prevalent.  These are the overall similarities that exists across all textbooks. Some differences exist between the various textbooks, but these are only minor in nature. The main difference lies in what aspects of democracy each textbook chooses to highlight rather than the portrayal of democracy itself being any radically different.

The aim of this study is to investigate how and in which form students come in contact with practical applications in the upper secondary school course Chemistry B. The study is based upon the assumption that all learning is situated in a social environment. The theoretical framework is the design theory perspective, which entails an assumption that the pedagogical tools affect the knowledge content. The empiric materials in the study are collected through three methods: textbook analysis, classroom observations and questionnaires. Two groups of students and their teachers were observed during a section of the relevant course. The textbook analysis focuses upon the same course section in the textbooks of the two groups and compares these books with the relevant section in a third textbook. In addition, the two student groups responded to a questionnaire on their attitudes toward the subject of chemistry subject linked to its applications at a society level. The study shows that there are significant differences between the strategies which teachers and textbooks use in order to present and visualise practical applications of chemical theory. The context strategy is based upon the students’ own surroundings and uses real life application as a tool for the presentation of the principles of chemistry. According to this strategy, the knowledge content should be organised in such a way that the chemical principles are used to explain our surroundings. The process and product strategy, on the other hand focuses upon a scientific approach, in which science as a process and scientific products are most important. With this strategy, applications are used to illustrate and exemplify the knowledge content. The conclusion of this study is that neither different forms of presentation nor the presence of practical applications affect the students' attitude towards the subject. Furthermore, practical applications are not a significant part of the students' learning strategies.

The aim of this essay is to examine the role of poetry in textbooks for the course Swedish 3. This is done by a comparative analysis of three textbooks: Svenska impulser 3, Svenska 3 – helt enkelt and Formativ svenska 3, where the differences and similarities are identified using the questions: Why use poetry? What kind of poetry and what poems are used?  How is poetry supposed to be read? Together with Louise Rosenblatt’s dichotomy efferent and esthetic reading, these questions are then used to analyze the role of poetry in upper secondary school.  The results show that Svenska impulser 3 uses poetry to teach students about its uniqueness and the importance of reading and analyzing poems from your own experiences, a primarily esthetic reading, while also reaching the knowledge requirements of the curriculum. Svenska 3 – helt enkelt and Formativ svenska 3 on the other hand are focused on the author behind the poem, but excludes the importance of poetry and that the reading should originate from the reader rather than the author, a primarily efferent reading.

As our world becomes increasingly globalized, the value of understanding cultural diversity is perhaps more relevant than ever. Furthermore, since English plays an important role in the encounters between members of different cultural contexts, analysis of EFL teaching materials is a matter of importance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how two Swedish EFL textbooks represent cultural diversity. To achieve this, it aims to answer the following research question: To what extent do the textbooks represent cultural diversity within the framework of English as an international language? To answer the research question, this study uses critical discourse analysis as a method for the evaluation. The results indicate that the textbooks show some tendencies of acknowledging the international status of English by including texts from different countries and cultural settings. However, both books still favor representations of Anglophonic countries. Finally, the results suggest that it is important for teachers who use these books to promote critical reflection of how cultures are portrayed.

Colleges and universities have started to recognize the benefits of shifting from a professor-centered instructional paradigm that focuses on the dissemination of information to the learner to a student-centered paradigm. This latter paradigm is designed to provide an environment that enables the student to personalize, analyze, synthesize, and apply the information learned both inside and outside the classroom. Few would argue that such a paradigm shift would be best supported with the provision of a cost-effective, digitally interactive textbook that supports this type of personalized student-centered learning anywhere, anytime. Additionally, an Internet-based textbook would give the student more control of when, what, and how much he/she learns allowing for a potentially deeper exploration of content. This quantitative study was conducted to ascertain if the use of an instructionally designed, interactive college nutrition textbook (iTextbook) with embedded links to digitally-rich supporting graphics, videos, figures, and self-assessments would significantly improve students’ knowledge acquisition and application of the information as compared to the use of an identical print textbook and a static electronic textbook (eTextbook) in a Portable Digital Format (PDF). This study also looked at the time-on-task for reading the textbook content in each of the three formats. Lastly, this study assessed if students would prefer this type of instructionally designed, digitally-rich iTextbook format rather than reading the same information in a print textbook or a PDF eTextbook. The results of the study alluded that while there was a trend for a higher mean exam score measuring knowledge acquisition and application of the information read in the iTextbook group and a lower mean exam score in the eTextbook group, the scores among the three formats were not significantly different. The time-on-task spent by each group reading the textbook content was also similar among the three formats. However, the students reading the eTextbook spent a significantly longer amount of time reading the eTextbook compared to the iTextbook yet obtained the lowest average exam score among the three groups. In response to a final questionnaire, students significantly preferred the iTextbook rather than the print or eTextbook formats. College students reading a textbook in an iTextbook format obtained similar exam scores as those reading the same content in a print or eTextbook format. Compared to the iTextbook, the time-on-task was not only longer for those reading the eTextbook format but this format also produced a lower exam score measuring knowledge acquisition and application. The iTextbook format was more favorably received by college students than the print or eTextbooks formats.

The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a scalable concept map based navigation system for a digital textbook. A literature review has been conducted to identify possible methods to promote conceptual understanding in the context of a digital textbook, and these hypothesized solutions will be evaluated through a prototype tool. The primary method that has been selected for this study to promote conceptual understanding in textbooks is the concept map. When concept maps are used as advance organizers or navigation aids for hypermedia documents, they have been shown to promote conceptual understanding. Issues with scalability exist, however. When maps become too large or complicated, a phenomenon labeled "map-shock" occurs. Map-shock is a result of cognitive overload that nullifies the positive effects the concept map has on learning. In order to eliminate map-shock, one needs to manage the cognitive load imposed on the learner. This project proposes using information visualization techniques leveraged from the computer science domain to develop an interactive concept map based navigation system that will retain the positive effects of concept maps, and also present the visuals in a way that does not cognitively overload the user. This study seeks to answer the research question: "How can a large-scale concept map visualization tools be realized in a way that promotes conceptual understanding and manages cognitive load?" To answer the research question, a prototype tool, labeled the "Adaptive Map tool", was developed and populated with engineering statics content. This prototype contains content that is similar to the material in a traditional statics textbook, but the information is accessed through the proposed adaptive concept map visualization. The tool was then given to students in engineering statics class to be used as a supplemental textbook. The effects of the Adaptive Map tool were evaluated through a multiple case study approach that allowed researchers to understand how this tool fit into the larger learning context of a class. Results indicated that some students did integrate the Adaptive Map tool into the learning process, and furthermore that the tool did promote meaningful learning behaviors that lead to better conceptual understanding of the material. / Ph. D.

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