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The aim of this thesis is to research what the former youth of the Construction Programme felt about their education. For this purpose I have chosen a group of students who graduated from the Construction Programme 1997 and 1998. Had they made the choice to study at the Construction Program on their own free will, or were they more or less forced into this decision (in one way or another)? I have also researched which factors that has either made them stay in the field of construction work or forced them to work with something else. The research method I have chosen to use in my thesis was a questionnaire. This questionnaire was sent to a group of thirty former students of the Construction Program, who nowadays is scattered all over the country. Through the questionnaire I have asked questions concerning their choice of upper secondary school education: what the students thought of the education they received, did it live up to their expectations, and do they still work within the occupation that they were educated for or do they work with something else?. Maybe some have chosen to move on to third level education? I have got to several results concerning both the choice of upper secondary school education made and this group of former students’ current field of work. For the majority of these students, the choice of studying at the Construction Program was made on their own, which they felt led to a varying occupation and a job after graduating. Another interesting result I have got is that a lot of students still work within the branch ten years after their graduation. This must mean that both the school and the former youth of the Construction Program themselves succeeded well in their education. The result of my research corresponds with general perceptions according to studied literature and varied sources.

Development of competence-oriented curricula is still an important theme in informatics education. Unfortunately informatics curricula, which include the domain of logic programming, are still input-orientated or lack detailed competence descriptions. Therefore, the development of competence model and of learning outcomes' descriptions is essential for the learning process in this domain. A prior research developed both. The next research step is to formulate test items to measure the described learning outcomes. This article describes this procedure and exemplifies test items. It also relates a test in school to the items and shows which misconceptions and typical errors are important to discuss in class. The test result can also confirm or disprove the competence model. Therefore, this school test is important for theoretical research as well as for the concrete planning of lessons. Quantitative analysis in school is important for evaluation and improvement of informatics education.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Com a presente tese, buscou-se investigar as desigualdades educacionais que permeiam o ensino médio, principal gargalo do sistema educacional brasileiro. Inicialmente, questionou-se o papel central da educação como legitimadora das desigualdades sociais nas sociedades democráticas. Apresentaram-se os estudos pioneiros da Sociologia da Educação que procuraram explicar as desigualdades educacionais para, então, abordar as hipóteses teóricas elaboradas sobre as tendências da desigualdade de oportunidades educacionais (DOE) ao longo do tempo. Em seguida, testaram-se empiricamente essas hipóteses a partir de modelos de regressão logística sequenciais que permitiram estimar a evolução do efeito das características da família de origem nas chances condicionais de entrada e conclusão do ensino médio durante um período de mais de vinte anos. Observou-se de forma inédita, de 1986 a 2009, que a DOE relativa ao ingresso e à conclusão desse nível de ensino se manteve significativa e relativamente constante, mesmo no período mais recente no qual as taxas de transição no ensino médio vivenciaram seu maior crescimento. Esses resultados corroboram aqueles previstos pela hipótese da Desigualdade Maximamente Mantida (MMI) e aqueles encontrados por estudos anteriores. Incluiu-se também uma análise das mudanças qualitativas da DOE, evidenciando-se um significativo crescimento, entre o ano de 1982 e a década de 2000, no impacto das variáveis que medem o capital cultural e econômico dos estudantes nas chances destes frequentarem a rede de ensino médio particular. Logo, a estratificação entre a rede pública e particular no ensino médio está cada vez mais marcada pela desigualdade na seleção dos seus respectivos alunos, reforçando a dualidade de desempenho que caracteriza essas duas redes de ensino, conforme previsto pela hipótese da Desigualdade Efetivamente Mantida (EMI). Além dessas análises da evolução quantitativa e qualitativa da DOE no ensino médio, investigou-se o quadro geral de desigualdades que incidem sobre o ensino médio técnico à luz das experiências internacionais, tendo em vista que essa é uma modalidade ainda incipiente no Brasil, mas cuja rede está em rápida expansão. Diferentemente do que ocorre na maioria dos países, os jovens de origem menos privilegiada não são os maiores beneficiários dessa modalidade. Apesar de a mesma ser propagada como principal solução para a falta de qualificação juvenil, a ampliação desse tipo de ensino deve ser avaliada com cautela, tendo em vista o público que está sendo efetivamente atingido e o potencial impacto negativo em termos de estratificação educacional observado nos países que seguiram esse caminho. / With this thesis, we sought to investigate the educational inequalities in the upper secondary education, the main bottleneck of the Brazilian educational system. Initially, the central role of education as a way of legitimating social inequalities in democratic societies was discussed. Classic studies of Sociology of Education that tried to explain those educational inequalities were presented, and the theoretical assumptions about trends in inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) over time were addressed. Subsequently, those hypotheses were empirically tested using sequential logit regression models, which allowed the estimation of the evolution of the social background effects on educational transition related to high school during a period of more than twenty years. It was observed, in an unprecedented way, from 1986 thru 2009, that the IEO related to entrance and completion of this educational level remained significant and relatively constant, even in the most recent period, when the transition rates to high school experienced its greatest growth. Those results corroborate the ones predicted by the hypothesis of Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI) and those found by previous studies. An analysis of the qualitative changes of the IEO was also included, demonstrating significant increase, between 1982 and the 2000s, of the effect of variables that measure the economic and cultural capital of high school students on their chances of enrollment in private high schools (vs. public ones). Hence, the stratification between the public and private high schools is increasingly marked by the inequality in the selection of their respective students, reinforcing the performance duality that characterizes those two school systems, as predicted by the hypothesis of Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI). In addition to those quantitative and qualitative IEO analyses, the general framework of inequalities concerning the vocational high school was investigated in light of international experiences, taking into account that such type of education is still incipient in Brazil, but expanding rapidly. Unlike what happens in most countries, young people from less privileged background are not the greatest beneficiaries of that educational scheme. Despite being propagated as the main solution to the lack of youth qualification, the expansion of that sort of education should be evaluated with caution, considering the public effectively reached and the potential negative impact in terms of educational stratification observed in countries that followed that path.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Com a presente tese, buscou-se investigar as desigualdades educacionais que permeiam o ensino médio, principal gargalo do sistema educacional brasileiro. Inicialmente, questionou-se o papel central da educação como legitimadora das desigualdades sociais nas sociedades democráticas. Apresentaram-se os estudos pioneiros da Sociologia da Educação que procuraram explicar as desigualdades educacionais para, então, abordar as hipóteses teóricas elaboradas sobre as tendências da desigualdade de oportunidades educacionais (DOE) ao longo do tempo. Em seguida, testaram-se empiricamente essas hipóteses a partir de modelos de regressão logística sequenciais que permitiram estimar a evolução do efeito das características da família de origem nas chances condicionais de entrada e conclusão do ensino médio durante um período de mais de vinte anos. Observou-se de forma inédita, de 1986 a 2009, que a DOE relativa ao ingresso e à conclusão desse nível de ensino se manteve significativa e relativamente constante, mesmo no período mais recente no qual as taxas de transição no ensino médio vivenciaram seu maior crescimento. Esses resultados corroboram aqueles previstos pela hipótese da Desigualdade Maximamente Mantida (MMI) e aqueles encontrados por estudos anteriores. Incluiu-se também uma análise das mudanças qualitativas da DOE, evidenciando-se um significativo crescimento, entre o ano de 1982 e a década de 2000, no impacto das variáveis que medem o capital cultural e econômico dos estudantes nas chances destes frequentarem a rede de ensino médio particular. Logo, a estratificação entre a rede pública e particular no ensino médio está cada vez mais marcada pela desigualdade na seleção dos seus respectivos alunos, reforçando a dualidade de desempenho que caracteriza essas duas redes de ensino, conforme previsto pela hipótese da Desigualdade Efetivamente Mantida (EMI). Além dessas análises da evolução quantitativa e qualitativa da DOE no ensino médio, investigou-se o quadro geral de desigualdades que incidem sobre o ensino médio técnico à luz das experiências internacionais, tendo em vista que essa é uma modalidade ainda incipiente no Brasil, mas cuja rede está em rápida expansão. Diferentemente do que ocorre na maioria dos países, os jovens de origem menos privilegiada não são os maiores beneficiários dessa modalidade. Apesar de a mesma ser propagada como principal solução para a falta de qualificação juvenil, a ampliação desse tipo de ensino deve ser avaliada com cautela, tendo em vista o público que está sendo efetivamente atingido e o potencial impacto negativo em termos de estratificação educacional observado nos países que seguiram esse caminho. / With this thesis, we sought to investigate the educational inequalities in the upper secondary education, the main bottleneck of the Brazilian educational system. Initially, the central role of education as a way of legitimating social inequalities in democratic societies was discussed. Classic studies of Sociology of Education that tried to explain those educational inequalities were presented, and the theoretical assumptions about trends in inequality of educational opportunities (IEO) over time were addressed. Subsequently, those hypotheses were empirically tested using sequential logit regression models, which allowed the estimation of the evolution of the social background effects on educational transition related to high school during a period of more than twenty years. It was observed, in an unprecedented way, from 1986 thru 2009, that the IEO related to entrance and completion of this educational level remained significant and relatively constant, even in the most recent period, when the transition rates to high school experienced its greatest growth. Those results corroborate the ones predicted by the hypothesis of Maximally Maintained Inequality (MMI) and those found by previous studies. An analysis of the qualitative changes of the IEO was also included, demonstrating significant increase, between 1982 and the 2000s, of the effect of variables that measure the economic and cultural capital of high school students on their chances of enrollment in private high schools (vs. public ones). Hence, the stratification between the public and private high schools is increasingly marked by the inequality in the selection of their respective students, reinforcing the performance duality that characterizes those two school systems, as predicted by the hypothesis of Effectively Maintained Inequality (EMI). In addition to those quantitative and qualitative IEO analyses, the general framework of inequalities concerning the vocational high school was investigated in light of international experiences, taking into account that such type of education is still incipient in Brazil, but expanding rapidly. Unlike what happens in most countries, young people from less privileged background are not the greatest beneficiaries of that educational scheme. Despite being propagated as the main solution to the lack of youth qualification, the expansion of that sort of education should be evaluated with caution, considering the public effectively reached and the potential negative impact in terms of educational stratification observed in countries that followed that path.

Det här konsumtionsarbetet sammanfattar olika matematiksvårigheter som kan finnas hos elever och metoder för hur svårigheterna kan upptäckas av lärare, samt undervisningsstrategier att använda sig av för lärare i mötet med dessa elever i gymnasieskolan. Strategierna kan användas i ett inkluderande klassrum och gynnar därmed inte bara elever i matematiksvårigheter utan även elever utanför. Syftet med arbetet är att erbjuda verksamma lärare en sammanställning av svårigheter, hur dessa kan identifieras samt kompenserande undervisningsstrategier från aktuell forskning som berör elever på gymnasienivå då författarna anser att detta är en kunskapslucka som bör fyllas. Resultatet visade på att matematiksvårigheter hos elever kan variera och att dessa kan upptäckas av läraren med hjälp av att läraren ger eleverna chansen att visa upp vad de har för kunskapsluckor i kombination med felanalys. Resultatet visade också att en omfattande mängd strategier finns att tillgå för att bemöta elever i matematiksvårigheters behov i det inkluderande klassrummet. I diskussionen diskuteras tänkbara anledningar till varför matematiksvårigheter än idag lever kvar i klassrummet trots det rika utbud av kompenserande strategier som finns. Slutsatsen är att det finns många olika typer av strategier tillgängliga för läraren att skapa förutsättningar för alla elever att nå matematisk framgång. / This literature overview summarizes different types of mathematical difficulties that may exist among students as well as methods that teachers can use in order to discover these difficulties and instructional strategies to implement while teaching these students. The strategies can be used in an including classroom, meaning that they do not only profit students experiencing mathematical difficulties, but other students as well. The purpose of the overview is to offer teachers a summary of difficulties and how these can be identified as well as compensating instructional strategies from recent research considering students at upper secondary level, as the authors consider this to be a gap in knowledge that has to be attended to. The result showed that the mathematical difficulties among students can vary and that these can be discovered by the teacher by giving the students a chance to display misconceptions combined with the usage of error analysis. The result further showed that there is a great quantity of different instructional strategies that can be used to accommodate the needs of students in mathematical difficulties in the including classroom. In the discussion section, possible reasons for why mathematical difficulties still exist in the classroom even though compensating instructional strategies are available, is discussed. The conclusion is drawn, that there are a lot of strategies available for teachers which makes it possible for them to create conditions that let all students reach mathematical success.

The focus of this study is planning for the school subject History in the Swedish upper secondary school. In a goal-oriented educational system teachers have – to some extent – the possibility to interpret and decide how the formal curriculum should be realized in practice. The starting point of this study is the claim that planning is a complex process and that more knowledge is needed about its implementation in today´s school. The planning of the History syllabus, as planned and performed by two teachers in upper secondary schools has been studied during one term with special emphasis on the teachers´ planning related to the national documents. Starting from the teachers´ description of their planning, a model that seems to be a relevant tool to help describe and analyse central aspects of planning, has been used. Their planning has also been described by the help of various concepts and perspectives. The study includes, among other things: the teachers´ selection of story and organizing principle, the measure of intention when planning for the goals in the formal curriculum, the selection of various analytical tools, the teaching for resonance, the planning for transparency and progression of the assessment, the selection of assessment tools and the basis for assessment. The study has also included the issue of whether the goals in the formal curriculum have primarily been interpreted in a general manner or related to the special school subject History, and to what extent the goals in the formal curriculum have been integrated in the didactic decisions made in order to plan teaching and evaluation. / Baksidestext Beskrivningen av planeringsuppdraget i ett målstyrt system handlar ofta om hur uppdraget är tänkt att utföras och mer sällan om hur uppdraget genomförs i praktiken. Med tanke på att det är lärare och elever som i sista hand beslutar om hur undervisningen och bedömningen ska utformas så är det praktiska genomförandet intressant att studera och diskutera. Den här studien har som mål att med praktiknära utgångspunkter analysera frågan om vad planeringsarbetet för en kurs i historia kan handla om. I undersökningen har två lärares beskrivning av sin planering av undervisning och bedömning följts under en termin. I studien har det visat sig att planering av en kurs i historia handlar om en mängd olika beslut som kan beskrivas med olika begrepp och perspektiv. Som exempel kan nämnas: val av kursens berättelse och organisationsprincip samt val av olika redskap som eleverna ska få. Med utgångspunkt i lärarnas beskrivning av sin planering har undersökningen lyft fram en planeringsmodell som framstår som ett relevant verktyg för att beskriva och analysera centrala aspekter av planeringsarbetet. Studien har uppmärksammat frågan om i vilken grad som kursplanens mål tolkats generellt eller ämnesspecifikt samt frågan om i vilken grad som kursplanens mål integrerats i de didaktiska beslut som tagits för att utforma undervisning och bedömning. Förhoppningen är att begreppen och perspektiven kan underlätta diskussion och reflektion vid praktiskt planeringsarbete.

The aim of this licentiate thesis is to contribute to understanding of upper secondary teaching and learning of protein synthesis with a focus on domain-specific language. It is based on two studies, designated Studies I and II. Study I addressed upper secondary students’ understanding of protein synthesis through their usage of domain-specific concepts. Data collected through semi-structured group interviews show that students can better reason about core concepts than peripheral concepts, and they compartmentalise the concepts into five clusters. Study II focused on chemistry and biology textbooks’ presentation of protein synthesis through domain-specific concept usage and effects of context on these presentations. The textbooks were analysed using a content analysis approach involving data mining techniques implemented by a computer-generated algorithm. The results reveal that chemistry textbooks focus more on peripheral concepts and generally tend to identify fewer relationships among more concepts than biology textbooks, which emphasise core concepts and tend to highlight more relationships among fewer concepts. Jointly, Studies I and II reveal four facets of teaching and learning protein synthesis: ‘mechanistic or conceptual descriptions’, ‘compartmentalisation’, ‘mRNA as a core concept’ and ‘canonical representation’. By acknowledging the results reported herein, teaching can improve the facilitation and reduce the hindrance in learning protein synthesis through the awareness of the domain-specific language usage. / Proteins are crucial to life: no proteins – no life. Every picosecond, thousands of proteins are constructed in each cell in what is referred to as protein synthesis. Due to its importance for understanding the mechanism for life, protein synthesis is globally regarded as a cornerstone of molecular life sciences and education in the field. Like any area of expertise, the molecular life sciences share a domain-specific language. However, research on teaching and learning protein synthesis through this domain-specific language is scarce. The aim of this licentiate thesis is thereby to contribute to understanding of upper secondary teaching and learning of protein synthesis with a focus on domain-specific language. The thesis is based on two studies: Study I addressed students’ understanding where the results show that students can better reason about core concepts than peripheral concepts, and they compartmentalise the concepts into five clusters. Study II focused on chemistry and biology textbooks’ presentation and effects of context on these presentations. The results reveal that chemistry textbooks focus more on peripheral concepts and generally tend to identify fewer relationships among more concepts than biology textbooks, which emphasise core concepts and tend to highlight more relationships among fewer concepts. Jointly, Studies I and II reveal four facets of teaching and learning protein synthesis. By acknowledging the results reported herein, teaching can improve the facilitation and reduce the hindrance in learning protein synthesis through the awareness of the domain-specific language usage.

In accordance with the governing documents of the Swedish upper secondary school, critical thinking must be promoted in all subjects. A great responsibility rests on the teachers to include this in their teaching. However, there is no clear definition of what is meant by critical thinking, which previous research has shown creates problems in the promotion of it. This study investigates how teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school (1) perceive and understand the concept of critical thinking, (2) implement it in their teaching and (3) answer to challenges they encounter in promoting it. Data were collected through a questionnaire and interviews. Thereafter, the data were analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that teachers highly value critical thinking and see it as an essential part of participation in society. It was also found that the teachers have different ways of implementing and encouraging critical thinking in the classroom but that dialogic methods are a common denominator. Moreover, the results show that students' lack of language skills as well as teachers' uncertainty about the concept of critical thinking impact the prerequisites of the promotion of critical thinking. On this basis, it is recommended that teachers work on their own definition and concept understanding of critical thinking for challenges that arise in their own teaching. Due to the size and design of this study, more research is needed to better understand English teachers' experiences with critical thinking in Swedish upper secondary education.

Code-switching has been shown to be beneficial for students’ language learning and forstrengthening their identities. Despite this, it can be interpreted that code-switching isnot encouraged in the syllabus for English in upper secondary school in Sweden.Because of this potential disagreement, this study aims to broaden the knowledge ofhow upper secondary school teachers relate to code-switching in their differentclassrooms. Thereby, this study seeks to examine some upper secondary school EFLteachers’ understanding of code-switching as well as the use of code-switching in theirdifferent classrooms. In this qualitative study, four upper secondary school teachers ofEnglish participated in semi-structured interviews followed by classroom observations.The teachers represent all courses of English at upper secondary school level and theyrepresent schools with different programs and students with different first languages.The results show that the teachers have limited knowledge of code-switching and thatthey believe that a large amount of target language use in the classroom is favorable.Nevertheless, the results also show that the teachers as well as their students use codeswitchingboth intentionally and unintentionally for various purposes, but none of theparticipating teachers seem to use code-switching as a strategy to promote long-standinglanguage acquisition. However, the results indicate that the teachers seem to effectivelyadapt their code-switching behavior to their student group. The findings of this studyare in line with earlier research where it, for instance, is argued that code-switching ismore suitable for classes with students with lower language proficiency.