<p>For most pupils homework is a natural part of school and their education and there are several providers of homework assistance: the pupil's parents, sibblings, friends, Internet forums, hired private tutoring, non-profit organisations and at times even the pupil's school. This study has investigated the use of the school-based homework assistance programme at the Upper Secondary School of Psychology in Stockholm and why the programme is not more frequently used by its pupils. The school offers homework assistance two hours each Thursday afternoon, with at least two teachers being present to tender for the school's 127 pupils. The cost of the programme has been estimated to approximately 12 500 Swedish kronor per week. Through the main use of a questionnaire given to both the school's students and teachers, as well as an interview with the school's headmaster, this study will show that despite receiving the opportunity few pupils take part of the programme on a regular basis. Although approximately seventy percent of all pupils claim to have attended the program at least once during the springterm, the main reason has been to re-take tests and not to receive help with their schoolwork. The school's main purpose with the homework assistance programme is to give all its pupils the same opportunity to receive help with their studies and thus reach the national goals. However, some pupils find both the programme and homework in general to be a waste of their leisure time. This study shows that the pupils. use of the homework assistance programme most often is connected not only to individuals' needs for extra assistance with schoolwork, but also with their own maturity and insight of the responsibilities they have towards their studies.<strong> </strong></p>

<p>This thesis investigates how teachers in political science course A, all from municipal upper secondary schools work with planning their lessons. Due to nationwide regulations and goals set by the The Swedish National Agency for Education, the teachers have to plan their lessons basing on these regulations. However it is not defined how to concretely implement these regulations when planning for the lessons, which may lead to the fact that the teachers’ own interpretations of the regulations cannot be fully avoided in the process of planning for the lessons. The investigation consists of five interviews made with teachers in political science, all from municipal upper secondary schools. The teachers who have taken part in this report come from two different municipal upper secondary schools. The result in this report partly shows that although the basic reference topics set by The Swedish National Agency for Education is the same for each teacher in political science, the planning of the lessons structure can be very different. For example, when the five teachers plan how to make the pupils understand the concept of "democracy", they all planned their lessons having the regulations and goals in mind, but they all have a unique approach in how to prepare for their lessons and explain the concept of "democracy" for their pupils.</p>

<p>När elever börjar i årskurs 1 på gymnasiet kan det förekomma att deras förkunskaper i matematik undersöks med någon form av diagnostiskt test. Syftet med min undersökning är att få veta i vilken utsträckning det förekommer diagnostiskt test, och om dessa test prövar kunskaper baserade på kursmålen i grundskolans årskurs 9.</p><p>I samband med detta vill jag också försöka få svar på om tillvägagångssättet att inhämta information skiljer sig mellan lärare beroende på ålder, yrkeserfarenhet eller andra faktorer.</p><p>För att få svar på mina frågor har jag valt att använda mig av kvantitativ metod i form av enkät, och en kvalitativ dokumentanalys på ett urval av diagnostiska test. Enkäten skickades ut till samtliga matematiklärare på kommunala gymnasieskolor i tre kommuner, totalt 76 stycken.</p><p>Svaren visar att en majoritet av lärarna anser att det är viktigt att inhämta information om sina kommande elever och att detta vanligtvis sker vanligast med hjälp av skriftliga diagnostiska test. De diagnostiska tester som lärarna har utformat provar ett begränsat antal områden och delar av kunskapsmålen får årskurs 9. Min undersökning pekar inte på att något annat än att just detta prövas.</p> / <p>In many cases during the first year of upper secondary school the mathematical knowledge and skills of the students are investigated by using some form of diagnostic test. The purpose of this study is to find out to what extent the knowledge of the students is being tested diagnostically, if these tests are based on the aims of grade 9 of compulsory school and how the teachers gather that information.</p><p>Along with this I am also trying to answer the question whether the ways of gathering information differ depending on the age of the teachers, their experience or other factors.</p><p>To answer these questions I have chosen a quantitative method using a questionnaire and also a qualitative method to analyse a sample of tests. The questionnaire was sent to all teachers in mathematics at municipal sixth-form schools in three municipalities, in total 76 teachers.</p><p>The answers show that a majority of the teachers think it is important to gather information about their students to be and that most commonly, the information is gathered using written diagnostically tests. The diagnostically tests analyzed in this essay tests certain parts and areas of the goals of year 9. This study does not indicate that anything but these goals are tested.</p>

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om och hur gymnasieelever ges möjlighet att reflektera över sitt eget skapande i Bild. Studien har utförts inom ramen för Estetisk verksamhet då dess kursplan anger reflektion som ett av målen för Godkänt betyg. Då det ingår i lärarens arbete att ytterst ansvara för planering av kursen utifrån aktuell kursplan, utgår studien från ett lärarperspektiv. För att se hur bildundervisningen ger möjlighet till reflektion har observationer utförts på tre gymnasieskolor med påföljande intervjuer med respektive lärare. Studien granskar nuvarande, dåvarande samt en föreslagen kursplan, för att se vilken betydelse som ges begreppet reflektion. Resultatet pekar på att det förekommer reflektion, främst i muntlig form, men att reflektion verkar vara svårt att konkretisera i praktiken.

This thesis concerns processes of power relations in and about the science classroom. It draws on action research involving science and mathematics teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school (for students between 16 and 19 years). For the analysis, feminist post-structuralism, gender, and discourse theories (e.g. Butler and Foucault) are combined with critical action research methodology (e.g. Carr and Kemmis) and discourse analysis (e.g. Wetherell and Hall). The aim of the study is to make visible processes of inequality and to investigate how these are constructed in ‘talk’ or discourse about teaching and learning. The study grew out of teachers’ actions/small-scale projects in their own classrooms and so the study also investigates if and how action research can contribute to making visible, challenging and changing unequal practices and discourses of dominance. The first part of the thesis deals with this process and the analysis suggests that post-structural critiques of language and discourse are helpful in enabling actions to challenge inequities in the science classroom that currently exist. Five different articles constitute the second part of the thesis, two of which explore and survey research literature and argue for a need for more studies which investigate critically how science is shaped by specific social, cultural and historical contexts. Additionally, it is argued that it is important to focus not only on measuring differences among students but also on investigating how difference is constructed and how inequities can be challenged. The experiences and bodily feelings of what ‘race’ can do to gender (and vice versa) in a specific situation are recounted and examined in the third article which also invites different positions and complexity into the research field. The next two articles investigate how power and knowledge are produced, resisted and challenged in teacher and student talk within the action research project. The analysis draws on different discourses in contemporary Swedish society; for example a science discourse which produces school science (and its teachers and students) as high status, a gender equality discourse, a gender difference discourse, and an immigrant discourse which produces ‘immigrant students’ as problematic. Analysis of teacher talk reveals, for example, that long-established hierarchies and taken-for-granted values of school subjects in relation to gender reproduce advantage for some teachers but not for others, that teachers participate in the gendering of science subjects, and that changes in the teaching of science are resisted. Also students are located inside and outside the discourses they draw on, which qualifies or disqualifies them as ‘proper’ science students. Different borders are highlighted to show how students attach meaning to gender, social class, and ethnicity in different situations. Sometimes borders are produced inside bodies (the notion of the gendered brain, for example) and sometimes between cultures or according to family background. Resistance to dominant discourses is also visible in students’ talk and the ways in which teachers and students reproduce borders and exclusion in the science classroom through their practices. The analysis points out the need to initiate new research which can deconstruct among others, discourses of femininity and masculinity, the ‘immigrant student’ and school science.

For most pupils homework is a natural part of school and their education and there are several providers of homework assistance: the pupil's parents, sibblings, friends, Internet forums, hired private tutoring, non-profit organisations and at times even the pupil's school. This study has investigated the use of the school-based homework assistance programme at the Upper Secondary School of Psychology in Stockholm and why the programme is not more frequently used by its pupils. The school offers homework assistance two hours each Thursday afternoon, with at least two teachers being present to tender for the school's 127 pupils. The cost of the programme has been estimated to approximately 12 500 Swedish kronor per week. Through the main use of a questionnaire given to both the school's students and teachers, as well as an interview with the school's headmaster, this study will show that despite receiving the opportunity few pupils take part of the programme on a regular basis. Although approximately seventy percent of all pupils claim to have attended the program at least once during the springterm, the main reason has been to re-take tests and not to receive help with their schoolwork. The school's main purpose with the homework assistance programme is to give all its pupils the same opportunity to receive help with their studies and thus reach the national goals. However, some pupils find both the programme and homework in general to be a waste of their leisure time. This study shows that the pupils. use of the homework assistance programme most often is connected not only to individuals' needs for extra assistance with schoolwork, but also with their own maturity and insight of the responsibilities they have towards their studies.

The overall aim of this study was to examine if there were any difference between two different upper secondary schools with regard to the schools' work with the basic values.  Our supposition was that if there were differences between the schools basic values work then it could be observed that the school that works more with the basic values has also more students expressed as a percentage who leave the school with final grades within four years.  We have chosen to work with the qualitative method and made group interviews as well as individual interviews with six persons.  We came to the conclusion that one of the schools worked with the basic values continuously while the other school had the intention to do it but according to our interpretation the school didn't do it. It also appeared that one of the schools had more students who finished school with final grades.  The result that we have got showed that there is a difference between these two schools in the basic values work and that the school that worked with this continuously has also bigger amount of students with final grades.  During work on this study we discovered other issues that we hope someone else can answer in the future.

När elever börjar i årskurs 1 på gymnasiet kan det förekomma att deras förkunskaper i matematik undersöks med någon form av diagnostiskt test. Syftet med min undersökning är att få veta i vilken utsträckning det förekommer diagnostiskt test, och om dessa test prövar kunskaper baserade på kursmålen i grundskolans årskurs 9. I samband med detta vill jag också försöka få svar på om tillvägagångssättet att inhämta information skiljer sig mellan lärare beroende på ålder, yrkeserfarenhet eller andra faktorer. För att få svar på mina frågor har jag valt att använda mig av kvantitativ metod i form av enkät, och en kvalitativ dokumentanalys på ett urval av diagnostiska test. Enkäten skickades ut till samtliga matematiklärare på kommunala gymnasieskolor i tre kommuner, totalt 76 stycken. Svaren visar att en majoritet av lärarna anser att det är viktigt att inhämta information om sina kommande elever och att detta vanligtvis sker vanligast med hjälp av skriftliga diagnostiska test. De diagnostiska tester som lärarna har utformat provar ett begränsat antal områden och delar av kunskapsmålen får årskurs 9. Min undersökning pekar inte på att något annat än att just detta prövas. / In many cases during the first year of upper secondary school the mathematical knowledge and skills of the students are investigated by using some form of diagnostic test. The purpose of this study is to find out to what extent the knowledge of the students is being tested diagnostically, if these tests are based on the aims of grade 9 of compulsory school and how the teachers gather that information. Along with this I am also trying to answer the question whether the ways of gathering information differ depending on the age of the teachers, their experience or other factors. To answer these questions I have chosen a quantitative method using a questionnaire and also a qualitative method to analyse a sample of tests. The questionnaire was sent to all teachers in mathematics at municipal sixth-form schools in three municipalities, in total 76 teachers. The answers show that a majority of the teachers think it is important to gather information about their students to be and that most commonly, the information is gathered using written diagnostically tests. The diagnostically tests analyzed in this essay tests certain parts and areas of the goals of year 9. This study does not indicate that anything but these goals are tested.

Bakgrund    HPV, humant papillomvirus, är den vanligast sexuellt överförbara sjukdomen i världen. HPV kan orsaka kondylom, vilket innebär könsvårtor, men det kan även ge gynekologiska cellförändringar som kan leda till livmoderhalscancer. Syfte            Syftet var att undersöka vilken kunskap och inställning gymnasieelever, som inte ingår i vaccinationsåldern, hade till HPV och HPV-vaccination samt om det fanns några könsskillnader. Metod   En kvantitativ enkätstudie genomfördes på en gymnasieskola i Uppsala, Sverige. Enkätdistribueringen skedde vid två tillfällen och 58 (98,3 %) ifyllda enkäter kunde inhämtas, varav 38 var flickor och 20 var pojkar. Resultat    Flickorna på skolan hade en generellt högre andel rätt svar på enkäten, och totalt var det 21 (55,2 %) av flickorna som var vaccinerade medan endast 1 (5 %) av pojkarna. Av samtliga elever var det 22 (37,9 %) som kunde besvara frågan rätt angående hur många typer av HPV-virus det finns, dock kunde 51 (87,9 %) besvara frågan rätt om hur man skyddar sig mot HPV-viruset. Signifikant könsskillnad hittades i kunskapsfrågan gällande om HPV kan orsaka livmoderhalscancer (p&lt;0,045) där flickorna hade flest rätt svar på frågan. Det var fler vaccinerade flickor jämfört med pojkar (p&lt;0,001) och signifikant fler pojkar som kunde tänka sig att vaccineras (p&lt;0,019). Majoriteten, 68 %, av eleverna var positiva till den befintliga HPV-vaccinationen. Slutsats     Eleverna hade generellt sett en låg kunskapsnivå gällande HPV men trots det var det ändå mer än hälften av flickorna som var vaccinerade. Behov av ytterligare kunskap om HPV och HPV-vaccination till befolkningen behövs. / Background HPV, human papilloma virus, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world. HPV can cause genital warts and gynaecological dysplasia, which can lead to cervical cancer. Objective The objective was to describe the amount of knowledge the students had regarding HPV and the HPV-vaccination. Another objective was to describe how many of the students who were vaccinated and to study the existing attitudes towards HPV and the HPV-vaccination. The last objective was to compare whether there was any gender differences. Methods  A quantitative survey study was conduced at an upper secondary school in Uppsala, Sweden. The distribution of the surveys occurred on two occasions and 58 (98,3 %) completed surveys were collected. Results The girls had a generally higher percentage of correct answers on the survey. About 55 % (n=21) of the girls were vaccinated but only 5 %(n=1) of the boys. Regarding how many types of HPV there are 22(37,9 %) of the students answered correctly, although 51 (87,9 %) knew how to protect themselves against a possible infection. Significant differences in gender were found in the question whether HPV can cause cervical cancer or not (p=0,045) and whether the students would be willing to take the vaccine or not (p=0,019). The majority of the students, 68 %, were in favour of the existing HPV vaccination. Conclusion Although the students generally had poor knowledge regarding HPV the majority of the girls had taken the vaccine. The need of further knowledge is vast.

The aim of the dissertation is to demonstrate and explain the place and function writing has in all subjects in two vocational classes in a Swedish upper secondary school. The material has been collected through ethnographic field studies in construction and health care classes over one school year. The material consists of literacy events, where pupils write, and the context of situation and text are noted. In theoretical terms the study takes a discourse analysis perspective, where writing is seen from within different frames. Writing is analysed based on an ideological view of literacy inspired by New Literacy Studies using the context of situation and text with the aim of describing different literacy practices in both classes. The material was classified into three different situation types, two school-initiated and one non-school-initiated. The first school-initiated situation type is orally-governed, the second writing-governed, while it is less clear how the non-school-initiated type is inspired. In the writing situations we investigate the writing activities that are used, while texts are analysed based on text acitivites. Writing and text activities are used together to explain the writing competences that are used in the writing situations. The conclusions are that writing gets little space and attention in both classes. The health care class writes in more situations and also writes longer texts than the construction class. Literacy practices differ between the classes. The health care class demonstrates one school-governed writing practice, while the construction class moves between two different school-governed practices. The literacy practices in the construction class are similar to the writing usage that can be found at a building site. Writing is used in both classes mainly to structure and store knowledge. The non-school-governed material also shows differences between the classes. Here too more writing takes place in the health care class. The function of the non-school-governed writing is to communicate and inform through writing.