The qualitative case study on which this thesis is based was designed to investigate the relationship between migration and identity construction of three young people who immigrated as children and adolescents, two of them as refugees, from the former Yugoslavia to Germany and finally to Canada. The autobiographical narrative interviews of the manifold migration stories were mainly analyzed from the point of view of Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory, which considers speech and thought in a close relation, to illustrate how identity must be understood as both individual and social in nature, and as a complex narrative action. The socialization processes in all countries of migration were viewed in order to investigate how the previous acculturation affects the cultural identity of the young people today and how it is unfolded in the story. The study reveals that these subjects with threefold migration position themselves between their lifeworlds which enable them not only to say where they belong to or which is their homeland but to answer the simple question “Who am I?” This is revealed by the way of their narration which contains a lot of contradictions. The individuals deal differently with their dynamic identity construction, while one of them seems to suffer under the instability of his identity, and of being different in all his lifeworlds, other subjects however can see advantages related to it. The way how they deal with this dynamics has a crucial influence on their view of their migrations today and consequently on their identity construction as a narrative action.

<p>Mitt syfte med arbetet var att ta reda på hur elever tänker och lär när de löser olika matematikuppgifter. För att få svar på mina frågeställningar har jag valt att använda mig av litteraturstudier och empiriska studier. Jag har valt att utgå från elevernas resonemang i mina tolkningar av hur elever tänker och lär. </p><p>Ett resultat av min undersökning är att elevens sociala samspel med andra elever och lärare har stor betydelse för elevens lärande. Mitt resultat har stöd i Vygotskys begrepp ´den närmaste utvecklingszonen´.</p>

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) has existed since the early 1500’s and research points to it being a successful pedagogy, so why do so few educators use it? One reason may be the confusion found in the literature encountered by educators. In light of this confusion, how teachers defined and implemented IBL in diverse, 21st Century classrooms was investigated. Looking at whether IBL was, or could be, an inclusive practice was also researched. Furthermore, the possibility that inquiry-based learning (IBL) encompassed differentiated instruction (DI) in its implementation and could therefore be used as a process to incorporate both was explored. To investigate these ideas, current literature was reviewed; including the works of John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky, and a qualitative research project was conducted using a phenomenological method. The research consisted of observations and interviews in the natural setting, of an inclusive elementary classroom.

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) has existed since the early 1500’s and research points to it being a successful pedagogy, so why do so few educators use it? One reason may be the confusion found in the literature encountered by educators. In light of this confusion, how teachers defined and implemented IBL in diverse, 21st Century classrooms was investigated. Looking at whether IBL was, or could be, an inclusive practice was also researched. Furthermore, the possibility that inquiry-based learning (IBL) encompassed differentiated instruction (DI) in its implementation and could therefore be used as a process to incorporate both was explored. To investigate these ideas, current literature was reviewed; including the works of John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky, and a qualitative research project was conducted using a phenomenological method. The research consisted of observations and interviews in the natural setting, of an inclusive elementary classroom.

This study attempts to show benefits with different methods when teaching poetry in Upper Secondary courses, with the aim of proving that by using a certain design of the lesson, it is possible to engage the students in English poetry. A secondary aim was to incorporate and implement the theories on sociocultural learning by Vygotsky into the method used in the study. Finally, the study aimed to question the definitions of what constitutes a poem and the ideas of canonized versus non-canonized material within literature. The method chosen for this study was a mixed methods design, and the study applied a deductive approach where a hypothesis based on previous research and ideas within the field was tested. The design of the study was to perform a focus group interview, followed by observations of four lessons with students at Upper Secondary level, and finally a questionnaire for the students. The results from the study were mainly positive and the questionnaire showed that most of the students appreciated the first part the most, although a few students enjoyed both parts. The combined results showed that the design has an impact when it comes to engagement, and it changed a few of the students views on poetry. The main finding in the study was that students prefer less complex poetry that does not belong to the canon, since most of the students marked the first part as the best one. The results showed therefore that the design has an impact when it comes to engagement.

Adolescent literacy learning centered in processes of imagination is marginalized and neglected within the saturated climate of standardized assessment. This arts-based qualitative study uncovers imagination as an active presence central to making meaning in a middle school language arts class involved in a writing experience inspired by the history of jazz. Learning filtered through the creative processes of writing reveals imagination as an interiorized action in adolescent literacy development. I ground this research in sociocultural perspectives of literacy (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986) engaged in aesthetic paradigms of learning. From this perspective, I investigate how middle school student writers participating in individual and collaborative activities internalize the experience to create new understandings of the world in which they live. Through the lens of theory, I explore the imagination as a higher psychological and cultural function involved in the mediated development of language. This study describes the powerful ways in which students craft writing and concurrently develop strong, critical and creative thinking capacities. I discard false perspectives that assume the inefficacy of learning in expressive modes and endorse pedagogies that place imagination at the center of processes of literacy teaching and learning.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att titta närmare på i vilka sammanhang och under vilka former pedagogerna arbetar med matematiken i fyra förskolor. Vi gör även en jämförelse mellan den traditionella förskolan och Montessoriförskolan utifrån Vygotsky och läroplanen. För att ta reda på detta besökte vi fyra olika förskolor för att göra intervjuer och observationer. Genom vår undersökning fick vi reda på olika sätt som förskolorna arbetade med att synliggöra flera av matematikens delar och inte i första hand räknande av antal. Problemlösning, geometri, sortering och klassificering är bara ett urval av vad pedagogerna arbetade med. Vi kan se att både Montessori- och traditionella förskolor uppfyller målen i läroplanen och att några av tillvägagångssätten är desamma. Vad vi kan dra för slutsatser av detta är att alla förskolorna utnyttjar de vardagliga situationerna, framförallt samlingar och matsituationer. / The purpose with this paper was to look closer to in which contexts and in what ways the educationalists worked with mathematics. Then, we wanted to do a comparison between the traditional- and the Montessori preschool on the basis of the curriculum. In order to figure this out, we visited four various preschools where we implemented interviews and observations. Through our survey, we discovered various ways that the preschools worked with making mathematics’ visible for the children, not primarily counting of numbers. Problem solution, geometry and classification were only a selection of what the educationalist worked with. We can see that both Montessori - and traditional preschools meet the objectives in the curriculum and that some off the procedures are similar. Our conclusions is that all the preschools used the everyday situations , above all concentrations and food situations.

Framed within a Sociocultural Theory of Mind (SCT) in the field of Second Language Acquisition (Lantolf & Thorne, 2006), this dissertation explores the role of verbalizing in the internalization of grammatical categories through the use of Concept-based Instruction (henceforth CBI) in the second language (L2) classroom. Using Vygotsky's (1986) distinction between scientific and spontaneous or everyday concepts applied to L2 development (Negueruela, 2008), this study focuses on the teaching and potential development of the grammatical concept of aspect in the Spanish L2 classroom, and the role of verbalizing in its internalization. It is proposed that verbalizing mediates between the learners' initial understandings of the grammatical concept of aspect, the development of conscious conceptualizations, and students' written and oral production of preterite and imperfect grammatical forms. This study presents and analyzes data from one of the thirty-two adult college students enrolled in an advanced Spanish conversation course. Data is analyzed through a clinical analytic approach, which has its roots in Vygotsky's (1978) genetic method of analysis. The study was carried out over a 12-week period and collected multiple sets of developmental data, including learners' definition of the grammatical concept of aspect, written performance protocols, and verbalization data recorded during two oral interviews. The study interprets learner performance in these three complementary, and dialectically connected types of L2 conceptual data. A close analysis of this participant's data provides critical insights to understand the role of verbalizing in L2 conceptual development. Findings confirm that learners' verbalizations are key factors to ascertain L2 conceptual development, as well as a mediational tool that fosters learners' internalization of the grammatical concept of aspect. It is proposed that verbalizing notably contributes to research on L2 development. Not only does it allow the researcher to have a more comprehensive picture of L2 development, but it also helps learners develop a more sophisticated semantic understanding of the grammatical concept of aspect and fosters their ability to understand and control relevant grammatical features in L2 communication.

The purpose of this study was to examine the content knowledge of 64 elementary preservice teachers for the concepts of dissolving and density. Vygotsky’s (1987) theory of concept development was used as a framework to categorize concepts and misconceptions resulting from evidences of preservice teacher knowledge including pre/post concept maps, writing artifacts, pre/post face-to-face interviews, examination results, and drawings. Statistical significances were found for pre- and post-concept map scores for dissolving (t = -5.773, p < 0.001) and density (t = -2.948, p = 0.005). As measured using Cohen’s d values, increases in mean scores showed a medium-large effect size for (dissolving) and a small effect size for density. The triangulated results using all data types revealed that preservice teachers held several robust misconceptions about dissolving including the explanation that dissolving is a breakdown of substances, a formation of mixtures, and/or involves chemical change. Most preservice teachers relied on concrete concepts (such as rate or solubility) to explain dissolving. With regard to density, preservice teachers held two robust misconceptions including confusing density with buoyancy to explain the phenomena of floating and sinking, and confusing density with heaviness, mass, and weight. Most preservice teachers gained one concept for density, the density algorithm. Most preservice teachers who participated in this study demonstrated Vygotsky’s notion of complex thinking and were unable to transform their thinking to the scientific conceptual level. That is, they were unable to articulate an understanding of either the process of dissolving or density that included a unified system of knowledge characterized as abstract, generalizable, and hierarchical. Results suggest the need to instruct preservice elementary science teachers about the particulate nature of matter, intermolecular forces, and the Archimedes' principle.

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