Swedish compulsory school has recently been subjected to a number of political reforms. Between 2011 and 2014, for example, earlier grades, more national tests and a new curriculum plan (Lgr 11) were to be implemented. This thesis aims to examine those changes as they were experienced by teachers who teach history in Swedish upper primary schools. The theoretical framework is in-spired by existential philosophy, primarily as formulated in the works of Martin Heidegger and Hanna Arendt. In this way, the study highlights the teachers’ lived experience by making use of the concepts yearning, appearance, acting and mood. The study comprises of 36 interviews with 26 informants. The interviews were carried out and transcribed during 2014. The questions focus on both the existential being of the teachers’ lives as well as the ideological function of the history subject. This highly renders in the issue of how lived experiences of a specific school reform corresponded to the teachers’ own perception of a mean-ingful history education. Both the yearnings that were expressed by the participants and their de-scriptions of what they have experienced, have been related to the overall educational ideological functions stated by Gert Biesta (socialisation, subjectification and qualification) and Jonas Aspelin (existentialisation). Although the teachers’ narratives were greatly varied in some aspects, their interpretations of the new assignment seemed to be quite homogenous. Most of the teachers portrayed a situation characterised by performativity. Measurable knowledge and more frequent documentation seemed to be prioritised. Some of them stressed that they experienced less autonomy. In terms of history, the new curriculum was associated with more content knowledge, cognitive skills and procedural abilities. From the teachers’ perspective, pure qualification, rather than subjectification and social-isation, characterised the new curriculum. Still, the teachers’ feelings towards the curricular changes showed a great deal of divergence. Some of them embraced most of the new aspects. They claimed that clearly formulated require-ments in the history curricula provided them with security. They declared that their history teaching to some extent became more professional. In line with such beliefs, some teachers asserted that the strengthened focus on analytical skills improved their teaching. Particularly those who ex-pressed that they preferred such analytic procedural approaches described their experience in terms of confirmation and approval. Others appeared to struggle with the changes. While a few teachers even tried to resist the curricular changes, some found themselves forced to endure what appeared to be a totally new situation. They expressed disbelief, frustration and pain. Notably it was those most devoted to the existentialisational function of history teaching that usually seemed to express such alienation. As argued, they appeared to long for a lost possibility to engage their pupils, to bring history alive and to make meaning of the past.

This study explores the potential for critical pedagogical innovation to expand student learning activity, meaning making and learning agency of first year undergraduate students. The study is located in a larger critical project. Rather than looking to support ‘unprepared’ students to better adapt to the current culture of higher education, the larger critical project looks to the generative potential of new students to elaborate the structure of higher education itself over time. The study emanates from a process of reflective self-critique of one higher education institution in South Africa serving a student population with little access to educational advantage. The emerging critique was located at the interface of institutional practice, student learning activity and the meaning making processes mediating the two domains. This critique gave birth to the pedagogical innovation at the centre of this study. The pedagogical innovation took the form of an activity system, with three sets of pedagogical tools mediating the system: tools to expand the learning practice of students, symbolic tools to expand the critical meaning making toolkit available, and tools designed to build a new learning community better aligned with interactive learning activity. This study is an intervention case study, theoretically grounded in the work of activity and socio-cultural theorists. The pedagogy was embedded within a semester long credit-bearing core course for entering first year students. The study follows the experience of the 652 students participating in the 2010 pilot experience. Upwards of 70% of students suggest that their reading (76%) and writing (71%) practice had changed by the end of the course. Over 80% indicated that the course made them better readers (85%) and writers (84%.) Students suggest that they read and write more and enjoy reading and writing more. They suggest that as motive expanded, activity of reading and writing expanded, complimentary activity expanded (e.g. expression and critical engagement), and participation across a number of domains expanded. Students with less historical access to educational advantage made stronger claims about the pedagogical toolkit than students with more access to educational advantage. This study suggests that under the right conditions, critical pedagogy focusing on student learning activity and meaning making can expand learning practice and meaning making of first year undergraduate students, contributing to an expanding claim on learning agency. It tentatively suggests that this type of learning architecture is well aligned for appropriation of students with less access to historical socio-educational learning privilege, but remains sensitive to the situated nature of historic disadvantage (for example, in campus sites.) The study points to the specific potential of three toolkits: toolkits to mediate expanded learning activity, toolkits to expand meaning making, and toolkits designed to directly reconstitute the learning community itself. The study concludes by extracting some lessons for critical pedagogical innovation serving first year studies into the future. It points to the importance of the domain of learning activity and meaning making, and suggests the kind of changes within the culture of higher education required to better unleash innovation in this area. It points to the generative potential of methods that better combine students and lecturers within pedagogical innovation processes. The study concludes by pointing to the relatively unoccupied area of critical research, whereby the work to expand the learning activity of first year students is aligned to the potential of students to elaborate the structure of higher education itself over time. The study points to three specific research areas: research building stronger pedagogical tools for first year students; research to better understand the critical meaning making project of students; and research to better understand the transformation of the pedagogical inheritance within higher education.

The purpose of this project is to determine if using computer technology as a tool for conceptual change would be an effective pedagogical strategy in replacing science misconceptions.

MEd / Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management

This master thesis deals with changes in teacher's professional commitment after the Czech curriculum reform. This thesis works with official papers about reform, the papers about profession of teacher and articles connected with the professional commitment and with commitment changes. The empirical research focused on seven interviews with teachers from comprehensive schools.

The 2012 Integrated Early Childhood Development (IECD) curriculum recently introduced in all Botswana government preschools was examined by this study. To guide the findings of this study the literature addressing the effective preschool curriculum implementation strategies was reviewed. Furthermore, structured interviews, non-participant observations and documents review were conducted in line with the qualitative phenomenological research approach. Specifically, teachers from three preschools implementing the 2012 IECD curriculum framework were interviewed to obtain their views with regard to its implementation. The data collected from the interviews was thematically analysed and triangulated with that from the observations and documents. The findings of this study showed that even though the teachers were generally satisfied with their different levels of training, they were concerned about the limited duration of in-service training as well as the course content that did not address their unique needs and those of their supervisors. Consequently, effective IECD curriculum implementation was negatively affected by lack of effective supervision as well as lack of teaching resources and other forms of support. Drawing from the findings of this study, recommendations were made and teacher training guidelines were developed. The guidelines were informed by the SCLT (teacher training) and CoP (formation of partnerships) theories. The implications of this study are that the suggested training guidelines would promote teacher efficacy facilitated by proper teacher training strategies and they will hopefully motivate the formation of working partnerships. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

This study is a two part research project that describes and evaluates the efforts of the researcher to bring change in Cyprus' educational system, in the field of simple electric circuits. The objective of the first part was the assessment and evaluation of Cypriot STVE students' perceptions about simple electric circuits. The objective of the second part was to measure the effectiveness that conceptual change model-based instructional activities designed by the researcher had on changing students' misconceptions about simple electric circuits towards scientifically accepted ideas. Transformative mixed methods research design was used consisting mainly from an one-group pre-test post-test design with Determining and Interpreting Resistive Electric Circuits Concepts Test 1.2 as a research instrument, while interviews and field notes were used for triangulation. The findings showed that there was a significant improvement in students' understanding of simple electric circuit concepts that were taught using conceptual change model-based instructional activities. / Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education)

This study sought to understand concerns and levels of use of a group of teachers in the process of developing a project-based learning (PBL) program, and the effect of a change facilitator on these processes. The research was guided by the following research questions: One, what are the concerns of teachers regarding the planning of a PBL curriculum? Two, what are the levels of use of teachers in the process of planning the PBL curriculum? Three, how does a change facilitator affect the process of change in the planning of a PBL curriculum? The population of this study consisted of seven subject area high school teachers and one district level administrative staff member. This study used the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) to study the PBL innovation. CBAM is a conceptual framework that describes, explains, and predicts teachers' concerns and behaviors throughout the change process in education. In this study, the teachers progressed through the levels of use on a timeline at a rate that was much more rapid that what is typical for implementation of an innovation in an educational setting. This rapid progression was the function of the teacher population studied and the change facilitator that led the PBL curriculum design process. With the leadership of the change facilitator, the goals of the PBL curriculum innovation were realized, and the team created a PBL curriculum with multidisciplinary PBL products that could be implemented after the development phase.

Educational Studies / D. Ed.(Psychology of Education)Educational Studies

The dynamics of the social interaction within the cooperative learning group are accepted and considered to be one of the aspects that will influence the individual learner's feelings regarding the group activity. The impact of the groupings on the quality and quantity of the observable learning within the class is considered. For this study the cooperative learning groupings were manipulated, considering aspects of the learner's social relationships uncovered with the use of a social questionnaire, which the learners completed. These details were summarised by means of a sociometric table and a sociogram. This study approaches the topic from two main perspectives. Primarily observation and naive sketches, from the learners, formed the source of the data and provided the initial perspective on the area of study. From the viewpoint provided in this information specific grouping paramaters were applied to later groups of learners, and a survey conducted. / Educational Studies / M. Ed (Socio-Education)