Purpose – The unexpected yet drastic influence of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid transition of education to be conducted in digital environments. Replacing face-to-face classrooms with synchronous online learning requires a number of appropriate adjustments which were heavily restricted by the urgency of this global change taking place. With theobserved issues of student participation and involvement in online learning, the purpose ofthis research was to investigate the potential that digital collaborative tools have and if theycan improve the quality of online group discussions among students aged 12 to 16 years old. Method – This study employs a quantitative data collection approach and makes use of the Community of Inquiry framework. A close-ended questionnaire based on the Community of Inquiry survey tool was used to collect students’ impressions and attitudes after they hadparticipated in the experimental study. The experiment consisted of control and experimental groups that partook in online group discussions as part of a regularly scheduled lesson. Findings – Digital collaborative tools were found to change the way in which students experience online group discussions. The attained rates of the Community of Inquiry were overall higher among students in the experimental group. Our findings tested to be statistically significant together with the effect size falling between medium to large extent. This further supports the notion that digital collaborative tools bring in a positive difference into online group discussions and have a potential to increase the quality of online learning when implemented carefully and thoughtfully. Implications – This study emphasizes the importance of developing a clear strategy of how to implement suitable digital collaborative tools into online learning in the most optimal manner that would increase the quality of online learning. This paper can be considered as a startingpoint for future research that could construct further knowledge within the field and extend our findings by investigating other aspects that have an influence on and can have beneficial effects for younger students in online education.

This study aimed to analyse organised interaction and assigned discussions occurring between students in EFL classrooms. It was conducted in order to identify the value-added in terms of learning by using discussion groups. Secondly, this study aimed to analyse how the contribution of models and approaches from pragmatics and discourse analysis can explain what is occurring during such conversations. Lastly, the structural and linguistic similarities and differences between teacher-to-student and student-to-student talk were also discussed. These questions were answered by examining four groups enrolled in English 6 in an upper secondary school located in the south part of Sweden. The qualitative data was collected through recordings from the students' discussions when they participated in a group speaking task as a part of the module of surveillance. The analysis of the data was conducted with the help of some of the aspects of conversation analysis. The results showed that not all of the participants in the group discussions sufficiently benefitted from the speaking task since, in most of the group, the need for the teacher's support was crucial in order for the students to use the target language and develop their speaking skills. In terms of the Speech Act Theory, the illocutionary acts identified in the conversations between students were that of the directive and assertive illocutionary acts used to pass the speaking turn to the other participants or to demonstrate agreement with the views of the previous turn. The conversational exchange was initiated by an opening framing move, followed by a response, but lacked follow-up moves in the form of feedback. Finally, there were some similarities and differences between teacher-to-student and student-to-student talk. The results showed that even if some of the students appeared to adapt to the role of the facilitator, they were not able to do so due to lack of knowledge to sufficiently support all the participants in order to be more active during the conversations and use the target language during the speaking task.

The purpose of the study was to contribute knowledge on how a teacher's instruction, supported by group discussions, can be planned, implemented, and evaluated to develop pupils' ability to identify messages in narrative texts. To fulfill the purpose of the study, the following research questions were answered: What are the critical aspects when educating a selected group of pupils to develop their ability to identify messages in narrative texts? What knowledge of identifying messages in narrative texts do the pupils demonstrate before and after the instruction? How can group discussions be used in instruction to develop pupils' ability to identify messages in narrative texts? The theoretical framework of the study was variation theory, and the method used was an intervention study inspired by a Learning study. A Learning study consists of cycles of implementation where instruction is planned, implemented, and evaluated. The development of instruction is analyzed with the support of pre-tests and post-tests to determine the knowledge that pupils demonstrate before and after the instruction. The critical aspects that emerged for the specific group of pupils were: The pupil should discern that the text is related to the individual. The pupil should identify the essential parts of a narrative text. The pupil should understand the concept of a message. The pupil should discern the difference between what is stated on the in the text and what is implied between the lines. The pupils showed improved results on the post-test compared to the pre-test. The use of group discussions was shown to be more beneficial for both the pupils and the teacher when there was a clear structure in the discussions.

This thesis investigates the use of metalanguage and its relation to learning outcome in group discussions. Metalanguage is defined as a language about language, a way to talk about the features of a language using a specific vocabulary with great precision. It is suggested that metalanguage is necessary in order to develop the pupils' awareness when text analyses are carried out in school. The purpose of the study is to understand how pupils take on the task presented by the teacher, how they reach consensus, if and how they make use of some kind of metalanguage, and to what degree their discussions can be regarded as learning conversations. Twelve conversations in groups were recorded on video. The pupils were in the first or the final year of upper secondary school and they all attended either Natural Science Programme or Technology Programme. The conversations took place without the teacher being present. In three groups the conversation was observed by the researcher. The task was to talk about a phishing mail using questions provided by the teacher. The three observed conversations were transcribed following principles from Conversation Analysis, CA. The rest of the conversations were transcribed following a key close to written language in order to simplify the reading. Two analyses were carried out. First, the conversations were analysed regarding how to take on the task, interaction and use of metalanguage. Secondly, the structures of the conversations were analysed using concepts from systemic functional grammar. The results show that the conversations are symmetrical and co-operative and that the pupils are focused on solving the task. No metalanguage is used by the students; the discussions are performed using colloquial speech and dramatizations and referring to experiences. The absence of metalanguage is contrasted in effectiveness by the using of terms from the field of information technology. Using experiences from texts outside school proves to be a way of dealing with the task. However, experiences and results are not abstracted into scientific terms and no learning concerning language and text seems to take place. The using of concepts from systemic functional grammar shows that the pupils are mainly concerned with interpersonal aspects of the text, somewhat concerned with ideational aspects – especially logical – and to a less degree concerned with textual aspects. It is suggested that the lower degree of textual focus is related to the absence of metalanguage. It is also shown that the pupils discuss features of the text focusing on various strata of language. Although the pupils' frequent use of experiences from text encounters should be regarded as a great potential from a pedagogical point of view, the results indicate the need of a metalanguage to achieve precision and effectiveness in discussions about texts. Also, the need of instructions guiding the pupils to make use of metalanguage is indicated. The possibility of using concepts from systemic functional grammar is pointed out and further research is suggested.

Föreliggande studie kommer att belysa ämnet värdegrund. Syftet är att undersöka svensklärares syn på värdegrundsuppdraget samt hur de arbetar med uppdraget inom ramen för svenskundervisningen. Syftet uppnås genom frågeställningar gällande värdegrundsuppdragets betydelse inom svenskundervisningen samt dess möjligheter och utmaningar. Studien riktar sig till undervisning i svenska i årskurserna 4-6 och beskrivs utifrån ett lärarperspektiv med utgångspunkt i den sociokulturella teorin. Studien har genomförts genom en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer med verksamma svensklärare i årskurs 4-6 använts för datainsamling. Resultatet av studien visar på att lärare ser en betydelse i att integrera värdegrundsuppdraget i svenskundervisningen genom sitt förhållningssätt gentemot elever samt genom berättande material och helgruppsdiskussioner. Det framkom även att skönlitteratur och samtal om läst skönlitteratur öppnar möjligheter för att integrera värdegrundsarbete inom svenskundervisningen samt att läraren har en betydande roll som ledare i elevernas utveckling av normer och värden. / This study will highlight the topic fundamental values. The study aims to explore how teachers view fundamental values education and how they work this within Swedish education. The aim of the study is fulfilled based on questions about the meaning of fundamental values educations within Swedish education and what opportunities and challenges it brings. The study targets education in the Swedish subject in grades 4-6 and is described from a teacher perspective and through the lens of socio-cultural theory. The study is based on a qualitative method where data was collected through semi-structured interviews with working Swedish teachers in grades 4-6. The result of the study shows that teachers’ see a value in integrating fundamental values education within Swedish education through their own approach towards students as well as through narrative material and group discussions. Furthermore, fiction and discussions about fiction was described as an opportunity to integrate fundamental values education within Swedish education and that the teacher has a crucial role as a leader in students’ development of values.

Studiens syfte är att synliggöra och öka kunskapen om skolutvecklande processer i grundskolan med fokus på alla elevers rätt till en likvärdig utbildning. För att uppnå syftet undersöktes vad lärarna fokuserade på i diskussionerna i uppstarten av arbetet och hur fokuset ändrades under arbetets gång samt vilka möjligheter och hinder som blev synliga under processen. För att undersöka detta användes aktionsforskning som ansats och ett projektarbete skapades om tillgängliga lärmiljöer. Studien är kvalitativ och empirin grundar sig på fokusgruppsamtal, loggböcker och intervjuer. För att analysera resultatet från empirin användes teorin om praktikarkitektur vilket även möjliggjorde synliggörandet av sägandet i samtalen utifrån forskningsfrågorna. Teorin om praktikarkitektur är en allmänt vedertagen metod för att analysera resultat från aktionsforskning. Studiens resultat visade att lärarna till en början fokuserade på de hinder de tyckte sig se i praktiken. I samtalen diskuterade de att förutsättningarna för arbetet utifrån elevers varierande behov, klassrumsmiljön och tid. Målsättning med deltagandet fick även det stort utrymme i diskussionerna. En bit in på projektet började lärarna fokusera mer på de positiva effekterna av att arbeta med lärmiljön och den förändrade syn de hade fått om arbetet. Förutsättningar för arbetet fortsatte att ta utrymme i diskussionerna, men innefattade då även ekonomi och samarbete. Möjligheter och hinder synliggjordes. Det som möjliggjorde arbetet var att avsätta tid för arbetet, samarbete och handledning samt en ökad förståelse för lärmiljöns betydelse. Det som hindrade arbetet var tidsbrist, ekonomi och till viss del den solidaritet som fanns i arbetslaget. / The purpose of the study is to highlight and increase knowledge about school development processes in compulsory school with a focus on all students' right to an equal education. To achieve the purpose, it was investigated what the teachers focused on in the discussions at the start of the work and how the focus changed during the work as well as what opportunities and obstacles became visible during the process. To investigate this, action research was used as an approach and a project work was created on accessible learning environments. The study is qualitative and the empirical data is based on focus group discussions, logbooks and interviews. To analyze the results from the empirical data, the theory of practice architecture was used, which also made it possible to make the saying visible in the conversations based on the research questions. The theory of practice architecture is a generally accepted method for analysing results from action research. The results of the study showed that the teachers initially focused on the obstacles they thought they saw in practice. In the conversations, they discussed that the conditions for the work are based on the students' varying needs, the classroom environment and time. The goal of participation was also given a lot of space in the discussions. A bit into the project, the teachers began to focus more on the positive effects of working with the learning environment and the changed view they had gained about the work. The conditions for the work continued to take up space in the discussions, but then also included finances and cooperation. Opportunities and obstacles were made visible. What made the work possible was to set aside time for the work, cooperation and supervision as well as an increased understanding of the importance of the learning environment. What hindered the work was lack of time, finances and, to some extent, the solidarity that existed in the team.

Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))—University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / This study has two purposes which are complementary: Firstly, an alternative prevention intervention was developed in order to introduce narrative group therapy as a therapeutical practice within preventative interventions in South Africa. Secondly, a training protocol was developed which can be used to train psychologists, counsellors, social workers, teachers and relevant persons to apply narrative group therapy as an alternative preventative intervention in their communities. In the context of this study, the personal stories of the adolescents who took part in this study reflect the problem stories of the Jamestown and Cloetesville community near Stellenbosch. After identifying 20 adolescents who experience problem stories with high-risk themes at two secondary schools in the respective communities, ten narrative group sessions were held, with social constructionism as philosophical approach. The training protocol was primarily of an experiential nature, consisting of 40 hours of training and 12 hours of supervision, with special focus on the personal stories of the four master’s degree psychology students who underwent training and facilitated the group therapy with the adolescents. For the purpose of this study qualitative research was done. During the development of the alternative preventative intervention, a qualitative description was given of the content of the personal stories of the adolescents within the interactional space of narrative group therapy and personal stories. The focus during this qualitative description was the following: • to establish whether the therapeutic process facilitated change, • to develop a new understanding of the therapeutic process by specifically focusing on applying narrative therapy in a group, and • to train and empower narrative-group-therapy facilitators to facilitate the narrative- group-therapy process. In this study two narrative-analytical research methods were used. Firstly, a qualitative narrative-analysis method was used to evaluate the psychotherapeutical transcripts. A part of these sessions was dedicated to this purpose and is presented in transcribed format. Secondly, the content-analysis method was applied: session data was examined, categories of the adolescents’ and students’ narratives were defined and thematic statements were extracted from the text, classified and sorted into categories or groups. This study provides supportive evidence that narrative group therapy as an alternative preventative intervention can be introduced as a therapeutic practice in South Africa. In addition, an effective training protocol was developed which can be used to train psychologists, counsellors, social workers, teachers and other relevant individuals to use narrative group therapy as an alternative preventative intervention in their communities.

This is a qualitative research that draws on Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis methodology to analyze the discourse practices of the mathematics teacher educators in initial teacher training colleges in Malawi. The study involved four mathematics teacher educators in two teacher training colleges located in two different regions of Malawi. Specifically the study explored the following questions: 1) What are the discourse practices that mathematics teacher educators display in their descriptions of multilingual mathematics classrooms? 2) a) What are the discourse practices that mathematics teacher educators display in a college mathematics classroom? b) How do they make available the discourse practices for the student teachers to draw on? Data was collected through pre-observation interviews, classroom observations, reflective interviews and focus group discussions with the mathematics teacher educators. This study has shown that while there are some disconnections between the discourse practices produced in a school multilingual mathematics classroom and a college mathematics classroom, some of the discourse practices that mathematics teachers produced in a college mathematics classroom reinforces the common discourse practices being produced in multilingual mathematics classroom. There are three common discourse practices that were displayed in a college mathematics classroom. These discourse practices are: Initial-Response-Evaluation (Pimm, 1987), traditional lecturing and group discussions. I observed that the IRE and traditional lecturing discourse practices were accompanied by directive discourses for procedural control, and the procedural discourse was the prevalent discourse in all the discourse practices produced. iv Three major themes have emerged from the data analysis. Firstly, the research findings indicate that the mathematics teacher educators regard multilingualism and the language practices that come with it such as code-switching more as a problem rather than a resource for teaching and learning. Secondly, code-switching in college mathematics classroom is not as spontaneous as is research shows it to be in schools; rather it is very much controlled and restricted. Thirdly, the dilemmas of code-switching as discussed by Adler (1998, 2001) are more acute in teacher training colleges, mainly because of the mismatch in the Language-in-Education Policy (LiEP) in schools and tertiary level.

Im Zuge der rasanten Verbreitung von Mikrokrediten und Mikrosparprodukten werden seit etwa einem Jahrzehnt auch Mikroversicherungen an einkommensschwache Haushalte in Entwicklungsländern verkauft. Sie stellen für diese Haushalte eine Möglichkeit dar, mit den Folgen von Risiken besser umzugehen und somit ihren Wohlstand zu steigern. Diese Arbeit verwendet quantitative und qualitative Analysemethoden – basierend auf eigenen Haushaltsumfragen und Fokusgruppendiskussionen –, um die Aufnahmebedingungen von Mikroversicherung in Ghana zu untersuchen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erstens, dass über Standarddeterminanten der Versicherungsnachfrage hinaus Faktoren informeller Vertrauensbildung und die subjektive Risikoeinschätzung eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Dies begründet sich in bestehenden Informationsasymmetrien und einer geringen Erfahrung mit dem Versicherungsprodukt und dem Versicherer. Ferner steht die Nutzung von Mikrolebensversicherung in einer sich verstärkenden Beziehung zu der Nutzung anderer formaler Finanzdienstleistungen. Zweitens wird deutlich, dass der Wert (Client Value), den die Zielgruppe in Mikroversicherung sieht, nicht allein auf Kosten- und Nutzenerwägungen basiert. Vielmehr spielen auch emotionale- und soziale Aspekte eine Rolle. Der Kundenwert wird dabei von Faktoren wie (geringen) Finanz- und Versicherungskenntnissen, der Beeinflussung durch die soziale Gruppe und dem Vergleich mit alternativen Risikomanagementstrategien beeinflusst. Drittens bestehen genderspezifische Muster in der Aufnahme von Mikrolebensversicherung, die mit dem Haushaltstyp und regional unterschiedlichen soziokulturellen Bedingungen zusammenhängen. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass Präferenzen bezüglich Lebensversicherung innerhalb von Haushalten variieren und die Wahrscheinlichkeit eines Versicherungskaufs mit wachsender Verhandlungsstärke der Frau zunimmt. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass Frauen eine besonders wichtige Zielgruppe für Mikrolebensversicherungen sind. / Microinsurance has been the third financial service – following microcredit and microsavings - to enter emerging financial markets in the developing world. It is widely regarded as a promising innovation that could provide high welfare gains, given that low-income people often lack efficient strategies to manage and cope with risks. This thesis applies quantitative econometric and qualitative methods – based on own household and individual survey data and focus group discussions – to investigate participation patterns and perceived value in micro life insurance in Ghana. The results of this thesis show that household, first, uptake of micro life insurance does not entirely follow the predictions made by standard insurance theories. Informal trust-building mechanisms and subjective risk perceptions turn out to play an important role in the context of information asymmetries and limited experience with formal insurance. Furthermore, there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between micro life insurance and other formal financial services available in the rural and semi-urban study areas in Ghana. Second, the perceived value of microinsurance consists not only of the expected or experienced benefits and costs, but also of quality, emotional and social dimensions. Perceptions of high or low value are driven by large discrepancies between expectations and experiences, clients’ knowledge about insurance, their interaction with peers, and the availability and effectiveness of alternative risk management options. Third, there are gender-specific patterns of market participation between and within households that are intertwined with the household type and regionally varying sociocultural conditions. Spousal preferences on insurance differ and women with a higher bargaining power are more likely to purchase insurance on their own. The results suggest that women are an important target group for the provision of micro life insurance.

An exploratory case study research design was followed to explore and categorize 23 pre-service physics teachers’ understanding in the fields of superconductivity and nanotechnology at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. To elicit their responses, a five-stage categorical framework analysis was used. The five stages included identification of the thematic framework, familiarization, coding, placing the categories on a chart and finally, interpretation. A conceptual survey test (Conceptual Survey of Superconductivity and Nanotechnology) was administered to the pre-service physics teachers to form four independently homogenous ability focus groups. This was followed by focus group discussions whose data were analyzed to group their conceptions in both the epistemological as well as ontological categories. From the focus group discussions, six categories were considered from previous studies, namely; lateral alternative conceptions, ontological conceptions, naïve physics, Ohm’s p-primes, mixed conceptions and loose ideas. Since this was a pre-instructional study, naïve physics ideas and lateral alternative conceptions were dominant. Naïve physics refers to the untrained student or human perception of various physical phenomena while lateral alternative conception refers the misconceptions individuals have on ideas that may be inconsistent with scientifically acceptable facts. Findings indicate that the pre-service teachers’ conceptions deviated from canonical scientific concepts, are diversified and inconsistent. The knowledge on pre-instructional conceptions will influence the development of evidence-based pedagogy, which is fundamental to the development of an effective physics education curriculum. / Institute for Science and Technology Education (ISTE) / M. Sc. (Physics Education)