Literacy Practices in Upper Secondary School. The Writing of Construction and Health CarePupilsThe aim of the dissertation is to demonstrate and explain the place and function writing has in allsubjects in two vocational classes in a Swedish upper secondary school. The material has beencollected through ethnographic field studies in construction and health care classes over one schoolyear. The material consists of literacy events, where pupils write, and the context of situation andtext are noted.In theoretical terms the study takes a discourse analysis perspective, where writing is seen fromwithin different frames. Writing is analysed based on an ideological view of literacy inspired byNew Literacy Studies using the context of situation and text with the aim of describing differentliteracy practices in both classes.The material was classified into three different situation types, two school-initiated and one nonschool-initiated. The first school-initiated situation type is orally-governed, the second writinggoverned,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 areanalysed based on text acitivites. Writing and text activities are used together to explain the writingcompetences that are used in the writing situations.The conclusions are that writing gets little space and attention in both classes. The healthcare 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 schoolgovernedwriting practice, while the construction class moves between two different schoolgovernedpractices. The literacy practices in the construction class are similar to the writing usagethat can be found at a building site. Writing is used in both classes mainly to structure and storeknowledge.The non-school-governed material also shows differences between the classes. Here too morewriting takes place in the health care class. The function of the non-school-governed writing is tocommunicate and inform through writing.

Detta arbete har undersökt hur en lektion, som gynnar kritiskt och kreativt tänkande, kan gestaltas i linje med en tänkandebaserad undervisning, som utvecklats och tillämpats av Swartz och McGuinness. Modulen, som utvaldes för tillämpning, bestod av en orsaksförklaring till förminskning av svavelsyra i en kemisk anläggning. Lektionen krävde kunskaper om kemiska jämvikten, ett ämnesinnehåll som elever ofta upplever som svårt och abstrakt. Med hjälp av en enkät och två intervjuer visades att elever och lärare gav en positiv respons till lektionen och att de var intresserade av att arbeta vidare med den typen av uppgift och av tänkandebaserad undervisning. Eleverna förklarade att metoden har fördelen av att vara starkt knuten till en kemisk kontext och att därmed kunna bidra till en roligare och mer konkret lektion. Lärarna påpekade att uppgiften, som bearbetades under lektionen, lyfte en abstrakt uträkning av kemiska jämvikten till en nivå som uppfattades mer logisk. Vidare bekräftade de att denna och liknande uppgifter, utvecklade i linje med Swartz och McGuinnes metod, har som fördel att tillåta bedömningen av analys- och problemlösningsförmågan på ett djupare och mer systematiskt sätt än den som man brukar kunna göra i ramen av en traditionell undervisning. Således kan vidare forskning inom detta område samt implementering av metoden i svenska skolan ses som intressant och önskvärt. / A great deal of effort has been devoted in recent philosophical literature to define and enlight the concept of critical thinking. The topic is of great interest in a modern digitalised society where the individuals are submerged by an increasingly rapid flow of information which needs to be evaluated in order to produce meaningful knowledge. The proper functioning of a liberal democracy requires citizens who can think critically about social issues to inform their judgments about proper governance and to overcome biases and prejudices. Critical thinking also plays a key role in the process of generating and systematically testing hypothesis in science. The Swedish Highschool Curricula 2011 includes the development of critical thinking skills among its goals for science instruction. Both United States ‘next generation’ science standards and the forthcoming PISA (Program for International Students Assessment) tests will focus on using scientific knowledge with the higher order cognitive processes of evaluation, critique and synthesis. The importance of the topic in the field of educational studies has prompted the development of several programmes in critical thinking applied to science and mathematical education both at the primary and secondary level. To our knowledge no wide scope testing of teaching of critical thinking in highschool science has been reported in Sweden and no official courses in critical thinking applied to science are given as part of the highschool curriculum. For this reason a pilot study was initiated with the aim of investigating the kind of knowledge that is available for developing infusion lessons in chemistry and how a thinking based approach in chemistry would impact on Swedish teachers and pupils. The study was based on the implementation of a lesson on skillful casual explanation applied to the troubleshooting of a chemical plant. The structure and organisers for the lesson were provided by the programme Thinking-Based Learning by Swartz and McGuinness. The impact on teachers and pupils was evaluated by means of two interviews and a survey. The results of the study showed that both pupils and teachers appreciated the lesson for different reasons. The main drawbacks of the method were also enlightened. This study will hopefully open the path to more widescope research on the application of infusion methods in Swedish highschools.Nyckelord: kritisk och kreativ tänkande, kemi, kemisk jämvikt, tänkandebaserad undervisning