No description available.

Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med insikt i hur Mellanårsprogrammets (MYP) elever i språklig sårbarhet och deras lärare upplever verbala interaktioner i klassen med elevernas kamrater i Individer och samhällen (I&S), ett samhällskunskapsämne inom International Baccalaureate läroplan.  Forskningsfrågor · Hur ser MYP-lärare på den effekt kamrater har på elever i språklig sårbarhet under verbala interaktioner i klassen och hur stödjer dessa lärare elever i språklig sårbarhet under dessa interaktioner i I&S?   · How do MYP students in linguistic vulnerability experience and understand verbal in-class interactions with peers in the I&S classroom and how do they experience the support given to them by their teachers during these interactions?  Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework of this case study is based on the sociocultural perspective as seen in Vygotsky’s work (1987), which have been developed further by Säljö (2000) and Kozulin (2003). This perspective focuses on the understanding that individuals develop through the interaction with their environment and the people around them. The second theory used is Communicative Relational Perspective (KoRP). KoRP, a special education perspectives with three main intertwining processes; participation, communication and learning which predict whether or not a school has an inclusive or exclusive learning environment. Method In this case study two methods are used; observations and semi-structured interviews. Three I&S lessons in the MYP were observed at two different IB schools. The study uses the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). Six semi-structured interviews are also conducted; three with students in linguistic vulnerability and three with their I&S teachers. The data collected was analysed using a thematic approach. Each case was analysed separately before being cross-synthesized.  Results The results of the cases reveal two main themes: Peer Support vs. Peer Comparisons and Peer interactions – Expected or Scaffolded? Students in linguistic vulnerability either saw peers as beneficial or a hindrance to their success during verbal interactions such as group work, where students either felt helped by peers or inadequate in comparison to their peers. This led to increased or decreased levels of participation. Teachers found it challenging knowing how to best meet these issues.  Scaffolding the activities in a way that met the student’s individual needs and creating a safe place where students felt comfortable were found to be beneficial for effective group work. The case study also found that although the use of Sheltered Instructional Observation Protocol (SIOP) is advantageous as a tool, it is lacking aspects pertaining to social dynamics and the students’ individual needs.  Special Education Implications This case study shines a light on the importance of special educational needs teachers working more closely with subject specific teachers in order to make them more aware of the language expectations placed on their students during verbal interactions. This case study indicates that special educational needs teachers can use SIOP as a first step in starting a discussion with subject teachers about students in linguistic vulnerability and verbal interactions. SIOP can also be a hands-on tool to use when supporting subject teachers in the creation of more language and subject – based teaching. Nyckelord: klassrumsdiskussioner, Developmental Language Disorder, grupparbete, Individer och samhällen, International Baccalaureate, språklig sårbarhet, mellanstadiet, samhällskunskap, verbal interaktion

The International Baccalaureate (IB), a private curriculum associated largely with exclusive education for transnationally mobile upper classes, has recently began to quietly enter public, national education systems, offering its alternative, elite schooling in tuition-free state institutions. This paper explores the nuanced case of Poland, where IB diploma program is offered as one of the tracks within state schools, existing side-by-side and competing with the national curriculum. Poland, with its particular post-soviet socio-political conditions, where public schooling continuously enjoys an elite status over the failed project of private education, presents an interesting case in regards to the phenomenon. This study employs Pierre Bourdieou’s theories of capital, dispositions and social field to examine the makeup of IB classrooms in public schools in Poland, and answer how the curriculum is experienced and made sense of by the graduates. Qualitative interviews with 17 graduates present an insight into the experience of IB in 6 state schools. The study has found that IB diploma program is primarily employed in well-established, elite institutions, which follow a meritocratic logic of technical selection of only the most talented candidates. IB becomes the academic elite club within an elite club, therefore access to it is limited twofold. Accounts across the case study schools showed that IB students are characterized by access to higher volumes of different resources, allowing them to get admitted, survive the academic rigor, and continue their education abroad. Graduates from all types and locations of IB schools follow, almost exclusively, the same three trajectories according to which an IB student considers either a) going abroad to the United Kingdom, b) going abroad to the Netherlands, or c) studying medicine in Poland at the Warsaw Medical University (WUM). Finally, the study has found that students use IB strategically, to access prestigious national or international higher education. However, the conversion of the assets gained through the diploma into advantage in higher education is interrupted by the pedagogical disparity with the ‘mindless memorizing’ at national universities, as well as with the automatic downward social mobility when becoming an immigrant. The findings contribute to the debate over the democratization of international education, its accessibility and the strategic use of it on a national versus international arena.

The aim of this essay is to analyze the implementation process of the International Baccalaureate’s Diploma Programme in four of the approximately 30 schools currently offering the IB at upper secondary level in Sweden. The starting point is a comparison between definitions in fundamental documents in the national programmes for Natural Science (NV) and Social Science (SP) on the one hand, and the IBDP on the other. The evaluation, based on Program theory, focuses in particular on the consistencies in the Organizational plans of each system.  The basic assumption is that the IB due to a deviating organizational system, different structures, aims and objectives makes a challenge for the dominating educational discourse, to use a concept by Michel Foucault, and that resistance against the IB therefore is to be expected. As a second part of the evaluation five people who either play, or have played the role of coordinators of the IB, and who thereby are responsible for the implementation, have been interviewed. The questions have been focused around in what sense the informants can confirm resistance in their implementation work due to the differences found in the first part of the evaluation, and in what ways it manifests itself. Finally, Michel Foucault’s power structures in connection to discourse analysis have been applied on the results of the two previous parts of the essay. Foucault claims a school to be one of the state institutions acting on its behalf in conserving and defending its discourse against outside enemies. Two configurations of power are according to Foucault used in the defence; ‘marginalization’ and ‘normalization’. The result of the study confirms evidence of both power structures being found in the implementation of the IB in the four schools included in the analysis and that the resistance against the IB in these schools can be interpreted accordingly. / Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att analysera implementeringen av International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) i fyra av det 30-talet gymnasieskolor som för närvarande erbjuder utbildingen i Sverige. Utvärderingen är indelad i två delar baserad på ’programteori’, och fokuserar på delar i respektive utbildnings organisationsplan.  Den första delen har sin utgångspunkt i styrdokument i respektive utbildning och utgör en jämförelse av olika grundläggande definitioner för, å ena sidan de nationella Naturvetenskapsprogrammet (NV) och Samhällsprogrammet (SP), och å andra sidan IBDP. Detta är av relevans för att IB-utbildningen skiljer sig tillräckligt mycket från de nationella programmen för att utgöra en utmaning av det nationella systemet, det som Michel Foucault skulle kalla den dominerande diskursen. Den andra delen består av fem intervjuer med nuvarande eller före detta coordinatorer, de personer som ansvarar för implementeringsarbetet på de enskilda skolorna. Här är frågorna fokuserade runt de områden där implementeringsarbetet antas vara svårast utifrån de skillnader som framkommer i den första delen av utvärderingen. Slutligen används de maktbegrepp som Foucault anger i sin diskursanalys på de två första delarna av arbetet. Foucault hävdar att skolan är en av de institutioner som agerar för att bevara och försvara en stats diskurs mot utomstående makter. Enlig Foucault uttrycks detta i två maktkonfigurationer; ‘marginalisering’ och ‘normalisering’. Resultatet av studien visar att det finns tecken på att båda maktmedel i implementering av IB på de fyra aktuella skolorna och att motståndet mot IB går att förstå enligt denna modell.

Academically failing schools are under scrutiny from government education administrators, policymakers, and the general public, due to chronic inabilities to lower dropout rates and to educate students who can pass high-stakes graduation assessments. States’ efforts to adhere to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have led to the development of accountability systems to determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) and to assign schools grades, as well as wholesale reassessment of current educational programs, which are often replaced with more rigorous curricula. Among curricular programs that have been sought as reform measures for academically failing schools is the International Baccalaureate Program (IBP). The IBP’s exacting curriculum has attracted many schools to adopt it as an alternative course of study for advanced students, as well as a rigorous option to build academic capacity among students who have failed to make AYP. This case study examined teachers’ perceptions of the effect the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) had on the culture of an academically underperforming high school in Valdosta, Georgia. Teacher volunteers from within the IBDP, in addition to teachers who taught standard classes, participated in a series of three semistructured interviews over 1.5 years, during which time the school made its initial application to the International Baccalaureate Organisation and subsequently began implementing the program with the school’s first cohort of students. Additionally, documents relating to the IB application process were examined, and observations of the IBDP teachers with students in their classrooms were conducted. Data analysis utilized the frameworks of educational criticism and narrative analysis. Teachers within the IBDP reported feelings of increased self-efficacy resulting from their work with both students and community stakeholders. Participant teachers in both IB courses and other programs described an overall improvement in the school’s culture.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

<p>The present study examines the effects of immersion education on the English of two groups of advanced Swedish learners at upper secondary school. In immersion education, or CLIL, subject content is taught through a second language as a means of enhancing target language competence. In this study, language proficiency was measured in terms of the ratio of low frequency vocabulary (LFV) and the ratio of motivated tense shift (MTSh) in the learners’ free written production in English. An additional aim was to see whether the results were related to the students’ motivation as reported in a questionnaire.</p><p>This longitudinal study was based on three sets of narratives, written by 86 students, half of them enrolled at the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) where English is the medium of instruction, and the other half at national programmes (NP), where English is studied as a foreign language. At the outset, the IB and NP groups had similar results on a general diagnostic test, which was the basis for the formation of three subgroups: I, II and III, with above average, average and below average scores respectively. Mean LFV and MTSh ratios as well as different kinds of motivation were compared, both overall and in the subgroups.</p><p>The IB students overall, and those in subgroup III in particular, showed the best results. As to the overall results, the IB students used significantly higher mean ratios of LFV and MTSh than the NP students in the final set of compositions. There were also a number of motivational factors that were stronger in the IB students.</p><p>As to the subgroups, the most interesting results were found in subgroups I and III. While the IB students in subgroup I had high mean ratios already in the first composition, and retained them over time, their use of MTSh tended to grow subtler. The NP students had lower mean results initially, and while their mean MTSh ratio increased and ended up on a level similar to that of the IB students, their mean LFV ratio remained low.</p><p>In subgroup III the results of the IB and NP students diverged over time. While the IB students progressed as reflected in their mean LFV and MTSh ratios, the NP students tended to regress. The difference in mean LFV ratios was statistically significant. The IB students were also better motivated than their NP peers. In all, this study suggests that immersion education has positive target language effects, especially on less proficient but motivated students.</p>

The present study examines the effects of immersion education on the English of two groups of advanced Swedish learners at upper secondary school. In immersion education, or CLIL, subject content is taught through a second language as a means of enhancing target language competence. In this study, language proficiency was measured in terms of the ratio of low frequency vocabulary (LFV) and the ratio of motivated tense shift (MTSh) in the learners’ free written production in English. An additional aim was to see whether the results were related to the students’ motivation as reported in a questionnaire. This longitudinal study was based on three sets of narratives, written by 86 students, half of them enrolled at the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB) where English is the medium of instruction, and the other half at national programmes (NP), where English is studied as a foreign language. At the outset, the IB and NP groups had similar results on a general diagnostic test, which was the basis for the formation of three subgroups: I, II and III, with above average, average and below average scores respectively. Mean LFV and MTSh ratios as well as different kinds of motivation were compared, both overall and in the subgroups. The IB students overall, and those in subgroup III in particular, showed the best results. As to the overall results, the IB students used significantly higher mean ratios of LFV and MTSh than the NP students in the final set of compositions. There were also a number of motivational factors that were stronger in the IB students. As to the subgroups, the most interesting results were found in subgroups I and III. While the IB students in subgroup I had high mean ratios already in the first composition, and retained them over time, their use of MTSh tended to grow subtler. The NP students had lower mean results initially, and while their mean MTSh ratio increased and ended up on a level similar to that of the IB students, their mean LFV ratio remained low. In subgroup III the results of the IB and NP students diverged over time. While the IB students progressed as reflected in their mean LFV and MTSh ratios, the NP students tended to regress. The difference in mean LFV ratios was statistically significant. The IB students were also better motivated than their NP peers. In all, this study suggests that immersion education has positive target language effects, especially on less proficient but motivated students.

No description available.

No description available.