<p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the lower secondary school teaching in religion leads to a positive understanding and openness, concerning different religions and cultures. We want to study how pupils in grade eight and nine in two lower secondary schools in a multicultural community comprehend different religions. Since we choose a pupils perspective we decided to do a questionnaire to get a wide ground. As a complement we interviewed twelve pupils and also did observations during their religion classes. During our study we focused on three different themes. These themes are the abrahamitic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) Hinduism & Buddhism and attitudes to religion.</p><p>Our theoretical point of view is the intercultural perspective. Therefore we have studied government’s documents and propositions about intercultural education and we have also used an anthology by Pirjo Lahdenperä called Interkulturell pedagogik i teori och praktik (2004). We aim to investigate if the teaching in religion is compatible with the intercultural education.</p><p>The thesis reveals that there are lots of prejudices among the pupils in these two schools. We think that it is important that the teaching in religion must focus not only at the Christianity in younger ages. The subject must contain other religions like Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism in much earlier age. Otherwise the pupils will create their own picture of the different religions through media.</p><p>The Swedish governments goals about school (LPO 94) and the document about the teaching in religion (kursplanen i religionskunskap) both can, according to us, be used as tools for intercultural education. The problem is that the teachers do not know how to use these tools. The methods of intercultural education must be clearer and the teachers more conscious. Before that happens, we can not state that the education is totally intercultural.</p><p>We have a big challenge in front of us when we finally will step out on the labour market!</p>

This diploma thesis focuses on the methods of RWCT (Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking) programme and their possible use in lower secondary school history teaching. The principles and key methods of this programme are explored in the theoretical part of the thesis. Special attention is paid to the principles of the E-U-R learning cycle (evocation - realization of meaning - reflection) and the correspondence of RWCT to the Czech national curriculum outlined in the Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education (RVP ZV) in order to show that the RWCT programme corresponds to and further develops all competencies distinguished by RVP ZV. The practical part if the thesis contains methodology and resources for ten history lessons all of which are focused on the period of the 1960s. The lessons follow the learning cycle E-U-R and take advantage of the RWCT programme methodology. The aim of this diploma thesis is to serve as a practical guide for teachers who are looking for some inspiration on how to teach the period of the 1960s. However, other teachers can find it useful for its outline of various methods. KEYWORDS RWCT, Framework Education Programme for Elementary Education (RVP ZV), E-U-R learning cycle (evocation - realization of meaning - reflection), modern history, 1960s, lower...

Thesis advisor: Andrew Hargreaves / In 2006, Singapore introduced the Teach Less Learn More (TLLM) movement to continue the systemic changes introduced under the Thinking Schools Learning Nation vision. A curricular initiative, TLLM had implications for classroom assessments, calling on teachers to focus on the process of learning, and to use more formative and qualitative assessing. This dissertation examined the extent to which Singapore teachers' classroom assessment practices are aligned to the policy. It adopted mixed methods research to study teachers' assessment practices. Data culled from the Teacher Questionnaire used in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study provided the national pattern of assessment practices. Classroom practices were based on assessments contributed by eight teachers and from their interview comments. Classroom assessment practices were examined quantitatively using the Authentic Intellectual Work criteria (Newmann and Associates, 1996), and interpreted qualitatively using constructivist assessment (Shepard, 2000). The findings suggest there was incremental change in the teachers' assessment practices. At the national and classroom levels, three patterns of assessment practices--change, variety, and persistence--emerged. Of the three, the pattern of persistence was the most dominant, indicating that most teachers continued to use assessment practices that the policy was discouraging. The prevalence of the pattern of persistence meant that teachers were more likely to focus on achievement rather than on learning. At the classroom level, the result of such assessment practices was that teachers did not always present students with challenging tasks. There was a range of practices among the eight teachers. The extent to which the teachers' practices were aligned to the policy is the result of a complex interaction of policy, school, and classroom factors. Based on these findings, this dissertation suggests that to bring about fundamental change in classroom assessment practices, there needs to be greater macro policy coherence, a larger student role in the classroom, and more assessment leadership from principals. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the lower secondary school teaching in religion leads to a positive understanding and openness, concerning different religions and cultures. We want to study how pupils in grade eight and nine in two lower secondary schools in a multicultural community comprehend different religions. Since we choose a pupils perspective we decided to do a questionnaire to get a wide ground. As a complement we interviewed twelve pupils and also did observations during their religion classes. During our study we focused on three different themes. These themes are the abrahamitic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam) Hinduism &amp; Buddhism and attitudes to religion. Our theoretical point of view is the intercultural perspective. Therefore we have studied government’s documents and propositions about intercultural education and we have also used an anthology by Pirjo Lahdenperä called Interkulturell pedagogik i teori och praktik (2004). We aim to investigate if the teaching in religion is compatible with the intercultural education. The thesis reveals that there are lots of prejudices among the pupils in these two schools. We think that it is important that the teaching in religion must focus not only at the Christianity in younger ages. The subject must contain other religions like Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism in much earlier age. Otherwise the pupils will create their own picture of the different religions through media. The Swedish governments goals about school (LPO 94) and the document about the teaching in religion (kursplanen i religionskunskap) both can, according to us, be used as tools for intercultural education. The problem is that the teachers do not know how to use these tools. The methods of intercultural education must be clearer and the teachers more conscious. Before that happens, we can not state that the education is totally intercultural. We have a big challenge in front of us when we finally will step out on the labour market!

in English The thesis focuses on problematics of child jokes at a primary and a lower secondary school. Its aim is to study and analyze how child jokes work and how they develop across different grades of the primary and the lower secondary school. The thesis is based on empirical research of qualitative nature with transversal overlap. Data was obtained in a use of the following qualitative methods: group interviews and analysis of artefacts (jokes). Another analysis (qualitative and quantitative) and an interpretation of the materials followed. All the finding were then compared with a known literature. The written work consists of three main parts. Theoretical part is based on concepts of Sigmund Freud, Martha Wolfenstein, the cognitive psychologists and the linguists. The second part of the thesis describes metodology of the research and analysis of the data. The main result of the research is a classification scheme of different techniques of construction of child jokes' points. The classification takes in a consideration a connection with developmental trends and gender differences across the different grades of the primary and the lower secondary school. The third part of the thesis discusses and summarizes similarities and differences between the research and a relevant literature. The main...

The rationale behind this study concerns the issues school administrators and teachers of expatriate students face over the progress and placement of the growing number of these students in mathematics classrooms in various countries brought about by the demographical changes occurring in this globalization era. This study aimed to present a method of examining lower secondary school mathematics textbooks with the purpose of evaluating students' expected past learning and comparing students' expected mathematics learning across the different curricula. It is anticipated that such an investigation will be of value to those responsible for the correct level of placement of these students.Six sets of textbooks from four countries on the Asia-Pacific rim, namely Australia, Brunei, China and Singapore, were selected for this study. The textbook content of each country was analyzed in terms of strand weighting and content details, and then coupled with information gained from interviews with teachers. This led to the findings which addressed the various issues raised.The findings facilitated a comparison of the learning paths offered by the various textbooks, fleshed out the differences and similarities of the various curricula and made available detailed comparisons of the textbooks' content in terms of topics covered. The analytical procedure of the examination of text content as presented in this study is itself a diagnostic technique for assessment of the students' past learning, which addressed the main objective of the study.The findings will be of interest to all who are interested in the mathematics taught in the countries involved. / Outcomes will be particularly useful to curriculum planners and textbook writers as well as the administrators and teachers of International Schools and other schools enrolling expatriate students from these countries. The study offers a 'simplistic' way of evaluating textbooks to assess students' learning progress, and highlights the traits of the countries' curricula to provide a general idea of the mathematics ability expected from the expatriate students residing in these countries.

There has been much debate over many years in the Australian Federal Parliament on the implementation of a national curriculum in mathematics. In 2004, the Government, under the direction of the then Minister for Education Brendon Nelson, initiated a national mathematics program for students in lower secondary high schools and primary schools. The Australian International Centre for Excellence was commissioned to implement a pilot program and called for expressions of interest to participate from high schools across the nation. At that time I was working as the Acting Head of the Mathematics Department at a senior high school in a large Western Australian country centre. I was concerned with the content and level of difficulty in many of the textbooks that were available for our students and also the processes used in these textbooks (or by teachers) to assist students to gain mastery of the basic mathematical concepts in the Outcome Number. I decided to apply to participate in the pilot program on behalf of my school, and my application was accepted. In the first stage of the program two classes of both Year 8 and Year 9 students were selected. One of my cooperative colleagues and I found out very early that the Year 8 ICE-EM textbook was too difficult for many of these students as they lacked the skills to do much of the work in the Outcome Number. These students had very different learning experiences in their primary school mathematics, with schools and teachers placing different emphases on each of the Outcomes in mathematics. The opportunity to modify our school's Year 8 program and to implement change in the high schools' feeder primary schools occurred with the second stage of the pilot program's Transition Phases 1 and 2, due for implementation in 2007. / Twelve teachers and 329 students from the high school and feeder primary schools became involved at the second state of the pilot program. All students were provided with a textbook, and teachers were free to choose how or when these books would be used with their students. Surveys were administered to teachers and students at the beginning of the year and end of the first semester. Tests were designed and administered throughout the study and comparisons were made with the student's WAMSE (Western Australian Monitoring Standards in Education) score. WALNA (Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment) and the Department of Education and the University of Western Australia's WAMSE scores were used to investigate changes in students' achievement and progress. Interviews with teachers and students were conducted to review the pilot program and investigate anomalies in students' results. The study found differences in students' Achievement and Progress based on WAMSE scores. Most teachers who adopted the program believed that it led to improved student learning and understanding of Number concepts in mathematics. All teachers at the high school and its feeder primary schools have continued to use the ICE-EM textbooks as part of their teaching and learning program. Increased uniformity among the primary schools was beneficial for the high school's Year 8 mathematics program. The results also indicated the need for caution when using State and National testing to report on student progress and achievement.

<h1>Abstract</h1><p>In this study, the conceptions of a number of teachers in the Swedish primary and lower-secondary school about cultural pluralism, the values connected to this pluralism by the <em>Curriculum for the Compulsory School System, the Pre-School Class and the Leisure-time Centre, Lpo 94</em>, and the possibilities for pupils to gain knowledge about these values, were studied. The conceptions of the teachers were regarded and interpreted as ideology, since the study was made from a point of departure containing an assumption about how the content of the curriculum is of importance for the development of relations of power and dominance between different groups in society. The purpose of the study was to interpret the statements of a limited number of teachers about cultural pluralism, values and knowledge, regarding the ontological, axiological and epistemological assumptions and conceptions expressed therein. The empirical data of the study was gathered through qualitative interviews with eleven teachers working in six different primary and lower-secondary schools in the Mid-Sweden region. The conceptions expressed in the statements given by the respondents were categorized. These categories were then interpreted through a typology containing four different types of ideology, here called restorative (implying a return to a social order of the past), transmissive (implying a conveyance of existing values, relations and conditions), moderative (implying short-term adjustments of existing institutions and conditions) and transformative (implying long-term and radical change) ideology. This interpretation showed that only fragmentary parts of the restorative and transformative types of ideology were expressed through the different assumptions and conceptions, while distinct and substantially developed expressions of transmissive as well as moderative ideology could be interpreted. This was discussed with reference to three different themes: the connotations conveyed by the concept of culture, the ideological content of official and semi-official documents of the curriculum – mainly Lpo 94 and the report (<em>Skola för bildning</em>) of the Committee of Curriculum – and the historically strong progressivist tradition in the Swedish school system.</p><p>Keywords: conceptions, cultural pluralism, curriculum, ideology, knowledge, primary and lower-secondary school, teachers, values.</p>

Studiens huvudsakliga syfte är att få kunskap kring om och hur elever i skolår 9 stimuleras till reflektion i matematikundervisningen. Den tidigare forskning som presenteras i litteraturgenomgången visar på reflektionens betydelse i lärprocessen och ger riktlinjer för vilka aktiviteter som uppmanar till respektive hämmar elevers reflektion. Genom en kvalitativ fallstudie, med i huvudsak lektionsobservationer som utgångspunkt och med efterföljande lärarintervjuer som stöd, har syftet uppnåtts genom att kartlägga den aktivitet som förekommer i praktiken. Undervisningsaktiviteter som kan uppvisa en positiv respektive negativ effekt på elevers möjlighet till reflektion har vid bearbetning och analys av materialet kunnat urskiljas. Resultatet visar att trots att lärare är positivt inställda till metakognition och ett reflekterande arbetssätt förekommer endast i vissa fall tillfällen då eleven stimuleras till reflektion och denna får ske. Vanligt förekommande i lärares undervisning är situationer som skulle kunna fungera som reflektionsstimulerande om de ges utrymme och reflektionen följs upp. Studiens resultat kan bidra till att påminna och göra lärare medvetna om vilka aktiviteter som stödjer reflektion samt förmedla vikten av att eleverna redan i grundskolans tidigare år undervisas om och utsättas för en undervisningspraktik som kontinuerligt kräver förekomsten av reflektion. / Research presented in the literature study show the significant value of reflection in the learning process. The overview also highlights activities that encourage and inhibit students’ reflection. The aim of this study is to examine whether and how students in Swedish school, grade 9, are stimulated to use reflection in mathematics education. This was conducted through a qualitative study, with essentially lesson observations as the main method and teacher interviews as supporting method. Teaching activities that may have a positive or negative effect on students’ ability to reflect have been identified in the process and analysis of the research material and are presented in the result chapter. The results show that although teachers express a positive view on metacognition and reflective approach, such situations occur to a limited extent. Common in teachers’ lessons are sequences that could stimulate reflection if appropriate actions as follow up had been taken. The result of the study could make teachers aware of what kind of activities that support reflection. It may also convey the importance of the fact that pupils need to be taught and subjected to a teaching practice that continually requires the presence of reflection.

Både nationella och internationella utvärderingar, samt betygsstatistiken visar att de svenska högstadieelevernas resultat i ämnet matematik dalar. Många elever uppfattar ämnet som svårt och granskningar visar att matematiklektionerna ofta är enformiga och mestadels består av elevernas eget arbete läroböckerna. Denna studies syfte är att undersöka vad eleverna själva har för attityder till matematiken, vad de anser om olika arbetssätt inom ämnet, samt hur de skulle vilja förbättra den matematikundervisning de får idag. För att besvara dessa frågor har jag gjort en enkätstudie med 117 elever från årskurs sju och åtta i en högstadieskola i Svealand, Sverige. Resultatet av studien visar att många elever uppfattar matematiken som svår och det är inte ett av de ämnen eleverna tycker mest om i skolan. Dock är attityderna inte helt igenom negativa då en majoritet samtidigt anser att ämnet är viktigt och är relativt nöjda med den undervisning de får idag. Angående arbetssätt är det helt klart enskilt arbete och arbete i läroboken som dominerar, medan de laborativa och kommunikativa arbetssätten fått stå åt sidan. Vidare visas det att många elever vill arbeta mer med annat material än läroboken, till exempel med spel, parövningar och grupparbeten, då de anser dessa arbetssätt vara både roliga och lärorika. Därutöver framkommer det att även om vissa arbetssätt anses som tråkiga behöver detta inte innebära att de av eleverna samtidigt anses vara icke lärorika. Utifrån resultatet av enkäten och litteratur inom ämnet har slutsatser dragits, vilka visar att eleverna behöver och efterfrågar en mer variationsrik undervisning. Dock går det inte att dra generella slutsatser om en undervisning som är optimal för alla elever, utan detta varierar beroende på elever och klass då undervisningen måste anpassas efter deras sätt att lära. Av den anledningen är en öppen dialog och ett demokratiskt arbetssätt i skolan en nödvändighet för att få till en undervisning som i största möjligaste mån är anpassad efter elevernas behov. / Both grading statistics and national and international evaluations show that the mathematic results of the Swedish students in the lower secondary school are descending. Many students find the subject difficult and numerous reports show that classes in mathematics often are monotonous and typically consist of the students’ own work with textbooks. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ attitudes towards mathematics, what they think about different methods of working during the mathematic lessons the and how they would like to improve the mathematic education they receive today. To answer these questions I conducted at survey with 117 students from grades 7th and 8th in a lower secondary school in Svealand, Sweden. The results from the study show that many students see mathematics as difficult and it is not one of the subjects that they like most in school. However, the attitudes are not negative all through since a majority of the students at the same time consider the subject as important and are pleased with the education that they get today. Further more the study demonstrates that many students would like to work more with exercises in pairs, exercises in groups and other material than the textbooks since they find these kinds of working methods as both fun and useful. Beyond this, the results also show that even if the students do not consider all working methods as fun they think about them as useful. On the basis of the results and literature within the subject conclusions have been drawn which shows that the students need and wish for more variety in mathematic classrooms. However, it is not possible to draw general conclusions about an education that is optimal for all students, because this varies depending on the students and the class and the education has to be adapted to their ways of learning. For this reason an open dialog and a democratic way of working in school is essential if we want to obtain an education that in as many ways as possible is adapted to the student needs.