This essay aims to study how national tests in the ninth grade are being viewed upon in the Swedish school system. What are the affected people’s thoughts regarding its field of application? For further information about this matter, three different sub studies have taken place. In the first sub study, literature from The Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) has been studied and compared to other researches. In the second sub study, pupils who took part in the national tests during the previous year answered a survey about their experiences working with the tests. The third sub study includes interviews with 12 teachers who all work with national tests in the ninth grade. These teachers were asked questions about their experiences working with the national tests. Results from the three sub studies are discussed thoroughly and are being brought together through a neo-rationalistic perspective in the discussion part of the essay. The major conclusion made is that there is a difference between the guidelines given by SNAE and how the affected people within the schools look upon the test system.

Vid regeringsskiftet 2006 kom det att bli förändringar inom skolpolitiken och det blev startskottet för denna undersökning. Skolverket fick i uppdrag att utforma nya kunskapsmål att uppnå i ämnena matematik, svenska samt svenska som andra språk. Detta föregick införandet av nationella prov i årskurs tre. Syftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på grundskolelärares inställning till hur proven kan komma att påverka det pedagogiska uppdraget. Insamlandet av material har skett genom en enkät bestående av fasta svarsalternativ och det har getts möjligheten för skriftliga kommentarer. Resultatet visar att lärare anser att de nya problemformuleringarna är en vinst för elevernas kunskapsutveckling och inte proven i sig. De nationella proven ses som redskap att synliggöra elevernas kunskaper och till viss del kan de komma att ligga till grund för bedömningar av elevernas kunskapsutveckling. / After the Swedish government shifted in 2006 changes were made to school politics, which gave me the cause to start this survey. The National Agency for Education was given the task to design new levels of knowledge in the field of mathematics, Swedish, and Swedish as a second language. This precedes an introduction of national tests in the third grade. The purpose of the survey was to find out the teachers’ attitudes how the tests may influence their educational work. The report was based on a questionnaire with questions with the advantage of the questionnaire being able to comment freely. The result shows that it is the way the goal wording is written which one sees as a merit of the new reform and not the tests in it self. The national tests should be seen as a tool to be used to see how the pupils development progresses and which can then be used to set the pupils level of development.

<p>Vid regeringsskiftet 2006 kom det att bli förändringar inom skolpolitiken och det blev startskottet för denna undersökning. Skolverket fick i uppdrag att utforma nya kunskapsmål att uppnå i ämnena matematik, svenska samt svenska som andra språk. Detta föregick införandet av nationella prov i årskurs tre. Syftet med undersökningen är att ta reda på grundskolelärares inställning till hur proven kan komma att påverka det pedagogiska uppdraget.</p><p>Insamlandet av material har skett genom en enkät bestående av fasta svarsalternativ och det har getts möjligheten för skriftliga kommentarer.</p><p>Resultatet visar att lärare anser att de nya problemformuleringarna är en vinst för elevernas kunskapsutveckling och inte proven i sig. De nationella proven ses som redskap att synliggöra elevernas kunskaper och till viss del kan de komma att ligga till grund för bedömningar av elevernas kunskapsutveckling.</p> / <p>After the Swedish government shifted in 2006 changes were made to school politics, which gave me the cause to start this survey. The National Agency for Education was given the task to design new levels of knowledge in the field of mathematics, Swedish, and Swedish as a second language. This precedes an introduction of national tests in the third grade. The purpose of the survey was to find out the teachers’ attitudes how the tests may influence their educational work.</p><p>The report was based on a questionnaire with questions with the advantage of the questionnaire being able to comment freely.</p><p>The result shows that it is the way the goal wording is written which one sees as a merit of the new reform and not the tests in it self. The national tests should be seen as a tool to be used to see how the pupils development progresses and which can then be used to set the pupils level of development.</p>

I skolverkets rapporter framkommer att ca 15-20 % av eleverna inte klarar nationella proven i grundskolan. Varje år går även alltför många elever ut grundskolan utan behörighet till något av de nationella gymnasieprogrammen. Det finns ett behov av mer kunskap om vilka elever som riskerar att inte nå målen för att underlätta tidig identifiering. Läsförmåga och språkförståelse är några av de faktorer som i tidigare studier visat sig påverka utfallet i skolresultat. I den här studien undersöks hur lässvårigheter i tidiga skolår relaterar till språkförståelse, samt hur lässvårigheter och variationer i språkförståelsen påverkar skolresultaten i nationella proven i åk 3. I studien deltog 44 elever med positivt utfall i en screening av läsförståelse, avkodning och stavning i åk 2. Svag läsförståelse i åk 2 innebar en större risk för språkförståelsesvårigheter i åk 3. Elever med enbart avkodnings- eller stavningssvårigheter i åk 2 hade däremot en god språkförståelse i åk 3. Språkförståelsen visade i sin tur signifikanta samband med utfallet i läsförståelse i ämnesprovet i svenska och med 5 av 6 delprov i matematik i nationella proven i åk 3. En viktig implikation blir att inkludera även språkförståelse i arbetet med elever som har läsförståelsesvårigheter. Studiens resultat indikerar att det inte räcker med en bättre avkodningsförmåga för att uppnå en god läsförståelse. Det krävs även insatser för att främja ordförråd, grammatisk kompetens och förståelsestrategier på diskursnivå. En hög andel av eleverna som inte fick godkänt i delproven i svenska respektive matematik i åk 3 var identifierade i screeningen redan i åk 2. Det här indikerar att det är möjligt att använda en screening av läsförmågan i åk 2 för att identifiera vilka elever som riskerar att inte klara läroplanens mål. Samtidigt var det många elever med svag läs- och stavningsförmåga i åk 2 som ändå klarade nationella proven. Den här studiens resultat indikerar att det framförallt är eleverna med läsförståelsesvårigheter som riskerar att inte klara nationella proven, medan eleverna med enbart avkodnings- eller stavningssvårigheter klarar nationella proven betydligt bättre. Det behövs däremot fortsatta longitudinella studier för att klargöra i vilken mån de elever som klarade de nationella proven i åk 3 trots lässvårigheter även kommer att klara nationella prov och läroplanens mål på längre sikt. / Every year about 20% of the students in primary and secondary school do not reach the goals of the Swedish National Curriculum. A greater understanding of how reading difficulties relate to oral language skills, and how both reading and oral language skills contribute to educational outcome in the Swedish context is needed to improve early identification and intervention for students at risk of not achieving the goals of the Swedish national curriculum. This dissertation investigates how reading difficulties and oral language comprehension affect educational outcome in the year 3 Swedish national tests, and how reading difficulties in early primary school relate to phonological processing skills and oral language comprehension. The Simple View of Reading model was used to describe the participants’ reading difficulties. All year 2 students (N = 214) in two municipalities participated in an examination of reading comprehension, word-decoding and spelling. Sixty-six students with reading comprehension (z &lt; –0.83), word-decoding skills (z &lt; –0.71) and/or spelling skills (z &lt; –0.58) in the lower end of the normal distribution were identified. Forty-four students agreed to participate in the study. Oral language skills, phonological processing, verbal memory, word-decoding, reading comprehension and non-verbal ability were examined in year 3. Forty-six to 66 per cent of the students with reading comprehension difficulties in year 2 were identified with difficulties in oral language comprehension (z ≤ –1.0) in year 3. None of the students with specific word-decoding difficulties had difficulties in oral language comprehension. Oral language comprehension was significantly correlated to the results in the year 3 Swedish national tests for the two tasks in reading comprehension (p &lt; .01) in Swedish, and with five of six tasks in Mathematics (p &lt; .01 in four tasks and p &lt; .05 in one task). Rapid naming of visual objects also correlated significantly with four out of six tasks in Mathematics (p &lt; .01). Non-verbal ability, word-decoding and reading comprehension in year 3 showed no significant relationship with outcome in the Swedish national tests. This dissertation shows the centrality of oral language comprehension skills for both reading comprehension and outcome in the Swedish national tests, and the importance of considering oral language comprehension both in assessment and in intervention when students show poor reading comprehension skills in early primary school.

This essay is an investigation of varieties of English used, learned, and taught, in a Swedish school. The age of the students is 15-16 and they attend grade 9. The hypothesis of this essay is that American English is the variety most students prefer and use, and that British English is the variety mainly preferred by teachers and the school system. This do not collaborate with the ‘learner-centered learning’ pedagogical view (Modiano 2009:172). The data is mainly collected in three areas. 1: a teacher survey, to determine the teachers ́ views and opinions of the varieties of English. 2: a student survey, to examine whether the students prefer one variety to the other, and if they are even aware of what variety they are speaking, and 3: the data gathered from transcribing this year’s English National Test to determine what types of English that are represented in the test. The result of this essay confirms the hypothesis that AmE is the variety both preferred and used by younger students in Sweden today, and that these students do find that they are allowed to use any variety they wish while learning in school. BrE is still the variety preferred by teachers and the school system, however AmE is catching up. Furthermore, the students do have a high level of participation in their own acquisition of English.

Abstract/Summary The study of history has always been a part of educational programmes throughout time. And the reasons behind it have also been shifting according to the needs of the society in a specific time and place. But the legitimacy of the history subject has always been in its said ability to help us understand the present through the past. Today the emergence of a globalized and multicultural society is changing both our way of life as well as our view on the world, and with it the skills and tools we need to make sense of it. And with it the reasons behind and the learning goals of history as an educational subject is shifting. International organizations have implemented guidelines and directives to its members regarding how educational goals can be used to adapt to this ongoing change. Research regarding curriculum policymaking has shown that the Swedish curriculum is influenced by the international guidelines, but the didactic specialists, Kenneth Nordgren and Maria Johansson, has found a lack of guidance for teachers to enact these general goals on a more practical day-to-day basis. This has led them formulate a concept especially designed for history education, intercultural historical learning. This essay’s aim is to find the conditions to apply the concept of intercultural historical learning through the history subject in the compulsory and upper secondary school in Sweden. By taking its departure in curriculum theory and using intercultural historical learning as an analytical framework, a hermeneutical text analysis is made on the Swedish history curriculum with its supporting documents as well as on the national tests of the subject. The results indicate that there are conditions that both encourages and discourages the implementation of intercultural historical learning in history education. The curriculum’s emphasis on the usage of historic source material and use of history examples are a major contributor to the applicably of the concept. In contrast the historical narrative created by the curriculum prevents a diversity of historical experiences and voices to be present in the teaching practice. Instead a Eurocentric and political historic narrative is dominant. However, further research is required to see what other factors than those this essay examine affect the implementation of intercultural historical learning in the Swedish history classroom. This essay’s main contribution is to serve as a starting point for such research.

This study investigates the syntactic complexity of the example texts used as guides forassessment in the national tests of the Swedish upper secondary school courses English 5 andEnglish 6. It is guided by two research questions: (1) Is there a progression of increasedcomplexity between the grades assigned to the example texts, and, if so, is any specificmeasure of syntactic complexity more strongly linked to a higher grade than the rest? (2) Isthere a progression of increased complexity between the two courses, and, if so, how doesthis progression manifest itself? A set of 14 quantitative measures of syntactic complexity asidentified by the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) are examined to answer thesequestions. The majority of the differences between the grades and/or courses represented areshown to be statistically insignificant, and the few instances of statistical significance likelyoccurred either due to a small sample size or due to a questionable tendency of L2SCA whendealing with run-on sentences. In the end, syntactic complexity as expressed through the 14measures seems to be a poor indicator of why a text received a certain grade in either of thetwo represented courses.

Läsförståelse är av vikt för kunskapsinhämtning, men även för att kunna fungera som samhällsmedborgare i Sverige. Studier av läsförståelse är inte ovanligt men de sätter främst fokus på de lägre åldrarna. Denna studie avser i stället att bidra till kunskap om läsförståelse i gymnasieåldern. Utifrån en klass, som i gymnasiegångens inledning genomfört en läsförståelsescreening, är syftet med denna studie att undersöka huruvida lärare – i både svenskämnet och övriga ämnen – tar hänsyn till dess resultat i formandet av undervisningen. Det obligatoriska nationella provet i läsförståelse är dock det som avgör betygsättningen av elevens läsförståelse. Därför vill studien också jämföra screening med nationella provet och finna förklaringar till varför elevernas resultat skulle kan skilja sig åt. Med användning av blandade metoder, av både kvalitativ och kvantitativ karaktär, och med utgångspunkt att läsförståelse är något som skapas i ett sociokulturellt sammanhang, har studien kunnat bekräfta bilden från tidigare forskning att lärare främst tagit hänsyn till screeningresultaten gällande elever med låga resultat. Dock har dessa hjälpt lärare att få en medvetenhet om läsförståelsens betydelse i alla ämnen. Resultaten på screening respektive nationella provet överensstämde till 63% Det framkom att de som lyckats bibehålla samma nivå av läsförståelse på det nationella provet, också är de elever med en motivation, antingen för läsning eller att lyckas i skolan i allmänhet. Tack vare motivationen, skaffade de sig också andra avgörande faktorer för läsförståelse. Studiens slutsats blir därmed att läsförståelseundervisning på gymnasiet behöver ge elever motivation för läsning.

This study explored changes in relative achievement over time. It also investigated differences in how two groups of students activate mathematical competencies. The aim of the study was to investigate students’ relative achievement in mathematics over time, and how mathematical competencies can be used to explore differences between groups of students on a non-curriculum based test in mathematics. The study was divided in two parts. Study 1 compared students’ (n=568) relative achievement in two national tests in mathematics (years 3 and 6). Study 1 explored changes in relative achievement between the two national tests as well as differences in relative achievement between the national test in year 6 and the mathematical kangaroo in year 7 (age 13). The study identified, from a sample (n=264) of study 1, two groups of students with high achievements in only one of the tests, the national test in year 6 or the mathematical kangaroo. Study 2 explored how differences between those students relative achievement on the mathematical kangaroo could be explained through activation of mathematical competencies. The results in study 1 show that students undergo large changes, both increases and decreases, in relative achievement between the national tests in years 3 and 6. Study 2 shows how the two identified groups activate the mathematical competencies differently on the mathematical kangaroo. 9% of the students achieve highly in the mathematical kangaroo although they do not in the national test. The study implicates the importance of using non-curriculum bounded tests to identify strength in mathematical competencies among students that not are able to show them through the national test.

The following study examines the construction of the national tests in history. The study has analyzed the work processes of the construction of the test at different moments, such as design, conduct and evaluation, from the perspective of the test designers and the test manager at the National Agency for Education. The purpose is to see how the test designers’ previous experiences are reflected in the work process with national test and what problems, challenges and limitations they have in their work. The study is based on qualitative interviews and has used the validity theory as an analytical framework. The results show, among other things, that the work process of the national tests begins with the group interpreting the curriculum for history. The interpretation is written down in the so-called construct which is sent to the National Agency for Education for further review. The test designers performed various evaluations of the tests throughout the whole work process. The National Agency for Education conducted a large survey after completing tests that the teachers answer. The results also show different limitations, problems, and challenges of the test design. The framework of the test limits for example the design; what the test should look like, pictures and question construction, it systematizes the test. The processes of the conduction of the test in schools is also completely controlled by the National Agency for Education and the test does not necessarily reflect the teaching that is conducted in the classroom. Another problem is that communication with the active teachers is rather one-sided. Challenges that the test designers face includes setting grade requirements and stable results.