There are big differences when it comes to access to digital teaching resources between Swedish school units. Previous research indicates that the digital resources that are available in schools are not always integrated into the teaching practice. A lack of resources will affect the teachers’ ability to, as stipulated in the curriculum, integrate digital resources into their teaching. It is therefore of interest to examine teaching practice in a school with good access to digital resources. The aim of this study is to develop an understanding of a few teachers’ attitudes and opinions of digital resources within the context of reading and writing acquisition in primary school. Additionally, the teachers’ knowledgebase in relation to digital resources will be examined. Lastly the study aims to provide ample examples of how digital resources can be integrated into teaching practice. The study used a combination of data collection methods namely observation and semi-structured interviews and the teacher knowledgebase was analysed using the TPACK-model. The results show that all teachers in the study have strong positive attitudes towards the use of digital resources in their teaching practice and that their TPACK knowledge is at a high level when it comes to teaching practices concerning reading and writing acquisition at a primary school level. Courage to implement digital resources into teaching practice and the teacher’s personal interest in technology are identified as key components for effective development of digital competence in the context of teaching. Hands on examples of how digital resources are used in teachers everyday work life are also presented. / Det finns stora klyftor när det gäller tillgång till digitala resurser i undervisningen mellan svenska skolor. Tidigare forskning indikerar att de digitala resurser som finns inte alltid integreras i undervisningen. Brist på digitala resurser påverkar lärares möjligheter att integrera dem så som styrdokumenten stipulerar. Det är således intressant att undersöka lärarverksamhet i en skola med god tillgång till digitala resurser. Syftet med undersökningen är att skapa en bild av några lärares upplevelser av digitala resurser i läs- och skrivundervisningen i årskurs F-3 och undersöka lärarnas kunskapsbas i förhållande till digitala resurser, samt att ge en bild av konkreta praktiknära exempel på hur denna integrering kan göras. Studien kombinerar observation och semi-strukturerad intervju som datainsamling och lärarnas kunskapsbas analyseras enligt TPACK-modellen. Resultaten visar att lärarna är odelat positiva till digitala resurser i undervisningen och att deras kunskapsbas utifrån TPACK-modellen när det gäller läs- och skrivundervisning i årskurserna F-3 är på en hög nivå. Modet att våga prova samt ett eget intresse av att utveckla digital kompetens identifieras av lärarna som centrala egenskaper för professionell kompetensutveckling. Konkreta exempel på hur digitala resurser används i lärarnas vardag framkommer också.

The purpose of this study was to examine how government teachers make decisions regarding the type of technological tools they incorporate in their instruction. As a case study of two teachers, this work was oriented by the question: How are U.S. Government teachers' beliefs and perspectives about learning and teaching reflected in their pedagogical practice and use of technological tools. There is little work about how teachers prepare students for the 21st century. Teaching U.S. Government or about the U.S. government has been ignored in much of the research of social studies classes. Additionally, most studies that examine the use of technological tools in the social studies classroom have either investigated the use of non-digital tools specifically or the use of digital tools specifically. Few studies combine how social studies teachers use both non-digital and digital tools in their instruction. My goal was to shift the gaze and include the swirl of influences shaping U.S. Government teachers' decision-making process as when both types of technological tools are used with their classes. This study has its antecedents in my desire to examine Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, TPCK. TPCK is a theoretical framework that posits that technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and content knowledge are the key elements to understand teachers' instructional choices. The findings in this study indicate that while TPCK can offer teachers a framework to help begin to understand knowledge bases one could consider when planning class instruction, it falls short of providing the complete picture necessary to describe teacher decisions. / Ph. D.

Education research has investigated teaching practices and uncovered a potential disconnect between instructors' knowledge and beliefs about teaching and their actual teaching practices. While experts of the subject matter, their understanding of teaching and their awareness of their own teaching capability significantly impact their enacted practices. However, there is a dearth of research in engineering on this aspect, particularly in electrical engineering (EE) education. EE as an applied science comprises many abstract concepts among other engineering disciplines that require strategic teaching practices to facilitate student learning. The intangible nature of these concepts, such as the foundational circuits concepts, raises the likelihood of acquiring issues in teaching among engineering instructors that can impact the construction of contextual knowledge and skills among engineering students. In this qualitative case study, the primary aim was to study the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) faculty who taught the first and second-year ECE courses at Virginia Tech. Answers were sought through the overarching research question how do engineering instructors' knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching influence their enacted practice in teaching introductory electric circuits? using a synthesized framework of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), instructor beliefs and Watkins and Marsick's Continuous Learning Model (WMCLM). The significant findings from the analysis of interviews, class recordings, and Canvas course materials suggested that the ECE instructors' formed PCK and held beliefs can have an affirmative influence on enacted practice, meaning, their knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching reinforced their enacted practice. This influence was apparent in their various student-centric approaches to contextualizing the ECE concepts using their combined experiences. In contrast, constructive influence captured the potential causes of "disconnect" between their formed "knowledge and beliefs" and their enacted practice. This influence was rooted in how the abstract fundamental ECE concepts, in most cases, required contexts outside of the instructors' core experiences. The attempt to use multiple strategies to attain the course goals had created oversight tendencies on their implementation magnified by the online and hybrid modality, especially with the team-teaching design of the base ECE courses. Such relevant issues needed time-constraining solutions from the course instructor to the administrative level. This work can further advance the instructional methods in EE education after understanding the influences of instructors' beliefs and knowledge on their enacted practices to teach foundational concepts in ECE. More broadly, this work will have implications for educators, curriculum designers, and researchers who seek to improve engineering instruction and address the current issues in teaching engineering. The outcomes provide research opportunities to interrogate how we can use instructional practices to design methodologies that can elucidate and solve issues on instructors' enacted practices constructively. More importantly, the results of this study can be utilized to design professional development programs for engineering teaching faculty by having a framework to continuously examine instructors' beliefs and knowledge to support their teaching practice. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the past years, research has been done in uncovering why there have been issues in teaching practices. While instructors are assumed experts of the content they are teaching, research suggests they must develop an awareness of their ability to teach to improve their enacted practice. However, there is a need for further research in electrical engineering (EE) education in this aspect because of the challenges associated with the abstract nature of its fundamental content for which engineering students' learning can be heavily impacted by engineering instructors teaching practices. In this case study, the primary aim was to study the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) faculty who taught the first and second-year ECE courses at Virginia Tech. Answers were sought through the overarching research question how do engineering instructors' knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching influence their enacted practice in teaching introductory electric circuits? using a synthesized model of instructor knowledge, beliefs, and practices. The significant findings from the analysis of interviews, class recordings, and Canvas course materials suggested that the ECE instructors' knowledge and beliefs can have an affirmative influence on enacted practice, meaning, their knowledge and beliefs about engineering teaching reinforced their enacted practice. This influence was seen in their various use of real-world examples around the ECE concepts using their own experiences to provide context. In contrast, constructive influence captured how the abstract fundamental ECE concepts, in most cases, required contexts outside of the instructors' core experiences. The attempt to use many different strategies to achieve the course goals had created issues on their implementation. This has been magnified by the online and hybrid modality, especially with the team-teaching setup for which the resolution relies on administrative-level decisions. This work can further advance the instructional methods in EE education after understanding the influences of instructors' beliefs and knowledge on their enacted practices to teach foundational concepts in ECE.

With the recent release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (NGSS Lead States, 2014b) science educators were expected to teach engineering content and practices within their curricula. However, technology and engineering (T&E) educators have been expected to teach content and practices from engineering and other disciplines since the release of the Standards for Technological Literacy (ITEA/ITEEA, 2000/2002/2007). Requisite to the preparation of globally competitive STEM literate individuals is the intentional, concurrent teaching of science, technology, and engineering concepts. Many studies have examined the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1987) of science and T&E educators, but none have examined the science PCK of T&E educators. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of the relationship between T&E educator’s science and T&E preparation experiences, and their teaching of science content and practices. This study, which employed a fully integrated mixed methods design (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2006), was conducted to inform the pre- and in-service preparation needs for T&E educators. A random sample of 55 Foundations of Technology (FoT) teachers across 12 school systems within one state participated in an online survey, leading to eight teachers being purposefully selected for classroom observations. Data collected from the surveys and classroom observations were analyzed through Spearman’s rho tests to examine relationships between preparation factors and teaching of science content and practices. These data were corroborated with curriculum content analyses, classroom observations, and interview responses to validate the results. Analyses of the data across all three methods revealed significant correlations between many preparation factors and the teaching of science content and practices. Specifically the amount of high school and undergraduate physics courses, and T&E and science in-service delivered were found to have statistically significant, strong positive correlations. These findings suggest T&E educators with increased amounts of these preparation experiences can be expected to teach science content and practices more proficiently. The findings and conclusions drawn from the data analyses provide implications for science and T&E educators, researchers, preservice programs, and in-service professional development efforts. The discussion and implications suggest the need to conduct replication studies in different contexts. / Ph. D.

Research has shown that the Swedish results of education have fallen continuously since 2000. It has been shown that there are differences in performance between native students and immigrant students. National Centre for “Swedish as a second language” indicates that Swedish schools fail to give all students an equal and high quality education. Then Swedish as a second language education can be organized in two different ways a wonder arise if it can depend on how teachers´ conditions in teaching reveals in these. This study aims to lighten primary school teachers' views on the opportunities and difficulties in second language teaching, which can be organized in two different ways, "separate" and "within the framework of the class". The research questions of the study are, 1) What requirements do teachers perceive that the curriculum for “Swedish as a second language” requires? What opportunities and difficulties can be seen here? 2) What trade-offs are made in the planning of teaching and how are these applied in the teaching of “Swedish as a second language”? What opportunities and difficulties can be seen here? 3) What conditions for scaffolding and interaction do teachers create in teaching "Swedish as a second language? What opportunities and difficulties can be seen here? By using Shulmans theory PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) it manages to visualize teacher language didactic choices within the subject “Swedish as a second language”. Through a qualitative study based on interviews and observations, the result shows that both teachers reason about a range of language didactic choices, opportunities and solutions, but these could not always be transformed and seen in practice. During the observations, it became clear that the “Swedish as a second language” teaching structural conditions both enabling and impeding teachers to conduct effective teaching. In this case, separate teaching came to be ineffective because they did not have a language development perspectives in school, thereby the subject was stigmatized.

<p>The aim of this study has been to investigate, through the narratives of ex-perienced teachers, insights and strategies in the teaching of history in upper secondary school. Based on a flexible grounded theory, life history and theories of pedagogical content knowledge, seven experienced history teachers have been interviewed about their conceptions of history teaching.</p><p>Development of insights into history teaching and the formation of knowledge can be described as involving both a refinement of practice and more revolutionary turning points. These insights emphasize that good knowledge of the subject is central for legitimacy and creativity. History teaching in Sweden is described as increasingly international and contem-porary, and focussed on students’ learning from various points of view. Varied teaching is stressed with the teacher in centre and also being able to take the role of arranger. Of importance is also the handling of teaching in history as a foundation course as well as an advanced or specialized course.</p><p>Influences from other subjects have had a diverse impact at the same time as personal interests and experiences, as well as external influences, have been important for the development of strategies. History teachers’ teaching strategies may be described in terms of 1) multiperspectivity, where different points of view and interpretations of history are central; 2) narrative history, where through both major and minor stories, a chronological structure and animation of the subject of history are strived after; 3) social scientific history, which uses history to explain contemporary society through making comparisons and seeking general patterns; and 4) an eclectic strategy, which strives after varieties of an individualised teaching of history by allowing students to make their ways into history in diverse ways. The experienced history teachers’ narratives make evident how the subject of history can be transformed, they demonstrate different conceivable ways of teaching history and reveal its complexity.</p><p>The teachers’ narratives show how, through their strategies in interaction with their insights in history teaching, they have created an overview and structure in the complex reality of teaching history. The teachers’ insights and strategies constitute a practice based contribution to a more experience informed practice and research on the teaching of history.</p>

The aim of this study has been to investigate, through the narratives of ex-perienced teachers, insights and strategies in the teaching of history in upper secondary school. Based on a flexible grounded theory, life history and theories of pedagogical content knowledge, seven experienced history teachers have been interviewed about their conceptions of history teaching. Development of insights into history teaching and the formation of knowledge can be described as involving both a refinement of practice and more revolutionary turning points. These insights emphasize that good knowledge of the subject is central for legitimacy and creativity. History teaching in Sweden is described as increasingly international and contem-porary, and focussed on students’ learning from various points of view. Varied teaching is stressed with the teacher in centre and also being able to take the role of arranger. Of importance is also the handling of teaching in history as a foundation course as well as an advanced or specialized course. Influences from other subjects have had a diverse impact at the same time as personal interests and experiences, as well as external influences, have been important for the development of strategies. History teachers’ teaching strategies may be described in terms of 1) multiperspectivity, where different points of view and interpretations of history are central; 2) narrative history, where through both major and minor stories, a chronological structure and animation of the subject of history are strived after; 3) social scientific history, which uses history to explain contemporary society through making comparisons and seeking general patterns; and 4) an eclectic strategy, which strives after varieties of an individualised teaching of history by allowing students to make their ways into history in diverse ways. The experienced history teachers’ narratives make evident how the subject of history can be transformed, they demonstrate different conceivable ways of teaching history and reveal its complexity. The teachers’ narratives show how, through their strategies in interaction with their insights in history teaching, they have created an overview and structure in the complex reality of teaching history. The teachers’ insights and strategies constitute a practice based contribution to a more experience informed practice and research on the teaching of history.

Studiens syfte är att studera lärare i fritidshems undervisningshandlingar för att förstå deras undervisningskunskap. I analysen av lärare i fritidshems undervisningshandlingar studeras hur undervisningssituationer kan initieras och hur lärare transformerar ämneskunskap, pedagogisk kunskap och kontextuell kunskap till undervisningshandlingar. Genom analysen av undervisningshandlingarna kan undervisningskunskap förstås. För att kunna identifiera lärare i fritidshems undervisningshandlingar används det teoretiska ramverket och analysverktyget Pedagogical Content Knowledge i studien (Shulman, 1986; 1987). När lärare i fritidshems handlingar innehåller kunskapskategorierna ämneskunskap, pedagogisk kunskap och kontextuell kunskap, analyseras de som undervisningshandlingar. Analysen av undervisningshandlingarna visar lärares undervisningskunskap. Observationer har varit den huvudsakliga materialinsamlingsmetoden i studien, både observationer dokumenterade via fältanteckningar och video. Tre lärare i fritidshem från tre olika fritidshem och skolor har deltagit i observationerna. Analysen av resultaten visar att lärarna i fritidshem i de utvalda observerade sekvenserna använder undervisningshandlingarna talhandlingar, praktiska och utforskande handlingar, demonstrationer och medskapande handlingar. Den undervisningskunskap som analysen synliggör påvisar att lärarna i fritidshem har kunskap om att bedriva undervisning som är förplanerad, lärarinitierad och barninitierad samt att undervisningssituationer som påbörjas med en initieringsform kan förändras till en annan. Lärare i fritidshem kan ses möjliggöra för barns delaktighet och aktörskap i sin undervisning eller styra undervisningen utifrån sin planering där barns delaktighet blir begränsad i undervisningssituationen. Lärare i fritidshems undervisningskunskap kan utifrån analysen även ses innehålla: en handlingsberedskap att se undervisningsmöjligheter i den omedelbara situationen i interaktion med barn, en anpassning av undervisning utifrån barns förståelse av den, en samtidighet att använda flera olika undervisningshandlingar samtidigt och en kunskap om organisering av undervisning för barns delaktighet och aktörskap där läraren intar olika positioner genom att styra, lyssna och agera på barns handlingar samt vara medskapare i undervisningen. / The aim of this study is to investigate school-age educare teachers’ teaching actions with the purpose of understanding their pedagogical content knowledge. The analysis looks at how teaching situations can be initiated and how teachers transform subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge into teaching actions. Through the analysis of the teaching actions, pedagogical content knowledge can be understood. Pedagogical Content Knowledge is the theoretical framework and tool used for the identification and analysis of teaching actions (Shulman, 1986; 1987). A teaching action is defined as an action in which all three knowledge categories, namely subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and contextual knowledge, are identified. These teaching actions are then analyzed to show the teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. Observations through both video and field notes have been the main method for producing data in the study. In the observations, three teachers from three different school-age educare settings have participated. The results show that the teachers in the selected settings use speech acts, activity-driven teaching, discovery, demonstration, and co-creation representations in their teaching. The analysis demonstrates that school-age educare teachers’ teaching could be preplanned by the teachers, initiated by the teachers, or initiated by the children. The teaching initiative can also shift during the teaching situation, and the teachers position the children in different ways in their teaching. They can enable the children to be actors in the teaching situation where the teachers assume a position of an amplifier and act as a support to the children’s participation or they can take control over the teaching situation and only give the children limited agency. In the results, the pedagogical content knowledge of teachers is analyzed resulting in the themes of readiness for action where the teachers can see opportunities for teaching in the immediate situation in their interaction with children, an adaptation of teaching to every child’s understanding, and a simultaneity of using different teaching representations at the same time. In the analysis, the teachers also show a pedagogical content knowledge of how to organize their teaching in order to enable the children to be participants and actors. The teachers use different teacher positions that allow them to control the teaching and to decide how much control to give to the children in teaching situations in which the school-age educare teacher assumes the position of a co-creator.

<p>  </p> <p>School-based agricultural education programs use laboratories to develop cognitive, psychomotor, and procedural skills (Phipps et al., 2008). It is important to help preservice teachers develop the ability to design instruction to cultivate skills that are taught in laboratory settings. Shulman (1986) authored a term called Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), which is a teacher’s knowledge of teaching. Animal science dissection was the topic chosen for this study, as PCK is topic-specific (Chan & Hume, 2018). There are many interpretations of PCK. The Refined Consensus Model (RCM) of PCK in Science Education (Carlson et al., 2019) was the conceptual model used in this study, as it is the most recent PCK model, and was developed by experts in science education from multiple countries. This model asserts that PCK is comprised of three realms: Collective PCK (cPCK), Personal PCK (pPCK), and Enacted PCK (ePCK). The first purpose of this study was to describe preservice agriculture teachers' Professional Knowledge Bases (which informs pPCK), before and after instruction, on the topic of animal science dissection in a Laboratory Practices in Agricultural Education (LPAE) course. The second purpose was to describe preservice agriculture teachers' cPCK, after instruction, on animal science dissection in an LPAE course. Content Representations (CoRes), a common tool used for PCK research, were used identify evidence of the Professional Knowledge Bases (PKBs) in preservice agriculture teachers’ instructional planning. Results from this study showed elevated descriptions of Professional Knowledge Bases, and participants collectively gained new ideas and collaboration skills. Overall LPAE dissection experience appeared to push the depth of student thinking and ability to make connections with future learning. Future research recommendations include using the RCM of PCK (Carlson et al., 2019) and CoRes in agricultural education; more PCK research, specifically exploring the development of Curricular Knowledge, on preservice teachers in agricultural education; and PCK research on other topics in agricultural education. It is recommended to not only include PCK development in teacher preparation programs but also have more than one exposure to PCK development.</p>

Det är allmänt accepterat att lärare bör använda sig av evolutionsteorin som ett sätt att binda ihop undervisningen i biologi. Åtskilliga studier har dock påvisat att flertalet elever har missuppfattningar och föreställningar inom evolution som motverkar deras inlärning av evolutionsteorin. Det samma gäller för begreppsförståelse och konflikten mellan betydelsen av ett ord i vardagsspråket och i ämnesspråket. Tidigare forskning har också kartlagt att biologilärare inte alltid är medvetna om elevers svårigheter eller utformar en evolutionsundervisning som utmanar elevers begreppsförståelse. Denna kvalitativa studie som genomfördes med hjälp av intervjuer med sex olika lärare visar på samma mönster och pekar på några möjliga lösningar för att förbättra elevers förståelse för de evolutionära mekanismerna.  Samtidigt som det finns en stor samstämmighet bland de intervjuade biologilärarna kring begreppsförståelse, precis som i många andra ämnen, resonerar de olika om vilka delar som är viktiga i evolutionsundervisningen och varför. En del fokuserar mer på att lära ut innehållet enligt den lärobok som används medan en del förklarar mer om varför eleverna ska lära sig om evolution.  Som ett resultat av denna studie föreslås bland annat att undervisningen om evolution borde inledas så tidigt som möjligt för att i största möjliga mån minimera risken för att olika missuppfattningar och föreställningar kring evolution inte ska cementeras tidigt. I detta sammanhang bör också information kring ämneskunskap förmedlas vid överlämningarna från ett stadium till ett annat i grundskolan. Vidare föreslås att användandet av CoRe-verktyget implementeras i planeringen av undervisningen och att det införs som ett moment under VFU- arbetet för blivande ämneslärare. Det faktum att tid är en bristvara för lärare innebär att det sällan finns tid för egen reflektion. Därför måste arbetet med CoRe-verktyget schemaläggas på samma sätt som många skolor idag arbetar med kooperativt lärande.