This mixed method study sought to explore the perceptions of key stakeholders in education, on the role and contribution of ICT in Scottish secondary schools towards generic skills development among pupils for post school transitions. The timing of this study coincided with a period characterised by contextual pressures globally, marked with technology changes, youth unemployment and curriculum reviews. A review of literature was conducted systematically to evaluate the explicit permeation of ICT in Scottish schools. A sequential mixed method design was adopted for the two phased study commencing with a convenience sampling technique for the first phase, involving 1364 upper secondary school pupils from all eight schools, 64 teachers and the 17 employers in one local Council in Scotland. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select two sample schools for the second phase, based on best use and practices of ICT. Questionnaires were administered online and in person at the first phase, followed by a semi structured interview at the second phase. SPSS was used for descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and one way Anova, while Nvivo 10 software was used for thematic analysis from the interview transcript. The study offers a framework for personalisation starting with identification of pupils’ ability and ICT skill level at inception classes, followed by a personalised learning design incorporating pupils’ interest, ability and post school destination. The study also proposes separate roles for teachers and policy makers in order to maintain teachers’ autonomy, as policy makers’ interference has been identified to have an impact on teachers’ professionalism, effectiveness and confidence necessary for imparting generic skills in pupils. A series of recommendations are provided for future research, including a longitudinal evaluation of generic skills acquired from individual school subjects through the upper school years to post school destination, to ascertain effective transfer and sustainability of generic skills.

The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is approaching its end and it is important to investigate the effects of the efforts to implement education for sustainable development (ESD) nationally, before decisions on forthcoming efforts are made. There are few investigations of the effect of ESD implementation that take a broad approach. In order to measure the educational effects of ESD implementation broadly and inclusively, I introduce the concept of sustainability consciousness (SC), which will be operationalized into the research through a Likert scale questionnaire. This licentiate thesis contributes new knowledge on the implementation of ESD in the Swedish school system as reflected in young people’s SC. Two studies have been conducted. In the first study, I investigated the effects of ESD implementation by a comparison of SC between students in schools with an explicit ESD approach and control schools without an explicit approach. In the second study, I investigated whether the perceptual dip among adolescents found in the field of environmental education was also present in the economic and social dimensions of their SC in addition to the environmental one. The total sample included 2 413 students in 6th, 9th and 12th grades of the Swedish schools system. Results of the two studies indicate that the implementation of ESD in the Swedish compulsory school system does not seem to have been particularly successful as there are only small positive effects of an explicit ESD approach in 6th grade and even a small negative effect of an explicit ESD approach in the 9th grade. Furthermore, the dip in adolescent 9th graders’ SC is confirmed. This indicates that different age groups tackle the effects of the prevailing traditional sustainability teaching in different ways, which suggests that ESD in schools need to be adapted to different levels. / Baksidestext: The UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development is drawing to an end and it is important to investigate the effects of implementing education for sustainable development (ESD) nationally. This thesis contributes new knowledge on the implementation of ESD in the Swedish school system. The concept of sustainability consciousness (SC) is introduced and operationalized to measure the educational effects of ESD by taking a broad and inclusive approach in two studies with a total of 2 413 students in 6th, 9th, and 12th grades. The first study investigated differences in students’ SC by comparing students in schools with an explicit ESD approach and control schools without an explicit approach. The second study investigated if there is a dip in 9th graders’ SC in comparison with younger and older age groups. Results reveal that the implementation of ESD in the Swedish schools does not seem to have been particularly successful as there are only small effects of an explicit ESD approach. A dip in adolescent 9th graders’ SC is also confirmed. Different age groups respond to the prevailing traditional sustainability teaching in different ways, which suggest that ESD in schools need to be adapted to different levels.

Djur kan påverka människor på många olika sätt. Djur kan påverka människors fysiska hälsa genom att sänka kolesterolhalten och blodtryck, de minskar även stress och ångest. Att använda sig av djur i undervisningen påverkar även barn. Genom att inkludera djur i undervisningen kan elever öka sina empatiska förmågor, sociala färdigheter och öka motivationen för skolarbete. I den befintliga forskningen saknas det dock en djupare förståelse om hur reptiler och insekter kan påverka eleverna. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur elever i årskurs fem själva upplever att reptiler och insekter påverkar dem genom att placera dessa djurgrupper i två klasser. För att undersöka detta används följande forskningsfrågor. Hur kan reptiler och insekter påverka eleverna? Vad kan barnen lära sig om djuren? Uppfattar eleverna någon skillnad på klassrumsklimatet före och efter placeringen av djur i klassrummet? Studien utgick ifrån fyra olika teorier, sociokulturell teori, anknytningsteori, human-animal interaction och animal-assisted interventions. Deltagarna arbetade i mindre grupper med djuren i klassrummet i två omgångar spridda över fem veckor. Under dessa fem veckor samlades data in kontinuerligt genom dagboksanteckningar, observationer och intervjuer. Av materialet framkom det att eleverna fick bättre relation till djuren med tiden, eleverna blev mer avslappnade i djurens närhet, eleverna lärde sig mycket om djurens behov, fysiska attribut och skötsel. Förändringen som några elever såg var att klasserna inte var lika högljudda, många var nyfikna på hur djuren mådde och tittade därför till dem efter varje rast och de pratade mer om respektive djur. / Animals can influence humans in various ways. Animals can affect human’s physical health through lowering the cholesterol content and blood pressure, they also reduce stress and anxiety. The use of animals in education can also affect children. By including animals in the education, students can increase their empathic abilities, social skills and increase the motivation for school. In the current research, however, there is a lack of deeper understanding of how reptiles and insects can affect pupils. The purpose of this study is to research how pupils in year five themselves experience that reptiles and insects affect them by placing these animals into two classes. To research this purpose the following research questions are used. How can reptiles and insects affect pupils? What can children learn about the animals? Do the pupils perceive any difference in the classroom climate before and after the placement of the animals in the classroom? The study was based om four different theories, sociocultural theory, attachment theory, human-animal interaction, and animal-assisted interventions. The participants worked in small groups with the animals in the classroom during two occasions spread over five weeks. During these five weeks, data were collected continuously though diary entries, observations, and interviews. The information that emerged from the collected data was that the pupils became better related to the animals over time, the pupils got more relaxed in vicinity of the animals, the pupils learned a lot about the animals’ needs, physical attributes, and how to care for the animals. The changes that some students noticed was that the classes were not as loud as usual, many were curious about how the animals were doing and therefore checked at them after each break and the pupils talked more about each animal.

This qualitative study mainly addresses and examines the impact digital tools have on pupilsin education concerning their comprehension and also the pupils' own perception of the useof digital tools. The study is based on a phenomenological and hermeneutic approach withfocus on two questions: “How can the use of digital tools affect pupils’ understanding ofscience education?” and “What opinions emerge in the pupils’ descriptions of the use ofdigital tools in science education?”. The questions are answered through analysing andinterpreting the response from a survey and interview and comparing them to previousresearch. The results, among other things, are that the effects on pupils' comprehension of theteaching in connection with the use of digital tools are both positive and negative. Thepositive opinions of the pupils show that teaching with digital tools makes learning more funand easy. Digital tools enable faster understanding of scientific concepts and can give thepupils quicker feedback from the teacher. Negative opinions, on the other hand, show that useof digital tools cause distractions during class that in turn lead to stress. Some pupils indicatethat the education becomes uniform when it includes digital tools. The study concludes thatthe opinions of the pupils are diverse, but that digital tools are mostly considered to have apositive impact on learning in science education.