Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur digitala verktyg används i den undervisning av elever i matematiksvårigheter som forskningen studerat, samt vilka effekter denna undervisning har på elevernas matematiska utveckling och lärande. Metoden för detta arbete är en systematisk litteraturstudie, där 30 forskningsstudier inom området kartläggs och analyseras. Forskningsfältet analyseras översiktligt, följt av en fördjupad analys. Resultatet av litteraturstudien tyder på en stor variation kring de digitala verktygens användningsområden. Av studien framgår att digitala verktyg används för att låta elever följa instruktioner och lösa matematiska uppgifter, att undervisa med virtuellt laborativt material, för anpassningar och som hjälpmedel, för att kommunicera och ge återkoppling, för en spelbaserad undervisning samt för mängdträning och repetition i matematik. Resultatet tyder överlag på positiva effekter av en undervisning med digitala verktyg på elever i matematiksvårigheter gällande lärande och utveckling i matematik. Resultatet tyder även på att den undervisning som framgår av forskningsstudierna till övervägande del går ut på att eleven interagerar med det digitala verktyget på egen hand. Detta resultat diskuteras utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på kunskap och lärande. Implikationer för vidare forskning och konsekvenser för undervisning diskuteras. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how digital tools are used in the teaching of students in mathematical diffuculties that research has studied, and the effects of this teaching on the students’ mathematical development and learning. The method for this study is a systematic review, where 30 research studies are charted and analyzed. The field of research is surveyed, followed by a profound analysis. The results of the study indicates that there is a great variety in the use of digital tools. The study shows that digital tools are used by letting students follow instructions and solve mathematical problems, for teaching with virtual manipulatives, as accommodations and support tools, for communication and feedback, for game-based learning and for increasing the amount of mathematical practice and repetition. The overall results indicate positive effects of teching with digital tools on mathematical learning and development of students in mathematical difficulties. The results also indicate that the teaching methods in the research studies are mainly based on letting the students interact with the digital tools on their own. This result is discussed based on a sociocultural perspective on knowledge and learning. Implications for further research and practice are discussed.

The aim of this study was to find out whether six weeks of reciprocal teaching in grade 2 and 3 would improve pupils text comprehension. Students’ text comprehension was assessed with a standardized test and by analysing students’ use of meta-cognitive strategies in a conversation about a text. The assessments were carried out pre- and post-intervention. Sixteen pupils were identified with weak text comprehension in a standardized assessment of text comprehension in grade 2 and 3 respectively with a total of 78 students participating in the assessment. The students with weak text comprehension were divided in an intervention group (eight pupils) and a control group (eight pupils). The control group participated in regular class-room instruction during the intervention.    The intervention was carried out in small groups and focused on meta-cognitive strategies (e.g. predicting story-content, ask questions to the text, identifying and learning new words and summarizing story-content) and lasted for six weeks, three lessons a week and about 35 minutes/lesson. The students in the intervention group improved their results in the standardized test in text comprehension compared to the control group. The pupils in the intervention group used meta-cognitive strategies to a larger extent after the intervention compared to before the intervention. They also increased their talking space in a conversation about a text compared to the control group. Interaction with each other didn´t increase noticeably after six weeks of intervention in neither group. No statistical analysis were conducted.

The role of the choir leader is a complex one. When working with a choir, choir leaders often use several aspects of their professional role. The aim of this qualitative study is to describe, verbalise and make visible the mediating tools that choir directors working with children and youth choirs use. In a longitude study, four choir leaders were observed closely while working with their choirs. They also took part in semi-structured interviews. The empirical data material consists of observation notes, reflective writing, individualinterviews, focus conversations and videotapes. Analysed from a sociocultural perspective, the result points to eight groups of mediating tools: a) a listening attitude towards the choir, with the music in focus; b) a variation in ways of working with the choir, where a variety of physical tools are used; c) the use of musical routines; d) the choir director acting as a role model in shaping musicalexpression with the group; e) a concentrated cooperation with the choir through short and expressive instructions; f) reflection in practice by planning and self-evaluation; g) storytelling, which results in memory training, stimulation of the imagination and the sharing of common experience, and h) the use of target images expressed as visions, small/big goals or jointly stated, communicated targets. The choir directors who participated in the study use a variety of approaches and ways of working as a strategy for communicating and working with child and youth choirs.

In this study it is argued that spelling correction as a collaborative process benefits students. It is also argued that the correction process is a structured process which means that pupils tend to follow a pattern when it comes to who initiates and who executes the correction. As a teacher student within the subject of English as a foreign language, I find it interesting and useful to know more about spelling correction in collaborative writing and what pedagogical implications it has. Correction and repair from a Conversation Analytical point of view is a phenomenon which has been the main object of investigation for many researchers. I noticed that correction is used a lot in written assignments among the students as well as in conversational contexts. In the literature it is also clear that research about written correction is limited and hard to find. Hence, there was a need to investigate this area in the field of correction and repair.The process of spelling correction was investigated using conversation analysis and from a sociocultural point of view the pedagogical implications of this process were considered. The study is based on video-recordings of four pairs in an upper secondary school in Sweden within the subject of English as a foreign language. I found that there is a preference for self correction and that the pupils only intervene in the correction process when necessary. I also found correction to be a collaborative process which benefits the construction of knowledge as students scaffold each other during a correction sequence.

I den nuvarande läroplanen står det att alla som arbetar i skolan har ansvar att motverka de traditionella genusmönster som finns. Sedan länge har matematikämnet varit något som samhället anser är maskulint (Hyde, Lindberg, Linn, Ellis & Williams, 2008). De förväntningar vi har på flickor respektive pojkar kan leda till att vi bemöter dem olika på grund av deras genustillhörighet. En form av bemötande är feedback och elever får ta del av en stor mängd feedback dagligen. I denna uppsats undersöks hur feedback ges till flickor respektive pojkar i matematikämnet, med anledning av att se vilka skillnader och likheter som finns. Uppsatsen utgår från ett sociokulturellt perspektiv samt Tunstall och Gipps (1996) kategorier av värderande och beskrivande feedback. Både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ metod har använts för att besvara studiens syfte. Underlaget till denna uppsats är observationer från matematiklektioner. Resultatet visar att läraren gav nästan dubbelt så mycket feedback till pojkar. Den feedback som gavs till pojkar kan också ge ökade möjligheter till lärande i matematik. / The current curriculum states that everybody working in schools are responsible to counteract the traditional gender patterns. Mathematics has under a long time been a masculine subject (Hyde, Lindberg, Linn, Ellis & Williams, 2008). We have expectations on girls respective boys and that can lead to that we treat them differently, just because of their gender identity. An example of treatment is feedback and pupils get a lot of feedback every day. This thesis examines how teachers give feedback to girls respective boys in mathematics, to see what differences and similarities exist. The thesis is based on a sociocultural perspective and Tunstall and Gipps (1996) categories of evaluative and descriptive feedback. Both a qualitative and a quantitative method have been used to answer the aim of the thesis. The results show that teachers gave almost twice as much feedback to boys than to girls. The feedback that was given to boys can result in a higher level of learning in mathematics.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the writing process in the teaching of the subject of Swedish at upper secondary school. This study analyses the relations between the pupils’ writing and the school environment in which the writing takes place and how the pupils position themselves and others in relation to their use of digital artefacts and norms in the classroom. The empirical material has been created in three classes at two different schools. The data consists of participant observations of 42 lessons, all of which were video recorded using two cameras, and audio recorded semi-structured interviews with 24 pupils and 3 teachers. Theoretically, the study is based on sociocultural perspectives on literacy and learning and a multimodal social semiotic understanding of meaning-making based on an interest in the use of resources that constitute meaning in the social environment. From an ecological perspective, writing is examined as discourses in which the participants and the environment interact. Analytic concepts are used by inspiration from Kress et al (2005) and Smidt (2002). The figure “Writing roles in fields of tension” has been constructed to illustrate the students’ writing roles and positioning's in the empirical material. The results show that the shift from paper and pen to computer and screen means more than a shift change in the use of artefacts. The teaching of digital writing has a point of departure as a project in communication. In multimodal environments, pupils are often left without access to a teacher due to the layout of the room. This leads to positioning in roles, such as help seeker and helper. The classrooms are characterised by the constant presence of social media and its demands on students’ attention. Earlier generations of writing processes emphasised the importance of prewriting, drafting and revision in stages. In the digital writing process these stages are lacking. In this context, the digital writing process can be understood as a “fourth generation process” consisting of writing, saving and sending. The fourth generation of writing process stresses on the writing at a micro- rather than macro level. The word processing functions of spelling and grammar offer clickable solutions to problems, but cannot be considered as tools for learning. In the digital classroom pupils are vulnerable, left to their own resources and have difficulties in handling complex assignments.

Abstract This research deals with the strengthening of work-life cooperation in secondary vocational music education leading to basic qualification. The starting point is to examine students' and professional musicians’ action processes in workshops based on a new kind of cooperation in on-the-job learning and to evaluate their suitability to arranging on-the-job learning. The original publications are joined by the framework of sociocultural learning. The purpose of this research is to add understanding about realizing work-life cooperation and learning produced in workshop action in the education of musicians. The pedagogical purpose is to open paths to planning and availing of problem-based learning in on-the-job method which adds to the learner´s involvement. The research is a qualitative case study comprising the total of 143 students and several teachers in the Conservatoire in Oulu and a few professional musicians. The research material (original publications I-III) consists of structured questionnaires, namely: a) students' workshop plans and learning objectives written before the workshops, and b) the written reflective reports after the workshop experiences. The research data was dealt with a theory-based contents analysis. The data was transcribed and tabulated according to a Finnish meta-study categories of learning obstacles and promoters. To widen his understanding of the workshop method the researcher acted as a participating observer in the workshops of Conservatory teachers and professional musicians (6 workshops) the results of which were reported in the original publication IV. The research results show that acting as a musician in a workshop supports learning professional skills and the key competences of lifelong learning. From the pedagogical viewpoint workshop action 1) emphasizes the learner's initiative and taking responsibility, 2) offers work environments typical of music field, 3) builds the action on problem solving and interaction, and 4) changes the role of a visiting professional musician from a source of information and the demonstrator of the “right” performances to a fellow musician. The challenge of vocational teachers is to develop their pedagogical competencies especially in the designing and coordinating learning environments that support students´ learning broadly. This research will bring a new, concrete viewpoint to the planning and implementation of work-life cooperation. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimus käsittelee työelämäyhteistyön vahvistamista musiikkialan perustutkintoon johtavassa toisen asteen ammatillisessa koulutuksessa. Lähtökohtana on tarkastella opiskelijoiden ja ammattimuusikoiden uudenlaiseen yhteistyöhön perustuvien työssäoppimisen työpajojen toimintaprosesseja sekä arvioida niiden soveltuvuutta työssäoppimisen järjestämisessä. Empiiristä tutkimusta yhdistää sosiokulttuurisen oppimisen viitekehys. Tutkimuksen tavoite on lisätä ymmärrystä työelämäyhteistyön toteuttamisesta sekä työpajatoiminnan tuottamasta oppimisesta muusikoiden koulutuksessa. Pedagogisena tavoitteena on avata suuntia opiskelijan osallisuutta lisäävän, ongelmaperustaisen työssäoppimismenetelmän suunnittelulle ja hyödyntämiselle. Tutkimus on laadullinen tapaustutkimus, johon osallistui vuosina 2003–2011 yhteensä 143 Oulun konservatorion opiskelijaa, lukuisia opettajia sekä ammattimuusikoita. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu (osajulkaisut I–III) strukturoiduista kyselyistä, joita ovat: a) opiskelijoiden ennen työpajaa kirjoittamat työpajasuunnitelmat ja oppimistavoitteet sekä b) työpajan jälkeen tehdyt kokemusten kirjalliset reflektoinnit. Aineiston analyysissä käytettiin teorialähtöistä sisällönanalyysiä. Aineisto litteroitiin ja taulukoitiin suomalaisen työssäoppimisesta tehdyn metatutkimuksen oppimista edistävien ja estävien kategorioiden mukaan. Työpajamenetelmään liittyvän ymmärryksen laajentamiseksi tutkija teki osallistuvaa havainnointia konservatorion opettajien ja ammattimuusikoiden työpajoissa (6 kpl), joiden tuloksista raportoitiin osajulkaisussa IV. Tutkimustulokset osoittavat, että muusikkona toimiminen työpajassa tukee oppimista ammatillisen osaamisen sekä elinikäisen oppimisen avaintaitojen kehittymisen osalta. Pedagogisesta näkökulmasta työpajatyöskentelyssä korostuvat 1) oppijan aloitteellisuus ja vastuun ottaminen, 2) toimiminen musiikkialalle tyypillisissä työympäristöissä, 3) ongelmanratkaisukeskeisyys ja vuorovaikutus, 4) kanssamuusikkous – vierailevan ammattimuusikon muuttunut rooli tietoa jakavasta mestarista ja ”oikeiden” suoritusten demonstroijasta yhtyekumppaniksi. Ammatillisten opettajien haasteena on kehittää pedagogista osaamistaan erityisesti opiskelijoiden oppimista laaja-alaisesti tukevien oppimisympäristöjen suunnittelussa ja koordinoinnissa. Tämä tutkimus tuo uuden, konkreettisen näkökulman työelämäyhteistyön suunnitteluun ja toteutukseen.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Marjorie R. Hancock / Linda P. Thurston / The purpose of this qualitative collective case study was to examine the sociocultural and gender role expectation factors that contributed to the success of 10 Latina/Hispanic female high school graduates now attending a large university in the Midwest. Additionally, the study investigated the characteristics of resilience and persistence that helped these women continue their pursuit of higher education in spite of the challenges they faced. The participants in this study were identified as recent immigrants from Mexico or Mexican-Americans born in the United States of Mexican immigrant parents. All of these respondents graduated from a midwestern K-12 public school system and are now attending a large Midwestern university. This study used a qualitative paradigm and open-ended, in-depth interviews for data collection. The 17 question interview focused on the areas of sociocultural backgrounds, resilience/persistence factors, and gender role expectations. Demographic data about the participants’ life histories and educational experiences were collected during the 90-minute interviews. Findings in the study indicated that Latinas are faced with many conflicts. They have specific gender role expectations placed on them and are limited by cultural rules and norms. Along with these conflicts they learn to build resilience/persistence attributes to help them succeed in their academic careers. The seven factors that contributed to the lived experiences and factors of resilience/persistence of Latina/Hispanic female academic success included: 1) lived discrimination; 2) the need to obtain an education that would lead to a better life; 3) active involvement in extracurricular activities in school; 4) strict and protective parents; 5) positive role models from family and other Latinas; 6) traumatic life experiences; 7) and strong familial/parental support. Additionally, the study also revealed six more contributing factors to the sociocultural and gender role expectations and pressures that impact the success of Latina/Hispanic female students in a K-12 public school system. Those factors included traditional Hispanic households, living in two worlds, traditional gender role expectations, independence from family, transference of parental gender role expectations, and the behavioral expectations for Latinas. The study offers recommendations for future studies and implications for practice advising and encouraging Hispanic females to pursue their academic goals.

Public education is in the ongoing process of developing student-focused and personalized learning approaches. This transformation effort requires school staffs to shift cultures toward collaboration and continuous professional development in pursuit of meaningful and equitable learning success for all students. In order to address this need, close examination of social interactions during recurring professional discussions is required. The purpose of this sociocultural study was to investigate how a group of educators collectively made sense of pedagogical practices and beliefs over time, and to identify practices conducive to their professional learning in a situated series focused on instructional leadership within a British Columbia school district. Participants were 10 newly appointed vice-principals and vice-principal candidates, one assistant superintendent, and myself as the researcher and series facilitator. Data collection included audiotaping of five 3-hour sessions across a three-month period, participant reflections written during sessions and in blog posts between sessions, and associated artefact and macro-Discourse data. Transcriptions provided the primary data source for the critical discourse analysis (Gee, 2011a) and sociocultural discourse analysis (Mercer, 2008, 2010) methods. Findings indicated shifts in the nature of participation for the group of educators across sessions, including the development of sense of community, collective familiarization with and application of productive discursive interactions, and the co-construction of common pedagogical knowledge. The findings extend the literature on educational leadership and professional development, as I elaborate how these shifts emerged as a collective endeavour over time and discuss noteworthy supportive conditions. / Graduate

A particular interest of distance education researchers is the community of inquiry framework, which was developed for the purpose of taking a closer look at computer mediated communication in educational contexts (Garrison, Anderson, Archer, 2000). However, it is somewhat surprising that although the community of inquiry framework has been developed based on distance education contexts, it does not consider the complexities of the community’s global and local contexts, the potential linguistic demands of the teaching and learning contexts, and how power, agency, and identities are negotiated in these contexts. Through six cases of online instructors teaching in international contexts at the tertiary level, I explored the negotiation of teaching presence as viewed through the lens of cultural historical activity theory (Engeström, 1999, 2001). In this view, instructors are engaged in a dynamic process in which teaching presence is shaped through the mediating components of the activity system. This multi-case study employed cross case analysis drawing on data from interviews with students, program coordinators, and instructors, in addition to analyses of discussion forum transcripts, course documents, formative evaluations, student and instructor reflections, and researcher-participant observations. The linguistic challenges faced by both instructor and students for whom the language of instruction was a second or third language and instructors’ sociocultural identities, positioning, and conceptualization of the online interaction spaces were found to be important mediators in the negotiation of teaching presence. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate