The most common neuropsychiatric diagnose among children and adolescents in Swedish schools today is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many of these pupils are in need of special support and it is therefore important that special teachers and special educational needs coordinators (SENCO:s) have the competence required to meet their needs. The purpose of this essay was to study special teacher and SENCO students’ knowledge and attitudes regarding ADHD. This was done using a norm critical and gender perspective. Furthermore, the aim was to examine what kind of knowledge and pedagogical strategies that were transferred to the students during their university education. The study was carried out with a quantitative approach were the respondents (N=183) was asked to answer a questionnaire containing 31 questions about ADHD, gender and learning. Those selected for the study were all students attending their last semester of their university education. The response rate was 55,2 %. The result implies that the special teacher and SENCO students experience a lack of knowledge about ADHD and also that the university programs did not give the students enough education about ADHD. This was, according to the students, a shortfall which could lead to consequences in their future professions when it comes to give support to pupils in need of special support but also in the support of other teachers A majority of the respondents thought that differences exists between girls and boys when it comes to how the symptom of ADHD appears. The special teacher and SENCO students often seemed to believe that girls shows more inattentive symptoms compered to boys who more often shows symptoms of hyperactivity. However, they did not believe that the need for special support differ between girls and boys. The respondents did not support the idea that pupils with ADHD should be placed in special teaching groups; instead a majority advocated an inclusive perspective on learning. The students in general did not think that an ADHD-diagnose have a negative effect on the pupils’ learning process. Somewhat contradictory, they thought that diagnosed pupils often are in need of special support and that ADHD has a negative effect for the individual identification process. The students’ answers suggest that more education about ADHD is at need. This is important in several aspects. To be able to challenge the medical discourse in Swedish schools, knowledge about ADHD is crucial. The knowledge and awareness about ADHD also contributes to discover and challenge institutionalized norms and gender stereotypes. From a pedagogical view this is important since it makes it possible for future special teachers and SENCO:s to work against categorization, exclusion and stigmatization of pupils diagnosed with ADHD.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how the term "pupils in need of special support" is defined in Swedish central policy documents. The essay is based on a social constructive contribute knowledge about the term’s definition and interpretation with support in a range of scientific texts. The method for achieving the purpose based on qualitative textual analysis of Skollagen 2010:800, Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet- Lgr 11, Salamancadeklarationen and analysis of the result of three scientific studies.Neither Skollagen 2010:800 nor Lgr 11 gives a clear definition of the term “pupils in need of special support”. The Salamanca declaration defines the term as necessary due to either a disability or some form of learning difficulty. None of the analyzed policy documents provide a specific definition of who is considered to be in need of special educational needs. In the scientific studies, it is clear that the definition of “pupils in need of special support” in central policy documents is unclear. There are no clear guidelines as to which persons are considered to be in need of special support. The interpretation of the term is placed on the individual school or teacher. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur begreppet ”elever i behov av särskilt stöd” definieras i svenska centrala styr- och policydokument. Uppsatsen ska med utgångspunkt i ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv bidra med kunskap om begreppets definition och tolkning i dokumenten med stöd i ett urval vetenskapliga texter. Metoden för att uppnå syftet bygger på kvalitativ textanalys av Skollagen 2010:800, Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet, Lgr 11 och Salamancadeklarationen, samt analys av resultatet från tre vetenskapliga studier.Varken Skollagen 2010:800 eller Lgr 11 ger någon tydlig definition på begreppet ”elever i behov av särkilt stöd”. Salamancadeklarationen definierar begreppet som behov som beror på antingen ett funktionshinder eller någon form för inlärningssvårighet. Ingen av de analyserade styr- och policydokumenten ger någon specifik definition av vilka som anses vara i behov av särkilt stöd.I de vetenskapliga studierna framgår det att definitionen av begreppet ”elever i behov av särkilt stöd” i centrala styr- och policydokumenten är otydlig. Det finns inga tydliga riktlinjer för vilka personer som anses vara i behov av särkilt stöd. Tolkningen av begreppet läggs på den enskilde, skola eller lärare.

<p>In all times school has defined and categorized pupils from a hypothetical normality. The National Agency for Education is today critical to how the municipalities provide for the necessity of special support for pupils with difficulties in school.</p><p>Pupil`s assistants has been a growing profession in school during the last decade and their importance for the pupils is relatively unexplored. The aim of this study is to find out how the pupils think about having pupil`s assistant during the obligatory school on the basis of the ideas of power, knowledge, involvment and understanding. The study is based on qualitative interviews, consisting of half-structured questions, with eight pupils that have or have had pupil`s assistant during their time in senior compulsory school. The result notifies that the pupils feel powerless in school, they have no opportunity to affect and they do not think they are someone that could make any change. With the pupil`s assistant the pupils get an opportunity to affect and a feeling of recognition. The pupil thinks that the pupil`s assistant is a translator of the teachers instructions and someone who builds a bridge between teacher and pupil. There is a fear within the pupils to be different, to not belong. When the pupil`s assistance is given in the classroom the pupil think they belong more to the class than if the assistance is given outside the classroom. With assistance outside the classroom the pupil sees the pupil`s assistant more as a teacher.</p>

In all times school has defined and categorized pupils from a hypothetical normality. The National Agency for Education is today critical to how the municipalities provide for the necessity of special support for pupils with difficulties in school. Pupil`s assistants has been a growing profession in school during the last decade and their importance for the pupils is relatively unexplored. The aim of this study is to find out how the pupils think about having pupil`s assistant during the obligatory school on the basis of the ideas of power, knowledge, involvment and understanding. The study is based on qualitative interviews, consisting of half-structured questions, with eight pupils that have or have had pupil`s assistant during their time in senior compulsory school. The result notifies that the pupils feel powerless in school, they have no opportunity to affect and they do not think they are someone that could make any change. With the pupil`s assistant the pupils get an opportunity to affect and a feeling of recognition. The pupil thinks that the pupil`s assistant is a translator of the teachers instructions and someone who builds a bridge between teacher and pupil. There is a fear within the pupils to be different, to not belong. When the pupil`s assistance is given in the classroom the pupil think they belong more to the class than if the assistance is given outside the classroom. With assistance outside the classroom the pupil sees the pupil`s assistant more as a teacher.

Syftet med den här studien var att undersöka hur det särskilda läs-, uttals- och skrivstöd fungerar som elever får i en särskild studioverksamhet på en sfi-skola och vad jag som sfilärare kan tänka på för att stödja eleverna så att de når målen. I samband med detta har jag även studerat och jämfört de fyra elevernas texter i tal och skrift samt deras tankar kring att ha "en bra svenska", självförtroende och om acceptans i det svenska samhället. Studien som är en utvärdering av en särskild stödundervisning för elever på en sfi-skola i Sverige visar med hjälp av tester och intervjuer att verksamheten är ett värdefullt komplement till den ordinarie verksamheten. De fyra intervjuade eleverna menar att man lär sig snabbare i "studion"och får mer individuell tid än i den ordinarie undervisningen. Några fonemtest visar att de fyra eleverna nästan halverat sina fel vid det andra testet, medan fyra andra elever, som aldrig har fått särskilt stöd, endast gör en minskning med nio av totalt 90 fel. Eleverna, som har fått stöd, börjar lära sig de svenska språkljuden i tal och skrift men de gör fortfarande många fel. För de fyra eleverna är det viktigt att lära sig att kommunicera som för dem innebär att kunna prata och göra sig förstådda på svenska. "En bra svenska" menar eleverna betyder att ha ett bra svenskt uttal. Endast den kvinnliga eleven har känt sig diskriminerad eller blivit missförstådd p.g.a. sitt svenska uttal. Enligt resultaten, kan jag och mina kollegor i studion stödja eleverna så att de snabbare lär sig de svenska språkljuden och kan göra sig förstådda i det svenska samhället. / The aim with this study was to examine how the specified reading, pronunciation and writing support functions for students in a special studio at an SFI-school and what I, as an SFIteacher, can do to support students to reach their aims. In connection with this I have also studied and compared the four students' texts in speech and writing as well as their thoughts on having "Good Swedish", confidence and acceptance in the Swedish society. The study which is an evaluation of a special remedial teaching for students at a SFI-school in Sweden shows through tests and interviews that the business is a valuable addition to the regular education. The four students think that they learn faster and get more individual teaching in the "studio" than in their class. Some phoneme tests show that the four students nearly eliminate their errors at the second test, while four other students, who never have had special remedial support, only reduce their errors by nine pieces out of 90. The students who have had remedial support begin to learn Swedish phonemes, speech sounds and spelling, but they still make many errors. For all students it is important to learn to communicate, which means to speak and to be understood in Swedish. "Good Swedish" for the students means to have a good Swedish pronunciation. Only the female student has felt discriminated or misunderstood because of her Swedish pronunciation. According to the results, me and my colleagues in the studio can support the students so that they learn the Swedish language sounds quickly and make themselves understood in Swedish society.

The aim of this study is to describe the variation in two teachers perceptions of their work with individual developments. The study begins with a review of the Swedish National Agency for Education’s guidelines for working with individual developments. With this I want to give the reader an insight into the teachers working conditions and the responsibilities the school authorities have against their students. Using phenomenography, I have examined the differences between two mathematic teacher’s perceptions in working with individual developments for student’s in need of special education.     My questions are:   How do mathemathic teachers perceive their work with individual developments?   What support and what information do the teacher’s feel that they have been given in order to use individual developments as a tool?   How do the teachers perceive that their work situation has influenced their work with individual developments?   The two teachers I have interviewed showed different perceptions both in how they understood the guidelines for working with individual developments and how they chose to work with them. My conclusion is that the work situation and further education are those things that the most affects the perceptions of working with individual developments. The different working conditions of the teachers affect how they formulate the individual developments and how they use them as tools. Knowledge and teamwork are the key words in order to work succesfully with individual developments. Didactic knowledge is needed to determine which teaching materials that are useful and really helps the student. Teachers need support when introducing new reforms and when working with all the documentation. A good action plan is neccessary for students in need of special education and collaboration between everyone involved in the student's school situation. The main issue we have is to resolve how we can help teachers manage their teaching situation so they can respond to all students based on each student's unique needs.   Keywords:   Individual development   Phenomenography   Special support / Studiens syfte är att beskriva variationen i två lärares uppfattningar om åtgärdsprogram. Arbetet inleds med en genomgång av Skolverkets riktlinjer för arbete med åtgärdsprogram. Detta för att ge läsaren en inblick i de förutsättningar som lärarna har och vilka skyldigheter skolverksamheten har gentemot eleverna. Med hjälp av fenomenografin har jag undersökt vad som skiljer två matematiklärares uppfattningar åt i arbetet med åtgärdsprogram. Mina frågeställningar är:   Hur uppfattar matematiklärare arbetet med åtgärdsprogram? Vilket stöd och vilken information uppfattar lärarna att de fått för att kunna använda åtgärdsprogrammen som ett redskap? Hur uppfattar lärarna att deras arbetssituation påverkat arbetet med åtgärdsprogrammen?   De två lärare jag har intervjuat visar på skilda uppfattningar både i hur de uppfattat riktlinjerna kring arbetet med åtgärdsprogram samt hur de valt att arbeta med åtgärdsprogram. Min slutsats är att arbetssituationen och fortbildning är det som mest påverkar uppfattningen om åtgärdsprogram. Lärarnas olika förutsättningar påverkar hur de utformar åtgärdsprogrammen och hur de sedan använder dem som arbetsredskap. Kunskap och samarbete är nyckelorden för att lyckas med åtgärdsprogram. Didaktiska kunskaper behövs för att kunna avgöra vilka pedagogiska hjälpmedel som är användbara och verkligen hjälper eleven. Lärare behöver stöd vid införandet av nya reformer och i arbetet med all dokumentation. Det behövs en bra handlingsplan för elever i behov av särskilt stöd och ett samarbete mellan alla som är inblandade i elevens skolsituation. Den viktigaste frågan vi har att lösa är hur vi kan hjälpa lärare att klara sin undervisningssituation så de kan bemöta alla elever utifrån varje elevs unika behov.      Nyckelord:   Åtgärdsprogram   Fenomenografi   Särskilt stöd

The purpose of this study is to investigate how five educators define the concepts of inclusion and children in need of special support. The purpose is also to see in what way they in the discursive practice design an inclusive curriculum. The research questions posed were: 1) in what way do educators define the concept of children in need of special support, 2) in what way do educators speak when describing an inclusive preschool and 3) in what way do educators design an inclusive curriculum based on their understanding of the definition of children in need of special support. To answer these questions, we have used a qualitative method where we conducted observations and interviews. The study was based on post structural theory. We analyzed the results based on the educators' linguistic expressions and definitions. The conclusions in this study showed that educators have similar definitions of the concept of inclusion and children in need of special support. Some of these definitions concern children with diagnoses and children without, children with difficulty, special children, children who run away, children who do not follow instructions, children with various physical and cognitive barriers. Furthermore, the results showed that all participants believe that the environment is the most important factor in creating an inclusive curriculum thusly that it is the environment that should be adapted to the child and not the child to the environment.

The objective of the study is to examine preschool-teachers perception of how “special support” differs from support to try to define the educator’s perception of the term special support. My research questions are: how differs special support from support? What does it take for a child to get special support for its needs? How does the assessment work? How interprets the respondent the mission in the curriculum and quote from Skolverkets general advice? I have made a qualitative survey with interviews as my data collection method. The theory which I have used are social constructive theory which permeate my analysis. I have also used two special educational perspectives, individual perspective and relational perspective, in the analysis to make visible how educators and the assessment liable consider children’s difficulties. The result shows that the preschool-teachers interpret the term “special support” differently. What they commonly define as a child in need of special support is that the child needs guidance/ support by a grown up in all situations most part, or all parts of the day. There are varying views of whether there are any differences between special support and support. The preschool-teachers interpret the quotes from the curriculum and Skolverkets general advice a bit differently, where one half felt that Skolverkets formulation more clearly highlighted children’s rights and the other half didn’t think that there was any difference. The result also shows that the educators feel that the economy doesn’t allow that the children to get the support that they need.

<p>The purpose of this study is to find whether there is any truth in the thesis that adopted children from abroad is in greater need of special support, in particular regarding factors that might inhibit the language development that may cause language problems.</p><p>To achieve knowledge for this study, the methods have been to seek and analyze literature that discusses theories about language development and language socialization. To understand if theory and reality is cohesive, two interviews was conducted with special teachers that have had experiences teaching adopted children, analyzes of the results contra literature has been somewhat important and necessary. To ensure the reliability the interviews was recorded on tape and later transcribed.</p><p>The results from literature studies indicates that adopted children are more likely to be in need of special support in school due to factors concerning, among other things, adaptation difficulties, language progress and identity. Overall, language progress is depended on children’s total progress that includes physical, emotional and psychological condition. The results of the interviews agree in many aspects and outline the importance of giving such adopted children correct and individual support.</p><p>The conclusions of this study is that adopted children from abroad can, in some cases, be in need of special support in school, but not necessarily just because they are adopted. Language socialization explains how a language is learned and used and in that sense, it’s very important to be aware of the responsibility you have as a teacher to overview large spread of individuals and their progress.</p>

The purpose of this study is to find whether there is any truth in the thesis that adopted children from abroad is in greater need of special support, in particular regarding factors that might inhibit the language development that may cause language problems. To achieve knowledge for this study, the methods have been to seek and analyze literature that discusses theories about language development and language socialization. To understand if theory and reality is cohesive, two interviews was conducted with special teachers that have had experiences teaching adopted children, analyzes of the results contra literature has been somewhat important and necessary. To ensure the reliability the interviews was recorded on tape and later transcribed. The results from literature studies indicates that adopted children are more likely to be in need of special support in school due to factors concerning, among other things, adaptation difficulties, language progress and identity. Overall, language progress is depended on children’s total progress that includes physical, emotional and psychological condition. The results of the interviews agree in many aspects and outline the importance of giving such adopted children correct and individual support. The conclusions of this study is that adopted children from abroad can, in some cases, be in need of special support in school, but not necessarily just because they are adopted. Language socialization explains how a language is learned and used and in that sense, it’s very important to be aware of the responsibility you have as a teacher to overview large spread of individuals and their progress.