Fully digital educational materials, collaborative Digital Textbooks (cDTB), are common in the Swedish educational materials market. This study examines, from the teachers' point of view, the advantages and challenges of cDTB, and the decision-making process of teachers regarding the selection of educational materials was analysed. Six teachers in Swedish compulsory school grades 7 – 9 were interviewed, and the results show that the teachers' integration of cDTB into their teaching is value-driven and embedded in a dynamic system. The cDTB are considered to have many advantages, and at the same time, during the work process, challenges have been encountered that have required various types of decisions. These decisions have often resulted in the use of other digital teaching and learning materials and printed textbooks as a supplement to the cDTB. The use of the cDTB, however, may change over time and look different depending on what the teacher perceives as possible in a specific classroom context. The main conclusion of the study is therefore that the value of the technology use in relation to the teaching goal is primary for the teacher, while the product of the technology use, i.e., the extent to which the cDTB is used, is secondary. / Heldigitala läromedel, collaborative Digital Textbooks (cDTB), är vanligt förekommande på den svenska läromedelsmarknaden. Denna studie undersöker, utifrån lärares synvinkel, fördelar respektive utmaningar med heldigitala läromedel, och lärares beslutsprocess gällande val av läromedel för undervisningspraktiken analyserades. 6 lärare i grundskolans årskurs 7 – 9 intervjuades, och resultatet visar att lärarnas integrering av heldigitala läromedel i undervisningen är värdedriven och inbyggd i ett dynamiskt system. De heldigitala läromedlen anses ha många fördelar, och samtidigt har lärarna stött på utmaningar under arbetsprocessen som krävt olika typer av beslut. Dessa beslut har ofta resulterat i att andra digitala lärresurser och tryckta läroböcker använts som komplettering till det heldigitala läromedlet. Användningen av det heldigitala läromedlet kan dock förändras över tid och se olika ut beroende på vad läraren uppfattar som möjligt i en viss klassrumskontext. Studiens huvudsakliga slutsats är därför att värdet av teknikanvändningen i förhållande till målet med undervisningen är det primära för läraren, medan produkten av teknikanvändningen, det vill säga i vilken omfattning det heldigitala läromedlet används, är sekundär.

This qualitative case study explored the writing assessment practices of upper elementary ELA teachers and factors that influenced their decision making when assessing student writing. Effective assessment practices are important because these practices can aid teachers in identifying student needs, designing tailored writing instruction, and monitoring student progress. This study included 5 teacher participants from 3rd to 5th grade. Participants were viewed as 1 case bound by their grade band and employment in a district focused on teaching and assessing writing. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, a think aloud task, a review of assessment artifacts and the researcher’s reflective journal. Analysis was completed following a five-phase model. Findings included: (1) teachers’ efficacy of assessing student writing is influenced by support received, (2) strengthening teachers’ assessment practices requires personalized, ongoing PD, (3) context influences teachers’ decision making when assessing student writing, and (4) teachers have varying levels of knowledge of formatively assessing student writing. These findings suggest implications for state administrators, district and school administrators, classroom teachers, curriculum leaders, and university programs.

In this study, teaching is seen as a complex decision-making situation, where different factors that influence the teaching and learning process are interwoven and connected with each other. To describe and analyse the complexity of teaching literature in a foreign language instruction setting is the aim of the study. The study was conducted with one teacher participant and her group of 16–17 years old pupils in a Swedish upper secondary school, while they read a German youth novel. Data on the teacher decisions in the planning phase was collected by interviewing the teacher before the actual teaching of the novel and between lessons, while the implementation of the teacher decisions was observed during the lessons. In the interviews, four decision areas showed to be central to the teacher: teaching goals, choice of text, task formulation, and the role of freedom and control as central concepts of learner autonomy. In the analysis chapters, the decisions within these different areas are described, commented on, and contextualized within the teacher’s own teaching concepts, and within current research and theory on foreign language reading, learning, and teaching. Factors critical to the decision-making situation are identified. The findings of the study show that teaching literature employs a decision-making process of great complexity because of the subjective character of the reading process. The complexity of the process is increased by the fact that a foreign language was being taught. Even for an experienced teacher (as the teacher who was observed in the study is) teaching decisions are characterized by a complexity which her many years of teaching experience can only partly compensate for. The main goal for the teaching of the novel was formulated by the teacher as ‘reading pleasure’, a concept grounded on a previous teaching experience. Since the teacher saw tasks as an obstacle for a reading experience, the task formulation constituted a conflict for her. In the study, the structure of the conflict is described by investigating different understandings of the concepts ‘reading pleasure’ and ‘task’. A crucial question was raised: What was considered to be the most important activity of the lesson: the reading or the tasks? When the task is secondary to the reading, there is an opportunity for the learner to focus on the reading experience; an important condition for reading pleasure. When the task is considered to be the primary activity, the student’s focus is on solving the task, and the reading activity thus looses its importance when the task is fulfilled. The interpretation of teaching concepts like ‘task’ is therefore a crucial factor that influences the teacher’s decisions about the teaching. A second concept that is central to the teacher’s teaching activities is ‘learner autonomy’. Since it is a central concept in the Swedish school curriculum, learner autonomy is held in very high esteem, whilst teacher control is consequently held in very low esteem. The idealization of learner autonomy, along with insufficient explanation of its impact on the distribution of the responsibility for the learning process between teachers and pupils are seen as factors that lead to an increased complexity in the decision-making process about how to manage situations where pupils are not prepared to take on the responsibility that is given to them.

Teachers are an essential link between the curriculum and student achievement. Teachers make instructional decisions that (1) determine the success or failure of a curricular intervention and (2) can result in either alignment or disconnect between the written and enacted curricula. Despite overwhelming evidence linking the success or the failure of a curricular intervention to the classroom teacher, little is known about the instructional decisions teachers make when using a standards-based curriculum. The use of standards-based curriculum is becoming common, therefore, it is essential to know how teachers are using it. This study focused on three questions. First, can the factors that influence instructional decisions be consolidated into manageable, representative, and useful categories? Second, what instructional decisions did six science teachers in a rural central Texas school district make when using the standards-based curriculum, CSCOPE? Finally, what steps did one district take to select and adopt the SBC, CSCOPE? This study found that the factors that influence instructional decisions could be clustered into four categories: (1) working conditions, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, (3) prior experiences, and (4) beliefs. Further, that teachers made instructional decisions both to use CSCOPE as intended and to modify CSCOPE lessons. Modifications to CSCOPE were made despite (1) an administrative mandate not to modify CSCOPE, (2) good administrative support, and (3) the stated intention of these teachers to adhere to CSCOPE. Teachers omitted, replaced and/or supplemented lessons and/or parts of lessons in order to (1) accommodate the needs of their students and (2) prepare students for the state assessment. Finally, several steps taken by Bluecat ISD administrators assisted teachers in using CSCOPE as intended. This study makes three contributions to the educational literature. First, no useful categorization exists of the factors that influence teachers‟ instructional decisions. Chapter II provides an initial categorization of these factors that is manageable, representative, and useful. Second, administrators need to be able to anticipate how teachers may use a standards-based curriculum. Chapter III identifies the instructional decisions made by these six science teachers. Chapter IV identifies the measures put in place to support teachers as they adjusted to CSCOPE.