Previous studies show that explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies is beneficial forpupils’ reading comprehension in EFL. However, there appears to be a lack of studies about the topic in a Swedishcontext. This study investigates how teachers in years 4-6 in one elementary school in Sweden work towardsimproving their pupils’ reading comprehension in EFL. Further, the study explores what perspectives the teachershave on teaching reading comprehension strategies in EFL. The four participating teachers all have a teacher’sdegree and experience with teaching EFL in years 4-6. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteachers and complemented with classrooms observations with two of the interviewed teachers. The results suggestthat the teachers believe teaching reading comprehension strategies in EFL is important. Further, the results indicatethat the participating teachers work with reading comprehension strategies that according to previous studies arebeneficial for pupils’ reading comprehension. In addition, the teachers described working with similar strategiesand teaching methods in the Swedish subject. Therefore, comparative studies between the Swedish subjectand EFL to further investigate if the same reading comprehension strategies are beneficial inboth subjects is recommended. / <p>Engelska</p>

The present study aims to explore and delve into early childhood education teachers’ perception and interpretation of children’s agency and participation in the daily routines and planned activities in kindergartens in Finland. The daily established routines and planned activities take a significant amount of time in kindergarten. Therefore, it is essential to scrutinize how teachers engage children’s preferences, opinions, and participation in daily practice. The abovementioned rationale motivates the present qualitative research study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five early childhood teachers. Three of them work in international kindergartens and two of them in bilingual kindergartens (Finnish-English). The interview consisted of open-ended questions. They were structured to probe early childhood teachers’ experience in respect of the implementation of children’s agency and participation in the daily practices and the challenges that pedagogical personnel face.  The collected data from the semi-structured interview were analyzed through thematic analysis. On one hand, the results showed a none or limited amount of children’s agency and participation in the daily established routines, whereas the amount of agency and participation is increased regarding the planned activities. On the other hand, challenging parameters are the management of the kindergarten and the number of children in a group.

In a world where we are increasingly connected to one another, the English language surrounds us here in Sweden. Children today grow up in an environment where they are exposed to the English language and the Swedish language simultaneously through various media and activities. The informal learning that children gain through their activities has received more and more attention in recent years. The English that pupils learn outside of school has become known as extramural English. Thus, it is of interest to investigate the perspectives of English teachers in Sweden regarding extramural English and to what extent they incorporate it into their teaching. This study briefly explains extramural English as a phenomenon, discuss relevant theories and delve into previous research on the subject. The methods that are used for this investigation is a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. The target group for the research methods are English teachers with varying backgrounds. The results suggest that the majority of the participants perceive extramural activities as a valuable asset. However, the results further indicate that the teachers have a greater reluctance to integrate it into their teaching, and rather recognise it as a complementary tool to education. The study draws attention to the strengths of pupils' extramural activities, how motivation is a key factor in second language learning, as well as the complications in implementing these activities into teaching. The discussion further highlights the syllabus' connection to the results of the study.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate teachers' perspectives regarding the social validity of the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) model implemented at a middle school and a junior high school. Qualitative data were collected through teacher focus groups and categorized then analyzed in order to summarize teachers' opinions regarding PBS and its' effectiveness. Both qualitative and quantitative results revealed that teachers perceived evidence of social validity in the areas of social appropriateness and social importance of effects. Four factors were also identified as the most influential areas to influence the success of PBS implementation. These included (a) administrative support, (b) consistency and clear expectations, (c) school culture, and (d) social skills and lesson plans. Results regarding social importance and teachers' perceptions of overall effectiveness of PBS showed a lack of conclusive data. Overall outcomes suggest that PBS is perceived by teachers as satisfying two of the three conditions for social validity.

The purpose of the study was to highlight how and why teachers choose to plan and implement theirmathematics teaching using manipulatives for grades Pre-school class to grade 3. To obtain datacontaining thoughts and descriptions of a phenomenon, we used the semi-structured interview method.Ten teachers from grades F-3 distributed across seven schools in central Sweden answered our interviewguide which contained seventeen questions. The answers were analyzed using a phenomenographicanalysis to bring out data with similarities and differences. The results showed that there weredifferences in how teachers described the use of manipulatives and this affected the degree to which theychose to plan and carry out their teaching using informal learning. The respondents clearly expressedthat manipulatives were important to use, but that there were several reasons why they were not used.The result also showed that manipulatives methods were associated with the manipulatives just as wehave seen in previous research that has focused on manipulatives and not the working method. Thismeans that our study can contribute new knowledge about possibilities and challenges when it comes tothe use of laborative methods by teachers when they plan and carry out mathematics teaching. / Syftet med vår studie var att belysa hur och varför lärare väljer att planera och genomföra sinmatematikundervisning med hjälp av laborativa arbetssätt för årskurs F-3. För att få fram den data somvisade lärarens perspektiv kring användandet av laborativa arbetssätt i matematikundervisningenanvände vi oss av metoden semistrukturerad intervju. Tio lärare från årskurserna F-3 fördelat på sjuskolor i mellersta Sverige besvarade vår intervjuguide som innehöll 17 frågor. Svaren analyserades medhjälp av en fenomenografisk analys för att få fram data med likheter och skillnader. Resultatet visade attdet fanns skillnader i hur lärare beskrev användandet av laborativa arbetssätt. Detta påverkade i vilkengrad de valde att planera och genomföra sin undervisning med hjälp av laborativa arbetssätt. Trots attrespondenterna tydligt uttryckte att laborativa arbetssätt var något viktigt att använda sig av fanns detflera orsaker till att de inte användes. Resultatet visade också att laborativa arbetssätt förknippades meddet konkreta materialet precis som vi sett i tidigare forskning som riktat in sig på laborativt material ochinte arbetssättet. Detta gör att vår studie kan bidra med nya kunskaper kring möjligheter och utmaningarmed laborativa arbetssätt hos lärare när de planerar och genomför matematikundervisningen.

SammanfattningSyftet med studien är att få reda på hur pedagoger beskriver och arbetar med begreppen ”barns inflytande” och delaktighet i förskolan. Detta är viktigt att få en inblick i, då dessa begrepp benämns som strävansmål i förskolans styrdokument, Lpfö 98/16 (Skolverket, 2016).Metoden som valts i studien är semi-strukturerade intervjuer, för att undersöka pedagogernas uppfattningar kring deras erfarenheter av barns inflytande och delaktighet i förskolan och vad begreppet betyder för dem som pedagoger. Fyra pedagoger intervjuades till studien.I studiens resultat kan man utläsa att begreppet inflytande definieras som att det handlar om att involvera barnen i verksamheten och att de får möjlighet att bestämma men också om hur barnen blir delaktiga i verksamheten. Pedagogerna är enade om att barnen bör ha möjlighet till inflytande över sin vardag. Det gäller att hitta en strategi så möjligheten finns till att se varje barn och dess intresse. Det är viktigt att barnen får uttrycka sina åsikter och att man som pedagog tar till sig av dem. Pedagogerna tydliggör vikten av hur kroppsspråk och bilder är bra hjälpmedel för att visa tydlighet, förstå och göra sig förstådda, då de yngre barnen kan sakna det verbala språket. Dessa hjälpmedel underlättar för barnen att kunna påverka sin situation och möjligheten till inflytande i verksamheten. / The purpose of this study is to find out about pre-school teachers´ description and work with the concept of "children´s influence" and participation. This is important since this is one of the preschool assignment according to the preschool curriculum Lpfö 98 (Skolverket, 2016).To study preschool teachers' experiences and thoughts about children's influence and partici-pation in preschool, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four preschool teachers. The study results show that the concept of influence is defined as involving the children in the business and that they have the opportunity to decide, but also how the children participate in the activities. The preschool teachers show a variation in experiencing children’s influence the meanings and conception differentiated. Some preschool teachers perceive it as children should decide more in preschool. Others believe children should be more involved in every-day decisions and activities.Children should have the opportunity to influence their everyday lives, as a preschool teacher this is about finding a strategies and opportunities to see each child and its interest. The preschool teachers clarify the importance of how body language and images are useful tools to show clarity and understanding, when younger children don´t have the verbal language. It is important for the preschool teacher to be responsive, listening and enable possibilities for the children to express their needs and desires.These educational strategies make it easier for the children to influence their situation and the ability to influence in preschool.

本論文旨在探討臺灣國中生英語聽力的困難問題。本文從三個方面進行研究：一、國中生英語聽力困難問題的總體分析；二、高能力者與低能力者在聽力困難問題上的異同；三、從老師和學生的觀點研究國中生的英語聽力困難問題。研究對象包括桃園一所公立中學9年級11個班級中366個學生及17位英語老師。本研究工具為全民英檢聽力測驗，聽力困難問卷以及聽力困難訪談大綱。本研究的主要發現如下： 一、在五種影響聽力困難的因素中，學生認為最常見的因素為聽力文本，聽者本身為其次，接著依序為聽力任務、說話者因素，最後為聽力過程。在文本因素中，聽力困難主要來自於不熟悉的片語。在聽者因素中，聽者本身文法知識的不足是聽力困難最主要的原因。在聽力任務中，聽完後需要學生做聽寫是比較困難的。在說話者因素中，說話者速度是主要的聽力理解障礙。在聽力的過程中，學生最常遇到的問題在於無法將一連串的內容分成有意義的段落。調查問卷的44個分項中，學生認為他們所遇到的最常見英語聽力困難中文本因素佔大多數，而聽者因素其次，最常見的困難為不熟悉的片語，其次為不熟悉的單字與文法的不足。 二、高能力者與低能力者遇到的聽力困難有顯著性的差異。大致上的區別為，影響高能力者聽力的最主要因素為聽力文本，而影響低能力者的主因為聽者本身的因素，且高能力者遇到的聽力困難比低能力者顯著來得少。最常見英語聽力困難中，高程度者認為在文本方面無法重複聽為最大的困難，然而對低程度者而言，聽者本身的文法不足是導致聽力困難最主要的原因。三、以教師與學生觀點來說，兩者對學習者所遇到的聽力困難的認知有顯著性的差異。大致上的區別為，教師認為造成學生聽力困難的主因為聽者本身的因素，而學生認為文本因素為影響聽力困難的最主要障礙。最常見英語聽力困難中，教師認為說話者的語速為主要困難，然而學生認為文本中不熟悉的片語是導致聽力困難最主要的原因。最後，本論文指出研究限制以及對未來相關研究之建議提出說明。 / The purpose of the present study is to investigate junior high school students' listening comprehension difficulties. This study is mainly concerned with three aspects: (1) the overall difficulties that student encountered in junior high school; (2) the similarities and differences in listening difficulties between high achievers and low achievers; (3) the differences in the perspectives on students' listening problems between students and teachers. This thesis research was based on the data analysis of 366 ninth-graders from 11 odd-numbered class and 17 English teachers at a public junior high school in Taoyuan. The findings of the study were summarized as follows: (1) among five factors, the text factor held the highest frequency followed by the listener, task, speaker, and listening process. For text factor, the main difficulty emerged from unknown phrases and unknown words. For listener factor, weak grammar was identified as the foremost difficulty. For task factor, the task demanding dictation arose most difficulty. For speaker factor, the speech rate was the main obstacle. For listening process, the students suffered from the perception problem that they could not chunk streams of speech into meaningful segments. Among listeners’ top ten difficulties in taking a listening comprehension test, six of them were categorized into text factor, and five were classified into listener factor. (2) There were highly significant differences in listening difficulties between the effective and the ineffective listeners. The difficulties the effective listeners met with were fewer than those ineffective listeners encountered. The effective listeners in this study met with listening comprehension problems in text factor more frequently than the other factors; however, the ineffective listeners encountered difficulties in listener factor most often. Among the top ten listening difficulties, the foremost difficulty for the effective listeners was unrepeated materials, and for the ineffective ones was weak grammar. (3) Overall, the teachers’ perceptions about their students’ listening difficulties are significantly different from the students’. Specifically, there were significant differences in the perspectives between the teachers and the students in the factor of listening process and listener. The teachers reported that their students encountered listening difficulties in the listener factor most often, whereas the students indicated that the text factor was the hugest barrier to their listening. Among the top ten students’ listening comprehension problems, the individual difficulty with the highest mean acquired by all of the students was the text with unknown phrases (text factor) However, the foremost listening problem from the teachers’ perspectives was the fast speed rate of the speaker (speaker factor). Based on the findings of the present study, pedagogical implications and suggestions were provided at the end of the thesis.

Denna litteraturstudie utgörs av en kvalitativ textanalys av utvald kurslitteratur inom en förskollärarutbildning. Analysen har tagit stöd i Biestas teori om demokratiska dimensioner inom utbildning (Biesta, 2011a). Resultatet i vår studie visar på ett gap mellan det förskollärarstudenter får med sig från kurslitteraturen gentemot hur de ska praktisera och därmed realisera denna kunskap ute i förskolans verksamhet. Tillfällen för samtal och reflektion behövs för att kunna överbrygga detta gap som uppstår, och därmed mildra den osäkerhet som finns för utövandet av det komplexa uppdraget som förskolläraryrket innebär. Samtal och utbyte av erfarenheter kan verka som en bro mellan teorin och praktiken, och därmed är detta ett nödvändigt inslag inom förskollärarutbildning men även i förskoleverksamhet. / This literature study consists of a qualitative text analysis of selected course literature within a preschool teacher education. The analysis has been supported by Biesta's theory of democratic dimensions in education (Biesta, 2011a). The results of our study show a gap between what preschool teacher students get from the course literature in relation to how they should practice and thus realize this knowledge in the preschool's activities. Opportunities for conversation and reflection are needed to be able to bridge this gap that arises, and thereby alleviate the uncertainty that exists for the performance of the complex task that the preschool teaching profession entails. Conversation and exchange of experiences can act as a bridge between theory and practice, and thus this is a necessary element in preschool teacher education but also in bu

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka lärares och lärarstudenters syn på kamratbedömning för textarbeten i årskurs 4–6 samt att se vilka kamratbedömningsmetoder de anser gynnsamma för elevernas textarbeten. Detta är en kvalitativ studie som genomförs via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Både lärare och lärarstudenter intervjuas för att visa likheter och skillnader på både individ- och gruppnivå. Intervjuerna transkriberas och svaren bearbetas utefter en tematisk analys.  Resultaten visar att både lärarna och lärarstudenterna har en övervägande positiv syn på kamratbedömning för textarbeten i årskurs 4–6, men att lärarna kan se fler fördelar och förespråkar metoden mer än vad lärarstudenterna gör. De främsta positiva effekter de anser att kamratbedömning kan bidra till är gemensamt lärande och en utvecklad kritisk granskningsförmåga hos eleverna. De negativa effekter som framförallt betonas är att kamratbedömning kan generera generella och missvisande kommentarer som inte leder till ökat lärande samt att det kan ha en negativ inverkan på sociala relationer.  De metoder som lärarna och lärarstudenterna anser vara gynnsamma för elevernas textarbeten är ”two stars and a wish”, användandet av checklistor eller mallar med genrespecifika kriterier samt digital respons via inspelningsprogram och direktkommentarer i digital text. / The purpose of this study is to examine teachers' and teacher students' view on peer assessment for text work in grades 4–6 and to see which peer assessment methods they consider favorable for students' text work. This is a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews. Both teachers and teacher students are interviewed to show similarities and differences at individual- and group level. The interviews are transcribed and the answers are processed through a thematic analysis. The results show that both teachers and teacher students have a mainly positive view of peer assessment for text work in grades 4-6, but the teachers can see more benefits and they advocate the method more than the teacher students do. The main positive effects they see with peer assessment are common learning between students and a developed ability to critically review texts. The negative effects they emphasize are general and misleading comments between students that do not lead to increased learning and possible negative impact on social relationships. The methods the teachers and the teacher students prefer for students' text work are "two stars and a wish", checklists or templates with genre-specific criteria and digital peer review with recording programs and comments in digital texts.

This study was aimed at understanding the use of technology in early childhood school and home settings as well as its impact on students' social and language development, specifically with children aged four to seven from two schools (Kindergarten and elementary) in Kuwait. The study followed a qualitative design in which the interpretative approach was applied. Non-participant observations were conducted to gather data concerning the actual use of technology in the classrooms, they were followed by interviews with teachers and a group of parents from each classroom. The study used Vygotsky's social development theory as a framework for the analysis of data. The analysis showed limitations in the use of technology in the classroom; teachers identified a need for training to increase their knowledge about how to integrate technology into instruction. Also, the limited availability of up-to-date technology was viewed as a challenge. Teachers and parents agreed that the use of technology may foster social and language development for most students, on the condition that their use is supervised and guided by an adult. However, they also perceived that technology could have a negative impact on the development of students' social development, an area that requires further investigation.