This qualitative study aims to investigate how teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) work to develop their students’ oral proficiency. The study analyses interviews and pedagogical materials to elucidate how the interviewed teachers regard their students’ oral proficiency, what kind of activities they use for teaching speaking and how they assess oral proficiency. The participants were two licensed English teachers of higher upper secondary education, and different materials that the teachers used were analysed, including a textbook. The teachers regarded their students’ oral proficiency as generally good or very good but noted that significant differences existed in most groups regarding proficiency and that certain students who were less proficient showed an unwillingness to use the target language, which indicates a need of better strategies to involve these students in the learning process. The findings of this study suggest that the interviewed EFL teachers teach speaking according to the communicative approach and that the activities they use more frequently for teaching speaking were discussions, followed by presentations, speeches, role-playing and debates. However, the interviews and the pedagogical materials reflected a lack of focus on the features of spoken language, the importance of which has been proven by findings in corpus linguistics and conversation analysis. These findings indicate a need to raise awareness among teachers about the benefits of focusing on the features of spoken language. Regarding assessment, informal formative assessment in the form of direct observation was the most common form, while formal assessment was used in presentations and examinations in the form of group discussions. The teachers acknowledged some confusion regarding assessment due to the lack of clear guidelines from Skolverket. Moreover, they regarded speaking as being more important than other skills, which indicates the possibility of redefining the value of speaking in the course evaluation.

Master's thesis "Cross-curricular relations at the level of curriculum planning for the educational areas of Mathematics and Its Application and Man and His World (Physics)" discusses the cross-curricular relations between Mathematics and Physics. Thesis is complete with an analysis of textbooks along with additional examples of cross-curricular relations according to the topics of FEP EE for the area of Mathematics and Its Application. Finally, the thesis compiles complex exercises that make use of cross-curricular relations of various subjects, foremostly mathematics and physics, complete with the research of their practical usability.

This diploma thesis inquires the products of nature knowledge of primary school pupils. The products of nature knowledge are inquired in the form of a didactic test, which is very well usable in the school practice. Furthermore, it mentions natural sciences textbooks and workbooks, which are one of the sources for gaining the products of nature knowledge for pupils. By means of the textbook analysis, the amount of the products of nature is shown, which a pupil should learn during their school attendance at primary school. The conclusions of the research serve to create an image of how pupils know living products of nature, which are a part of their everyday life. "Diploma thesis was solved in terms of the project GA JU č. 065/2010/S."

Detta är en diskursanalytisk studie med ett antaget genusteoretiskt perspektiv, som undersöker hur kvinnor inom de abrahamitiska religionerna framställs i tre utvalda läromedel för gymnasiekursen religion 1. Samtliga av läromedlen är anpassade för lgy11. Vidare undersöks vilka egenskaper kvinnan tillskrivs, samt var hon synliggörs och marginaliseras i läromedlen. Genom det genusteoretiska perspektivet, vilket nyttjats för analysen av det empiriska resultatet kan vi både visa vad synliggörandet och marginaliseringen beror på, samt se vad det bidrar till. Studiens resultat visar att läromedlen genom ett genusteoretiskt perspektiv framställer kvinnan och mannen utifrån dikotoma föreställningar om vad som är kvinnligt respektive manligt. Kvinnan framställs således som passiv medan mannen framställs som aktiv. Resultatet visar även att kvinnan marginaliseras när det skrivs om religionens historia, medan hon synliggörs i de textsammanhang som berör hennes villkor, samt hem-och familjeliv. Nyckelord: Kvinnan, abrahamitiska religionerna, diskurs, genusteori, genus, läroboksanalys, marginalisering / This is a discourse-analytic study with an adopted gender theoretical perspective regarding how women within the Abrahamic religions are described in three selected teaching materials for upper secondary school (Religion 1). All books are adapted to Lgy11. Furthermore, an analysis is made of what way women are characterized in the material, as well as where they are visible and marginalized. With help from the gender theoretical perspective, which has been utilized to analyze the results of the empirical study, it is possible to understand the reasons for the visibility as well as the marginalization, and see what is contributes to. The result of this study shows that the teaching materials, through a gender theoretical perspective, depict men and women based on the dichotomy of what is considered female or male. Hence, women are described as passive, whereas men are described as active. The result also shows that women are marginalized when the history of religions is being described while they are visible in the textual contexts of home and family life, as well as their conditions. Key words: Women, Abrahamic religions, discourse, gender theory, gender, textbook analysis, marginalization

According to research, problem solving is one of mathematics most important content, since teaching problem solving helps students to develop a deeper understanding of mathematics. At the same time, research shows that through history and even today, the majority of mathematics education consists of students working individually with information in the textbook that deals with methodology. This means that students are taught to develop their procedural skills, thus not being able to develop their problem solving skills and deeper understanding of mathematics. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate the extent to which different textbooks for grade three deal with problem solving as well as the strategies and perspectives on problem solving that are identifiable in the textbooks. To find answers to my purpose, a study component analysis has been carried out on textbooks published in the following years: 1979, 1984, 2005, 2006 and 2012. The results show that textbooks handle problem solving in different ways but that similarities can also be identified. All books contain problem solving tasks that can be solved through different strategies, but the perspective of problem solving differs between the textbooks. The relationship between textbook and syllabus varies among the textbooks, which proves the importance of the teacher being able to influence the pupils' learning opportunities when selecting textbooks. / Enligt forskning är problemlösning ett av matematikens viktigaste innehåll, då undervisning av problemlösning utvecklar en djupare förståelse för matematik hos eleverna. Samtidigt visar forskning att genom historien och även idag består majoriteten av matematikundervisningen av att eleverna arbetar enskilt med uppgifter i läroboken som behandlar metodinlärning. Detta innebär att eleverna undervisas till att utveckla sin procedurförmåga och därmed inte får möjlighet att utveckla sin problemlösningsförmåga och djupare förståelse för matematik. Syftet med den här undersökningen var därför att undersöka i vilken utsträckning olika läroböcker för årskurs 3 behandlar problemlösning samt vilka strategier och perspektiv på problemlösning som är identifierbara i läroböckerna. För att söka svar på mitt syfte har en läroboksanalys genomförts på läroböcker som utgivits följande år: 1979, 1984, 2005, 2006 samt 2012. Resultatet visar att läroböckerna behandlar problemlösning på olika sätt men att likheter dessutom går att identifiera. Samtliga böcker innehåller problemlösningsuppgifter som kan lösas genom olika strategier, men perspektiven på problemlösning skiljer sig mellan läroböckerna. Relationen mellan lärobok och kursplan varierar bland läroböckerna, vilket bevisar vikten av att läraren kan påverka elevernas möjligheter till lärande vid val av lärobok.

Many students currently entering college are able to solve mathematical problems but often do not understand the chemistry concepts underlying their calculations. High school chemistry teachers from Texas and the United States (US) were surveyed as to what topics they teach in their chemistry classes. A subset of Texas teachers was also interviewed about their instruction. The survey indicated that less-experienced Texas teachers are omitting a number of topics from their chemistry instruction, as compared to more experienced teachers. No differences were seen for those topics among US teachers. Chemistry textbooks from 1930 to the current 2002 Texas state adoptions were analyzed for inclusion of these topics. The only textbooks that were missing topics were from the 1930s. All others contained the topics. In general, textbooks have been increasing numbers of questions and problems for each topic, with the number of quantitative problems increasing at a greater rate than qualitative problems. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that the main reason for omission of topics by less-experienced Texas chemistry teachers is that these topics are not assessed on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills science exam. Omitted topics were both qualitative and quantitative; the common factor is that they are not tested. School administrators reportedly reinforce this practice. Archival data regarding textbook usage by general chemistry students showed that students' course grades are not correlated to the amount of time they spend using their textbook. With topics included in textbooks, and no relationship between textbook usage and student grades, observed changes in chemistry courses must be due to changes in classroom instruction. With new course standards adopted by Texas for chemistry and the development of end-of-course exams, these changes should produce graduates who understand chemistry concepts as well as they solve mathematical chemistry problems. Repeating this study in 5 years may show that increasing the amount of chemistry tested will produce students entering college with a better conceptual background in chemistry.

Possibilities of demography implementation in the classes at higher secondary education level Abstract The main goals of the diploma thesis are to evaluate the degree of implementation and the potential of demography during lessons at the higher secondary school level and to suggest specific activities that can be implemented within the lessons. It is the first thesis aimed solely at the didactics of demography. The work uses publicly available online databases of the Czech Statistical Office, the United Nations and the Population Reference Bureau. An analysis of syllabi of subjects from the first years of selected universities, a content analysis of selected secondary school textbooks and a Framework Education Programme were performed. The analyses show a large scope for the implementation of demography not only in the teaching of geography. The work is complemented by specific proposals of activities that can be used in teaching at upper secondary schools. Keywords: Czechia, demography, teaching demography, implementation, upper secondary schools, textbook analysis, Framework Education Programme

Trots att lyrik kan bidra med mycket till elevers utveckling visar såväl elever som lärare ofta en negativ eller osäker inställning till genren. Läromedel kan därför få ett stort inflytande över lyrikundervisningen. Syftet med detta arbete är att granska de frågor och arbetsuppgifter som kopplas till lyrikexempel i läroböcker för gymnasiekursen svenska 1, för att synliggöra vad dessa uppgifter didaktiskt kan bidra med i undervisningen.  En etnografisk innehållsanalys av tolv läroböcker för svenska 1, publicerade under åren 2011– 2015, genomförs. Frågorna och arbetsuppgifterna delas in i tio olika kategorier och granskas utifrån teorier från Dysthe (1996), Rosenblatt (1938/2002) och Tengberg (2011).  Resultatet visar att vad läroböckernas lyrikrelaterade arbetsuppgifter kan bidra med i undervisningen varierar stort, även inom de funna kategorierna. Uppgifter finns som kan underlätta elevens transaktion med texten, medan andra kan hindra denna. Slutsatsen är att lärare själva kritiskt bör granska de uppgifter som ges till eleverna, för att säkerställa deras kvalitet. / Even though poetry has a lot to contribute to students’ development, students as well as teachers often show a negative or uncertain attitude to the genre. Therefore, textbooks can have a great influence on poetry instruction.  The purpose of this study is to examine questions and tasks related to poetry in textbooks for the upper secondary school course Swedish 1, to bring to light what these questions and tasks can contribute didactically.  An ethnographic content analysis of twelve textbooks for Swedish 1, published in the years 2011–2015, is carried out. The questions and tasks are divided into ten different categories and examined through theories brought forth by Dysthe (1996), Rosenblatt (1938/2002) and Tengberg (2011).  The result shows that what poetry-related questions and tasks in the textbooks can contribute to instruction varies greatly, even within the categories found. Some tasks can aid the student’s transaction with the text, while others can hinder it. The conclusion is that teachers need to critically examine the tasks given to students, to ascertain their quality.

This study focuses on an analysis of textbooks in religious studies for the upper secondary school in Sweden. In the Swedish curriculum Christianity has a special importance even though school should be non-confessional in Sweden. Since Sweden today does not have a central authority that reviews textbooks, it is instead up to the individual schools to analyze and review their teaching materials and the authors of textbooks need to base their textbooks on their own interpretation of the curriculum. The study aims to explain whether we can find a typical Swedish textbook discourse and if so how it relates to the curriculum's wording about Christianity’s special importance. Furthermore, what potential impact the author’s interpretation of this special importance could have on the equivalence in Swedish religious studies in upper secondary school and how it potentially could lead to a discourse of Christian exceptionalism. The analysis of the textbooks is based on Fairclough's critical discourse analysis both as a theory and as a method of analysis. The findings indicate that there is a Swedish textbook discourse that values western traditions over eastern traditions of Christianity and often equates Protestantism with the Church of Sweden.

Grammar is an essential part of language learning. Thus, it is important that teachers know how to efficiently teach grammar to students, and with what approach - explicitly orimplicitly as well as through Focus on Forms (FoFs), Focus on Form (FoF) or Focus onMeaning (FoM). Furthermore, the common use of textbooks in English education in Sweden makes it essential to explore how these present grammar. Therefore, to make teachers aware of what grammar teaching approach a textbook has, this degree project intends to examine how and to what degree English textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools can be seen to exhibit an overall explicit or implicit approach to grammar teaching. The aim is to analyze three English 5 textbooks that are currently used in classrooms in Sweden, through the use of relevant research regarding grammar teaching as well as the steering documents for English 5 in Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis was carried out with the help of a framework developed by means of research on explicit and implicit grammar teaching as well as the three grammar teaching approaches FoFs, FoF and FoM. Thus, through the textbook analysis, we set out to investigate whether the textbooks present grammar instruction explicitly or implicitly and through FoFs, FoF or FoM. After having collected research on the topic of how to teach grammar, it became apparent that researchers on grammar teaching agree that FoF is the most beneficial out of the three above mentioned approaches, and thus, we decided to take a stand for this approach throughout the project. The results of this study showed that two out of three textbooks used overall implicit grammar teaching through FoM. Moreover, one out of the three textbooks used overall explicit grammar teaching through an FoF approach.