The overall aim of this study is to investigate the attitudes of teachers of English and Modern languages towards assessment and the grading process. The inspiration comes from the notion that grades are not set on an equivalent basis in upper secondary schools. The syllabi for the subjects are formulated in a way that enables interpretation, and they have been constructed this way in order for the goals to be re-written on a local basis to better suit the needs of the specific students. This step in the process, formulating a local work plan from the national syllabus, is however often omitted and many teachers have no local work plan to base their teaching on and instead use the generalized syllabi as a base, which in turn are interpreted subjectively. This leads to the situation where there is a lack of equivalence in both education and assessment. In anticipation of the new Education Act including new syllabi and grading criteria teachers have also been asked their opinions and expectations on these, and if they think things will change. The results and analysis conclude that the only way equivalence in grading can be reached is through extensive cooperation between teachers, which would lead to greater objectivity.

The present licentiate thesis comprises a review of Swedish and Anglo-Saxon literature on excursions and their history, followed by a study on three one-day excursions and two neighbourhood excursions, conducted by pupils at upper secondary school. The primary purpose of the thesis was to highlight the development of excursion procedures, aiming at increasing the interest of the pupils, improving their inner motivation, but also to develop the learning process. Thus, the work also attempted to identify learning models and excursion methods, furnishing pupils with a positive attitude during excursions and field studies. Article no 1 consists of a survey of Swedish (particularly in Geographical Notices) and Anglo-Saxon literature, describing and discussing how the excursion procedures have been developed, influenced, and designed. Excursions became a practiced teaching method at the beginning of the last century. The urbanization and instigation of a public school are described as incitements for arranging excursions. British as well as Swedish teaching authorities emphasized excursions in school activities in different curricula or school documents. The present study shows that arranging excursions and other activities in the field was in the interests of the teaching authorities and a number of different society instances. Excursion methods and their extent and incorporation into the school activities have been amply discussed in the excursion literature. Qualitative interviews with 50 pupils from five upper secondary schools were conducted after excursions. Observations were carried out during four of these excursions. Article II comprises one-day excursions in geography or biology, conducted by pupils in the social and natural science programs at three upper secondary schools. The methods applied in this study were group interviews and observations during two of the excursions. Two neighbourhood excursions in geography and science, performed by two upper secondary schools, were investigated, and form the foundation for article II. The neighbourhood excursions were examined by observations, 25 individual interviews, and a smaller questionnaire. The interviews generated information about how pupils perceive, experience, and interpret the applied excursion methods. Pupils have in interviews and in their questionnaire answers reported their motivation, which ranged from non-existent to a deep inner motivation. Preparations were identified as a key factor for pupils as well as teachers. The observations yielded knowledge about the focus of pupils, their attitudes and concentration level, and also how they use digital media in the field. Furthermore, the relevance of location, along with pupils’ comprehensions and experiences, created an applicable backdrop for future excursions. Careful selection of excursion locations, where pupils are able to discern correlations, was identified as important to their capability of interpreting their observations, which they afterwards might be able to transform into knowledge, inner motivation, or even flow.

The aim of this study is to analyse how mathematical problem solving (MPS) is represented in mathematical textbooks for Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis comprises dominating Swedish textbook series, and relates to uncovering a) the quantity of tasks that are actually mathematical problems (MPs), b) their location in the chapter, c) their difficulty level, and d) their context. Based on an analysis of 5,722 tasks from the area of calculus, it is concluded that the textbooks themselves contain very few tasks that can be defined as MPs, and that those that are MPs are found at the end of a chapter at the most difficult level, and are presented in a pure mathematical context. Implications are discussed.

Att tänka på medarbetarnas arbetstillfredsställelse har inte alltid varit något självklart, det var vid 1950-talet som intresset för medarbetarna började bli något etablerat i samhället. Tidigare forskning inom detta ämne har haft olika synvinklar om vad som är viktigt för att medarbetaren ska känna arbetstillfredsställelse. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur två begrepp, arbetstillfredsställelse och stöd från chefen förhåller sig till varandra, och till lärarnas hälsa. En enkätundersökning (N=152, var av 32.8% män) utformades i syfte att undersöka gymnasielärares egen uppfattning om detta. Ett frågeformulär konstruerades av författarna med hjälp av QPSNordic och Frågeformulär om psykosocial arbetsmiljö för att undersöka de underliggande variabler om arbetstillfredsställelse. Slutsatsen som kan dras från denna studie visar att möjlighet till inflytande och stöd från chefen har starkast samband med arbetstillfredsställelsen. När det gäller hälsa har stimulans, stöd från kamraterna och möjlighet att få feedback starkast samband.

The purpose of this essay is to describe what difficulties and challenges are for teachers of religious education at upper secondary school. The essay is written from a teacher's perspective, where the focus is on the teacher's perceptions of the difficulties and challenges of teaching religious education. The methodology for the collection of information was done through qualitative interviews. Previous research shows that one of the challenges in the teaching profession is the interpretation of the curriculum, and then which of those is correct. The essay shows that the biggest challenges that teachers experience in the subject of religious education is the students' prejudice against different religious groups, and also the difficulty of getting students to understand the purpose of what is being taught. I have examined how teachers handle these difficulties and challenges as well as the didactic choices that are at the forefront of the teachers' strategies.

Sexual harassments have since long been an issue all over the world and schools have not been an exception. Reports from Swedish secondary schools show how 47% of the female pupils state that they have, sometime during their time in school, been the victim of sexual harassment. Other studies claim that pupils exposed to sexual harassments will develop low self-esteem and a decreased sense of self. The Swedish curriculum state that all children shall have the right to a harassment free school environment, but still many pupils claim to be exposed to sexual harassment in school. Several studies have theorized about why sexual harassment is so prevalent in schools but what do the pupils think? This study aims to reveal and analyze pupil opinions about sexual harassment; what do they think it is and why do they think it occurs? This will be done from a post-structural feminist point of view with focus on the shaping of identity among the respondents.      The collected results of this study indicate that sexual harassment is mostly due to a dominant form of the heterosexual male ideal where sexual harassment against both men and women is used to secure ones position as a dominant male and to gain access to the hegemonic male group. According to the respondents, sexual harassment have little to do with the victims and in the discussion an alternative approach to handle sexual harassment in school is discussed.

This study attempts to show benefits with different methods when teaching poetry in Upper Secondary courses, with the aim of proving that by using a certain design of the lesson, it is possible to engage the students in English poetry. A secondary aim was to incorporate and implement the theories on sociocultural learning by Vygotsky into the method used in the study. Finally, the study aimed to question the definitions of what constitutes a poem and the ideas of canonized versus non-canonized material within literature. The method chosen for this study was a mixed methods design, and the study applied a deductive approach where a hypothesis based on previous research and ideas within the field was tested. The design of the study was to perform a focus group interview, followed by observations of four lessons with students at Upper Secondary level, and finally a questionnaire for the students. The results from the study were mainly positive and the questionnaire showed that most of the students appreciated the first part the most, although a few students enjoyed both parts. The combined results showed that the design has an impact when it comes to engagement, and it changed a few of the students views on poetry. The main finding in the study was that students prefer less complex poetry that does not belong to the canon, since most of the students marked the first part as the best one. The results showed therefore that the design has an impact when it comes to engagement.

Peer feedback and its role for students’ language learning receive considerable interest in thefield of English as a foreign language. A related area of interest is the ways in which teachersare trained in their use of peer feedback and its integration into their classroom practice. Yet,research on the ways in which English language textbooks include opportunities for andinstructions in peer feedback are sparse. Given the importance of textbooks in EFLclassrooms as one of the primary sources of L2 input, the aims of this study are to investigate:1) Whether commonly used textbooks for teaching English in Swedish upper-secondaryschools recommend or integrate peer feedback, and what a) the frequency, and b) type ofthese recommendations and exercises are. 2) How the recommendations and exercises alignwith a) recommendations and best practices as identified in the literature, and b) the nationalcurriculum and the syllabus for English 7.To answer these questions, we analyze one of the most commonly used textbooks for teachingEnglish 7 in Swedish upper-secondary schools, Blueprint C Version 2.0. The findings showonly two instances in the book where the use of peer feedback is promoted as a valuablestrategy for improving the quality of students’ productions. It also shows that the bookcontains a total of 52 writing and speaking exercises, out of which 30 include the use of peerfeedback that, to some extent, aligns with best practice recommendations. As for thealignment with the curriculum and syllabus, the identified recommendations and support forthe use of peer feedback, as well as the peer feedback exercises, are shown to specificallymeet one of the goals of the national curriculum and three of the bullet points listed in thecore content in the syllabus for English 7.

The aim of this study is to investigate 1) students’ attitudes towards English, 2) students’ attitudes towards reading in English and 3) if there is a correlation between students’ attitudes and their results in a reading comprehension test. In total, 39 students from three different classes volunteered for this study. The data were collected by using a questionnaire regarding students’ attitudes towards English and reading in English as well as by letting the participants take part in a reading comprehension test. The results show that students’ attitudes towards English does not necessarily play a part in how well they perform in a reading comprehension test.

The aim of this study is to examine how social science textbooks for upper secondary schools portrays the term “democracy”. Additionally, the study aims to examine the similarities and differences between the textbooks and determine the prevailing overall perspective on democracy. To help do this an analytical tool consisting of five criteria has been constructed based on Robert A. Dahl's theory on democratic processes and John Dewey's view on the role and importance of education for a democracy. These five criteria are: Effective participation/enlightened understanding, voting equality, control of the agenda, inclusiveness, and the role of education in a democracy. A total of six textbooks, based on the latest curriculum from 2011, have been examined and analysed.  The result and analysis of the study generally shows that the textbooks mainly focus on describing the formal democratic decision-making processes and principles without presenting any deeper reasoning for why these are important for democracy. In this context, representative democracy and direct democracy are often highlighted and compared to each other. The informal areas of society where democratic decision-making are made are generally only mentioned in passing or receive minor presentations. The role and importance of education for democracy are only mentioned in some of the textbooks, though school is often used as an example of an area of society where direct democracy is prevalent.  These are the overall similarities that exists across all textbooks. Some differences exist between the various textbooks, but these are only minor in nature. The main difference lies in what aspects of democracy each textbook chooses to highlight rather than the portrayal of democracy itself being any radically different.