The aim of this study is to find out what education in literature is like from a student perspective; what kind of literature the students read and how well they understand literature, and the methods and didactics used during the literature lessons. The questions at issue are: 1) What kind of literature do the students read? 2) How well do the students understand literary texts? 3) What do the students think about their literature education? To be able to answer the questions, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in the study. The inquiry was accomplished on 29 students, 17 boys and 12 girls in the upper secondary school. The result showed, despite the limited amount of students, interesting facts. Firstly there were some differences between males and females and what kind of fiction girls and boys read. Both girls and boys read magazines and periodicals. The girls read more fiction about love than boys did. The boys rather liked to read books that are exciting and adventurous. The students also differ from one another in how much they liked to read. There were more girls than boys that liked to read a lot. The students, who didn’t like to read, stated that they had other interests or activities. They found it boring to read or had difficulties to find books that were interesting enough. Regardless sex, the students spent approximately 1 hour per week reading outside school, most of them at home before they go to sleep. The school library plays an important role to stimulate the students to read and to find interesting books. The reading test showed that the students reading ability were good. The results have been analyzed in the light of different theories of reading and research studies. It pays attention to the importance of having focus on the student. It is not a talent to be able to read and write. It is something you can practise and develop doing your whole life. The results of the study also raised questions of importance regarding the cultural capital and canon.

Denna studie frågar efter, vad det är som påverkar elevers val av gymnasieskola i Stockholmstrakten. Ansatsen är empirisk och enkäter har samlats in av 276 elever i åtta skolor och tolv klasser. De tillfrågade har fått svara på fjorton frågor om hur pass viktigt eller oviktigt de tycker att: föräldrar, kompisar, utbildning, skola med mera, har varit i samband med deras gymnasieval. Beskeden varierar, men likartade tendenser går ofta att utläsa, där exempelvis elevers bakgrund eller intressen sammanfaller. Svaret som ges är beroende av elevens förutsättningar inför valet, d v s betyget, närheten, det geografiska läget, ryktet, utbildningen, skolan, miljön, lärarna, föräldrarna, studie- och yrkesvägledaren och socialisationen med mera. Delarna fungerar inte utan helheten och vice versa. / This study asks after, what it is that influences students choices of upper secondary school in the area of Stockholm. The run-up is empirical and questionnaires have been gathered out of 276 students in eight schools and twelve classes. The respondents has replied fourteen questions about how important or unimportant they think that: parents, buddies, education, teachers etcetera, has been in connection with their upper secondary school choice. The really vary, but similar tendencies can often be inferred, where for example students background or their interest coincide. The reply that is given is depending on the students conditions before the choice, i.e. the grade, the vicinity, the geographic situation, the rumour, the education, the school, the environment, the teachers, the parents, study - and trade weighs, and the socialization etcetera. The parts do not function without the whole and vice versa.

Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur elever på praktisk gymnasieskola använder miniräknaren och hur de ser på användandet. Studien går också ut på att undersöka hur elevernas lärare ser på användandet av miniräknaren och vilka attityder de har gentemot användningen av den. Det ingår också att se vilka skillnader som finns i attityden till miniräknare hos elever och lärare. En elevenkät och lärarintervjuer på två praktiska program ligger till grund för arbetet. Resultatet visar på en positiv attityd bland eleverna där många anser att miniräknaren inte har några nackdelar. Lärarna är mer återhållsamma och framför viss kritik mot miniräknaren. En åsikt som framfördes var att miniräknaren kan ses som ett tveeggat svärd. Miniräknaren gör i bästa fall att eleverna kommer längre i undervisningen men även att de i många fall blir beroende av miniräknaren. Att eleverna som en konsekvens också blir svaga i huvudräkning anses som ett problem av flera lärare. Ett annat problem som lyftes fram var att en del elever använde räknefunktion på mobiltelefonen istället för att använda miniräknaren. Lärarna verkar inte ha någon pedagogisk tanke bakom användandet av miniräknaren utan ser den som ett effektivt hjälpmedel att göra beräkningar med. Eleverna ser också miniräknaren som ett snabbt och effektivt sätt att göra beräkningar på. Ingen av lärarna tyckte att miniräknaren har några direkt pedagogiska fördelar. De menar dock att miniräknaren indirekt kan ha pedagogiska fördelar då eleverna hinner göra fler uppgifter och därmed får mer träning. Miniräknaren ses trots sina nackdelar som ett bra och är ett accepterat hjälpmedel för matematiska beräkningar. / The purpose of this study is to examine how pupils in a vocational upper secondary school use the calculator and their attitude towards it. The study also examines how the teachers use calculators and their attitude towards it. Another part in the study is to see how the attitude towards calculators differs between pupils and teachers. A questionnaire among pupils and interviews among teachers in two vocational programs is the foundation for the study. The result shows a positive attitude among the pupils who do not find any drawbacks with the calculator. The teachers are more restrained and have certain criticism towards it. One opinion was that the calculator is a double-edged sword. At most the calculator helps the pupils to reach further in their studies but also makes them depend on it. The pupil’s weaker ability to do mental calculation is also a negative effect according to the teachers. Another problem that came up was that many pupils use the calculator-functions in the mobiles instead of a real calculator. The teachers don’t seem to have any pedagogy-philosophy in their use of the calculator. Instead they see it as a powerful tool to do calculations. The pupils also see the calculator as a fast and effective calculation tool. None of the teachers found that the calculator have any pedagogic advantages. However can the calculator, according to the teachers, indirectly have pedagogic advantages as the pupils have time to do more tasks and therefore get more practice. Despite its disadvantages the calculator is considered a effective and accepted tool for calculations.

This thesis explores two aspects of mathematical reasoning: affect and gender. I started by looking at the reasoning of upper secondary students when solving tasks. This work revealed that when not guided by an interviewer, algorithmic reasoning, based on memorising algorithms which may or may not be appropriate for the task, was predominant in the students reasoning. Given this lack of mathematical grounding in students reasoning I looked in a second study at what grounds they had for different strategy choices and conclusions. This qualitative study suggested that beliefs about safety, expectation and motivation were important in the central decisions made during task solving.  But are reasoning and beliefs gendered? The third study explored upper secondary school teachers conceptions about gender and students mathematical reasoning. In this study I found that upper secondary school teachers attributed gender symbols including insecurity, use of standard methods and imitative reasoning to girls and symbols such as multiple strategies especially on the calculator, guessing and chance-taking were assigned to boys. In the fourth and final study I found that students, both male and female, shared their teachers view of rather traditional feminities and masculinities. Remarkably however, this result did not repeat itself when students were asked to reflect on their own behaviour: there were some discrepancies between the traits the students ascribed as gender different and the traits they ascribed to themselves. Taken together the thesis suggests that, contrary to conceptions, girls and boys share many of the same core beliefs about mathematics, but much work is still needed if we should create learning environments that provide better opportunities for students to develop beliefs that guide them towards well-grounded mathematical reasoning.

Students need to be entrepreneurial, because society has changed locally and globally and individuals must carry more responsibility for their learning and their livelihood. Information technology affects everyone and makes it possible to obtain facts far beyond the classroom. In all, the changes affect the perception of what and how pupils learn. Supranational bodies such as the OECD, the European Union and NUTEK have argued for a couple of decades that schools and businesses need to work together to educate students in an entrepreneurial direction. Today, in 2011, entrepreneurship is in fact enshrined in the new curriculum for the upper secondary school, GY 2011. The school has long sought to increase students’ responsibility for their own learning and different education practices have been tested to develop this. The purpose of this study is to form knowledge about entrepreneurial learning and make a contribution to knowledge about a form of learning, from a student perspective. The theoretical and methodological approach of the study is phenomenographic. Sixteen students at an upper secondary school with a pronounced entrepreneurial profile have been interviewed. The interview guide used was open-ended with ample opportunities for the informants to talk about their work on the basis of the project that the students perform during their last school year. Students do not use the term entrepreneurial to describe their perceptions, but from the data I understand with my teaching experience that they describe their perceptions of entrepreneurial learning. The results of the analysis of the data material show upper secondary school students' different perceptions of entrepreneurial learning and fall into five description categories. They are Understanding, identifying and defining the task, External contacts and communication, Team building, Learning in different social practices and Looking beyond the obvious. The results show that if the school is to use entrepreneurial learning as a learning approach, tasks need to be retrieved from activities outside the school to be challenging for students to manage themselves and with the help of others.

Construction of a laboratory lesson for upper secondary school in the area of Liquid Chromatography, including carrying through the laboratory lesson in a class Laboratory lessons constitute an important part of science education. There are different sorts of laboratory lessons. In some laboratory lessons the students themselves are active, and in others the teacher demonstrates an experiment for the students. Some laborative work can be defined by the teacher while other can give the students an opportunity to plan an investigation themselves.   A new laboratory lesson, on the area of Liquid Chromatography, for upper secondary school has been made. In the laboratory lesson chocolate is analysed regarding the content of caffeine and theobromine. The laboratory lesson has been carried out in a class, to see what the students know about solubility, dilution, chromatography and analytical procedure after they have gone through the laboratory lesson. To get information about the students knowledge a questionnaire study was done. Teachers also have been interviewed, for their opinion about laboratory lessons as a part of science education.   All students showed some knowledge about solubility, and most students also had knowledge about chromatography even if they described different aspects of it. Dilutions was not a problem for most of the students. Many students also showed an understanding of the analytical procedure. For the teachers interviewed laborative work was an important part of science education.   Key words: Liquid chromatography, laboratory lesson, upper secondary school, chocolate, theobromine, caffeine, questionnaire study, and interviews.     Advisor:  Margareta Sandahl, Lund University Olle Eskilsson, Kristianstad University Degree project 30 credits in Chemistry/Educational Science 2008/2009 Department of Chemistry, Lund University School of Teacher Education, Kristianstad University

Syftet med denna studie är att, utifrån ett matematikdidaktiskt perspektiv, undersöka hur derivata introduceras i gymnasiets kurs Matematik C. Vi har i huvudsak fokuserat på didaktik och kognitiv utveckling. I en genomgång av relevant litteratur har vi tagit del av teorier och resultat från tidigare forskning inom samma område. Litteraturen försöker besvara frågan om hur lärare på bästa sätt kan överbrygga kognitiva hinder och ge elever en djupare förståelse kring de matematiska sammanhangen. Vårt material består av kvalitativa intervjuer med lärare från två skolor och ett antal läroböcker. Genomgången av intervjumaterialet har resulterat i fyra teman att använda som grund för hela studien: allmänt lärande, matematiklärande, derivatbegreppet samt visualisering. De lärare vi intervjuar vill alla stimulera elevers intresse för mer avancerad matematik. I princip följer alla, både lärare och läromedel, samma ”mall” när de introducerar derivata. Man knyter gärna an till vardagshändelser och begrepp som till exempel hastighet. Den litteratur vi använder, har många förslag och synpunkter på vilket sätt matematikundervisning bör bedrivas på denna nivå. I vissa avseenden skiljer sig dessa från hur intervjumaterialet visar att det verkligen går till. Vår förhoppning är att studien ska bidra till att både vi själva och andra får idéer om utveckling av undervisningen.

I vårt examensarbete har vi genusgranskat två läroböcker som används i gymnasieskolan. Den ena heter Escalade 1 och används i steg 1 i franska och den andra heter Give ’n’ Take: Reader och används i engelska kurs A på yrkesprogrammen. Frågan vi har ställt oss är hur bilden av mannen respektive kvinnan förmedlas i både bild och text i läroböckerna samt om böckerna lever upp till de krav som styrkdokumenten ställer på jämställdhet mellan könen. Vi har kommit fram till att läroböckerna bevarar den traditionella begränsningen som finns på grund av kön där mannen framhålls på bekostnad av kvinnan vilket förmedlar en bild av att mannen och kvinnan inte är lika mycket värda och inte heller har samma möjligheter. Dessutom framställs kvinnan som mer emotionell än rationell och mannen saknar till stor del känsloregister. Det här resultatet gör att ovan nämnda läroböcker inte lever upp till de krav på jämställdhet som styrdokumenten ställer. / In our survey we have investigated gender roles in two textbooks used in upper secondary school: Escalade 1, used for beginners in French and Give ‘n’ Take: Reader, used in English A course in the vocational programs. The aim with the essay is to examine how men and women are depicted in the texts as well as in the pictures and find out if the textbooks correspond to the part of the curriculum dealing with equality between the sexes. The result of our survey reveals that the textbooks preserve the traditional gender roles where the man is the norm. Consequently, focus is set on him at the expense of the woman. This result suggests that men and women do not have the same status, rights and opportunities. Furthermore, the woman is described as more emotional than rational and the man, more or less, lacks feelings. The outcome of our survey makes it clear that these textbooks do not respond to the equal rights and opportunities of the sexes that the curriculum demands.

During my practice as a teacher trainee at an upper secondary school it became clear to me that many pupils have difficulties with algebra. Also in a report from the National Agency for Education (1999) you can see that the students algebra knowledge get worse and worse. I was surprised to find that many pupils seemed to get stuck on the level of attainment for the senior level of the nine-year compulsory school. As I have not studied anything about difficulties in algebra during my training to become a qualified teacher I would like to get to know more about this. I also examine why you have to study algebra in upper secondary school. In my examination I have besides studying research used an empirical study. The empirical study consists of four interviews with upper secondary school teachers in mathematics. The result of my assignment can be summarized with that algebra gives you general solutions to problems, gives you larger poosibility to manage higer studys and its an important tool in other subjects in Upper Secondary School. The typical mistakes students do depends especially on fault due to lack of arithmetic skills. / Under mina praktikperioder på gymnasieskolan som lärarstudent kom jag i kontakt med många elever som hade det svårt med algebra. Även i en rapport från Skolverket (1999) fastlås gymnasieelevers allt sämre algebrakunskaper. Jag förundrades över att många elever verkade ha fastnat på högstadiets kunskapsnivå. Då jag inte har fått någon undervisning om elever med svårigheter i algebra i min lärarutbildning, vill jag lära mig mer om detta. Jag undersöker också varför man läser algebra på gymnasieskolan. I min undersökning har jag förutom litteraturstudier använt mig av en empirisk studie. Den empiriska studien består av intervjuer med fyra gymnasielärare i matematik. Resultatet av mitt arbete kan sammanfattas med att algebra ger generella lösningar på problem, ger större möjligheter att klara av högre studier och att det är ett viktigt verktyg i många andra ämnen i gymnasieskolan. De typiska fel som gymnasieelever gör beror främst på fel p.g.a. aritmetiska färdigheter saknas.

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mso-ansi-language:SV;} span.BallongtextChar {mso-style-name:"Ballongtext Char"; mso-ansi-font-size:8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:8.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Tahoma; mso-hansi-font-family:Tahoma; mso-bidi-font-family:Verdana; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:1492866463; mso-list-type:simple; mso-list-template-ids:517357830;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-start-at:0; mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:-; mso-level-tab-stop:18.0pt; mso-level-number-position:left; margin-left:18.0pt; text-indent:-18.0pt;} ol {margin-bottom:0cm;} ul {margin-bottom:0cm;} -->This paper will discuss the proposed reintroducing of a final degree in upper secondary school. In a public government inquiry that was released in March 2008 a proposal about reintroducing a final degree in upper secondary school was presented. A final degree has not been a part of the upper secondary school science 1968. Why was the system with a final degree abounded and why do the government want to reintroduce it? Research in pedagogy has through the years presented numbers of theories about assessment. In last decades a great part of the discussion has been focused on formative assessment. In formative assessment the assessment is used as a pedagogy tool. The purpose is to help the student develop their learning process and to learn to work independently. The contrary to formative assessment is assessment which only purpose is to summarise and control the level of knowledge a student possesses. The public government inquiry that led to abolish of a final degree in upper secondary school in 1968 shared many thoughts with theories about formative assessment. Forty years later the government has grown sick of all the formative assessment, which they think has led to a “muddled” school. The public government inquiry presented in 2008 wants to reintroduce a final degree and create a school where the student’s knowledge is orderly controlled and summarised.