Social media is a large part of Swedish adolescents’ lives. As such, social media is also prevalent in Swedish upper secondary schools. Some international research has shown positive outcomes from the use of social media as a learning tool in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, such as higher student motivation. However, there are no recent equivalent studies in Sweden. Teachers’ attitudes have also been researched, also in a Swedish context. The aim of this study is twofold: to explore EFL teachers’ attitudes, as well as their practices, regarding social media as a learning tool. A web-questionnaire was constructed and subsequently answered by 20 random EFL teachers in Swedish upper secondary schools. The findings show that participants have positive attitudes toward using social media platforms in their teaching. It was also found that participants do indeed use social media, as well as many other tools, in their teaching, and use it for many different purposes. The findings suggest there needs to be more research into how social media platforms could, should, and are being used in Swedish EFL classrooms.

Youths tend to spend less and less time reading, although they still consider that they would like to read more. This dilemma is particularly interesting within the teaching of the Swedish language in school since reading fiction is a vital part of the subjects’ content. Based on the result in the already done systematic literature study and the fact that Swedish school has become highly digitalized the aim of this study is to, from a student perspective, investigate whether audio books, and audio books in combination with paper books, could to any greater extent motivate upper secondary students on various programs to read fiction. Based on the essay's purpose, four questions are formulated: I. How do students rate their general motivation for reading fiction?II. How do students see how their motivation to read fiction could be improved with the help of audio books?III. What advantages and disadvantages do students see with the use of paper books, audio books or a combination of these?IV. Can any differences be discerned between students studying on different programmes, and if so which? A quantitative method is used through a digital survey where quantitative as well as qualitative questions are asked. A total of 71 students responded to the survey distributed among five different programs, the care and social care program, the social science program, the natural science program, the economics program, and the humanities program. The result shows that student’s motivation to read fiction is relatively low, especially among students studying the natural science program. Almost half of all respondents believe that paper books are the best form of reading but many of the students believe that the use of audio books could increase their motivation to read. Many students also believe that a combination of paper book and audio book can increase the motivation to read, especially among students studying the social science program. Regarding the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of reading four themes can be distinguished, advantages and disadvantages of: concentration, reading and language training, interpretation and things that concern practical circumstances. The result indicates that the preferred way of consuming books is by personal preferences since students can use the same argument for different options. The result is analyzed based on Jack Mezirow's theory of transformative learning. This theoretical framework involves an attempt to apply ten different phases for a transformative learning to the study's results. All phases are not able to be applied to the result, but the theory is still considered suitable.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and discuss the ways in which the world religions are presented in Swedish upper secondary Religious education [RE] textbooks. The result of the study is the following: The RE textbooks have similar ways of presenting the different world religions. Nevertheless, Christianity is offered more space in the books, and is also more personally presented that the other world religions. This implies that upper secondary students may not be given opportunity, through these RE textbooks, to depict and to understand all world religions in an equal way. The result is being discussed through two theoretical concepts: religious pluralism and an agentic perspective. Taken together, the theoretical interpretation of the result stresses an ‘outside’ secular perspective, grounded in descriptions of religious life and experiences from an outside perspective of the world religions. While a perspective from inside or from within the world religions is rare, and if at all most prevailing in the RE textbooks’ presentations of Christianity. This may have didactical consequences for the upper secondary RE teachers, in terms of which textbooks to use in the subject matter teaching, when religious diversity as knowledge content and objective is at the fore of the RE subject in the Swedish syllabus for upper secondary RE. A religiously diverse and agentic RE teaching, it is assumed, needs to balance the didactical space through choices of RE textbooks that convey equally distributed perspectives from both an outside and an inside depiction of every world religion.

Vocabulary development is important when it comes to learning a language, but it is also a challenging task. The Swedish syllabus focuses on implicit knowledge, and explicit teaching has been shown to have a positive impact on learners’ implicit knowledge. Therefore, this research synthesis explores to what extent explicit morphological teaching can be beneficial and improve vocabulary development for older adolescent and adult learners of English as a foreign language. It also explores how these findings are related to the English syllabus for upper secondary education in Sweden. The methods include searching several electronic databases with specific related search terms and using inclusion and exclusion criteria to obtain relevant articles. The research synthesis compiles the findings of a total of eight articles on both the effect of receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary. The results indicate that explicit morphology instruction has a positive outcome for learners of English as a foreign language in both receptive and productive vocabulary, and, that it may be a useful teaching method. Finally, the results correlate with previous research and with the Swedish steering documents and the communicative classroom in the Swedish context. For further research, it would be of interest to see if the results are applicable in a Swedish context, and thus, further studies in a Swedish context are encouraged.

Recent discussion has been given attention to different approaches of evaluating students’ knowledge acquisition and achievement, with attention given to how to appropriately assess students’ understanding. This debate includes Sweden, where the government places high value on the use of international forms of assessment. The Swedish debate also includes the disconnect between municipal and independent schools, this includes a marketisation of education and separation of two school contexts of municipal and private education providers. This thesis seeks to gain the perspectives of teachers within these debates and their perception of assessment practices. Teachers’ perceptions from both municipal and independent schools are gathered and compared to gain insights into similarities and differences in the perceptions on their use of assessment. Twelve semi-structured interviews were sampled from teachers of different subjects, with an equal distribution of teachers from municipal and independent schools. The results indicate that all teachers relate to the importance of the teacher-student relationship, where teachers are able to understand their students’ perspectives and the contextual factors relating to assessment practices. The teachers show limited discrepancies between their perception of their use of assessment, although 4 differences can be observed. (1) Teachers in municipal schools include students for peer reviewing each other’s work. (2) Teachers in independent schools have the possibility of extending their original teaching structure if students have yet to understand the current topic. (3) In connection with true to life circumstances teachers in municipal schools connect their assessment as preparation for university, while teachers in independent schools are able to connect assessment with students’ interests. (4) Pre fixed answers were used to a higher degree by teachers in independent schools. All teachers describe how they use summative and formative assessment within their practices, which they describe contributes towards students learning. Importance is placed upon achieving a progression where students develop and continuously learn and progress and where the teachers are able to view the complete picture of achievement.

The study examined the integration of Creative Writing (CW) into Swedish upper-secondary education, focusing on enhancing student motivation and engagement. It was hypothesized that CW, by fostering autonomy, competence, relatedness, and enjoyment, could improve students' intrinsic motivation, and engagement, as guided by Self-Determination Theory (SDT). Given the frequent issue of student dropouts, there is a recognized need for teachers to identify effective strategies to increase students’ motivation. The researchers propose incorporating CW alongside traditional methods as a potential solution. By raising student motivation, this strategy hopes to boost academic achievement and lower dropout rates. The study incorporates CW in an attempt to make learning more motivating and interesting while also meeting the diverse needs of students. The study enlists a mixed-methods approach to investigate the effectiveness of a CW intervention. The intervention involved students creatively reimagining endings in classical literature, facilitated through digital resources to ensure broad access, and engagement. The effect of the intervention on student motivation was measured using surveys in a pre- and post-test design. In addition, semi-structured interviews were used to gather qualitative data. Results indicated that substantial improvements in students' enjoyment, motivation, and ability to express themselves were achieved, suggesting that CW can bridge traditional teaching methods, and contemporary educational demands. The study highlights the potential of integrating CW into curricula, proposing that such innovative pedagogical strategies can revitalize student engagement and foster a more dynamic, and enjoyable learning environment. These findings advocate for broader application and further exploration of CW within educational settings to enhance student motivation, and their engagement with literacy.

It is generally assumed that in order to learn a language, learners need to master reading, writing, listening and speaking. However, merely possessing the skills and abilities to communicate is not sufficient; one must have the will to use the language. In order to formulate a model that can accurately describe the willingness to communicate, Mac-Intyre et al. (1998) formulated a model that attempts to do just this. The goal of this study is to verify the veracity of the Willingness to Communicate (WTC) model in terms of to what extent students’ self-reported WTC correlate with their actual WTC in the class-room. To accomplish this, this study utilized interviews with Swedish EFL students in southern Sweden, based on the WTC framework, and classroom observation in order to collect data on said connection. The results of this study showed that self-reported WTC and actual WTC do not necessarily correlate with one another; for some students, they spoke English more than they reported, some spoke less, and others’ WTC reflected their self-assessed WTC. Although the WTC model could account for the students’ actual WTC, it could not account for this discrepancy. However, this discrepancy may not be due to the model itself, but rather to the situational factors that, to a certain degree, influenced the outcome of this study. Based on this study, teachers are recommended to consistently speak English, as this raises the students’ own WTC, and to encourage English usage among students themselves. For future research, it is therefore recom-mended that non-linguistic factors be taken into account, possibly through factor analysis, in order to produce more nuanced data, as well as conducting a longitudinal study.

This master's thesis is concerned with biology teaching in alternative schools providing upper secondary education in the Czech Republic. Its aim is to describe and compare the teaching of biology at selected alternative secondary schools based on three case studies. The selected schools are Gymnázium Na Zatlance with alternative programme ALT, Gymnázium Přírodní škola and Waldorfské lyceum Praha. The chosen strategy of the performed qualitative research was a cross-case study, data were obtained by direct observation of the lessons, individual interviews with teachers, group interviews with pupils and document analysis. The concept of biology teaching in selected schools is elaborately analysed, including the description of specific lessons. In addition, the ideological basis, the organisation and evaluation in each school is analysed too. Comparison of selected schools identified common characteristic features such as emphasis on personal development of pupils, non-traditional teaching organisation, evaluation without school grades, frequent excursions, respecting approach towards pupils and deviation from systematics in biology teaching. The thesis provides a deep insight into biology teaching in alternative secondary schools, which is an under-represented area of the Czech education system....

The purpose of this study is to examine pupils´ experiences from getting grades in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities and which impact this has on these pupils how they form and get formed as schoolchildren. Four pupils in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities in a Swedish community have participated in qualitative semi-structured interviews. All analysis that has been made has focused on these pupils´ stories about getting grades. I have asked openly formulated questions so that the pupils themselves have had the possibility to highlight those experiences that they want to share. Three categories that I have used, with starting point from the questions in this study, to analyze the answers in the interview material is how the pupils talk about the bases for grading, the pupils´ self-awareness when they talk about their own grades and the pupils´ view when they talk about the importance of grades. The theoretical base of the study is policy enactment. One conclusion of this study is that both teachers and pupils in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities often is based on other factors than what different policy documents says about what should be the ground for teachers grading. One other result with the study is that the pupils in this type of school have a relatively positive view on grades. The result of the study also shows that the pupils that have been interviewed experience grades as something that is important for them even though they don´t seem to be especially aware of their own grades. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka erfarenheter elever inom gymnasiesärskolan har av att få betyg samt vilka konsekvenser detta får för hur elever formas och formar sig som skolelever. Fyra elever som går på en gymnasiesärskola i en svensk kommun har deltagit i kvalitativa halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Samtliga analyser som gjorts har fokuserat på dessa elevers berättelser om att få betyg. Jag har ställt öppet formulerade frågor så att eleverna själva har getts möjlighet att lyfta fram de erfarenheter de själva vill. Tre kategorier som jag har använt mig av, med utgångspunkt från denna studies frågeställningar, för att analysera svaren i intervjumaterialet är hur eleverna berättar om grunderna för betygsättning, elevernas självinsikt i sina berättelser kring sina egna betyg samt elevernas syn i sina berättelser på betygens betydelse. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt är policy enactment. En slutsats i denna studie är att såväl lärare som elever i gymnasiesärskolan ofta utgår från andra faktorer än vad som anges i olika policydokument för vad som ska ligga till grund för lärares betygsättning. Ett annat resultat med studien är att eleverna i gymnasiesärskolan har en relativt positiv syn på betyg. Studiens resultat visar även att eleverna som har intervjuats upplever att betygen är viktiga för dem trots att de inte verkar vara särskilt medvetna om sina egna betyg.

This thesis offers critical perspectives on a history syllabus for vocational education and training (VET) tracks in Swedish upper secondary schools and adds to our knowledge and understanding of the educative function of history education for the individual and for society. The overall aim of this thesis is to critically investigate discourses that are voiced in different fields about the construction and reproduction of the history curriculum in VET tracks. A general question addressed is how vertical (critical and theoretical) and horizontal knowledge is articulated by the discourses in terms of the meaning of history in a VET context. The following four research questions were the focus of the four different studies in this thesis: How were non-vocational subjects discussed on a policy level during the post-war period, and what meanings were ascribed to history education? What aspects of history as a field of knowledge are recontextualised into a pedagogic discourse for the VET curriculum? How do teachers perceive the history syllabus? What do the students express concerning the history syllabus and history education? The results of these studies are reported in separate papers, and the aggregated results are analysed in this thesis. The data consisted of government bills and committee reports, material from the National Agency of Education archives, and interview data gathered through interviews with 5 teachers and 46 students. The major theoretical inspiration comes from Basil Bernstein whose theories of classification and framing, pedagogic discourse, pedagogic code, and vertical and horizontal discourses are used in the analysis. With the aid of these concepts, the content and meaning of history education for VET are connected to macro levels of education, and the way in which education reproduces social order when certain forms of knowledge are distributed to different groups in society is discussed. Three major conclusions are drawn. First, history as a pedagogic discourse comes forward as versatile and contradictory when the results from the studies are aggregated. There is, however, a shared understanding that the meaning of history in VET is to educate the students to become democratic and active citizens. Secondly, the investigated discourses ascribe history education with the potential to distribute critical and powerful knowledge. The students see a value for history education in their future as citizens and for giving them access the public conversation of society. A final conclusion is that the pedagogic code, embedded in the history curriculum, can be interpreted in two different ways. The emphasis on competencies and the focus on the last two hundred years can be interpreted as (A) an expression of a wish for immediate utility and thus an instrumental view of education or (B) the recontextualisation of scientific theories, concepts, and practices into a pedagogic discourse as a means to give students access to disciplinary (powerful) knowledge.