This study aims to investigate the effects of cooperative learning on pupils’ knowledge and development with a particular focus on concepts and conceptual understanding in mathematics. By employing both qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study compared the effectiveness of cooperative learning to traditional teaching approaches in grade 4. The following question was formulated to research the aim of this study:
Svanelid’s (2014) three aspects were used as an analysis model in this intervention study. With the analysis model, teachers can assess whether pupils have understood various mathematical concepts. The results of the aim showed that cooperative learning had a significant positive impact on pupils’ learning and their understanding of geometrical concepts. Through collaborative activities and interactive discussions, pupils actively participated in the learning process, leading to improved comprehension and retention of geometric concepts. However due to introduction of methodological weaknesses and potential biases the results can not be considered as statistically sound.
The study indicated development in pupils’ learning and understanding of mathematics. In an attempt to pursue the main aim of this study, traditional teaching and cooperative learning were used as teaching techniques for pupils to study the development of their learning. After each teaching method, tests were used to identify the results of the analysis. The results indicated progression in the pupils’ learning by using cooperative teaching. Teachers are encouraged to further investigate cooperative learning techniques in their lessons as it potentially can increase pupils’ learning. More research is needed to establish a correlation between the use of cooperative learning in the teaching of mathematical concepts.
Sweden is a multicultural country and because of this the Swedish school-system should be adapted so that all pupils can develop their linguistic skills so that they can participate andunderstand the education. By using scientific work from other researchers and my own experiences from a general point of view, I noticed that pupils with foreign origin perform less good in mathematics than pupils with Swedish origin, in the Swedish education system.
The purpose of this research is to find out if communication and interplay between the pupils makes it easier for them to understand mathematics and its’ concepts. My research involves acertain school class were all pupils have another etnicity then the Swedish one. My aim was to find out if the pupils reached the knowledge-goals for mathematics in the third grade. Especially in the areas of solution solving and the understanding of mathematical texts. I wanted to find out if communication and interplay between the pupils lead to increasedprogress in the Swedish language and increased understanding of mathematical texts. I also examined what possibilities the pupils have to absorb and understand the education and how favourable the conditions are in their teaching process. My starting points were Vygotskijs’ sociocultural perspective. The main research questions were:
The research is based on interviews with the teacher and observations of the pupils during mathematic lessons. With the help of the empirical material I wanted to increase myunderstanding about the process of learning and development in the class and about how the teacher labours and reflects around the situation. She practiced silent and individual studies in the class. The result of this research showed that the pupils were not benefited by the teachersmethods and that they did not reach the main goals in Swedish and mathematics for the earlier years in Swedish compulsory school. The reason to this result is mainly that language and learning go hand in hand and that mathematics requires a good vocabulary and good reading comprehension.
Textbooks within Swedish for Immigrants aims to teach immigrants the Swedish language and help them understand Swedish society. But one can ask: is there a representative picture of all people in Swedish society in these textbooks? This study aims to analyze which discourses are made visible regarding what kind of people are represented in textbooks for Swedish for Immigrants. Two textbooks from different times are chosen to make a comparison, and to see what and if there has been development in the way one talks about people with non-Swedish and non-white names. The questions asked are: Who is given space in two textbooks for Swedish for Immigrants? And what kind of development has been made within this area between the years 2002 and 2021? The method used is discourse analysis based on a social constructive perspective, which means that people adopt the discourses they read and learn about, which affects the way they see society and how they interact with others. The result shows that similar discourses are found in both textbooks, where three main discourses appear: us and them, Swedish/white is the norm, and immigrants only have lower-paid jobs in society. People with non-Swedish and non-white names are not given as much space in the textbooks as people with Swedish and white names. The older textbook contains of a majority Swedish names whereas the newer textbook contains more international names, but that are considered white names. This shows that there is an us and them-discourse occurring. The us and them-discourse appear in different ways throughout the textbooks and is more implicit in the newer textbook compared to the older. Another example of this discourse is that people with non-Swedish and non-white names are often presented with where they come from, which is not the case for people with Swedish names. This shows that there is a certain way of speaking of people with non-Swedish and non-white names in society. In conclusion, there are more Swedish and white people who are given space in these textbooks for Swedish for immigrants. Considering that immigrants are the target group for these textbooks, there should be a representation of all different people in Swedish society. Seen from a social constructive perspective, immigrants who read these textbooks will adopt these discourses, which will affect how they see Swedish society and how they interact with others. The development discovered between the two textbooks and their almost 20-year difference of release is shown in the discourse of immigrants only having lower-paid jobs. The newer textbook shows no evidence of this discourse whereas it appears in the older textbook. This shows that development has been made in how society thinks of immigrants and their ability to work within any profession.
Sammanfattning
Den här vetenskapliga essän handlar om arbetsterapeutens arbete med neurologisk rehabilitering. Jag gestaltar ett möte med en patient som har drabbats av en stroke och beskriver hur anhöriga påverkar rehabiliteringsprocessen. Problem uppstår när jag inte har lyckats skapa en god relation och samarbete med den anhöriga. Jag funderar över begreppet rehabilitering, kring krisbearbetning och vad det kan innebära att drabbas av en hjärnskada och relaterar det till ett existentiellt och ett relationellt perspektiv. Jag reflekterar över ansvarsfördelningen i vården och hur den fördelas mellan patient, anhörig och arbetsterapeuten i vårdmötet. Mina tankar och reflektioner från mötet med patienten och anhöriga utforskar jag med hjälp av filosofer och andra författare.
Min slutsats är att anhöriga spelar en stor roll för att rehabiliteringen ska lyckas och deras behov av stöd behöver beaktas i större utsträckning. Jag behöver skapa förtroendefulla relationer och ha en dialog med patienten och anhöriga för att utveckla ett bra samarbete. Patienten och arbetsterapeuten har ett delat ansvar över rehabiliteringen och det stöd som anhöriga ger är viktigt för att främja tillfrisknandet.
The aim was to study ninth grade students perceptions of the subject of history, including gender, against the background of the social, cultural, and historical context that constitutes the subject of history and the students perception of it. The Theory , the theoretical reflection room, has two levels. A general level, `"the level of the great theoretical stories", boiled down to their essence (for ex. Bourdieus "Cultural Capital" and Baumans "Retropia) and a concrete level, in the sense directed towards the subject of history as it appears to the students in the teaching situation. The previous research showed scattered results. Mainly that the subject was perceived as rather interesting , important and exciting. But also, to some extent the opposite. As a subject for school , but not for life. Gender differences were detected. Parents background played a role. The studys own empirical study, a focus interview of eight ninth grade students (four boys, four girls), conducted as a thematically structured qualitative interview, largely confirmed the previous research. But the results was scattered and the context rather vague. No gender differences were detected. The studys sample was judged to be too small, not a basis for generalizations or generation of theory. However, theory, previous research and studys own experience appear as a melting pot from which relevant questions and perspectives for future research can be cast.
My science- and experience based essay depicts the communicative difficulties I perceive with a special parent couple at my preschool. My questions are: What kind of relationship can I have with the parents based on my duty ethics, utility ethics and virtue ethics? How can the power between me and the parents be described from a power perspective? How can my practical knowledge help me deal with parents who are late? In the essay I present my interpretation of two self-experienced situations that I illustrate in two different stories. The problems are also from a more general perspective regarding the communication between home and preschool. The study will help me learn more about what communication is and what new challenges that may arise when home and preschool meet. Furthermore, my reflection will help me to get an overview from a power-related perspective and what is in the preschool curriculum about cooperation between parents and preschool. How can I see the problem from the parents´ perspective and take their position? What makes me react the way I do? What makes parents act the way they do? The purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of communication between parents and educators in preschool and then see what the consequences will be for the child when the communication fails. I intend to also shed the light on the power relationship that exists between educators and parents. To get further, I need to reflect on my actions based on several different perceptions and with this create a deeper insight into the whole dilemma. From different ethical perspectives, I will help to see my dilemma. I will also highlight the significance and influence of Aristotle´s three forms of knowledge for my practice. I believe that education, learning and care are important components that we preschool educators should relate to.
The conclusion I see is that the steering documents are important to me as an educator and just as important is the cooperation with all parents at the preschool. Relationship competence is important to have when we educators at preschool have to work with it every day, through all our “meetings” with educators, children and parents. That relational competence requires that I as an educator have intuition and am extremely responsive to how I should act there and then.
This study is about teachers in socially oriented subjects and their attitudes and experiences regarding working with controversial issues in teaching. Previous research has shown that there are shortcomings and major challenges in handling controversial subjects in the classroom. Therefore, I chose to investigate this by interviewing eight subject teachers in socially oriented subjects. The purpose of the study was to examine different teachers' work with controversial issues and their experiences of opportunities and challenges respectively in teaching controversial subjects. After conducting a qualitative interview study with eight teachers, the results were consistent with previous research. The results of the study indicate a lack of time and challenges associated with working on controversial issues, as they are difficult to handle and can lead to conflicts and disruptions in the classroom. Consequently, some teachers choose not to teach about controversial issues. However, on the other hand, the results of the study show that there were teachers who encouraged working with controversial issues as they considered it important to socialize students into society by addressing controversial topics. They believed that by doing so, students develop into democratic citizens with political tolerance. Another interesting finding from the interview study is that certain schools as a whole choose not to work with controversial issues to avoid negative consequences. This is interesting because other schools in the study, for example, those with UN profiles, focus on challenging students with controversial issues to develop them into democratic citizens of society. One can therefore conclude that working with controversial issues is a task that must involve the entire school, not just the teacher, as it requires efforts from management, colleagues, teachers, and students. Thus, in schools where only the teacher is responsible for addressing controversial issues without support from management or colleagues, it may lead to a reduction in teaching on controversial subjects.
Ungdomar – och särskilt killar – i kommunala förortsskolor är den främsta elevgruppen som missgynnas av det nuvarande skolsystemet. Dessa elevers misslyckanden beskrivs ofta som resultatet av en ”anti-skolkultur”, vilket förklaras av stjälpande maskulinitetsnormer eller avsaknad av uppförandekoder. Trots – eller kanske på grund av – strukturell utestängning har flera självorganiserade utbildningsaktiviteter nyligen vuxit fram bland ungdomar. I den här artikeln visar jag hur tjejer och killar som bor i ett socioekonomiskt missgynnat område och som möter strukturella svårigheter i dagens skolsystem, hittar sätt att utmana eller övervinna denna underordning genom att arbeta med lokaltidningen Life i Orten. Genom att vända mig bort från det problemorienterade perspektivet och i stället diskutera hur ungdomar i förorten organiserar sig via informella lärandepraktiker, utvidgar jag diskussionen och begreppet ”anti-skolkultur” och inkluderar därmed produktiva perspektiv som hittills har förbisetts. Resultaten visar att arbetet med Life i Orten skapar empowerment och nya inlärningsprocesser för ungdomarna genom att möjliggöra för alternativa pedagogiska metoder. Denna frivilliga verksamhet utgör också ett sammanhang där ungdomarnas önskan om bildning kan uttryckas och det hjälper dem att formulera en kritik av det formella skolsystemet, vilket kan förstås som en didaktisk reflexivitet. Hos Life i Orten får ungdomarnas bildningslust komma till uttryck, utifrån arbetsformer som innebär större delaktighet och empowerment.
Det här är en bok om praktisk kunskap i äldreomsorg. Boken inleds med sju reflekterande berättelser skrivna av omsorgspersonal om dilemman de möter i sitt arbete. Dilemman i den mening som ges i texterna är svårbedömda situationer där det inte finns några enkla lösningar och där författaren själv är involverad som handlande aktör. Under flera års tid samarbetade vi lärare och forskare vid Centrum för praktisk kunskap vid Södertörns högskola i en serie vidareutbildningar med anställda i äldreomsorgen i Huddinge kommun. De flesta var undersköterskor eller vårdbiträden som inte tidigare kommit i kontakt med högre utbildning, men deltog gjorde också arbetsterapeuter, sjukgymnaster, sjuksköterskor, administratörer och en enhetschef. Deltagarna kom från ett brett spektrum av verksamheter; korttidshem, dagvård, gruppboende, ålderdomshem och hemtjänst.
Att uppmärksamma och undersöka praktisk kunskap är att rikta blicken mot handlingar med kraft att göra skillnad i enskilda människors vardag. Praktisk kunskap kommer ur de erfarenheter vi gör i livet och hur vi förhåller oss till och ansvarar för dem. Det är kunnande som bottnar, och som utvecklingsarbeten och omtankar kan ta avstamp i. Praktisk kunskap äger rum i ett specifikt sammanhang och uttrycks i handling. Ett av de språk som kan förflytta den till andra rum är berättelsen. Genom berättelser och exempel som gestaltar kan handlingskunskap och erfarenhet bli synlig och reflekteras till nytta för de handlande personerna själva, men också för andra som bryr sig om och vill lära av erfarenheter från äldreomsorg. Ur de enskilda exemplen kan vi förstå och se nya saker i vår egen praktik, men också få syn på det allmängiltiga. Men alla berättelser har inte denna kraft bara för att de är berättelser. Att reflektera över berättelser om handlingssituationer på ett sätt som blir meningsfullt förutsätter ett blottläggande av den egna erfarenheten med dess brister och möjligheter som kräver mod, men också ödmjukhet.
Här tecknar studenter på den erfarenhetsbaserade förskollärarutbildningen, och forskare som undervisar på samma utbildning, en bild av förskolepedagogens praktiska kunskap. Texterna rör sig mellan ett förtroget inifrånperspektiv och ett teoretiskt utifrånperspektiv. Boken kombinerar på så vis en djupgående undersökning av dagsaktuella frågor som relationen mellan omsorg och lärande, det ökade antalet diagnostiserade barn, resursbrist, lek och utbildningens betydelse, samtidigt som den sätter dessa frågor i relation till vilken förskola, och vilket samhälle, vi vill ha.
As globalization becomes a more and more recognized phenomenon with an increased flow of goods, people and information across nations’ boarders, the way we communicate is influenced. The act of communication has turned from more traditional means of communicating correctly between mostly native speakers to newer ways where the main goal is to achieve understanding between participants, whether they have the same origin or not. One language that is specifically affected by this is the English language, which is taught in Swedish schools as a major school subject. In regard to this, the aim of this degree project was to investigate how the Swedish policy documents governing the English subject education contributes to the language socialization of students in becoming a certain type of language user. The questions which were posed in order to reach an understanding of this were the following:
These questions were answered in accordance with a second language socialization perspective and theories about communicative competence, functions of English and context, through a discourse analysis focused on the positioning of the subject.
The results of this study were that the student was positioned both as a novice and an advanced language user of the English language without any direct connection between the two. This could be seen based on how the students were expected to make initial contacts with the English language whilst the policy documents at the same time present an abstractedly formulated communicative competence with an emphasis on the students’ ability to use aspects of it in relation to the whole of it. Furthermore could be deduced that the teacher’s competence and ability to scaffold the students’ learning were determinant for the language user shaped by the English teaching as the policy documents only covers certain functions of the English language and aspects of contexts.
Abstract
Children according to children
From a phenomenological perspective of childhood sociological approach I have had interviews with eight children made a qualitative survey. The purpose of which was to seek knowledge about children's views on children, and to explore the essence of the phenomenon of children. What emerges from the interviews is that there is a clear differentiation between children and adults. Children and adults do not according to children do the same things, and it is the size acording to them to see if it is a child or not.
Being a child is a temporary state, but for the children is the beginning and the end difficult to define. Age has a part in it but also how children play.
Based on my interviews I see children describe children as playing thinking phenomena when they analyze children from an outside perspective.
I hope this scientific essay can shed som light over how guilt kan appear at a school, primarily for those working as fritidslärare. Fritidslärare come often in close contact with special needs children.In the story I shall recount a case where I have taken the roll of carer and helping an extroverted pupil through his schoolday. He spends most of his time outside the classrum and is mostly with a special needs teacher. Generally his day is filled with rewards and punishment; methods that I find myself uncomfortable with. On one of these schooldays I find myself giving up on him. I see myself ignoring him, taking out my cell phone while he watches a film on the computer. In this situation I feel guilt. Do I have a bad moral standard or am I just acting in accordance with the situation? The question of how I deal with this guilt and what shape the guilt takes are two of the questions I pose to myself. I have made use of the Algerian author and philosopher Albert Camus and his theory of the absurd and the lack of freedom in our lives and how the absurd always stands in the way of total freedom. If we are aware of its existence then we can live with it and minimize its effect upon us. I will also refer to his novel The Fall (2007) in which the protagonist has long managed to avoid guilt and judgement. He comes to feel discomfort after an incident that he identifies as feelings of guilt. The guilt can be both collective and individual. In my text I shall concentrate on individual guilt. I, as an individual teacher, have my version of the truth whilst those around me have another. What does this imply? I also treat the mechanisms of control within the school that manifest themselves through reward and punishment.
This essay provides an analysis of five examples of written feedback on a speech assignment completed for an English as a foreign language (EFL) class by second-year students of upper secondary school. The essay aims to shed light on how feedback is formulated and how it is interpreted as a part of a textual dialogue between teacher and student. The analysis focuses on three separate sources of data: an interview with the students, examples of feedback and a short teacher interview. This dataset provides an insight to the process of the students’ reception and interpretation of the feedback and allows an analysis of the correspondence between what the teacher tries to communicate and what the students in their turn understand from the feedback. Two theories applied in this research include 1) attribution theory and 2) speech act theory, which attempt to show how the students reflect on their achievements and apply feedback to their own development. The feedback is interpreted on two different occasions. First, the textual feedback was coded, and an analysis model was developed based on two characteristics of in-text feedback: directive and expressive functions. The findings suggest that more specific feedback should be provided, and a deeper awareness among teachers of how students interpret their feedback would aid the students’ learning process.
The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers face children who they perceive as children with behavioral problems and how they act in the daily work to prevent and counter violations. The study aims to observe how preschool teachers deal with children who they experience as having behavioral problems in the form of aggression. The study also intends to compare two preschool classes in two municipalities where some residential areas are socio-economically vulnerable. For the collection of empirical data, the study was conducted as a qualitative study consisting of interviews with teachers and observations of children and teachers. The two selected schools were deliberately chosen based on geographical areas with known socio-economic vulnerability. The results predict that the preschool teachers encountered situations where difficulties arise, and which can be considered crucial for the children's biological, cognitive, and emotional development. The difficulties highlighted in this study are analyzed with theoretical concepts such as the punctual and relational perspective, the intercultural perspective and theories of socio-economic impact, conflict management, power and norms, aggression, and more. These theories count as significant developmental aspects in children's critical periods. The results show that the teachers in theory share a common view of the prosocial development work with children who are regarded by the preschool teachers as "children with behavioral problems". Despite this, we found significant contradictions that create a distance between what preschool teachers say they do and what they do in practice. The results of this study also show that preschool teachers use methods and strategies, in which children who are perceived as having behavioral problems get reprimanded, are threatened with punishment, and are made invisible.
The aim of the study is to examine how pre-school educators relate to the work on children’s integrity and how educators describe their didactic work on the integrity of children in pre-school. The purpose of the study is to get a better understanding of how educators teach children integrity in pre-school.
Through interviews with educators who work actively with the children in preschool, it showed how the educators described their work with children's integrity. The result showed that the educators work to teach children the integrity but in different ways. Educators are aware that children need to learn integrity but the knowledge about how to teach the children integrity is not there yet.
With good communication and interaction with the children, educators can show the children how to show respect towards themselves and each other and how to be a good friend in pre-school.
With this study, the idea is to contribute knowledge and awareness about how teachers in pre-school can work with children´s integrity and for the children to learn to respect their body and other bodies.
Free play in pre-school has been a widely discussed topic, and researchers have come to different conclusions about the role of the educator in free play. This essay is based on a self-perceived dilemma about free play. The main focus is whether children's free play should be free from adults and whether or not educators control free play. The dilemma occurs when a colleague points out that adults should not participate in children's play. The aim with this essay is to investigate and explore the presence of adults in the free play and in what way educators influence the free play. The research questions also consider children's experiences of play and how one can perceive the role of the educator in free play. The method has been to write a scientific essay by reasoning, reflecting and exploring the concept of "free play" with the help of theories, research and literature that highlights free play. In conclusion, there is no right or wrong about the presence of adults in the free play. Children need to both be completely free of adults to experiment on their own and time to play with an adult who can balance and enrich the game. The disadvantage is that the play without adults can result in certain children deciding at the expense of other children and with adults present, the development can be hampered, and the game can be controlled.
This study has a phenomenographic starting point that aims to investigate prospective preschool teachers' perceptions of their conditions and opportunities to meet digitization in the education at preschool. The target group for the study is prospective preschool teachers with previous experience of working in preschool, who are in the last semester of an experience-based preschool teacher program at a university in Sweden. By using two research methods, interviews and questionnaires, we have been able to get hold of and clarify the participants' perceptions, which has also enabled the identification and interpretation of areas of development. This answers the study's two questions which are: What do preschool teacher students' perceptions look like regarding their conditions and opportunities they are given both in the workplace and through the preschool teacher education to meet digitalization in preschool, in line with the curriculum goals? What possible areas of development can be deciphered based on the participants' descriptive perceptions of their conditions and opportunities to meet digitization?
The result presents the variation of the participants' perceptions in the form of categories consisting of codes interpreted based on the participants' statements. Furthermore, it is shown that there are different and unequal conditions and opportunities in workplaces and that the digitization content of preschool teacher education is not sufficient for a preschool teacher to be able to meet digitization in education. In order for the digitization content in education to be in accordance with the curriculum goals, the results reveal areas of development that, among other things, require an increased implementation of both practical and theoretical digitization content in preschool teacher education. In terms of workplaces, there is a demand for skills development, spaces for reflection and an increased range and variety of technologies.
The vast majority of parents want their children to succeed and become successful in one way or the other. The very first is that the child will graduate from school. In today’s society which is characterized by career-driven parents, especially mothers, one wonders if somewhere along the way parents are prioritizing their own careers over their children’s school achievements. This might be true in some cases, but in others it could merely be that parents are expecting more from their children’s future. Given that working days are getting longer, quality family time has become essential to most people. The purpose of this study is to find out which strategies mothers use to influence their children and if mothers education or background has no bearing on how they reason about their children’s future. This study was conducted using a qualitative research based on interviews. With the help of interviews, I will find out how and why mothers are using certain strategies and methods in their upbringing and if their backgrounds have been important to the way they raise their children. However, due to time constraints and the small size of the interview pool I can not make a generalization. The theories I use is based primarily on Bourdieu’s capital theory, which I think is best when the study primarily is to examine the strategies mothers use. My conclusion in this study proved that women use different levels of “curling” and discipline in their upbringing. However, it is common to all the woman in the study, that they use more love and emotions than what they themselves experienced as children.
Vi har genomfört en empirisk studie där vi undersökte forskningsfrågor relaterade till den praktiska kunskapen/klokheten fronesis på fritidshemmet. Forskningsfrågorna är baserade på att personalen kan relatera och formulera sina resonemang och handlingar utifrån verkliga situationer inom verksamheten.
I genomförandet sökte vi svar på följande forskningsfrågor: Hur resonerar fritidshemspersonalen om den praktiska kunskapens möjligheter? Och hur kan den praktiska kunskapen komma till uttryck i fritidshemsverksamheten?
I denna empiriska studie använde vi oss av seminstrukturerade intervjuer, observationer och fältanteckningar. Resultatet av denna forskning visar att personalen tar stöd av en metod inom arbete i verksamheten, hellre än sin erfarenhet inom yrket. Uppsatsen problematiserats i relation till metoder.
In this paper we explore this relationship between social learning environments and the technological ecologies that practitioners, learners, and researchers develop to sustain them. Through an examination of ethnographic research conducted at an urban after-school learning program we gain insight into social, technological and power infrastructures that influence learning and interaction in this setting. Adopting a holistic approach we examine how technologies are integrated into activities in this program to support the learning of the after-school youth. We emphasize both positive and negative infrastructures that contribute to the learning environment and discuss how identifying these infrastructures are one of the first steps towards understanding and informing technology design in informal learning settings.
Förskolan är en verksamhet som ska sträva efter att inkludera och anpassa sig efter varje barns olika behov samt förutsättningar och förmågor. Den politiska visionen en “förskola för alla” innebär att verksamheten ska vara anpassad efter varje barns behov, men trots detta finns det än idag särlösningar i förskolan.
Studien syftar till att få en bredare förståelse kring hur pedagogernas inställning är gentemot barn som är i behov av särskilt stöd eller har en funktionsnedsättning i förskolan. Undersökningen utgår från pedagogens synvinkel där vi tar reda hur pedagoger upplever sin kompetens och vilka möjligheter som finns med att kunna tillgodose barns olika behov. I arbetet kommer vi att undersöka hur pedagoger resonerar kring sitt arbetssätt kring inkludering av barn som är i behov av särskilt stöd.
Vår studie vilar på en kvalitativ metod. Vi intresserade oss av att se hur arbetet, kompetens och bemötande kunde skilja sig från en allmänpedagogisk förskola och en förskola med special inriktning med funktionsnedsättning. Med den anledningen genomfördes sex individuella semistrukturerade intervjuer med sex olika personer. Tre av dem var specialpedagoger och arbetade på en specialinriktad förskola mot funktionsnedsättning och tre stycken var förskollärare och arbetade på allmänpedagogisk förskola.
Studien visar att det finns skillnad i arbetet mellan dessa två upplägg av förskolor. Stora barngrupper och liten personaltäthet är bland annat något som gör att arbetet försämras med barn som har en funktionsnedsättning eller är i behov av särskilt stöd. Vi har även kommit fram till att en förskola för alla inte handlar om att få vara med fysiskt utan handlar om att få sina behov tillgodosedda och bli inkluderad i verksamheten. Slutligen kan vi även se i vår studie att kompetensen finns för att arbeta med barn som har en funktionsnedsättning eller är i behov av särskilt stöd men att det finns bristande resurser för att tillgodose barns olika behov.
The purpose of this study was to examine the preschool teachers' view of their competence in art and art creation, as well as the competence they consider that a preschool teacher should have and how competence can develop. In this study, we define competence as something you own in the practice of preschool education and that preschool teachers can meet the challenges that the profession requires. Competence is about being able to carry out an action in practice, and in this study, the expression summarizes what a person can in the field of art and art creation. Our study addresses the following questions; how do preschool teachers perceive their competence in art and art creation? What do the preschool teachers think they need in competence in art and art creation? What role do preschool teachers play in promoting their own and children's competence development in art and art creation? Four preschool teachers and a teacher for elementary school's older years who worked in preschool since her education was interviewed with a qualitative interviewing method from a sociocultural perspective. The results show that the competencies that preschoolers apprehend is competence that includes material knowledge, the ability to link activities with curriculum and theories, and to make it a fun-filled activity for the children. In order to develop their competence, the result shows that they use continuous education and collegial learning and in interaction with children.
”Det kan väl inte vara så svårt att hålla förhör, jag kan ju snacka med folk”, tänkte Gunilla Blomberg i början av sin poliskarriär. Men erfarenheten lärde henne snart att det är en komplex utmaning. Utöver kännedom om relevanta lagar kräver det bland annat psykologisk kunskap, kommunikativa strategier, tolkningsförmåga, förtrogenhet med rättssystemet och praktisk klokhet.
I den här essän analyserar Gunilla Blomberg, tillsammans med Maria Wolrath Söderberg, ett fall som ruskade om henne och som gjorde att hon kom att se på förhörsledarrollen på ett nytt sätt.
I denna vetenskapliga essä har jag som blivande pedagog på fritidshem undersökt huruvida mitt agerande i ett dilemma kunde gjorts annorlunda eller om mitt agerande var rätt utifrån ett antal teorier och perspektiv. Dilemmat utgår från att jag lyfter två frågor på ett arbetslagsmöte, dels om eleverna verkligen behöver vara tysta i fem minuter när de ska äta mat för att sedan prata, dels om eleverna måste ta av sig kepsen inomhus då det uppkommer heta diskussioner mellan lärare och elever om kepsen vara eller inte vara inomhus. Dessa två frågor ställde mig i en situation som jag inte kunde ana, framförallt beroende på reaktionerna från lärarnas sida. Efter en lång diskussion så accepterar personalen på skolan att prova ta bort de fem tysta minuterna. Men när jag lyfte frågan om att låta elever bära keps på sig inomhus så tystades jag ner, snabbt och högt, utan diskussion eller åtanke om vad eleverna önskar. Ställer jag mig på elevernas sida så får jag lärarna emot mig då det verkar som om det är de som bestämmer i skolan av tradition. Jag använder mig av ett antal etablerade akademikers skrifter, bland annat av Björn Haglund och Inge Johansson för att reda ut hur makten mellan fritidshemmet och skolans personalgrupper ser ut. Vidare så behandlar jag dilemmat utifrån perspektiven om elevers delaktighet och inflytande beaktat skolan demokratiska uppdrag som stadgas i skolans läroplan. I den sista delen av litteraturdiskussionen har jag valt att se dilemmat ur ett etiskt perspektiv med hjälp av framförallt filosoferna Jan-Olov Henriksens och Arne Johan Vetlesens bok Etik i arbete med människor. I slutordet visar jag på att mitt dilemma inte har ett givet svar. Beroende på ur vilken synvinkel jag ser på dilemmat så blir resultatet olika.
Starting from excerpts of practioners’ accounts of alienated processes in their work life, this chapter investigates the notion of alienation in the era of neoliberalism and New Public Management. Drawing on Rahel Jaeggi’s retreatment of Marx’s theory of alienation, and elaborating upon Wendy Brown’s account of neoliberal rationality, I claim that the contemporary focus on measurability and control can be viewed as alienating the practical knowledge of the professional. I go on to explore how professionals’ reflective narratives might serve as a way of critiquing contemporary forms of alienation.
Exploring Practical Knowledge investigates professional practices from a hermeneutic perspective. The book presents, discusses and applies notions such as practical knowledge, practical wisdom, tacit knowledge, and normativity to the professional lifeworld. These contributions focus on both specific practices and more general questions concerning theories and investigations of practice.
This volume comes as the result of a cooperation of three research centres: The two Centres for Practical Knowledge in Bodø, Norway and in Södertörn, Sweden, as well as the Research Group Value-Oriented Professionalisation at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht, the Netherlands. It offers empirical studies of professionals as well as discussing the underlying theories, approaches and methods of exploring practical knowledge – including the limits to any articulation of these aspects of professional action.
In contrast to the objectivist paradigm that otherwise dominates professional studies, each chapter presents central perspectives and possibilities drawing from humanistic and interdisciplinary research traditions. The book explores professions in a style accessible to scholars and practitioners alike. It is interesting for those studying practices within these professions and for vocational studies in education, social work, health care, police work, journalism, etc.
In this commentary we propose a collaborative strategy for the creation of informal learning activities in after-school settings that are also shared sites of learning, re-search, and development. We briefly trace the history of a research program—“UC-Links”—whose defining feature is a form of collaboration between institutions of higher learning and local community institutions responsible for youth in the after-school hours. These collaborations thrive only to the degree that “mutual appropria-tion” can be negotiated between partners, and it is within mutual appropriation that new possibilities for creative cross-generational and cross-cultural informal learning activities are materialized.
In recent years, a great deal of research and government money has been spent promoting the development of a digital infrastructure to support educational activities of grade school children attending after-school programs in a variety of “informal learning” environments. Based upon several years of ethnographic observations in a digitally-enriched afterschool setting in a poor, mostly African American, subsidized housing center, we have found such activities to be rich sites for understanding the way that youth media practices interact with, and enter into, activities specifically designed to enhance children’s learning through the use of powerful and attractive digital tools. The digital tools in this case included carefully designed simulations and stop motion animation. The activities included learning about parallel circuits as part of a physics curriculum and learning about the ocean and inhabitants as part of a curriculum unit on marine science. This research shows in rather stark manner the ways in which activities emanating from the school and the local cultural norms of the child participants in the after-school setting interact, often in conflictual ways that work against the best laid plans of the elders, while revealing educational potentials from hybridization in the circumstances of the local, after-school idioculture. Fostering participatory culture practices: Practical video production in an after-school program.
The recess is a place where many students meet and social context becomes a big part of their day. The recess offers opportunities for students to practice social interaction, which is also a large part of the leisure-time centre's mission. The study is based on the socio-cultural perspective and the investigation is based on qualitative methods such as interviews and observations. The purpose of the study is to find out more about how student’s interaction is emphasized during the recess through free play, controlled and student-led activities. Through the interviews, we want to investigate how educators view their role and the opportunity to influence students' social learning. Finally, we want to draw attention to similarities in the social learning that takes place through play and participation in activities at the recess and the learning that takes place at the leisure-time centre.
The results of the study show that the different recess activities contribute in different ways to the students' social learning. The educators see both the pros and the cons of the different forms of recess activities and the conclusion is that a variety of break activities are needed to create social contexts for all students. The social interaction that takes place during the recess is largely reminiscent of what happens in the leisure-time centre's activities.
Nature-based solutions directed at improving biodiversity, on both public and private land, can provide multiple benefits, but many of these benefits are not being fully realised. One reason is the normative and cognitive disconnect between people and nature, highlighting the need for new learning programs to foster better nature connections. More is known about learning in the context of community gardens than in relation to private gardens. Using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, this study explores learning among residents engaged in home gardening for biodiversity in Winnipeg, Canada. We uncovered diverse and interconnected learning processes/activities founded on formative childhood experiences. The processes/activities were non-formal and informal, and included individual, social and blended experiences. Learning outcomes were also mutually influencing and multi-levelled, comprising normative, cognitive/behavioural and relational changes. The results support an analytical framework suggesting how learning-focused initiatives can enhance biodiversity on private property and aid in delivery of nature-based solutions.
The affluence of information sources we currently experience due to economic prosperity of western cultures and modern information technologies seems to have, apart from its positive effects associated with the ready availability of information, some negative ones as well. These seem to be related to the counterproductive way students utilize these sources, which, in some cases, may hinder their progress, reduce the efficiency of the overall educational process, and render teachers frustrated due to their students not coming prepared to their seminars.
Besides looking into factors affecting intake, retention and recall of new information among Swedish university students, which appear to be directly associated with the scarcity principle and perceived value of the information sources the students use, the paper also discusses their inability to deploy relevant cognitive and metacognitive strategies in the process of learning, the impact of exposure to a certain assessment, learning and grading culture, as well as possible solutions to the issue.
While previous research has identified executive functions as predictors of academic performance in school children, similar studies conducted among adults show mixed results. One of the reasons given for executive functions having a limited effect on academic achievements in adulthood is that they are usually fully developed by that time. Since these executive functions are at their peak at that age, the individual differences in these as well as their influence on academic performance in adults are harder to trace. The paper describes a study conducted among 107 university students the goal of which was to find out whether there is any relationship between the adult students’ inhibitory control values measured with the Stroop Test and their academic achievements. Although the results indicate a weak correlation between the Stroop Effect and the students’ academic performance of low statistical significance, which seems to confirm the outcomes of the previous studies focusing on adults, the study reveals an unexpected statistically significant correlation between the students’ grade averages and the number of their incorrect color identifications. This phenomenon appears to be worth pursuing in future research since it suggests the existence of another, relatively quickly measurable, variable possibly reflecting other predictors of academic performance in adults such as a degree of their manifested conscientiousness, their ability to concentrate on an assigned, relatively short, one-off task and their attitude to fulfilling this task. The Stroop Test, despite not being originally designed for this purpose, might thus be used as a simple tool suitable for providing information about these variables via the subject’s number of color identification errors. Such information can subsequently inform the activities that educators may include in their curricula to foster conscientiousness and concentration in the students lacking these.