Study aimed to see if the language has bearing on mathematics learning. The study used qualitative interviews of three first grade teachers and one special education teacher.The questions asked was:Do the teachers and specialist teacher, at the selected schools, think there is a connection between language difficulties and difficulties in mathematics and in case how is this connection.How does the teachers / specialist teacher make it easier for students to learn mathematics and swedish.The study was based on Vygotsky and Piaget teories. In previous research, it is primarily Malmer, Hoines, Lowing and Kilborn who´s been treated. Within the governing documents, it is mainly the compulsory school curriculum Lpo-94, and the curriculum for mathematics treated.I hope that the study has conclude that there is a connection between language and mathematics learning.I tried to emerged this through interviews with tree teachers and one special teatcher but i couldn´t. The teatchers couldn`t fint that it was the only reason to why the pupils hade difficulties in mathematics.But in the literature I found the relation between language- and mathematicdificulties..

The aim of my study is to investigate how last year students in upper secondary schoolunderstand certain mathematical concepts, in particular the unit circle and its trigonometry.I have used intentional analysis to interpret student?s actions when they solve certain tasks onthe basis of a cognitive, situated and cultural context.Interviews with four university teachers in mathematics about the unit circle, trigonometry,and mathematical understanding, serve both as background for the study and as basis for adiscussion, where I relate students understanding to what the teachers want new students toknow about these concepts when they begin university studies in mathematics.The students were arranged in three groups with three students in each group. Each group waspresented with two tasks, one in which they were asked to calculate the cosine values for onepointed, one blunt and one straight angle, each located in a separate triangle. They were alsoasked to decide whether the points (0,71; 0,71) and d (1 2 , 3 2 ) are located on the unit circleor not.My conclusion is that students mainly have an operational conception of the unit circle andtrigonometry. The lack of structural conceptions result in difficulties in seeing connectionsbetween the concepts in unfamiliar situations.

The purpose of this study is to present arguments concerning a zestful learning for children ages 6-9 in mathematics. Four books in mathematics has specifically been analyzed to investigate what is written concerning a zestful learning. By means of an argumentation analysis within a qualitative text analysis the arguments are put forth. The didactic choices of the chosen literature are analyzed in a subject-matter didactic context. The result implicates a multitude of arguments and didactic choices supporting a zestful learning.

This study investigates the difficulties that may arise for students as a consequence of differences that exist in mathematics education between different educational systems. The questions asked are when and why difficulties as a consequence of differences in writing or types of student problems may arise and in which way teachers and students attend to these difficulties. The focus is thus on the written parts of mathematics education and the questions are asked within the frame of general upper secondary education.In order to answer these questions, a sociocultural perspective based mainly on Sfard?s (2006) participationist theories together with Vygotsky?s (1999) general theories on development and learning is used. An important analytic tool is the discourse concept which in this context means a type of communication that brings some people together while excluding others from the communication.

The aim of this study is to investigate into the use of discussions in the classroom to help the pupils develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and operations. The empirical data contain interviews with two teachers and observations from their lessons. The purpose of the interviews was to find out what importance the teachers ascribed to the ability of their pupils to talk about mathematics, and how they organised their classes to encourage mathematical discussions. With the observations, I was able to see the interaction in the classroom and hear discussions between the teacher and the pupils, as well as between the pupils themselves.The interviewed teachers proved to share my own belief in the results of researchers like Malmer (1999) and Löwing (2006) about the importance of verbal discussion, argumentation and reflection during mathematics classes. But convictions derived from the research of others are one thing, the practical application of the wisdom in the classroom another.

Rock groundwater has always caused major problems when tunnelling. Water leaking into tunnels can cause large problems, not only on the construction itself but also on the environment. A continuous water leakage can lead to a declining water supply, and geotechnical problems can occur as subsidence in the ground. Therefore it is of great importance to predict the consequences that can appear in the surroundings due to a declining groundwater surface.The aim of the study was to investigate different methods for predicting leakage and changes in groundwater level due to tunnelling excavations in rock. This thesis was performed by comparing mathematical methods, actual groundwater changes and results from preliminary investigations.Investigations were made for three railway tunnels planned by Botniabanan AB.

AbstractMy purpose with this study is to find out if it helps children who have diffuculties with their concentration if they get to practise their motor behaviour knowledge during their day at the school to promote their learning capacity. My purpose is also to find out how schools works with motor behaviour training. To get answers to my questions have I done interviews with four educationalists and I have also used books and internet sites. Motor behaviour is of importance to how children learn things in the school, without a well working motor children gets difficulties to sit still and to concentrate. The children may put their energy at the wrong things in the classroom, when the energy instead should be need to learning things.

The purpose of this study was to, from the teacher's point of view; discover pupils with reading difficulties in connection with text assignments in mathematics, the teacher's support for these students, if difficulties coincide and whether it's the mathematics teacher's responsibility to make sure pupils with reading difficulties develop their reading ability. The study is based on a qualitative method and five semistructured interviews with mathematics teachers and one language support teacher.The result shows there is a strong connection between the pupils' reading ability and their ability to manage text assignments in mathematics. A weak reading ability affects the pupil in a negative way when solving text assignments in mathematics due to wrong reading technique if the teacher is absent. It is not unusual that reading difficulties and mathematics difficulties coincide. The teacher's most important role in the learning process is to teach the pupils understanding about the reading technique in different ways and to give the pupils opportunity to get spoken texts.

This paper investigates the methods used by teachers when teaching elementary mathematics to children with Swedish as their second language. The original mathematical terminology derives from Latin, Greek and Arabic, this terminology is not of great importance in this paper, the everyday language spoken in elementary classes when teaching mathematical concepts and calculations to younger children is. The use of everyday language is an advantage for children with Swedish as their second language as mathematical problems presented in a more plain language is easier to comprehend and solve than problems in mere numerals. Special teachers in home language classes often have the task of clarifying the mathematical concepts, introduced to the children during mathematical lessons, in the pupils first acquired language. A qualitative method was used in this study.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka samband som visas tydligt hos elever i både matematiksvårigheter samt fonologiska svårigheter. Studien har genomförts på elever i årskurs 7 som uppvisat matematiska såväl som fonologiska svårigheter. Resultatet baseras på en filmad observation där eleverna fått lösa ett urval uppgifter konstruerade utifrån svårigheter gällande grundläggande taluppfattning och aritmetik. Elever med fonologiska svårigheter såväl som bristande arbetsminne visar sig ha svårigheter när det gäller att automatisera tabellkunskap såväl som utföra beräkningar gällande de fyra räknesätten..

In this thesis we study four groups of students in grade 8, 9 and 10 when they try to solve a classical mathematical problem: Which rectangle with given circumference has the largest area? The aim of the study was too see how the students did to solve a mathematichal problem?The survey shows that students have rather poor strategies to solve mathematical problems. The most common mistake is that students don?t put much energy to understand the problem before trying to solve it. They have no strategies.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate whether speakers of different languages find different things difficult when learning Swedish. The results showed that the first language was not the only aspect that mattered when it comes to what difficulties the learners face. Also individual differences and the level the learner has reached in the language are important to consider. However, some differences between the groups investigated surfaced and this shows that the first language can infact effect what difficulties the learners will encounter.   .

This report describes a study of how the teachers in Sweden are working with the dialog in their classrooms. The aim was to find out how the teachers are using the dialog in their teaching. And if they think that the dialog has a meaning for the pupils learning, and how they think the pupils learn. Even the difficulties whit the use of dialog in the classrooms and which in the classroom should speak the most was examined. The methods that I used in this qualitative report were interviews and observations of four teachers in the primary school.The research questions in this report were:Which meaning do the teachers think that dialog affects the pupils learning?How does the teachers work whit dialog in their classrooms?Who is leading the dialog in the classroom?Which are the difficulties when working with dialog in the classrooms?I found out that the teachers view on knowledge belonged together with how they worked with the dialog.

The aim of this study is to investigate into the use of discussions in the classroom to help the pupils develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and operations. The empirical data contain interviews with two teachers and observations from their lessons. The purpose of the interviews was to find out what importance the teachers ascribed to the ability of their pupils to talk about mathematics, and how they organised their classes to encourage mathematical discussions. With the observations, I was able to see the interaction in the classroom and hear discussions between the teacher and the pupils, as well as between the pupils themselves.The interviewed teachers proved to share my own belief in the results of researchers like Malmer (1999) and Löwing (2006) about the importance of verbal discussion, argumentation and reflection during mathematics classes. But convictions derived from the research of others are one thing, the practical application of the wisdom in the classroom another.

In 1990 the education training program for teachers working with children with special needs was changed. One major difference in the new program compared with the former one is that the specialized teacher is now mainly supposed to supervise teachers instead of teaching pupils who have learning difficulties. The aim of this qualitative interview study has been to find out what the specialized teachers think about there education, and how this could influence children with cognitive disabilities in special schools. I have interviewed six teachers who specialized in teaching pupils with cognitive disabilities. Three of them where educated prior to 1990 and the others were educated after 1990.