The textbook is one of the instruments that teachers and students have available in their teaching. For many years has textbook regarded as being too controlling and as a barrier to students development in mathematics. Textbooks primary mission is to promote learning. My study aims to provide an overview of how effective teachers use the textbook in mathematics education as well as the pros and cons they see with their work. The work includes interviews with five active mathematics teachers.

This paper is a study of some of the Mathematics textbooks that were used in Swedish public schools from 1842 to the present. During this period several revisions of the curriculum took place and led to a change of contents in the various books. The first part is a description of the books chosen and highlights from each are given and compared with the corresponding curriculum. Also social and political change and the role of men and women can be studied in the examples presented. A comparison between similar topics and how they were accounted for in the older versus the newer books follows suite.

AbstractThe purpose of this study has been to find out what attitude fifth graders have towards mathematics. This is done to get a better understanding of student?s feelings regarding about mathematics and what it is that makes mathematics fun or boring. My questions have been: What do the students think is fun, boring and difficult about mathematics? How do students think that a good mathematics teacher should be? Do the students see a difference in the mathematics teaching in easy compulsory school years?To find answers to my questions I have looked into prior research on students attitudes towards mathematics.

The goal of this study is to gain knowledge and understanding of how a teacher can apply mathematics with assistance from practical mathematics. Students? point of view on mathematics within practical mathematic lessons will also be examined. Four teachers from preschool to third grade in primary school were interviewed. 30 students from grades one to three were also surveyed. The study shows that teachers see a major benefit when practical mathematics is used in the theoretical teachings of mathematics.

The essay examines and compares three different textbooks used in gymnasieskolans A- course from a postcolonial perspective. The method used in the essay is a qualitative analysis. Edward Said?s postcolonial theories are used as a tool to facilitate the analysis of the textbooks. The purpose of the essay is to examine how the textbooks depicts different parts of the world, are they depicting a multicultural world view, or are the textbooks assuming a western perspective in their description of the world.

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of manipulative materials in mathematics education with the main focus on grades 4 to 6. With the use of a phenomenological approach all the aspects of this phenomenon was examined. Qualitative interviews, participant observations and comparative content analysis of textbooks has been conducted to investigate the use of manipulative materials in mathematics education. The results indicates that the teachers that were interviewed possesses good knowledge of this teaching method. However these teachers struggled to find time to put this method into practice and there was not enough teachers to attend these classes.

This study examines how formal mathematics can be taught in the Swedish secondary school with its new curriculum for mathematics. The study examines what a teaching material in formal mathematics corresponding to the initial content of the course Mathematics 1c could look like, and whether formal mathematics can be taught to high school students.The survey was conducted with second year students from the science programme. The majority of these students studied the course Mathematics D. The students described themselves as not being motivated towards mathematics.The results show that the content of the curriculum can be presented with formal mathematics. This both in terms of requirements for content and students being able to comprehend this content.

This essay is a study of  textbooks in religious education for middle school. Textbooks are for many, the first contact with religion and they contain a shorter description of different religions. The study is supported by theories of 'Islamofobi' by Mattias Gardell as well as oriental studies by Edward W. Said. The purpose of the study is to examine how textbooks describe islam and muslims' situation in Sweden.

I started this project with the understandning that European hisory has become more important in government documents as a part in a larger European discourse, and that this fact is likely to be reflected in the chools textbooks. Therefore this essay deals with the task of comparing history textbooks over time trying to find changes. Firstly to find out how much space European history is afforded in the textbooks, and secondly how Europe is described and used in the textbooks. In my first task I will use a content analysis and in my second a conceptual analysis. My material consists of eight books and I have three pieces of older educational materials from the years 1949, 1954 and 1962.

Research indicates that a more hands-on education in mathematics could improve how students relate to mathematics. Laboratory mathematics is a way of making mathematics more concrete.  How is the purpose of laboratory mathematics perceived? This thesis has its focus on the pupils? perceptions of the purpose of laboratory mathematics, but the intention of the teacher involved is also investigated. The main research questions asked were:What is the teacher's definition of laboratory mathematics?Which is the teacher's purpose in using laboratory education?How do the students perceive the purpose of the laboratory teaching of mathematics?To answer the questions, I conducted a series of qualitative interviews.

The purpose of this study has been to compare teachers' differing methods of teaching mathematics and their perspectives on the learning process in a municipal school to a Waldorf school. The study has examined which approach best promotes student engagement and learning in mathematics in the first three years of schooling. The study is based on four interviews. The informants? accounts are interpreted using theories from previous research.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the perception of Christianity in nine textbooks andidentify changes in-between them and over time. The content of the textbooks will also bediscussed in relation to the steering documents connected to each book.I have chosen to focus on three curriculums, Lgy 70, Lpf 94 and Gy 11. My researchquestions are: how Christianity is treated in textbooks in religious studies in relation to theperception of Jesus, God and man? What are the differences/similarities across time andlearning materials? In what way does the textbooks change with the syllabuses?Text consumption and discursive practices is analyzed with the help of a set of tools thatare based on the critical discourse analysis and Fairclough's three-dimensional model. Theimage of Jesus, if described by a textbook, is also analysed.Three textbooks were chosen from each curricula.

The purpose of my study is to investigate teachers? opinions about learning difficulties in mathematics.I have read relevant literature on this subject. I have conducted interviews with seven class teachers, one special-needs teacher, a psychologist and one special-needs teachers who specifically worked with investigations concerning pupils with difficulties in mathematics.The result of my study shows that learning difficulties in mathematics can/might be prevented if children in pre-school are introduced to mathematics as early as possible. This should be done in a delightful way in their daily activities and while there are playing. I didn?t find any complete method to help children with mathematics difficulties in compulsory school.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this essay is first to get a general idea about a group of working teachers thoughts of mathematics and the teaching in mathematics. I also would like to find out what they think affect pupils relationship to the subject. The surveys main purpose is to compare teachers in grade 4-6 and teachers in grade 7-9 view of what you as a teacher can do to further the learning in mathematics. I have done eight interviews. Four of them are with teachers in grade 4-6 and the other four interviews are with teachers in grade 7-9.Concerning the result of my examination it is difficult to come to a general conclusion.

The aim of this study is to examine the existence of norms in three Spanish textbooks intended for upper secondary school in Sweden. One category of norms, gender norms, is selected for analysis. The focus of the analysis is on how gender norms are represented in the textbooks. The concept of gender also includes - in addition to the relation between man och woman - ethnicity, sexuality and disability. The three analysed textbooks are Caminando 3, Vistas 3 and El Sur paso 3.