The purpose of my study is to examine how four preschool teachers go about using the term play in children's early mathematical development. In order to fulfill the purpose of this study, I have the following questions:How the preschool teachers visualize mathematics in children?s play?What reflections have the preschool teachers about the importance of play for children's mathematical learning in preschool?How do the preschool teachers see on their own role in the children's play?In this study, I have conducted a semi-structured qualitative interviews based on the interviews with four preschool teachers from various departments in a preschool. I have also conducted some observations to complete my study. Whereas in my analysis of the researched material, I have used Vygotsky's theory.The survey shows that the preschool teachers are aware of the use of mathematical language and concepts in children?s different activities which were conducted daily in the preschool.

The aim of the study is to examine factors influencing students? feelings of pleasure or pain associated with school mathematics. Own experience of students? frustration about mathematics and concern about students not reaching desired goals is the driving force in this study. It contributes with knowledge from the students' perspective.

There have been debates on the big differences in mathematics knowledge concerning pupils in Sweden and Finland. Especially, one common issue in the discussions of education is the Pisa test results, which take up in the media. In the Pisa research the Finnish pupils get through well year after year. Because of the discussions about the distinct school systems in Sweden and Finland, I found it interesting to investigate the divergence of the curriculums in these two countries. The main research questions asked were, what are the main differences and similarities in the Swedish and Finnish curriculums in primary school? Such as, is the assignment of primary school similar in Sweden and Finland?In my study I analyzed and compared by means of the curriculum especially mathe-matics teaching in primary schools in grade three in Sweden and in grade two Fin-land.

In the school political debate that is conducted in Sweden the question of grading is an ongoing topic of discussion. During the past year there has been a lively discussion about introducing grade from year four as suggested by the right wing parties. The purpose of this study is to set the teaching faculties? view and arguments in relation to the politicians' opinion in the ongoing debate about the proposal of introducing grades from year four. Furthermore, the aim is to investigate how central the didactic arguments are in relation to other arguments in the current debate.

Interaction is an important part of children?s development. The school is a main arena in which children learn to interact, mainly through their playing. This study aims at investigating the role of interaction in a leisure school didactic setting. The aim of the study is to gain a better understanding for how the pupils develop though use of social interaction.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and to analyse didactic considerations and decisions made by pre-school teachers in the context of a multi-cultural pedagogical environment.The basic theoretical perspective is social constructivism, but notions from Donald A. Schön and John Dewey's theories of thinking and reflection have also informed the study; even Hans Lorentz' definition of a multi-cultural pedagogical environment has been employed as an analytic tool.The empirical study consists of a qualitative field study at a pre-school, where participatory observation and a group interview have been used in order to collect data. Those who participated were teachers at the pre-school.The results of the study, when analysed in accordance with the method, shows mainly three things. First of all that the teachers at the pre-school, in their didactic considerations, make use of the following methods of knowledge formation: knowledge-in-practice, reflection-in-practice, reflection on practice, reflection on knowledge-in-practice, and reflection on reflection-in-practice. Secondly, that no reflection particularly on the learning conditions in a multi-cultural pedagogical environment takes place.

The study's purpose is to describe students' experiences of help and support in mathematics. To investigate this, I adopted the questions: What does it mean, according to the students, to get "help and support in mathematics?" Are there differences in the description of help and support depending on the age of the students? What different kinds of help and support do students feel that they get from their math teachers? What different kinds of help and support would they like to have? The study is based on a qualitative method, group interviews, with three groups of students, one from each stage of primary school in one municipality in Sweden. The students were at the time of the interview in grade 3, 5 and 8. The interviews were analysed from a sociocultural perspective. The results show that what the students primarily consider as the meaning of help and support it is to get individual support from their teacher.

The aim of this study is to investigate how mathematics teachers use formative assessment to make the course objectives clear to the student. This is part of a wider aim in Sweden to find ways for improving mathematics teaching. Qualitative semi-structrured interviews and observations were used for collecting data. Different approaches to integrate formative assessment in their classrooms is discussed: questioning, discussions in whole-class, group work and assessment and feedback. The analysis of the results indicated that the teachers thought differently about how to integrate the course objectives in their planning.

The purpose of the study is, through some aspects, to make it visible and compare the education in mathematics in classes 1-3 in Sweden and Turkey. I have also studied the mathematic lessons, textbook and teaching aids, examinations and the use of calculator, on the basis of steering documents in curriculum and syllabi. The method used in this study contains of qualitative interviews and have an unstructured character but also observations noted continuously. The result is a comparison between my own experiences and the observations connected to relevant theories and the questions..

The purpose of this C-essay within the subject of religion is to form a notion as to how the attitudes towards women and their position in a theoretical biblical society might have been perceived, based upon a select number of texts from the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch).Since this essay was written under the framework of the teacher education programme, it is also integrated with the pedagogy subject. This manifests itself with the didactic reflection at the end of this essay, where I try to relate the subject of this essay to the teaching profession.The material, which consists of excerpts from the first and second chapters of Genesis, and aselection of the laws in the first five books of the Bible (from Genesis to Deuteronomy), wasanalysed according to an ideological model, where themes and patterns have been more important than specific word choices.The analysis showed that the views on women vary depending on who writes and who interprets a specific text extract, and the conclusion was that since laws reflect the society it is likely that they were created to improve women's status to make it as equal to the man's as possible.The didactic reflection offers suggestions for lesson plans on the themes gender, feminism andfeministic theology..

This paper is a literature review that examines how good mental calculation skills benefit pupils, which could work as a valuable learning tool for future teachers. The study addresses four key questions: ?What are the advantages of proficient mental calculations??, ?What strategies exist for mental calculation skills??, ?How can teachers accommodate their teaching to develop pupils? mental calculation skills?? and ?What has arithmetic looked like in different eras and what algorithms have been used??. Through literature searches in search engines, scientific articles were found, which formed the basis for the result segment. This was divided into two parts: A historical and a didactic overview.

The purpose of this essay is to examine whether the descriptions of Stalin's terror in history textbooks for high school changed from the 1950s until the 2010s. Since previous research shows that textbook content is influenced from different directions and that it dominates in teaching, therefore I want to find out what similarities and differences that exist in the textbooks. The survey is based on a qualitative approach because I want to have a profound picture of the descriptions of Stalin's terror. The results of the survey show that the number of casualties and the descriptions on the famine has changed over time. Furthermore, textbooks also found it difficult to distinguish between terror, politics and ideology.

The purpose of this study is to examine the importance of a working laboratory in mathematics education, how it influences students? learning and the confidence the teacher has in the laboratory component. Focus has been placed upon the advantages and disadvantages that could follow in the working method.The method used in this essay is qualitative in order to answer all the questions that arise along the way, and in order to use this method in interviews. The interviews that has taken place has been with five class teachers that are currently teaching at a elementary school between the years of 1-5. The purpose of this study has been answered by using its literature and the qualitative method with the class teachers.The results of the research show that teachers express gratitude towards the method in use for mathematics studies.

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.

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.