This report discusses the development of lessons based on laborations for middle and high school.The purpose of the project was to research the possibility to affect students' attitude towards physicsthrough well-planned stimulating lessons. The lessons were based on the Light and Lasers OutreachKit, a teaching package made by the organisation Laser Classroom, and have been adapted for physicsin middle and high school. The lessons were developed on a pedagogical and didactical ground andwere improved with surveys and peer and self assessment. The lessons were based on laser light and itsproperties. One lesson covered the topic of single-slit diffraction, while the other treated geometricaloptics.

Today an increasing number of schools and organizations are investing in so called Learning Management Systems. Researchers disagree on the pedagogical value of these tools. Some mean that Learning Management Systems cement old-fashioned behaviouristic teaching practices; others mean that the systems provide good opportunities in supporting learning in a socio cultural perspective. The aim of this study is to reach better understanding and increased knowledge of how the introduction of a Learning Management System influences the role of the teacher and how the learning is organized. We have conducted two case studies.

I have chosen to write this essay on language development in a preparatory class due to the fact that I live in a city where diversity is big and newly arrived students from different countries are constantly increasing in schools. My study has been made in a preparatory class in Södertälje. The National Agency for Education highlights the deficiencies in preparatory classes and believes that education is not adapted to each student's knowledge and maturity and it is therefore difficult for students to reach the goals in school. According to studies by the National Agency for Education, it appears that many newly arrived students do not recieve study guide in their native language, a resource that they are entitled to. Teachers and principals do not take charge of  students knowledge from previous school attendance in their home countries such as mathematics, history and other subjects.

Ledarstilar i klassrummet kan rangordnas på ett kontrollkontinuum med hög grad av lärarkontroll i den ena ändenoch hög grad av elevers självkontroll i den andra änden. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilken ledarstil gymnasieelever på ett naturvetenskapsprogram föredrar i klassrummet. En enkätundersökning har genomförts med 31 elever i årskurs 1 och 24 elever i årskurs 3. Undersökningen visar att en majoritet av gymnasieleverna föredrar ledarstilar som präglas av lärarkontroll. Undersökningen visar också att eleverna överlag vill vara delaktiga i planeringen av undervisningen och bedömningen av kunskaper.

Syftet med undersökningen är studera vad som präglar auktoriteten i den svenska skolan, undersöka värdet av goda relationer i klassrummet samt studera hur konflikthantering påverkas av gruppsituationen som råder i klassrummet. Mina frågeställningar handlar om vilken betydelse ledarskap, respekt och auktoritet får i relationen mellan lärare och elever, vad som avgör om en lärare respekteras av elever och vad det beror på att en lärare får eller inte får auktoritet i en grupp. I studien undersöks också hur det är möjligt att på olika sätt hantera konfliktsituationer.    För att undersöka detta har jag gjort strukturerade intervjuer med sex olika lärare inom gymnasiet och högstadiet, med olika bakgrund, erfarenhet och ämnesområden. Resultatet har jag sedan jämfört med olika teorier om ledarskap, grupprocesser och konflikthantering.   Min undersökning visar att auktoritet måste förtjänas genom bland annat social kompetens och goda relationer.

Student influence is a well debated subject and all Swedish teachers should let the students influence their education. According to research the student influence is generally low and something that varies from school to school. The school policy documents do not clarify how much impact the students get to have on their education and the impact is therefore something that every individual teacher decides. These individual differences are the reason of this study.This is a qualitative study about four teachers work and thoughts focusing on the subject of school democracy and student influence in the school environment. The study is based on qualitative interviews in order to highlight four different teacher?s thoughts.

This report discusses the development of lessons based on laborations for middle and high school.The purpose of the project was to research the possibility to affect students' attitude towards physicsthrough well-planned stimulating lessons. The lessons were based on the Light and Lasers OutreachKit, a teaching package made by the organisation Laser Classroom, and have been adapted for physicsin middle and high school. The lessons were developed on a pedagogical and didactical ground andwere improved with surveys and peer and self assessment. The lessons were based on laser light and itsproperties. One lesson covered the topic of single-slit diffraction, while the other treated geometricaloptics.

Vocal technique and interpretation are the key elements of voice training. Thepurpose of this article is to investigate what vocal technique and interpretation meanto teachers and students and how they would describe the relationship between thetwo. The questions at issue, intended to be answered in this article, are the following:What is the relationship between vocal technique and interpretation? How should theteaching be structured for the students to experience progress on the musical plane?What role does the teacher have in the musical development of the student?This is a qualitative survey and the methods of investigation are semi-structuredinterviews and classroom observations. Presented in the article are a number ofresearchers and writers whose thoughts on the subjects have gained great importanceto vocal teachers and students, as well as leading the research on the voice and itsfunctions forward to higher grounds.

This essay deals with the political upheavals which occurred in Japan with the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and its impact on the Samurai Class. This transitional period in Japanese history is portrayed in the film The Last Samurai from 2003, and it's the comparison between this Hollywood production and the current research on the subject on which this essay focuses. Two key figures who are portrayed in the film are Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), an American soldier from the Indian Wars of the 1860/70s who travels to Japan to quell the Samurai rebellion but ends up in captivity; only to learn their codex of honor and way of life and eventually become a Samurai himself. The other character calls himself Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) and becomes the representative of the Samurai's struggle for their existence. Their friendship and cultural exchanges will remain a cornerstone throughout the film.

Due to political decisions regarding the Swedish school, public and independent schools booth face the need topromote themselves in the quest for new pupils. This study aims to, from a communications perspective, examine how four selected upper secondary schools address their target audience; the pupils?to?be, on their homepages. Additionally, I intend to investigate whether, and if so, how, said addressing can be connected to the different target groups applying to the schools in question.The questions asked in this study regard the way in which the selected schools describe themselves on their homepage; how do they use the textual and visual content to address their audience, and can there be disagreement between the meaning of the text and that of the image? To answer these questions, I use a theoretical base made out of visual communication and semiotic as well as rhetorical analyses.The methodological procedure is a qualitative approach on the matter, allowing me to understand the ?what? of the content on the homepages, as well as the ?how? it?s being communicated.

The concept of function represents a major part of mathematics and becomes more significant in school during high school. Throughout history, it has been a difficult concept to define and may create challenges for contemporary students. This literature study aims to identify students' difficulties with the concept of function, as well as to account for how the definition of a function has evolved historically. The literature study has been conducted through database searches in ERIC, Education Research Complete and MathSciNet via EBSCOhost, as well as through chain searching. The study results in identifying that students' difficulties with the concept of function primarily include the graphical and algebraic forms of representation.

The aim of this study was to search for a link between the subject pictorial studies in means of expression and the ability to communicate in written and spoken language. To do so findings in relevant literature and a few complementing theories was addressed to cast light on interviews made with teachers dedicated to the subject pictorial studies in a subject-integrated curriculum.Interviews were conducted with nine teachers and all but one were teachers in the subject pictorial studies, spread across all of the nine grades in compulsory school. Informants were located in areas of socioeconomically high as well as low status, in central and densely populated areas as well as areas less densely populated. The diverse theoretical background consisted of semiotics, constructivist theory, social constructivist theory and genre theory. Theories and literature partly both contradicted and supported each other, depending on situation and circumstance.No evident conclusion could be made that discriminated one affecting cause from another on speech or writing skills.

In this essay I examine how in seven different congregations that belong to the Church of Sweden the preparatory office is formulated in ways that differ from the form that is prescribed in the current service-book of the Church of Sweden. My purpose is to examine how and why the congregations have chosen these alternative preparatory offices. This I have tried to find out by reading the written instructions and/or homepages of the congregations, studying their orders of service and interviewing one pastor in each congregation.Before describing, comparing and commenting on the different ways these congregations have chosen to formulate their preparatory offices, I give a historical background to the preparatory office itself and how it is formulated/designed in the current service book of the Church of Sweden. I also describe the history and the introduction of the Kyrie.I then describe each congregation, trying to point out the main characteristics of it, then concentrating on the process that lies behind the urge to formulate an alternative preparatory office, the reasons for it and the results.One of the conclusions I draw is that in the congregations I have examined there is an ongoing discussion about and reflection on the advantages of including the Kyrie in the preparatory office. I also found that in the congregations there are different opinions about the words following the prayer of penitence - should they be words of direct absolution or words that speak about the promise of God's forgiveness? This discussion is closely connected to a discussion about what is the connection between the preparatory office and the holy communion/Eucharist.

This report discusses the development of lessons based on laborations for middle and high school.The purpose of the project was to research the possibility to affect students' attitude towards physicsthrough well-planned stimulating lessons. The lessons were based on the Light and Lasers OutreachKit, a teaching package made by the organisation Laser Classroom, and have been adapted for physicsin middle and high school. The lessons were developed on a pedagogical and didactical ground andwere improved with surveys and peer and self assessment. The lessons were based on laser light and itsproperties. One lesson covered the topic of single-slit diffraction, while the other treated geometricaloptics.

The purpose of the essay has been to examine representations of immigrants in contemporary library and information science research in a Scandinavian context. By analyzing nine articles from the past decade we examine the perceptions that exist in the concepts of multiculturalism, culture, race, ethnicity, religion, gender and whiteness and what role and importance the library as a place is assigned in relation to immigrants as a user group. Our study consists of a qualitative text analysis, a critical oriented close reading method based on critical race and whiteness studies and intersectional theory. We have, with the help of Sara Ahmed´s theories of hegemonic whiteness, demonstrated how multiculturalism is partly presented as something desirable and good, partly as something potentially threatening.The discourse of multiculturalism can be said to express the notions of the other, which in the source material manifests itself by ascribing otherness to immigrants. We have, for example, examined how ethnical and cultural differences are highlighted by a separation of East and West, the library?s educational and assisting role in relation to immigrants as a user group as well as representations of whiteness, gender and clothes.