Abstract Title:                       Grades at Primary School ? A study of local politicians' arguments in                       connection with the division into grades at Swedish primary schools.Author:                       Annie LinderUniversity of KalmarC-essay in Social StudiesAutumn 2011 The study aims to investigate local politicians' decisions since municipalities took overSwedish primary education in 1990/91. The arguments put forward in support of how stages are organised have been studied, likewise whether municipalities have acted rationally when making their decisions.Six municipalities are included in the survey. They were divided into three educational categories: lower, middle and high level schools; previous and recent schools and F9 schools with pre-schools and primary schools integrated.Minutes from politicians' and civil servants' meetings have been studied and categorised according to arguments for and against. The most common supportive arguments are about economy and organisation, others concern school premises, trends and the wish for a comprehensive compulsory school.

During my practice as a teacher trainee at an upper secondary school it became clear to me that many pupils had difficulties with mathematics. I was surprised to find that many pupils seemed to get stuck on the level of attainment for the senior level of the nine-year compulsory school. As I have not studied anything about difficulties in Mathematics during my training to become a qualified teacher, I would like to get to know more about this.After studying research done on this subject I made the following approach to the problem:? What fields regarding Mathematics do the pupils themselves find most difficult?? What factors have been contributory causes to these problems?? What are the factors that have helped pupils with difficulties in Mathematics to reach the goals for the syllabuses in Mathematics?The answers to my questionnaire and interviews resulted in the following conclusions:? Pupils find theory of equation and conversion of units as most difficult at senior level of the nine-year compulsory school.? Teaching should be done in special instruction groups to give the pupil the opportunity to develop his/her skills on an individual level.? Pupils find it hard to deal with all moments in Mathematics during the time given for each course.? The pace for teaching Mathematics is too high according to the pupils.? Pupils wish for instructions on a lower level.? There is often a lack of contact between teacher and pupil.? The teacher should use more time to help the pupil receive good self-confidence and increase the motivation for instructions in Mathematics..

The aim of this essay was to create an understanding of teachers strategies to respond to children in economic hardship in school and if these children can participate on equal terms in school. To examine this, we chose to do semi-structured interviews which is a qualitative method. Eight teachers were interviewed from four different elementary schools. In our interviews, we found that all the schools both had elements of inclusion and exclusion, which can result in both equal and unequal terms for participation in school. We also found that the school with the most students in economic hardship had the most inclusive strategies.

Within special education, there is a big dilemma where some mean that school should include all pupils in the same school class, regardless of the students' needs for assistance, while others believe that students with special needs to be placed in small adapted groups where students have similar needs is to exclude pupils. While others argue that the inclusion can sometimes lead to exclusion. The aim is to investigate what meaning teachers and special education teachers gives the concept of inclusion in school and what consequences it entails in teaching. This study is based on a number of qualitative interviews of teachers and specialist teachers to obtain answer of the following questions.Has the concept of inclusion and integration the same significance and meaning according to those asked teachers, special educators and special educators?Which students should be included, according to those asked teachers, special teachers and special teachers?What is required to work from an inclusive perspective, according to the asked teachers, special teachers and special teachers?Perceive the asked teacher, special educators and special teachers some disadvantages of inclusion?Which students receive special education instruction in the schools were asked?Do the asked teacher, special educators and special teachers think that there is a school for all?The results of this study is that teachers and special instructors have difficulty indistinguishing the concepts and that they puts the same emphasis on inclusion as the integration, the students must adapt to school and not vice versa.

Many researches demonstrates that children who deal with matematics in a meaningful context early in their age, will manage a much wider context later in school. The purpose of this work is to highlight the importence of teacher´s view on matematics and how matematics can be visible for the children when they are in a preschool age. Im trying to promote the importance of mathematics wich characterizes much of our society. Highlighting todays nursay?s and the fact that there is plenty of good enviroments for the learning of mathematics.

The main purpose of this essay is to study how classroom interaction can take place in a class for Second Language Learners (SLL).1 I have applied a case study methodology on a linguistic method used by a Teacher in Swedish as Second Language working on a primary school situated in the Southern suburbs of Stockholm. The learning method is based on extensive reading of books which comprehend several learning techniques organized into a process that support the development of linguistic skills such as discussing in a group, writing, reading and thinking in a second language. The methodology applied is based on observations, on an interview with a Teacher in Swedish as Second Language and on a questionnaire answered by 11 students that participated on ?Boksamtal?.Based on a theoretical framework about socio cultural theories on learning and scaffolding,2 I attempt to integrate theory and practice to investigate how the Teacher succeed on applying effective methods for second language learning. Through the analyses of the data is also my intention to emphasize the advantages and disadvantages of such a method.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to find out what mathematical content primary school children encounter in their free options at school.Through observation, the study defines mathematical areas that primary school students encounter in their free options at school. We want the study to show the reader the mathematics that students continuously meet without associating it with regular mathematics as taught in school.A number of mathematical areas have been defined in the analysis of the observations. These areas have subsequently been discussed more thoroughly. Finally, the areas have been arranged in a grid system to clarify the results.In our study, we have discovered that mathematics exists in all the observed situations the students participated in.We believe that observation as a method can give teachers a tool for helping students associate practical actions during their free options with the more theoretical aspects of formal teaching of mathematics. We discuss this further in the study..

School and education are topics that are frequent in Swedish media. The intention of this essay has therefore been to investigate the image of teachers and their profession in Swedish daily press. The overall aim has been to analyze how teachers are portrayed in the debate that followed the TV-show Klass 9A, and by that find how the debate defines the concept of a good teacher. The representation that was found was then compared to earlier studies. The series was shown on Swedish television between January and March 2011.26 articles were chosen and the ambition was to have various perspectives represented, such as different voices and also papers from different areas of the country.

The theme of this essay is literacy training in pre-school. The theme takes it starting point in a project, where my colleagues and I noticed our children playing with writing and symbols. It leads to an exciting, reflecting and developing project, a project that will go on for six months together with twenty children in the age of five and six.The essay describes how I and the rest of the staff work with the project, and also how we try to find challenges that are meaningful for our children. When we worked with the project I ended up in a dilemma how I as a teacher was to retain the children?s joy and curiosity for writing without making it boring.

The law of 2006 about Equal treatment, has been put in place to stop discrimination of students, example based on their gender. The law has an important function to increase the equality of opportunity between girls and boys in school. Therefore the teacher has an imported roll for raising the equality of opportunity between girls and boys in school. That?s why it?s imported to work gender awareness.

The purpose of this Master's thesis was to examine how and what trainee teachers are being taught about information seeking and school libraries related to problem-based teaching method in compulsory school. The questions at issue were: How have trainee teachers learned about information seeking? How have trainee teachers learned about using school libraries? We also wanted to know which education they have got in information seeking and school libraries. We examined this through both literature and empirical studies. We used a qualitative method in order to answer the questions at issue.

The aim of this study is to examine how two Kenyan school's approaches gender roles, by what the curriculum says and by how the teachers way of teaching are effecting the creation of gender roles. The aim is further to find out what the Kenyan school settings are, according to gender and equality, and how these are implemented in practice. This was examined through interviews at two local schools in Kenya, with five practicing teachers from grade one through grade six. This work compares the respondents' answers to the research that is related to the topic. Because of lack in the research about Kenya, the research has been based on mostly Swedish investigations.

AbstractThe school today has an assignment to offset traditional gender patterns as well as to create opportunities for all pupils to achieve the same good results in school regardless of sex, ethnicity and conditions. The educator?s assignment is determined by governing documents, and the educator plays a role in helping the pupil find their equal role in society. This means that the educator needs to work in a way that offsets traditional gender patterns and require approaches that would benefit equal opportunities for both boys and girls to achieve good results.The purpose of the study was, through interviews, to get an idea of how Primary school teachers from a gender equal perspective perceive how they see them relate to boys and girls in their teachings. The study is based on the presumptions that the pupils have but focusing on the relationship between school achievements and equality.The study brings up concepts like gender theories, equality, the biological sexes, the history of the schools development and changes in acceptance of boys and girls and the role of the governing documents to reach acceptable achievements.

Having different kinds of literature is an important part of the education in school and schoolbooks, in shape of reading-books, are common in the first year of primary school. The texts pupils encounter in school are important for how they form their identity and thoughts about what is right or wrong and what is natural or unnatural. People of other ethnicity than Swedish, or with another skin colour than white, have often in the past been portrayed negatively in reading-books as if they are of less worth. According to the Curriculum for the Compulsory School System (Lpo94) the school shall act for understanding of all people and every person?s equal value.The study analyses how ethnicity is portrayed in reading-books for pupils in the first year of primary school.

The aim of this essay is to get a deeper understanding of a teachers' profession and to get knowledge of how earlier experiences can influence you as a teacher. I have interviewed a female teacher, Pia to get this understanding. As a tool to get the teacher's whole story I used the life story method. In her profession she is influenced by her own importance of security as a child.Her own needs of security has given her an deeper understanding for pupils like herself during the childhood; insecure and afraid. Her understanding for all kinds of behavior among the children has increased by her own experiences.The story shows that Pia is frustrated by the fact that she can't control her own working time.