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.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate teachers? views on play as a method for developing pupil?s communication and interaction in schools for children with severe learning disabilities. I am interested in pupils with autism spectrum disorder and their opportunities for social interaction with peers in playful activities. I focus on the subject communication and the parts about speech, conversation and interaction. My study is based on a qualitative study.

This study where designed to investigate if there are any positive relationship between the extent of physical activity during adolescent's leisure time and the academic performance, and also if there are any negative relationship between the academic performance and the time spent in front of the television or computers. Another part of the study tried to find out if physical activity has a direct and immediate influence on the performance in school. 91 pupils (51 girls and 40 boys) in the 8:th year of the Swedish primary school, from three different schools participated in the study. All 91 pupils first responded to a questionnaire concerning there activities in leisure time. They where then tested in a mathematical test and the results where compared with the extent of physical activity and TV/computer time they had stated in the questionnaire.

Objective: The aim of the study is to describe pupils' understanding of the mathematical concept of function. How do pupils define the concept of function? What images of the concept of function evoke when they solve tasks, which involve identifying and constructing functions?Theory: A student's thinking about a mathematical concept depends on more than just the formal definition of the concept; therefore Tall and Vinner introduce the term concept image to describe the role cognitive structures play when students learn about concepts. The cognitive structure includes all mental images, associated properties and processes that an individual associates with a given concept. According to Sfard, an individual's understanding of mathematical concepts may have different character: an operational conception, where a concept is conceived as a process and a structural conception, where the given concept is conceived as an object, that is, as a whole.Method: 16 pupils at the Science Program at two different upper secondary schools inSweden answered a questionnaire on the mathematical concept of function.

To read and understand are essential competences for everyone in our society; at the same time reading comprehension among Swedish pupils is on the decline. The Swedish school must therefore try to improve their instructions to increase the students' reading comprehension. The aim of the study was to describe how three reading comprehension strategies, if possible, could improve the reading comprehension for the students, including children with learning disabilities, when reading texts of natural science in a third-grade class. The three strategies that were introduced were: to activate prior knowledge, to structure information and to record contents. The questions of the study were: How are the three strategies introduced in the classroom? Can the children with learning disabilities see any benefits for their reading comprehension when working with the strategies? How do the children with learning disabilities experience working with the strategies? Can the teacher see any benefits when working with the strategies? Is it possible to see any differences among the students' results, before and after completed intervention? Method: The results have been collected through observations and qualitative interviews, which make this a qualitative study.

The aim is to examine how students with attention difficulties may demonstrate their mathematical understanding through visual representations. A curiosity about how students think about mathematics, national tests and Concepts cartoons has also permeated the study. With help of observations combined with interviews and actively work for a week, the study shows an idea of how visual representations can help students with concentration difficulties to stay focused on their tasks. I chose a selection of pupils to do some mathematical tasks from the national tests which they had not been able to solve before. Now in the form of Concepts cartoons, which I designed, they managed to solve the same mathematics data. In my study treatment and interaction reveals as key pillars for a successful educational work with the students with concentration difficulties. Thus, all pupils who previously have been unable to solve these assignments on the National test were now able to show their mathematical understanding supported by visual representations..

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.

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.

The number of students who finished special upper secondary school for pupils with intellectual disabilities without an employment has drastically decreased over the last decades. The purpose of this paper is to increase the knowledge of how career counselors at special upper secondary schools collaborate with the Employment Service, and how the special upper secondary school prepares their pupils for working life. The collection of data started with a national questionnaire survey which was directed to career counselors at schools.The result shows that the collaboration appears foremost in the pupils last year in special upper secondary school, and that the special upper secondary schools do not use the Employment Service's assistance to any great extent. In addition, the collaborative process consists of both inhibiting and promoting factors.The results also indicates that the collaboration between the special upper secondary schools and the local labor market can be developed more for the pupils to gain experience from working life..

Based on earlier experiences of mathematics and mathematical learning, both as a student and as a teacher, I became more and more interested in how well the publicly accepted opinions about mathematics as an uninteresting, difficult and ?geeky? subject corresponded to reality. What do Swedish pupils really think about mathematics and is it possible to identify any differences in their attitudes based on the pupils? age?From this point of view the following questions were formulated:·What are pupils? attitudes towards mathematics in grades 3, 6 and 9 and how do they conceive their learning conditions?·Is it possible to detect any differences in the attitudes and preferences depending on the pupils? age?The result of this study compares well with previous studies done in this and overlapping fields and indicates that:·Younger pupils tend to have a better liking of mathematics but with increasing age that interest fades out.·Most pupils, without regard to age, consider mathematics to be one of the most important subjects, despite the fact that many pupils also find mathematics difficult and boring.·For pupils of all ages, the teacher is the most important factor in the learning process. Older students have more specific demands on the teacher for knowledge and pedagogical skills.·A high noise level, talking and disturbances in the classroom are the most bothering elements when it comes to learning mathematics.

AbstractBy finding out the pupils' choice of strategies for problem solving, we as teachers, can get a better understanding of their way of thinking, and thus also help them develop in their learning of mathematics. In a classroom environment where several different strategies could be found, the pupils' learning is facilitated as they, with the help of classmates, find positive and negative attributes of different kinds of strategies. The pupils are, in other words, each other's resources, rather than competitors. The main point is that the classroom environment, as well as the role of the teacher in the classroom, are both key elements for good mathematics learning.In order to increase the understanding of the pupils' choice of learning strategies, a survey was performed based on two school classes, one third grade and one six grade class at the same school. Both classes received the same mathematical problem to work with, and the strategies observed were analyzed and compared.

According to the National Agency for Education 06-06-2010 are approximately 115 000 students graduating from Secondary School in the year of 2010.Out of these students, we know that thousands of them are hampered by reading and writing disabilities in various degrees. Have these students been given the best support needed when it comes to writing and reading?Compensation may be perceived as a goal for the pupil to catch up with the rest of the educational group or as a vehicle to go round the difficulties. In Sweden, diagnosed dyslexics are not allowed to use speech synthesis, a compensatory technical aid, during the 9th degree national tests.This study?s purpose is to discover if the usage of speech synthesis during the national test of Swedish and reading comprehension might work as a motivation booster for the students and consequently increase their test scores.This is a quantitative study including study including 15 pupils with diagnosed reading and writing disabilities.

The last 1½ decade young people with intellectual disabilities have been a part of my life. My now 13 year old son and several pupils I have taught as a teacher in the compulsory school. Their future and what will affect their lives has always been interesting to me. How do I affect them, why do I do the things I do and think the way I think? This study springs out of that curiosity.

The literature on spelling and spelling development suggests there is a strong relationship between spelling and phonology (Bruck & Treiman, 1990; Caravolas, Hulme & Snowling, 2001; Craig, 2006; Gindri, Keske-Soares & Mota, 2007). Spelling, however, is considerably less researched than reading (Caravolas, Humle & Snowling, 2001). Spelling difficulties are known to be more persistent in people with reading and writing disabilities, even when their reading has become acceptable (Høien & Lundberg, 1999) but more research is needed in this area. Assessment and detailed knowledge of the difficulties is of great importance in order to provide the appropriate help for children with reading and writing disabilities (Frisk, 2010; Magnusson, Nauclér, & Reuterskiöld, 2008). The purpose of the present study was to develop and try out a phonologically based spelling test for children, with focus on medial phonemes.

 Title:              Not just words, classroom communication about subtraction in year 2Language:      Swedish with summary in English.Keywords:     Communication, mathematics, subtraction, teaching The purpose of this study is to analyze the mathematical communication in a classroom during a lesson in the field subtraction, and to find out how students describe their perception of mathematics that is communicated in the classroom.The study consists of the observations through the videotaping of two lessons in primary school grades 2 and student and teacher interviews related to these lecture occasions.Research indicates that Swedish pupils' mathematical skill continuously deteriorates in a national and international perspective, and that student experiences of mathematics in general are negative. The literature emphasizes the importance of communicating mathematics in various forms to deepen and develop understanding of concepts and mathematical operations. Communication must be generated between teachers and students but also between student and student to have a beneficial impact for the student.Our result demonstrate the different types of communication in the classroom but that communication does not always have a clear mathematical content in spite of teachers' mathematical intentions with teaching. The result also indicates that the mathematical communication that takes place, in essence, is a one-way communication where the teacher has a great opportunity to speak. The teachers perceived as oblivious to their own ways of communicating, but stressed in the interviews with an understanding of the importance of communication learning.