In order to be a good teacher according to preferences from outside the school area, there are many different voices to listen to. The different roles that are assigned for teachers are colliding with the latest research from the pedagogical institutions and therefore the role as a teacher of today is in a complex state of mind. Somewhere, between the traditional role of teaching and the moderating ideal image, reality is revealed in the ambivalent role of the teacher of today. In this pedagogical essay on advanced level we are focusing on obstacles that are hindering the moderating teacher?s role, to be fully developed in the classroom.

A pilot-study was used to investigate, types of assistance, assessed needs, outcomes and effects of special-needs assistance given to a subsample of compulsory school pupils in an effort to develop an evaluation strategy for identifying educational impacts of specific special-needs inputs.  Preliminary results indicate a tendency for postive outcomes for most pupils in the pilot group (n = 11) but also that many pupils have residual difficulties.  Pupils with residual difficulties mostly required special education asssitance with Maths, English or Swedish.  More pupils also needed support with behavioral difficulties.  More research and an expanding knowledge base is required in order to effectively evaluate outcomes of teacher support.  Schools need help in devising different methods of assistance and particularly for pupils with behavioral difficulties..

The purpose of this master's thesis is to examine children's communication and interaction during story time at the public library. The aim is also to examine how to develop the story time ? in terms of participation and equality ? at a specific library.Action research was used as a research strategy and participant observation, log, tutoring and interviews as methods to collect data. Since action research is done on the basis of practice, a significant collaboration with the librarian and the participant children is taking place within this study.Research from the fields of Library and Information Science, Education and Childhood Sociology form the interdisciplinary research area to which this study links. The theoretical framework consists of theory and concepts from the Socio-cultural Perspective, Poststrucuralist Feminism and Childhood Sociology.

The background to this study is built upon the results that emerged from our former study: Elever med svenska som andraspråk i mångkulturella skolor - Bakgrundsfaktorer Tester och Utredningar (Odén och Bagge, 2006). Those results made us aware of the lack of cooperation in the work around immigrant pupils with special needs. In this study we have therefore chosen to look at the cooperation processes. The aim that we agreed upon was to explore the intercultural cooperation process around a few immigrant pupils in school year F-5, before and in connection with the pupils possible registration in the special school. We also wanted to pay special attention to the roll that the special need teachers played.

The purpose of this report is to contribute with knowledge about the views within special education. I want to explore and compare the way students with special needs are approached within two different pedagogies in Sweden: Waldorf pedagogy and Montessori pedagogy.I have closely studied these pedagogies, read the literature from existing research and also by conducting two interviews with a representative from each pedagogy Both pedagogies claim that their teaching methods are most suitable for children with reading and writing difficulties..The Waldorf pedagogy was founded in 1919 in Germany by Rudolf Steiner. The pedagogy believes in the development of the students into independent children who can use their bodies as a tool for the learning of knowledge. The Montessori pedagogy was also founded in the beginning of the nineteenth century and stands for developing the students into independent individuals. However, the pedagogical approach to reading, writing and dyslexia is different.

The paper examines Philosophy with children as a pedagogical method for schools to practice. The questions I have posed are:Why philosophize with children and teenagers?How does Philosophy with children work?What, in the organized structure of the philosophical inquiry, can be emphasized as favourable for learning?How carefully is the structure of the philosophical inquiry really followed in practice?How can philosophy be applied as a pedagogical model?The theoretical framework of this inquiry consists of a discussion about a thirst for learning that exceeds the explicit and direct usability that motivates vocational training.I have used two different kinds of methods. The main method is a literary analysis of some of the literature in this field. This analysis is compared to field observations of children participating in communities of inquiry in school.The basic assumption is that practicing the ability of philosophical thinking can help children develop a more profound way of understanding who they are and how the world in which they exist works.

In this qualitative study of students? methods of calculating subtractions, I have used interviews, subtraction exercises and analysis of teaching material. The purpose of my study was to explore which methods students in grade three uses when calculating subtractions. I also wanted to highlight which strategies the students use and their comprehension of the concept of subtraction. In the study, I also highlight the different pedagogical ideas on which the teaching material is based on and the students? choice of methods.  The study shows that the students choose to use the methods?deduct? and ?kind of number? independently.

The purpose of this study was to find out how special needs users ' autonomy and influence in their daily routines is described by their assistants. What interpretations of the concepts of self-determination and influence on special needs users' daily routines emerge from the assistants statements and what conditions can be seen? To reach a conclusion, focus group as a method was used. The focus group met twice to discuss this topic. The diamond method was used as stimulus material to support the discussion in the focus group.

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyses educators? experiences of reflective conversations in their teams and part of teams in relation to their work with pupils in need of special support. Ten educators representing ten different teams have been interviewed since all had experiences of working in teams and working with pupils in need of special support. Focus has been on the educators? experiences of the organisation, the effects of the reflections and the need to develop the reflective conversations in their teams and part of teams.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how two students at intermediate level in reading and writing disabilities and two special education teachers perceive the use of assistive tools in school. The questions used to answer the purpose was how assistive tools are used based on students´ perceptions, the purposes for which assistive tools are used based on special education teachers´ perceptions, what opportunities and/or barriers pupils and special education teachers experiences with assistive tools and how it works when assistive tools are implemented based on students´ and special education teachers´ perceptions. Data were collected by interviews. The results show that the assistive tools are mainly used for writing assignments and to ?read-with-ears?, primarily to facilitate the learning process in the classroom.

The purpose of this graduate work is to seek knowledge about how children?s right to participation and influence is interpreted and understood in a specific context and also to examine how this right can be conditioned and shaped by the pedagogical practice of early childhood education.The focus of this study has been to examine the arguments and attitudes towards the right to participation and influence as a pedagogical practice as it is understood in early childhood education. Additionally, I have been interested in studying the affordances and restrictions that early childhood educators experience when dealing with children´s right to participation and influence.The platform used for data collection is Facebook and the informants recruited were active participants in forums regarding democracy in preschool education. In the second phase of the study I conducted online focus groups with these participants.For the analysis of the material I have adopted a poststructuralist perspective, starting from Jaques Derridas philosophical texts and use of deconstruction.The results show the complexity in early childhood education´s democratic mission. What becomes clear is the importance for the teachers to adopting an open, ethical and democratic approach in order to make children´s right to participation and genuine influence possible in the everyday reality of early childhood education. .

The purpose of my study is to contribute with knowledge about three teachers? view on the possibilities and difficulties to support students with intellectual disabilities insocial interaction.to get answers to my research questions in the analysis I have in my qualitative study used the theory of Fleck's model about thinking styles rooted in a socio-cultural perspective. In the study, I have used semi-structured interviews. My study shows that teacher?s way of thinking affect students' opportunities to practice social interaction. An important finding in the study was that the school management?s attitude, is of great importance for educator?s opportunities to support the students with intellectual disability in social interactions.

Uppsatsen handlar om den fysiska pedagogiska miljön i en särskoleklass. Med hjälp av observationer och intervjuer undersöker jag detta slags miljöfaktorer i klassrummet och ute på skolgården. Syftet är att se om den är anpassad utifrån särskoleelevers särskilda behov. Med hjälp av fallstudier har jag kommit fram till att den fysiska miljön i särskoleklassen 2-4 inte var anpassad utifrån elevers särskilda behov. Detta bör uppmärksammas och det finns behov av att studera vidare i vilken utsträckning detta påverkar elever, inte minst i social och psykologisk mening..

AbstractThe purpose of this work is to contribute knowledge about the transition of children from preschool to preschool classes. The experiences of pedagogical staff, parents and children are described, based on four deepening questions. The questions are about what the actors experience as positive and what the difficulties were in the transition process, and they also cover the differences of children and collaboration between actors. The method consists of qualitative interviews with parents, children, and pedagogical staff. The interviews concern the experiences of transition from the different actors.

The purpose of my essay has been to illustrate any possible differences between pre-school teachers? and parents' views on the mission of the pre-school put in relation to the pre-school curriculum. In my study I have taken a starting point in the following questions:How do pre-school teachers understand the mission of the pre-school?Do pre-school teachers recognize the term baby-sitting from their profession?How do pre-school teachers perceive the parents' view on the mission of the pre-school?How concerned are the parents according to the pre-school teachers about the pedagogical activities of the pre-school?What do the pre-school teachers do to inform the parents about the pre-school curriculum and how aware do they think that the parents are of the curriculum?What are the plans of the pre-schools to fulfill the new part of the revised curriculum that comes into effect July 1 2011?I chose to utilize the qualitative method with the hermeneutics as a theoretical framework in my study and through interviews study my questions. The interviews were made with four pre-school teachers from different pre-schools in the south of Stockholm.