During my practice as a teacher trainee at an upper secondary school it became clear to me that many pupils have difficulties with algebra. Also in a report from the National Agency for Education (1999) you can see that the students algebra knowledge get worse and worse. 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 algebra during my training to become a qualified teacher I would like to get to know more about this. I also examine why you have to study algebra in upper secondary school.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups.

When the independent upper secondary schools were started in 1992, it meant a change in the competitive relationship for the local upper secondary schools. A reduced number of students during some years ahead, while the number of independent upper secondary schools increase will probably result in tougher competition between upper secondary schools.The purpose of this study is to review and compare financial and performance management between a public and an independent upper secondary school. The dissertation will focus on the now existing competitive relationship between the two types of upper secondary schools.The theory underlying the study is Porter's model - five competitive forces. The model is applied to the local upper secondary school and used to identify competitive factors affecting upper secondary schools. The study is using a qualitative approach with five interviews at two upper secondary schools, one independent and one public, located in the same town.The comparison of financial and operational management of upper secondary schools indicate that the differences are not as great as we first imagined, but that there still are some differences.

The purpose of this project is to examine the development of the upper secondary school physics course and from this get a better understanding why the course is organized the way it is today. The timeless argument for studying science in school will begin this essay. After that the reader will be aware of when important discoveries in physics were made. Then school history is presented. In this part we are told when the first school started in Sweden, but the focus lies on the upper secondary school and the physics course.

The aim of the study was to improve understanding of how upper secondary school acknowledge and adjust support and guidance for gifted students regarding their future academic and professional career. The study examined school pricipals and career counselors approach to guidance work with gifted students and how the above mentioned professionals received information about gifted students. It was further examined what measures were applied to adjust the upper secondary school to the needs of gifted students. Qualitative interviews were conducted and the results showed that in cases where the informants were told it took place in conjunctions with seminars about the class, through grades or through a teacher or the students themselves who contacted the career counselor or principal at the upper secondary school.The giftedness was connected to the school curriculum and various course topics in the secondary programs. School principals viewed the career counselor as an important resource to provide motivational support, individualize and survey future plans.

The purpose of this project is to examine the development of the upper secondary school physics course and from this get a better understanding why the course is organized the way it is today. The timeless argument for studying science in school will begin this essay. After that the reader will be aware of when important discoveries in physics were made. Then school history is presented. In this part we are told when the first school started in Sweden, but the focus lies on the upper secondary school and the physics course.

The purpose of this project is to examine the development of the upper secondary school physics course and from this get a better understanding why the course is organized the way it is today. The timeless argument for studying science in school will begin this essay. After that the reader will be aware of when important discoveries in physics were made. Then school history is presented. In this part we are told when the first school started in Sweden, but the focus lies on the upper secondary school and the physics course.

Fountain of Knowledge? The Changing Role of the Library at the Upper Secondary School Level. There have been many changes in the Swedish society in general, and in the school system and hence the school library in particular during the last decade. The aim of this master thesis is then to study what students at the upper secondary school level consider to be the optimal school library to meet their specific information needs at school. In addition to and in comparison with this, the aim is also to study the present conditions of the upper secondary school library as described in documents, reports and other studies in this field.

The aim of the study was to improve understanding of how upper secondary school acknowledge and adjust support and guidance for gifted students regarding their future academic and professional career. The study examined school pricipals and career counselors approach to guidance work with gifted students and how the above mentioned professionals received information about gifted students. It was further examined what measures were applied to adjust the upper secondary school to the needs of gifted students. Qualitative interviews were conducted and the results showed that in cases where the informants were told it took place in conjunctions with seminars about the class, through grades or through a teacher or the students themselves who contacted the career counselor or principal at the upper secondary school.The giftedness was connected to the school curriculum and various course topics in the secondary programs. School principals viewed the career counselor as an important resource to provide motivational support, individualize and survey future plans.

The purpose of this study is to acquire knowledge about how interaction, participation and inclusion are affected by individual integration for three students in upper secondary education for pupils with learning disabilities. To be individually integrated means, in this case, that the students from compulsory school for children with learning disabilities are taking part in some of the programme-specific courses together with students from the regular upper secondary school. This study gets its inspiration from the ethnographic research approach, and uses passive observations together with interviews with students and their guardians as main methods to collect information.The school in question has not made any adjustments to make the programme-specific courses more adapted to the different needs, which is typical of integration. This study shows that the school presumes that the students with the help from the vocational teacher, but without any special needs educational help, themselves are to adapt to the conditions at the regular upper secondary school. This, together with the lack of special needs educational competence among the vocational teachers, led to a higher level of exclusion and an enhanced feeling of not being up to standard among the integrated students.The results also show that the integrated students maintain a strong wish to be included with the students attending the regular upper secondary school.

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..

The study deals with young people with visual impairment and their choices of upper secondary school, what is behind and how they are affected by other aspects and other people around them. It also describes how these students experience the career counseling they received for the election. This has been the purpose of the study and was examined through qualitative method and interviews with five young people aged 15 to 21 years with severe visual impairment or blindness. The results and conclusion is that these young people are greatly affected by their parents in choice of upper secondary school and that the school?s attitude to the pupil has a major impact on whether the pupil chooses the school.

The aim for this study is to investigate how the cooperation between teachers from nine-years compulsory school and comprehensive upper secondary school is organized in a Swedish municipality, based on the formulation in the Swedish curriculum. My idea is to see how the cooperation is organized, when it comes to information about pupils who haven?t passed the qualifications to upper secondary school, especially in Mathematics.Lennart Lundquist?s basic ideas about the qualities of the one who is guided, in this case the teacher, underlie my study when it comes to the directions from the school board.I carried out my study in a Swedish municipality, where I interviewed teachers at two different compulsory schools and one upper secondary school. I also let the school board become a part of my study, as they received a minor questionnaire.The results of my study points out that there is much to be done when it comes to cooperation between the teachers from different school levels. The interviewed teachers points out that they lack knowledge about each other and they ask for more physical meetings to start cooperation.