Swedish students' knowledge of mathematics has deteriorated in recent years. Teaching of mathematics is therefore starting point in an ongoing discussion among researchers, school leaders, politicians, teachers and others, who all thinks they know best about how teaching should be designed to the greatest extent possible to raise students' proficiency levels in the subject. Teachers' practices have long been the focus of discussions and views on these differ. The purpose of this paper is therefore to study students 'conceptions of mathematics and mathematics teaching, with teachers' methods and tools of focus, in relation to previous research on the subject. The method used was a survey of students in secondary school and a textual analysis of previous studies on the subject.As revealed by the survey was that the textbook has a big advantage in mathematics education in Sweden today.Many students are not accustomed to working in a different way and thereforedoes not know either what the alternative approach entails.

This thesis aims to study how teachers develop pupils' motivation to read. Using qualitative interviews, three Swedish middle school teachers describe their experiences regarding pupils' motivation to read. They comment on how they attempt to stimulate motivation and the conditions and circumstances they experience while carrying out their work. As a basis for the teacher interviews, their pupils completed a web based survey about how they value reading as an activity and how they see themselves as readers. An analysis of the interviews raises several issues for discussion: pupils have different needs, good readers are described through their abilities, not through their experiences or reading habits, and teachers feel they can be limited to implement the teaching they think is necessary to promote reading abilities.

The Swedish school system?s curriculum states that some of the schools goals are to; help to develop pupils? sense of belonging, solidarity and responsibility for people outside the restricted group, combat discrimination and degrading treatment of individuals or groups and to show respect for individuals. (Lgr 11). Eriksson and other authors in School ? an arena for bullying (2002) refer to the professor and psychologist Dan Olweus, who points out that bullying can develop serious consequences for the bullied one.

The purpose of this study is to examinehowdemocracy andstudent participation hasbeen developed inthethree curricula for upper secondary school. To find this out, I have used the following questions:?Howare the conceptsof democracy and student participationformulated in the various curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and Gy11? ?What changes with regard to these formulations have been made between the curricula Lgy70, Lpf94 and Gy11?The essay is written so that I have interpreted my empirical material to make a discourse analysis in which I analysethe three curricula of upper secondaryschool with the intention to highlight how the ideal of student participation was supposed to look like. The source material that I use in the essay arethe three curricula;Lgy70 , Lpf94 and Gy11 .Student participationhas had a major role in allthecurricula,but ithas changed in how it was madeand how it would be implemented. Lgy70stresses thatformal and collective participation is important, but there are indications of ashift to a more personal and informal participation forthe students.

Undersökningens huvudsakliga syfte är att ta reda på hur elever uppfattar experiment och laborationer inom ämnet fysik. Ett annat syfte är att kartlägga elevuppfattningar om grupparbetet inom det laborativt arbete som kan ha betydelse för elevens aktivitetsgrad och lärande. Som grund för detta examensarbete har vi använt oss av en kvantitativ enkätundersökning som genomförts på 250 elever i grundskolans senare årskurser och gymnasieelever som läser natur eller teknikprogrammet. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att eleverna tycker att det är intresseväckande med laborationer, de ser till viss del kopplingar mellan deras vardag och fysikundervisning och de tycker att de lär sig mer genom att laborera. Dessa uppfattningar stämmer väl med vad didaktisk forskning anser vara syften med laborationer..

This essay is a comparative research between pupils' experience of how the headmaster, teachers and other school staff interpret and apply the democratic education. The results are based on a survey carried out in senior high school, as well as interviews with the school staff. The democratic education charge has a long history of Swedish school system and is the basis for the maintenance of a democratic society. Both policy paper of state investigations and researchers in the field, regard to school as the primary and unique instance in order to promote and develop democratic skills in children and young people. However, it is shown that those who come out from school lack of knowledge and awareness of democracy and the will to speak their mind.

A large part of the daily life today means being active online and to take part in the interactions that occur there. The accessibility which social media brings, means that you can reach and be reached in several ways and there are many different ways in which information can be disseminated. Social media supports the learning process. The aim of this study is to examine how upper secondary schools students' use of social media and how it can be used as a tool for informal learning. Our study is based on the socio-cultural perspective where interaction and social cohesion is a big part.

Because of the globalization of society, English as a foreign language (EFL) has become easier to access through internet and outside school English activities, so called ?extramural English activities? (EEA). Previous research indicates a positive relation between pupils? EFL vocabulary development and EEA (Sundqvist, 2009). This development may influence teachers? lesson planning, because of pupils? wide span of interests and the resulting different levels of EFL vocabulary.

Research establishes, that clothes constantly communicate something about its wearer. You send out different messages depending on what sort of clothes you are wearing. For example, a suit can project social status and power, while, a pair of jeans usually conveys a more casual impression. Either way, research state that clothes are symbolic expressions.This essay focuses on the theme clothes and pupils within the school world. Do pupils today experience clothes as symbolic values? By using qualitative interviews, I have examined how four senior high school pupils talk about clothes and its potential symbolic value in school.

The main purpose of my essay is to inquire into the situation in the preparatory classes. The focus of interest in the essay is to see how new arrived pupils/children from Iraq integrate in the new school environment, foreign culture and what difficulties they come across during their period at the preparatory class. Such as language difficulties and how they manage with the traumatic memories from the war and the effect of that in their learning.I choose to do a qualitative survey and taking part in observing a preparatory class to see how they work. Thereafter, to see from a different perspective and understand the pupils more and perhaps go deeper with some questions I choose to interview some of the pupils. The responds I received gave me a more comprehensible idea of the struggle these children have been through and still go through in a daily basis.The result of this study illustrates the character of a preparatory class, and the central factors that occur in their education.

Popular culture is a phenomenon of growing importance in the society today. Children and teenagers are increasingly using popular culture in their everyday life to reflect and answer questions about their identities and the meaning of life. Swedish primary and upper secondary schools are expected to prepare their students for adulthood and to provide them with tools to explain understand and problematize contemporary society. From this perspective it is relevant to question whether the schools achieve this and whether the instruction given there represents the contemporary society. For the purpose of knowing more about how popular culture is perceived and dealt with in the Swedish education system, this study examines how eight textbooks in Religious Education (RE) and the national curriculum for upper secondary school discuss and treat popular culture.  The study focuses on when and in what ways the textbooks mention popular culture and if the curriculum provides any supportive base for including popular culture in religious education.

The aim with this thesis is to investigate teachers view on gender equality and what this may be due to. Teachers are supposed to follow the curriculum where it is written that gender equality should be encouraged. After interviewing teachers it has come to light that depending of the teacher?s personal interest and the school?s management of the question, there is a difference between how teachers are working with gender equality. That is why we want to know why gender equality should be encouraged and how teachers should reach the aim from the curriculum about gender equality.

AbstractSince 1990, special needs educators have been working in both primary and junior school. It has not been easy for the special needs educators to take authority when working with broader educational issues due to the varying requirements placed upon them. The object of this study is to examine how certain primary and junior school teachers describe their expectations of special needs educators and their professional role.I have conducted individual interviews with three primary school teachers and three junior school teachers, who have at least five years experience of working within their respective fields. The interviews have been scrutinized, and the results are presented with the help of five different themes. The results were then analysed in accordance with the two perspectives of special needs education described by Persson (2001) those of both the relational and the categorical perspective.Amongst other things the results show that the view of primary and junior school teachers with regards to special needs educators differ one from another.

The aim of this study is to describe how a theme about vitamins and analytical chemistry can be planed and implemented in a summer research school managed by AstraZeneca. The description of the theme is intended to be used as an instructor?s guide to upcoming summers-research-schools with the same theme. The students, which participated in the summer school of 2007, went to upper secondary school. During the summer school they were going to investigate the content of vitamin C in different fruits and vegetables.

In Sweden the latest curriculum, Lpo 94 was released in 1994. This document revolutionized the teaching profession. The school system was changed from a governmental control into a communal control. The earlier curriculums were controlled by rules; Lpo 94 is controlled by aims. This has led to a big spectrum of teaching styles which all of them agrees with the Lpo 94.Our purpose with this report is to illustrate two different leadershipstyles regarding the subject Swedish.