The purpose with this study is to gain understanding about student´s view of mathematical education, in the later years of nine-year compulsory school, and the motivation factors that can be identified when student´s gives opportunity to express their own thoughts due to the mathematical education. From experiences we have gained during the practical part of our teachers education we got the impression that student´s think that the mathematical education is boring and uninteresting. Through qualitative methods such as survey and discussions in focus group we have analyzed student´s views of mathematical education and pointed out witch motivation factors that are expressed when student´s gives opportunity to influence over their own education. The results are shown from the answers and comments that student´s gave, during the survey and focus group, and is divided into two main parts, both with focus on motivation ?Mathematics and motivation? and ?Student´s influence and motivation? and also a summery part ?Motivated for mathematical education when the student is given influence over the education?. The study showed that student´s wants to have more difference in the work methods that are used in their mathematical education such as problem solving, games, more work in groups and pairs and more use of IT. In conclusion the study also gives suggestions to other studies that can be made in the same genre as this study in the way that IT can be used in mathematical education and how student´s interest can be used in the education to gain more motivated student´s..

The purpose of this study is to see how some teachers in primary school creates and adapts their mathematics teaching for students with special mathematical abilities. It also aims to identify opportunities and challenges that teachers see in creating a teaching adapted to these students.In this study, qualitative interviews has been done to collect data. The interviews were conducted with five teachers who all are active in the primary school.The study results show that there is great variation in how the interviewed teachers create their mathematics teaching for students with special mathematical abilities. The use of mathematics book proved to be significant for how this adaptation took place. The result also shows that the teachers? explanations for the choice of the adaptations that they make in teaching vary.

The aim of this study was to investigate which factors teachers and special needs education teachers view as being the main causes of mathematical learning difficulties and from these choose how to educate pupils with these difficulties. The aim was also to investigate how this education is organised at two different schools. An interview based investigation addressed these objectives by using three comprehensive questions:Which factors do the teachers and special needs teachers view as being the main reasons for mathematical learning difficulties?How do teachers and special needs teachers educate pupils with mathematical learning difficulties?How is the education organised for pupils with mathematical learning difficulties at two different schools?This study is based on four interviews of three teachers and one special needs teacher. The people interviewed work at two different primary schools in the same local authority.

 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.

The purpose of this study is to find out teachers view on manipulatives as a way to concretize a certain mathematical content and to highlight knowledge and experiences within the range of using manipulatives to concretize. By answering the questions below different approaches a teacher may have towards the manipulatives and how that may impact on student?s learning will also be discussed in comparison to mainly traditional and socially constructive theories of learning.What is the teachers view on manipulatives as a way to concretize?What purpose do they have when using manipulatives?According to the teachers, what does it mean to concretize a certain mathematical content?According to the teachers, what connection is there between manipulatives and concretizing?Through interviews and observations conclusions can be made that the teachers are in general positive towards using manipulatives as a way to concretize a certain mathematical content although the definition of what a manipulative is differ somewhat between the teachers. The teachers working with manipulatives do it in a well thought out fashion but more research is needed to furthermore define the purpose of using manipulatives. Few countries spend so much time concretizing and working with manipulatives as Sweden do, but still Sweden score below the OECD-average on the mathematical PISA-tests.

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.

This study illuminates one part of the mathematic teaching in school, which is mathematical problem solving in groups. It examines teacher?s and student?s ideas about what conditions it takes to be able to learn in groups. Further on, it studies the importance of group structure when it comes to working with mathematical problem solving in groups from a process focused and/or a product focused learning. Through observations of student groups and interviews with the students and the mathematic teachers, the material has been compiled and analysed under three different headings: conditions for learning in a mathematical problem solving situation, importance of group structure in a mathematical problem solving situation and process versus product.

Målet med denna studie är att undersöka hur matematiskt särbegåvade elever upplever sin matematikundervisning i skolan. För att uppnå studiens syfte har ett antal preciserade frågeställningar utarbetats, och som också har legat till grund för studiens empiriska undersökning. Frågeställningarna har hanterat såväl elevernas som deras föräldrars subjektiva upplevelser av barnens matematiska begåvning, hur den matematiska undervisningen för dessa barn ser ut samt hur föräldrarna upplever att skolan stimulerar och uppmuntrar särbegåvade barn. Examensarbetets metodologiska tillvägagångssätt har baserats på en kvalitativ undersökning där materialet har baserat på sex elever med matematisk särbegåvning och deras lärare. Dessa har intervjuats.

This study is about how the dialog can help students with special needs to feel participation and inclusion in the class and the teaching. My purpose with this study was to look for how the students with special needs interact with other students and teachers through the dialogue. I also wanted to know if there is any positive and negative effects to teaching students with special need in the classroom compared with the teaching at the special teacher.I have taking purpose of the sociocultural theory in my study because it says that children learn together when they communicate with each other. The theory central words are dialog and scaffolding in the zone of proximal development. I also describe central words like participation, inclusion and students with special needs in the special teaching.I have investigated in four interviews, two of them were with a teacher and a special aids teacher, and two of them were students with special needs.

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.

This is a qualitative study of how 4 school teachers and 3 special educational teachers define the term ?pupil in need of special education?. They have each one been interviewed about this term, by the means of a semi-structured interview. Afterwards the collected information has been analyzed and seven major themes have been arranged out of them. From these themes it is possible to see that the term is hard to define, since the participants all believe that it should be decided by each individual case, if the pupil is in need of special education or not, and that the education in itself has to be relevant to the need, which means one cannot decide what special educational needs are, without a student who is in need of them.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate how three schools work with special education needs, what they consider is special education needs and what measures they put in for the student to achieve the goals. I will also study how the evaluation and the follow-up of the individualized education program work at the schools.The empirical material consists of all active programs in grades 7, 8 and 9, together with and interviews with special education teachers and the principal at each school. The results are compared with similar previous researches and analysed by two dominant perspectives of school difficulties.The result shows that it is mainly the critical perspective that dominates the individualized education program. The student is the carrier of the problem and is excluded in many cases from the other students in the class. These measures are different compensatory accommodations for the student in order to catch up with other students..

In this thesis we study four groups of students in grade 8, 9 and 10 when they try to solve a classical mathematical problem: Which rectangle with given circumference has the largest area? The aim of the study was too see how the students did to solve a mathematichal problem?The survey shows that students have rather poor strategies to solve mathematical problems. The most common mistake is that students don?t put much energy to understand the problem before trying to solve it. They have no strategies.

The overall aim of this study is to achieve the increased knowledge of the use of the counselling methods in the student counsellors' work and to find the possibilities for development. Two questions are used as guidelines:Which counselling methods do student counsellors use in their work in schools?How can the current education for the student counsellors be supplemented?The analysis of the interviews with six counsellors in Stockholm's administrative province showed that even uneducated counsellors use the same counselling methods as the educated ones. All these methods which are used remind of the known counselling methods that are the part of the current education for the student counsellors.In general counsellors experienced that the education for the counsellors should be supplemented within the field children with special needs and that conversation's methodology is the essence of the counselling work..

This study was conducted at a special school for children with autism and developmental disabilities. The study consists of three interviews where pedagogues have different experiences of working with children in need of special support. The aim is to get an idea of how teachers think about working with children autism, but above all to find out what methods and educational tools that are used, and why they are used to best motivate students to a rewarding education. Sense of coherence (SOC) is a central concept and a theoretical basis of the study relating to the student to create comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in life. All of these three are essential for the student to find a predictable environment.From the result shows how schools and teachers use different methods and different tools, but both have a focus to help the student find motivation in the learning process.