Student teachers consider teacher training as an important part of teacher education. Despite this, students’ explicit descriptions of quality in mentoring have not been paid much attention in the Swedish context. This study aims to contribute with knowledge of student teachers’ expressions of quality in mentoring during the teacher training program. Two focus group interviews and seven individual interviews were conducted with student teachers specializing in teaching grades F–3 and 4–6, in teacher training schools that participated in the trial activities in Sweden. Their statements have been analysed based on the theory of social representations. The result shows that three social representations appear: Qualitative mentoring is characterized by a) student’s professional development, b) collegial cooperation, and c) trust. These social representations influence students’ expectations of mentoring and its design. Although the students want to be seen as colleagues, they expect mentors to decide when, where and how mentoring should be carried out, and to have a distinct feeling to use the right type of mentoring at the right time. The mixed professional roles, which is highlighted by the students but seem to be implicit, calls for different forms of mentoring strategies that need to be explicit for both the mentor and the student.

The COVID-19 pandemic has elicited a shift from campus classrooms to distance education in higher education worldwide, shaping not only students’ experiences, but also those of teachers, especially those who never have taught online. In addition, the pandemic created a meta-context that has positioned distance education as something different from previous efforts. This study aimed to investigate higher education teachers’ experiences during the transition from classroom to online teaching by using a collective auto-ethnography method based on 13 personal stories from Swedish faculty. For the abductive approach in the analysis, a framework that combines lifelong learning theory with the context collapse concept has been applied. The disjuncture that the pandemic has elicited created a situation in which teachers had to make sense of the fact that their previous experiences did not completely fit the new situation. Context collapse, a term used to describe encounters with many audiences in social media, has been introduced to highlight the clash between professional and private contexts in online educational platforms. Based on lifelong learning theories, we suggest that context collapse should be examined in terms of how it can help improve higher education, as it holds the potential to include the entire person – body and mind – in education.

Purpose

This paper aims to present a literature review of studies of mentorship programs in the manufacturing industry so as to lay a theoretical basis for learning at work.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review with focus on mentorship programs in the manufacturing industry was used. A search for relevant peer-reviewed articles, in four databases, rendered 315 hits, but only one article dealt with mentorship programs in an industry similar to the manufacturing industry. Thus, it is concluded that there is a lack of research on this area. The selection criteria were broadened so as to include 16 articles on mentorship programs for learning at work.

Findings

Three dominant areas emerged from this review: definitions of mentorship, characteristics of a good mentor and mentorship program structures. The establishment of a mentorship program requires a clear purpose; contextual knowledge; and adaption to the profession, the organization and to individual needs. In addition to their findings, the authors discuss relationships in mentoring programs, what can be understood by “reading between the lines” and the ongoing digitalization of mentorship programs.

Originality/value

Mentorship has proven itself to be a superior way to learn on the job. This paper provides practical information about establishing mentorship programs in the manufacturing industry, with a particular focus on the moulding industry.

In this paper, pluralistic and social writing practices in primary school are at center (Hamilton, 2007; Lave & Wenger, 1991). Studies stress dialogue for learning as being a complex process, at the same time having great potential for language and thought (Mercer & Littleton, 2007). An action research inspired case study will be presented (cf. Elliott, 2009; Yin, 2018). The study involved 8-year old students and was carried out with the purpose of enhancing writing proficiency, working towards narrative feature goals regarding orientation, plot and ending (National Agency of 2011). Drawing on video recorded teacher introductions and audio recorded peer interactions, including students’ composed texts, the aim is to present and discuss tentative results about what enable and/or hinder students´ story writing. Empirical concerns are three pairs of students in one classroom, jointly planning and writing a first and second version of a narrative during four lessons, and the support (cf. Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976) they were given in this process. Aiming at presenting emerging themes (cf. Graneheim & Lundman, 2004), the analysis concerned student conversations regarding what enabled and/or hindered their story writing. The results shed light on various facets of reciprocal learning within the writing process. Peer writing made communication possible in implicit and explicit ways, and overall proved to be a successful mediating tool. This, alongside other mediating resources, will be presented. Reaching mutuality or not appeared to be an important feature of students’ negotiations about what to write. At the same time, orientation, plot and ending were, more or less prominent, incorporated in all narratives. Results are not generalizable but constitutes didactical implications on how to enhance mutual inspiration for creativity and genre knowledge.

In recent decades, the importance of language in various subjects has gained more attention in research, however mainly in linguistic research. When it comes to studying the language as a tool for learning and communicating history, the research field is still fairly unexplored.

For history as a scientific discipline and for history as an educational subject, the language is central in several aspects, as an object and as a tool. The language is what you actually study in the form of source material and the tools you use to decode, interpret and describe.

The subject-specific language consists largely of concepts for the specific methodological aspects, concepts of specific epochs and different theoretical concepts for interpretation and analysis. In addition, there are a number of terms that are typical for the historical time you study. In order to analyze and understand the historical context, you must also master these time-related concepts.

In this article I investigate how a group of 9-grade pupils use subject-specific language in the form of the subject- specific concepts of change and continuity when describing historical development in the national test in history.

The study shows that the pupils use the concepts, but with different functions. The concepts structure to a certain extent the student's answers, but they rarely have an explanatory or contextualizing function. Some pupils present their answers to show that they use the prescribed concepts. They do not use the concept in order to describe or explain the historical context.

The study presented in this paper maps schools through their digital presence, in terms of the “what” of education that is made relevant, “how” this information is presented (i.e., communicated) and “who” their webpages target. This mapping considers the “languaging landscape” of the webpages. The study aims to illuminate how educational matters are communicated digitally engaging with local government and independent contemporary schools’ digital presence. The findings are based upon the analysis of 11 compulsory and upper-secondary schools’ websites from one of Sweden’s ten largest cities. This region was strategically selected to create a diverse dataset based upon the extensive digitalization of schools since the turn of the century based upon the explicit 2017 national digitalization initiatives. Our analytical-methodological points of departure build on a Second Wave of Southern Perspectives (SWaSP) framing that brings together (i) sociocultural, dialogical perspectives on learning and communication and (ii) decolonial, southern framings on communication and identity. Our preliminary findings indicate that there is a discrepancy between local government and independent compulsory schools in how they position themselves in comparison to the upper-secondary local government, regional, and independent schools. The latter’s digital presence is similar across the formal domains of institutional presentations and their online social media presence. Marginal differentiation has been noted between local governmental and independent schools’ strategies for recruiting pupils. This, we argue, relates to the specific Swedish educational organization and management ethos wherein public resources are allocated to all schools based on the volume of pupils they successfully recruit.

Delstudien ingick som en del av att utvärdera och beforska övningsskoleprojektet. Studien finansierades av Jönköping University och studien är publicerad i en vetenskaplig tidskrift på engelska. Forskarteamet bestod av Johan Bäcklund, Rebecka Florin Sädbom, Lena Manderstedt och Helena Anderström. Att delge utfallet av studien på svenska är viktigt då många handledare på kommunala skolor berörs. Inom lärarutbildningen är VFU och därmed handledning av VFU-studenter en av de centrala delarna av utbildningen. Handledarrollen blir därmed viktig och central för att utveckla denna del av lärarutbildningen och utgör en brygga mellan teori och praktik.

Studiens syfte var att identifiera handledares erfarenheter av handledarskapet inom en övningsskola genom en interpretativ fenomenologisk analys (IPA). Fokus ligger således på handledares erfarenheter genom den övergripande forskningsfrågan Vilka möjligheter och utmaningar beskrivs av handledare om handledarskapet inom ramen för en övningsskola?

Metod/genomförande

Empirin har samlats in genom fokusgruppsintervjuer och semistrukturerade intervjuer. Dessförinnan har enkäter genomförts för att inför intervjuerna identifiera generella utgångspunkter för vad handledning är och innebär för handledare i en övningsskola. Enkäterna har inte ingått i studiens empiri men tjänat som syfte att utforma intervjuguider för de två olika intervjuformerna som använts i studien. Metoden syftar till att kategorisera samt analysera, genom IPA, vad som uttrycks av handledarna utifrån den kontext de talar, i detta fall att vara handledare i en övningsskola. Metoden är induktiv och bygger på att utifrån handledarens perspektiv, genom dennes tankar och känslor, tolka den kontext där denne befinner sig. I den fenomenologiska andan är metoden, som syftar till att nå handledares erfarenheter av övningsskolan, kopplade till världen de lever och verkar i. Det empiriska materialet har analyserats både på en manifest och latent nivå.

Resultat

Två större övergripande teman kan urskiljas: Möjligheter att handleda i en övningsskola samt Utmaningar att handleda i en övningsskola. Under möjligheter visar sig sedan tre underteman: kollegialt lärande, struktur samt kompetensutveckling. Under temat utmaningar visar sig fyra underteman av upplevelser: bedömning, planering (kopplat till handledarrollen), arbetsbelastning samt mångfald.

Slutsatserna i studien visar att handledarna överlag är positiva till upplevelsen av att vara handledare i en övningsskola där de får möjligheter till kompetensutveckling, kollegialt lärande och utbytet med studenterna. Handledarna upplever att de utvecklat en samverkan mellan handledarkollegor och bedömningspraktiken. I övningsskolan upplever man även att man handleder mer än i tidigare handledningsformer. Man kan också, om man tittar övergripande på projektets mål se att projektet lyckas med de uppsatta målen: koncentration, kompetens samt samarbete/samverkan med högskolan. Utmaningarna visar emellertid att projektet även har synliggjort flera aspekter av utvecklingspotential. Handledarna upplever en ökad stress samt en ökad arbetsbörda på grund av att man möter fler studenter och därmed handleder mer (och fler). En annan dimension rör handledarskapets interpersonnella karaktär i att möta studenterna där de befinner sig.

Dessa ingångar ger upphov till vidare tankar, möjliga diskussionsfrågor:

• Vad innebär kvalitet i handledarskapet – att vara en god/skicklig/utmärkt/bra handledare?

• Hur påverkas eleverna av att ständigt möta nya lärarstudenter?

• På vilket/vilka sätt kan handledarrollen utvecklas och utmanas?

• Hur tillgodoses mångfaldsperspektivet – vem blir övningsskola och vem blir inte?

I mars 2020 övergick all undervisning på de flesta universitet i Sverige från analog till digital undervisning. Vi genomförde i slutet av vårterminen 2020 en intervjustudie, med ett urval på 30 studenter, angående deras upplevelser av denna förändrade undervisning med syftet att beskriva deras erfarenheter och uppfattningar av övergången från analog till digital undervisning under Covid-19 pandemin. Metoden som användes var fokusgruppssamtal via verktyget Zoom där mellan 3–5 studenter deltog i varje fokusgrupp. Samtalen spelades in och transkriberades.

Studien utgick från följande frågeställningar

1. Hur upplevde studenterna övergången mellan analog och digital undervisning?
2. Vilka för- och nackdelar beskrivs med övergången till digital undervisning?
3. Hur upplever studenterna att förutsättningarna för deras lärande i de olika kurserna har påverkats vid övergången från analog till digital undervisning?
4. Hur beskrivs examinationerna ha fungerat i digital form?

Under en tematisk analys av empirin, framkom att övergången från analog till digital undervisning upplevdes fungera ganska bra för de flesta studenter. Vidare visar resultatet att tekniksupport, struktur, tydlighet i instruktioner samt lärarledd undervisning är förutsättningar för att den digitala undervisningen skall kunna fungera. Dessutom visar resultatet att vissa aspekter i den mellanmänskliga interaktionen, som upplevs viktig för lärandet, går förlorad vid digital undervisning. Resultatet ger upphov till reflektion kring vad vi, som undervisar i högre utbildning, kan lära oss av studenternas upplevelser av övergången från det analoga till det digitala.

The Flipped Classroom is a teaching model where content attainment is shifted forward to outside of class, to be followed up by the teacher in class. In Sweden this way of teaching has become very popular during recent years. But what is gained by this way of teaching? Research on the Flipped Classroom in the context of the Swedish High School system is close to non-existent; why studies within this field are of great importance. In order to find appropriate informants, an electronic survey was constructed. Informants matching the selection criteria were then selected for qualitative interviews. In total nine informants agreed to participate in interviews (Semi-structured) to describe their experiences from flipping their own classrooms. The informants reported that the transition from more conventional ways of teaching to using the Flipped Classroom entailed major changes. The informants pointed out that the process of moving away from the more conventional way of teaching improved their teaching. All of the informants expressed they all used the Flipped Classroom methodology but they all did it with different goals in mind and their approach varied a lot. By using the same terminology, it might seem that they worked with the Flipped Classroom in similar ways, but the results show they did not. Herein lies the problem: Teachers say they flip their classrooms, which they do, but they do not share the same goals or approaches, just the term: The Flipped Classroom.

The transition from analogue campus-based learning to digital distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic affected our society in many ways. This study set out to explore the experiences of 30 pre-service teachers when transitioning to digital distance learning. The pre-service teachers (PSTs) participated in a series of focus-group interviews that were subsequently analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that the transition to digital distance learning worked well and that the technology that was used performed satisfactorily. However, the PSTs experienced both opportunities and obstacles with respect to distance learning. The opportunities associated with digital distance learning were reported to be instantiated by teacher-led ‘flipped classroom’ teaching sessions and the additional freedom that was enjoyed by the PSTs (in both space and time). An obstacle associated with digital learning was the feeling that important aspects of interpersonal interaction disappeared. The PSTs remained sedentary and isolated at home, and the learning experience became somewhat dysfunctional when the teaching was not clearly structured and teacher-lead. The study concludes that it is not possible to replace IRL (‘in real life’) teaching entirely with digital distance learning. However, the results suggest that a hybrid form of teaching or elements of digital teaching can work well as a complement to future campus-based courses.

In the educational literature on peer effects, attention has been brought to the fact that the mechanisms creating peer effects are still to a large extent hidden in obscurity. The hypothesis in the study reported in this article was that the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) can be used to reveal such mechanisms. Using data from the Swedish TIMSS 2015 (N = 3761 students in 179 classes), a multilevel structural equation model (M-SEM) was specified in accordance with the FFT. As predicted, the SEM-model verified a strong relationship between class composition and a latent variable of limitations on instruction, a variable which in turn had a great impact on individual students? results in TIMSS 2015. The study hereby seems to reveal a fundamental mechanism of peer effects and provides evidence for the FFT.

Ingress: Debatten om friskolorna är egentligen vår samtids diskussion om den fråga som dominerat svensk skolpolitik sedan slutet av 1800-talet: Differentieringsfrågan. Med ”differentiering” avses i skolpolitiska sammanhang, frågan om – när, hur, varför och på vilka grunder vi ska dela upp elever i olika skolor, studievägar, klasser, grupper eller nivåer. Det skriver Pontus Bäckström, Utredningschef på Lärarnas Riksförbund och doktorand i pedagogik.

In the educational literature on peer effects, attention has been brought to the fact that the mechanisms creating peer effects are still to a large extent hidden in obscurity. The hypothesis in this study is that the Frame Factor Theory can be used to explain these mechanisms.

At heart of the theory is the concept of “time needed” for students to learn a certain curricula unit. The relations between class-aggregated time needed and the actual time available, steers and hinders the actions possible for the teacher. Further, the theory predicts that the timing and pacing of the teachers’ instruction is governed by a “steering criterion group” (SCG), namely the pupils in the 10^th-25^th percentile of the aptitude distribution in class. The class composition hereby set the possibilities and limitations for instruction, creating peer effects on individual outcomes.

To test if the theory can be applied to the issue of peer effects, the study employs multilevel structural equation modelling (M-SEM) on Swedish TIMSS 2015-data (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study; students N=3761, teachers N=179). Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the SEM-framework, latent variables are specified according to the theory, such as “limitations of instruction” from TIMSS survey items. The results indicate a good model fit to data of the measurement model.

The SEM-model verify a strong relation between the mean level of the SCG and the latent variable of limitations on instruction, a variable which in turn has a great impact on individual students’ test results.

Thus, the analysis indicates a confirmation of the predictions derived from the frame factor theory and reveals that one of the important mechanisms creating peer effects in student outcomes is the effect the class composition has upon the teachers’ instruction in class.

This study draws on previous empirical research within the fields of opportunity to learn (OTL) and peer effects in education. In a recent study, it was argued that the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) could be applied as a theoretical framework to the issue of peer effects in education. Since the FFT predicts that the class composition measured as students’ prior knowledge and aptitude, will have steering and limiting effects on teachers’ instruction, in turn affecting students’ achievement, it was argued that this could be interpreted as one mechanism generating peer effects. Empirical findings from analysis of TIMSS 2015 data supported the hypothesis. Possibly due to poor construct validity, the previous study couldn’t verify the modus operandi of the mechanisms. The FFT predicts that the steering and limiting effect of class composition will affect timing, pacing, and content covered in instruction. From this perspective, the aim of this article is to initiate a synthesis of the OTL- and FFT-perspectives, where OTL-findings on content coverage are included in an FFT-model predicting peer effects in education.

A synthesized theoretical model is operationalized and tested with Swedish TIMSS 2011 data (n = 3,928) in a multilevel structural equation model. The main FFT-construct in the study is a latent variable of “Limitations on instruction”, derived from items in the TIMSS teacher survey. Also, a variable of coverage of advanced content is derived from TIMSS 19 topics through assessments by Swedish eighth grade teachers in mathematics.

The study revealed that class composition, measured as class-SES, to some extent was related to teachers’ instruction in class, through its limitations on instruction, but it was also related to the content that can be covered in instruction. Results reveal a negative relation between students’ average age of arrival to Sweden on the between-class level and advanced content covered. Through both of these effects, individual students’ achievement in mathematics is affected, indicating the presence of a peer effect. The results from the study thereby support previous findings on the steering and limiting effect of class composition on teachers’ instruction, as well as providing a new theoretical perspective on results from OTL-research. The results indicate that differences in students’ opportunities to learn-measured as content covered-to some extent is related to the steering and limiting effect class composition has upon teachers’ instruction. The results are discussed in both a historical and contemporary context.

Despite a vast literature, previous research into compositional effects and peer effects in education has remarked on the lack of consensus within the field. To date, peer effects in education and students’ different opportunities to learn in school has been studied separately. In this study, it is argued that these perspectives need to be synthesized. A multilevel structural equation model (M-SEM) is derived from such a synthesis of the Frame Factor Theory (FFT) and Opportunity to Learn (OTL) and tested on Swedish TIMSS 2011-data (n=3928). The results indicate that class composition affects the presence of limitations on instruction and advanced content coverage, both of which is related to opportunities to learn and individual students’ achievement in mathematics.

As a group, teachers continually report high workload and psychological strain. The international literature has reported evidence of factors influencing teachers’ work environment, such as time pressure, demands, administration, emotional strain and disruptive behavior. Some of these factors have been verified in Swedish research, and differences have been reported between public and private schools. This study reports evidence that teachers’ psychological strain can be predicted by disruptive classroom behavior and stress of conscience. These factors were in turn related to school composition.

This study analyses whether disruptive classroom behaviour affects students’ results in Swedish lower secondary schools (N = 1704), measured by the schools’ grade point averages (GPA). The data, collected from the Swedish school authorities, comprises variables on schools’ pupil composition, classroom environment and student mean grades. Previous research has shown that disruptive classroom behaviour has a negative impact on students’ results. This study finds such effects. The effect size reported is equal to the reported GPA differences between boys and girls. Results show that some of the original effects of school compositional variables are mediated through disruptive behaviour.

Från syftet: Likt så många andra reformer på skolans område infördes dessa läroplansförändringarpå bred front och samtidigt för hela grundskolan. Detta skapar problem när reformens effekter ska utvärderas, i och med att det inte finns några kontrollgrupper att jämföra med (IFAU, 2014; 2016).

Syftet med denna artikel är därför att diskutera denna problematik genom att lämna ett tentativt metodologiskt förslag till hur en utvärdering ändå skulle kunna genomföras. Det metodologiska förslag som lämnas i artikeln är i sin tur förknippat med en rad mer eller mindre allvarliga problem. Dessa tillkortakommanden ska därför också betraktas som en generell notis om behovet av väldesignade försöksverksamheters återkomst till skolpolitiken (SOU 2014:12).

An extensive body of literature in the economic sciences has focused upon peer effects in education, showing that peer effects exist (Yeung & Nguyen-Hoang, 2016; Ewijk & Sleegers, 2010). In this literature, attention has been brought to the fact that the mechanisms creating the peer effects are still to a large extent hidden in obscurity (Lazear, 2001; Rutter & Maughan, 2002). In this research, distinctions are made between employing exogenous or endogenous independent variables for explaining peer effects (Epple & Romano, 2011). Research using endogenous variables (i.e. measures of students’ aptitude, prior knowledge or behaviour) shed some light on the issue of mechanisms creating peer effects, for instance reporting on the importance of counteracting disruptive classroom behaviour as a means to decrease influence of negative peer effects on student outcomes (Lavy, Paserman, & Schlosser, 2011; Bäckström, 2020).

The issue of peer effects is also addressed in educational sciences, but not as explicitly as in the economic sciences. In educational research it has been labelled as “contextual” or “compositional” effects (Dreeben & Barr, 1988). This literature investigates the peer effects in a wider scope, including issues such as why smaller classes would be better than large classes (Bourke, 1986; Blatchford et al, 2007) or how instruction is affected by class composition (Dumay & Dupriez, 2007; Hansson, 2011).

In educational sciences, there has been a theoretical debate concerning whether teachers’ instruction is dependent or independent of class composition. Benjamin Blooms’ model of Mastery Learning argues that teachers’ instruction is (or should be) independent of class composition, whilst Urban Dahllöfs’ emerging frame factor theory suggest that it is dependent of class composition (Barr & Dreeben, 1977). If the latter is true, I argue that this must be interpreted as a peer effect on instruction, probably also causing peer effects on student results.

The overall aim of the study presented in this paper is to test this argument, that the frame factor theory [ramfaktorteorin] (as later put forward by Ulf P. Lundgren, 1972) can be applied to the issue of peer effects.

At heart of the theory is the concept of “time needed” for students to learn a certain curricula unit, as it was suggested by John Carroll (1963). The relations between class-aggregated time needed and the actual time available, steers and hinders the actions possible for the teacher according to the theory. The theory predicts that the timing and pacing of the teachers’ instruction is governed by a “criterion steering group” (CSG), namely the pupils in the 10th-25th percentile of the aptitude distribution in class. Previous studies of Dahllöf (1967; 1971), Lundgren (1972) and Beckerman and Good (1981) report evidence of this hypothesis. The class composition hereby set the possibilities and limitations for instruction, creating peer effects on individual outcomes.

To test if the theory can be applied to the issue of peer effects, I employ multilevel structural equation modelling (M-SEM) on Swedish TIMSS 2015-data (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the SEM-framework in MPLUS, I first specify latent variables according to the theory, such as “limitations of instruction” from TIMSS survey items. The results indicate a good model fit to data of the measurement model.

The preliminary results from this ongoing study verify a relation between the mean level of the CSG and the latent variable of limitations on instruction, a variable which have a great impact on individual students’ test results. The analysis hereby confirms the predictions derived from the theory and reveals that one important mechanism creating peer effects in student outcomes is the effect class composition has upon the teachers’ instruction.

Från inledningen: I följande kapitel beskrivs ett fortbildningsuppdrag från Skolverket (SV) i språk-läs-och skrivutveckling med fokus på det kollegiala lärandet. Målgruppen är förskollärare i förskoleklass, lärare i den obligatoriska skolan och i gymnasieskolans och gymnasiesärskolans första år. Lärare genomför handledarutbildning parallellt med att handleda kollegor i språk, läs- och skrivutveckling. Det långsiktiga syftet med insatserna är att öka barns skriftliga och kommunikativa förmåga samt elevers läs- och skrivförmåga (Skolverket, 2019).

This case study examines eight-year-old students’ talk about storytelling within a Swedish primary school classroom and the subsequent meaning-making that they engage in. The study aims to establish a pedagogical understanding of the relationships between writing and other forms of communication and identify enabling and/or hindering factors in writing classes that include younger students. The research questions interrogate how dialogic co-writing develops when three students plan and co-write a story. Furthermore, the study address how the offered scaffolding functioned for these students.

In terms of theory, the study draws on New Literacy Studies and dialogical learning. Students’ talk about text and text constructions are taken as situated within a social practice that is constituted by the context of teachers, students, and the enacted activities. The study is informed by action research which, among other things, entails that the lessons that were observed for this study were planned in collaboration with two teachers and the teacher-researcher. The empirical data consists of video recordings, audio recordings, photographs, and field notes. The writing activities were analyzed using qualitative content analysis, primarily with reference to transcriptions of the students’ dialogues which concerned the students’ planning and writing on digital writing pads.

The results of this study reveal that story writing is a complex and demanding process for young students. The complexity consists of dealing with the act of writing in terms of describing the plot whilst simultaneously relating language sounds to letters and constructing sentences. Also, results show, that the students’ dialogues implied a verbalization of the students’ text-making. During the co-writing activity, the writing process and the creative possibilities of story writing were made visible. Furthermore, the students’ dialogues demonstrate that their collaboration was carried out through negotiations concerning What? and How? they might write and how the results of these negotiations should be transformed into text. During these negotiations, the students strove to achieve a sense of reciprocity with regards to their decisions. While negotiating, the students also used semiotic resources in addition to talk, including singing and simultaneous speech, thus revealing writing engagement. The students also showed engagement by fantasising and acting the story out verbally similar to children’s play. Consequently, this made the verbal story wider than the written one. Overall, when framed by the teacher’s instruction and intervention during the writing activities, the paired writing activities lent support to the students’ story writing. Moreover, the students supported each other in contexts where they were tasked to generate ideas, remember ideas, develop the story's overall structure, and address issues related to phonics, spelling, and sentence construction. The students’ dialogues also contained examples of tension and resistance in their interactions that dealt with the story content and text construction. One conclusion is that teachers should ask questions that can provide them with clues to the basis for the tensions and thereby guide the teacher in how to scaffold their student’s interaction and writing.

From foreword: This report describes how civil society and the public sector in Jönköping municipality collaborated with each other in assisting the welcoming and integration of the refugees who arrived in the municipality during the so-called ‘migrant crisis’ of 2015.

Från förordet: Den här rapporten handlar om hur civilsamhället och offentlig sektor i Jönköpings kommun har samarbetat för att hjälpa till att välkomna och integrera alla de flyktingar som kom i samband med flyktingkrisen 2015. Rapporten är en del av en större studie som i förlängningen syftar till att jämföra civilsamhällets roll i mottagningssystemen i Kanada och Sverige och är finansierad av Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council i Kanada.

Presentationen handlar om resultatet av en studie som är genomförd inom ramen för ämneslärarutbildningen. Syftet med studien var att ta reda på hur och om ämneslärarstudenterna utvecklade en förändrad hållning kring undervisningens genomförande efter ett specifikt ämnesdidaktiskt upplägg i samhällskunskap. Den teoretiska ramen byggde på variationsteori och studenterna genomförde fältuppgifter, lektionssekvenser samt skrev reflektionsuppgifter. I studien analyseras den metareflektion som studenterna slutligen genomförde inom ramen för kursen. Resultatet visar att studenterna visar en problematiserande hållning till såväl elevernas ämnesförståelse som sin egen roll i undervisningssituationen.   

One can’t just enter the classroom and begin to teach! Pre-service teachers’ descriptions on the development of didactic knowledge in social studies by variation theory as guiding principle

This study explores how pre-service teachers gain insight into a specific learning theory within the framework of a 7.5 credits course in social studies. The theory-practice divide in teacher education is commonly argued for as problematic. The purpose of the study is therefore to contribute knowledge of how pre-service teachers develop didactic knowledge on a theoretical basis. The theoretical framework and structure of the university course is based on variation theory and the students completed field assignments, lesson sequences and wrote reflection assignments. Data in the study consist of the reflection written by the students within the framework of the course. The material consists of 135 pages of written text which is analyzed through interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). The results reveal that variation theory seems to promote the pre-service teachers’ development of didactic reasoning on a theoretical basis. The pre-service teachers discover their future pupils experiences and pre-understanding of the subject content as a fundament for planning lessons in social studies.

I den här studien presenteras resultatet från en delstudie som ingår i ett större forskningsprojekt om kvalitetsaspekter rörande den verksamhetsförlagda utbildningen inom grundlärarutbildningens försöksverksamhet. Det övergripande syftet med försöksverksamheten är att höja kvaliteten på den verksamhetsförlagda delen av lärarutbildningen, och att på olika sätt förbättra studenternas möjligheter till god handledning inom ramen för projektet. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att bilda kunskap om på vilka sätt som VFU-handledare och lärarstudenter beskriver användandet av bedömningsmatrisen i handledningssamtal. Studien är genomförd på lärarutbildningens inriktningar år F–3 och 4–6.

Materialet består av sju skuggningar av genomförda handledningssamtal, fjorton enskilda intervjuer med VFU-handledare och lärarstudenter samt två fokusgruppsintervjuer med studenter. Data analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys och analyserades sedan med utgångspunkt i en sociokulturell ansats. Resultatet visar att bedömningsmatrisen både tolkas och används på olika sätt under VFU:n och i handledningssamtal. Studenterna efterfrågar en tydligare formativ funktion för användning av matrisen i de handledningssamtal som genomförs inom ramen för övningsskolorna medan VFU-handledarna tenderar att uppehålla sig vid att problematisera innehållsliga aspekter av bedömningsdokumentet.

Seminariepass 1b 1:

Forskningscirkeln som kollaborativ ansats för lärares kompetensutveckling

I den här studien presenteras samlad kunskap från ett projekt där lärare, genom forskningscirkeln som kollaborativ ansats, har genomfört undersökningar i praktiken. Forskningscirkeln som ansats har sin tradition i folkbildningen och bygger på emancipatoriska ideal, vilket innebär att lärare och pedagoger driver och utvecklar kunskap om frågor som de själva är intresserade av att undersöka. Ansatsens teoretiska hemvist är aktionsforskning och i synnerhet den inriktning som benämns som deltagarbaserad aktionsforskning (Participatory Action Research, PAR). PAR är ett samlingsbegrepp för de forskningsmetoder där människor som ingår i ett specifikt sammanhang, såsom skola, observerar, studerar och utvecklar praktiken tillsammans. Utforskandet av praktiken sker kollaborativt vilket innebär att forskningscirkeln sker i skärningspunkten mellan högskolan och skola och där kunskap samproduceras mellan lärare och forskare (Persson, 2008), (Lahdenperä, 2014). Handledarens roll är att vara gruppens facilitator och att bidra med att teori och praktik möts.

Syftet med presentationen är att visa vad det kan innebära att utveckla systematisk kunskap med forskningscirkeln som ansats men också att diskutera forskningscirkelns potential som möjlig kompetensutvecklingsmodell för lärare och pedagoger. Detta görs utifrån presentatörernas erfarenheter från att vara handledare i forskningscirklar. Att delta i en forskningscirkel innebär att ständig bli utmanad av andras erfarenheter för att få syn på för-givet-tagna tankar om pedagogiska frågor. Detta sker i dialogisk form där både deltagare och handledare lär av varandra. Frågan som adresseras är:

vilken funktion fyller forskningscirkeln som potentiell ansats för lärares kompetensutveckling på vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet?

Alla lärare ägnar sig åt bedömning, oavsett årskurs eller skolform man arbetar i. Denna artikel syftar till att reflektera över innebörden i begreppet som sådant, problematisera varför man gör bedömningar i skolan, samt diskutera olika syften med bedömning för olika målgrupper.

The current study aims to deepen the knowledge of students’ experiences of teachers’ assessment related instructional actions, with particular focus on problematic consequences of an intensified assessment paradigm. Its empirical material consists of 20 focus-group interviews with a total of 102 sixteen- to eighteen-year-old students in ten Swedish municipalities. Through inductive qualitative content analysis on manifest data level, six categories of aspects emerge that together describe students’ experiences of assessment related instructional actions. Clearly, assessment, learning goals, knowledge requirements, tests, and grades are dominant elements in Swedish students’ classroom life. Consequently, they often feel strong pressure and great insecurity. For the students, it seems to make no difference whether assessment purposes are summative or formative. Rather, it appears to be the total amount of assessment related instructional actions that causes stress, and decreased desire to participate and learn in school. The results are problematized and discussed through the lens of the concepts of dilemmas and complementary attitudes. It is argued that the last decade’s intensified assessment paradigm, with its numerous macro-level reforms and decisions with bearing on summative as well as formative assessment, has led to teachers adjusting pedagogical and ethical positions in the classroom. Consequently, counterproductive practices seem to have evolved.

This longitudinal study aims to create in-depth knowledge about the phenomena of middle-leadership and career in school by identifying (1) driving forces for seeking and maintaining middle-leading positions, (2) opportunities and difficulties in maintaining the middle-leading role over time, and (3) underlying thoughts of career disclosed in the respondents’ expressions. Five different reasons for seeking middle-leading positions are identified and driving forces for maintaining the position are categorised as either internal reward/non-observable outcomes or external reward/observable outcomes. Furthermore, the results show that different types of difficulties arise in distinct phases and that middle-leaders’ needs for support therefore vary over time. Additionally, the complexity of teachers’/middle-leaders’ career thinking clearly emerges, and implications for practice are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to discern and discuss issues with relevance to the tension between contextuality and generalisation, which recurrently are identified over time in research reviews of teaching methods. The 75 most cited reviews on teaching methods listed in the Web of Science from 1980 to 2017 were analysed. Since our interest is the claims made in each article about the teaching method under study, the analysis concerned the abstract, results, discussion, conclusion, and implication parts of each review. Three main issues, cutting across the reviews over time, were identified: 1) the abundance of moderating factors, 2) the need for highly qualified teachers, and 3) the research-practice gap. It is argued that the three issues reflect tensions in original research. The implications of these findings are discussed in the article. One main conclusion is that such issues ought to be more explicitly attended to and elaborated in both primary and secondary level research. The importance of viewing validity as a multidimensional concept, including internal, external, and ecological aspects, is underlined. Further, ideas from realistic reviewing are used to discuss a contextually bound approach to causality.

Skolutveckling kan förstås på olika sätt, men oavsett synsätt är målet att skapa en god och likvärdig skolgång för alla elever. Vägen dit går genom någon typ av styrning eller självstyrning, ofta kopplad till en systematisk process. För lärare och skolledare handlar det om att förändra och förbättra undervisning och övrig skolverksamhet så att förutsättningarna för barn och elever att lära och utvecklas i linje med styrdokumentens mål styrdokumenten blir så bra som möjligt. 

I den här boken problematiseras olika aspekter av skolutveckling, såsom kunskapsuppdraget kontra det demokratiska uppdraget, lärares involvering i didaktiskt utvecklingsarbete och forskningsmetodens plats i läraryrket. Kapitlen fokuserar på olika nivåer, allt från lärarna i klassrummet till skolchefen i kommunen, som på olika sätt är involverade i skolutveckling. Beskrivningarna från olika skolformer visar att det finns likheter, men också strukturella skillnader när det gäller hur arbetet tar form beroende på i vilket sammanhang det utvecklas. 

Skolutveckling i teori och praktik är indelad i tre delar som har olika fokus. Den första belyser skolutveckling teoretiskt, den andra beskriver hur skolutveckling sker i olika skolformer och den tredje ger praktiska exempel på olika sätt att arbeta med skolutveckling och systematiskt kvalitetsarbete.Boken riktar sig till lärarstudenter och rektorer på lärar- och rektorsutbildning, men också till verksamma lärare och rektorer som vill fördjupa eller bredda sina kunskaper om skolutveckling och hitta inspiration i sitt eget skolutvecklingsarbete.

The current study reported here is one within a research project aimed at the identification of enabling and constraining factors in a two-year school-development project at a large secondary school in Sweden, where all teaching staff were involved in improving the quality of instruction through collaborative analyses. In this project a development group, consisting of one principal and eight lead teachers/middle leaders, played a vital role. Based on activity theory and an understanding of leadership as practice involving individuals, organization and artefacts, this study sets out to deepen the knowledge of leadership practices in locally situated, teacher-driven, school-development work. Organizational changes occurring when the development group sought to achieve a model for systematic collaborative learning are analysed, with a specific focus on the role of middle leaders. Data were collected through observations and interviews during the project’s planning phase and through subsequent interviews and continuously written self-reflections during its operational phase. Several contradictions on various levels in the activity system are identified, and it is suggested that the school’s way of organizing teacher-driven school-development work – by transforming the rules, division of labor and mediating artifacts of the activity system – enabled collaborative learning and analyses of instruction that involved all teachers at the school.

The current study – guided by the overarching research question What aspects of successful teaching unfold in students’ descriptions of the teachers that they perceive as being really good teachers? – is situated within a larger research project aimed at extending knowledge about successful teaching and teachers. It builds on 20 focus-group interviews with 102 students aged 16–18 in ten Swedish municipalities. Based on inductive qualitative content analysis carried out on manifest data level, eight aspects unfold that – from a student perspective – characterise excellent teachers and teaching. These are subsequently problematised from an opportunity-to-learn (OTL) perspective, and in relation to various theoretical understandings of what successful teaching encompasses. It is concluded that such teaching that students perceive as leading to knowledge-development and well-being is characterised by aspects that can be understood – in various ways – as relational, i.e. as unfolding through participative communication in the interplay and interaction that constitute the space between teacher and students. Throughout students’ descriptions it is also obvious that the teachers they perceive as the best are scaffolders and shepherds who manage to balance between simultaneously scaffolding and challenging students cognitively while paying attention to affective dimensions in order to safeguard their social development, self-confidence and self-esteem. 

Boken belyser olika aspekter av ett framgångsrikt skolutvecklingsprojekt på en lokal skola i Jönköpings kommun. Huvudtemat är en beskrivning av hur rektor tillsammans med mellanledare och övriga lärare på skolan gjort för att organisera och genomföra professionsdriven skolutveckling med undervisningen i fokus. I flera av bokens kapitel beskrivs planeringen och genomförandet av projektet och vilka framgångsfaktorer och hinder som upptäckts under processen. Dessutom presenteras studier som gjorts av lärare i verksamheten för verksamheten, följeforskning av mellanledarnas roll samt kollegiets erfarenheter av projektet. Därtill innehåller ett kapitel elevtexter som beskriver deras erfarenheter. Det är mångfalden av perspektiv och det faktum att innehållet är hämtat direkt från praktiken som gör denna bok unik.Projektet som redovisas i boken visar på en betydelsefull motvikt till dagen skoldebatt, som många gånger handlar om sviktande elevresultat, tidsbrist i läraryrket och tidsbrist för att kunna genomföra utvecklingsarbete i verksamheten. Resultatet visar att det går att genomföra framgångsrik skolutveckling med förändringar i såväl undervisningen som skolkulturen i sin helhet, vilket bland annat har lett till högre meritvärden hos elever.