Today teachers’ relational proficiencies are increasingly seen as a reasonable and necessary prerequisite for didactic competence. However, the relational field is small and largely unexplored, and needs a more precise theoretical starting point. This paper presents a new theoretical multi-relational perspective, Pedagogical Relational Teachership, PeRT, which can support development of new knowledge about teachers’ relational proficiencies and how these can be established in school practice. PeRT is a theoretical perspective within the field of inclusive education, that addresses relational challenges in today´s and tomorrow’s school, focusing on interpersonal relationships and relational values. It is a radical alternative that explores teaching conditions to enable subjectification and how students can emerge as unique subjects. Within the field of relational pedagogy, Pedagogical Relational Teachership can be seen as a new branch. Through a relational oriented approach the searchlight is directed towards pupils’ participation in education. PeRT has a three-dimensional model highlighting interpersonal relationships at different levels within the educational system. The first dimension contains the child's rights, where four articles in the Children's Convention are indicative. The second dimension includes a model which highlights different aspects of relational teachership, as well as the relationship between teacher and students. This part of the model is inspired by Bronfenbrenner´s ecological theory focusing on qualities for children and young people growing in different environments. However, PeRT is a pedagogical perspective highlighting micro, meso and macro levels of interpersonal relationships within the educational system. The third dimension of the model makes visible a tool for relational and didactical aspects in teaching. In total, PeRT´s relational multi-dimensional model illustrates a relational teachership and provides an enhanced understanding of different educational environments. The model, and its various parts, can be used in teacher education as well as in research within pedagogy, didactics and special educational studies. In addition, PeRT can support schools and teachers in their quest to develop educational environments focusing on interpersonal relationships. Hence, PeRT is a new perspective that can support future empirical research on students´ participation and aspects of accessibility and equity.

The purpose of this study was to test a hypothesized model that specified direct and indirect effects of textual and individual factors on readers’ ability to integrate information about sources and content when reading multiple conflicting texts on a controversial socio-scientific issue. Using a path analytic approach with a sample of 140 Norwegian upper secondary school students, it was found that the textual factor of presentation format, specifically whether they read about the conflicting issue in multiple texts or in a single text, affected source-content integration directly as well as indirectly through memory for textual conflicts. Thus, compared to interacting with a single text, interacting with multiple texts improved students’ sourcing performance directly as well as indirectly. Further, the individual factors of prior knowledge and gender affected source-content integration directly, with prior knowledge also having an indirect effect that was mediated by memory for textual conflicts. Specifically, students with higher prior knowledge and girls were likely to display better sourcing performance than were students with lower prior knowledge and boys, and prior knowledge also had an indirect positive effect on sourcing via memory for textual conflicts. Theoretical as well as educational implications of the findings are discussed. 

Creative remake assignments using garments and textile refuse are common educational projects to promote environmental and sustainability actions. However, very little empirical research has been carried out on the learning processes of remake projects. In this article, the aim is to examine how students learn with garments and textile refuse when engaging in a remake project. The exploration is conducted in a Swedish crafts class, educational sloyd, as a case. Practical epistemological analysis and the concept of transactant are used to analyse and be attentive to the learning process. The findings show how students transact with the idea of a product, the material's capabilities and the remake techniques. Further, the transactants show what participates and makes the learning process turn in specific directions, which is further discussed in the paper. Based on this empirical research, we may increase our understandings of how the learning processes is made in the remake project, and that knowledge can help us understand, and thus improve the quality of remake projects in relation to the environmental and sustainability aims.

This article reports on a participatory design project conducted with K-12 schools in the US and Sweden to create an international collaboration on Marine Biology using video production as a tool for learning and representation. The aim of the project was to explore teachers’ challenges and strategies due to digitalization and new curricular demands through a lens of sociocultural perspectives. Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) was used to understand and support participating teachers’ development as well as the design process. Using the CHAT model as a design tool enabled teachers to grasp a complex learning environment and frame contradictions and tensions in the activity. Challenges in terms of curricular demands and media literacy could be identified and addressed as part of interacting activity systems, and the process enabled expansion of knowledge and ideas for both design and future work practice. 

The purpose of this paper is to highlight how theories are used in assessmentdialogues during the last period of a practical, school-based education. The resultis based on 13 assessment dialogues conducted in the school-based part of theswedish teacher education programme and where one of the course objectives is to“in a scientific way, analyse teaching situations based on learning theories”. Theassessment dialogues were analysed drawing from Bernstein’s concepts of‘classification’, ‘framing’, and ‘horizontal and vertical knowledge’. The resultshows that theories are used in an instrumental way to legitimise what is consideredthe “right way” to teach. Only in a minority of the assessment dialogues studentsare expected to use theory as an analytical tool and critically examine their teachingpractice. Although the swedish teacher education have been an academic educationfor 40 years, the reproductive elements still appear clearly today. If a professionalapproach presupposed to be based on theoretical reasoning, then the normative useof theory bocomes problematic. 

When we count, we have to decide what counts and what does not count. Thus, counting is a political act. Certain language repertoires are necessary to convey the ideas and perhaps even to perform counting actions. At the same time, the language used to describe these ideas and enact the processes shapes the way we conceptualize them. Our interest in the experience of counting includes the way counting and its communication position people. In this chapter we identify how micro-political moves are manifested in language and counting situations, including reciting numbers, counting things present and not, and subordinating counting to another goal. In our analysis, we look for language strategies that enable the process of deciding what to (not) count as the process of establishing boundaries or categories, and we consider how these processes work as political acts.

[English title: The Constitution of Special Education in a Child-centred Preschool for All: To Analyze Political Steering Instruments with a Discourse Theoretical Frame]

This paper identifies and analyzes what constitutes special education in the (revised) Swedish preschool curriculum. The paper also contributes with an analytical mode of understanding political, as well as other, documents, in, for example, an educational system. The analytical strategy is built upon discourse theory, using the ideas of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The results show a fortified hegemonic discourse about a preschool for all children, where child-centred and inclusive approaches are dominant and where special education, to a large extent, is constituted by more management, stimulation and special support. The paper raises questions about the possible effects the hegemonic discourse may contribute to.

Även om vi kan "se" instanser av ljus är det svårt för barn i de tidiga skolåren att förstå vad ljus är. I denna studie beskrivs elevers förståelse av ljus genom att studera på vilket sätt de tecknar skuggor från ett föremål belyst av en ljuskälla. Syftet med studien är att skapa ny kunskap om hur elever i åk 3 förstår begreppen ljus och skugga och på vilket sätt detta kan stimulera elevers intresse för fysiska fenomen. Forskningsfrågorna är: På vilket sätt visar eleverna sin förståelse av ljus genom att teckna skuggor? Vad kan vi förstå av barns förståelse av ljusets riktning genom att studera hur de tecknar skuggor? Genom en variationsteoretisk ansats för analys synliggörs vilka aspekter som eleverna redan har urskilt och vilka aspekter som behöver bedömas för att utveckla deras djupare förståelse av fenomenet.

The aim of this article is to elucidate how teacher researchers use a theoretical framework as mediated tool to create boundaries in communities of research practices (CoRPs) and how this effects student learning. If, and in what way, knowledge developed in one practice can be used to inform the next is also examined. Two teacher researchers implemented two CoRPs each, one as internal participant and one as external participant. In total, 202 students, 22 teachers, 2 teacher researchers, and 1 researcher participated. The qualitative analysis is framed by Wenger’s three boundary dimensions: engagement, imagination, and alignment. The results show that teachers’ actions in the second practice, no matter if they were internal or external participants, are characterized by a higher degree of security and knowledge and the lessons implemented are more effective regarding the students’ learning outcomes than in the first. The results show that knowledge develops in an interaction order regardless of the internal or external community order. The result from the first team informs the starting point for the second team, and knowledge boundaries are transferred by the teacher researcher from one CoRP to the other.

This study aims to discuss in what way the same data material unveil different outcomes based on what approach used: phenomenography or variation theory. ‘Conception’ is the unit of description in Phenome nography (Marton & Pong, 2005), and an analysis based on phenomenography focuses both the referential and structural aspect. In this study, students’ statements of what learning is, are analyzed. The distinction between the approaches lies in separating th e structural dimension between conceptions and within an object. Traditionally Phenomenography has focused the differences between conceptions of the same phenomenon, whilst Variation theory focuses on the internal structure within the object. The analysis describes how 198 students in grades seven to nine in the Swedish secondary school, describe what learning is. The results of the phenomenographic analysis unveil different pools of meanings of how learning is conceptualized differently. The results from the analysis based on Variation theory describes what aspects an features the delimited phenomenon ‘learning’ consists of. Hence, a combination of Phenomenography and Variation theory of the same data set bring an understanding of how differently the same phenomenon can be seen, and what critical aspects are included or excluded to define a category. On the other hand, critical aspects used in an analysis based on Variation theory do not describe the differences among ways of seeing the same thing, but the variation within the phenomenon, how it is and can be differently structured. Using ‘learning’ as the phenomenon is challenging, as the concept is abstract and imprecisely.

The aim of this study is to investigate if lecturers’ preparedness to include students with special educational needs (SEN) is enhanced by professional development courses offered at their universities. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2011) states that people with disabilities should be given the necessary support within the public education system to facilitate their education, which also applies to higher education. Disability reduces the likelihood to complete secondary education and increases the likelihood of experiencing harassment and discrimination during education (Pijl, Frostad & Mjavatn, 2014). In turn, this may cause unemployment. Different kinds of disabilities are differently treated; an inclusive approach is stronger towards students with visible disabilities, while students with invisible disabilities are less inclusively treated (Moriña Díez, López, & Molina, 2015). This point at a lack of understanding of the needs SEN students have, with unequal learning possibilities for SEN students with invisible disabilities. Results also unveils the lack of basic training for lecturers to support SEN students (Naik, 2017). One of the SEN student group with invisible disabilities are students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The challenges of higher education are prominent for this group, more than 50% of young adults in this group are neither being in employment nor included in higher education, and the lecturer’s knowledge of ASD is limited (Cai, & Richdale, 2016). As previous research has pointed out teachers’ expressed lack of readiness to teach SEN students in higher education, this study aims to answer the following research questions; 1. How do higher education teachers consider their own and their university’s competence to educate SEN students?, 2. How do higher education teachers rate their work with SEN students in higher education?, and 3. What competence do higher education teachers find necessary to teach SEN students? Lecturers from two university faculties managing teacher and special education programs answered a questionnaire about their skills to teach students with SEN. At university A (UA), SEN at higher education was not included in the mandatory courses for lecturers at the faculty, while at university B (UB) the courses included content about teaching SEN students. In total, the questionnaire was answered by 104 lecturers (65 at university A, and 39 at university B). The results show a significant (p=0.012) difference between the teachers’ needs of professional development. At UB, lecturers rate their own competence as well as the organizational ability to meet SEN students igher than lecturers at UA. Lecturers at UB are rating higher competence regardless of disability. Lecturers at UB rate higher competence regarding visual impairment (p=0.085), hearing impairment (p=0.076) and neuropsychiatric disorders (p=0.082) compared to lecturers at UA. The result show the need and importance of mandatory courses about SEN in higher education to foster an inclusive learning environment.

Providing this postgraduate education for teachers within teacher education aim to enhance research links in teacher education and the capacity to educate teachers in undersized areas. The postgraduate school has two goals. Firstly, it aims to develop skills and contribute with knowledge for Swedish special education teacher training. One of the main areas in need of improvement in particular is special didactics for students with neurodevelopmental disorders/conditions (NDD), which 10% of all students in Swedish schools are estimated to have (Boyle et al., 2011). Another area in need of research-based knowledge is education for students with intellectual disabilities. Our intention is to maintain a strong focus on five areas to build upon a common base of knowledge needed for teacher educators in special education: 1) Theory of Special Education Research, 2) Special Didactics of Mathematics, 3) Special Didactics of Language-, Writing-, Reading and Hearing, 4) Special Didactics of Intellectual Disorders, and 5) Inclusive Education for Students with NDD. Due to existing United Nations conventions, we must also take into consideration how to help students with low intellectual abilities. To avoid stigmatizing students, we will emphasize a relational and functional environmental perspective as an approach in pedagogical practice to visualize, analyze and discuss the meaning of relations. We will also help draw attention to the relationship between the students as well as that of student and teacher to enhance inclusive learning (Aspelin, 2012; Aspelin & Persson, 2011). The doctoral students can choose their study object within a wide range of special educational challenges. Secondly, we intend to study how professional development can be developed so that it can give and gather feedback in special didactics during the program using various professional development models for teachers such as improvement science (Lewis, 2015), teaching research groups (Yang, 2009), and learning and lesson studies (Pang & Ling, 2012). By that, we strive to enhance the teacher educators’ readiness to educate teachers who are required to supervise and guide colleagues with the aim of improving the teaching and learning for students in SEN. In their role to teach students, we strive to foster a generic competence to regard the relationship between teachers and students as a powerful tool to create inclusive learning environments, which take into consideration the students’ perspectives. The research program, which has received nearly 40 million SEK to run thr program 2018-2022, will be presented during the session.

The aim of this study is to unveil research in science education addressing societal issues by a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles written in English and published between 2007 and 2017. Hofstein, Eilks, and Bybee (2011) found that education is not in line with the interests and needs of neither the society, nor the majority of the students’ interests. They also claim that students do not find the science classes interesting and by that, the possibility to affect the students’ way of acting in the future becomes limited. As societal issues are strongly connected to current problems, the reason for limiting the timespan is to keep focus on articles addressing the challenges we face in our society currently. A research review design was outlined (Hart, 2014). Peer-reviewed international scientific English-language articles at ERIC EBSCO, were searched to try to find what kind of research have been published on the topic. ERIC was invented in 1966 and provides access to 1.5 million bibliographic records. The first search with the search words “education” and “societal challenges” resulted in 91 hits. The analysis has been done in several steps (Cooper & Vanetine, 2008), finding including and excluding criteria while analyzing the abstracts, and then analyzing research aims, questions, methods and results. The results present the research conducted, but also the research areas not yet studied.

The aim of this study is to describe in what way preschool activities contribute to the development of children's knowledge of different forms of numbers; symbols, ordinal and cardinal. Video -recordings from three different groups of preschool children age d 3 to 5 years old have been analyzed based on variation theory (Marton, 2015) to describe the children’s discernment of numbers. The activities were planned and enacted by preschool teachers. The teachers’ intentions were to teach the children numerosity (Hannula - Sormunen et.al., 2016). The activities offered learning possibilities during the activities, e.g. to sort digits by magnitude, value or just to match symbols. The video -recordings were analyzed to capture what as- pects of the numbers the children were offered to discern, and what aspects were not offered to discern during the different activities. Simultaneous discernment of numbers in different forms are important for children’s future mathematical performance (Hannul- Sormunen et.al., 2015). The fi ndings unveil the teachers’ challenges to design preschool activities offering children simultaneously discernment of num- bers’ different forms. The activities mainly make the children discern numbers as symbols to match or as magnitude, while the cardinal form occurred only to a limited extent.

Technology volition is the will to develop knowledge of, and use, the physical world to design products, processes and systems. The aim of this study was to contribute new knowledge of children’s technology volition when they identify, build and improve technical constructions, and how teachers support this learning. Analysis focused on moments when children’s volition was expressed in a construction activity. In total, eleven preschool teachers and 49 children, aged 4–5 years, from three preschools, participated. Data consists of video-recordings from four activities, two each in preschool A and B, showing children’s expressed technological volition, as well as field notes about the teachers’ preparations. Results show how differences among children’s expressed volition is connected to their imagination of how materials can be combined to construct ‘houses’ and ‘vehicles’ from everyday objects. Building a house resulted in a focus on how to make the building solid and water resistant, and inspired children to learn about materials for different purposes in houses such as the floor, walls and an angled roof. Building a vehicle encouraged children to talk about speed, movements and fuel. Results show how children indicate and express their discernment of how materials are combined to create constructions, and how they discover ways in which materials change during the building process. For some of the children it was difficult to see the potential of a material other than its original use, while others used their imagination to find opportunities to use materials to make new objects.

Key note föreläsning på nationell konferens

The findings from a microethnografic study is presented. Four math teachers and one hundred students from compulsory, upper secondary and special schools participated. The teachers were selected by former students as good teachers. Microanalyses of teacher-student interactions show how the teachers’ pedagogical tactfulness can meet unique children.

This article reports a study of educators differentiating aspects of mathematical knowledge for teaching in preschool as part of a further-education programme. Eight Swedish preschool educators participated in focus group discussions about documentations from their own practice during a school year, to enhance their awareness of their mathematics education practice. The object of learning for the participants is more specifically how numbers and counting are made content for learning in preschool practice. The educators' authentic documentations are reflected upon in focus group meetings and further analysed by the researchers to find out what aspects the educators differentiate during the programme. Results show that educators' learning about content for children's learning in preschool is a complex process. This process involves several aspects necessary to discern for a professional development to occur, but the collaborative approach seems prosperous in that new aspects are brought to the fore, influencing their reflective practice.

The causes of and solutions to juvenile delinquency and social unrest amongthe youth in so-called Swedish multi-ethnic urban areas are frequently represented inpublic-institutional discourse as related to migrant parents. These are, the authors argue,consequently exposed to policies for ‘activation’, ‘responsibilisation’ and ‘normalisation’.

Den här boken ger en introduktion till dagens forskning om ras och vithet i ett svenskt sammanhang. I tolv kapitel undersöker forskare från olika ämnesområden och med olika metodologiska ingångar hur de båda begreppen ras och vithet hänger samman med Sverige, svenskar och svenskhet.

Boken är indelad i två avsnitt. Kapitlen i den första delen undersöker i första hand historiska fenomen och frågeställningar. I del två analyserar författarna debatter och förhållanden som rör dagens svenska vithet och samtida svenska rasrelationer.

Forskningsfältet svenska kritiska ras- och vithetsstudier är fortfarande relativt nytt. Den här antologin visar att fältet växer och att det i dag pågår forskning om ras och vithet inom flera olika kultur- och samhällsvetenskapliga discipliner.

Boken är avsedd för studenter på universitet och högskolor.

Att pedagogiska relationer har en avgörande roll för undervisning är idag en vedertagen insikt inom pedagogisk forskning. På samma vis är det tämligen accepterat att kommunikation och språkbruk är av central relevans för lärande. Däremot råder inte lika stor enighet kring vilka slag av dialoger som är betydande. Detta bidrag uppehåller sig därför vid frågor om hur mellanmänskliga dialoger kan förstås. Bidragets syfte är att synliggöra, begreppsliggöra och problematisera utbildningsdialogens funktion och natur. I texten diskuterar författarna pedagogiska implikationer av relevans för fältet relationell pedagogik. Mer precist är det relationen mellan lärare och elever som problematiseras med stöd i dialogfilosofi utifrån Mikhail Bakhtin och Martin Buber samt pedagogisk forskning på området. En konceptuell distinktion utvecklas och illustreras med episoder från svenska klassrum: ontologisk vs. instrumentell samexistens. Slutsatsen är att instrumentell pedagogik kan och bör problematiseras med avseende på etik, demokrati och intersubjektivitet.

The focus of this article is on the use of theories and on what we imply when we in research claim to use a theory. In this article, diverse uses of one theory will be illustrated with reference to ten different studies. The aim is not to evaluate or judge how the theory is used in these studies, but to discuss how the diverse uses of one and the same theory may infer very different things in research. Questions are raised about what happens with the hierarchy and the coherence of an argument and what conclusions can be drawn when only some parts of a theory are used.

The aim of this study is to generate new knowledge about how pupils in grade 4 understand the concepts light and shadow, informing our knowledge about pupil knowledge development as well as to contribute with results to improve science education. In total 18 pupils in grades 2,3 and 4 (8-11 years old) participated in group interviews consisting of 3 pupils in each. During the interviews, children were asked questions, and made drawings of light and shadows. Data consists of 6 group interviews and 18 drawings. The result shows how the pupils mainly experience light and shadows as reflections of light, and by that neglect e.g. shadows on the floor under a table under a lamp hanging from the ceiling. Instead, in their drawings they show how the light produces reflections of the lamp, table and table legs at the walls and on the floor. The strong linkage between shadows and reflections/ images suggests that introducing a model of light seems necessary to provide for alternative explanations of shadows.

I konventionen om rättigheter för personer med funktionsnedsättning (2008/09:8) fastslås att personer med funktionsnedsättning ges nödvändigt stöd inom det allmänna utbildningssystemet för att underlätta deras ändamålsenliga utbildning. Även i Malmö högskolas policy dokument (2016-2018) inkluderas ett förhållningssätt som ska byggas på mångfald. I studenters rättigheter och skyldigheter (Mah, 2011) eftersträvas en arbetsmiljö som stödjer studenters lärande och främjar deras fysiska och psykiska hälsa. I studenthälsans undersökning ”Hur mår våra studenter” (Mah, 2015) pekar resultaten på att en eller flera funktionsnedsättningar skulle kunna vara en riskfaktor i vissa avseenden. Vidare att funktionsnedsättning minskar sannolikheten för att uppleva sig klara av sina studier och ökar sannolikheten för att uppleva sig trakasserad och diskriminerad. Larsdotter Frid och Krantz (2012) visar att det är problematiskt att tillgängliggöra den konkreta undervisningssituationen för studenter med funktionsnedsättning. Syfte: Med detta som bakgrund finns det ett behov av att kartlägga och identifiera universitetsutbildares upplevda och uttryckta behov av kompetens avseende t.ex pedagogiska anpassningar av studenters studiesituation. Metod: En webenkät skickades ut till 2 fakulteter vid ett lärosäte (A) och en vid en fakultet vid ett annat lärosäte (B). Totalt svarade 131 (svarsfrekvens). Pågående analyser kvalitativa såväl som kvantitativa (SPSS). Resultat: Det finns tendenser som uppvisar en skillnad i upplevd kompetens mellan lärosäten där en större andel anställda vid lärosäte B uppger både högre och lägre kompetens jämfört med anställda vid lärosäte A. Anställda vid lärosäte A tenderar att uppge ett större kompetensutvecklingsbehov när det gäller studenter i behov av anpassningar av studiesituationen. När den egna kompetensen skattas högt tenderar behovet av kompetensutveckling också skattas högt (73%) bland anställda vid lärosäte A medan anställda vid lärosäte B skattar lågt kompetensutvecklingsbehov (39 %). Anställda vid båda lärosätena uppger god kännedom om styrdokumenten. När det gäller kompetens om olika funktionsnedsättningar skattar anställda vid lärosäte B högre kompetens än anställda vid lärosäte A oavsett funktionsnedsättning. Störst skillnader ses i kompetens gällande neuropsykiatriska funktionsnedsättningar samt hörsel-, och synnedsättningar. Diskussion/implikationer: Tolkning av materialet pågår.

This article explores the relation between politics and epistemologyin Swedish higher education by focusing on the notion of ”sustainabledevelopment”. As a concept that relates to environmentalchange, sustainable development addresses the link between thepersonal and the global level. The article discusses why universityteachers regard sustainable development as a problematic notion inhigher education practices. The aim of the article is to conduct afeminist analysis of the contemporary relation between epistemologyand politics in Swedish higher education. Two epistemologicalnotions rooted in feminist epistemological theory are used throughoutthe analysis: “situated knowledges” (Haraway 2008) and“transcorporeality” (Alaimo 2010). Empirically, the article draws onexamples from focus group discussions with teachers at eightSwedish universities.Two balancing acts are identified in the discussions: one is aboutthe role of the teaching body at the border between the private andthe public, and the other is about the reach of education at theborder between a request for change and status quo. I argue thatenvironmental issues become problematic to handle in educationalpractices because 1) they transgress the boundaries between theprivate and public sphere and 2) they challenge understandings ofwhat legitimate knowledge is. Furthermore, these problems relateto contemporary understandings of environmental problems as“post-political” (Mouffe 2008).In conclusion, I suggest that it is only by “staying with the trouble”(Haraway 2008), and by formulating positions that are situated andtranscorporeal, that we can attend to a more inclusive understandingof knowledge in higher education.

The scientific explanation for shadows is counterintuitive. It focuses on the local absence of light. Perception of a figural shadow on the other hand, usually is a figure-ground experience, with the shadow representing the ‘positive’ image in the foreground and the illuminated environment the ground. Learning to explain shadows is a content of elementary and middle school curricula and a considerable number of studies that deal with childre’ns conceptions of light and shadow are available. The first section of the poster shows that these findings can be structured by very few critical aspects of learning that belong to a set of phenomenographic categories (study 1). The second section of the poster shows how these findings are taken up for a current learning study in which the introduction of a model of light in primary school is focused (study 2). This is due to the insight, that exploring shadows does not provide a suitable basis for developing the knowledge needed for their explanation. Shadows rather distract attention from light. Therefore, teaching intends to provide exploration, insights and knowledge in contexts different from the ones they are later applied to. Methodologically the current study is based on a design-based research approach, more specifically a learning study. The methodology of learning studies was developed in Sweden and Hong Kong and combines the idea of lesson studies with variation theory. The model of light can also be viewed as the basis for cumulative learning towards understanding radiation in general.

The aim of this study is to examine reasons for the increasing amount of pupils with autism (Wing, 1996) who refuses go to school. Three hypotheses were examined; (1) students are subjected to excessive demands in respect of social interaction and participation; (2) today's school policy in Sweden places high demands on pupils' executive ability, which means that it is expected they manage to organize and plan their work independently; and (3) students' problems may be reduced if they are exposed to a less amount of excessive stimuli. Data from 1.799 questionnaires and 15 interviews are analyzed. The results show that there is an unwittingly lack of deeper understanding about the pupils' specific deficits, which results in teachers forcing their pupils into situations which become impossible for them to cope. Offering the pupils opportunities for seclusion in the inclusive settings to help them sort their impressions and recover, as well as written or visual disposition to guide how to work with the tasks they have to solve would increase the quality for inclusive education and increase the possibility for the pupils to cope.

The aim of the study is to describe what young children are offered to discern and actually discern through the construction technology in preschool, and in what way different constructions result in different learning affordances. Three different kinds of constructions were studied; house, vehicle and towers. The variety of objects generates functional differences which affect what focus the children have on the constructions. 11 preschool teachers and 49 children aged 4-5 years old from three preschools participated. Data consists of video-recordings of five activities of construction technology and fieldnotes. The results show that differences in constructions implies different expressed focus and learning during the activities. Building a house resulted in a focus on how to make the building solid, water resistant and inspired the children to learn about different kinds of material for different purposes in a house, such as the ground, floor, walls and the importance to tilt the roof to get rid of water and snow. Building a vehicle inspired the children to talk about speed, movements and different kinds of fuel. Finally building towers resulted in a competition where they tried to build the highest tower. The importance to build the tower as straight as possible was found to be important to avoid that the tower collapses, and by that they focused on equilibrium and balance. The results show that different kind of construction activities can be used to create different focus in science learning during play in preschool.

The aim of the study is to analyse teachers’ efforts to develop secondary school students’ knowledge and argumentation skills of what constitutes scientific theories. The analysis is based on Leontiev’s three-level structure of activity (activity, action, and operation), as these levels correspond to the questions why, what, and how content is taught. The unit of analysis was a school development project in science education, where design-based interventions were conducted. Data comprised notes and minutes from eight meetings, plans, and video recordings of the lessons, and a written teacher evaluation. The teachers’ (n = 7) learning actions were analysed to identify (a) concept formation in science education, (b) expressions of agency, (c) discursive manifestations of contradictions, and (d) patterns of interaction during the science interventions. Three lessons on what constitutes scientific theories were implemented in three different student groups (n = 24, 23, 24), framed by planning and evaluation meetings for each lesson. The results describe (1) the ways in which teachers became more skilled at ensuring instruction met their students’ needs and (2) the ways in which teachers’ operations during instruction changed as a result of their developed knowledge of how to express the content based on theoretical assumptions.

Pictures are often integrated in digital learning materials with the purpose of enhancing learning. This mixed methods study uses quantitative eye-tracking data and qualitative data such as oral answers to discover whether characteristics of pictures influence patterns of text–picture transition in readers with (n=10) and without (n=14) dyslexia, and how reading comprehension is affected. Most participants attended to the picture with a “noncongruent with reality” motif early in the inspection process. Qualitative analysis of oral answers showed that retaining the gist of that specific picture led to more developed answers, even for the dyslexic group. Early attention to the picture thus gives readers a fair chance of starting with a holistic impression of the material to be processed.

This study investigated beliefs about climate change among Swedish secondary school students at the end of their K-12 education. An embedded mixed method approach was used to analyse 51 secondary school students’ written responses to two questions: (1) What implies climate change? (2) What affects climate? A quantitative analysis of the responses revealed that ‘Earth’, ‘human’ and ‘greenhouse effect’ were frequent topics regarding the first question, and ‘pollution’, ‘atmosphere’ and ‘Earth’ were frequent regarding the second. A qualitative analysis, based on a ‘conceptual elements’ framework, focused on three elements within responses: atmosphere (causes and/or consequences), Earth (causes and consequences) and living beings (humans and/or animals and their impacts on climate change). It revealed a predominantly general or societal, rather than individual, perspective underlying students’ responses to the second question. The ability to connect general/societal issues with individual issues relating to climate change could prompt students to reflect on the contributions of individuals towards climate change mitigation, thereby constituting a basis for decision-making to promote a sustainable environment. Although the students did not discuss climate changes from an individual perspective, their statements revealed their understanding of climate change as a system comprising various components affecting the overall situation. They also revealed an understanding of the difference between weather and climate.

This study analyses the effect of pictures in reading materials on the viewing patterns of dyslexic adults. By analysing viewing patterns using eye-tracking, we captured differences in eye movements between young adults with dyslexia and controls based on the influence of reading skill as a continuous variable of the total sample. Both types of participants were assigned randomly to view either text-only or a text + picture stimuli. The results show that the controls made an early global overview of the material and (when a picture was present) rapid transitions between text and picture. Having text illustrated with a picture decreased scores on questions about the learning material among participants with dyslexia. Controls spent 1.7% and dyslexic participants 1% of their time on the picture. Controls had 24% fewer total fixations; however, 29% more of the control group's fixations than the dyslexic group's fixations were on the picture. We also looked for effects of different types of pictures. Dyslexic subjects exhibited a comparable viewing pattern to controls when scenes were complex, but fewer fixations when scenes were neutral/simple. Individual scan paths are presented as examples of atypical viewing patterns for individuals with dyslexia as compared with controls. © 2016 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.