A major challenge for first-year students is the demands on academic writing. The purpose of the study is to identify students' difficulties with writing at the beginning of their education to contribute to the discussion about how students' writing development can be supported. The overall theoretical perspective is systemic functional linguistics (SFL). The data consists of texts from the first examination of a primary teacher program. The analysis includes partly a corpus analysis of 125 texts concerning sentence length, word length, the proportion of long words, word variation, and lexical profile, and partly a qualitative text analysis of a selection of eleven students' texts from the larger group concerning text cohesion, composition and use of references. The results indicate that the task design is of great importance for how advanced the students' texts are, based on the proportion of long words, word variation, and lexical profile. Furthermore, students struggle with paragraph division and creating clear relationships between and within paragraphs to create coherent texts. The results also show that the students need support to develop their ability to write from sources. Based on the results, the authors discuss how subject teachers in higher education can support students' writing development. 

Syftet med detta kapitel är att diskutera hur förväntningar på handledning och olika handledarkompetenser kan bidra till ett mer inkluderande arbetssätt. Det innebär att vi kommer belysa betydelsen av att klargöra förväntningar på handledning samt hur handledares kunskaper om lärandeteorier, kommunikation, etik, återkoppling och bedömning kan bidra till och stärka adeptens lärande och utveckling inom sitt ämnesområde. Kapitlet bygger bland annat på vår egen forskning (Davidsson & Stigmar, 2021; Davidsson & Stigmar, inskickad) som visar att det finns ett gemensamt innehåll och likartade undervisningsformer i handledarutbildningar för olika yrkesgrupper.

Avhopp från doktorandstudier är ett problem för universitet över hela världen och bör undvikas av flera skäl. Avhopp innebär personliga svårigheter och nederlag för doktoranden, handledare, examinator, institutionen, fakulteten och universitetet. Utöver oro och tidsförlust medför avhoppen kostnader och flera parter har därför intresse av ett framgångsrikt slutförande av doktorandstudierna. Tidigare forskning har pekat på att den främsta orsaken till avhopp är en dåligt fungerande relation mellan doktorand och handledare, och därför fokuserar vår studie speciellt på ickefungerande handledningsrelationer.  

Det är dock fortfarande oklart vad som orsakar ickefungerande handledningsrelationer, problem och konflikter. Doktorander hoppar ofta av sin utbildning utan att ge en förklaring (Sverdlik et al., 2018). För att summera problemet och kunskapsluckan så vet vi fortfarande inte vad som orsakar avhopp, dåliga relationer och konflikter mellan doktorander och handledare. Vi menar att handledare, behöver ökad förståelse för de bakomliggande orsakerna till avhopp och hur handledare kan bidra till en ömsesidig, pålitlig och robust handledningsrelation.

Syftet med studien är att klargöra orsaker till varför doktorander hoppar av sina forskarstudier. I syftet ingår att undersöka relationen mellan doktorand och handledare och ringa in vad som kan göras för att begränsa risken för avhopp. Syftet omfattar att lyfta fram vad som kännetecknar en solid och stödjande handledningsrelation enligt intervjupersonerna. I studien kartläggs både doktoranders och handledares perspektiv. Följande forskningsfrågor kommer att fokuseras:

RQ 1: vilka är orsakerna till att doktorander hoppar av?

RQ 2: vilka problem i doktorand- och handledarrelationen kan leda till avhopp?

RQ3: hur kan risken för avhopp begränsas?

RQ 4: vad kännetecknar en solid och stödjande handledningsrelation?

Data kommer att insamlas genom, en webbenkät till doktorander som hoppat av och handledare vid flera lärosäten. Uppföljande intervjuer på Zoom och/eller ansikte mot ansikte, med doktorander och handledare kommer också att genomföras.

Enkäterna kommer att vara webbaserade vari personuppgifter kommer att insamlas kring: kön, ålder, år för avhopp, antal terminer i doktorsutbildningen innan avhopp, antal handledare, ämne och avhandlingens inriktning. Avhoppare samt huvudhandledare (huvudhandledaren kommer i första hand kontaktas, om huvudhandledaren är omöjlig att få kontakt med, så kommer övriga handledare att kontaktas) kommer att erbjudas möjlighet att besvara enkätfrågor om: orsaker till avhopp från doktorsutbildningen; vilka specifika problem i förhållandet mellan doktorand och handledare som kan leda till avhopp; hur kan risken för avhopp begränsas samt vad som kännetecknar en solid och stödjande handledningsrelation?  

En innehållsanalys kommer att göras för att identifiera eventuella mönster och dra slutsatser i enkätsvaren från doktorander och huvudhandledare/handledare. Vilka generella orsaker till avhopp anges? Vilka problem i relationen mellan doktorander och handledare redovisas i enkätsvaren? Vilka åtgärder föreslår enkätrespondenterna för att begränsa risken för avhopp? Vad anges i enkätsvaren som kännetecken för en solid och stödjande handledningsrelation?

Det huvudsakliga bidraget med vår studie är att presentera fallbaserad kunskap kring allmänna orsaker till avhopp och specifikt om relationen mellan doktorand och handledare. Vidare kommer studien att redovisa en förståelse för vad som kännetecknar en gedigen handledningsrelation. Vår forskning kommer att ge såväl doktorander som handledare möjlighet att reflektera över hur de kan agera för att begränsa risken för avhopp och istället sikta på ett framgångsrikt fullföljande av doktorsutbildningen.

Referenser

Corcelles, M., Cano, M., Liesa, E., González-Ocampo, G., & Castelló, M. (2019). Positive and negative experiences related to doctoral study conditions. Higher Education Research & Development, 38(5), 922-939.

Högskoleverket (2012). Orsaker till att doktorander lämnar forskarutbildningen utan examen –  en uppföljning av nybörjarna på forskarnivå läsåren 1999/2000 och 2000/01. Rapport 2012:1 R.

Sverdlik, A., Hall, N. C., McAlpine, L., & Hubbard, K. (2018). The PhD experience: A review of  the factors influencing doctoral students’ completion, achievement, and well-being. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 13, 361-388. 

Research on students’ perceptions and understanding of technology has shown that students have a narrow view of technology: for example, technology is often manifested in students’ descriptions as artefacts or objects. This study investigates the ways in which students’ understanding of how technology is manifested expands during a series of classroom activities in technology. The study was conducted at a compulsory primary school with eight-year-old students. The data (video and audio recordings) were collected in small-group interactions and in whole-class discussions. In the interactions, the students utilised self-taken photographs to visualise their understanding and perception of technology’s manifestations: object, activity, volition, and knowledge (Mitcham in Thinking through technology. The path between engineering and philosophy, The University of Chicago Press, 1994). Based on their prior knowledge, the students perceived technology as contemporary electrical artefacts. As they engage in a technology project, they develop and expand their understanding of how technology is manifested, as well as relate different manifestations to one another. The findings indicate that students achieve a more advanced understanding of technological manifestations compared to only discussing each manifestation of technology separately. 

I detta kapitel diskuteras studenters studieframgång, avhopp och genom­strömning. Vidare är syftet att belysa studenters känsla av tillhörighet i relation till studieframgång och olika möjligheter att minska studentavhopp. Motivet är att en ökad förståelse för studenters känsla av tillhörighet i relation till studieframgång ger stöd åt utveckling av akademiska miljöer och utbildningsprogram som i sin tur stärker inkludering och breddat deltagande.

PurposePrevious research has pointed to a lack of studies concerning supervision training courses. Consequently, the literature has little to suggest, and the research field is underexplored, so questions around the content and design of supervision training courses remain unanswered and need to be addressed systematically. The main aim of the present study is to explore and map whether shared content and design exist in supervisor training courses across different vocations.

Design/methodology/approachA syllabus analysis is used in order to investigate characteristic features in supervisor training courses related to the professions of dentist, doctor, psychologist, police officer and teacher.

FindingsThe results point to the existence of shared content in the different courses, such as an emphasis on learning and supervision theories, feedback, ethics, assessment and communication. Furthermore, the results conclude similarities in design of the courses, such as a problem-based approach, seminars, lectures and homework. Thus, there are common theoretical approaches to important supervisory competences.

Practical implicationsOur results intend to offer possibilities to learn from different professions when improving supervisor training courses but may also constitute a starting point for developing a shared model of interprofessional supervisor competences. Furthermore, the results may support possible cooperation in interprofessional courses. This could include arranging interprofessional courses, where one part is shared for participants from the included professions and another part is profession-specific.

Originality/valueWe seek to contribute to the research field of supervision at workplaces with knowledge and ideas about how to learn from different professions when developing and improving supervisor training courses.

Previous research has shown an increased student interest and enhanced learning when the school sciencecontent is related to other familiar contexts. This is particularly evident in intervention studies, whichaim to integrate the school science content with students’ everyday life. In this article, we analyse howteachers, in authentic situations, relate science content presented in lesson introductions to other contextssuch as everyday life or other school subjects. The data consists of observations of lesson introductionsin grade nine, from six different schools, in all eight hours of video recordings. The results point tothat teachers adopt a variety of ways in order to integrate the science content to other contexts, such asrelating to students’ everyday life, to different language perspectives or to other school subjects and therebyinitiate hybrid contexts. However, the results indicate that the teachers in this study initiate hybridcontexts to a low extent and seemingly ad hoc, in the moment. It is likely to believe that if students are tobenefit from contextualization as a means for enhancing interest and learning, learning activities need torelate science content to other relevant contexts in a more comprehensive way.

Previous studies have pointed to the benefits of involving students’ everyday life experiences in lessons and in contextualizing the sciencecontent to enhance learning and positive attitudes toward school science. However, most of these investigations have been conductedas intervention studies. By contrast, the present study explored how teachers, in authentic situations and without interventions, relatedthe school science context to other contexts. We analyzed a total of 490 min of lesson introductions in Swedish Grade 9 classes. Theresults revealed that teachers employed contextualization at the intersection of science content and the everyday life context, the schoolcontext, and the language context. Furthermore, it appeared that contextualization was created in the moment, as a way of explicatingthe scientific content. Compared to intervention studies, the present study shows that occasions of contextualization are rare. It ispossible to conclude that the use of contextualization in science learning situations could be viewed as a teacher competence and mustbe explicit in teacher education and professional development to achieve the benefits of enhanced student interest and learning shownin the mentioned intervention studies.

Denna studie grundar sig på det återkommande arbetet med Early Alert vid Malmö universitet. Syftet med Early Alert är att skapa större förståelse för orsakerna bakom bristande studieresultat hos förstaårsstudenter och därefter ta fram förslag till insatser som kan utgöra stöd till studenterna att fortsätta sina studier och fullfölja sin utbildning. Undersökningen pågick mellan december 2018 och januari 2019 och urvalet fokuserade förstaårsstudenter utan rapporterade resultat tio veckor in i studierna vid samtliga fem fakulteter vid lärosätet. Totalt identifierades 548 studenter och 271 tackade ja till att delta i en intervju. Den sammantagna bilden av studien visar i likhet med tidigare Early Alert-undersökningar att det är en kombination av privata och utbildningsrelaterade orsaker som påverkar förstaårsstudenters studieresultat. En majoritet av respondenterna uppger att anledningarna till deras bristande studieresultat i hög grad är faktorer som kan relateras till en svag akademisk eller social integration. När det gäller akademisk integration kan vi se upplevda svårigheter med att använda tillgängliga systemstöd såsom exempelvis Canvas. Andra svar belyser studenters svårigheter med att se karriärvägar efter studierna. Vidare kan respondenternas svar relateras till svårigheter med akademiskt skrivande och studieteknik. Språkstöd och stöd för skrivande finns tillgängligt för studenter och kontakten förmedlades vid intervjun. En viktig fråga blir hur det blir tydligt för ännu fler studenter att det finns stödfunktioner tillgängliga för dem? När det gäller social integration kan det relaterad till begreppet känsla av tillhörighet som visat sig vara en viktig faktor för studie¬fram¬gång. Denna faktor kommer till uttryck på olika i både positiva och negativa upplevelser relaterat till psykosocial studiemiljö. Några uttrycker att stödet från kurskamrater och lärare har varit avgörande för att lyckas med sina studier. Resultaten är i linje med tidigare studier som visar att en upplevelse av stöd från kurskamrater, lärare och fakulteten ökar motivationen och minskar risken för avhopp.

Den här rapporten är resultatet av arbetet med studien Early Alert på Malmö universitet, under höstterminen 2018. Syftet med studien är dels att skapa större förståelse för orsakerna bakom bristande studieresultat hos förstaårsstudenter och dels att ta fram förslag till stödinsatser för studenterna, så att de kan fortsätta sina studier och fullfölja sin utbildning. Syftet är också att systematisera utvecklingsarbetet av ett uppföljningsverktyg, för att tidigt identifiera studenter med bristande resultat.

Undersökningen pågick mellan december 2018 och januari 2019. Fokus var förstaårs-studenter utan resultat tio veckor in i studierna vid lärosätets samtliga fem fakulteter: Kultur och samhälle (KS), Teknik och samhälle (TS), Hälsa och samhälle (HS), Lärande och samhälle (LS) och Odontologiska fakulteten (OD). Undersökningen är den tredje i sitt slag vid Malmö universitet och kan också sägas vara den fjärde, om vi inkluderar pilotprojektet som genomfördes med studenter på TS höstterminen 2016.

Resultatet visar att, trots de insatser som genomförts i anslutning till föregående års rapporter, till exempel i form av förstärkt mottagningsarbete för nya studenter, så finns det fortfarande stora behov av tidiga förebyggande stödåtgärder. I likhet med tidigare rapporter så rekommenderar vi fortsatt kartläggning och behovsanalys av riskfaktorer, parallellt med att ökad kunskap om vad som fungerar bra och vad som kan ha betydelse för ökad genom-strömning tydligt lyfts fram.

Dessutom innehåller denna rapport ett utvidgat avsnitt när det gäller forskning med fokus på breddat deltagande, studieframgång och riskfaktorer för avhopp. Dessa aspekter är centrala i universitetets kvalitetsarbete.

Is there a shared content and structure in multiprofessional supervision training?The aim of this syllabus analysis is to gain a deeper understanding of the content and structure of supervision, from a supervisor perspective, and if a shared core and structure among different professions exists in practical supervision training. Our study centers the following question: Does a common content and structure/teaching methods among different professions exist in supervision training courses? If so, what are the characteristic features of this content and structure in supervision training courses? In focus is practical supervision training, ie organized supervision, offered to qualified professionals, such as medical doctors supervising doctors and dentists receiving specialized clinical training, police officers tutoring and assessing police cadets and teacher educators preparing working teachers to become internship supervisors sometimes called cooperating teachers. Method: our empirical study is built on 15 local syllabuses which were reviewed. According to Bowen (2009), a content analysis is a process of organising information into categories related to central research questions. This process involves identifying and recognizing pertinent information. The analysis involves four stages; decontextualisation, recontextualisation, categorization and compilation. Conclusions: based on the preliminary results of our study, the content of the five professions’ supervision training, revealed several similarities. Thus, all training programs, in different forms, include: supervision theories and practical training; learning and teaching theories; communication and feedback training; ethics and methods for assessment. As for the structure of the supervision training courses, i.e. how they are organized and what teaching methods are used: lectures; different forms of seminars, practical training and discussions are frequent. Some courses are problem-based, include homework or role play. To sum up, the content and structure of the syllabuses included in our study manifest a common pattern.

I detta kapitel fokuserar vi hur universitetens samverkan med det omgivande samhället kan bidra med ny forskning och samtidigt verka för spridning av nya forskningsresultat. I forskarskolan Communicate science in school (CSiS) deltar tio lärare i en forskarutbildning där deltagarna efter avslutad utbildning erhåller en licentiatexamen i naturvetenskapernas didaktik. Ett viktigt syfte med forskarskolan är att fortlöpande samla förvaltningschefer, rektorer och forskarstuderande för att diskutera och förstärka skolutveckling i förskolan, grundskolan och gymnasieskolan på vetenskaplig grund. Det innebär att initiera samtal om hur de berörda lärarnas kunskaper ska komma kommunernas skolutveckling till godo efter avlagd examen. Gemensamt för samtliga forskarstuderande har varit att problematisera skolämnenas innehåll i relation till modern forskning i naturvetenskap och teknik men också att ta del av internationell utbildningsvetenskaplig forskning i relation till undervisningsformer och organisering av själva undervisningen.

Upplevelser och händelser som sker i elevernas vardag kan ibland problematiseras utifrån en naturvetenskaplig kontext. I denna studie har vi analyserat vi hur lärare,som undervisar elever i årskurs nio, använder sig av elevernas vardagserfarenheter då de undervisar, analysen bygger påKamberelis och Wehunt (2012) definition av hybrid diskurs-praxis. Analysen fokuseraspå den första inledande delen av lektionen, då läraren oftast är den främsta aktören i undervisningen. Denövergripande anledningentill att göra dessa analyser är indikationerna i PISA som visar att de svenska eleverna upplever den naturvetenskapliga undervisningen relevant men ointressant. I detta sammanhang blir det därför relevant att undersöka hur lärare talat om naturvetenskap i relation till elevernas vardagserfarenheter. Studien gjordes vid 6 olika skolor där totalt 44 lektioner spelades, dessa lektioners inledningar analyserades. 67 situationer detekterades och kategoriserades i tre övergripande grupper; Vardaglig kontext, Skolkontext och Språklig kontext. Vardagligkontext delades sedan i underkategorier ett exempel är: underkategorin, förklarande berättelser (12 situationer), har vi samlat de situationer där läraren, till synes spontant, hittar på berättelser för att kontextualisera naturvetenskapen. Noterbart är att inga längre berättelser förekom utan samtliga historier var korta kontextualiserande berättelser. Skolkontext hade inga underkategorier utan samtliga situationer referenser till andra skolämnen innebär att läraren relaterar till andra skolämnen genom att beskriva ämnesinnehållet som en del av en större enhet och skapar därmed en hybriditet mellan de olika skolämnena. Vid sex tillfällen gjordes sådana kopplingar till andra ämnen. Språkligkontext har tre underkategorier var av en är, Sammankopplar naturvetenskapliga ord med vardagsord, i denna underkategoriåterfinns främst på en av skolorna och då i ämnet kemi, när eleverna arbetade med ämnesområdet organiska syror. Genom att namnge de organiska syrorna med både vetenskapliga och vardagligt språk ger läraren eleverna möjligheter att se sambandet mellan det kemins ordval, askorbinsyra, och det ordval som görs i vardagen, C-vitamin.

Several researchers have characterized the use of language in science instruction as a 3-language problem, as the students move between home-, school-, and scientific languages and expressions. In this way it is possible to describe a science classroom as an arena for several discursive or hybrid languages where different expressions are negotiated and discussed. The 3-language problem has highlighted the importance of making hybrid spaces explicit for students by comparing and merging their everyday worlds and colloquial language with the languages of science. An important question is what language and discursive awareness science teachers express about how science communication in different contexts may constitute a hindrance or support for students’ engagement in science? We explore in what ways 10 science teachers reflect upon different communicative and language perspectives in science education in Sweden. The participating teachers work half time as teachers in primary and secondary school and attend a part time graduate school in education at the university. Interviews focused on experienced possibilities and difficulties when discussing science and technology with their students. Preliminary results suggest a general lack of or an implicit discursive awareness among teachers about science instruction as a language activity. However, several teachers exemplified new ways of outlining and forming contemporary scientific and technological knowledge for students.

Previous research studies have pointed to the benefits of involving students’ everyday life experiences for enhanced learning and positive attitudes towards school science. This study explores in what ways teachers relate other contexts to the school science context as a means to facilitate the negotiation of the presented scientific content. This means that we explore how teachers introduce other societal contexts (e.g. references to media or a narrative) and by that create hybrid contexts when introducing their science lessons. In all, 490 minutes of lesson introduction in Swedish grade nine classes were analyzed. The results reveal that the number of situations where the teachers created hybrid contexts was low, only 67 situations. However, if categorizing the situations these could be referred into five main categories, media, narratives, everyday-life experiences, linguistic references and other school subjects. The most common way to use hybrid contexts was to refer to every-day life. Only two references to actual topics in media were found indicating that the lesson introductions are far from considering the relation between science, news reporting and current novelties. However, the most striking results from this study are the absence of other contexts and hybrid contexts when introducing the science content.

A large challenge in most western schools is to enhance and stimulate students’ engagement and motivation to learn science. The lack of interest is evident in several large-scale studies where students express negative attitudes towards learning science. However, Hässler and Hoffman (2000) show that the issue of interest is more complex, as the students in their study expressed negative attitudes towards school science but appeared positive towards science in a popular and practical context. Furthermore, Cerinin et al  (2003) concluded an increased interest for science education among students when teaching also includes societal references and connections to students’ everyday lives. This means that teachers need to take into consideration also other contexts than the school science context and by that create hybrid contexts as a resource for science learning. The question is to what extent and in what ways science teachers in lower secondary school manage to involve other contexts when introducing science lessons. In this study we are therefore interested in exploring in what ways teachers employ and relate other contexts to the school science context in order to facilitate the negotiation of the science content. This means that we explore how teachers introduce other societal contexts such as for example references to media or a narrative when introducing their science lessons and by that create hybrid contexts. The notion of hybrid contexts is inspired by Kambrelis and Wehunt (2012) who describe hybrid discourses as teachers’ use of words and expressions that may belong to different discourses depending on the framing. This study instead aims to identify situations where teachers use not only words and expressions outside the science discourse but also introduce other contexts than school science and by that create hybrid contexts. © 2016 by Research Centre on Child Studies (CIEC)

Many studies within educational research seek to investigate students’ dialogues for studying learning situations. One difficulty is however to approach students’ discussions in action. In this paper we discuss the possibilities of using spy glasses in order to capture both students’ talk and their actions in the science classroom. This methodological approach makes it possible to come close to all students’ actions when working in small groups or doing laboratory work. This means that the spy glasses register their discussions with each other but also what they are doing with the laboratory equipment, what they write or what they focus on in a written text. This methodological approach provides a very rich data material and many hours of recordings for one single lesson. In order to approach the comprehensive data material we suggest clear analytic foci and iterated analytic phases. The preliminary results show that spy glasses can be an important analytic tool for capturing student dialogues and studying learning situations in the classroom.

This paper is based on an interest in increasing the understanding of trends regarding Swedish students ́ knowledge in science by exploring the relation between results of large-scale studies (PISA and TIMSS) and how science teaching and learning are constituted in different school environments. Previous large scale studies point to an explicit downward trend in Swedish students ́ performances in science over the last decade. Our analyses indicate that a reinforced knowledge segregation of Swedish schools and declining results among low- and mid-ranged performers explains a main part of the trend. In this paper we analyze how this trend could be related to and visible in different activities in a science classroom perspective in Sweden today. This means to analyze the use of language and science classroom discourse, in theoretical and practical parts of the classroom activities. In addition, it involves exploring different school areas which have either a large proportions of high achievers or low performers or areas that experienced a substantial improvement or decline during this period. The purpose is to analyze the empirical material which comprises examples of teaching and learning sequences, in a selection of these different schools areas. Our expectations are to increase the understanding of how national trends from large-scale studies are constituted and become explicit, distinguish success and decline factors and identify suggestions of practical action programs for science teaching.

This paper highlights howresults fromlarge-scale studies can be used to understand students’ knowledge of science. Several scholars express critique of today’s PISA framework, especially with regard to the presentation of the results as national rankings, and suggest alternative and complementary methods.The present study has used PISA data to reveal hidden patterns in the results. The results show a general descending trend in items focusing on the nature of science and how new scientific knowledge is generated. On the other hand, there is an obvious upward trend regarding tasks that measure fact-based elementary or root knowledge.These trends are slightly differentiated at a national level, as the time and magnitude of the decline or increase may vary.

Sweden experiences an evident downward trend regarding Swedish students’ performances on large-scale science tests during the last 15 years. This article aims to analyze this trend using percentiles, analyze the trend of in-between school variance but also to compare the Swedish results to other Nordic countries as well as to some countries that have experienced a significant upward or downward trend during this period. The analyses reveal that the downward trend could be ascribed to the descending results of low- and mid-performers. Furthermore it shows an increasing in-between school variance in Sweden as well as in other countries experiencing downward performances. It is possible to conclude that weaker results from low-performers are closely related to an increased in-between school variance and thereby decreased equity.

In the field of research and development related to science and technology centres (STCs) and museums, there has, for a long time, been a pronounced interest in increasing the understanding of what experiences visitors gain, how they consider exhibitions and what they have learnt during visits. Research studies within the field have therefore often focused on visitors’ learning outcomes and the number of studies adopting pre- and post-methodologies is quite extensive1.This approach and research focus can also be understood from a desire to create and enhance the institutions’ legitimacy and their capacity to finance further activities.

A possible approach in order to explore and increase the understanding of the role of interactions at Science and Technology Centres (STCs) and museums is to focus on and discuss what implications these interactions may have in relation to learning and human development. One explicit aim with such a focus is to take the rich flora of sociocultural or cultural-historical frameworks as a point of departure in order to begin to develop a theoretical model, which aims to describe and explain the significance of interactions in these contexts.

Within the enterprise of science and technology centres there exists explicit aims and ambitions to enhance visitors’ interest in and knowledge about science. Meanwhile, several researchers question the choice of the scientific content in exhibitions when arguing that a too unproblematic view of science commonly is presented. But how do staff members consider what scientific content to include and how this content can be organised in exhibitions? The results from interviews of staff members, responsible for planning and creating new exhibitions, suggest that they consider the scientific content of their exhibitions to a high extent in terms of organizational matters. This means that the staff members tend to not consider discussions about what aspects of science to include or exclude. Further on, the results imply that the relation between science and society risk being implicit to the visitors, whereas the aspect of scientific processes tend to be overlooked when constructing new exhibitions. The staff members express an anxiety in displaying scientific uncertainties or different models of explanations when arguing that this risks confusing the visitors. However, these aspects of science are, in the field of science education, considered crucial in order to create curiosity and interest in science. Does this mean that science and technology centres, through their eagerness to enhance young visitors’ scientific literacy, risk contributing to their detachment from or unconcern for scientific issues? 

This study investigates staff members’ ideas and assumptions about visitors’ learning at science and technology centres. It also aims to explore in what ways their reasoning intersect with existing theories about learning within the field of science and technology centre research. The results of the study reveal that the staff members allude to learning processes differently by distinguishing organized from non-organized learning, theoretical learning from practical hands-on learning, and serious from non-serious learning. According to most of the staff members, these also conclude with different learning outcomes. Further, a majority of the staff members state that they do not have any scientific knowledge about learning despite the fact that they work with the construction of new exhibitions. When discussing visitors’ learning, the staff members instead refer to personal experiences, professional experiences, professional education, and external references. When it comes to how they reason about the natural scientific content, nearly all express that they use references from the natural science community and researchers’ knowledge. The article moreover discusses in what ways a socio-cultural approach may be used in order to understand how learning arises when visitors interact with exhibits.

Within the science and technology centre (STC) movement there exists explicit aims and ambitions to enhance visitors’ interest in and knowledge about science. Meanwhile, several researches question the choice of the scientific content in exhibitions when arguing that a too unproblematic view of science commonly is presented. But what images and aspects of science are visitors actually confronted with at STCs? How do staff members at STCs consider the scientific content and how do they choose what aspects of science to display in exhibitions? What ideas about visitors’ learning do staff members express and what consequences follow these when planning and constructing new exhibitions? And in what ways do sponsors affect the content and the design of exhibitions? The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what assumptions and factors affect the final content and design of exhibitions. This question is elucidated and explored from different perspectives, presented in four articles as well as in the different sections in this thesis. In a first phase, staff members at Nordic STCs were asked to consider to what extent they believe they display different aspects of science. The results suggest that the most common image was "the usefulness of science" which tends to display science in an unproblematic and single-dimensioned way. In order to explore what underlying assumptions and factors which affect how science is constituted, a second phase involved interviewing17 staff members who worked with planning and constructing new exhibitions. Furthermore, a third phase of the data collection comprised participant observation and a focus group interview. The results indicated that staff members’ ideas about the nature of science do not seem to have a decisive effect on what scientific aspects they choose to display in exhibitions. When it comes to staff members’ ideas about visitors’ learning, this seems to influence their choices of scientific aspects. The results imply that staff members tend to use only an experience-based approach to learning and do not consider what is known from the field of learning and informal settings and science education. Furthermore, the results suggest that sponsors may affect the final content and design of exhibitions both directly and indirectly. This means that sponsors may have explicit demands concerning the content, but also that staff members consider what they believe are views of the sponsors when planning and constructing new exhibitions.

Science centres aim to present science in ways that will attract visitors and enhance public interest in, and knowledge of, science. But what images and different aspects of science are visitors confronted with at Nordic science centres? This study aims to explore the different aspects of science that are displayed and the ways in which these aspects constitute different images of science. In this study, staff members who work with the planning and creation of new exhibitions were asked to answer a web-based questionnaire, identifying the extent to which different aspects of science were displayed in their latest exhibition. They were also asked to voice their opinions on what, and to what extent, they would like to display different aspects in future exhibitions. This study shows that exhibitions today, in particular, choose to display the wonders of science, presenting science in a product-oriented and unproblematic way. The study also reveals a great discrepancy between what staff members display at their latest exhibitions and what they want to display in future exhibitions. They express a will to emphasise aspects of science on the basis of a societal and cultural perspective. This means that controversial issues, values in society, non-western science, and scientific processes constitute important components for future exhibitions.

Climate and energy issues are part of our everyday life. Children's understanding of energy concepts and energy transformations is often insufficient. In Malmö, Sweden, a small science center, Klimat-X, tries to capture the students' fascination and interest and give them the opportunity of building their knowledge of scientific concepts concerned with energy and climate. Examples of experiments are described and the educational problems they are designed to address will be discussed. A pilot study on the influence of the experiments on students' understanding has been carried out. The students get a deeper understanding of energy chains, they see possibilities and not only problems in energy economizing and they find the experiments funny, interesting and instructive. It seems that Klimat-X could be a starting point for reflecting upon scientific issues that have an impact on decisions made in everyday life.