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. 

Sex education can be described as an important part of health education in school and one way of strengthening health education could be a collaboration between different professionals in the school team. The aim of this study was to describe teachers' and school nurses' experiences and perspectives with regard to sex education among students aged 11-12 years and to explore potential influencing factors. We employed a qualitative design, and the teachers and school nurses were interviewed individually. A thematic analysis was conducted on the interviews and the results showed that the classroom was considered to be the teacher's arena. Tradition and attitudes between professionals could be obstacles that affect collaboration between teachers and nurses and the study showed that there remains much to be done before collaboration at the same level between the groups can be established.

Previous research shows a discrepancy between different teachers' assessment of student theses. This might be an even larger problem in the context of teacher education, since teacher trainers originate from different disciplines. This study aims to investigate how different assessors prioritise between criteria for assessment. Criteria were elucidated using repertory grid interviews with teacher trainers. These criteria formed the basis for a web-based Qsort that was distributed to teacher trainers at three different universities. The 66 teacher trainers in this study represented different disciplines, but were all engaged in the supervision and examination of student theses from teacher education programmes. The analysis revealed three different factors, which have been labelled: logic text structure as product, research process as product and results as product. The differences may not be explained by the background (e.g. discipline, university or gender) of the teacher trainers. Together, these three factors explain why teachers assessing student theses may accentuate different personal criteria. Hence, this might impact on their grading practice and also the interrater reliability.

Research focusing on students' argumentation in socioscientific issues (SSI) shows that students tend to base their arguments on values rather than knowledge. This study explores Swedish upper secondary chemistry students' written argumentation. The data consists of student texts written at the end of an intervention designed to develop skills related to high quality argumentation. The results show that after being taught about argumentation and the context of SSI, students mainly base their arguments on content knowledge. Value justifications are present in students' texts, but constitute a smaller proportion. Beside content knowledge- and value justifications, we found a third category - "reasoning" - in which students draw conclusions, or make predictions of future events, to support or refute a claim. The justifications in the argumentative texts include a breadth of subject areas in which chemistry knowledge plays an important role. This study suggests that content knowledge constitutes an important part in student argumentation. © 2021 University of Oslo, Norwegian Centre for Science Education. All rights reserved.

This paper aims to discuss complexity as a key feature for understanding the role of science knowledge in environmental and health contexts – a core issue in Science|Environment|Health pedagogy. Complex systems are, in principle, not predictable. In different contexts, ephemeral mechanisms produce different, sometimes completely unexpected results. The “art of decision making” in complex contexts is to take scientific knowledge into account, but to interpret its meaning in terms of concrete complex contexts. This is illustrated by four empirical studies on Science|Environment|Health issues, presented midway through this paper. The findings underscore the importance of introducing complexity issues into science education. Not only are all the grand health and environmental challenges of our times highly complex, but there is also evidence that introducing complexity into science education may motivate many students for science learning and change practice in science classrooms. Truly appreciating the role of complexity in Science|Environment|Health pedagogy is likely to raise future citizens who understand the delicate relation between predictability and uncertainty and to empower them for wise decisions about societal and personal well-being.

This proposal reports from a pilot study where primary teachers and school nurses were interviewed concerning their collaboration in sex education. These primary teachers and school nurses do not traditionally collaborate around sex education in Swedish schools. Albeit different projects where collaboration between them has been encouraged, earlier research demonstrates problems between the two groups of professionals to act jointly. The new Swedish school law from 2011 prompts such collaboration and asks for school health teams increased participation in sex education in compulsory school. In this pilot study, five primary teachers and five school nurses were interviewed about their collaboration. The purpose of the pilot study was to describe and analyse the teachers and school nurses’ experiences and perspectives of their collaboration concerning sex education among pupils aged 10-12 years. The interviews were analysed with thematic analysis. One overall theme emerged; The classroom is the teacher’s arena, and three sub themes; A collaboration needs two parts; Attitudes is a barrier and Organisation as a facilitator, were found. The results indicate a prevailing distance between the two groups. The nurses claim that the classroom is the teacher’s arena, an arena which is difficult for nurses to enter. The collaboration is usually initiated by teachers not nurses. The teachers assert that the school nurses are professional resources in school and experts on different health issues, such as menstruation. While the school nurses regard the head master as important for how sex education is facilitated and implemented in school, the teachers claim to manage sex education without the head master’s influence. The results indicate that the new school law where school health team is involved in the science education has not been implemented at the schools in the present study.

I denna text diskuteras individuella hälsoval. Utgångspunkten är de två begreppen hälsa och ”hälsolitteracitet” (health literacy). Båda berör kunskaper, värderingar, förhållningssätt och handlingsberedskap kopplat till hälsofrågor. Syftet med texten är dels att presentera en vidgad syn på hälsobegreppet, dels att beskriva vad som menas med hälsolitteracitet. Olika perspektiv på hälsa diskuteras. Vilken utgångspunkt som väljs i olika sammanhang kommer att ha betydelse för behandlingar och olika hälsoval. Detta är något som påverkar skolans undervisning, som bland annat bör syfta till att utveckla elevernas ”kritiska hälsolitteracitet”. Liksom andra litteraciteter syftar begreppet till att beskriva en bred kunskap som inte bara innehåller fakta om hälsa utan även ger en handlingsberedskap för olika situationer i vardagslivet. Dessa situationer är ofta komplexa med motstridig information, där egen kunskap och erfarenhet ställs mot annan tillgänglig information eller rådgivning.

This article critically examines the basis for Swedish prevention strategies and policy documents concerning sexual risk‐taking, investigating in particular how risk‐taking is represented with respect to the group of middle‐aged, heterosexual individuals. These prevention strategies and policy documents seem to be built on an assumption that sexual relationships are limited to people having sex with individuals with the same sexual orientation, age, behaviour or drug use, an assumption that can be questioned. We have made a scoping review of existing research and examined Swedish national prevention strategies, analysing policy documents on sexual risk‐taking. The results demonstrate a lack of both research and interventions targeted at middle‐aged heterosexuals. We argue that research and interventions directed to heterosexuals have strong connections to fertility. Drawing on Loseke's theorization, the explanation might be that middle‐age sexual behaviour loses the “social problem game”. The blind spots observed in research and policy can also be explained by an agreement in normativity between the different claims‐makers, such as interest groups, policymakers and politicians.

In 2018, Malmö University is celebrating its 20th anniversary with lectures, conferences, popular science talks, debates and exhibitions. In this exhibition, the library presents research from Malmö University’s five faculties. Research is a complex process, which questions, investigates and develops new aspects of the world. In this way, research fields are constantly moving forward. Results are disseminated in many ways, for example through scholarly publication, collaboration, researcher networks or exhibitions. When research findings reach a wider audience, they are presented in a simplified form and often out of context. This means that research findings presented in the media are often misinterpreted. Individual findings are part of a greater whole and are therefore not well suited for news headlines. This exhibition highlights the importance of reviewing information critically and encourages the visitor to think about whether you relate to news with your reason or with your emotions. Malmö University partakes in the VA (Public & Science) campaign #hurvetdudet (Eng.: How do you know that?). The aim of the campaign is to increase the knowledge of politicians and the public about what science is, how it is done, how different research findings can be evaluated and why research-based knowledge is needed as a basis for decisions about the development of society.

Since 2010, vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) has been offered free of charge for all girls in Sweden. The school nurse administer the vaccination when the girls are 10-12 years old. The transmission of HPV is primarily connected to an active sex life, something that normally not has started in this age. Therefore, it is interesting to investigate if, and how the introduction of HPV-vaccination has influenced sex education in school. We have in a pilot study individually interviewed 5 primary teachers and 5 school nurses concerning infor-mation about the vaccination, sex education and their cooperation. The results demonstrate how the teach-ers see themselves mainly as distributor and collector of information and agreement documents about the vaccination. The vaccination information has not been integrated into sex education. Some of the teachers act as support when the pupils have questions connected to the vaccination. The school nurses described that they perform information about puberty, sexual life and HPV vaccination in groups of girls only, but also in the whole class. They experienced that there were limited cooperation between the teachers and themselves although they expressed that they wanted to collaborate. Most nurs-es felt that they were waiting for “an invitation” from the teachers to visit the classroom. One interviewee described how the principal of the school did not allow the school nurse and the teacher to share groups since the head master did not want to risk that the parents would not approve related to religion. The nurs-es did not have full insight concerning the teachers’ lectures but they had a feeling that the teachers fo-cused on biology and the nurses handled practical things like menstruation and also discussed psychologi-cal issues with the pupils. During the presentation we will present the results, but also some possible explanations to and implications of our results.

An overarching goal in science education is to educate towards science literacy. The ability of students to examine different information critically from diverse sources has been greatly emphasized by policy makers, educators, as well as researchers and is part of media literacy. This paper investigates the diversity of information in newspapers concerning HPV vaccination. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the six largest daily newspapers in Sweden from a period of 24 months, with focus on articles about the vaccination against HPV. This vaccination is offered all Swedish girls to prevent cervix cancer caused by the virus. The content analysis of 40 articles resulted in seven categories: facts, scientific knowledge, medical knowledge, risks, worry and alarm, economy and individual versus society. The two most common categories were medical knowledge and worry and alarm. The great diversity of the articles, focusing on many different perspectives, shows that they are a good resource to be used in science education to promote scientific and media literacy.

This study was made in connection to Teacher Development Programmes (TPD:s) within the EU-financed project PARRISE. The overarching context of PARRISE is Socio-Scientific Inquiry Based Learning (SSIBL) (Levinson, 2016), which addresses contemporary problems of Science-Technology-Society-Environment-Health (STSEH) issues. It is important to recognize that there are many diverse actors, stakeholders and perspectives, and consequently many different orientations of STSEH education. SSIBL is based on three approaches often independently pursued in schools: Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE), Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) and Citizenship Education (CE), and the overall umbrella is Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) (Levinson, 2016). The chosen theme of these TPD:s with pre-service upper-secondary general science teachers was nanotechnology, the engineering of systems at the molecular or nanoscale level. While nanotechnology offers new products which can benefit many, there are also many possible risks both to health and the environment. Therefore it is an example of a complex SSI, characterized by risk, uncertainty, ignorance and indeterminacy, but also possibilities (Fensham, 2012). There are many complex relations both between human and non-human entities. We are interested in the teacher identity of pre-service science teachers after the TPD and their thoughts about implications for their teaching practice. We study how they talk about nanotech education and will analyze the interview material using a theoretical framework based on reflexive Bildung and Vision III of science education (Sjöström & Eilks, 2017; Sjöström, in press). These ideas can be used as an educational-philosophical framework of SSIBL.

The European Commission has for the past 10 years emphasised the importance of “Responsible research and innovation” (RRI). RRI is an approach that anticipates and assesses potential implications and societal expectations with regard to research and innovation, with the aim to foster the design of inclusive and sustainable research and innovation. Despite efforts to support RRI projects, however, little attention has been given to RRI in science education and science education research over this period. This article problematises the concept RRI and its relation to some of the key concepts in science education, comparing and discussing it in relation to scientific literacy, nature of science and socio-scientific issues. The meeting between scientists and students is emphasised as a key issue to address, if RRI is to be regarded as an important part of science education.

This study started in connection to two similar parallel on-going Teacher Development Programs (TPDs) in Sweden, within the PARRISE-project (2014-2017). It is a project funded by EU, where 18 universities from eleven countries cooperate to explore and develop ways to address political and ethical questions in science education, with starting point from Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), embracing the SSIBL framework (cf. Levinson 2016). Preliminary results shows how teachers from the TPDs formulated mutual and competing aims concerning the role of science education regarding how to address the knowledge base of science in relation to new relatively uncertain areas. This is done in relation to innovation processes and their products as for example nanotechnology. Critical thinking and awareness of ignorance were formulated as important tools for a scientific literacy discourse of a more humbled view of knowledge production, connected to science research and innovation, and identifying conflicting interest from different actors.

The writing of student theses is an important activity at universities and is expected to demonstrate the students’ academic skills. In the teacher-education programme, examiners from different academic disciplines are involved in supervising and examining student theses. Moreover, different subject disciplines have different traditions concerning what is seen as knowledge and the way research is performed, which could result in different assessment practices and judgements. Earlier studies demonstrate a fragmented picture concerning the importance of the examiners’ academic discipline in judging theses. The purpose of this article is to investigate whether examiners from different academic subject disciplines emphasise similar or different criteria when assessing student theses. A total of 66 examiners from six universities with teacher education programmes in Sweden have answered an online Q-survey where they compared different criteria and rank-ordered them. The results demonstrate minor differences between individuals from different academic disciplines: Only two out of the 45 criteria had significant differences between academic discipline groups. Thus, the results indicate that teacher education is a boundary-crossing, multi-disciplinary field which primarily uses generic criteria.

Different kinds of vaccinations are lively discussed in media. This is not a new situation, but has been intensified with break-outs of pandemics or unexpected side effects of a vaccination, such as the swine flu vaccination. The starting point in this project is the vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus can cause cervical cancer and the vaccination is nowadays a part of the vaccination programme in Sweden and is offered all Swedish girls. During the last year some side effects of the HPV-vaccination have been reported. The decision about the vaccination can in science education be regarded as a socio-scientific issue (SSI). A socio-scientific issue can be described ‘‘to be one which has basis in science and has a potentially large impact on society’’. These SSI’s are often reported in media. The capacity to follow and evaluate discussions about science in media is often emphasized and reported as a deficit in the scientific literacy among students. This study focus media reports in the risk society, since side effects are risks both for the society and the individual. The purpose with this study is to investigate how media reports about the vaccination against HPV. This is the first step in a larger study where the purpose is to investigate how young people deal with the vaccination discourse. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the six largest daily newspapers in Sweden. The content analysis resulted in eight categories. The categories were facts, scientific knowledge, medical knowledge, risks, worry and alarm, emotional arguments, economy, individual versus society. Even if medical or scientific knowledge are common the media reports demonstrate a wider repertoire of arguments. For instance is emotional arguments a part of how media presents a problem. In this way the use of media reports can broaden the arguments when discussing the subject. In addition, the worries and alarms are interesting from an educational perspective, since these can be critically analysed and discussed in science education. In our presentation we will describe the categories more thoroughly to illustrate the different categories. We will also compare the categories to those texts students meet in their biology textbooks.

During the last years the so called 21st century skills have been emphasized in both policy documents and science education research. The development of these skills among citizens in Europe has been supported by the European Union through different education and research programmes (EU, 2015). This paper analyzes if four aspects (citizenship education (CE), inquiry-based science education (IBSE), responsible research and innovation (RRI) and socio-scientific issues (SSI)) from a theoretical framework in one of those EU-funded projects (PARRISE) are integrated in the Swedish biology curriculum in lower secondary school (The national agency for education, 2011). The research question was: To what extent are CE, IBSE, RRI and SSI integrated in the national biology education curriculum in Sweden? The curriculum in biology for lower secondary school in Sweden has been analyzed. In focus for the content analysis of the curriculum has been the four major aspects; CE, IBSE, RRI SSI. Aims, core content and knowledge requirements have been studied. The four aspects from the project framework are to large extent expressed in the Swedish biology curriculum. The aspects IBSE and SSI dominate the curriculum. However, the RRI aspects are not explicitly expressed. The Swedish biology curriculum is well-adapted to the thoughts that are expressed in the 21st century skills and articulated in the project as four aspects.

Background As one important examination among others, students in higher education are supposed to write different kind of texts that are academically correct. It is common that the student in the end of their under-graduate education write some kind of thesis. This thesis should in the Swedish education system fulfill two different goals. By this means that the student thesis should be used for both demonstrating knowledge of different subjects as science or pedagogy and as qualification for future studies, for instance Ph D-studies. However, what is regarded as academically correct and of good quality may differ between both different subject traditions and between different examiners. Some studies (e.g. Härnqvist, 1999) have demonstrated large differences in examiners opinion on what is good quality in theses. On the other hand, Bettany-Saltikov et al. (2009) found very good inter-rater reliability between examiners from different disciplines in a small-scale investigation, when using generic assessment criteria on master thesis. The mentioned double aim with the theses might reinforce or at least generate different emphasis on criteria among examiners depending on experience, subject tradition and different focus on purpose. This paper discusses which criteria examiners at teacher education programmes use when they examine students’ theses. Method A web-based questionnaire has been sent out to 120 examiners from three different universities in Sweden. The main part of the survey contains 45 criteria that examiners in earlier interviews have stated as important in student theses (e.g. relevant research questions, deep in analysis, red thread) and a Q-methodology was used (Shemmings, 2006). In the Q-methodology the informants were first asked to sort out the criteria in three piles; less important, important, and most important. Thereafter the informants once again sorted out the same criteria in different piles, in the end they have ranked the criteria from 1-9 where 9 is most important. This ranking formed a Q-grid. The informants were also asked some background questions about their experience as examiners, major subject and what kind of pre-service teacher education they mainly work at. Analysis/ Results Focus in the first analysis was similarities and differences between novices and experienced examiners. Earlier research (Kiley & Mullins, 2004) indicates that less experienced examiners pay more attention to institutional criteria. In the same study, experienced examiners tended to take a more holistic approach on examination. Results will be presented at the conference.

I den senaste utredningen kring lärarutbildningen - En hållbar lärarutbildning, (SOU 2008:109) betonades vikten av att lärarutbildningarna utbildar kring vetenskapliga och kritiska förhållningssätt. För att möta detta krav har i lärarutbildningen införts självständiga arbeten motsvarande 30 hp. Dessa självständiga arbeten nämns också av HSV som en faktor när kvaliteten på en utbildning ska granskas. Med mitt mått mätt är ett forskningsprojekt som undersöker hur examinatorer bedömer självständiga arbeten. I fokus ligger vilka kriterier som används vid bedömningen. Examinatorernas bakgrund i form av till exempel ämnesbakgrund och erfarenhet skulle kunna medföra att de uttrycker olikheter i hur en bra uppsats ser ut. Forskningsfrågor: 1. Vilka individuella kriterier använder examinatorer vid bedömning av självständiga arbeten? 2. Hur skiljer sig dessa kriterier inom olika ämneskulturer? 3. Hur skiljer sig dessa kriterier mellan noviser och experter? Sexton lärare på tre olika lärosäten intervjuades enskilt med hjälp av en kombination av e-scape-metod (Kimbell et al., 2009) och repgrid-teknik (Kelly, 1955). Dessutom genomfördes Q-metodenkäter (Stephenson, 1953) som besvarades av 67 examinatorer på 7 lärosäten (svarsfrekvens ca 40 %). Majoriteten av informanterna i enkäten kom från samma tre lärosäten som där intervjuerna gjordes. Kriterierna som framkom vid intervjuerna och som sedan användes i intervjuerna kategoriserades enligt kategorier som tidigare använts av HSV vid granskningar av examensarbeten. Resultatet visar att det är traditionella kriterier som koppling mellan syfte, teori och metod, underbyggda slutsatser, bearbetning och analys av empirin och undersökningsbart syfte som rankas högst. Kriterier som spännande, originalitet och svårighetsgrad rankas lägst. Kriteriet yrkesrelevans ansågs inte speciellt viktigt vilket väcker intresse med tanke på hur vikten av yrkesrelevans ofta betonas i olika texter kopplade till lärarutbildning. Den preliminära analysen tyder på att det inte är så stora skillnader avseende examinatorernas ämnesbakgrund eller erfarenhet i vilka kriterier de betonar som viktiga.

This article deals with how adolescents made their decision connected to the swine flu vaccination which was offered during 2009-2010. The starting point is a video diary study which was conducted during the vaccination campaign. In this study, seven adolescents documented their thoughts and decisions connected to the swine flu and the offered vaccination. The results demonstrated that the adolescents’ argumentation was based on the concepts risk, knowledge and solidarity. However, what was seen as the large risk, the disease or the vaccination differed. Risk, knowledge and solidarity were often connected to actors who were seen as important in the debate, for instance media, family and friends, and the society. This article discusses the importance of decision-making in subjects where knowledge and risks connected to the phenomena are unclear or unsecure.

I detta forskningsprojekt har 10-åringar fått diskutera olika möjligheter att förbättra sin hälsa. Det övergripande syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka olika typer av kunskap, erfarenheter och identitetsmarkörer som barnen använder när de diskuterar hälsa. I studien deltog tre fjärdeklasser från Malmö, men från områden med skilda socioekonomiska förhållanden. Totalt deltog 66 elever, fördelade på 15 grupper. Varje grupp fick diskutera fyra olika alternativ som skulle kunna förbättra deras hälsa. De skulle sedan enas om två alternativ och tillsammans skriva ett brev till hälsoministern där de motiverade sina val. Alternativen var följande: 1) hela familjen skulle cykla till jobb, skola och fritidsaktiviteter som fanns i samma stad; 2) att det bara skulle serveras grönsaker, sallad och frukt som middag hemma två gånger/vecka; 3) en begränsning av dator- och tv-användandet till max 10 timmar/ vecka; 4) extra skatt på mat som pizza och hamburgare. Elevdiskussionerna transkriberades och analyserades därefter utifrån en diskurspsykologisk ram (Potter and Wetherell, 1987), närmare bestämt vilka så kallade tolkningsrepertoarer som eleverna använde i diskussionerna. Med tolkningsrepertoarer avses diskurser som används i syfte att föra fram argument och samtidigt skapa en temporär identitet – vem man vill vara. En klar majoritet av grupperna enades om att de kunde vara beredda att cykla mer och att det var acceptabelt att det bara skulle serveras vegetariskt på middagsbordet två gånger/vecka. Däremot såg de begränsning av dator- och tv-användandet samt extra skatt på viss mat som en klar inskränkning i sina vanor som de inte var beredda att ställa upp på. En preliminär analys av data visar att eleverna använder tolkningsrepertoarer som vardagsliv, egenintresse, ekonomi samt naturvetenskap/hållbar utveckling/miljö i sina diskussioner. Däremot saknas nästan helt en tolkningsrepertoar där eleverna tydligt använder en global repertoar.

This paper discusses students perceptions from one international exchange; the Nordic network ALKA. The network organizes an intensive course week every year. The purpose was to make a pilot study about how students use the subject content and network connections established during the ALKA intensive course week in their teaching. A questionnaire was sent out to 22 former teacher students that have participated in the course during 2010-2013. All informants are very satisfied with the course content, the experiences from the intensive course and the contacts established during the course. However, none of the participants express that the intensive course have generated in co-operation with some of the colleagues from other countries. Instead, all of the participants in the study have used the course content in their teaching or teacher training. The meeting with new landscape, animals and plants has been used in geography or biology lessons. Also the didactical discussions during the course have inspired some of the students in their teaching. Particularly the out-door education situations have inspired the teacher students to move their science lessons outside the classroom

Abstract Science teachers have often regarded in-service education as an ineffective way to improve their professional competence. At the same time a lot of resources are spent on in-service education, for instance in different project financed by the EU. This paper reports from a project with the aim to develop science teachers’ skills in inquiry based science education (“IBSE”) and assessment. In-service teacher education is provided by a series of workshops (24 hours in total). In order to investigate how the teachers perceived their development as professionals during the workshops, the teachers answered a questionnaire individually in the end of each series of workshops. The majority of teachers reported that they consider themselves as more experienced in teaching IBSE after the workshops; something they state will make them use IBSE and assessment more in the future. The results also indicate that teachers’ expectations of in-service education have been met by the workshops.

In this paper the possibilities to use video diaries as data collection tool in studies about scientific literacy are discussed. The starting point is a need for students to develop scientific knowledge which they can use as citizens in different situations. I argue that with this definition the students’ scientific literacy (SL) must be investigated outside school in everyday life. It is also argued that studies investigating SL in an out-of-the-school context cannot be performed in the same way as studies in a school context, since situations outside school often are more complex. The use of video diaries is shortly reviewed and then described as a research tool in investigating individuals’ scientific literacy. The possibilities and difficulties of investigating scientific literacy outside school, for instance which type of data that that can be collected is discussed. It is also emphasized that this way of data collecting differs from researcher controlled video filming. The control is in the hands of the video-diary maker, even if the instructions from the researcher affect how the participation from the video diarist will be expressed. This perspective will lead to use of theoretical frameworks that are built on views where the social world is seen as constructed and dependent on context. Discourse psychology analysis (Potter and Wetherell, 1987) is presented as a suitable framework. This is in line with Sadler (2009) who emphasizes the importance of that students get the ability to learn science in a community where they can be central participants and express their identities.

I den här boken diskuterar och problematiserar författarna medborgerlig bildning ur olika perspektiv. De ställer frågor om vad som krävs för att barn och ungdomar ska utvecklas till kompetenta, reflekterande, kritiska och aktiva medborgare med möjlighet att ta ansvar. Vilka krav på kompetenser krävs inom så specifika områden? I detta specifika kaptiel får läsaren ta del av varför medborgerlig bildning har en plats inom det naturvetenskapliga fältet.

In this article the possibilities to use video diaries as data collection tool in studies about scientific literacy are discussed. The starting point is a need for students to develop scientific knowledge which they can use as citizens in different situations. I argue that with this definition the students’ scientific literacy (SL) must be investigated outside school in everyday life. It is also argued that studies investigating SL in an out-of-the-school context cannot be performed in the same way as studies in a school context, since situations outside school often are more complex. The use of video diaries is reviewed and then described as a research tool in investigating individuals´ scientific literacy. The methodology of investigating scientific literacy outside school is problematised, for instance which type of data that that can be collected. It is also emphasised that this way of data collecting differs from researcher controlled video filming. The control is in the hands of the video-diary maker, even if the instructions from the researcher affect how the participation from the video diarist will be expressed. This perspective will lead to use of theoretical frameworks that are built on views where the social world is seen as constructed and dependent on context. Discourse psychology analysis (Potter and Wetherell 1987) is presented as a suitable framework. This is in line with Sadler (2009) who emphasizes the importance of that students get the ability to learn science in a community where they can be central participants and express their identities.

This paper reports from a study where teenagers use of different interpretative repertoires in decision-making about the swine flu and belonging vaccination is analysed. A framework from discourse psychology (Potter and Wetherell, 1987) was used. The purpose with this study was to develop knowledge about connections between how teenagers talk about themselves and their made decision about the new flu and the vaccination against it. The purpose was also to investigate if the teenagers express school and science education as one possible repertoire of a swine flu discourse among others. Seven teenagers participated in the study. The students documented their decision about the new flu and belonging vaccination in a video diary. The students were also interviewed 1-4 weeks after the diary making. In the analysis the material was carefully read several times, looking for words that expressed justifications and other expressions about the flu and the vaccination. These words and expressions were then brought together in themes, guided by the definition by Potter and Wetherell (1987, 149) about interpretative repertoires; used systems of terms used for characterizing and evaluating actions, events and other phenomena. The categorized repertoires are of two different main types; experienced emphases and important actors. In the first one were risk, solidarity and knowledge categorized. In the second were family and friends, media, school and society. The school repertoire was seldom used by the students, indicating that school and science education not seem to be an available interpretative repertoire. Instead the risk, solidarity, family and friends and the media repertoire were available, even if for example the risk repertoire was used in different ways by different students. These results indicate the need of using media reports in dealing with scientific literacy but also in risk assessment discussions in school. It also indicates the importance of starting close to the student’s daily life when working with socio-scientific issues.

I den här artikeln beskrivs och diskuteras en empirisk studie där gymnasieelever diskuterar olika förklaringsmodeller kring ämnesområdet kropp och hälsa. Syftet har varit att utvärdera och analysera elevernas användning av begreppen tillförlitlighet och trovärdighet i förhåll-ande till såväl vetenskapliga som icke-vetenskapliga förklaringsmodeller. Vi har analyserat elevernas användning av olika epistemologiska resurser i argumentativa situationer. Analysen ledde fram till att eleverna använde fyra olika typer av epistemologiska resurser; relativistiska, normativa, auktoritativa och vetenskapliga. Resultaten visar att samma elev kan använda olika epistemologiska resurser vid olika tillfällen. Vi anser att vårt teoretiska ramverk som utgår från epistemologiska resurser kan bidra till att förstå hur individer använder olika förklaringsmodeller i olika sammanhang.

This article reports on a study of how teenagers made their decision on whether or not to vaccinate themselves against the new influenza. Its purpose was to identify connections between how teenagers talk about themselves and the decision they made. How do the teenagers construct their identities while talking about a specific socio-scientific issue? Seven teenagers between 17 to 19 years of age participated in the study. The informants were requested to document in video diary situations in which their decisions about the vaccination were discussed. All the teenagers recorded their diaries during the weeks of the vaccination programme. The students were also interviewed 1-4 weeks after completing their diaries. A discourse psychology framework (Potter and Wetherell, 1987) was used to analyse the video diaries and the interviews. In this context, decision-making on a socio-scientific issue must be understood as an appropriation and use of discursive repertoires, and also as meaning-making in relation to other fields, such as society and identity. It must also be understood in relation to the use of science repertoire - or actually, the school science repertoire – how available is this discourse in different contexts outside school? The repertoires were categorised into two main types; experienced emphases and important actors. The first included the categories of risk, solidarity and knowledge. The second included family and friends, media, school and society. The school repertoire was seldom used by the students, indicating that school and science education seem not to be an interpretative repertoire available to them. Instead, the risk, solidarity, family and friends and the media repertoires were available in their talk about vaccination. These results indicate the need to use media reports in dealing with scientific literacy and also in risk assessment discussions in school. It also indicates the importance of relating school science closely to the students’ daily life.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop knowledge about young individuals’ reasoning and how they justify their standpoints concerning trustworthiness and decision-making in issues connected to health where available information is contradictory or uncertain. This purpose has been addressed in three different steps. In the first step almost 300 students in Swedish upper secondary school answered a web-based questionnaire, which had different types of multiple choice questions about pseudoscience and science. The results demonstrated large differences in acceptance between the different pseudoscientific statements. But there was no statement where the majority of the students agreed with the statement. There was no apparent relationship between the students’ pseudoscientific beliefs and their factual knowledge about the human body. However, the analysis revealed that students who have taken three or more science courses in upper secondary have relatively lower faith to pseudoscientific ideas. The results did not indicate any sex difference with regard to strength of faith in pseudoscientific ideas. In the second step, first year students from the science programme were observed and video-taped during two lessons, while discussing different explanation models in health. They worked in peer-groups with three to five students. The students discussed two different cases which contained a question and then two proposed answers that differed a great deal from each other with respect to scientific level. The results demonstrated that the students used four different types of epistemological resources; relativistic, normative, authoritative and scientific, when supporting their arguments about trustworthiness. No student clearly used resources from pseudoscience. The use of scientific epistemological resources was rare. Instead normative or authoritative resources appeared to be more available or more context appropriate for the students in this study. The study also demonstrated that students were able to use different epistemological resources in different situations, for example when the teacher joined the discussion and put some challenging questions to the group. In the third step, seven teenagers, 17-19 years old, participated in a video diary study and an individual interview. Four girls and three boys documented their decision-making about the new influenza and vaccination against it. The data collection was thus mainly performed outside school, in everyday life surroundings, when the teenagers justified their decision about the vaccination. The different statements and answers were categorised using discourse psychology. The categorised repertoires were of two main types; experienced emphasis and important actors. The first category comprised risk, solidarity and knowledge. In the second family and friends, media, school and society were included. The school repertoire was seldom used by the students, indicating that school and science education are not available interpretative repertoires in this context. The results demonstrate the difficulties for the teenagers to use science knowledge, in the format of correct facts or concepts. However, at the same time the results demonstrate presence and reasoning concerning the importance of scientific knowledge. This scientific discourse seems to be important when teenagers reason, make decisions and justifies their decisions in health issues. The results also raise methodological questions concerning how to investigate scientific literacy. Video diaries is suggested as an appropriate data collection tool to investigate scientific literacy in an out-of-school context. With the use of video diaries, the possibilities to investigate everyday life and decision-making go beyond the classroom.

The purpose with this licentiate thesis is to investigate upper secondary students’ ideas about science and pseudoscience in the field of human biology and health. The purpose is also to investigate young peoples’ opinions about what can be counted as trustworthy information. There are two empirical parts. The first part is a survey that aims to explore what pseudoscientific ideas students in upper secondary school hold and their ideas related to their scientific knowledge concerning the human body and health. The study also seeks to investigate if there is any gender or educational differences related to these issues. The results demonstrate a lack of correlation between knowledge in science and opinions about pseudoscience. There was a correlation between studied courses in science and low belief to pseudoscience only when the students had studied three or more science courses. There were no differences in belief between the genders. In the second study the aim was to investigate and analyse what kind of recourses that are released when students discuss issues that are related to scientific, as well as non-scientific proposals of explanations. Four different categories/of epistemological resources were identified in the data; relativistic, normative, authoritative and scientific, where only the last two contain some connection to science or the scientific culture. The students were to some degree trained to raise questions, but very few of the students used scientific arguments in order to explain their point of view in the discussions.

This study investigates the pseudo-scientific and superstitious ideas Swedish upper-secondary students articulate and if there is a relationship between their ideas and their knowledge of the human body and health. The study is based on a questionnaire among 300 students in which the students were asked to consider statements related to different treatments that may influence the human body and health, and questions about physiology, health and nutrition. The analysis reveals that a relatively large group of students give credance to statements such as that some people can transfer thoughts or that the phases of the moon can affect a person’s health. The analysis also shows that there is no apparent relationship between the students’ pseudo-scientific beliefs and their scientific knowledge about the human body. Furthermore, although the results do not indicate a gender difference with regards to the power of faith in pseudo-scientific ideas, they do indicate that male and females consider these questions differently. The results imply a need for discussion and critical investigation in school science concerning the relationship between science and pseudo-scientific ideas in order to enhance critical thinking and development of the understanding of the nature of science.

This paper reports from a study about knowledge and beliefs in science and pseudoscience in health related issues. A web based questionnaire about knowledge in human biology and beliefs in pseudoscience has been answered by students in upper secondary school in Sweden. The aims of the study are to examine students’ beliefs in pseudoscientific phenomena related to the body and our health and if there is any relationship between those beliefs and knowledge of human biology, studied science courses or education programme. The survey measures relationship to science and scientists, beliefs in pseudoscience and knowledge in human biology. Results from the study show a correlation between science education and knowledge in human biology. However, no strong and clear correlation between science education or human biology knowledge and scepticism against pseudo-science was found. Neither was there any relationship between sex and pseudo-scientific beliefs. The increase of different types of information related to pseudo-science in media like New Age health related advertising and articles are the base for the study and importance of developing life-long skills to handle conflicting information are discussed. The paper is arguing for the importance of investigating and analysing students’ beliefs in science contra pseudo-science as a means of achieving scientific literacy.