Doctoral Theses /LS NMS

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Utskrift från Malmö högskola - mah.se

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Assessment for learning : a case study in mathematics education
Balan, Andreia : Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle Malmö Studies in Educational Sciences;68 (2012)	DOCTORAL THESIS

English abstract:

The aim of this study was to introduce a formative-assessment practice in a mathematics classroom, by implementing the five strategies of the formative-assessment framework proposed by Wiliam and Thompson (2007), in order to investigate: (a) if this change in assessment practices had a positive influence on students’ mathematical learning and, if this was the case, (b) which these changes were, and (c) how the teacher and students perceived these changes in relation to the new teaching-learning environment. The study was conducted in a mathematics classroom during the students’ first year in upper-secondary school. A quasiexperimental design was chosen for the study, involving pre- and post-tests, as well as an intervention group and control group. The intervention was characterized by: 1) making goals and criteria explicit by a systematic use of a scoring rubric; 2) making students’ learning visible by a use of problem-solving tasks and working in small groups; 3) providing students with nuanced information about their performance, including ways to move forward in their learning; 4) activating students as resources for each other through peer-assessment and peer-feedback activities; and 5) creating a forum for communication about assessment, involving both the students and the teacher. The findings indicate an improvement in problem-solving performance for the students in the intervention group, for instance regarding how well they are able to interpret a problem and use appropriate mathematical methods to solve it. The students also show improvements in how to reason about mathematical solu12 tions, how to present a solution in a clear and accessible manner, and how to appropriately use mathematical symbols, terminology, and conventions. The findings also indicate a change in students’ mathematical-related beliefs during the intervention, towards beliefs more productive for supporting learning in mathematics. The changes in students’ beliefs include mathematical understanding, mathematical work, and the usefulness of mathematical knowledge. During interviews, the students expressed how they perceived the new teaching-learning environment. Students’ responses indicate that they recognized and appreciated the different components of the formative-assessment practice as resources for their learning. Responses from both students and the teacher also indicate that the components of the formative-assessment practice were linked in complex ways, often supporting and reinforcing each other. Furthermore, most components had other effects as well, besides supporting the formative strategies they were intended to. The findings from this study deepens our understanding of how the components of a formative-assessment practice may influence students and their learning in mathematics, but also how these components co-exist in an authentic classroom situation and influence each other.

Assessment for learning Andreia B.pdf (1.951Mb)

Social Class in Science Class

Jobér, Anna
Malmö studies in educational sciences;66 Studies in Science and technology education;59 (2012)
Chinese abstract:概述学校教学最重要目的之一是赋予每个孩子同等的教育. 尽管如此, 学校再创造了社会差异. 先前的研究表明,学生的低下社会经济情况背景与自然学科成绩低下有一定联系. 这样, 不少学生在未来就被排斥在社会高端学科的教育和职业之外. 本篇论文在Bourdieu和Bernstein的理论基础上, 以自然学科课堂的社会阶级为中心, 旨在对小学生所受的教育存在不等现象提供更多方位描述和更深层的分析. 在人种民族学的启发下, 本论文的数据取自瑞典义务小学八年级物理教室里的观察, 记录, 采访和统计调查. 1. 对教室里现象的描述和分析揭示了知识难度的下降. 这一现象的发生通常是因为自然学科的教学所具有的社会历史传统因素, 学生, 老师和教室里的谈话社交之间有无形的默契, 或被称为隐蔽的磋商, (出发点往往是善良的愿望),教室里形成了对所有学生都不利的知识难度的分档. 2. 对教室里交流的描述和分析显示, 具有对新的交流方式意会和适应能力强的学生更能理解何种课堂言行才是有效或无效的. 教室里的各方语言交流的模式的产生和发展是学生, 老师和实践操作共同作用的结果. 也就是说, 这三者一起决定了自然学科教室里有关学科内容的科学性的交流的言行举止. 在由老师掌控的对话交流中, 更多的学生可以听懂内容并进行评估. 在这种交流中老师通常选用难度较低的知识水准, 长此以往, 该种交流有把学生排除在外的危险可能, 和将来局限他们灵活操纵交流的可能. 3. 实验作业本应充满好奇, 自由, 兴奋的挑战, 但教室里却呈现了完全不同的另一画面. 形式, 设计和如何操作实验的常规介绍, 取代应有的学科内容, 概念和知识, 成了决定作业成功的关键. 此外, 在实验作业教室里的学生要意会并适应至少两种平行的密码. 学生的实验工作是社会交际过程, 需要并被要求分组进行. 但这里有问题. 由于成绩评分是针对个人的, 而且, 社会阶层标志过程(hierarchical class-marking process)的反应和影响起了决定作用. 课堂上的小组在某种意义上成了学生的保护区, 这种保护破坏了学生的发展机会. 最后, 学生们和老师把作业差错归咎于自己或个人, 而并不意识到, 在实验课上的最终结果, 是自然学科教室里实际操作, 科学领域的信念关系, 课程, 社会阶层, 学校环境和教育密码等诸多密码复杂地相互作用的结果. 自然学科的教学, 是一个社会交际过程, 成功与否与是与身俱来的人的天赋无关. 教学过程中的语言交流和通常以小组形式进行的实验活动呈现出社会阶层区分. 这种课堂里的社会阶层区分会受到集体交际过程的影响, 学生之间关系的影响, 还有老师教学的影响. 也被该教室里师生间互给互取的机会, 局限和期望所决定. 透过对自然学科课堂上的阶级现象的描述和分析, 本文揭示了个体学生对可被灵活操纵调节的交流空间, 对学科知识, 和对权力自由的可能获得的机会是存在于一个集体交际过程中的, 需从小组全方位角度来理解. 关键词: 社会阶层, 自然学科教室, 学生, 实验操作, 小组活动, 对话, Bourdieu, Bernstein, 隐蔽的磋商, 碰撞的密码, 社会性的谈话交流, 过程.

DOCTORAL
THESIS

English abstract:

One of the most important aims of schooling is to give all children an equal education. Despite this, social differences continue to be reproduced in school. Earlier studies show that there is a relation-ship between low socioeconomic background of students and low achievement in science education, thus excluding many students from highly-valued education and positions in society. Building upon established sociological frameworks – particularly those pro-vided by foremost Bourdieu and Bernstein - the overall aim of this thesis was to contribute to a more complex and multi-faceted de-scription and analysis of inequalities in education, focusing on so-cial class in the science classroom. Inspired by an ethnographic ap-proach, the data was produced through observations, field notes, interviews, and a questionnaire in a Swedish compulsory school. The students, aged fourteen and fifteen, were followed during a five week unit on physics (mechanics). Firstly, the descriptions and analyses of the school, the teacher, the student and the science classroom revealed that the knowledge threshold in the classroom has been lowered. This had been done in hidden negotiations (often with good intentions) between the students, the teacher, the sociohistorical legacy of science educa-tion, and a social discourse. It created a knowledge threshold, a lowest common denominator - which was altered not only for stu-dents from lower classes but for all the students in the classroom. Secondly, the descriptions and analyses of the classroom communi-cation showed that being able to translate, interpret and adapt to new or changed ways of talking increased the possibilities of un-derstanding what ways of talking and acting that were valid or not. What also was also shown was that ways of talking were created and influenced in an intricate interplay between the practices in the classroom, the teacher, and the students often in hidden negotiations. Together they constructed what ways of talking were valued and how you could act and talk in the science dialogues. In strongly controlled dialogues, more students could be heard and evaluated. However, it became a type of communication based on the lowest common denominator that in the long term might exclude all students and narrow their room to manoeuvre. Thirdly, laboratory work lessons could be lessons filled with curiosity, freedom and exciting challenges. However another picture emerged in this very common way to work in the classroom. For example, the regulative discourse totally overrode the instructional discourse and became decisive in this practical science activity. In addition, there were at least two parallel codes that needed to be translated and adapted to in the classroom. Laboratory work in this classroom was a social process that needed and was expected to be performed in groups. However, this became problematic since the grades were awarded to individuals and in addition, the reactions and the effects of a hierarchical class-marking group process became decisive. The groups became to some extent safe havens for the students, on the other hand, undermined their chances in the classroom. Labor-atory work left the students and the teacher blaming themselves even though the outcome was a result of the complex interplay be-tween practices, the science field doxa, the curriculum, social class, school premises and educational codes. Science learning and teaching in this classroom at its most basic was a social process and could not be correlated to, for example, inborn facilities per se nor to certain agents in the field. Social class was manifested in the science class, for example in the dialogues or in the laboratory work always performed in groups. However so-cial class must be understood as collective processes and in rela-tionship with, for example, the value that science is ascribed. It must be understood from the possibilities, limitations and the ex-pectations the students and teacher have and how these are used. Through descriptions and analyses of social class in the science class, this thesis revealed that science classroom activities and prac-tices and in turn room to manoeuvre and possibilities, are collec-tive processes.

Anna Jober muep.pdf (1.710Mb)

Decision-making in health issues: Teenagers' use of science and other...
Lundström, Mats : Malmö University Malmö Studies in Educational Sciences;64 (2011)	DOCTORAL THESIS

English abstract:

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.

2043_12460 Lundstrom muep.pdf (2.595Mb)

Räkna med bokstäver! En longitudinell studie av vägar till en förbätt...
Persson, Per-Eskil : Institutionen för matematik, Luleå tekniska universitet Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology (2010)	DOCTORAL THESIS

English abstract:	The main aim of the study is to create insight into students’ algebraic knowledge and the conditions for their algebra learning at upper secondary level. An additional goal is to suggest ways to improve algebra teaching and learning within the Swedish educational system, based on the results from the study. The study builds on an extended research and development project, which are presented in four phases. In the empirical study two cohorts of students were followed during their time of study at one upper secondary school in southern Sweden, and some main factors for success in algebra learning were identified. This part of the study was presented more in detail in my licentiate thesis. The following three phases are described in the three articles, on which this thesis rests. In the second part of the study I reflect upon my development from being a teacher into being a teacher-researcher and what this has meant for my understanding of what happens in the classroom, and in what ways this has changed, especially enhanced, my way of teaching. In the third part, a deepened analysis is made of students’ answers to how a functional relation can be explained. The fourth part is a literature review of recent research of the influence of calculators and other technological tools on algebraic knowledge and skills. All parts of the project are put into one overarching frame, based on the didactical triangle with its main parts: the learning/the student, the teaching/the teacher, and the learning matter/the result of the education. As a background for the study a theoretical framework is used with five main components: mathematics and philosophy of mathematics, theories of knowledge and learning, the meaning of symbols, representational forms, and tools for learning. A thorough overview of earlier research in the field of algebra education is given, with a multi-dimensional perspective and with special focus on areas of importance for the study. A range of findings from the different parts of the study are presented and compiled, both on the basis of the theoretical framework and the didactical triangle. These results then form the starting point for consideration of significant implications for educational practice in mathematics within the areas: knowledge and development, symbols and representational forms, algebra as a strand in mathematics education, technology in mathematics education, and the importance of affective factors. Moreover, some suggestions is given to teachers about different methods and ways for local development projects in schools, and also suggestions for further research.
Swedish abstract:	Huvudsyftet med studien är att skapa insikter om algebrakunskaper och villkor för algebralärande hos gymnasieelever. Ett andra syfte är att med utgångspunkt i resultaten föreslå vägar till en förbättrad algebraundervisning inom det svenska skolsystemet. Studien bygger på ett längre forsknings- och utvecklingsprojekt, som kan indelas i fyra faser. I den empiriska grundstudien följdes två årskullar elever under sin studietid på en gymnasieskola i Sydsverige, och några huvudfaktorer för framgång i algebrastudierna identifierades. Denna delstudie har närmare presenterats i min licentiatuppsats. De tre följande faserna är beskrivna i de tre artiklar, som denna avhandling vilar på. I den andra delstudien reflekterar jag över vad min utveckling från att bara vara lärare till att även bli forskare betytt för min förståelse för vad som händer i klassrummet och på vilka sätt detta förändrat mitt sätt att undervisa. I den tredje fördjupas analysen av elevernas svar på frågan om hur ett centralt funktionssamband kan förklaras. Den fjärde delstudien är en litteraturöversikt över nyare forskning kring räknares och andra teknologiska verktygs inverkan på algebrakunskaper och –lärande. Samtliga delstudier sätts in i ett övergripande sammanhang som utgår från den didaktiska triangeln med huvuddelarna: den lärande/eleven, läraren/undervisningen och det lärda/resultatet av undervisningen. Som bakgrund för studien används ett teoretiskt ramverk bestående av fem huvudkomponenter: matematik och matematikfilosofi, teorier om kunskap och lärande, symbolernas betydelse, representationsformer och verktyg för lärande. En utförlig översikt över tidigare forskning inom området algebraundervisning ges, med ett multidimensionellt perspektiv och med speciellt fokus på delområden av betydelse för studien. En rad resultat från de olika delstudierna presenteras och sammanställs, utgående från såväl det teoretiska ramverket som den didaktiska triangeln. Dessa resultat bildar sedan utgångspunkt för viktiga implikationer för undervisningspraktiken i matematik inom områdena: kunskap och kunskapsutveckling, symboler och representationsformer, algebra som en röd tråd i matematikundervisningen, teknologi i matematikundervisningen och de affektiva faktorernas betydelse. Dessutom ges förslag till lärare om olika metoder och tillvägagångssätt för lokala utvecklingsarbeten på skolorna, samt förslag till vidare forskning.

Räkna med bokstäver publikation.pdf (1.226Mb)

Simulated "real" worlds: Actions mediated through computer game play ...
Nilsson, Elisabet M : Malmö University Malmö Studies in Educational Sciences;50 Studies in Science and Technology Education;30 (2010) Creative Commons Erkännande 2.5 Sverige Licence, www.creativecommons.org	DOCTORAL THESIS

English abstract:

Over the last decade, a great variety of visionary ideas and beliefs have been brought forward, regarding the potentials of using computer games as a tool for learning and mediation in educational settings. This thesis aims at contributing to research in this field, by empirically exploring what happens when students play and reflect on their computer game play in science education. Three empirical studies and a research review have been conducted. The first study was part of a design-based research project on mobile learning, and involved 17 students (aged 15−16) playing the mobile educational game Agent O. The two following studies involved 72 students (aged 13−15) playing the COTS game SimCity 4, in connection with the annual Swedish school competition Future City. Research questions aimed at clarifying, in a science learning context, what aspects of scientific practice are: (1) mediated through computer game play; (2) used and referred to by students, when reflecting upon their actions during computer game play. This work is not about science education. Instead, it studies actions mediated by computer games, and possible implications for science education. The focus is on mediated actions that occur during computer game play and their potential relevance to school science learning. Two tendencies are important as a background to the thesis. Firstly, the rapidly increased use of digital media among young people. Secondly, the challenge digital media pose for education, generally, and in this case science education, more particularly. The results suggest a number of ways in which computer game play can play a role in science education. Findings show that computer games may provide platforms for engagement in scientific practice, support authentic experiences, and constructively constrain students’ actions, by confronting them with simulated complexities. Computer game play is an activity of great variation, that can take many directions, and outcomes may therefore correspond to teachers’ expectations in some cases, while leading to quite different outcomes in others. It is noteworthy that during game play the students in these studies were primarily playing a game, not simulating a “real” world situation. They did not relate to occurrences outside the game world, unless they were specifically instructed to do so. Conclusions further indicate that instruction is a crucial factor, to benefit from potentials of computer game play in educational settings.

Elisabet_M_Nilsson_thesis.pdf (462.8Kb)

thesis_errata.pdf (36.82Kb)

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