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Inquiry-based teaching
Contact persons: Torodd Lunde, Michal Drechsler
Other researchers: Niklas Gericke
Brief description of the research:
Tidigare studier visar att lärare betonar syften som att undervisa ämnesinnehåll och att skapa intresse när de engagerar elever i laborativt arbete. Senare år har syften som att lära elever att göra undersökningar och lära om det naturvetenskapliga arbetssättet betonats allt mer i läroplaner och ämnesdidaktisk forskning när det gäller laborativt arbete. I detta projektet utforskar vi hur lärare tolkar och förstår vad undersökande arbete innebär och hur detta kommer till uttryck i deras planeringar.

Grundskolans läroplan för naturämnena betonar laborativt undersökande arbete i syfte att utveckla elevers kritiska tänkande medan undervisningstraditionen betonar laborationer i syfte att ge ökad förståelse för ämnesinnehållet. I denna studie undersöks hur detta glapp kan överbryggas.

Textbook and ICT
Contact persons:ÌýNiklas Gericke, Michal Drechsler
Other researchers: Yvonne Liljekvist
Brief description of the research:
Textbooks have a unique role as mandatory reading material in school. Textbooks are important not only as reading material, but also provide a structure for classroom activities in general. However, the exponential growth of ICT in the last decades and its introduction in school has raised the question if there has been a paradigmatic shift in the Swedish classroom of how the curriculum is enacted in the classroom. In this study, the use of teaching materials by teachers in different subjects and at different stages in the classroom is investigated. Further, how much of the teaching time digital teaching materials are used.

Models in Chemistry
Contact person:ÌýMichal Drechsler
Other researchers: Anna Bergqvist
Brief description of the research:
Teaching and learning science concerns an understanding of the issues (e.g. concepts) that shapes science. One important aspect of the development of scientific knowledge is designing and using models. Models link theories with a target – a system, an object, a phenomenon or a process. They are parts of theories scientists develop to describe, explain and predict aspects of the world-as-experienced. When new ideas are added to an existing scientific concept, the content of the concept is revised while the label remains. In this way a concept may have several meanings. Research have suggested that some of the students’ problems with understanding chemistry originate from the shift of meaning of a concept, that is, a new model is introduced, all using the same label.

In this project, we have investigated how students, teachers and textbooks use and present different models in the areas of acid-base chemistry, chemical bonding and electro-chemistry.

PCK (pedagogical content knowledge)
Contact person: Michal Drechsler
Brief description of the research:
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the knowledge base of student teachers. A well-known classification can be summarized as content knowledge (CK), general pedagogical knowledge (PK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). However, the study of an academic discipline may not provide prospective teachers with the kind of understanding they need to effectively transform their academic knowledge into instructional activities in the classroom. PCK is instead suggested to be acquired from teaching practice and critical reflections of teaching practice. One main goal for teacher education courses should, therefore, be to develop and enhance student teachers initial PCK.

Domain-specific language for describing protein synthesis in upper secondary school – students’ and textbooks' technical term usage
Contact persons: Sara Wahlberg, Niklas Gericke
Brief description of the research:
The project investigates the domain-specific language with focus on technical terms used to present protein synthesis in upper secondary school. The aims are to investigate a) how students handle central technical terms to describe the topic; b) in what waysÌýtextbooks in chemistry and biology use central technical terms in terms of frequency, distribution and relationship to describe the topic, and c) similarities and differences between the technical term usage in the ways chemistry and biology present the protein synthesis.