Introducing Undergraduate Students to Science

Understanding the scientific method fosters the development of critical thinking and logical analysis of information. Additionally, proposing and testing a hypothesis is applicable not only to science, but also to ordinary facts of daily life. Knowing the way science is done and how its results are published is useful for all citizens and mandatory for science students. A 60-h course was created to offer undergraduate students a framework in which to learn the procedures of scientific production and publication. The course`s main focus was biochemistry, and it was comprised of two modules. Module I dealt with scientific articles, and Module II with research project writing. Module I covered the topics: 1) the difference between scientific knowledge and common sense, 2) different conceptions of science, 3) scientific methodology, 4) scientific publishing categories, 5) logical principles, 6) deductive and inductive approaches, and 7) critical reading of scientific articles. Module II dealt with 1) selection of an experimental problem for investigation, 2) bibliographic revision, 3) materials and methods, 4) project writing and presentation, 5) funding agencies, and 6) critical analysis of experimental results. The course adopted a collaborative learning strategy, and each topic was studied through activities performed by the students. Qualitative and quantitative course evaluations with Likert questionnaires were carried out at each stage, and the results showed the students` high approval of the course. The staff responsible for course planning and development also evaluated it positively. The Biochemistry Department of the Chemistry Institute of the University of Sao Paulo has offered the course four times.

Understanding Foreign Masters : the examples of Rabindranath Tagore and Fyodor Dostoyevskiy

The Indian author Rabindranath Tagore was received like royalty during his visits to the West after winning the Nobel Prize in 1913. Dreams of foreign cultures offered a retreat from a complicated age. In a time when the West appeared to be living under threat of disintegration and when industrialism seemed like a cul-de-sac, he appeared to offer the promise of a return to a lost paradise, a spiritual abode that is superior to the restless Western culture. However, Tagore’s popularity faded rapidly, most notably in England, the main target of his criticism. Soon after Tagore had won the Nobel Prize, the English became indignant at Tagore’s anti-colonial attitude.Tagore visited Sweden in 1921 and 1926 and was given a warm reception. His visits to Sweden can be seen as an episode in a longer chain of events. It brought to life old conceptions of India as the abode of spirituality on earth. Nevertheless, interest in him was a relatively short-lived phenomenon in Sweden. Only a few of his admirers in Sweden appreciated the complexity of Tagore’s achievements. His “anathema of mammonism”, as a Swedish newspaper called it, was not properly received. After a steady stream of translations his popularity flagged towards the end of the 1920s and then almost disappeared entirely. Tagores visits in Sweden gave an indication that India was on the way to liberate itself from its colonial legacy, which consequently contributed to the waning of his popularity in the West. In the long run, his criticism of the drawbacks in the western world became too obvious to maintain permanent interest. The Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevskiy’s Crime and Punishment (1866) has enticed numerous interpretations such as the purely biographical approach. In the nervous main character of the novel, the young student Raskolnikov, one easily recognizes Dostoyevskiy himself. The novel can also be seen as a masterpiece of realistic fiction. It gives a broad picture of Saint Petersburg, a metropolis in decay. Crime and Punishment can also be seen as one of the first examples of a modern psychological novel, since it is focused on the inner drama of its main character, the young student Raskolnikov. His actions seem to be governed by mere coincidences, dreams and the spur of the moment. it seems fruitful to study the novel from a psychoanalytical approach. In his book Raskolnikov: the way of the divided towards unity in Crime and Punishment (1982), a Swedish scholar, Owe Wikström, has followed this line of interpretation all the way to Freud’s disciple C G Jung. In addition to this, the novel functions as an exciting crime story. To a large extent it is Viktor Sjklovskij and other Russian formalists from the 1920s and onwards who have taught the western audience to understand the specific nature of the crime story. The novel could be seen as a story about religious conversion. Like Lasarus in the Bible (whose story attracts a lot of attention in the novel) Raskolnikov is awakened from the dead, and together with Sonja he starts a completely new life. The theme of conversion has a special meaning for Dostoyevskiy. For him the conversion meant an acknowledgement of the specific nature of Russia itself. Crime and punishment mirrors the conflict between traditional Russian values and western influences that has been obvious in Russia throughout the history of the country. The novel reflects a dialogue that still continues in Russian society. The Russian literary historian Mikhail Bakhtin, who is probably the most famous interpreter of the works of Dostoyevskiy, has become famous precisely by emphasizing the importance of dialogues in novels like Crime and Punishment. According to Bakhtin, this novel is characterized by its multitude of voices. Various ideas are confronted with each other, and each one of them is personified by one of the characters in the novel. The author has resigned from his position as the superior monitor of the text, and he leaves it to the reader to decide what interpretation is the correct one..The aim of the present study is thus to analyze the complex reactions in the west to Tagore’s visits in Sweden and to Fyodor Dostoyevskiys novel Crime and Punishment.. This leads to more general conclusions on communication between cultures.

From the Reliable and Unselfish to the Versatile and Independent : - desired qualities in two Swedish curricula

The process in which girls and boys are constructed and construct themselves to pupils takes place in a context where conceptions of “the good pupil” are distinctly manifested in national school documents. In different types of texts concerning school and education, the image of the pupil that society wants to create emerges. Documents from early childhood education up to university level prioritise qualities such as independence, initiative, accountability and freedom to make ones own choices. Qualities or competencies that are preferred during a certain period change as time passes and society develops. The idea of the democratic subject is not the same today as it was 25 years ago. The purpose of this article is to emphasise and compare different desired qualities described in two Swedish national curricula, competencies that pupils in the compulsory school are supposed to develop. The discussion encompasses the political ideas of the pupil during a period of twenty-five years in light of changes in Western societies during the last decades.

Essentialism i religionsundervisningen : Ett religionsdidaktiskt problem

Essentialist concepts of religion are common in the teaching of religion in schools and to a certain extent also in the academic discipline of religious studies. In this article, a number of problems with essentialist perceptions of religion are discussed. In the first part of the article a thesis is maintained, according to which essentialist conceptions of religion or specific religions are too limited to be of value in the teaching of religion. This is done through examples of essentialist expressions about religion. The examples are grouped according to a typology of different kinds of essentialism. Two main categories, each with two sub-categories are identified. Thus, the category of essentialism regarding the substance of religion is divided into transcendental or theological essentialism (which presupposes the existence of a sacred power of some kind, the experience of which is the basis for religion), and core essentialism (where it is presupposed that certain ideas or concepts constitute religion as a general category or specific religions). Likewise, the category of essentialism regarding the function of religion has two sub-categories: positive and negative essentialism. These kinds of essentialism presuppose that religion or specific religions are inherently good or harmful respectively to human beings. Examples from each of these categories are given and discussed. In the second part of the article, Benson Saler’s open concept of religion is presented as an alternative to essentialist or bounded perceptions. It is based on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea of family resemblances and on prototype theory. In connection with this, it is argued that a certain kind of conscious ethnocentrism is needed as a point of departure in the study and teaching of religion. The metaphor of education as a journey from the familiar out into the unfamiliar and back again is suggested as a possible pattern for such teaching. Finally,some examples of non-essentialist ways to introduce religions are offered.

Historielärares historier : Ämnesbiografi och ämnesförståelse hos gymnasielärare i historia

The overall aim of this study is to analyse history teachers’ understanding of the school subject history. The aim have also been to uncover what factors the history teachers say have affected their understanding of the school subject. Based on survey and interview methods, the question that this study deals with is: in the light of which general understanding of the school subject history, do the teachers make didactic choices on a daily basis? The first theme is biographical. The teachers’ life-history is taken into consideration and several factors in the teachers’ background and the school environment have been identified. It also seems as if the teachers’ understanding of the school subject goes from an elementary and searching approach to one that is more complex and convinced. The second theme is a more structural approach. The results shows three major orientations among the teachers’ general understanding namely, educational (bildung) orientation, critical orientation and identity orientation. Even though a main orientation can be seen among the teachers, an important result is also that the orientation is overall complex. At the most general level some patterns can be seen. First the connection between the teachers’ biography and their general understanding of the school subject. In the understanding of the school subject, it is also notable that teachers relate in different ways to history as science, history as identity and history from an ideological viewpoint. It is also possible to note some signs of change in the school subject history that follows a lager historiographical context.

Historielärares ämnesförståelse : Centrala begrepp i historielärares förståelse av skolämnet historia

This thesis focuses on four different aspects of history teachers’ comprehensiveunderstanding of the school subject history. More specifically, the aim is tostudy the comprehension of the subject as perceived by individual historyteachers. Special emphasis is placed on identifying the concepts of the field ofhistory that are central to the teachers’ understanding of the school subject history.The first aspect studied is the teachers’ biographical changes. In a life historyperspective it seems as if the teachers’ subject conception changes from anunproblematic and tentative approach to a more complex and confident understandingof the subject. The second aspect treated is the rationale behind theirgrasp of the purpose and content of the subject. Three major positions areidentified, namely educational (bildung) orientation, critical orientation, andidentity orientation.The third aspect studied is the teachers’ interpretation of a curriculumnew to them. The teachers placed the curriculum in the field of tension betweenan education policy position, emphasizing more precise knowledge, onthe one hand, and a history science position, emphasizing concepts of historicalconsciousness. The fourth aspect studied is five different conceptual tools displayedin the teachers’ remarks on having completed the teaching of a newcourse. These are termed ‘history as narrative’, ‘history as time-space’, ‘historyas explanation’, ‘history as perspective taking’, and ‘history as skills’At the general level the study shows not only that subject conception is ofimportance to the teachers’ understanding of their obligation as teachers of historybut also how it is formed and constantly transformed by many differentfactors. In this process it is clear that the concepts used by the teachers, althoughvariously defined, can be seen as specific to the school subject historyand essential to the construction of history as a school subject.

On Aspects of Mathematical Reasoning : Affect and Gender

This thesis explores two aspects of mathematical reasoning: affect and gender. I started by looking at the reasoning of upper secondary students when solving tasks. This work revealed that when not guided by an interviewer, algorithmic reasoning, based on memorising algorithms which may or may not be appropriate for the task, was predominant in the students reasoning. Given this lack of mathematical grounding in students reasoning I looked in a second study at what grounds they had for different strategy choices and conclusions. This qualitative study suggested that beliefs about safety, expectation and motivation were important in the central decisions made during task solving.  But are reasoning and beliefs gendered? The third study explored upper secondary school teachers conceptions about gender and students mathematical reasoning. In this study I found that upper secondary school teachers attributed gender symbols including insecurity, use of standard methods and imitative reasoning to girls and symbols such as multiple strategies especially on the calculator, guessing and chance-taking were assigned to boys. In the fourth and final study I found that students, both male and female, shared their teachers view of rather traditional feminities and masculinities. Remarkably however, this result did not repeat itself when students were asked to reflect on their own behaviour: there were some discrepancies between the traits the students ascribed as gender different and the traits they ascribed to themselves. Taken together the thesis suggests that, contrary to conceptions, girls and boys share many of the same core beliefs about mathematics, but much work is still needed if we should create learning environments that provide better opportunities for students to develop beliefs that guide them towards well-grounded mathematical reasoning. 

En sociologisk förståelse av förlåtelse och försoning

Forgiveness and reconciliation in a sociological context Are forgiveness and reconciliation left to the theologians to define or can these concepts also be genuine concepts in sociology? In spite of the fact that sociology and social psychology have a lot of research about relationship, interaction and groups, there is not much research about forgiveness and reconciliation. This article presents the understanding of how relations can be revived, if once broken, if using these conceptions. The discussion also includes the concepts of shame and guilt and even confidence, particularly in relations where you find victim and perpetrator. The discussion is developed in a perspective of symbolic interactionism with examples from sociological research about men´s violence against women and adults, especially fathers, abuse to their daughters. In this article the perpetrator feels guilt and the victim shame and the feeling of guilt makes the perpetrator to ask for forgiveness. When hate and hard feelings have come to an end, the reconciliation can occur as a consequence of the forgiveness.

'In Charge of the Truffula Seeds' : On Children's Literature, Rationality and Children's Voices in Philosophy

In this paper I investigate how philosophy can speak for children and how children can have a voice in philosophy and speak for philosophy. I argue that we should understand children as responsible rational individuals who are involved in their own philosophical inquiries and who can be involved in our own philosophical investigations-not because of their rational abilities, but because we acknowledge them as conversational partners, acknowledge their reasons as reasons, and speak for them as well as let them speak for us and our rational community. In order to argue this I turn, first, to Gareth Matthews' philosophy of childhood and suggest a reconstruction of some of his concepts in line with the philosophy of Stanley Cavell. Second, in order to examine more closely our conceptions of rationality and our pictures of children, I consider the children's books, The Lorax and Where is My Sister? and Henrik Ibsen's play, The Wild Duck.

Lärares uppfattningar om matematiska resonemang : Två lärares uppfattningar om matematiska resonemang

Lärare är personen som planerar, genomför och utvärderar undervisning. Eftersom att elevers matematiska resonemang, enligt aktuella styrdokument, ska utvecklas i undervisningen har läraren en given roll som påverkar hur eleven ges möjlighet att utveckla resonemangskompetens. Hur lärare uppfattar matematiska resonemang blir därmed en nyckelkomponent i vad som sker i undervisningen. Kan elevers förmåga att resonera påverkas om lärare uppfattar matematiska resonemang på skilda sätt? I denna studie diskuteras aktuell forskning om matematiska resonemang och dess betydelse i undervisningen. Två lärare har intervjuats och deras utsagor jämförs med den aktuella forskningen. Dessa kvalitativa intervjuer i relation till forskningen har visat sig öppna dörren för mer omfattande forskning inom detta ämnesområde då intressanta slutsatser har dragits, utan att dessa har generaliserats. I resultaten har det framkommit att elevers förmåga att resonera påverkas i en hög utsträckning av lärarens val att antingen ge elever en redan fungerande strategi eller att låta eleverna själva kämpa med en uppgift. Av intervjumaterialet med två lärare har det framkommit att frågeställningen varför saknas helt medan frågeställningen hur är vanligt förekommande. I denna studie har lärarnas utlåtanden blivit intressanta då forskning har visat att om elevers förmåga att argumentera för egna strategival ska utvecklas är frågeställningen varför avgörande. Därmed påverkar lärares uppfattningar om matematiska resonemang elevers förmåga att föra matematiska resonemang.

Barnmorskans uppfattning om indikationer och effekter av förlossning med elektiva kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation utifrån arbetslivserfarenhet : En intervjustudie

Bakgrund: Statistik visar på ökat antal elektiva kejsarsnitt internationellt och nationellt. Ett kejsarsnitt kan rädda liv på mor och barn om komplikationer uppstår, elektivt kejsarsnitt är även liksom andra stora operationer förenat med risker för komplikationer. Antalet elektiva kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation har ökat i Sverige och cirka 17 % av alla förlossningar sker via kejsarsnitt. Att vårda och stödja kvinnor före, under och efter en förlossning med kejsarsnitt hör till barnmorskans arbete. Syftet med studien var att beskriva barnmorskors uppfattning om indikationer och effekter av förlossning med elektiva kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation belyst utifrån arbetslivserfarenheter. Metod: kvalitativ metod: semistrukturella intervjuer med nio barnmorskor. Materialet analyserades via fenomenografisk analys i sju steg. Resultat: Fyra beskrivningskategorier framkom, Elektivt kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation är ett etiskt dilemma, Elektivt kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation är en stor operation, Elektivt kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation påverkar organisation och barnmorskans arbetsmiljö och Elektivt kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation påverkar kvinnans förlossningsupplevelse. Vidare framkom nio kategorier som beskriver barnmorskors uppfattningar. Slutsats Barnmorskor uppfattar elektiva kejsarsnitt som något komplext, att de med sina yrkeskunskaper värnar det naturliga vid kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation och att de har brist på mandat att stödja och stärka kvinnors informerade val om elektivt kejsarsnitt på humanitär indikation. Klinisk tillämpbarhet: Resultatet kan användas vid undervisning kring barnmorskans stödjande och vårdande arbete i samband med förlossning via kejsarsnitt. Vidare kan resultatet vara underlag till diskussioner inom mödrahälsovård och förlossning i syfte att ge barnmorskor stärkt mandat till sina stödjande och informativa uppgifter.

Tough, sensitive and sincere : how adolescent boys manage masculinities and emotions

This study aimed to explore adolescent boys’ views of masculinity and emotion management and their potential effects on well-being. Interviews with 33 adolescent boys aged 16–17 years in Sweden were analysed using grounded theory. We found two main categories of masculine conceptions in adolescent boys: gender-normative masculinity with emphasis on group-based values, and non-gender-normative masculinity based on personal values. Gender-normative masculinity comprised two seemingly opposite emotional masculinity orientations, one towards toughness and the other towards sensitivity, both of which were highly influenced by contextual and situational group norms and demands, despite their expressions contrasting each other. Non-gender-normative masculinity included an orientation towards sincerity emphasising the personal values of the boys; emotions were expressed more independently of peer group norms. Our findings suggest that different masculinities and the expression of emotions are strongly intertwined and that managing emotions is vital for well-being.

Grotesque in Dickens

Dickens's use of the grotesque in his novels undergoes a variety of changes. For convenience sake, and to better illustrate the developments of the grotesque, I divide the novels into three separate groups. The first group, the period of experiment, included the novels from Pickwick Papers through Barnaby Rudge; the second group, the period of transition, includes the novels from Martin Chuzzlewit through David Copperfield; and the third, the period of a new vision. included the novels from Bleak House through Edwin Drood. Basically, I see the development of the grotesque involving a change in Dickens's conceptions of society, as well as responding to complex changes in society itself; Dickens's vision loses much of its humor in the end, yet it also reflects a definite maturity.