Individualized teaching practices in the Swedish comprehensive school from 1980 to 2014 in relation to education reforms and curricula goals

摘要

The study investigated changes in teaching practices and classroom processes, seen from a student perspective, before and after the education reforms of the 1990s, and the introduction of the Swedish 1994 National Curriculum for comprehensive school. The total time pass stretches from 1980 to 2014.The focus is on comparisons of results based on identical statements in questionnaires, given to six nationally representative student cohorts within the ongoing Evaluation Through Follow-up project, who attended grade 6 or grade 9.The findings show the working atmosphere in the Swedish grade-6 schools to have improved during the 1980s, pointing also to changes in the teacher role. Teacher-led class teaching was in less use than in previous decades, but still the most dominating teaching condition, with an increase from 2005 to 2011. In grade 9, the changes are reverse, with a tendency for reduced time for teacher-led class teaching from 2003 onwards, and the use of less group work and fewer tests. From the mid-1990s onwards an explosive spread of individual work was identified in both grade 6 and grade 9.The changes in teaching practices and classroom processes are discussed in the light of individualization, curricula goals and education reforms.