Laborationsundervisning i gymnasiefysiken : Vad påverkar lärares val av laborationer?

For a long time, laboratory work has been an important part of science teaching. Curricular objectives of laboratory work have remained mostly unchanged for over a century but have changed somewhat over the past sixty years as a result of political decisions and educational trends. Technology development is reflected in the increased use of digital equipment, which has also led to continuously changing demands on teachers' skills. A new curriculum in physics in Swedish upper secondary school was launched in 2011, with a strongeremphasis on experimental skills than in previous curricula. These are just some examples of the factors and trends that teachers must consider in laboratory teaching, a teaching that is ultimately framed by the individual teacher. The aim of this licentiate thesis is to develop a deeper understanding of how and whyteachers teach as they do and try to understand how different factors affect their laboratory teaching. Two studies were conducted, where the first is based how teachers relate to three specific labs, and the other on teachers' views of their favourite laboratory work, as a way to elicit perceptions about what constitutes agood lab experiment. Simple and reliable equipment emerges as an important factor, particular in the absence of lab technicians. Laboratory work resulting in good results with respect to the value of well-known constants and relations was found to be another important factor in the teachers' choice of laboratory work.This factor indicates a traditional view of laboratory teaching, where learning often consists of verifying what is already known to the student. Practice and tradition emerge as strong influences, stronger than the policy documents that govern the physics teaching. An intense work situation is a recurring theme, resulting in very limited time for developments and reflections on teaching, causing labs to be recycled from year to year. Teachers also describe how their teaching developed with the help of older and more experienced teachers,whereas they have received very limited formal professional development in laboratory teaching. In this way tradition and practice can be transferred from one generation of teachers to another, challenged to a small extent. The results indicate a lack of incentives and opportunities for teachers’ professional development and imply that professional development does not happen spontaneously