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AbstractThe aim of this study was to explore and analyse teachers’ perspectives on factors influencing the school climate, to better understand teachers’ everyday efforts in influencing the school climate, including obstacles they might experience. Bronfenbrenner’s social-ecological theory was utilized as the overarching theoretical perspective. Data were collected by means of 14 semi-structured focus group interviews with 73 teachers from two compulsory schools in southeast Sweden. Findings revealed that teachers experienced the school climate as both positively and negatively influenced by a number of internal and external factors, perceived as influenceable or uninfluenceable. According to the teachers, four types of factors affected the quality of the school climate: social processes and values in school (i.e. influenceable internal factors), school premises and support structures (i.e. uninfluenceable internal factors, external relations (i.e. influenceable external factors) and external means of control (i.e. uninfluenceable external factors). A grounded theory of teachers’ perceptions of factors influencing school were developed. Our conclusion is that the teachers talked about a multidimensional and malleable phenomenon, emanated by a complex interplay across multiple agents and contexts both within and outside the school, aligning with all domains and features and acting as preconditions for the school climate.

AbstractThis 1-year longitudinal study examined the association between student—teacher relationship quality and school liking in a sample of 234 students from two public schools in Sweden, who completed an online questionnaire on two separate occasions. The age range was 9–15 years in Time 1 and 10–16 years in Time 2. A path analysis showed that students who were younger, liked their school more, and had more positive, warm, and supportive relationships with their teachers were more inclined to score high in school liking one year later. In addition, younger students and students who liked their school and had better relationships with their teachers at Time 1 were inclined to have better relationships with their teachers one year later.

The assessment of individual knowledge and abilities should be frequently undertaken when learning is developed in interactions with other students, such as in group work and/or cooperative learning. Previous research reveals that group work assessment is a neglected research area, and this applies in particular to group work assessment interventions studies. The focus of this article is methodological, and its aim is to provide a reflective and critical account of a group work assessment intervention project, and the implications of the different choices made in this process. The intervention project that was scrutinized had a mixed-method longitudinal quasi-experimental design, and interventions in the form of shorter educational sessions were central to the project. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, analyzed, and compiled. The methodological issues discussed and problematized were the importance of (a) establishing collaboration with teachers; (b) well-thought-out and delimited methodological choices, and subsequent consequences; and (c) including both teachers and students to secure successful effects of the interventions. As a result of the study, it was concluded that intervention could be beneficial as a means of increasing the scientific knowledge in relation to intervention studies, and also to the emerging discourse on group work assessment.

Group work assessment is a challenging and complex practice for teachers. This study focuses on the challenges teachers perceive before and after participating in a group work assessment project that emphasizes individual assessment. By conducting a qualitative thematic analysis of twelve interviews with six teachers at upper secondary schools in Sweden, several challenges could be identified. The most prominent challenge concerning group work assessment is how to discern students’ individual performance within groups. This challenge has consequences for both the validity and the fairness of the assessment. Further, teachers experienced challenges with (un)fairness in group work assessment, in terms of both achieving fairness and having to deal with students’ emotions regarding perceived unfairness. The results also show how teachers perceive inadequate conditions, such as a lack of time and methods, and generate challenges in their practice, which is also related to reliability.