The aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of how preschool teachers can use representations of diferent kinds to bring fore the mathematical content that may be aforded in pictures and narrative designed for numerical learning purposes. Seventy-three video documentations of reading sessions with 27 toddlers (1–3 years of age) over the course of three semesters were analyzed with a focus on number-oriented actions that, theoretically, would facilitate toddlers’ learning of numbers. In the reading sessions the teachers extended the content of the pictures and the narrative in diferent ways, and how one and the same picture was handled was shown to impact on what was made possible for the children to discern. Three diferent objects of learning—identifying numbers, comparing numbers, and operating on numbers—were made visible. Further, the use of gestures strengthened the possibility for the children to make connections within and between representations. This contributes to our understanding of the importance of using representations and gestures with a pedagogical purpose.

I artikeln undersöks hur elever positionerar sig och vilka kompetenser de använder i skapandet av digitala animationer i hybrida läraktiviteter. Syftet är att bidra med kunskap om centrala utgångspunkter för design av undervisning som innefattar hybrida läraktiviteter. Data består av videoobservationer av elever som tillsammans skapar digitala animationer i svenska, matematik och kemi. Studien tar utgångspunkt i det teoretiska perspektivet Design för Lärande, där undervisning och lärande betraktas som en form av multimodal design. Multimodal interaktionsanalys används för att analysera elevernas handlingar. Resultatet visar att eleverna använder tre kompetenser i de hybrida läraktiviteterna; digital kompetens, social kompetens och ämneskompetens. Utifrån hur kunniga och delaktiga eleverna är framträder fem olika positioneringar: kapten, guide, utforskare, missnöjd passagerare och passagerare. I artikeln diskuteras hur de olika positioneringarna och kompetenserna förhåller sig till och varandra och samverkar i hybrida läraktiviteter, samt vad lärare kan fokusera på i sin design av undervisning med digitala verktyg. 

In this article, the focus is on how students position themselves and what competencies they use when creating digital animations. The aim is to contribute with knowledge about important aspects for designing teaching that includes hybrid learning activities. The data consists of video observations of pupils' collaborative creation of digital animations in Swedish, Mathematics, and Chemistry. Multimodal interaction analysis was applied to analyze the pupils' actions. The study is theoretically framed by Design for Learning, where both teaching and learning are viewed as a form of multimodal design. The results showed five different positionings: captain, guide, explorer, dissatisfied passenger, and passenger. Three different competencies that pupils used in the hybrid learning activities were identified: digital, social, and subject competence. How the different positions and competencies relate to and interact with each other in hybrid learning activities were discussed, as well as what teachers can focus on in their design for learning. 

VI LÄRARE DEBATT: Regeringens uppdrag till Skolverket – att göra utbildningen i förskolan skärmfri – riskerar att ge negativa och allvarliga konsekvenser, särskilt för barn som är i störst behov av att möta en digitaliserad värld med stöd av utbildade förskollärare och barnskötare. Det skriver 27 barn- och förskoleforskare i ett gemensamt upprop.

Previous research shows that pupils’ participation in educational activities increases when they are allowed to use several forms of expression. Furthermore, digital media have become increasingly prominent as “carriers” of meaning in chemistry education. Based on that, this paper aims to explore ‘what is happening’ and ‘what is possible’ when six-year-old pupils participate in multimodally designed learning activities and create digital animations of water molecules and phase changes of water. This study is qualitative and draws on the frameworks of social semiotics and Designs for Learning, DfL, where teaching and learning are seen as a multimodal design. The Learning Design Sequence model, developed within DfL is used as a basis for the lesson design and as an analytical tool. The analyzed data were generated by filming when pupils participated in multimodal learning activities, created digital animations, and participated in meta-reflective discussions regarding their digital animations. The main findings are that multimodally designed lessons can increase pupils’ meaning making in chemistry, that the creation of digital animations may both increase pupils’ participation and support their meaning making, and that meta-reflection of pupils’ representations is an important part of the lesson design.

I denna studie arbetade förskoleklasselever med division genom problemlösning och problemformulering. Data kommer från en undervisningsaktivitet uppdelad på två tillfällen. Aktiviteten planerades i samarbete mellan förskoleklasslärare och forskare och genomfördes i 11 förskoleklasser med 205 elever. Vid problemlösning urskilde eleverna relationen mellan helhet och delar, storleken på varje del, dela som division samt kontinuerlig och diskret mängd som aspekter av division. Vid problemformulering återkom dessa aspekter samt tillkom aspekten att täljaren kan vara ett rationellt tal. Utöver dessa aspekter av division formulerade eleverna till exempel uppgifter med en liknande kontext (kakor) men med ett annat matematikinnehåll (till exempel subtraktion). Då det finns få studier om problemlösning och problemformulering med yngre elever bidrar denna studie med kunskap av värde för både (förskoleklass)lärare och forskare.

This paper aims to explore how pupils' positioning, competencies and meaning-making emerge in hybrid learning activities when they create digital animations in different subjects. Children of today have never lived in an analogous world but in a hybrid reality where the physical and the digital are so intertwined that they cannot be separated (Wernholm, 2020). The qualitative project draws on the frameworks of social semiotics (Kress et al., 2001) and Designs for Learning (Selander, 2008), where teaching and learning are seen as a multimodal design. As part of the Design for Learning framework, the Learning Design Sequence model is used as an analytical tool. Data has been generated by filming when pupils, in pairs or small groups, create digital animations in different subjects. The children’s digital animations were also used to get them to tell their stories about what they had done and what their intentions behind certain actions were (cf. Wernholm & Reneland-Forsman, 2019). The researchers were sensitive and paid particular attention to the children’s nonverbal communication to ascertain genuine consent to participation. Preliminary results indicate that when pupils participate in hybrid learning activities by creating digital animations together, they position themselves in relation to each other and the tablet. Furthermore, they draw on their previous experiences and competencies to make meaning. Thus, this project contributes by providing implications for the early years of schooling by showing how the use of digital tools can put a variety of children’s competencies into play and support their meaning-making in different subjects.

Författarna har i snart tio år tillsammans med lärare i förskoleklass studerat hur en kreativ, reflekterande och problemlösande matematikundervisning skulle kunna utformas. I denna text diskuteras hur en sådan undervisning påverkar elevernas syn på hur matematikundervisning går till. 

The mathematics teaching young students encounter not only affects the mathematics they are given the opportunity to learn but also their view of what mathematics is, how mathematics is taught and how they view their ability to learn mathematics. In this paper, an Educational Design Research study on problem solving and problem posing with Swedish six-year-olds will serve as an example. We elaborate on how students’ participation in education may affect their views of what it means to be taught and to learn mathematics. We do so by comparing drawings of mathematics classrooms made by students from eight classes, of which four attended the project. The results indicate a reform-oriented and more diverse view of content and form reflected in the drawings by the students participating in the intervention. 

There is a growing consensus in research that children’s numerical competence starts to develop at a very early age. However, there are few tools for screening the development of early numerical competence and thereby making this development researchable. One obstacle in designing such tools is that verbal utterances cannot be used as the primary source for exploring the numerical competence of young children. The focus of this article is metho-dological, namely how toddlers’ (1–3-year-olds’) ways of experien-cing numbers can be made visible in research without relying solely on verbal utterances. A theoretically driven interview tool was developed based on five principles of: context, numbers, process, multiple-method activity approach, and differentiation. The two principles of numbers and process vouched for internal validity, while the three principles of context, multiple-method activity approach and differentiation vouched for external and ecological validity. Examples of empirically tested interview tasks are also presented and discussed.