This article describes how some Swedish compulsory schools work to achieve collective development of practices in mathematics and science. The overall aim is to increase knowledge about factors influencing progression to professional learning in different school contexts. Data were collected through four case studies by interviews with teacher teams and principals and were analysed in a meta-perspective by using the components of the Collaborative Action Research model. The findings showed that the schools had reached different phases concerning progression to professional learning. Changes aiming to improve teaching and learning are context-bound. Therefore the authors suggest some crucial questions to support professional learning in the prevailing school culture.

This article presents the evaluation of a two-year action research project in biology and mathematics teaching involving a primary school and a university in Sweden. The aim of the study was to contribute knowledge about a school–university intersection as a professional learning arena. The teachers’ conceptions about the project implementation, the impact on their learning, teaching practices and pupil learning were made explicit by focus group interview. The evaluation revealed that several motivating factors in this specific learning community – the relevance of the project and connection to the continuing education course, mentors from university, planning tools and time for collaboration – were critical for project implementation and for professional learning to occur. Furthermore, it indicated how teacher learning and teaching practices were related to pupil learning in the professional learning community. The results are also discussed in the light of new research on teachers’ work identity and self-reported health.

The aim of this paper is to investigate which kind of conditions and constraints affect Japanese and Swedish teacher educators’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). We analyse the praxeologies of the lessons in which the educators teach area determination. Our study shows that the Japanese teacher educators’ PCK are more explicitly shared by the community of the teacher educators compared to the Swedish counterpart. Also, the detailed Japanese curriculum and the structured problem solving approach promote to illustrate how to construct rich mathematical and didactical organisations for prospective teachers.

In this study, we have observed three different teacher educators’ lessons, concerning area determination of polygons in primary school teacher training courses in Japan, Finland and Sweden. The aim of this paper is to investigate the main elements of the lessons and to compare the differences between the countries. We focus on how the teacher educators relate the didactic construction of the lessons for prospective teachers to the school mathematical and didactical organisations by applying Chevallard’s anthropological theory of the didactic (ATD). The analysis shows how the curricula and the different traditions of teaching practice in each country influence the mathematical and didactical construction of the lessons.

The aim of this article is to describe a design and implementation of a school-university action research project about teaching and learning biology and mathematics in primary school. Nine teachers in grades 1 to 6, in collaboration with two researchers, were using content representation (CoRe) in learning study (LS)-inspired cycle as pedagogical tools when planning, implementing, and reflecting on lessons and pupil learning. By using pre- and post-tests, the teachers acquired knowledge about pupil subject-specific knowledge and learning. Some examples are given on how the tools in the project influenced the teaching practices and pupil learning. This research design brought together university and school practitioners to work collaboratively in a professional learning community, which developed teaching and learning in biology and mathematics.

In this paper, we report a teaching experiment regarding the theory of polynomial approximations at the university mathematics teaching in Sweden. The experiment was designed by applying Variation theory and by using the free dynamic mathematics software GeoGebra. The aim of this study was to investigate if the technology-assisted teaching of Taylor polynomials compared with traditional way of work at the university level can support the teaching and learning of mathematical concepts and ideas. An engineering student group (n = 19) was taught Taylor polynomials with the assistance of GeoGebra while a control group (n = 18) was taught in a traditional way. The data were gathered by video recording of the lectures, by doing a post-test concerning Taylor polynomials in both groups and by giving one question regarding Taylor polynomials at the final exam for the course in Real Analysis in one variable. In the analysis of the lectures, we found Variation theory combined with GeoGebra to be a potentially powerful tool for revealing some critical aspects of Taylor Polynomials. Furthermore, the research results indicated that applying Variation theory, when planning the technology-assisted teaching, supported and enriched students’ learning opportunities in the study group compared with the control group. 

In this paper, we examine the implementation of a Japanese teacher educators' lesson, where he applies and, at the same time, inform the students about "structured problem solving". We describe a specific lesson titled "Quantity and Measurement" for elementary school teacher students and we show how the educator make the students aware of the didactic transposition of the material and how he makes the students experience and learn about applying "structured problem solving" in practice. We also show how the Japanese curriculum influences the scale of the mathematical praxeology to be learned and how the students are given opportunities to develop their insight into the PCK during their education in mathematics.