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Background: Clinical teaching is a complex learning situation influenced by the learning content, the setting and the participants' actions and interactions. Few empirical studies have been conducted in order to explore how clinical supervision is carried out in authentic situations. In this study we explore how clinical teaching is carried out in a clinical environment with medical students. Methods: Following an ethnographic approach looking for meaning patterns, similarities and differences in how clinical teachers manage clinical teaching; non-participant observations and informal interviews were conducted during a four month period 2004-2005. The setting was at a teaching hospital in Sweden. The participants were clinical teachers and their 4th year medical students taking a course in surgery. The observations were guided by the aim of the study. Observational notes and notes from informal interviews were transcribed after each observation and all data material was analysed qualitatively. Results: Seven pedagogical strategies were found to be applied, namely: 1) Questions and answers, 2) Lecturing, 3) Piloting, 4) Prompting, 5) Supplementing, 6) Demonstrating, and 7) Intervening. Conclusions: This study contributes to previous research in describing a repertoire of pedagogical strategies used in clinical education. The findings showed that three superordinate qualitatively different ways of teaching could be identified that fit Ramsden's model. Each of these pedagogical strategies encompass different focus in teaching; either a focus on the teacher's knowledge and behaviour or the student's behaviour and understanding. We suggest that an increased awareness of the strategies in use will increase clinical teachers' teaching skills and the consequences they will have on the students' ability to learn. The pedagogical strategies need to be considered and scrutinized in further research in order to verify their impact on students' learning.

Purpose. To explore experienced long-term consequences of a hip fracture and conceptions of what influences hip fracture recovery among community-living elderly people 1 year after discharge. Method. Fifteen subjects (13 females and 2 males), aged 66-94, were interviewed. The phenomenographic method was used for analysis. Results. Experiences of insecurity and restricted life dominated the interviews. The descriptive categories within experienced consequences of a hip fracture were: (1) isolated life with more restricted activity and fewer social contacts, with the two sub-categories (a) more insecure and afraid and (b) more limited ability to move, (2) disappointed and sad that identity and life have changed and (3) satisfied with the situation or feeling even better than before the fracture. The categories within conceptions of what influences hip fracture recovery were: (4) own mind and actions influence recovery, (5) treatment and actions from others influence recovery and (6) you cannot influence recovery. Conclusion. The findings accentuate that the negative consequences of a hip fracture are substantial and long-lasting. As it strikes mostly elderly people, who may have experienced earlier losses and growing disabilities, a hip fracture could add to the risk of losing important life values. Furthermore, the findings indicate that all health care professionals who meet the patients need to consider the patients' own experiences and possible fear and not merely focus on the physical injury and disabilities.

Mostly teacher competence is strongly associated with teaching, in spite of the fact that modern teachers’ every-day activity shows there exists a long list of other activities and responsibilities to be included in teachers’ normal routines. Evidently teaching competence cannot be sufficient as qualification and even if it is, a major problem is to define what it is. For one thing, for any teacher education, it must be assumed that the students will increase their teacher competence as an effect of their teacher education. This must include self-efficacy dimension in the sense, that each student teacher at the end of the teacher education should have a feeling of being competent as a teacher. It can therefore be assumed that first semester student teachers differ from those in their final semester regarding their experienced competencies. This topic is outlined and discussed along with findings from a questionnaire study investigating student teachers’ feelings of competence and professional control. The questionnaire contained 65 Likert-scale items covering several topics related to teacher competence and teachers’ everyday work. The participating student teachers were recruited from several local teacher educations in Sweden. Their responses were analyzed statistically. In the paper the outcome is presented and discussed.

Background During clinical supervision, medical students are expected to gain experience through clinical work, with the support of their clinical supervisor. What each supervisor chooses to emphasize and considers important will have a decisive impact on students’ understanding of what is content necessary to master in order to gain clinical skills. Therefore, in this study, the focus of attention is on what supervisors choose to emphasise during clinical supervision of fourth year medical students during a surgical course. Method An ethnographic approach was used, including a selective intermittent time mode, where observation and informal interviews were conducted. Twelve supervisors and nine medical students at a teaching hospital in Sweden participated. Field notes were made during observation; these were transcribed and analysed qualitatively. Results The analysis resulted in six topic areas describing what was emphasized during supervision. The topic areas were: 1) Identifying, collecting and combining information, 2) Problem-solving and decision-making, 3) Handling treatment of disease, 4) Practical skills and illustration of technical equipment, 5) Communicating with patients, and 6) Handling organisational demands. Conclusions The findings of this study show the existence of several areas that are focused on in supervision. In authentic clinical situations, these topic areas were intertwined and overlapped and often appeared simultaneously. The clinical situations were adjusted neither to the students’ clinical experience nor to the needs of the students. Consequently, the students may find it difficult to determine what to learn and what to achieve during supervision. They may also find it difficult to understand the situations in the same way as their supervisors, because students focus on handling situations with a more theoretical and declarative approach to a larger extent than do their supervisors. The students therefore need supervisor support to de

Mostly teacher competence is strongly associated with teaching, in spite of the fact that modern teachers’ every-day activity shows there exists a long list of other activities and responsibilities to be included in teachers’ normal routines. Evidently teaching competence cannot be sufficient as qualification and even if it is, a major problem is to define what it is. For one thing, for any teacher education, it must be assumed that the students will increase their teacher competence as an effect of their teacher education. This must include self-efficacy dimension in the sense, that each student teacher at the end of the teacher education should have a feeling of being competent as a teacher. It can therefore be assumed that first semester student teachers differ from those in their final semester regarding their experienced competencies. This topic is outlined and discussed along with findings from a questionnaire study investigating student teachers’ feelings of competence and professional control. The questionnaire contained 65 Likert-scale items covering several topics related to teacher competence and teachers’ everyday work. The participating student teachers were recruited from several local teacher educations in Sweden. Their responses were analyzed statistically. In the paper the outcome is presented and discussed.

Although there are differences, the educational systems in the Nordic countries are in many respects very similar. On a general level the society's responsibility for the educational system and teacher education makes up a fundamental Nordic dimension. This construction guaranties a powerful educational organization characterized by accessibility and stability. I will also suggest a system similarity, in form of three organizational levels of the society's concern for the educational area, which I label: 1) An ideological or political level, 2) A knowledgeable and directive level and 3) An implemental level. Each level is directly responsible for the performances of the level below but there are also dependencies in that relationship, being one kind between levels 1 and 2 and another kind between levels 2 and 3. In Sweden, the combined effects of these three levels on teacher education have resulted in several peculiarities or unwanted consequences. This paper presents a selection of such incoherent or inconsistent outcomes being the unfortunate effects of the three levels on the construction and implementation of the new teacher education in Sweden, which have resulted in a teacher education not meeting the demands and qualities intended.

Vilka likheter och skillnader finns det mellan att lära sig något som vuxen och som ung? Är det skillnad på att undervisa barn och unga i förhållande till vuxna? Är betingelserna för vuxnas studier och lärande andra än för barns lärande? Behövs det med andra ord en speciell vuxenpedagogik? Diskussionen om vuxenpedagogik som fenomen har återkommit med jämna mellanrum. Under de senaste decennierna har den emellertid blivit alltmer aktuell, inte minst genom de större krav på kompetensutveckling som i dag förekommer inom de flesta yrken. I denna antologi diskuteras utbildning, studier, undervisning och lärande från olika utgångspunkter och från skilda sammanhang med det gemensamt att vuxna människor står i fokus. Det innebär att begreppet vuxenstuderande är mycket bredare än vad som vanligtvis är förekommande: det innefattar vuxna med olika ambitioner och i skilda utbildningssituationer. Boken vänder sig till alla som intresserar sig för aktuella vuxenpedagogiska frågor. Den är därför användbar som litteratur på grundläggande kurser i pedagogik och vuxenpedagogik. Den är också lämplig för kurser inom lärarutbildningen som förbereder för undervisning av vuxna. Samtliga författare har sin verksamhet vid Enheten för lärande i vuxenliv vid institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik, Göteborgs universitet. Alla är i sin dagliga verksamhet engagerade i undervisning, forskning eller uppdragsutbildning där frågor om vuxenlärande behandlas.

By necessity teacher education covers two dimensions. One is defined by the applied work that is carried out by each teacher every day. Another is the knowledge formation that gives the understanding of the nature of teachers’ work. The latter dimension is expected to be founded on scientific principles. In many ways this dualistic nature of teacher education raises problems and difficulties regarding what should be included. In our view, two principles should govern teacher education. One is the idea that teacher education is an academic scientific discipline, in the same sense as is valid for the education of medical doctors. The implications of this approach are that the foundations for the education of student teachers must be scientifically secured and founded on scientific knowledge. It also means that teacher education is a scientifically defined area where knowledge can be accumulated. This contradicts to some extent the idea of apprenticeships, the master and apprentice concept of teacher education. From this perspective, the question of what knowledge is needed in teacher education and how knowledge can be accumulated is of central interest. The second idea influencing teacher education, related to the one presented above, is the importance of scientific preparatory training given to each student teacher, resulting in research that is presented in a master thesis. From this several implications can be drawn. Among these, the major importance must be given to the students’ knowledge formation and his/her ability to fulfil expectations as a teacher in the future. In our presentation the two principles presented above will be further discussed and their implications for the content of teacher education will be pointed out.

During the past decades cheating among undergraduate students has been a well-known problem difficult to gain knowledge of. European research in this field of research is scarce. The aim of this paper is to present a study, investigating the frequency of cheating, the cheating methods used and the students’ motives for cheating or not cheating in a Swedish-Finnish university context. Comparisons with other higher education contexts were possible since an anonymous questionnaire, worked out and used by Newstead, Franklyn-Stokes and Armstead (1995), was translated into Swedish and used in the study. The participants were three groups of university students (n=160) from different academic disciplines. The findings implicate that cheating among undergraduates is common and mainly is a problem of ethic character. The paper also discusses consequences of student cheating for the university staff, legislators, and society. Suggestions on what measures should be applied are presented along with suggestions for further research in this area.

The aim of this study was to investigate students' approaches to learning within Finnish general upper secondary school. Students' approaches to learning were further related to variables such as form level, gender and grades in mathematics, English and physical education. Students from three general upper secondary schools (n = 549) were chosen as subjects and their approaches to learning are assessed by the Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ). As a result of the study, significant differences were found between students' approaches to learning in the different form levels. Students' approaches to learning were further related to gender. Finally, students' approaches to learning were related to their grades in mathematics and English, but not to their grades in physical education.