A class project of a third-year French class in Sweden that used Renoir's painting, "The Luncheon of the Boating Party," as inspiration for work in vocabulary development, grammar, conversation, and social and cultural appreciation is described and examples of dialogs and exercises are appended. (MSE)

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Swedish comprehensive education, it is concluded that the system has attained some of its social and academic aims fully and approached attainment of others. Areas for further improvement include increased local governance, more clearly articulated goals, and curriculum development. (MSE)

This case study describes a 25-year-old Swedish woman with hereditary moderate hearing loss since birth who acquired both sign language and spoken language in her early preschool years and reached normal developmental milestones in each. Analysis revealed that her speech reading expertise is associated with cognitive functions such as high…

A study investigated 57 Swedish day centers for individuals with mental retardation found that half of the staff had not received information on assistive devices and that inservice training was primarily with communication devices, mobility aids, and lifting devices. Knowledge of time control devices was limited. (CR)

Describes how a problem-based learning approach is used in a course on general surgery and reports the results in terms of degree of satisfaction of students, teachers, and patients. Employs interviews with a real patient with a real condition. (DDR)

Analyzes tradition and change in the education of elementary school teachers in Sweden in the 19th and early 20th century. Reveals two substantial periods of change. States that changes included the interplay between public and private institutions and new ideas of the individual, nature, the child, and morality. (CMK)

Young children below school-age, especially those under three, have gotten more and more attention paid to them during the last years. Is it for good or for bad? Extreme and consequential views and actions towards (especially) the youngest children may result in problems--for the children. This essay presents a discussion about different ways to…

Educational process reflection (EPR) is a professional development model aimed at supporting preschool teachers reflecting on and changing their practice. A particular focus is on interaction between practitioners and children, and between the children themselves. In this article, I first describe the theoretical frameworks that helped shape EPR,…

This Swedish paper discusses the design of an inclusive curriculum for students with disabilities based on Rousseau's concept of a social contract. The importance of a curricular philosophy in which social competence and ecological conditions are crucial provisions in shaping the curriculum is discussed. The social contract philosophy is used to…

The experience-oriented approach to early childhood learning assumes that the way children see, understand, and conceptualize is more basic than skills and knowledge, and that preschools should systematically work on developing children's awareness of different phenomena in the world around them. Content areas in this approach foster children's:…

This report summarizes results of research and development projects concerning disabled and elderly people and transportation services carried out at the Department of Traffic Planning and Engineering in Lund, Sweden. This summary is based on 12 previous reports. The first section examines Swedish policy which stresses enabling elderly and…

Although its main focus is on economic collaboration, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has played a very influential role in the exchange of educational ideas and experience on an international level. It also is true that while OECD involves the nations of the European Community, Norway and Sweden have had a…

This report describes the background, history, development and evaluation of distance education in Sweden since its inception in 1973. A preliminary general section describes higher education and external studies in Sweden, the basic ideas behind distance education, and its scope and general organization in Sweden. Part of the preparation for the…

A study was conducted to examine the interdependence between "actors'" (persons responsible for solving problems within their municipalities) conceptions and local strategies for development. Two peripheral municipalities with development problems are compared. The municipalities have a shared history and culture and a similar economic…

This short book, based on the Swedish experience, explores the concept and the operation of study circles. The book is organized in nine sections. The first section looks at the various definitions of study circles in history and the literature, arriving at a broad working concept of study circles. This is followed by an overview of the…