Med inferenskunnande i fokus : En studie om vad mellanstadieelever behöver lära sig och hur undervisning kan bidra till att utveckla förmågan att dra slutsatser om en huvudpersons karaktärsdrag

Sammanfattning: The aim of the study is to generate knowledge about what students in years 4 and 5 (9-12 years old) need to discern in order to draw conclusions about a protagonist’s character traits in a fictional text, and how this ability can be developed. The method chosen to answer the research questions is Learning Study, an iterative classroom-based approach. Two primary school teachers in Swedish and the teacher researcher worked together. They collaborated to design, teach, evaluate, refine, and analyse a series of six lessons in a cyclic process with the Variation Theory as theoretical framework. The empirical data consists of pre- and post-lesson assessments, and video recordings of the lessons. The analyses resulted in five qualitatively different categories and four critical aspects. It is suggested that in order for the student to develop the ability to draw conclusions about a protagonist’s character traits, it is critical: (a) to discern that the protagonist’s character traits, both reproduced (explicit) and implied (implicit), are based in the text, (b) to discern, in the text, descriptions of how a protagonist for example acts, reacts, feels, thinks, and interacts with other characters in the story, as this could facilitate drawing conclusions about the protagonist’s (implicit) character traits, (c) to experience that when conclusions about the protagonist’s (implicit) character traits are related to how a protagonist acts, it is possible to discern what in the text the conclusion is based on, and (d) to experience that conclusions about aprotagonist’s (implicit) character traits can be discerned when they are linked to a character/person who is outside the story (eg in another story, film, or in real life).