Mittuniversitetet

The grade criteria for civic science in Swedish high schools is an important tool for students and teachers alike. The purpose of this study was to see if civic science students in a Swedish high school could understand the formulations of the civic science criteria or if there was any other factor that governed their comprehension in a positive or negative way. The analysis method was inspired by grounded theory and the main characteristics that were analyzed were knowledge, attitude, interest and how the students behaved towards academia. A final-year high school class of 17 students of mixed gender and heritage, participated in a two-part interview. One part was an internet-based survey, and the other part was a group interview which took place within a few minutes of each-other. The findings showed that 88% of the respondents did not understand the criteria to such a degree that they could use it to advance their academics in school. The study showed that underlying emotions such as boredom or a perceived sense of being bored governed most of the respondents´ attitude towards reading generally. Findings showed that the students were unable to find motivation to read even a short school related text without being bored by it or finding it to complex. The findings suggested that this was due to more than just an inexperience in reading and analysis connected a declining study motivation with negligence and complications in school.