Nationella prov i NO och lärares val av undervisningsinnehåll

From 2009/10, all pupils in Year 9 in Sweden are obliged to take a national test in one of the science subjects physics, chemistry or biology. There are several aims of the national test system, among others to support teachers’ work by concretizing the curriculum and syllabi. In this article, we examine how the introduction of national tests in science education could affect the content selection teachers express that they do in their teaching. The data consists of interviews with 29 teachers teaching science in the upper years of compulsory school. The result shows that there are three themes of contents that teachers highlight as new in the national tests; scientific argumentation, the history of science and laboratory work. In an analysis, looking through the lens of curriculum emphases, it is shown that what unites these three content areas is that emphasis put on the intellectual skills of the scientific craftsmanship. An explanation for this could be that many teachers recognize this as a key content in scientific activities, but a content that they did not teach to a large extent.