Research project Intensive Swedish, Samsyn
Samsyn stands for coordination and visibility in education and instruction in introductory programs in upper secondary school. It is a collaboration between the Swedish National Agency for Education and the Intensive Swedish research group at the Department of Swedish and Multilingualism at Stockholm University.
Samsyn aims to improve the conditions for multilingual students in introductory programs so that they have equal opportunities to achieve the program’s educational goals. It is aimed at principals, subject teachers, Swedish as a Second Language (SVA) teachers, and others in key positions at the school who wish to gain tools and practical training in jointly supporting and optimizing students’ parallel language and academic development. The training is based on the guiding documents for elementary school.
The school development work carried out by the project aims, among other things, to establish common structures and routines for organizing instruction. Furthermore, it develops approaches that promote coordinated and visible efforts that both increase equity and optimize students’ parallel language and knowledge development across the school’s various subjects.
The goals of the program are to provide the conditions for
- collaborative development efforts within the work team to structure the program and highlight progression in instruction
- subject teachers and teachers of Swedish as a Second Language (SVA) to develop and establish shared structures and routines for organizing instruction and teaching methods that promote coordinated and transparent efforts toward greater equity and the optimization of students’ parallel language and knowledge development across the school’s various subjects
- Subject teachers and SVA/SVE teachers to implement a coordinated and visible instructional plan that places the student’s learning process at the center and aims to ensure that all students, based on their individual circumstances, achieve as much as possible in accordance with the educational goals.
The project applies theoretical and scientific knowledge in fields such as school development, subject didactics, and genre pedagogy, and provides practical, classroom-based guidance on how to apply tools and methods in the planning and implementation of instruction. It is based on two premises: placing the students’ learning process at the center and ensuring that all students achieve as much as possible in accordance with the educational goals.
The Samsyn project also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between subject teachers and teachers of Swedish as a Second Language (SVA). Consensus is of central importance for ensuring that students—not least second-language learners and multilingual students—both benefit from instruction in all school subjects and acquire an appropriate language for communication and learning. Collaboration and the exchange of experiences between subject teachers and SVA/SVE teachers are therefore an integral part of the project.
Collaboration in the program focuses on three content-related dimensions: global support and lesson planning, study awareness and learning strategies, and school language and vocabulary.
- Global support and lesson planning involve planning for progression, goal achievement, and equity based on the specific implementations of the curriculum guidelines in Lgr 22, known as subject plans.
- Study habits and learning strategies focus on strengthening students’ study-oriented behavior, perseverance, and motivation to learn, including through cross-curricular work using a specially designed study calendar.
- School language and vocabulary focus on developing language and knowledge, including through collective, cross-curricular, and structured work on students’ vocabulary.
The program has been implemented in three phases. The first schools began in the spring of 2023. The second phase began in the spring of 2024, and the third in the spring of 2025. In the spring of 2026, the program concluded for the third and final cohort. A final report will be completed during the fall semester of 2026 and published on the Swedish home page:
www.intensivsvenska.se
Throughout the project, several reports have been compiled that contain analyses and descriptions of the program and the materials that were developed.
Subject lesson plans are available (in Swedish) for download at Intensisvsvenska.se (under the “Samsyn” tab). Interim reports from the project are also available there.
www.intensivsvenska.se/samsyn