Lärandets objekt Vad elever förväntas lära sig, vad görs möjligt för dem att lära och vad de faktiskt lär sig under lektionerna

Sammanfattning: This thesis reports the results from a study focused on the objects of learning. The aim is to analyse and describe how objects of learning are handled in three learning studies. The first question concerns how different aspects of learning is carried out in terms of the intended, enacted and lived objects of learning and their interrelations. The second question concerns the differences and similarities between an object of learning and a learning objective.The theoretical framework for the analysis of this study as well as for the planning instructions is variation theory. The theoretical assumption is that learning is always the learning of something, so as the ability to learn presupposes an experience of variation. Thus, the learner must discern variation in a dimension that corresponds to that aspect in spite of the background of invariance in other aspects of what is to be learned (i.e. the object of learning). In a classroom discourse, the teachers’ as well as the students’ activities constitute the space of learning, which refers to the learning opportunities the students are given, i.e. the enacted object of learning. The intentional object of learning describes the teachers’ intention with the lesson. The lived object of learning is what they actually learn. The object of learning is the compound of two aspects: the direct and the indirect object of learning. The former is defined in terms of content whereas the latter refers to the kind of capability that the students are supposed to develop.The method used is learning study, which can be seen as a hybrid between a design experiment and lesson study. A learning study is theoretically grounded which primary focus is on an object of learning. Here, the teachers and the researcher worked together and had equal status in the group. The objects of learning were chosen by the teachers.The findings should be seen as implications on students’ learning can be understood, depending on how an object of learning is constituted by a teacher in terms of the intended, enacted and lived objects of learning. Another finding is a contribution to the discussion of how teachers’ competences should be constituted.