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The overall aim of this licentiate thesis is to describe and analyze the interaction between the conditions for students’ learning in the context of ten-year-old students in two classrooms in Sweden. These conditions are delimited toward furnishing and teaching materials and teachers’ and students’ actions. The study is inspired, but not characterized by a case study methodology employing plural methods. These methods include participant observations (field notes, tape recordings and photographs) and in-depth interviews with the teachers. The two cases are framed by their learning environments, in two classrooms in the fourth grade of two Primary schools.

The result shows that the interaction between the three conditions is important for student learning. When furniture, learning materials and the teacher's actions reflect a coherent view of learning, students seem to act in accordance with the teachers’ pedagogical beliefs. This means that by using the furniture and teaching materials based on the belief that, for example, interaction is important and is proven through action, a teacher supports interaction among students. When these two conditions do not reflect a coherent view of learning and learners, students seem to act in accordance with what the teacher shows in action. These findings point to the fact that this study's main contribution lies in its methodology. The teachers’ considerations are not always expressed in their actions. This conclusion can be understood through Rogoff’s (1990) analytical model of an apprenticeship system. The students observe their teachers’ actions and act in the same way as the "master" does. In this sense, my study discerns teachers’ guidance as hierarchically superior to the students' actions (see Rogoff, 1990). The teachers’ considerations, the furnishing and teaching materials seem to have less impact on the students’ opportunities to learn than what the teacher actually shows in action.