Explore the vast range of titles available.

PurposeThis study determines which aspects of the intended object of learning (planned by teachers during the first phase of a learning study) is made discernible from a learners' perspective. In a learning study, the intended, enacted, and lived object of learning are considered. This study focuses on the learning material used by teachers while designing a lesson.Design/methodology/approachIn many learning studies, variation theory is used to design lessons, which predicts difficulties in and possibilities for student learning. The data consisted of a lesson part – instruction through a video-recorded dance choreography – employed to enhance primary school (in a Swedish context, grade 4) students' dancing skills in the subject of Physical Education and Health. The choreography comprised five different sequences, where a variation occurred when the subsequent (new) sequence was applied to the previous movement pattern. The sequences acted as building blocks, where the students' transitions from one movement pattern to another were logical and distinguishable.FindingsThe results of this study show in what way an analysis of learning material, based on variation theory, can help teachers take into account the level of complexity of the object of learning. The results also identify which parts of a lesson design can be predicted to present a higher degree of challenge and by that more difficult to grasp, especially for students with different educational needs.Originality/valueLessons may be designed based on theoretical assumptions to ensure effective classroom learning and provide guidance to teachers based on student needs.

Constructive alignment has emerged as a powerful curriculum design idea, but little is known of the extent to which the effectiveness of this idea is a function of qualitative variation. This article introduces a model of qualitative variation in constructive alignment, and uses the results from known alignment studies to test the model. The research reviewed reveals that university teachers have at least two qualitatively different experiences of the core elements of constructive alignment. The teachers who describe their approaches to teaching as involving conceptual change/development intentions with student-focused strategies were found to be likely to see the intended learning outcomes for students in more holistic terms, and assessment as an integral part of that teaching approach. When teachers had more of an intention to transfer information using teacher-focused strategies, they saw the object of study more in terms of parts (concepts, definitions, formulae) with assessment focused on those parts. The implications of this qualitative variation in constructive alignment for curriculum design and for the quality of the outcomes of student learning is discussed. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).