The same lesson in two different cultures – what differs and what is the same A learning study on reading comprehension in Sweden and Hong Kong

Abstract

This project is about the relationship between what happens in the classroom and what the students learn from reading. We have found that what the students learn may differ in different classes radically even if the school resources are the same, learning is organized in the same way, even if the students are equally capable and motivated and even if the teachers are equally well educated and experienced. We have found that radical differences in what the students learn frequently originate from differences in how the content of learning is handled, structured in the interaction between teachers and students. Such differences have to do with what is made possible for the students to discern, to notice, to become aware of, through what is said, what is exemplified, what commonalities and what differences are brought out by means of discernment, simultaneity and the systematic use of variation. The study is a comparison between how reading comprehension is taught in two different cultures, Sweden and Hong Kong. The same lesson, developed and designed in Hong Kong, and content is given to three school year four-classes in Sweden and one school year-four class in Hong Kong, in the learning study model. The results show the similarities and differences between the learning outcomes, but also the similarities and differences in how the teachers offer the students to experience the object of learning and what implications this have on the student‘s results. The results show how powerful the design of the lessons is independent of the different cultural settings.