Dichotomies Revisited: Intellectual Challenge and Teachers’ Explanations in Nordic Classrooms in Mathematics, Language Arts, and Social Science

Teaching practice is frequently phrased in dichotomous terms, such as inquiry-based versus traditional, and student-centred versus teacher-centred. At the same time, in some of the same lessons in the LISA Nordic data, students can be seen to engage in rigorous activities, such as justifying and defending their positions, while teachers engage in conceptually rich and clear explanations of content. This means that there are multiple examples of intellectual challenge and representation of content co-occurring at high levels within lessons. In a simplified view of teaching and learning, this can be seen as a paradox. Is the teaching inquiry-based or traditional? Is it student-centred or teacher-centred? We present an instructional format timeline, along with illustrative example vignettes, from lessons scored at the highest levels in these elements in mathematics, language arts, and social science across all five Nordic countries. We challenge the notion of teaching and learning in “either–or” exclusive terms and provide empirical vignettes of the multitude of ways in which lessons transcend supposedly different ends of a (dichotomous) spectrum. We then discuss how precise and meaningful concepts provide more benefit to educational researchers and practitioners compared to the polarising nature of dichotomies.