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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to contribute to the conceptual classification of learning study as a research approach.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is mainly theoretical, drawing on articles concerning classroom‐based research approaches as well as on some distinctions between a university‐based science of the universal and a clinical science of the particular.FindingsThe main argument of the article is that learning studies can neither be subsumed under “design and development research” (because this type of research does not include the professional actor) nor under “teacher research” (because it does not pay much attention to theoretical knowledge) nor should it be regarded as a hybrid between design experiments and lesson studies. In spite of similarities to both it should rather be described as clinical research (in analogy to medical clinical research). The use of teachers’ experiences and tacit knowing in the knowledge‐producing process, the iterative process of specification of theory, and the uniqueness of the learning problems among different groups of pupils are central aspects of a particularistic clinical research process. In comparison with lesson study, the learning study is more focussed on constructing knowledge concerning objects of learning as well as teaching‐learning relations. Teachers are included in the research as interpretative professionals making professional sense of particular educational events.Originality/valueThe paper promotes the conceptual discussion of the learning study approach, as well as of both lesson and learning studies as research approaches, i.e. as knowledge‐producing practices.

In this article the theme of individualisation of teaching is described and analysed. In the light of a fairly long tradition of a comprehensive school system embracing the idea of individualisation, we expected this to be an important aspect of ongoing changes in Nordic schools. Individualisation can be seen as continuity in the pedagogical ideas-at the same time the meaning of individualisation changes along with other changes in school and society. While in Sweden and Norway the appearance of self-regulatory individualised ways of working in the end of the twentieth century is quite strong, it is not so obvious in the other countries. In the article the theme of individualisation is treated from the perspective of each country. Based on these case descriptions, similarities and differences are discussed. Nordic Schooling and Teaching TraditionsDuring the twentieth century, connected comprehensive school systems were developed and expanded in all Nordic countries. A comprehensive school system in Nordic terms refers to a unified, unstreamed school system where all pupils, despite academic and economic backgrounds and resources, are enrolled in the same agebased school. The Nordic comprehensive model further implies both theoretical and practical training and should, in principle, provide the students with the same structural possibilities for learning in terms of teacher competence, class size, text materials and other sources for structural support. The comprehensive school system includes primary and lower secondary levels (1-6/7 and 7-9/10) in all five countries.

Teacher training is still a problematic subject in projects to reform education systems. Through the quest for quality education, it has experienced major changes in different contexts in connection with the process of "professionalization". The different mechanisms of this training must allow teachers to acquire disciplinary knowledge and develop skills in order to be able to build quality teaching and learning. In addition, there seems to be a relationship between the effectiveness of the teacher and the level of quality of his training. Study results have revealed particularly poor performance levels among students whose teachers are characterized by "poor quality education and uncontrolled knowledge in the subjects they teach" (Bidjang, S. G. , 2005). In other words: the effectiveness of teaching depends at least to a significant extent on what "the teachers bring". Morocco in the last reform took up professionalization and universitarization as new approaches to teacher training. However, despite the progress recorded in terms of educational training provision, the reform has not been accompanied through strategic measures. Training in Morocco appears to suffer from a number of shortcomings. The objective of the study is to discover, thanks to the comparison of two training systems (France and Morocco) if there are characteristics which would allow us to understand the relative "advantages" of one system compared to another, and to what extent such a comparison would help us improve Morocco's. The country in question are considered to have the best performing education systems globally. This involves carrying out a comparative documentary study, that is to say analyzing existing documents on teacher training systems by comparing them in the mentioned context.

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