Students’ deviations from a learning task: An activity-theoretical analysis

• The interpretive dynamics at play when students faced a school task were explored.
• The concept of personal sense was used to examine students’ deviations from a task.
• The study suggests a multi-layered conceptualization of interpretive dynamics.
• The study found both restrictive and expansive interpretative dynamics at play.
• The productive deviations from the task expanded the students’ task interpretations.

Students’ interpretations of school tasks that deviate from teachers’ intended assignments have seldom been the object of empirical analyses, though disregarding such interpretations can seriously hinder attempts to understand how students relate to assigned tasks. This study utilized the activity-theoretical concept of personal sense for disclosing students’ deviations from an inquiry-learning task extending over seven lessons in a Finnish primary school classroom. The study suggests a multi-layered conceptualization of disruptive and productive deviations from the assigned task. The conceptualization focuses on students’ connections to the broader contexts of the activities they inhabit and to the socio-emotional aspects of the task. The paper concludes with reflections about the pedagogical implications for supporting students to elaborate their personal sense of school tasks.