School in a digital information society is, among other things, considered to be characterized by independent work. Pupils get instructed to produce different texts that require them to master a variety of competences such as different writing skills, adaptation to genre, and ability to value and to make use of a number of institutional resources. Decisions concerning their work are described as to be handled individually.

In Sweden a political controversy has emerged concerning the quality (expressed in grades) that self regulated, individual work forms lead to. Supported by results from studies like PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS it has been argued that self regulated work forms are one cause behind a decline in pupils’ results as compared to the results in other countries.

Drawing on perspectives on instructed action, and making a distinction between the text and the work, we discuss the transparency of instructions and pupils’ understanding of genre.

The empirical material has been drawn from video recorded sessions where pupils are participating in collaborative writing. Our results suggest a need to scrutinize how pupils deal with dilemmas of doing project work if we are to understand and value the work that is carried out. They also lead us to highlight the role of the teacher and question what is actually meant by an increase in independent, self regulated work forms and how these are organised. A focus on the work reveals that pupils often work as small epistemic communities and invoke different resources such as parents, tutors, and peers to guide their grappling with instructions 

School in a digital information society is, among other things, considered to be characterized by independent work. Pupils get instructed to produce different texts that require them to master a variety of competences such as different writing skills, adaptation to genre, and ability to value and to make use of a number of institutional resources. Decisions concerning their work are described as to be handled individually.

In Sweden a political controversy has emerged concerning the quality (expressed in grades) that self regulated, individual work forms lead to. Supported by results from studies like PISA, TIMMS and PIRLS it has been argued that self regulated work forms are one cause behind a decline in pupils’ results as compared to the results in other countries.

Drawing on perspectives on instructed action, and making a distinction between the text and the work, we discuss the transparency of instructions and pupils’ understanding of genre.

The empirical material has been drawn from video recorded sessions where pupils are participating in collaborative writing. Our results suggest a need to scrutinize how pupils deal with dilemmas of doing project work if we are to understand and value the work that is carried out. They also lead us to highlight the role of the teacher and question what is actually meant by an increase in independent, self regulated work forms and how these are organised. A focus on the work reveals that pupils often work as small epistemic communities and invoke different resources such as parents, tutors, and peers to guide their grappling with instructions