Difficulties to learn something and giving wrong answers to teacher questions in front of peers are often a source of emotional distress among students. At worst, failures may raise a fear of losing one’s face and decrease motivation for learning. Therefore, the pedagogical ways of teachers to treat these kinds of situations play a crucial role in creating an encouraging classroom atmosphere for all students. The feedback given by a teacher can either improve or worsen the performance of the students (Hamre & Pianta 2005; Hattie & Timperley 2007; Kluger & DeNisi 1996). The aim of this paper is to examine how students refer to their ignorance, error making and failures in naturalistic classroom situations. The research questions are the following: 1) How do students express their ignorance and difficulties to learn something in classroom interaction? and 2) How do teachers react to these utterances of ignorance, incompetence and incomprehension expressed by students? The theoretical framework of the paper is based on the social constructionist approach. Thus, learning difficulties are defined as relative, socially created phenomena, the meanings of which vary according to classroom context and the definers of difficulties.

The paper is based on the research data consisted of videotaped recordings of classroom interaction in two part-time special education settings, in two special education small groups and in two inclusive classrooms in grades 1 – 6 and in grades 7 – 9. The amount of the videotaped data is 78 lessons. The data has been analyzed by applying conversation analysis methods. The use of conversation analysis represents the micro-analysis of the data. The consequences and meanings of learning difficulties can be primarily concluded by examining how students and teachers themselves create meanings to them by interpreting each other’s intentions and responding to the turns of one another (see Heritage 2005). The paper is part of the larger research project called “Something special in pedagogy? Classroom interaction in special education settings and inclusive education environments” funded by the Academy of Finland.

The results show that dealing with the learning difficulties of students in actual classroom interaction is a complicated and context-bound phenomenon in both special education and inclusive education settings. The reactions of the students to their own ignorance ranged from explicit expressions of incompetence (e.g., “I can’t grasp this”) to more implicit ways of reacting (e.g., nervous laughing, denying to show one’s performances to a teacher). In addition to the specific context of failures (e.g., difficulty to answer a teacher’s question), the reactions seemed to be influenced by their functions (e.g., asking for help; task avoidance). Similarly, the teacher interpretations of the utterances of students had an effect on how teachers reacted to them (e.g., paying no attention to them; giving instructional support). Pedagogical implications of the research results are discussed from the viewpoints of inclusive education and the use of various instructional strategies in heterogeneous classrooms.