This paper will focus on some of the unforeseen consequences of using individualized methods when organising classroom learning in mathematics. Linked to the comparative ambition of the international PISA tests, little attention is given to idiosyncratic features in the national educational systems of the participant nations. Due to our qualitative classroom approach, we have been able to observe that work plans are an important organisational tool in Norwegian classrooms that to a large extent mediate joint activity of teacher and student. At all the six classrooms in the PISA+ study the teachers used work plans to organise students' activity. The work plan describes what the students are supposed to do in the different school subjects over a certain period.. An important consequence of using work plans is that a large part of the time allocated to mathematics is used on individual work. This seems to: reduce the opportunities for student cooperation reduce the time available for open class discussions reduce the opportunity to talk mathematics with peers  These findings indicate that learning is being individualized and to a large extent treated as a private endeavour and which could be of importance when attempting to explain the achievement patterns of the Norwegian PISA results.