Conducting research by coding and analyzing video material is a complex matter, where reliability and validity are constant issues to keep in mind throughout the process. Thus, being able to rely on standardized coding manuals provide an opportunity to reduce some of the mentioned issues, as well as allow for comparative research across contexts (Klette & Blikstad-Balas, 2018). While standardized manuals provide many benefits, there are some concerns inherent in using such manuals. The present paper draw on video recordings from the LISA Nordic study (Klette, Blikstad-Balas & Roe, 2017), collected in Nordic lower secondary mathematics classrooms. All videos are coded with the Protocol for Language Arts Teaching Observations (PLATO). PLATO divides features of instruction into four overall domains and 12 sub-elements. I will focus on the PLATO sub-element Purpose (Grossman, Loeb & Cohen, 2013) to discuss the fruitfulness of using additional qualitative analysis in unison with standardized manuals to obtain rich analyses of teachers’ goal practices in the observed classrooms. The Purpose code of PLATO is, briefly explained, used to analyse the teacher’s enacted learning goals during the lessons. The rubrics favour elements such as explicitness, alignment between goals and lesson activities, and referring back to the goal. As such, while PLATO Purpose scores may be sufficient for comparing explicitness of learning goals in class and alignment of goals and activities, many other aspects remain hidden. Due to such hidden aspects, two segments with the same score can differ vastly in respect to the nature of the goals. For example, one might be a general content goal, while the other might be a goal focused on specific mathematical skills and procedures. Therefore, while standardized scores are useful when comparing classrooms across different contexts, using more in-depth analyses of video segments in conjunction provides a deeper understanding of the practices of the classroom and allows investigation of practices that are not captured by the manual.

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