In the beginning of the 21^st century there is a worldwide emphasis on education as an agency to develop future societies. This is evident in a recent UNESCO document about education for sustainable development, in an OECD paper about definition and selection of competences (OECD, 2002), and in documents from the European Commission (European Communities, 2007; European Commission, 2012) outlining key competences for European citizens in the future knowledge society, and assessment criteria for those competences.

In Iceland the above emphasis is reflected in new curriculum guidelines for pre-primary, compulsory and upper secondary education (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, n.d.). These three school stages share six fundamental pillars of education and the outcomes of schooling are built around knowledge, skills and competences. Five key competences aimed for at the end of compulsory education are derived from the fundamental pillars. They relate to: 1) Literacy and communication of thoughts, feelings, opinions and knowledge, both orally and in writing, 2) creative thinking, and the ability to draw conclusions and seek new solutions, 3) working independently and in cooperation with others, 4) responsible, creative and critical handling of knowledge and information, 5) responsibility for own education and evaluation of own performance. The importance of democratic participation and inclusion is also underlined (Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, 2012).

However, policies and curriculum intentions have little impact unless they are brought to bear in what actually happens in classrooms, and in the outcomes of students´ attained curriculum (Sigþórsson, 2011; van den Akker, 2003, 2009). Shepard (2000) has described her vision of the classroom practices in the 21^st century as a learning culture built on cognitive and constructivist learning theories, a conviction that all students can learn and deserve challenging learning activities and equal learning opportunities, and formative classroom assessment. Hayes, Mills, Christie and Lingard (2006) also describe the features of classroom practices that enhance learning, as productive pedagogies, that result in productive performance. Productive pedagogies are characterised by intellectual quality, connectedness, supportive classroom environment, and working with and valuing difference. Productive pedagogies result in productive academic and social performance, characterised amongst other things by problematic knowledge, higher order thinking, depth of understanding, elaborated communication, cultural knowledge and responsible citizenship.

In light of the policy and curriculum intentions described above this paper reports the findings of an investigation into the classroom and learning practices that could be seen in the lower secondary stage of 14 Icelandic compulsory schools. The aim of the study was to shed light on the following issues: 1) Students views on themselves as learners and their attitudes about the teaching and learning arrangements of their schools, 2) the general pedagogical practice in their classrooms, 3) in what ways the curriculum addressed and valued students’ difference and enabled them to influence their own learning.

European Commission. (2012). Assessment of Key Competences in initial education and training: Policy guidance. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/rethinking/sw371_en.pdf European Communities. (2007). Key competences for lifelong learning: European Reference Framework. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/publ/pdf/ll-learning/keycomp_en.pdf Hacker, R. G. and Rowe, M. J. (1997). The impact of the National Curriculum development on teaching and learning behaviours. International Journal of Science Education, 19, 997–1004. Hayes, D., Mills, M., Christie, P. and Lingard, B. (2006). Teachers and schooling making a difference: Productive pedagogies, assessment and performance. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. (n.d.). National curriculum guides. Retrieved from http://eng.menntamalaraduneyti.is/publications/curriculum/ Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. (2012). The Icelandic national curriculum guide for compulsory school: General section. Retrieved from http://brunnur.stjr.is/mrn/utgafuskra/utgafa.nsf/RSSPage.xsp?documentId=C590D16CBC8439C500257A240030AE7F&action=openDocument UNESCO (2009). Review of contexts and structures for education for sustainable development 2009. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001849/184944e.pdf OECD. (2002). Definition and selection of the competences (DeSeCo): Theoretical and conceptual foundations. Retrieved from http://www.deseco.admin.ch/bfs/deseco/en/index/02.parsys.34116.downloadList.87902.DownloadFile.tmp/oecddesecostrategypaperdeelsaedcericd20029.pdf Shepard, L. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4–14. Sigþórsson, R. (2011). Virk námskrá í íslensku í 6. og 7. bekk grunnskóla í ljósi samræmda íslenskuprófsins í 7. bekk. Tímarit um menntarannsóknir (Journal of Educational Research), 8,124–143. van den Akker, J. (2003). Curriculum perspectives: An introduction. In J. van den Akker, W. Kuiper and U. Hameyer (Eds.), Curriculum landscape and trends (bls. 1–10). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. van den Akker, J. (2009). Curriculum in development. Retrieved from http://www.slo.nl/downloads/2009/curriculum-in-development.pdf/