This paper introduces a research and development work in vocational education in two small upper secondary schools in Norway. The project was a part of the “Knowledge promotion reform - from word to deed,” and should be based on a tripartite cooperation between schools, school owners and an external competence program. According to a new curriculum, all students in upper secondary schools should have competencies in English to start university studies. For two years teachers, principals and researchers collaborated to improve the students’ motivation and learning outcomes in the subject English. The text discusses if the teachers’ practices of an invisible pedagogy, with diffuse criteria for evaluation and self-regulated learning contributed to indulgence among teachers and poor learning among students. The study shows that students became more motivated to learn English when teachers introduced for example “writing frames” with explicit criteria for evaluation (according to a visible pedagogy). English became more fun, and more students passed the examination when learning to write an essay by modeling.The paper is based on classroom observations and interviews with six teachers. The main theoretical framework is Bernstein’s theory about visible and invisible pedagogies (Bernstein, 1977) and Nodding’s theory about caring (Noddings, 1984).