The aim of this study is to examine how students and teachers experience full class lectures in contrast to working individually in mathematics education. Furthermore, the study explores how different ideas of individualization influence the teaching practice.

The investigation uses qualitative interviews and the survey analysis is based on the phenomenographic method. The interviews took place in two senior level compulsory schools and both teachers and students were interviewed. The ambition has been to explore the teachers’ perspectives regarding their choice of method in the teaching of mathematics. By interviewing the students the aim has been to explore their experience of different teaching methods.

 On the one hand the result shows that the teachers agree on which teaching methods stimulate and help students understand mathematics. On the other hand, the teachers differ on the subject of individualized teaching. The results also show that the students consider full class lectures increase their understanding of mathematics. However, they also state that it sometimes can be difficult to follow or understand the lectures, especially for pupils who find mathematics difficult.