On learning that could have happened: The same tale in two cities

•In both studies, the dyads’ interactions displayed a lead-follow pattern.•The dyads did not benefit from learning opportunities afforded by the participation structure.•The asymmetric power-relations might be regarded as inappropriate for peers.•The two cases displayed important similarities across time and geographic locations.•The similarity supports the claim on generalizability of findings in commognitive case studies. In this commognitive study, we take a close look at the interactive problem-solving by two middle-school students’ dyads, one of which participated in research conducted in Montreal, Canada in 1992, and the other, 25 years later, was a part of a classroom investigation in Melbourne, Australia. The present study was inspired by the second author’s impression of similarity between the two cases. Our analyses, conducted with the help of special constructs, participation profiles, participation structures and roles-in-activity, brought two types of results. First, striking likeness was identified between the two cases in the characteristics of interactions that could be responsible for the production and utilization of learning opportunities. Role conflict likely experienced by the participants emerged as a factor undermining the effectiveness of learning-in-peer-interaction. Second, the confirmation of the similarity, combined with a theoretically supported analysis of mechanisms of interaction, corroborated the claim about generalizability of findings in commognitive case studies.