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This article aims to supplement research on classroom situations by taking into account students’ perspectives on what makes them work. Its interactionist approach considers the issues of school in terms of precision of knowledge but also in terms of justice in student-adult relations. It also adopts a didactic point of view that defines the conditions necessary for teachers and students to carry out joint action. The methodology of the survey is based on interviews with around fifty students from socially contrasted schools, analyzing video sequences of classes of the same level given by a French teacher and a mathematics teacher. The markedly different successes of the two teachers who were filmed encourage students to find explanations for the contrast. The treatment of the students’ responses allows us to propose a typology that takes into account both the problem of knowledge and the personal treatment of students. The model of the teacher who obliges students to follow his or her course and that of the teacher who undertakes to help them grow through knowledge are both eligible, provided that teachers remain faithful to one or the other method.