This paper uses a post-qualitative philosophical perspective to find new ways of understanding teaching and learning. The paper presents a series of examples that were used in a longitudinal study, with the aim of creating variation patterns that would make it possible for students to discern the use of the four basic arithmetic operations in different situations. The focus of this article is the potential of the examples to systematically create variation patterns that students need to perceive in order to make generalizations. The result demonstrates that well-thought-out examples help identify the correct arithmetic operation in different situations, and provide a basis from which students can discern the connection between text and the use of operation in mathematical example. The result also demonstrates that students develop rhizomatic thinking through the creation of new links between aspects of the object of learning, association and linking of different aspects to each other and the creation of a whole with unique and specific characteristics that cannot be explained by simply adding the characteristics of the individual parts.