Since PISA the interest in questions of international school development is highly increased from before. On the level of universities there is a lot of international cooperation: student and staff exchanges, participation in many international exchange and research programmes. Most universities give their students opportunities to study for some time at a foreign partner University. Also education professionals working in the daily school business – headmasters and teachers – have the possibility to participate in the EU exchange and education development programmes. The success of the many programmes has been great and it has opened doors for international cooperation in Europe and beyond. There is, however, the danger that cooperation in the programmes does not always reach the depth needed in order to create a permanent basis for school development and in order to get an intensive knowledge of the everyday work routines of colleagues in other countries. Neither do they give the opportunity for the participants to attain a university certificate enabling them to continue to further studies. Having these ideas in mind, the teachers of the University of Zurich and the Finnish National Centre for Professional Development in Education (OPEKO) created a possibility to gain insight into different school systems during a school year, joining theoretical inputs to practical school work. This insight is more than a short snap shot and offers cooperation on the level of daily school business: Finnish and Swiss school leaders and teachers are working together discussing current themes of school development. The participants are getting theoretical inputs, have the chance to see the daily school business of the partner country and have the opportunity to get advice and support for planning and introducing a new project in their own schools. This project will be a result of the new insights of the studies and is accepted in both countries as a Certificate of Advanced Studies. In addition, the participants have the possibility during that programme, held modularly during 15 months, to discuss their own school projects with partners from the other country and with experts from both universities and other institutes. Well directed theoretical inputs from acknowledged experts to actual themes (PISA, migration, foreign-language teaching, intercultural communication etc.) will build a bridge between theory and practice. The prospect of international perspective concerning school development will give the chance to reflect one’s own daily school life. Starting point of the common studies are attendances in a partner school of the other country. The participants will work in a «tandem-system» which means that small groups of two persons (one of each country and with the same profession: teacher – teacher; headmaster – headmaster) will stay together during the whole course. The status of the on-going work and study will be reflected and assessed at regular intervals. The paper will discuss the idea of the course and will show the possibilities and limits from the point of view of each partner.

The paper is at first based on theoretical and practical analyses of the needs of further education in both countries. As a second step we discuss the specific problems in initiating and managing an international programme that makes the claim of * creating an understanding of and familiarity with the education practices between the two participant countries, * on the basis of that, increasing the knowledge and understanding of other international education practices, * combining theoretical knowledge to the practical work, and teaching the first principles in international comparative education, * creating a permanent basis for school development and for the self development of the teacher and/or the head master. At last we discuss some conclusions of the first course and give a first outlook for the next course.

This new bi-national programme of further education is closely linked to the main conference theme: from teaching to learning. The participants from the two countries are at the same time teachers (showing the partners how the own systems function, with simultaneous discussions and reflections), learners (understanding how the partner is dealing with similar problems, and understanding the theoretical frameworks), and developers (putting the new ideas in to practice!).