In recent years, in many countries projects have been conducted that aim at disseminating research-based knowledge into the practical field of education. Many of these projects are based on theories of constructivist or situated learning (Putnam & Borko, 2000). Implementation projects based on theories of situated learning use what is called a "symbiotic approach" to point out the reciprocal dependency and profit of researchers and practitioners. This theoretical view of learning has been applied to the learning of teachers, yielding new forms of professional development as well as other forms of implementation. Symbiotic implementation can be characterised by the following aspects: A) It is a co-operative process in which teachers and researchers work together for a significant duration in learning communities. B) The process can be characterised by constant development: Changes to, and revisions of, the innovation are not only allowed, but regarded as essential in adapting the innovation to different situations and conditions (Parchmann et al., 2006). As a consequence, teachers view themselves as an important and responsible part of the project and aim at influencing the process and the results of the project. In our paper we argue that the specific role teachers play in projects with an approach of symbiotic implementation leads to specific consequences in terms of design and methods to be used in these projects.Our findings stem from the project "Chemie im Kontext" (Chemistry in Context, CHiK). "CHiK" is a project dealing with curriculum development for secondary schools (Parchmann et al., 2006). The curriculum aims to foster the acquisition of applicable knowledge and to raise the interest of students for chemistry. CHiK uses a conceptual framework based on three guiding principles: (A) The context-based teaching units are based on relevant and authentic topics and questions, which provide the guidelines for teaching. (B) A variety of teaching and learning methods enable students to integrate their ideas, and helps them to construct their own knowledge. (C) Particular concepts are picked up again and again in different units and different contexts to enhance understanding and transfer of knowledge. CHiK offers a conceptual framework for teaching and learning chemistry that has to be adapted to specific constraints, e.g. the contents of ministerial syllabi.At the beginning of the project, we pursued a kind of research that is common in Educational Psychology: We used questionnaires and tests to assess the view of teachers and the effects of the lessons on student learning. A major finding of this first phase of the project was that this research approach wasn't appropriate to our symbiotic implementation strategy: Especially, teachers didn't accept to fill out the questionnaires. On the other hand, some of the teachers began to develop elaborated methods to assess the quality of their teaching and to document their lessons. They wanted to get a more precise insight how CHiK could help them to enhance their teaching within the given constraints in their specific school. Thus, we changed our research methodology: First, we started a closer co-operation with teachers concerning the planning of research; furthermore we offered support and tools for teachers' own research activities. Secondly, we used interviews and telephone interviews instead of questionnaires to obtain relevant information about the success of the implementation of CHiK. These methods as well as the closeness to action research were more successful.Our experiences with the two different approaches of research will be discussed with respect to the appropriateness of research in implementation projects.Gräsel, C., Nentwig, P. & Parchmann, I. (2005). Chemie im Kontext: Curriculum develop-ment and evaluation strategies. In J. Bennett, J. Holman, R. Millar & D. Waddington (Eds.), Making a difference: Evaluation as tool for improving science education (pp. 53-66). Münster: Waxmann.Parchmann, I., Graesel, C., Baer, A., Demuth, R. & Ralle, B. (2006). Chemie im Kontext - a symbiotic implementation of a context-based teaching and learning approach. International Journal of Science Education, 22, 1041-1062.Putnam, R. T. & Borko, H. (2000). What do new views of knowledge and thinking have to say about research on teacher learning? Educational Researcher, 29(1), 4-15.