Results of social research are nowadays the basis for all kind of decisions – in politics, organization, marketing, finance etc. New findings of social science make their way into everyday’s life knowledge. Therefore it is an essential skill for responsible citizens and relevant for working life to understand social science findings and know how to assess them critically. While arguments drawn from social sciences and small research studies within project work or for thematic studies (“Fachbereichsarbeiten”) as a part of secondary school leaving examinations have become more frequently used in Austrian secondary schools, these schools usually offer few opportunities to develop and exercise competencies of doing, interpreting and critically analysing social research. A research grant by the Austrian Ministry for Science and Research enables a research group from Johannes Kepler University Linz to design, implement and evaluate a “secondary student online panel” (“SchülerInnenOnlinePanel”; see Altrichter et al. 2008) in collaboration with teachers and students from secondary schools which aims to offer to schools an environment for developing such competencies mentioned above. Firstly, the proposed paper will explain the research rationale of the project which is characterized by a twofold objective • Development: On one hand the project aims at developing a StudentOnlinePanel” in a collaborative partnership between social scientists, students from upper secondary schools and their teachers. • Research: On the other hand it intends to study the processes by which secondary students appropriate this research instrument and learn research skills and, thereby, to test its feasibility as a context for learning basic social research competencies in secondary schools.

Secondly, the paper will outline the research approach of the project which consists of the following elements: • Process evaluation: A series of case studies on different aspects of the implementation process will be conducted and continuously used for the further development of the project in an action research approach (see Altrichter et al. 2008). The data base will be made up by both quantitative and qualitative methods such as pre/post surveys of participants, qualitative interviews, (video-) observations, a case study and a reflective research diary. • Product evaluation: During the final phase of the project all participants (including the panel participants) will be asked to record their evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of the “StudentOnlinePanel” on an online questionnaire.

Thirdly, the paper will present and discuss some preliminary results from the first phase of the project. An important focus of analysis will be on gender aspects which, as we hypothesize from other experiences with new technologies (see Paseka 2008), might be a relevant aspect in students’ appropriation of the online panel.