PELT/PDTT [Professional Development of Teacher(Team)s, Stern/Streissler 2006] was an interdisciplinary qualitative case study research with three teacher teams cooperating with IMST [Innovations in Mathematics and Science Teaching] and was carried out in 2006. The IMST-Fund is a support system targeted at improving science teaching through school projects in Austria since 2004 (URL1, Krainer 2002). The research questions of PELT/PDTT were: • Which competencies do the teachers want to expand by engaging in their own project? • Which progress in professional development can be perceived in the course of a one year investigation? • Which kind of support is regarded as helpful by the teachers for their professional development, and does the “IMST-Fund” offer this support? The objectives of the study were thus: • exploring the professional development of teacher teams cooperating with scientists (case studies on changes in beliefs, attitudes and practice) • establishing criteria for assessing the professional development of teachers • sharing methodological knowledge and data with the teachers concerned • improving teacher support by investigating what fosters and what impedes innovative activities (contribution to an evaluation of the IMST-fund). Much of the literature on PD focuses strongly on learning environments and classroom activities (Weinert 2001, Messner 2004), whereas organizational and societal issues are increasingly becoming more important aspects of the teaching profession (Altrichter 1996, Altrichter/Krainer 1996, Stern 2002/03, Kreis/Stern 2005). The 12 criteria of PD which were developed in the course of the project focus on the classroom (criteria 1-4), school organization (5-8) and personal development concerning beliefs and attitudes about the teachers’ role in society (9-12). They are: 1. innovative teaching and learning methods 2. current developments in maths & science education 3. creating suitable conditions for learning (material resources, time, staff) 4. taking students’ perspectives into account 5. teamwork 6. organizational development (including parents) 7. cooperation with institutions outside school 8. dissemination & public relations 9. evaluation of the effects of teacher’s actions 10. pro-active attitude towards professional development („LLL“) 11. attitudes and beliefs about teaching & learning 12. ideas about mathematical & science literacy. In the first part of the paper we discuss different international models of PD many of which are strongly based on classroom performance, in the second part we provide an overview of our own empirical research and in the third part we present our own conceptualisation of PD, namely the 12 criteria listed above.

Influenced by action research and ethnography, the core ideas of the research design were: • a research partnership (empowering the teachers as co-researchers) • research as a stimulus for PD (instead of generating theoretical knowledge for its own sake). The three teachers/teams were carefully chosen to be as diverse as possible regarding topic, school type and location. The research methodology combined deductive and inductive elements, based on previous work on PD (Stern 2002/03, Stern/Kreis, 2005) and exploratory case studies. A triangulation of different research methods was employed (interviews, informal talks, written reflections, questionnaires, group interviews, document analysis, photos and observation), engaging different social actors (the teachers, headmaster/headmistress, teacher colleagues and pupils). Research is regarded as an intervention, providing opportunities for the researchers to reflect about the validity of their findings and for the teachers to adjust their projects in the light of the data.

Despite their great differences, we found common features of PD in all 3 cases: 1. a willingness and risk to use unusual didactic settings and methods in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning 2. a focus on interdisciplinary teamwork 3. a willingness to increase pupils independence and responsibility by letting them participate in planning and reflecting the project, thus changing teachers’ role models from instructors to coaches 4. attention to a suitable organizational framework (including support from inside and outside school) Furthermore, findings from the three case studies suggest that professional development cannot be restricted to progress regarding just one or a few of the 12 criteria proposed. It is rather characterized by a simultaneous expansion of a larger number of competencies. An additional result was a slight revision and refinement of the set of criteria for pd for future research.