It is undisputed that teacher training is part of the professional self-understanding of teachers (Doll & Prenzel 2004: BIQUA). However, the tuition during the period of study is over-emphasised, inservice training during the practised profession is under rated (Terhart 2000). The few studies that were done to evaluate the effect of teacher training conclude that vocational teacher training is not very effective (e.g. Wolf et al. 1999). It is therefore important to develop alternative methods of teacher training and to evaluate the effects of various methods of further training. One of the most important problems is the fact that the contents of the training are often not transferred to the workplace. In the tradition of research on "inert knowledge" this results from the fact that learning and application situations differ greatly (e.g. Reinmann-Rothmeier & Mandl, 1998). For this reason the teacher training which has been developed for this study, focuses on the basics of "situated learning" (cf. Anderson et al. 2000). In this concept the arrangement of authentic learning situations is its central feature. In a study with student-teachers Fölling-Albers, Hartinger & Mörtl-Hafizovic (2004) could prove, that learning arrangements based on the concept of “situated learning” are successful. But in contrast to the students, teachers, the participants in our study presented here, have a lot of teaching experience. Therefore the means of authenticity should be different from those of students. While students accepted “constructed situations” ("situatedness second hand") as authentic learning situations, perhaps teachers wouldn´t accept it. Therefore we designed vocational training courses for teachers with different marks of authenticity in order to evaluate the effects on learning contents and on the application in practice, in this case: their own lessons at school. In our research-project we pursued the following questions: 1. Is it possible to transfer the concepts of student teacher training courses that are based on concepts of situated learning to vocational teacher training courses? 2. Do situated concepts of vocational teacher training courses lead to better results than traditional concepts, concerning knowledge and transfer into practice? 3. Do different situated learning arrangements concerning authenticity lead to different effects on content knowledge and application? The domain chosen for the training is “literacy”, because during the last decade in literacy education new research data and teaching methods should be taught to elementary school teachers.

The study was conducted with two experimental groups (EG 1 and EG2), and a control group (CG). In EG 1, real problems of teachers in their literacy-lessons were the basis of the training lessons. Theoretical knowledge was given according to the specific experiences of the teachers. In EG 2 “prepared situations” were the basis of the training. These situations were typical classroom situations that emerged out of literacy lessons (“constructed-authentic situations”). The CG received a “traditional”, non-situated training (texts, worksheets, practical examples). The intervention consisted of six 3-hour-units a few weeks apart from each other in the first six months of the first school year. During three measuring points (before, immediately after and four months after the intervention) quantitative data was collected (questionnaires) from all the members of the courses. Qualitative data was collected from four selected teachers in each group (videos of reading and writing lessons and interviews).

Two studies of situated learning with university student-teachers demonstrated a clear superiority of situated learning in terms of the transfer of knowledge, but also of interest and intrinsic motivation, compared to “traditional” lectures. The core of the present study is the comparison between the different situated learning models: “primary authenticity”, the problems of current issues of teachers (EG1), vs. “secondary authenticity”, i.e. prepared, constructed situated learning arrangements (EG2). It will also be reported, to which extent the knowledge gained in the two situated learning groups (EG1 and EG2) differs from the control group (CG). Both factual knowledge as well as the ability to apply this knowledge will be compared. Data about motivation of the participants, on the process of knowledge elaboration and on contentedness with the training shall complete the results.