The cooperative research project of the Teacher University Styria and the Karl-Franzens University Graz aims at a powerful intervention in the Styrian Educational System in Austria´s current crucial fields of learning, teaching, school structures and teacher education. Five research teams with altogether 30 researchers from the two universities cooperate systematically with up to 300 schools. It is a project supporting reform initiatives of the regional government and aims at promoting educational effectiveness and quality development. Because of this intention, the project covers a wide range of topics, research questions and objectives and is carried out by a research network consisting of several research teams. The 5 main topics, research questions and objectives of the 5 teams are: 1. "School and Salutogenese" - How do pupils and teachers subjectively perceive school as learning environment and what kind of support do they need for their psycosocial health? - Concepts of optimizing psychosocial learning environments (Project leader: Univ. Ass. Mag. Dr. Hannelore Reicher, University Graz) 2. "Professionalising the Education of Nursery and Elementary School Teachers" - How is it possible to improve the Austrian educational training system for teachers of 3 to 10year old children? - Development and evaluation of academic curricula which train nursery and elementary school teachers (Project leader: Mag. Andrea Holzinger, Teacher University Styria) 3. "Heterogenity as Padagogical Challenge" - Which subjective theories of heterogenity are governing teacher activities in classsrooms? Creation of earning environments which support individual and social learningprocesses (Project leader: Mag. Dr. Erika Rottensteiner, Teacher University Styria) 4. "Learning Processes Mirrored by Neuroscientific Findings" - Which concepts based on neuroscientific findings enable teachers to understand pupils strategies of thinking and learning? - Analysis of pupils academic selfconcept, development and evaluation of a meta-cognitive teaching programm and learning aids (Project leader: Univ. Prof. Mag. Dr. Gunter Iberer, Teacher University Styria) 5. "Full-time Day School as a Place to Learn and Live in" - Which teaching attitudes, learning strategies, padagogical concepts and organisational designs are neccesary for full-time day schools? - Strength/weaknesses and best practice analysis in Styrian full-time day schools, acceptance analysis in Styria (Project leader: Mag. Elgrid Messner, Teacher University Styria)

The project is an applied sciences and field studies project and is designed as a "research-education cooperation". The generation of knowledge aims at improving the quality of actions carried out by persons working in the educational system, researchers of the university systematically cooperate with schools and other educational institutions of the field concerned. Thematically it is profession-oriented and focusses on learning and teaching processes and their supportive and hindering conditions. Research activities act on the principle of mixed methodology and the studies intended are based on multi-perspectivness. Research methods gather data which document the perspectives of acteurs concerned, such as parents, pupils, teachers, students and persons of the administration. Research instruments are qualitative and quantitative instruments, such as questionnaires, focus groups, video studies, comparative studies, etc. Beside analyses and studies useful products, such as learning aids, teacher trainings courses and curricula are especially important.

- Scientific studies on the research questions mentioned above - Development of research instruments - Best practice examples in the region of Styria - Useful products for schools, teachers and teacher trainers - Establishment of thematically oriented teacher or school networks