The main objective of this study is to describe and analyze content, processes and results of a professional development project ongoing in 13 kindergartens, 7 elementary schools and the educational psychology service in a Norwegian municipality.

The professional development project is based on an evaluation of the special education in the municipality (Aasen, Kostøl, Nordahl and Wilson 2009). In this municipality more students than the national average received special education. For the 2008/09 school year 9.6% of the students received special education, while the national average was 7.2 %. The municipality also experienced a marked increase in the percentage of students receiving special education. The main findings in the evaluation are: 1) A unilateral application of the individual perspective on student problems in school. 2) An unintended effect of early intervention. 3) Lack of awareness and use of research -based knowledge at all levels.

The professional development project started in January 2013 and ends in December 2015, and involves regular reflection in groups, mentoring, observation, educational practice, analysis and evaluation of educational practice and dedication of research -based knowledge. The expected outcomes for the project are: "To develop skills and strategies that enable schools and kindergarten to develop a good learning environment, with improved learning outcomes and children/ students wellbeing as a result ".

Professional development at the workplace takes place jointly and simultaneously with the ordinary work carried out, and thus differs from learning to the teaching contexts and learning primarily aimed as an individual activity (Elkjær 2005). A learning organization can be understood as an ideal image (Finger and Brand 1999), and organizational learning represents a means to approach this condition (Irgens 2011). This means that a learning organization seen in conjunction with the organization's work toward managing stability and change in the organization and where the work directed towards ideal image takes place in continuous processes. According Senge (1990) revolves organizational learning that the organization's leaders and employees are continuously improving their abilities to realize the results that they want to achieve, while Levitt and March (1988 ) defines organizational learning in relation to the establishment of knowledge in the organization's structure where knowledge enshrined in the form of routines. With routines meant not only rules, procedures, work schedules and job descriptions, but also shared mental models that culture, paradigms and shared beliefs (Irgens 2011).

The theoretical framework for the study is social learning theory, based on John Dewey (1859-1952) pragmatic perspective on learning, as Professor Bente Elkjær has redefined and processed into what she calls "the third way" in the field of organizational learning theory. Learning is understood as a combination of both individual and collective processes, where activities and interactions together held by the members have access to shared resources, development of a shared ideology and loyalty and getting a shared commitment to the organization's life and work (Elkjær 2004). This means that the organization is seen as a social world consisting of individuals, groups and organization as a whole, and as mutually constitutive and constituted through action and interaction in the organization. In the social world is also regarded body, intuitions and emotions as important for understanding learning (Elkjær 2004; Irgens 2011; Gray 2013) .

Research questions are:

Which development do the results from the first to second survey show on the various thematic areas (Culture, teaching, student motivation and effort and experience of behavioral)?

Which structures, academic content and work characterizes the professional development project?

What experiences related to the implementation of the project do the teachers have, and how can these experiences be related to the theoretical contribution in the study?

Elkjær, B. (2004): Organizational Learning. The “Third Way”. Management Learning, 35 (4), 419 -434. Finger, M., & Brand, S., B. (1999): The concept of the “learning organization” applied to the transformation of the public sector. I: M. Easterby-Smith, L., Araujo & J. Burgoyne (red.), Organizational Learning and the Learning Organization (s. 130-156). London: Sage. Grey, C. (2013): A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying organizations. Sage, London. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Irgens, E. (2011): Dynamiske og lærende organisasjoner. Ledelse og utvikling i et arbeidsliv i endring. Fagbokforlaget. Bergen. Nordahl, Thomas, Anne Kostøl, Anne-Karin Sunnevåg, Hege Knudsmoen, Trond Johnsen og Lars Qvortrup (2012): Kvalitet i dagtilbuddet – set med børneøjne. En kortlægning af pilotprojektet: LP-modellen i de kommunale dagtilbud. Fredrikshavn: Dafolo forlag. Nordenbo, S. E. (2008). Lærerkompetanser og elevers læring i barnehage og skole: et systematisk review utført for Kunnskapsdepartementet, Oslo. [København]: Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsforlag og Dansk Clearinghouse for Uddannelsesforskning. Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Roth, G. and Smith, B. (1999): The Dance of Change. The challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations. A Fifth Disipline Resource. London: Nicholas Breadley Publishing.