The presentation is based on the project framed by the question: “How can various work methods focusing on learning strategies contribute to each and every child’s social and subject development. The teachers at the 8th, 9th and 10th grade level in the studied practices experience their work as consisting of a variety of duties, and among them, of course, the pupils’ learning. The purpose of the presentation is to show how a project involving a researcher and a teacher team encourages the teachers to reflect on teaching processes, and, furthermore, to show what the form and content of such reflection processes could be. I, the researcher, had defined my role as trying to keep the teachers on track during their reflections, and furthermore to connect their experiences to theories. My assumption was that theory can help teachers to analyse and understand practice, that theory can help them to argue for their teaching practice, and that theory can help them see possibilities for development in their practice. You will learn that I hade to change my assumptions about theories. In connecting theory and practice, teachers were shown how to reflect before action, reflecting on prior experiences by using theory, and how they can reflect in action and on action (Schön, 1987), connecting theoretical concepts to their teaching practice. In this way theories served as a tool in reflection processes, reflection processes that could help the teachers to see the connection between everyday actions and scientific concepts. In this presentation I discuss when theories should be introduced and what theory teachers’ need to reflect on and furthermore improve their practice. In this discussion I illustrate with an example from a lesson in mathematics observed and reflected on.

The cooperation work between the teachers and me, the researcher, was guided by R&D work (research and development work) developed by Engeström (2001). This work is based on the activity system (Engeström, 1987, 1999) and the expansive learning circle (Engeström, 2001). The expansive learning circle visualized the development process. To make the research process visible, Postholm and Moen (2009) has made a new model building on Lewin (1952), Carr and Kemmis (1986), Coghlan og Brannick (2005) and Engeström (2001). During R&D work all forms of data collection are possible, and I used observations of teaching processes, reflection dialogues together with the teachers and interviews with them to understand their practice and thoughts. I recorded all the dialogues and interviews, and all the recordings have been transcribed and analysed by using the constant comparative method (Strauss & Corbin, 1998).

When researchers are together with the teachers in their practice, researching with them, their role is to facilitate teachers in their work to make a better practice. This challenges researchers’ communicative, social and knowledge competence. The study shows that teachers furthermore, have to see the need for development and willingly participate in developmental processes, listening to and using researchers as resource persons. Within a cultural context meeting these requirements there are possibilities for both parties to learn. The researcher can develop her understanding about the studied practice and furthermore bring this knowledge into further research. The teachers can develop their understanding about their own and others teaching, which they can utilize in their daily practice. So, an R&D project can lay the foundation for knowledge construction for all participants. The project shows that when teachers question their own practice, they can transcend their teaching, meaning they can think of and see new things. Furthermore, the teachers find it useful to exchange experiences and tips which they later adapt to their own teaching. They utter that they become very positive to development when it is so useful.