Currently within the German school system a number of different reforms are simultaneously being undertaken. The main triggers for the continuing pressure to modernise and transform the German school system were the sobering results of German pupils in international assessment tests. As a result, the educational policy makers and administrations in Germany are supporting the reform of the education system through a stronger financial commitment to intervention studies and model projects.

 An essential aim is to generate scientifically based knowledge and to disseminate it into practical settings. Evidence-based change of educational practice emphasizes that only those innovations which have proven effects on pupils should be disseminated, especially with respect to their performance development (Slavin, 2002). In this context a mostly new field of research has established in Germany, focusing on factors that influence the successful transfer of externally developed innovations in educational systems (see Nickolaus & Gräsel, 2006). 

 From a sociological systems theory perspective it is assumed, that externally stimulated transfers into complex social systems are viewed as difficult, due to the internal “forces of inertia” of organisations and their members. For this reason, initiatives to change educational practice should pay greater attention to three main factors: (subjective) characteristics of innovations, organisational and structural properties of the recipients' surroundings (school) and recipients’ attributes (schoolteachers) (Gräsel et al, 2006; Jäger, 2004; see also Hall & Hord, 2006; Berg, Sleegers, Geijsel & Vandenberghe, 2000). 

 Although teachers’ decisions to use the innovations in their classrooms are the current focus of interest, there is little empirical based knowledge about their underlying conditions. The same applies to the students’ decisions to use the innovations. They are regarded as addressees of the educational innovation. Evaluation studies assessing school interventions typically include their achievements as the main indicator of effectiveness. Surprisingly, the students’ specific views on school development are not taken into consideration.

 From this perspective, we examine teachers´ and students’ decisions to use educational innovations in the context of enhancing learning strategy skills during lessons. The aim of the project 'Enhancing Teachers’ Competences in Analysing and Fostering Students’ Learning Strategy Skills' is to qualify teachers in how to diagnose the use of learning strategies in their 5th grade secondary school students and to foster them through specific training. From each of the 40 participating schools in three regions of Germany between 6 and 10 teachers are part of the project. The training includes components to increase cognitive, metacognitive and motivational strategies (e.g. strategies of text comprehension, strategies for evaluating one’s own learning process and individual setting of academic goals).

In the context of the outlined learning strategy training we aspire to answer the following research questions: 

- Which specific decision making criteria to use the externally developed innovation “fostering learning strategy skills of 5th grade students” can be reconstruct?

- Which decision making criteria are identified by the interviewees as being particularly significant when making their decisions to use the externally developed innovation?

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