Abstracts - Earli

environment consisting of physical, social, emotional, virtual, and innovative aspects. The study ispart of a wider multidisciplinary research developing innovative learning environments for schooleducation, and constructing the future school concept relating to the following perspectives oflearning: formal – informal, physical – virtual, local – global, and distributed – integrated. Thechildren’s views have provided valuable insight into designing this theoretical framework for theschool of the 21st century.N 2031 August 2007 16:00 - 17:20Room: 0.100CPaper SessionProfessional developmentChair:Marold Wosnitza, Universität Koblenz-Landau, GermanyProfessional learning and development: A synthesis of the evidenceHelen Timperley, University of Auckland, New ZealandThis paper synthesises the international evidence related to the effectiveness of professionaldevelopment for teachers in terms of its impact on student outcomes. A realist synthesis approachwas taken for the purpose of answering the question "What works, for whom, under whatcircumstances?" Ninety-six individual and groups of studies that reported the content and activitiesof the professional development, met basic methodological criteria and reported student outcomeswere located. Effect sizes were calculated to differentiate those studies with substantive impact onstudents and those with no or low impact. These studies were mapped onto a theoreticalframework developed from both the theoretical and empirical literature. Findings are presented interms of the context in which the professional development opportunities occurred, the content thatwas learned, the activities constructed to promote the learning, teachers’ learning processes andtheir reactions. In brief, the main discriminator between those studies with greater impact andthose with less was the depth of content learned at a theoretical level with specific assistance givento translate the theory into practice, together with the skills of inquiry that enabled teachers tounderstand whether their changed practice was having the desired impact.Learning from errors at work and its relationship with team climate and individual errororientationJohannes Bauer, University of Regensburg, GermanyRegina H. Mulder, University of Regensburg, GermanyThe paper addresses the question under which circumstances errors occurring in the daily work ofnurses are used as possibilities to learn. Especially knowledge- and rule-based errors bear thepotential for evoking experiential learning and thus for professional development. It is assumedthat the engagement in such error related learning requires a safe environment that enablesadmitting and discussing errors openly, as well as a set of individual orientations that areconductive to such behaviour. The paper reports results from a project incorporating threeempirical studies, two of which are completed. For the third, data are collected in the period Oct.2006 – Jan. 2007. Findings from the first, explorative study indicates that seeking social exchange– 763 –