The “Pedagogic Workshop on Learning: Individually and Together” is a school and lesson development project by the German School Academy that aims to support dealing with heterogeneity in the classroom in a productive way. The workshop focuses on jointly developing and applying didactic-methodological teaching concepts that are equally directed towards individual and cooperative learning. The Pedagogic Workshop on Learning consists of two phases, each of which stretches over a full school year and is guided by teacher trainers. In the first phase, in which small teams of teachers from multiple schools participate, the work of the inter-school workshop takes place in five modules. In parallel to the modules, school development advisors are trained; in the second phase, these individuals guide the entire school staff on how the findings can be sustainably incorporated into the school and lessons. A subsequent third phase is led by the school itself.

The central aim of the evaluation was to examine the extent to which the teachers in the schools that participated in the Pedagogic Workshop on Learning changed their teaching with regard to dealing with heterogeneity. Linked to this, the conditions for the success of possible changes at the level of teaching were assessed using a longitudinal mixed-method design. For this purpose, the various groups of actors involved in or affected by the PWL—the participants in the modules, the teaching staff, the head teachers, and the process advisors—were surveyed at several measurement points. Interviews with the process advisors were additionally conducted. Moreover, the modules, the school in-house development days, and individual lessons given by participating teachers were observed.

Flyer PWL