How do collaborations within the teaching staff and with external partners affect how innovative a school is? This question was pursued by Prof. Dr. Dirk Richter from the University of Potsdam together with Prof. Dr. Cornelia Gräsel and Dr. Ulrike Hartmann from the University of Wuppertal during  three years in the project "CoMMIT". 

The researchers focused on different schools, including those that have been awarded the German School Award. Doing so, they examined the role that collaboration can play in dealing with challenges in an innovative way, in light of various framing conditions (such as a challenging social environment). Overall, the researchs’ aim was to develop concepts, which support schools in establishing beneficial collaborations in their environment, in cooperation with the participating educational institutions.

Within the framework of the project, three sub-studies took place from 2018 to 2020.

Sub-study 1 (duration 10/2018 - 05/2019)

In sub-study 1, the focus is on recording the cooperation activities at all participating schools. With the help of a written survey of teaching staff and interviews with school principals, various forms of cooperation and framework conditions for cooperation are recorded. In addition, characteristics of the development and innovation capacity of the schools will be determined.

Participating schools and federal states
A total of 16 schools of secondary level I and II from 6 federal states are participating. These federal states include Berlin, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. Among the schools surveyed, there are a total of 10 school-award schools.

Sub-study 2 (duration 06/2019 - 09/2019)

In sub-study 2, more detailed and qualitative analyses were conducted on the cooperation structures and development processes (in-depth modules; see figure). The aim of this sub-study was to identify success factors and conditions for success that contribute to an increase in the innovation and development capacity of the school.
To access descriptions of the content and process of the in-depth modules, click on the respective link.

Raining offer for schools

At the end of the project, we would like to offer participating schools an in-service training program to support them in implementing innovative projects for school and classroom development. To this end, the schools were asked about current challenges that they would like to work on as part of an in-school training program. By the end of 2021, all participating schools should have completed an in-service training program that meets their needs.