SOAP in Practice: Learning Outcomes of a Cross-Institutional Innovation Project Conducted by Teachers, Student Teachers, and Teacher Educators

Abstract

This paper reports on a case study investigating learning outcomes at the individual and organizational level of a cross-institutional innovation project based on the SOAP approach. SOAP integrates Schooling of teachers, Organizational development of schools, Action- and development-oriented research, and Professional development of teachers. The innovation project was aimed at combining teachers, student teachers, and teacher educators in an alliance to design and develop new competence-based vocational educational arrangements for pupils. An inductive qualitative analysis of 37 semistructured interviews among the participants revealed seven main categories of individual learning outcomes: attitudes, project design and management, collaboration, action theory, teaching practice, educational principles, and developments within secondary vocational education. Three main categories of organizational learning outcomes were identified: institution-level learning, project-level learning, and combining institution-level and project-level learning. A tension was identified between the participants’ individual interests in learning and personal development, and, the need for organizational learning aimed at improving organizational processes.