this experience as highly motivating and were enthusiastic about the fact that they
“had to think for themselves andfind the solutions”.
The research design did not deliver any test data from these students or from
other primary science classes, but exam results 2012–15 from the QUEST schools
and a cohort of comparable schools were collected. First of all, it must be
emphasized that on average there were no significant differences between students’
exam results at the QUEST schools and schools not participating in the project. The
two groups of schools followed the same average trend over the four years in all
three subjects. This in many ways could have been expected, as student exam
results depend on a very complex range of factors. What is interesting, however, is
that there seems to be some (delayed) correlation between schools with the most
sustained PLC activities (level 4 in Table21.1) and a positive trend in student
results. Table21.1 represents analyses made by two researchers including the
various sources of teacher data. A statistician carried out the analysis of student
exams at a later date. If the full data set is considered, four of the QUEST schools
showed a particular improvement in examination results, among those three of the
four schools (the 10%) coded at level 4 (Table21.1). The last school coded at level
4 in Table21.1was not in the data set as it was a school with only primary science,
but the case school referred to above, coded at level 3, was the last of four QUEST
schools with a particular positive development based on the statistics. It must be
emphasized that the data samples are very small, so it is only possible to talk about
a tendency, and it might be a covariation due to other causes than the CPD, but it is
anyway interesting that the schools with the most sustained local PLC activities are
also schools with improvements in examination results from below average, to
average or above.
21.5.2 Summing up: Factors Supporting Sustainable
Development
Changing the collaborative culture at a school is not without challenges and cer-
tainly takes a lot of time and effort, but explicitly framing such changes as part of a
CPD program seems to be both possible and worthwhile. The analyses presented
here show a positive correlation between perceived effect from a longitudinal CPD
project on collaboration and on science teaching. Furthermore, the data indicates
how the changes teachers make when participating in CPD can influence the
students.
In relation to sustainability the overall conclusion is that the QUEST model so
far has proved to be sustainable: the QUEST rhythm has been institutionalized and
networking across schools and PLC activities continue in allfive municipalities
even though the project has come to an end. Based on the broad range of data,
factors supporting sustainable development at schools participating in a large-scale,
long-term CPD initiative seem to revolve around scaffolding teachers’collaborative
inquiries. The QUEST rhythm provided such a scaffold. The majority of the
326 B.L. Nielsen