"Professional Development and School Improvement" is a book based on case studies from the European funded project EUDIST (European Development of Innovative Science Teaching). The project was co-ordinated by the German research institution IPN. The authors from Austria, Germany, Spain, Ireland and Sweden present their national experiences and results from qualitative studies about educational planning in Curriculum Workshops and related science teachers' professional development. In the introduction the question is raised, how to improve science teaching in Europe with teachers as central agents: A main concern of different countries, seeking to improve quality of schooling is the insight of an OECD study that "teachers matter" in school development. In a cross case study a European/Canadian writing team elaborates different aspects of European reform and teachers' chances to raise their voice in this process. With contributions by Kurt-Evert Alvison, Anita Bergström, Wolfgang Bünder, Digna Couso, Doris Elster, Henning Hansen, Björn Jensen, Udo Klinger, Manfred Lang, Eva Lindfors, Anneli Nilsson, Eva Norén, John Olson, Eva Persson-Holst, Roser Pinto, Elisabeth Porath, Linda Rahm, Geraldine Mooney Simmie, Piotr Szybek and Susanne Uhl-Kling.

Manfred Lang is a senior researcher in the Department of Educational Research at the Leibniz Institute for Science Education, Kiel, Germany. His major fields of interest include innovation in science education, curriculum integration, teacher professional development, and international and European comparative studies. He was co-ordinating the Comenius project EUDIST about innovation in European science teacher education and participted in several European and international projects. (Address: IPN, Olshausenstr. 62, D-24098 Kiel, Germany; e-mail: langm@ipn.uni-kiel.de)