In 2008 a Finnish-German joint research group was established with two annual meetings. These joint meeting are seminars for attendants from graduate- and research schools of research on science and mathematics education in Germany and Finland. In addition, guests from the Netherlands, Sweden and Estonia join the meetings. The purpose of the joint meetings is to give PhD-students the opportunity to present their PhD-work to an international audience, to get valuable feedback, to benefit from each others expertise and to learn about various research methods and different research traditions during workshops.  

Before a joint meeting, PhD-students who want to present their work either as an oral presentation or as a poster have to write a proposal. All proposals will be reviewed by two other PhD-students approximately a month before the meeting. This provides the opportunity for PhD-students to get well-thought feedback on their projects and to include the received comments in the actual presentation or poster. In addition, PhD-students also learn how to review other proposals or articles.  
 
Presentations  
 
All presentation – paper presentations or poster presentations – are organized in a manner that students can discuss, can receive and give feedback, and learn from each other in smaller groups. All session are chaired by a supervisor. Additionally, peer-reviewers who reviewed the papers beforehand attend the session and act as opponents during the discussion.  
 
                 

Thus, paper sessions include an oral presentation as well as a discussion which will be initiated by the peer-reviewers. After the general discussion there is time for a discussion on the presentation between the chair of the session, the presenter, the supervisor of the presenter and the opponents, only. Poster presentations include a brief overview over the poster which is followed by a discussion. Also, the discussion is chaired by a supervisor and the peer-reviewers initiate it.  
         
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