The aim of this study is to analyse the factors underlying successful reading and writing education and the educational conditions promoting reflective didactic skills, focusing on the students’ develop­ment of reading and writing abilities. Large international surveys indicate that the consensus concerning read­ing and writing education achieved by science during the past decade has had limit­ed impact on class­room activities. Thus, an underlying question is how research results can be implement­ed in every­day schoolwork. This study uses a praxis-oriented approach by working with classroom observations and reflective communication with teachers about learning processes and pedagogical methodology. The importance of the teachers having a solid theoretical background is underlined since it enables them to identify the students’ developmental stage, to adapt the instruction accordingly and to instant­ly grasp pedagogical opportunities to interpret and utilize the diagnostic signals. Another conclusion is that successful reading and writing education must be viewed in a context of language develop­ment as a whole, involving both its oral and its written aspects. This study also demonstrates that re­search results are perceived by teachers to be more accessible and relevant when the focus is on applied peda­gogics, allowing theory and practical applications to interact. The teachers’ professional development is shown to be an on-going, interactive, social process in which organisation, time and communicative meetings play an important part. Abduction proves to be an effective learn­ing strategy in the development of professional competence whereby academic know­ledge and on-the-spot know-how are allowed to coalesce in practically useful know­ledge. The study’s praxis-oriented approach has made it possible to define the teachers’ experience-based know­ledge at the same time as the theoretical knowledge in the field has developed. This opens up possibilities for scientific theories to establish themselves in practical school work.