ComPratica: AVirtual Community of Practice for Promoting Biology Teachers’ Professional Development in Brazil Charbel N. El-Hani & Ileana M. Greca Published online: 16 August 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract Teachers’ professional development is a key factor in improving science educa- tion, but it shows limited impact when only a small number of teachers is reached, or when it focuses on only one aspect of teachers’ development, such as learning science content, and is disconnected from teachers’ practice. In order to increase the impact of our work on teachers’ professional development, we implemented in 2007 ComPratica, an online net- work intended to establish a virtual community of practice involving biology teachers and biological education researchers. We present here the results of the first 2 years of this project, obtained through an analysis of the number and distribution of actions performed by the participants in the community, the kinds of activities in which they are engaged, and the themes addressed in their messages. From these data, we conclude that ComPratica is effectively functioning as a community of practice and is leading to changes related to both teachers’ and researchers’ professional development, which seem capable of reducing the research–practice gap in science education. Keywords Community of practice . Teachers’ professional development . Research–practice gap . Online networks Introduction As it is the case in many other countries, to improve science education at the primary and secondary levels is a major concern in Brazil. For instance, in the so-called Blue book (MCT Res Sci Educ (2013) 43:1327–1359 DOI 10.1007/s11165-012-9306-1 C. N. El-Hani (*) Department of General Biology, Institute of Biology, Federal University of Bahia, Rua Barão de Jeremoabo, s/n—Ondina, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil 40170-115 e-mail: charbel.elhani@pq.cnpq.br I. M. Greca Department of Specifics Didactics, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain e-mail: imgreca@ubu.es I. M. Greca Facultad de Humanidades y Educación, C/Villadiego s/n 09001, Burgos, Spain