The author of this chapter is engaged as a teacher and researcher at the University of Halmstad in Sweden, and has a special interest in professional learning based on action research. The chapter draws on experiences from a professional learning project conducted as a partnership between two municipalities and the University. The local authorities decided that two schools would participate in the project. The schools in question had, from national evaluations, identified obvious needs for improving student learning and achievement. The situation for the teachers and the author can be described as frustrating, but with a little spark of curiosity when thinking of the next step. The author, in the role of the researcher, did not know where to start; there was compass and a direction, but no local map. The situation can be described as being lost in a new and shared practice, where there was an urgent need to draw a map based on observations of practice. From this point of departure, all the participants set out on a collaborative journey, with the compass directed towards researched-based teaching and increased achievement among the students. © 2014 Sense Publishers