This study examines two types of inservice activities in the Netherlands. With the first, school-focused inservice education, continuing education activities are focused on the interests, needs, and problems directly related to one's role and responsibilities in a specific school setting. This focuses on teachers' concerns and needs as well as on matters which demand the coordinated efforts of other teachers in a school setting. The second type, which is individually based, addresses individual teachers' concerns and needs. It can consist of experiences to improve general competence or it can facilitate personal development and/or enrichment. The study poses these three questions: (1) What characteristics must inservice activities, focused on the implementation of educational innovations, have in the opinion of experts in the field of inservice education? (2) To what extent do designers of the inservice education activities, conducted in 1984-87, take these characteristics into account? and (3) What are the relationships between these characteristics of inservice activities and their effects on the implementation of newly acquired knowledge, skills, and insights by teachers? The issues discussed and analyzed were based on the results of a modified Delphi technique, semi-structured interviews and questionnaires, and six in-depth case studies of participating schools. (JD)