Collaborations between teachers and researchers at summer workshops were studied. The workshops were part of a project of the American Federation of Teachers and the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) to enhance mathematics education by making information about the latest research available to the teaching community. The focus was on the contrast between the workshop in 1988 and that of 1989. In 1988, it was evident that the dialogue between researchers and the three teachers necessary to accomplish project goals had not been achieved. This workshop's product--a document summarizing research for dissemination to teachers--was not the desired synthesis of ideas, and the atmosphere seemed to hinder teachers' opportunity to discuss content areas. In 1989, teacher selection procedures were changed, two additional teachers participated, and interactions were designed to be less formal and to recognize that teacher participants were operating with a store of knowledge and a strong sense of what was important. Analysis of the videotaped dialogues from both years indicated the increased engagement of all parties with the substantive content of the research. This second workshop's product document was a better synthesis of the ideas discussed and was useful in the dissemination of the ideas by teacher participants in workshops for other teachers. Two tables and eight bar graphs illustrate the study. An appendix describes the sampling design used. (SLD)