PhD Defence Marloes  Vreekamp

On Thursday 2 April, 2026 at 15:30 hours exactly, Marloes  Vreekamp (Wageningen University) will defend her thesis “Unravelling teacher development: exploring the mechanisms, conditions and continuity of teacher learning in pedagogical development programmes in higher education”.

All ICO Members are cordially invited to be present at the PhD graduation ceremony at Wageningen University, Omnia Building, Wageningen University Campus, Hoge Steeg 2, Wageningen

Do you want to watch online? Go to https://wur.yuja.com/. Click on the notification icon in the top right corner and then on the name Marloes Vreekamp. The livestream is visible from 15:25. More information can be found here.   

English summary: In higher education, teachers are expected to continuously improve their teaching and respond to changing educational demands. To support and recognise these efforts, universities offer pedagogical development programmes (PDPs), such as the University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) in the Netherlands. This PhD research examines how teachers learn during these programmes and explores which programme characteristics are associated with different types of learning outcomes.
The dissertation brings together multiple studies, including a literature review, a large-scale survey, and an in-depth longitudinal case study using diverse data sources, ranging from interviews to visual methods such as drawings.  Together, the findings provide a rich picture of how teachers’ learning unfolds during PDPs. They show how different programme characteristics and contextual factors influence teacher learning and stimulate diverse outcomes (e.g. knowledge, vision, practice, and impact on students). Importantly, this research demonstrates that PDPs can meaningfully improve teaching quality. Learning often starts with small changes, which in many cases continue over time and lead to lasting improvement.