Unravelling teacher development. Exploring the mechanisms, conditions, and continuity of teacher learning in pedagogical development programmes in higher education.

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.