Tom Adams successfully defended his PhD thesis at Wageningen University and Research on 15 September 2023, entitled ‘Learning To Navigate Classroom Dynamics’.

Based on these insights, an intervention concerning CM learning was designed, implemented and evaluated in order to improve student teachers’ CM learning process at the workplace or during internship.

In the first phase of the study, the attention for CM was studied in theoretical sources, in teacher education curriculum and at the internship. Most attention in theoretical sources was drawn to the CM components ‘establishing interpersonal relationships with and among pupils’, ‘developing pupils' social skills and self-regulation’ and ‘intervening when behaviour problems occur’. The interviewed teacher educators also mentioned these components as most urgent during student teachers’ learning. In the studied teacher education program documents, only limited attention for CM was found and that what was found related mainly to the components ‘establishing interpersonal relationships with and among pupils’ and ‘optimizing pupils' access to learning’.

In the second phase of the study student teachers’ CM learning during their internship was studied, looking at their CM goals, CM learning processes, the CM learning outcomes and the interrelationships between these. Four patterns in student teachers’ CM learning processes were found: ‘Knowledge driven’, ‘Feedback driven’, ‘Inspiration driven’ and ‘Practice driven’. These profiles differed in terms of student teachers’ use of theory, the role of their teacher educators and student teachers’ self-regulated learning (SRL).

Finally, an intervention was designed, implemented and evaluated, which had as goal to give more focus and direction to student teachers’ CM learning by offering them activities they could use and with a focus specifically on their teacher-student interpersonal relationships (one of the CM components). Based on both the findings in the first and second phase of this study, as well as on suggestions from literature, the development and implementation of activities to promote student teachers’ CM learning, e.g. an intervention, took place.

The results of this study showed that the participants considered the intervention as being effective, and the results indicated that the intervention provided the student teachers with opportunities to focus and direct their CM learning process, as all student teachers used the intervention to structure their learning process in a timeline of activities, already from the start of the internship.

Furthermore, the results showed a large variation in gained knowledge and insights. Student teachers gained insights as a result of the intervention about (non-)verbal teacher behaviour, pupils’ behaviour, how to be consistent in their behaviour, the interaction between teacher and pupils, and changeover moments during their lessons. As for the extent to which the intervention led to differences in student teachers’ interpersonal behaviour, as perceived by themselves, the perceptions of their pupils and perceptions of their school-based teacher educator, only self-indicated indications of differences were found.