PHOTO: ANP / FREEK VAN DEN BERGH

Too many learning theories,
too few teachers

PROPOSITION

I

Hanke Korpershoek (1982) qualified as a teacher at the PABO at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, before completing a Master’s degree in Educational science at the UG in 2006, and a PhD programme in 2010. She also obtained a University Teaching Qualification (UTQ) in 2011. She remained at the UG as a researcher and lecturer until 2024, when she was appointed Professor of Educational science, specifically of Educational innovation and school improvement. In addition to her work as a professor, she is also director of the UG’s GION research institute and a member of the Knowledge Utilization Council at the Netherlands Initiative for Educational Research (NRO), which was set up by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

TEXT: JURGEN TIEKSTRA

The classroom is where it should happen: the best possible education for every single child.
Educational scientists are bursting with insights, but insights are not the same as lessons in a classroom. There’s currently a huge gap between the two, and Hanke Korpershoek wants to bridge it.

Thousands of books
‘The collaboration between researchers and teachers is a lot closer than twenty years ago. In fact, a lot of teachers carry out research themselves, within their own school. In addition, there are all kinds of ‘knowledge brokers’, which used to be the school counselling services. We now have mountains of information. There are thousands of books on effective teaching methods for tackling or preventing bullying, for example. Teachers can choose from around 20 interventions. But this volume of information, and the pressure of working in the education system, are making things even more difficult. Some interventions are given a great build-up and sound convincing, but the question is: do they have an academic basis? Have they been put to the test with experimental studies to prove that children truly display better behaviour?’

Teacher shortages
‘The second question is: how can you ensure that a strategy is implemented properly within the specific context of a school? A strategy that works for an experienced teacher might be too challenging for a novice teacher trying to find their feet with a class of 30 pupils. So, although there is a lot of very useful information, teachers frequently have neither the time nor the space to thoroughly put it into practice. I spoke to someone at the conference who had heard people say: if everyone had more time, we might be able to solve a lot of the problems we address at this conference. But this isn’t realistic. A lot of schools have shortages of teachers and school managers.’

Funding up in the air
‘One of the major political questions is whether schools will continue to receive extra funding for pupils from lower social-economic backgrounds. A school with a lot of children from a deprived background receives more funding to support those pupils. This is currently up in the air. We know quite a lot about how to best support these children, but it’s going to be tricky if schools no longer have the necessary resources. This also applies to how the teaching staff can continue their professional development. If schools are faced with such massive cutbacks, will any of them still be able to say: I’m giving one of my teachers an afternoon out of the classroom to analyse the pupil data and identify our weaknesses? If a group of children has trouble with reading comprehension, for example, you’ll probably want to deploy a teacher to provide extra support. But if we’re cutting back on education to this extent, I can’t see how teaching staff are going to be able to maintain and improve the quality of their teaching in the years to come.’

Inaugural speech
Korpershoek is a Professor of educational innovation and school improvement at the University of Groningen. She gave her inaugural speech last June, but spent the previous four years setting up this chair as an associate professor.

She is not an educational innovator herself. Her work examines ways of implementing academic insights within the world of the classroom. To her mind, conceptual knowledge based on academic research, is very different from the practical knowledge that teachers need in school on a daily basis.

Unequal treatment
‘A poignant example: research has shown that if you want to give pupils equal educational opportunities, you need to treat them differently. Not every child has a parent who reads to them,
makes sure they have breakfast before coming to school, or can help them with homework. But in practice – I taught in a primary school myself for a while – it’s extremely difficult to treat pupils unequally while also giving them equal attention.

As a teacher, you want to treat all your pupils in the same way, because you think that this will give all of them equal opportunities. Research has shown, however, that this is not the best way to go about it. But I can see, and have experienced for myself, that teachers don’t know how else to put this into practice. What does that mean: unequal treatment? We need to identify the type of knowledge that teachers need in order to implement this insight. How can you organize your teaching in a way that allows you to change your own behaviour as a teacher? All the research shows that teachers are the key to changing the learning environment for pupils.’

How do teachers decide
‘My research line focuses on decision processes. In my PhD research, I explored the underutilization of latent scientific talent in secondary education: there are students – boys, but definitely girls too – who, despite having great potential for science and technology, choose another direction. I looked into the possible reasons, for example, the misconceptions about science and technology. Students make their choices based on the information they think they have about what they can achieve in the world. My research revolves around decision processes like this. During the past ten years, I’ve expanded my focus to include what I call evidence-informed decision making. How do schools and teachers decide how to improve their teaching? Is their knowledge of research a deciding factor? Do they base decisions on what they’ve heard at a teaching conference? Or on what they’ve seen someone else doing? How do they reach a specific decision?’

part in panel discussions, and seek each other out during the coffee breaks.

‘This year, there was a lot of focus on developments in the field of AI’, Korpershoek explains from her hotel on the final day of the conference. ‘Before that, we focused more on other educational innovations, such as measuring the progress of pupils. This starts with testing, questionnaires, and meetings with pupils, but in the past few years, the focus has shifted towards measuring via apps, heart rhythm recordings, or eye tracking. New technologies are developing rapidly, and learning theories are trying to keep pace.

t’s the end of August. Hanke Korpershoek is at an international teaching conference in the Austrian city of Graz, an event she’s been attending ever since she was awarded a PhD, 14 years ago. Some 2,500 educational scientists from all around the world come to Graz to present their research, take