Teacher Lab (LerarenLab)In Progress

How can we make the teaching profession more attractive? And how can we recruit and retain more — and better — teachers? These questions are at the heart of our Teacher Lab. Together with teachers, school leaders, and researchers, we develop and test promising strategies to tackle the teacher shortage. Our work includes initiatives such as mentoring programs to retain beginning teachers, reducing teacher workload through school social workers, and creating more flexible daily and weekly schedules. We also explore ways to prevent dropouts during initial teacher training programs and throughout teaching careers. What makes the Teacher Lab unique is the integration of practical insights from schools with findings from scientific research. Co-creation is at the core of our approach — working together to design and evaluate sustainable solutions to the teacher shortage.

Funded by: National Growthfund Ontwikkelkracht / Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

Duration: 1 January 2023 until 1 January 2028

External project members: Peter Spoelstra (MILE), Bart Golsteyn (MILE), Chris van Klaveren (VU), Marlot Griep (VU), Pam de Vries (VU), Marjolein Camphuijsen (VU), Melanie Ehren (VU)

Project website: education-lab.nl/themes/lerarenlab/