Student welfare through involvement and networked learning in primary teacher training

What makes students eager to learn? This is a fundamental question for every educator. After all, students who are motivated and involved in their studies are more likely to succeed (Affolter, Gerber, Grund, & Wagner, 2015) and simply pleasant to teach. Student welfare is particularly relevant for primary teacher training colleges in the Netherlands, which struggle with dwindling student numbers, high variety in student population, and the risk of study delay or dropout (Onderwijsinspectie, 2017). In order to enhance student engagement, teacher training colleges in different regions in the Netherlands - Doetinchem, Utrecht, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam - have formed learning networks on various topics relevant for (pre-service) teachers, consisting of students of different years, teacher trainers, and in-service teachers. This new small-scale educational setting is expected to offer students room for informal learning and agency, stimulating their involvement and motivation. Previous research has mainly focused on in-service teachers in networks. The current proposal explicitly puts student learning in the forefront (cf. Huiskamp, Vrieling, & Wopereis, 2017). Necessary conditions and success factors when it comes to student participation in networks will be identified: what does students role entail? How can the obstacles students encounter be circumvented? How can teacher trainers prepare their students more adequately for participation in networks (cf. Dobber, 2011)? How does student participation in networks effect their involvement and motivation for learning? And, more generally, how can insights into student involvement, motivation, agency, and informal learning be translated into guidelines for designing learning networks as an educational setting?