126 Chapter 6 And if not, what would they want differently or where and when it would be a good group for them. (Iteration 1, Participant 9) During follow-up meetings, participants would share insights related to their Personal Learning Objectives, but also questions and obstacles. The conversations that occurred at those meetings further supported participants’ motivation, as they felt inspired and supported by other participants. 2) Support from peers, supervisor, and students stimulated adoption of new teaching strategies Facilitating small-group active learning was reported to be a challenging skill, even for participants who had received prior training. Applying the knowledge and skills of the FDI to their teaching practice required them to manage feelings of uncertainty and potential failure. For this reason, participants required support. They reported seeking support through coaching from their supervisor and through asking questions to fellow teachers in their department. During FDI meetings, they sought the support of peers and supervisors by discussing experiences, asking questions, and sharing insecurities. Participant: I found the peer coaching very useful, where we really discussed cases. And that is exactly what you need. You can’t prepare yourself that well for teaching because things will go a certain way. And during the peer coaching, you can discuss things very concretely. For instance, the case we had about certain student behaviors. And how you can handle that. And I think that was the most useful for me personally. To see what other teachers are running into and that it is ‘not strange’ [what I am running into and what I have difficulty with]. (Iteration 1, Participant 2) Finally, participants who had opened up to their students about being a first-time teacher, and communicated their intentions and openness to feedback and learning, reported receiving valuable information about how they facilitated the active learning process. They reported that they felt supported by their students through constructive comments they received about instances that could have been handled better and compliments about things that were going well. This further enhanced their sense of learning and self-efficacy. 3) Integrating on-the-job experiences and off-the-job meetings promoted a continuous learning cycle of experiencing, reflecting, understanding, and applying According to the participants, there was a synergy between on-the-job experiences and regular off-the-job meetings throughout the semester, as each inspired the other. The on-thejob experiences were reflected upon during the meetings, so that on the one hand learning from those experiences was stimulated, and on the other hand guidelines were created for future teaching practice. Applying those guidelines led to new experiences, in effect creating a dynamic learning cycle where theory and practice were interwoven.
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