When learning and professional growth matter in higher education and professional contexts.
Something in the learning setup isn’t working yet
You have ideas – but no clear choices.
You want a course, training or programme that leads somewhere.
You want to understand what actually happens
You keep adjusting, but wonder why it works – or doesn’t. You want insight, not guesswork
The question is shared
Improvement depends on more than one person. You want progress the team can carry together.
🇳🇱 Liever in het Nederlands? Hier vind je een korte toelichting
Looking more closely at learning
You work with people who need to learn something well.
Students, colleagues, professionals, participants.
You prepare carefully. You explain clearly.
Yet the same questions and misunderstandings keep coming back.
They follow the steps — but understanding remains fragile.
They participate — yet applying it later proves difficult.
Sometimes they nod during the session,
yet hesitate when working independently.
Or they complete the task, but cannot explain their reasoning.
I often hear the same sentence:
“The session went well… but I’m not sure what actually changed.”
So the question comes back:
what is actually happening in the learning process?
Not because you lack effort.
But because real learning is complex, and everyday practice leaves little space to look closely.
When improvement stays unclear
You adjust explanations, assignments or activities —
yet the same difficulties keep appearing.
People repeat mistakes, or struggle to apply what they learned in a new situation.
I sometimes notice this in my photography:
you can carefully adjust contrast and colour,
only to realise the subject itself was never in focus.
In teaching and professional learning, we often do the same —
refining details while the real question sits underneath.
Over time this affects more than the learning.
Conversations stay general.
People work hard, but not always in the same direction.
What becomes possible
Once you see what learners are actually doing, different choices follow naturally.
You change one task instead of the whole programme.
You adjust an explanation at the exact point people get lost.
Feedback becomes something participants use, not just receive.
Colleagues start recognising the same patterns.
Decisions become easier to explain.
The next time you teach or train, you build on what you learned instead of beginning again.
You also start noticing your own development:
you make choices more deliberately,
can explain your reasoning,
and feel more confident discussing learning with othe
This is usually where development really begins:
confidence grows, ideas become discussable,
and teams work from shared understanding rather than individual preference.
Not a training on the side —
but learning while working.
How I approach this
My work usually starts with curiosity.
We look closely at what is happening in your context —
not at an ideal model somewhere else.
I enjoy untangling complex questions and making them workable.
Sometimes analytically, sometimes creatively, often both.
We might redesign a learning activity.
We might investigate it more systematically.
We might structure a conversation that has been circling for a while.
Always connected to the real situation you are in.
As clarity grows, roles shift naturally:
people make more deliberate choices,
teams coordinate more easily,
and leadership emerges from the work itself.
Different situations — the same starting point:
a genuine question about learning.
About me
My background combines disciplinary research and educational development.
After more than twenty years at Utrecht University — in teaching, research and innovation — I now work independently with educators and organisations on understanding and improving learning in practice.
I enjoy working alongside people, not above them.
Structured where helpful, open where needed.
Let’s take the next step
Sometimes what helps most is simply having someone think along with you.
No preparation needed — just the situation you are working in.
I’m always curious to hear what you’re working on.
If this speaks to you, feel free to reach out.
A message here or an email to info@irmact.com both work.
Coffee is always an option ☕
“I attended the Leadership Workshop facilitated by Irma at the EuroSoTL25 Conference and found it to be a truly valuable experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the session and came away with meaningful insights. Irma’s in-depth knowledge of leadership, combined with her engaging and skilful facilitation, made the workshop stand out as one of the highlights of the conference for me”.
Kim Anh Tran (Ms), SWE, FHEA, PEPS
Senior Lecturer / Programme Lead / International Students Lead
School of Health, Medicine and Life Science
University of Hertfordshire