In the overview underneath, I list some sideprojects in anti-chronological order together with some hyperlinks to read more for those interested.
Neurodivergent Teacher Noticing
In July 2024, I attended a large mathematics education conference (ICME-15) and got to talking with Professor Esther Chan (University of Melbourne) on teacher noticing — the process by which teachers observe classroom events, interpret them, and adjust their behaviour accordingly. Particularly how neurodivergent teachers like myself might employ different strategies. For example, if a group of students is talking without paying attention, neurodivergent teachers might prefer explicit instruction in words while neurotypical teachers might subtly move close to those students.
In an exploratory study, we will investigate if and what different strategies neurodivergent teachers use. This project is co-designed and co-led by neurodivergent and neurotypical researchers. It involves filming lessons taught by neurodivergent teachers in their usual classrooms and interviewing them afterward to better understand their decision-making processes during teaching. Teachers’ responses from these post-lesson interviews will then guide both qualitative and computer assisted analyses of the lesson videos. These analyses will help identify the decision cues teachers draw on during their lessons, such as student speech, teacher and student gaze, gestures, movements, and physical positioning.
The outcome of this project is a first inventory of neurodivergent teacher-specific noticing strategies, which can be of use for different people. Neurodivergent teachers themselves will recognize themselves and perhaps find new inspiration to better accommodate their own needs as a teacher. For example, if wearing earplugs turns out not to very negatively impact teacher noticing, audio-sensitive teachers might consider wearing earplugs without worry of teaching less effectively. Teacher educators can also use such an inventory in the teacher training program to accurately evaluate future teachers (with suspected neurodivergency).
People interested in the results can leave their contact details on this surveylink! The current project is based in Australia, but I am hoping to create a Flemish/European version as well. So if you are a neurodivergent teacher or an interested researcher to collaborate, please also leave your contact details!
Secure Digital Examination
With the increase in laptop-use in schools, demand for “technologically secure” examination methods that go further than the classical computer room grew. Within my own teaching to hundreds of students, I developed an extensive documentation (in Dutch) for Bring Your Own Device exams, mainly using Safe Exam Browser but including a close-to-exhaustive list of alternatives for individual teachers.
This effort was disseminated to all Flemish mathematics teachers through online posts and several workshops (October 2024, November 2024, November 2024). I also collaborated with GeoGebra to better integrate with Safe Exam Browser.
Later in July 2025 fraud using ChatGPT in the Flemish medicine entrance exams was brought to light (see for example this newspaper), which resulted in renewed attention to secure digital examination. As result I was interviewed on national TV, national radio and in a newspaper.
“Wiskunde & Onderwijs” Digitalisation
The Flemish mathematics teacher union has published its magazine “Wiskunde & Onderwijs” since 1975, but only had digital versions available starting from around 2018. With the enormous help of the Psychology Library at KU Leuven and KULAK library, a full free digital archive has now been created. Read more about it in this post.