PhD candidate develops teaching method for comprehensive reading in primary schools

Suzanne Bogaerds-Hazenberg has been awarded a Research Talent grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for her PhD research into comprehensive reading in primary schools. Bogaerds-Hazenberg will develop an educational method which focuses on comprehension of text structure.

Deep comprehension of a text can only be achieved if students understand its structure. However, primary school students often encounter problems with the structure of expository texts. This may be due to ineffective instructional methods, such as learning-by-doing. In collaboration with primary school teachers, Bogaers-Hazenberg therefore examines whether a) explicit instruction on text-structural features and b) observational learning on how to make use of these features while reading will positively affect fourth- and fifth-graders’ reading proficiency, self-efficacy, and writing proficiency.

In this design-based research, Bogaers-Hazenberg develops and tests a lesson series for reading that is based on evidence-based design principles derived from the literature. Her supervisors will be Prof. Huub van den Bergh and Dr Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul at the Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS.

NWO Research Talent

The NWO Research Talent programme offers talented and ambitious young researchers within the social and behavioural sciences a platform to pursue a scientific career and carry out high-quality PhD research.