Kim Van Ammel

PhD student at the research group 'Language, learning, innovation', within the Department of Educational Sciences, Ghent University.

kim.vanammel@ugent.be  |  +32 (0) 9 264 86 74  |  +32 (0)9 264 86 64 (secretariat)  |    Office 120.100

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Henri Dunantlaan 2, 9000 Gent

Reading comprehension

Secondary education

In our 21st century, reading comprehension is a critical skill and an underlying basis for succes both in and out of school. Children start their learning trajectory on reading comprehension in primary education. However, this is continued in secondary education as reading texts and interpreting textual information is not only central in language classes, but also in content area classrooms. According to a large international research, 17,1% of the Flemish 15-year olds perform below the basic proficiency level in reading. Hence, the reading comprehension skills of 15-year-old students will be the main topic of my PhD.

I will be investigating which student-, teacher- and school characteristics are related to 9th grade students’ reading comprehension. Examples are students’ gender and reading motivation, teachers’ reading comprehension instruction and school reading policy. Furthermore, starting from 2020 I will evaluate a teacher professional development program aimed at fostering the reading comprehension, reading strategy-use and reading motivation of 9th grade students. Some first results and more information can be found on this website.

Publications and conferences