Soetkin Werbrouck
PhD student at the research group ‘Language, learning, innovation’ within the Department of Educational Studies, Ghent University.
soetkin.werbrouck@ugent.be | +32 (0)9 264 86 64 (secretariaat)
Reading comprehension
Reading motivation
Professionalization of teachers
Reading comprehension is an important skill, both during school career and afterwards in the workplace. Research shows that reading motivation and reading comprehension are inextricably linked. Recent research in prevocational education showed that pupils who are autonomously motivated to read are better readers, as their reading comprehension is better. Unfortunately, both Flemish and international studies illustrate that pupils do not score well in reading comprehension and are not at all motivated to read. The research we are conducting sets up professionalization programs throughout 6 months to strengthen teachers and school teams in offering reading comprehension education via coaching on the job with school teams, via lesson study with teachers, ... We focus on teachers of the 7th Grade prevocational education, since little research has been done so far on them and their students are a vulnerable target group. Through qualitative research we will investigate which processes this professionalization program initiates teachers and which (pedagogical) knowledge acquisition this leads to.