Through her background in orthopedagogy, her educational experiences and insights into PABO primary school teacher training, Anne Rohn developed a growing interest in education for gifted children. As a junior researcher at the Sustainable School Development and Serious Gaming lectorates, she carries out research into the possibilities of developing a game that allows teachers to better learn to understand their pupils.

“I studied Orthopedagogy and Educational Sciences at the University of Groningen. Afterwards I worked as a remedial educationalist at Timpaan Onderwijs where I was involved in diagnosing and treating pupils with dyslexia. In addition, I did a two-year part-time PABO primary school teacher training course, and have since September 2016 been working at the NHL as junior researcher in the De Meester de Baas project.”

“In this project we look at the possibilities of developing a game that enables the teacher to gain an insight into the reasoning of pupils. This knowledge can help teachers to better understand their gifted pupils, so that they are able to work effectively in gearing their classes towards this. I’ve always been interested in gifted children and education that meets the needs of every child. This is in part due to my own educational experiences, but also the insights that I’ve gained during the PABO course.”

Realistic and achievable

“What I really like about practice-based research is that you constantly check your ideas against reality. There is a great deal of communication with those working in the field in order to see whether your assumptions are correct and whether your ideas are desirable and achievable. In our research we are trying to develop a product for education, but the field of education also contributes to the research. We work with a great many different partners, which ensures that our development goals are also realistic and achievable.”

Lectoraat