Inspiring teachers to try another approach to teaching children to read. That’s what researcher Maaike Pulles of the Language Use and Learning professorship finds so appealing about practice-based research.

“I studied Dutch at the University of Groningen, with a specialisation in language skills development in education. After that I obtained my first-degree Dutch teaching certificate and then worked for 13 years at the Language, Education and Communication Expertise Centre (Etoc) of the University of Groningen. There I supervised schools in language policy development, developed teaching materials and language tests, and carried out research. I also taught at various Pabo primary school teaching institutes  and the second-degree Dutch teacher training course. I am currently carrying out doctoral research into knowledge construction in discourse about texts, as part of the larger RaakPro research programme Collaboration and Language Skills.”

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Drs. Maaike Pulles

Reading to make new discoveries

“My most important research question is dialogical reading in the context of group inquiry-based learning in the middle and upper classes of primary school education. Or rather: how do children jointly construct knowledge while discussing texts? It is fascinating to see in the discussions children have with one another how they make new discoveries while reading and talking, and how together - as critical readers - they develop new knowledge and ideas, and as a result become motivated readers.”

“The wonderful thing about practice-based research is that, together with teachers, you can discover and research how daily teaching practice can be improved. Sometimes you can share your results from the research directly with the work field. It is great if examples from our research can inspire teachers to try another approach.”