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Dr. M.J. (Michel) Couzijn

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Powl Docenten ILO
Photographer: onbekend

Visiting address
  • Roetersstraat 13
Postal address
  • Postbus 15776
    1001 NG Amsterdam
  • Profile

    About my work

    Michel Couzijn (1964) is a researcher, teacher, and teacher educator at the Graduate School of Teaching and Learning, University of Amsterdam. He focuses on first-language education in secondary schools.

    Michel received his master's degree in Dutch language and literature in 1989 (UvA, "Argumentatie in de peiling" (Argumentation assessed) and a teacher's license one year later. Between 1989 and 2004 he has worked as a Dutch teacher in the upper streams of five secondary schools in Amsterdam. In 1995, Michel received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam with the thesis "Observation of Reading and Writing: Effects on Learning and Transfer". In this thesis he empirically investigated the value of learning-by-observation in the language curriculum, in which learning-by-doing is traditionally prevalent.

    From 1996, Michel has worked as a teacher educator at the Graduate School of Teaching and Learning,contributing to the induction of master students into the teaching profession. His main interest here is the tension between diversity , which is necessary for each individual teacher to discover and use his own strengths, weaknesses and preferences, and unity , which is necessary to arrive at professional standards for effective teaching. Another interest is the obstinate implementation of scientific findings in education into classroom practice.

    Michel has worked as an in-service teacher educator and consultant between 1997 and 2001, when schools and teachers asked for help in implementing ways of active and independent learning in the language curriculum, in choosing text books, or in implementing ICT in the classroom.

    Between 1998 and 2003, Michel founded and was an active member of the team of authors responsible for 'Taaldomein' (EPN), a text book for secondary education in which the first-language curriculum is organized around the concept of speech acts, and in which transfer between language modes (reading, writing, speaking, listening) is promoted. For a newcomer on the textbook market, Taaldomein did - and does - remarkably well. It is the first time that a scientific concept (speech act) has been used to determine the organization of text book contents.

    In the field of scientific research, between 1997 and 2003 Michel has contributed to the following topics:

    • writing in a foreign language: how to maintain your first-language writing skill;
    • observational learning: what can students learn from observing peers performing certain language tasks while thinking-aloud?
    • small-group discussions about literature: do discussions through e-mail enhance the quality of the discussion and of learning about literature?
    • writing hypertext: does this help a student's skill in organizing text?
    • asking questions when reading literature: can students learn from asking questions rather thananswering questions about literature?

    From November 2007, Michel conducts an NWO-funded research project about inquiry learning and writing in the higher grades of the first-language curriculum. If you want to know more about this project, click the corresponding link below.

    You can also find my publication list below.

  • Publications

    2013

    2012

    • Rijlaarsdam, G., van den Bergh, H., Couzijn, M., Janssen, T., Braaksma, M., Tillema, M., van Steendam, E., & Raedts, M. (2012). Writing. In K. R. Harris, S. Graham, & T. Urdan (Eds.), APA educational psychology handbook. - Vol. 3: Application to learning and teaching (pp. 189-228). (APA handbooks in psychology). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/13275-000 [details]

    2009

    2008

    • Rijlaarsdam, G., Braaksma, M., Couzijn, M., Janssen, T., Raedts, M., van Steendam, E., Toorenaar, A., & van den Bergh, H. (2008). Observation of peers in learning to write: practice and research. Journal of Writing Research, 1(1), 53-83. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2008.01.01.3 [details]

    2009

    • Couzijn, M. J., Kieft, M. H., Rijlaarsdam, G. C. W., & van den Bergh, H. (2009). Inquiry learning in the language and literature classroom. Learning to write about research in secondary education. Abstract from 13th Biennial European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI). Fostering Communities of Learners. http://www.earli2009.org/bookofabstracts/start.html#

    Talk / presentation

    • Couzijn, M. J. (speaker), Kieft, M. H. (speaker), Rijlaarsdam, G. C. W. (speaker) & van den Bergh, H. (speaker) (25-8-2009). Inquiry learning in the language and literature classroom. Learning to write about research in secondary education, 13th Biennial European Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI). Fostering Communities of Learners, Amsterdam (NL).
    • Braaksma, M. A. H. (speaker), Rijlaarsdam, G. C. W. (speaker) & Couzijn, M. J. (speaker) (23-6-2009). Hypertext writing, observational learning and inquiry learning as supplementary teaching methods (Workshop), 7th IAIMTE-conference, June 23-26, 2009, Toronto (Can).
    • Rijlaarsdam, G. C. W. (speaker), Braaksma, M. A. H. (speaker), Couzijn, M. J. (speaker), Raedts, M. (speaker), van Steendam, E. (speaker), Janssen, T. M. (speaker), Groenendijk, T. (speaker), Toorenaar, J. M. (speaker) & van den Bergh, H. (speaker) (17-11-2008). Inquiry as key activity in learning to write and writing to learn (Keynote), Norwegian Conference on Writing as fundamental skill in language education and other school subjects, Trondheim (NO).
    • Rijlaarsdam, G. C. W. (speaker), Braaksma, M. A. H. (speaker), Kieft, M. H. (speaker), Couzijn, M. J. (speaker), Janssen, T. M. (speaker), Raedts, M. (speaker), van Steendam, E. (speaker), Groenendijk, T. (speaker), Toorenaar, J. M. (speaker) & van den Bergh, H. (speaker) (26-2-2008). What works in writing: writing processes and learning to write interventions, Presentation at University of Toronto, Toronto (Can).
    • Rijlaarsdam, G. C. W. (speaker), Braaksma, M. A. H. (speaker), Kieft, M. H. (speaker), Couzijn, M. J. (speaker), Janssen, T. M. (speaker), Raedts, M. (speaker), van Steendam, E. (speaker), Groenendijk, T. (speaker), Toorenaar, J. M. (speaker) & van den Bergh, H. (speaker) (22-2-2008). The yummy yummy case: Learning to write--Observing readers and writers (Keynote), Writing Research Across the Borders, 3rd International Santa Barbara Conference on Writing Research, Santa Barbara (Ca, USA).
    This list of publications is extracted from the UvA-Current Research Information System. Questions? Ask the library or the Pure staff of your faculty / institute. Log in to Pure to edit your publications. Log in to Personal Page Publication Selection tool to manage the visibility of your publications on this list.
  • Ancillary activities
    • No ancillary activities