Sabine Severiens’ research seeks to supply an impetus for the development of knowledge about teaching vulnerable children. Though we already have a fairly good understanding of why performance diverges so widely among different pupil groups, very little is known about teaching methods that could remedy this imbalance. This knowledge is crucial towards the effort to improve the learning position of vulnerable children.

The APS Foundation and the UvA furnish an institutional context that will stimulate the expansion of knowledge in the domain of this chair. As a major education consultancy, the APS is a rich source of practice-based knowledge, while the UvA has considerable expertise in curricular development and research on its effects. The chair thus offers fertile ground for combining both types of knowledge. Possibilities include the development of collaborative projects with schools, in which lecturers, developers and researchers join together in professional communities in order to design curricula and subsequently study the effects. Severiens currently also holds posts as professor of Educational Sciences at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) and, until 1 January, as scientific director at the EUR’s Risbo research institute, which is active in the field of learning and society. Previously she has worked at the UvA and at the University of Groningen. Severiens is one of the co-founders of the Rotterdam Talent Knowledge Lab (Kenniswerkplaats Rotterdams talent) and a member of the European Sirius policy network, dedicated to improving the learning position of children of immigrant families. She has published extensively in scientific journals such as Research in Higher Education, Higher Education enJournal of Educational Psychology.