Are you interested in the development and application of AI and Data Science techniques to model and understand real world problems? Do you enjoy formal and computational modelling of the human reading process? And would you like to be involved in a multi-disciplinary research project that aims at creating social impact? Then this is an interesting position for you!
Your job The digital world has transformed the way we read as well as the way we learn how to read, offering both challenges and opportunities. To understand these challenges and opportunities it is important to consider reading processes and outcomes as well as reading education from multiple perspectives. We are searching for a postdoctoral researcher who can assist us in investigating AI and Data Science techniques that can be developed and applied to model and understand the processing of, as well as teaching of reading texts in a digital age. This project is part of the national research programme “
Becoming literate in a digital age: Adapting reading education in the Netherlands financed by the Dutch government-agenda”. The ultimate goal of the
programme as a whole is to develop educational interventions that aid individual students, especially those who are at risk of a delay in their development as readers, to acquire the ability to process written information in the digital age.
As postdoc you are a member the department of Information and Computing Sciences as well as of the consortium for Becoming literate in a Digital Age. You will work with two other postdocs that aim at developing a conceptual model of reading and reading education and a framework for didactic and pedagogic methods that effectively support students’ reading and reading processes. You will support the development of their model and methods by investigating which and how AI & Data Science techniques can be employed to analyse datasets in order to find relevant structures and patterns to underpin their model and methods. You may also advise them on gathering, preparing, and organising new data for the further development of their models and methods, and to inform them whether their model and teaching methods can be operationalized and tested by data. If possible, you can help them to formulate and evaluate testable hypotheses on possible teaching methods.
Your activities will include:
- reviewing existing research literature in the various disciplines and identify AI & Data Science techniques relevant for this project;
- identifying and analysing relevant data sources for the empirical grounding of the conceptual model and educational framework;
- consultation with consortium members from different disciplines, partnering educational organizations, reading specialists, and other stakeholders;
- designing and evaluating AI & Data Science techniques to support the development of the conceptual model and educational framework;
- engaging in data-driven research on the described topics;
- participating in writing scientific and professional publications and presenting at national and international meetings.
Teaching tasks are not included in these activities, but might be possible should opportunities in line with your expertise arise.