Dr. Wigfield
Allan Wigfield, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Human Development and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Illinois in 1982. His research focuses on how children's motivation develops across the school years in different areas. In recent years his research has focused on motivation for reading, and classroom interventions to improve children’ reading motivation, engagement, and comprehension. Dr. Wigfield’s research has been supported by grants from NSF, NICHD, IERI, and the Spencer Foundation. He has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on children’s motivation and other topics, and has edited four books and six special issues of journals on the development of motivation, and the development of reading comprehension and motivation. Dr. Wigfield was Associate Editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology from 2000 to 2002 and Associate Editor of Child Development from 2001 to 2005. He edited the Teaching, Learning, and Human Development section of the American Educational Research Journal from 2008-2010. He was elected as a Fellow of Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. He has won several awards for his research and teaching.