Faculty Members

 

 

               

Allan Wigfield

Professor

Dept. of Human Development

Phone: (301) 405-2809

Fax: (301) 405-2891

Email: aw44@umail.umd.edu

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Dr. Wigfield’s research has focused on the development and socialization of children's achievement motivation in different areas.  In several large-scale, longitudinal studies he and his colleagues have examined how children's motivation develops across the elementary school years, into and through middle school, and into high school.

In the literacy area, Dr. Wigfield has done research on the development of children's motivation for reading, and how different instructional practices influence children's reading motivation.  He has developed new measures of reading motivation in this work, and has examined how children's reading motivation relates to the amount of reading that they do, and their reading achievement.  Dr. Wigfield is collaborating with Dr. John Guthrie and Dr. Pedro Barbossa on a large-scale study of the effects of different reading instructional practices on children’s reading comprehension and reading motivation.  The project is funded by the National Science Foundation through the Interagency Educational Research Initiative. 

Allan Wigfield is also a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (Division 15, Educational Psychology), and also is Treasurer of Division 15.  He was chair of the Motivation in Education Special Interest Group in the American Educational Research Association from 1994 to 1996.  In 1992 he and his colleagues won the American Educational Research Association’s Division C (Counseling and Human Development) human development research award.  In 1998 he received the Vernon E. Anderson Distinguished Faculty Award from the College of Education at the University of Maryland.  Dr. Wigfield currently is Associate Editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology, and serves on the editorial board of several major journals in the fields of educational and developmental psychology.  He has authored over 65 articles and chapters, and edited two books. 

 

Selected Recent Publications    

            Baker, L., & Wigfield, A. (1999). Dimensions of children’s motivation for reading and their relations  to reading activity and reading achievement. Reading Research Quarterly, 34, 452-477.

            Guthrie, J. T.,  Wigfield, A., & VonSecker, C. (2000). Effects of integrated instruction on motivation and strategy use in reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(2), 331-341.

            Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (3rd Ed.). New York: Longman.

            Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (Eds.) (1997). Reading engagement: Motivating reader through integrated instruction. Newark: DE: International Reading Association.

            Guthrie, J. T., Wigfield, A., Cox, K., & Metsala, J. (1999). Predicting text comprehension and reading activity with motivational and cognitive variables. Scientific Studies of Reading, 3, 231-256.

            Wigfield, A. (2000). Facilitating young children’s motivation to read. In L. Baker, M. J. Dreher, & J. T. Guthrie (Eds.), Engaging young readers (pp. 140-158). New York: Guilford.

            Wigfield, A. (1997). Children’s motivation for reading and reading engagement.  In J. T. Guthrie & A. Wigfield (Eds.). Reading engagement: Motivating readers through integrated instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

            Wigfield, A., & Eccles, J. S. (2000).  Expectancy‑value theory of achievement motivation. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 68‑81.

            Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., & Rodriguez, D. (1998). The development of children’s motivation in school contexts.  In a. Iran-Nejad & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Review of research in education (Vol. 23). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

            Wigfield, A., Eccles, J. S., Yoon, K. S., Harold, R. D., Arbreton, A., Freedman-Doan, C., Blumenfeld, P. C. (1997). Changes in children’s competence beliefs and subjective task values across the elementary school years: A three-year study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 451-469.

            Wigfield, A., & Guthrie, J. T. (1997). Relations of children’s motivation for reading to the amount and breadth of their reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 420-432.

 

Recent Grants

Title:                               Increasing reading comprehension, motivation, and science knowledge through       
                                       Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction in a district-wide experiment

Investigators:                John T. Guthrie, Allan Wigfield, Pedro Barbosa

Funding Organization: Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI)

Dates:                            2000 - 2005                                              

Total Amount:                $3,414,000

 

Title:                              Children's Competence Beliefs, Achievement Task Values, and General  
                                      Self-Esteem

Investigator:                  Allan Wigfield

Funding Organization: Spencer Foundation

Dates:                           1995-1997 

Total Amount:               $35,000

 

Title:                               Children's Motivation for Reading

Investigator:                   Allan Wigfield

Funding Organization:  National Reading Research Center - University of Maryland

Dates:                            1996-1997

Total Amount:                $35,271.

 

Title:                               Children's Motivation for Reading in Regular and CORI Elementary School

Investigator:                  Allan Wigfield

Funding Organization: National Reading Research Center - University of Maryland

Dates:                            1995-1996     

Total Amount:                $23,458

 

Title:                                 Ontogeny of Self- and Task Concepts and Activity Choice

Investigators:                  Jacquelynne S. Eccles and Allan Wigfield

Funding Organization:   National Institute for Children’s Health and Development (NICHD)

Dates:                             1995-1999       

Total Amount:                 $1,500,000

                                                                                                       


Last modified 22 February, 2001           © 2000 University of Maryland