Faculty
John Carlson
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison
carlsoj@msu.edu
http://education.msu.edu/faculty/carlson/John-Carlson-Vita.pdf
John Carlson is an associate professor of school
psychology and director of the School Psychology
doctoral program, a Nationally Certified School
Psychologist and Licensed Psychologist. His
research interests include
examining the utility of medical and psychological
interventions on school-aged children's behavior
in educational and other learning contexts. The
impact of children's anxiety on their functioning
in schools and at home is a primary focus of his
research. Other interests include assessment,
prevention and intervention for externalizing
behaviors that impact preschool and classroom
functioning. The primary focus of his work
pertains to ensuring equitable and effective
educational and mental health services for those
children who are experiencing challenges at
school, home or in the community.
Joe Codde
Ph.D., Michigan State University
joecodde@msu.edu
Joseph Codde is a professor of educational
technology and works primarily on programs in the
Middle East and Africa. He has experience working
in Algeria, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and
Pakistan. He is also working on educational
programs in sub-Saharan Africa. His interests
focus on educational reform, teacher professional
development and the effect professional
development has on the use of computer and mobile
technologies in education. In addition, he works
with the MSU Confucius Institute on programs both
nationally and internationally.
Patrick Dickson
Ph.D., Stanford University
pdickson@msu.edu
W. Patrick Dickson is a professor of educational
psychology with interests in human development,
multimedia learning environments, and
cross-cultural research. His teaching and research
activities focus on applying lifespan
developmental perspectives to the design of new
learning environments. He is also exploring how
the internet can be used to create links among
students and teachers around the world, as well as
links between schools and out-of- school settings,
including homes and science museums.
Matthew Diemer
Ph.D., Boston College
diemerm@msu.edu
http://diemer.wiki.educ.msu.edu/
Matthew Diemer is an associate professor of
educational psychology and educational technology.
His teaching and scholarship emphasize
the sociocultural context of human development and
learning. Specifically, he is interested in
understanding how marginalized youth negotiate
structural constraints in school, college, and
work. His program of research explores a) how
marginalized youth develop a critical
consciousness of social, political, and racial
inequality and become motivated to produce social
change and be politically active, b) career
development and engagement with the opportunity
structure among marginalized youth, and c) how
this critical consciousness may help marginalized
youth more effectively negotiate educational and
vocational barriers. A new line of inquiry
examines how low-income youths’ developmental
context contributes to their postsecondary
persistence. His work has appeared (or is
forthcoming) in journals such as Child
Development, Developmental Psychology, The
Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Counseling
Psychology, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic
Minority Psychology and has been funded by sources
such as the National Academy of Education/Spencer
Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, the American
Educational Research Association, and the American
Psychological Foundation.
Rhonda Egidio
Ph.D. Michigan State University
egidio@msu.edu
Rhonda Egidio was a professor emeritus of
education who developed U.S.-based and
international programs
that used the advantages of technology for
evolving forms of learning. She partnered with
business,government and education to create virtual
environments that fuse work and learning. Her
interests focused on innovative and integrated forms
of learning for a new digital economy. Her
projects had included developing and directing
education reform projects in Pakistan and Egypt;
digitally connecting classrooms of 11th graders in
Algeria with students in the U.S. to share
cultural information; designing and conducting
professional development for Lebanese educators to
learn to use technology in their classrooms, with
particular focus on gender issues; designing
innovative, student-centered online course
environments; and working with Michigan
Rehabilitation Services to create their e-learning
and knowledge management system. She was Director
of the HREAC (Rehabilitation Education And Change)
Program).
Carol Sue Englert
Ph.D., Indiana University
carolsue@msu.edu
Carol Sue Englert is a professor of special
education. Her research interests include literacy
instruction for students at risk for school
failure with a specific focus on the examination
of discourse in literacy events. Her more recent
work involves a collaborative research project
with special education teachers to design,
implement, and integrate a literacy curriculum
emphasizing the role of oral and written language
in a discourse community.
Summer Ferreri
Ph.D., Ohio State University
sferreri@msu.edu
Summer Ferreri is an assistant professor of
special education. Her primary research focus is
on the development, implementation and evaluation
of effective interventions to increase academic
success and decrease disruptive behaviors for
students with severe disabilities. More
specifically, her research utilizes the concepts
and principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and
single-subject research methods to investigate
efficacious interventions for individuals with
Autism Spectrum Disorder. She has conducted
research with children with special needs to
determine the most effective and least intrusive
methods to decrease disruptive, self-injurious,
self-stimulatory, pica, and aggressive behavior.
She has conducted research on behavioral
assessments of impulsivity in relation to
dimensions of reinforcement, temporal discounting,
reinforcement schedules, and conditioned and
terminal reinforcers with children with Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Kenneth Frank
Ph.D. University of Chicago
kenfrank@msu.edu
Kenneth Frank is a professor of measurement and
quantitative methods. His substantive interests
include the study of schools as organizations, how
teachers influence one another to affect classroom
practices and school decision-making, social
networks, and the social context of learning. His
substantive areas are linked to several
methodological interests: social network analysis,
hierarchical linear modeling, cluster analysis,
multidimensional scaling, log-linear and logit
models, simultaneous equation models and time
series models. His publications include new
quantitative methods for representing relations
among teachers and how those relations affect
teachers’ orientations to teaching, the
characteristics of schools that affect teachers’
orientations to teaching, and ways in which actors
generate social capital from their social relations.
Sonya Gunnings-Moton
Ph.D. Michigan State University
gunnings@msu.edu
Sonya Gunnings-Moton is assistant dean for student
support services and recruitment and an associate
professor in the Department of Counseling,
Educational Psychology & Special Education. She
has major responsibilities for program efforts
fostering the recruitment and retention of
under-represented groups to undergraduate and
graduate programs, and providing leadership for
many urban education initiatives, including the
Urban Educators Cohort Program, the Urban
Immersion Fellowship and the Urban Partnership
Pre-College Program. She works extensively with
schools in her published area of establishing
Professional Learning Communities and facilitating
effective school cultures.
Harold Johnson
Ed.D., University of Cincinnati
hjohnson@msu.edu
Harold Johnson is a professor of special education
(deaf/hard of hearing). His research focuses upon
how web-based technologies and resources can be
used to reduce isolation, facilitate
collaboration, recognize excellence and enhance
teaching/learning within K-20 deaf education. He
investigates how student learning in school can be
tied to student living outside of school. One of
his current projects concerns the use of a
“Virtual Professional Development School” (VPDS)
for deaf education. He is exploring how science
and mathematics teaching can be improved within
the VPDS and the subsequent impact of this
improvement upon students' learning, language and
literacy skills.
Matthew Koehler
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
mkoehler@msu.edu
http://mkoehler.educ.msu.edu
Matthew Koehler is a professor of
educational psychology and educational
technology. His research focuses on understanding
the affordances and constraints of new
technologies; the design of technology-rich,
innovative learning environments; and the
professional development of teachers. His
research examines how new technologies, such as
video and hypermedia, may be well-suited to help
learners (especially teachers) acquire new
knowledge, skills, or understanding in complex
and ill-structured domains. This has led to a
program of research about a form of knowledge,
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
(TPACK), that has developed theoretical,
pedagogical, and methodological perspectives that
characterize teachers who effectively integrate
content, pedagogy, and technology in their
classroom practice.
Spyros Konstantopoulos
Ph.D., University of Chicago
spyros@msu.edu
http://spyros.wiki.educ.msu.edu/
Spyros Konstantopoulos is an associate professor
and program coordinator of measurement and
quantitative methods. His methodological work
involves applications of multilevel models in the
design of experimental or non-experimental studies
and focuses on power analysis in designs with
complicated nested structures. His substantive
work encompasses research on the effects of
educational interventions such as class size,
school and teacher effects, and the social
distribution of academic achievement.
John Kosciulek
Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison
jkosciul@msu.edu
John Kosciulek is a professor of rehabilitation
counseling whose experience involves clinical
rehabilitation counseling practice, rehabilitation
counselor education, and public education and
advocacy regarding brain injury rehabilitation.
His research focuses on research ethics, research
methodology, consumer direction in disability
policy development and rehabilitation service
delivery, rehabilitation and disability theory
development, research methodology, vocational
rehabilitation, and school-to-career transition of
students with and without disabilities. He also
has an extensive program of research in the area
of family adaptation to having a member with a
brain injury.
Michael Leahy
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
leahym@msu.edu
Michael Leahy is a professor of rehabilitation
counseling and director of the Office of
Rehabilitation and Disability Studies. His
continuing research interests include professional
competency development and education,
professionalization, regulation of practice,
vocational assessment, disability and
rehabilitation policy, case management practices,
outcomes and evidenced-based practices in
rehabilitation counseling. Dr. Leahy is a
Past-President of the National Council on
Rehabilitation Education, a Past Chair of the
Alliance for Rehabilitation Counseling, and a
Past-President of the American Rehabilitation
Counseling Association (ARCA). He has published
more than 150 referred journal articles, books,
book chapters, and research monographs, and
presented his research to a variety of
rehabilitation and business audiences, including
international presentations. He has also acted as
the principal investigator and managed nearly 30
large-scale research, training and service
delivery grant projects at the state, national and
international levels, and has been the recipient
of over 20 national research, teaching and service
awards during his career.
My T. Lien
Ph.D., Michigan State University
lienmy@msu.edu
My T. Lien is a clinical assistant professor in
school psychology, a Licensed Psychologist in the
State of Michigan, and a Nationally Certified
School Psychologist. She has taught a variety of
school-based and practice-based courses, including
3rd year doctoral practicum, 4th year doctoral
advanced practicum, psychotherapy, and school
consultation. Her clinical interest is in the
area of pediatric chronic illness, working with
children who have been diagnosed with a chronic
medical condition (e.g., cancer, diabetes, and
encopresis) and help families understand the
psychological and school/learning effects of such
chronic medical diagnoses. Dr. Lien maintains a
private practice in Grand Rapids.
Kimberly Maier
Ph.D., University of Chicago
kmaier@msu.edu
http://kmaier.wiki.educ.msu.edu/
Kimberly Maier is an associate professor of
measurement and quantitative methods who is
interested in the development of statistical
models for complex data structures. Her current
research focuses on the application of multilevel
item response theory to educational achievement
measures and attitudinal surveys. Other areas of
interest include Bayesian data analysis methods
for educational research, the study of family
impacts on adolescent achievement and aspirations,
adolescent motivation in science and mathematics
education, and the application of multilevel
models to policy research.
Troy Mariage
Ph.D., Michigan State University
mariaget@msu.edu
Troy Mariage is an associate professor of special
education. His research interests are in the areas
of literacy instruction for students with mild
disabilities in elementary classrooms. He has
conducted work in early reading instruction,
writing instruction, and cognitive strategy
instruction that leads to self-regulated learning.
More recently, he has extended his work by seeking
to understand how to create schools as learning
organizations that create the capacity for
continuous learning and improvement. Currently, he
is conducting a study to explore how teachers can
provide concurrent academic and social support for
students with significant learning and behavioral
difficulties.
Punya Mishra
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
punya@msu.edu
http://punyamishra.com/
Punya Mishra is a professor of educational
technology and director of the Master of Arts in
Educational Technology program. He is nationally
and internationally recognized for his work on
the theoretical, cognitive and social aspects
related to the design and use of computer-based
learning environments. He has worked extensively
in the area of technology integration in teacher
education which led to the development (in
collaboration with M. J. Koehler) of the
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge
(TPACK) framework, which has been described
as “the most significant advancement in the area
of technology integration in the past 25 years.”
He has received over $4 million in grants,
published over 45 articles and book chapters and
edited two books. Dr. Mishra is an award-winning
instructor who teaches courses at both the
masters and doctoral levels in the areas of
educational technology, design and creativity. He
is a gifted, creative and engaging public
speaker, having made multiple keynote and invited
presentations for associations and conferences
nationally and internationally. He is also an
accomplished visual artist and poet.
Kelly Mix
Ph.D., University of Chicago
kmix@msu.edu
Kelly Mix is a professor of educational
psychology whose research focuses on the
development of number concepts and mathematical
reasoning. She is particularly interested in the
emergence of these ideas in infancy and early
childhood, as well as the way conventional symbols
for numbers and mathematics are mapped onto this
preverbal foundation.
Claudia Pagliaro
Ph.D., Gallaudet University
pagliaro@msu.edu
Claudia Pagliaro is an associate professor of
special education (deaf/hard of hearing). Her
research focuses on mathematics instruction and
learning with deaf and hard-of-hearing students
(P-12). She is particularly interested in the
areas of problem solving and the influence of a
visual language (American Sign Language) on
mathematics understanding. Pagliaro has been the
PI/Co-PI on several federally-funded research and
teacher preparation projects including most
recently, Solving Story Problems in the Primary
Grades, which has brought new insight into
problem-solving instruction and learning with
deaf/hard-of-hearing elementary students; the
Building Math Readiness in Young
Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing Children: Parents as Partners
development project, which helps parents to
prepare their pre-K/K deaf/hard-of-hearing
children for formal mathematics learning; and the
Pacific Island Learning Initiative (PILI) in Deaf
Education project, which prepares teachers for
deaf/hard-of-hearing students in Hawaii and the
Pacific Islands. Pagliaro has presented her work
nationally and internationally, and has numerous
publications in distinguished research and
practitioner journals as well as invited chapters
in textbooks.
Joshua Plavnick
Ph.D., Michigan State University
plavnick@msu.edu
Joshua Plavnick’s research interests involve
developing
and evaluating interventions that target social
and communicative behavior for individuals with
autism. He is specifically interested in applying
principles derived from behavior analysis and
observational learning to develop novel
educational interventions. His research involves
experimental analyses of video modeling as a
strategy to teach communication and social skills
to pre-K through 12th grade students with autism.
He is also interested in procedural fidelity of
educational interventions for individuals with
autism delivered in public school settings.
Richard Prawat
Ph.D., Michigan State University
rsprawat@msu.edu
Richard Prawat is chairperson of the Department of
Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special
Education and a professor of educational
psychology and teacher education. His research
interests include teaching and learning for
understanding and motivational processes in
education. He has written extensively on issues
relating to constructivist approaches to teaching.
Ralph Putnam
Ph.D., Stanford University
ralphp@msu.edu
Ralph Putnam is an associate professor of
educational psychology whose research focuses on
the cognitively oriented study of classroom
teaching and learning and role of technology in
learning. His recent research has examined the
teaching and learning of mathematics in elementary
school classrooms, especially the knowledge and
beliefs of teachers as they teach mathematics for
understanding and the different ways that students
learn about mathematics from various kinds of
instruction.
Tenko Raykov
Ph.D., Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
raykov@msu.edu
Tenko Raykov is a professor of measurement and
quantitative methods. He specializes in
statistical and mathematical modeling of
behavioral phenomena, educational and behavioral
measurement, and modeling of developmental
processes. He is involved in research on
evaluation of behavioral measurement reliability
and validity, instrument construction and
development, analyses of data sets with missing
values, and applications of latent variable
modeling to behavioral development across the life
span.
Mark Reckase
Ph.D., Syracuse University
reckase@msu.edu
Mark Reckase is a University Distinguished
Professor of measurement and quantitative methods.
He specializes in the development of educational
and psychological tests, educational policy
related to testing, and the psychometric theory
that supports the assessment of cognitive skills
and content knowledge. In particular, he is doing
research on applications of unidimensional and
multidimensional item response theory (IRT)
models, computerized adaptive testing (CAT),
assessment using performance tasks, standard
setting on educational tests, and methods for
evaluating the quality of teacher education programs.
Cary Roseth
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
croseth@msu.edu
Cary Roseth is an assistant professor of
educational psychology. He is interested in social
development, peer relations, and social contextual
influences on classroom achievement. His research
focuses on the development of conflict resolution
in early childhood and on the effects of
cooperation, competition, and individualistic goal
structures on children’s academic achievement and
peer relations.
William Schmidt
Ph.D., University of Chicago
bschmidt@msu.edu
William Schmidt is a University Distinguished
Professor and co-director of the Education Policy
Center. He holds faculty appointments in
measurement and quantitative methods and the
Department of Statistics. His current writing and
research concerns issues of academic content in K-
12 schooling, teacher preparation and the effects
of curriculum on academic achievement. He is also
concerned with educational policy related to
mathematics, science and testing in general. He
is a member of the National Academy of Education
and a fellow of the American Educational Research
Association (AERA).
Barbara Schneider
Ph.D., Northwestern University
bschneid@msu.edu
http://hannah.wiki.educ.msu.edu/
Barbara Schneider is the John A. Hannah Chair and
Distinguished Professor in the College of
Education and Department of Sociology at MSU. She
is the principal investigator of the College
Ambition Program (CAP), a study that tests a
model for promoting a STEM college-going culture
in two high schools that encourages adolescents
to pursue STEM majors in college and occupations
in these fields. She worked for 18 years at
University of Chicago, holding positions as a
professor in Sociology and Human Development and
senior researcher at the National Opinion
Research Center (NORC). She remains a senior
fellow at NORC, where she is the principal
investigator of the Center for Advancing Research
and Communication in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics. She uses a
sociological lens to understand societal
conditions and interpersonal interactions that
create norms and values that enhance human and
social capital. Her research focuses on how the
social contexts of schools and families influence
the academic and social well being of adolescents
as they move into adulthood. Professor Schneider
has published 15 books and over 100 articles and
reports on family, social context of schooling,
and sociology of knowledge. She recently was the
editor of Sociology of Education.
Jack Smith
Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley
jsmith@msu.edu
John (Jack) P. Smith is a professor of
educational psychology. His research concerns the
nature of people's knowledge and learning of
mathematics as evidenced in school and other
settings. His other interests include the relation
of epistemology to learning, the role of intuitive
understanding in learning mathematics and science,
the design of advanced technology for learning
mathematics, and the nature of teaching mathematics.
Rand Spiro
Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
rspiro@msu.edu
Rand Spiro is a professor of educational
psychology. His research areas are knowledge
acquisition in complex domains, hypermedia
learning environments, multimedia case-based
methods in professional education, biomedical
cognition, and constructive processes in text
comprehension and recall. Much of his research is
concerned with the question, “How should learning
proceed so that tendencies toward conceptual
oversimplification are counteracted and a wide
range of future applications of knowledge are
supported?” The objective is the validation of
basic theoretical principles and related
instructional practices that will allow students
to master the complex concepts they encounter and
to transfer that knowledge from formal schooling
to real-world cases - learning for flexibly
adaptive use, rather than for imitative
reproduction. A central part of the research
program involves the development and testing of
theory-based hypermedia learning environments
designed to promote cognitive flexibility.
Gary Troia
Ph.D., University of Maryland
gtroia@msu.edu
Gary Troia is an associate professor of special
education. His research interests include the
connections between oral language and literacy in
typical and atypical learners, writing assessment
and instruction, and teacher professional
development in literacy. His recent work involves
examining alignment between states' content
standards and assessment frameworks in writing and
how alignment between these influences writing
outcomes and enables students to meet
postsecondary writing expectations. He also is
examining predictors of writing quality within a
multi-level linguistic framework to help
researchers and educators develop better
measurement tools for writing.
E. David Wong
Ph.D., Stanford University
dwong@msu.edu
David Wong is an associate professor of
educational psychology. He is interested in how
learning can be made into a powerful and
compelling experience for learners. With a
background in both science and music, his work
spans a number of areas, including educational
psychology and philosophy, educational technology,
and the design of online learning environments. He
is also exploring how artistically crafted digital
multimedia can be a powerful medium for expressing
the nuance and complexity of important ideas.
