Karen R. Harris

Last updated

Karen R. Harris is an educational psychologist and special educator who has researched the development of learning strategies and self-regulation among students with learning challenges such as learning disabilities and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. She is currently the Mary Emily Warner Professor (a chair she shares with Steve Graham) in the Division of Educational Leadership and Innovation, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.

Contents

Harris has worked in the field of education for over 35 years, initially as a general education teacher and then as a special education teacher. Her research focuses on informing and improving theory, research, and practice related to writing development among students with high incidence disabilities, students who struggle academically, and normally achieving students. She is interested in validating instructional approaches for heterogeneous classrooms and students with special needs derived from integrating multiple, evidence-based theories. She developed the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of strategies instruction; SRSD has been most extensively researched in the area of writing, although researchers have also addressed applications in reading, math, and homework. Her current research focuses on practice-based professional development in SRSD for general and special educators (focusing on outcomes among both teachers and students), and on using technology to improve literacy instruction.

Former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology, Harris is senior editor of the American Psychological Association Educational Psychology Handbook (2012). She is senior editor (along with Steve Graham) of the What Works for Special Needs Learners series published by Guilford Press. She is co-author or co-editor of several books and numerous articles, and has served on editorial boards for journals in special education, educational psychology, and general education. She is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association. She has served as President of the Division for Research of the Council for Exceptional Children and as an officer or committee member for the American Educational Research Association and the American Psychological Association. She has also served on committees or panels for organizations, including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the International Reading Association, and the International Society for the Advancement of Writing Research. She has received several awards including the Career Research Award from the International Council for Exceptional Children, the Samuel A. Kirk Award from the Division of Learning Disabilities, and the Distinguished Researcher Award from the Special Education Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.

Books

Co-author

For others see 'External links'

Related Research Articles

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

Instructional scaffolding is the support given to a student by an instructor throughout the learning process. This support is specifically tailored to each student; this instructional approach allows students to experience student-centered learning, which tends to facilitate more efficient learning than teacher-centered learning. This learning process promotes a deeper level of learning than many other common teaching strategies.

Metacognition is "cognition about cognition", "thinking about thinking", "knowing about knowing", becoming "aware of one's awareness" and higher-order thinking skills. The term comes from the root word meta, meaning "beyond", or "on top of". Metacognition can take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or problem-solving. There are generally two components of metacognition: (1) knowledge about cognition and (2) regulation of cognition.

This is an index of education articles.

In education, response to intervention is an approach to academic intervention used in the United States to provide early, systematic, and appropriately intensive assistance to children who are at risk for or already underperforming as compared to appropriate grade- or age-level standards. RTI seeks to promote academic success through universal screening, early intervention, frequent progress monitoring, and increasingly intensive research-based instruction or interventions for children who continue to have difficulty. RTI is a multileveled approach for aiding students that is adjusted and modified as needed if they are failing.

Discovery learning technique of inquiry-based learning

Discovery learning is a technique of inquiry-based learning and is considered a constructivist based approach to education. It is also referred to as problem-based learning, experiential learning and 21st century learning. It is supported by the work of learning theorists and psychologists Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner, and Seymour Papert.

Lauren B. Resnick is an educational psychologist who has made notable contributions to the cognitive science of learning and instruction. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and was previously director of the University's Learning Research and Development Center. In 1986-1987, Resnick was the president of the American Educational Research Association. She received the 1998 E. L. Thorndike Award from the American Psychological Association.

Educational psychologist

An educational psychologist is a psychologist whose differentiating functions may include diagnostic and psycho-educational assessment, psychological counseling in educational communities, community-type psycho-educational intervention, and mediation, coordination, and referral to other professionals, at all levels of the educational system. Many countries use this term to signify those who provide services to students, their teachers, and families while other countries use this term to signify academic expertise in teaching Educational Psychology.

Patricia A. Alexander is an educational psychologist who has conducted notable research on the role of individual difference, strategic processing, and interest in students' learning. She is currently the Jean Mullan Professor of Literacy and Distinguished Scholar/Teacher in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology in the Faculty of Education at the University of Maryland and a visiting professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Dale H. Schunk is an educational psychologist, former Dean and current professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has researched the effects of social and instructional variables on cognition, learning, self-regulation and motivation. Schunk has served on the editorial boards of journals such as Contemporary Educational Psychology and Educational Psychology Review, and has authored many journal articles and book chapters on educational psychology. In addition to other books, he is author of the widely used textbook, Learning Theories: An Educational Perspective, and coauthor of Motivation in Education: Theory Research and Applications.

Learning disability Range of neurodevelopmental conditions

Learning disability, learning disorder or learning difficulty is a condition in the brain that causes difficulties comprehending or processing information and can be caused by several different factors. Given the "difficulty learning in a typical manner", this does not exclude the ability to learn in a different manner. Therefore, some people can be more accurately described as having a "learning difference", thus avoiding any misconception of being disabled with a lack of ability to learn and possible negative stereotyping. In the United Kingdom, the term "learning disability" generally refers to an intellectual disability, while difficulties such as dyslexia and dyspraxia are usually referred to as "learning difficulties".

Reciprocal teaching instructional activity that takes the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text for the purpose of constructing the meaning of text

Reciprocal teaching is an instructional activity that takes the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text for the purpose of constructing the meaning of text. Reciprocal teaching is a reading technique which is thought to promote students' reading comprehension. A reciprocal approach provides students with four specific reading strategies that are actively and consciously used to support comprehension: Questioning, Clarifying, Summarizing, and Predicting. Palincsar (1986) believes the purpose of reciprocal teaching is to facilitate a group effort between teacher and students as well as among students in the task of bringing meaning to the text.

Reciprocal teaching is best represented as a dialogue between teachers and students in which participants take turns assuming the role of teacher. -Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar

Gevirtz Graduate School of Education

The Gevirtz Graduate School of Education is a graduate school at the University of California, Santa Barbara which specializes in the field of education and counseling, clinical and school psychology. It is located in technology-enabled Education Building which has been built in 2009 on the UCSB campus. In 2013, the Gevirtz School was once again named one of the best graduate schools of education in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its graduate programs, it also contains the Koegel Autism Center, Hosford Counseling & Psychological Clinic, the Psychology Assessment Center, and the McEnroe Reading & Language Arts Clinic. The Gevirtz School has a pre-K – 6 laboratory school, The Harding University Partnership School, in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.

In the United States education system, School Psychological Examiners assess the needs of students in schools for special education services or other interventions. The post requires a relevant postgraduate qualification and specialist training. This role is distinct within school psychology from that of the psychiatrist, clinical psychologist and psychometrist.

Michael Lee Wehmeyer is the Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor in Special Education and Chairperson of the Department of Special Education at the University of Kansas. His research focuses on self-determination and self-determined learning, the application of positive psychology and strengths-based approaches to disability, and the education of students with intellectual or developmental disabilities. He is Director and Senior Scientist at Kansas University's Beach Center on Disability. He formerly directed the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities.

Wilbert James "Bill" McKeachie was an American psychologist. He served as president of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Foundation and the American Association of Higher Education. He was a longtime faculty member at the University of Michigan and the initial author of McKeachie's Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers, a widely read book on college teaching that was first published in 1951 and more recently in its 14th edition in 2013.

Abigail M. Harris, is an associate professor at Fordham University's, Graduate School of Education.

Lynn Fuchs is an educational psychologist known for research on instructional practice and assessment, reading disabilities, and mathematics disabilities. She is the Dunn Family Chair in Psychoeducational Assessment in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University.

Carol McDonald Connor is an educational psychologist known for her research contributions to the field of early literacy development in diverse learners, in particular for work on individualized student instruction interventions and the lattice model of reading development. She currently holds the position of Chancellor's Faculty and Equity Advisor in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine.

Danielle S. McNamara is an educational researcher known for her theoretical and empirical work with reading comprehension and the development of game-based literacy technologies. She is Professor of Psychology and Senior Research Scientist at Arizona State University. She has previously held positions at University of Memphis, Old Dominion University, and University of Colorado, Boulder.

References

  1. "Harris and Graham (1996) Making the writing process work: Strategies for composition and self-regulation". Getcited.org. 2002-02-27. Archived from the original on 2013-12-16. Retrieved 2014-02-19.
  2. Sawyer, R. J.; Graham, S.; Harris, K. R. (1992). "Direct teaching, strategy instruction, and strategy instruction with explicit self-regulation: Effects on the composition skills and self-efficacy of students with learning disabilities". Journal of Educational Psychology. 84 (3): 340. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.84.3.340.
  3. "Issues in Educating Students with Disabilities" . Retrieved 2014-02-19.