Research Projects

Motivation Research: Understanding and Enhancing Student Motivation
Investigating the consequences of motivation (e.g., engagement and academic performance), examining trajectories of expectancy-value beliefs across contexts, developing and testing motivational interventions, and exploring how contextual factors such as social presence and teacher involvement support motivation in face-to-face and online learning environments. Current Featured Project: Enhancing Engineering Students' Motivation, Academic Success, and Career Development: The Role of a Long-Term Multi-Construct Task Value Intervention (MTVI), funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Identity Research: Intersectionality, Identity, and Educational Outcomes
Examining how students' identities—including race, social class, generation status, gender, reader identity, and neurodivergence—shape educational experiences and outcomes such as sense of belonging, persistence intentions, perceived match, reading comprehension, and psychological wellbeing; exploring the role of cultural mismatch and social essentialist beliefs in reader identity development and academic success.

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Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Bridging Research and Practice
Conducting classroom-based research on pedagogical approaches and interventions, with particular emphasis on motivation-enhancing strategies, including task value interventions; translating empirical findings into actionable teaching practices that support diverse learners.