Anastasia Kitsantas, PhD, is Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Officeof Doctoral Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at George MasonUniversity (GMU). She has also served as Director of the Educational Psychology, ResearchMethods, and Education Policy Division and as Academic Program Coordinator of theEducational Psychology Program. She received her PhD in Educational Psychology with aspecialization in Development, Learning, and Instruction from the Graduate School andUniversity Center of the City University of New York. She has previously served on the facultiesat James Madison University in the School of Psychology and at Florida State University in theDepartment of Educational Research. Prior to working in higher education, she taught in K–12settings.Dr. Kitsantas’ research interests focus on the development of self-regulated learning (SRL)and student motivation across diverse areas of functioning, including academic learning, athletics,and health. She has also studied the role of learning technologies in supporting studentSRL. She finds joy in mentoring students to conduct research in these areas and has chairedmore than 30 doctoral dissertations. She is the editor, coauthor, or author of three books andover 150 journal articles, book chapters, refereed proceedings, and reports, many of which aredirected toward the training of self-regulation. Her publications have appeared in diverse outletsacross many fields, such as educational psychology, teacher education, learning technologies,health psychology, and sport psychology. Her research output has been widely cited by others,with more than 19,000 Google Scholar citations. In fact, she has been recognized as ranking inthe top 2% of scientists worldwide based on research conducted from Stanford University thatcovered ~7 million scientists in 22 major fields (Jeroen, Boyack, & Ioannidis, 2020). She has alsopresented over 200 papers or invited addresses at local, national, and international conferences.She has received funding support for her scholarship by various agencies. Currently, she is thePrincipal Investigator (PI) and a Co-PI on two projects funded by the Department of Educationand the National Science Foundation, respectively. Both projects focus on the development ofself-regulatory skills among school-aged students in literacy and STEM areas in preparation forpostsecondary learning, the workplace, and lifelong learning.Dr. Kitsantas was awarded the Outstanding Dissertation Award by Division 15 of theAmerican Psychological Association (APA) in 1997 and had been honored to receive the 2019Barry J. Zimmerman Award for Outstanding Contributions to the fields of studying andself-regulated learning research by the Studying and Self-Regulated Learning (SSRL) SpecialInterest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). She is aFellow of the American Psychological Association’s: Division 15, Educational Psychology. Shehas excelled at teaching in a variety of course modalities and was awarded a George MasonUniversity Teaching Excellence Award, which is an institutional recognition for outstandingteaching and acknowledgment of the significant work that faculty members devote to teaching,advising, mentoring, and curriculum development. She is the former Editor-in-Chief ofThe Journal of Experimental Education and has served on the editorial boards of a number ofxxviii Essentials of Research Methods for Educatorsprofessional journals, including Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Technology,Research and Development, Metacognition and Learning, The Journal of Experimental Education,and many others.Dr. Kitsantas has been extensively involved in the profession and has held numerous leadershippositions in professional organizations. She served as a Member at Large of the ExecutiveBoard of Division 15 of APA in 2011 and most recently served as the Chair of the FellowsCommittee and the Webinar Committee. She has also been involved in the SSRLSIG of AERAas the SIG Chair, Program Chair, and Chair of the Barry J. Zimmerman Award Committee.She has been a panel reviewer for the Institute of Education Sciences, the National ScienceFoundation, and other funding agencies. She has developed partnerships with GMU and otheruniversities abroad, taught abroad, and as an advocate for study abroad programs, continues toseed fruitful international collaborations.Timothy J. Cleary is Professor and Chair of the Department of School Psychology in theGraduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers, The StateUniversity of New Jersey. He obtained his PhD in Educational Psychology with a specializationin School Psychology from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University ofNew York, CUNY Graduate School in 2001. Dr. Cleary began his professional career working asa licensed school psychologist in the public and private sector. He began his academic career as aVisiting Professor at CUNY before serving as Assistant and Associate Professor at the Universityof Wisconsin—Milwaukee prior to moving to Rutgers University in 2012.Dr. Cleary’s primary research interests include the development and application of self-regulatedlearning (SRL) and motivation assessment and intervention practices across academic,athletic, medical, and clinical contexts. Specifically, he has examined trends in school-basedSRL assessment and intervention practices, developed and validated several types of SRL assessments(i.e., self-report, teacher rating scales, parent rating scales, microanalytic protocols), developedand tested academic intervention programs, and investigated links among SRL processesand performance indicators. He has published over 70 peer-review journal articles and bookchapters specifically addressing SRL issues and applications, coedited a scholarly book on SRL,served as sole author on an edited volume targeting SRL intervention programs and a sole authorfor a research-to-practice book for K–12 teachers, The Self-Regulated Learning Guide: TeachingStudents to Think in the Language of Strategies (2018). Most of his publications have appearedin top-tiered journals across multiple fields, including school psychology, educational psychology,medical education, teacher education, and sport psychology. His research productivity hasbeen widely cited by others, with approximately 8,000 Google Scholar citations and 4,000 citationssince 2018. He was the recipient of the 2021 Barry J. Zimmerman Award for OutstandingContributions to the fields of studying and self-regulated learning research from the Studyingand Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group of the American Educational ResearchAssociation (AERA).Dr. Cleary’s extramural grant funding is significant in both its quantity and quality, andmost of his projects have been collaborative in nature. He is serving or has served as a PrincipalInvestigator (PI) or Co-PI on grants from the National Science Foundation, the Departmentof Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), Institute forEducational Sciences (IES), and the Spencer Foundation. Over the course of his career, Dr.About the Authors xxixCleary has served in a lead or collaborative scholarly role on grants totaling approximately $12million.Dr. Cleary has also taken on several leadership roles at the university and national levels.Across institutions, he has served as Program Director, Director of Clinical Training,and Department Chair. He also participated as a Fellow in the inaugural Rutgers LeadershipAcademy in 2015. At a national level, Dr. Cleary has served on the executive board for theStudying and Self-Regulated Learning Special Interest Group (SSRL SIG) of the AmericanEducational Research Association (AERA), performing roles of Chair, Program Chair, andSecretary. He also served as Chair for the Graduate Student Mentoring Program of the SSRLSIG for four years and has participated in various mentoring programs sponsored by NASP andDivision C of AERA. Dr. Cleary currently serves on prestigious editorial boards for school psychologyjournals (Journal of School Psychology, School Psychology) and educational psychologyjournals (Journal of Experimental Education, Metacognition and Learning) and served as a panelreviewer for IES grant for several years. Dr. Cleary is frequently asked to provide professionaldevelopment workshops to school personnel, researchers, and psychologists across the countryregarding the application and motivation and SRL principles.Dr. Maria K. DiBenedetto holds a doctorate in Educational Psychology with a specializationin Learning, Development, and Instruction from the Graduate School and University Centerof the City University of New York. She has a rich history in working in various administrativepositions in higher education, including admissions, recruitment, advisement, student services,assessment, and reaccreditation, as well as adjunct teaching of both undergraduate and graduatestudents (courses include research methods, educational psychology, counseling psychology,child and adolescent development, theories of learning in teaching, and management). She alsohas several years’ experience teaching as a high school science teacher and Chair of the ScienceDepartment, as well as experience as a second- and fourth-grade elementary school teacher.Dr. DiBenedetto’s current position is at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, inthe Bryan School of Business and Economics where she is a member of the Dean’s LeadershipTeam. In her position as Lecturer/Director of Assessment and Reporting, Dr. DiBenedettooversees assurance of learning for the business school’s reaccreditation by AACSB International(Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business), one of the most prestigious and internationallyrecognized organizations that reviews business schools throughout the globe. Inaddition, she ensures the business school is meeting the assurance of learning standards set bySACSCOC (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges) for allgraduate programs, undergraduate majors, minors, and certificate programs. She also serves onvarious committees throughout the university and within the business school and is a senator onthe university-wide staff senate.Dr. DiBenedetto’s research interests are focused on self-regulated learning, self-efficacy,and motivation. She has published numerous chapters and articles on these topics and has collaboratedwith world-renown scholars in the field of educational psychology. She is particularlyinterested in research on self-regulated learning for college-bound high school students as wellas study strategies for undergraduate and graduate students and their impact on achievement.Her research has been widely cited; for example, in a recent article in The Chronicle of HigherEducation on first-generation college students’ study strategies, the authors cited one of herxxx Essentials of Research Methods for Educatorsstudies in their discussion of study strategies for success (https://www.chronicle.com/article/Knowing-How-to-Study-Can-Mean/246644.).Along with Dr. DiBenedetto’s empirical research, she has written several theoretical/conceptualpublications focused on assessment, standards-based instruction, self-efficacy within asociocultural lens, the mentoring of doctoral students, and two books, one edited and one coauthored.In the edited book Connecting Self-Regulated Learning and Performance With InstructionAcross High School Content Areas (2018), each chapter is cowritten by outstanding content areahigh school teachers throughout the United States and well-known educational psychologists onapplying self-regulated learning to classroom instruction. Self-Regulation and the Common Core:Applications to ELA Standards (2015) was her earlier coauthored book that discusses how selfregulatedand the common core can be used to teach ELA standards to students in grades K–12.Dr. DiBenedetto has served on several prestigious editorial boards: Journal of ExperimentalEducation; The International Journal of Educational and Psychological Assessment; and a specialissue of Theory Into Practice. She has served as a guest reviewer for several premier journalsincluding the Journal of Educational Psychology; Journal of Advanced Academics; Learning andIndividual Differences; and Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy, & Practice, among others.DiBenedetto is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and served aschair of Division 15’s (Educational Psychology) Committee on the Development of Early CareerEducational Psychologists. She served in several positions in the Studying and Self-RegulatedLearning Special Interest Group (SIG) for the American Educational Research Association(AERA) including Chair, Program Chair, Secretary, and Editor of the SIG.Dr. DiBenedetto has presented her research internationally and domestically and has conductedprofessional development workshops for teachers in middle schools and high schools inaddition to guest lectures for doctoral students on student learning and assessment. In addition,Dr. DiBenedetto serves on doctoral dissertation committees and has served and serves as a consultanton many projects for organizations such as ACT (American College Testing), PearsonEducation, Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES), and the PortugueseScience Foundation. Suzanne E. Hiller, PhD, has worked in the field of education as a practitioner, professor,researcher, and evaluator for over three decades. Notably, she was the Teacher Naturalist withthe Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. She has served as an assistantprofessor teaching educational psychology, program evaluation, research, and preserviceteacher courses in curriculum and assessment. While affiliated with Wingate University, she wasthe Director of the Graduate Education Program and the Director of Multidisciplinary Studiesin Education with Hood College.Currently, she is the Executive Director of the Blue Swallow Farm Foundation, an organizationdedicated to promoting inclusive, authentic experiences in outdoor education throughresearch and training while motivating students in STEM careers. In light of this mission,Suzanne E. Hiller has been working with educators, administrators, researchers, and scientistson a variety of projects related to professional development, curriculum development, andresearch, with a particular emphasis on outdoor classrooms and citizen science. Most recently,she has conducted a series of research studies on the impact of water quality programs on studentSTEM achievement, career motivation, environmental attitudes, and social-emotionalwell-being. Through this type of research, professional development on designing and utilizingAbout the Authors xxxioutdoor classrooms, curriculum resources for educators, and mentorship and support for doctoralstudents, she continues to encourage growing interest in providing students with exposurein STEM activities within natural settings.In support of educational research at large, Suzanne E. Hiller has served on the editorialboard for the International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology and theJournal of Experimental Education. She has also been a reviewer for a variety of journals, such asLearning and Individual Differences; Learning, Culture, and Social Interaction; and Heliyon. Shehas written one book on using metacognitive and self-regulatory strategies to promote studentscience achievement and coedited one book on fostering STEM career motivation through citizenscience.Her background in motivation and self-regulation was particularly relevant as a co-principalinvestigator on a grant from the Maryland Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund to provide assistancefor teachers during the recent health crisis. Using an online format, the program servicedteachers across the state of Maryland with presentations, mentorship, and projects related tosocial-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, mind-brain education, and self-regulation,all topics that were critical for student success during the pandemic. The experience ofworking on this grant serves as a model for several upcoming programs to train educators andadministrators in outdoor instruction through the Blue Swallow Farm Foundation as well as todevelop curricular materials for outdoor learning, Grades K–12.
