Faculty Research Profiles: Michelle Perry

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Professor

Child Development Division
Educational Psychology
220E Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708

Professor (interim CSTL Chair)

Cognitive Science of Teaching and Learning
Educational Psychology
217 244-7766
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Research Biography

My research has focused on children's acquistion of knowledge, especially of the sort taught in schools (e.g., children's acquisition of mathematical concepts).

My general area of interest is cognitive development and learning, especially in school-aged children. Currently, I am pursuing research that examines how different representations of mathematical information impact children's developing understanding of that information. My research examines the specific ways in which environmental and instructional features may influence children's learning and cognitive development.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Educational Psychology and Child Development, University of Chicago, 1987
  • B.A., Psychology, Brandeis University, 1979

Key Professional Appointments

  • Professor, Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1998--
  • Professor, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997--
  • Professor, Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1996--
  • Department Chair, Educational Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001-2007

Activities & Honors

  • R. Stewart Jones Award for the Outstanding Teacher in Educational Psychology, Department of Educational Psychology, 2008- present
  • Invited Panel Member for Panel 14, SRCD Biennial Conference, Society for Research in Child Development, 2006
  • Member, CAREER Award Review Panel Member, National Science Foundation, 2005
  • Spencer Foundation Small Grant Review Panel, The Spencer Foundation, 2004-2005

Grants

  • Principal Investigator, GRA Support: Tracking Success in Fifth-Grade Mathematics: Linking Student Improvement on the ISAT to Classroom, Bureau of Educational Research, 2007
  • Co-Principal Investigator, Representing and Learning from Classroom Video, National Science Foundation (Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2000
  • Co-Principal Investigator, ITR: Multimodal Human Computer Interaction: Toward a Proactive Computer, National Science Foundation (Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2000

Selected Publications

  • Correa, C. A., Perry, M., Sims, L. M., Miller, K. F., & Fang, G. (2008). Connected and culturally embedded beliefs: Chinese and U.S. teachers talk about how their students best learn mathematics. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 140-153.
  • Schleppenbach, M., Flevares, L. M., Sims, L., & Perry, M. (2007). Teacher responses to student mistakes in Chinese and U.S. mathematics classrooms. Elementary School Journal, 108, 131-147.
  • Schleppenbach, M., Perry, M., Miller, K. F., Sims, L., & Fang, G. (2007). The answer is only the beginning: Extended discourse in Chinese and U.S. mathematics classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 380-396.
  • Stigler, J. W., & Perry, M. (2000). Developing classroom process data for the improvement of teaching. In N. S. Raju, J. W. Pellegrino, M. W. Bertenthal, K. Mitchell, & L. Jones (Eds.), Grading the nation's report card: Research from the evaluation of NAEP (pp. 229-264). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
  • Perry, M., & Lewis, J. (1999). Verbal imprecision as a tool for understanding knowledge in transition. Developmental Psychology, 35, 749-759.

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