John T. Guthrie is a professor of human development at the University of Maryland-College Park. He is also the director of the Maryland Literacy Research Center and the Principal Investigator on a 5-year IERI grant to study the increase of reading comprehension, motivation, and science knowledge using Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction in grades 3-5. His studies of motivational and strategic development in reading and the instructional contexts that increase long-term reading engagement have been published in the Reading Research Quarterly, the Journal of Educational Psychology, and the Elementary School Journal. Guthrie is a recipient of the Oscar Causey Award for Outstanding Reading Research and is a member of the International Reading Association Hall of Fame.
Allan Wigfield is Professor of Human Development and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland-College Park. His research focuses on the development of children's motivation. He has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on children's motivation, and has also edited three books and four special issues of journals. Included in his publications are chapters on motivation in the Handbook of Educational Psychology, Handbook of Child Psychology (5th ed.), and Annual Review of Psychology. Wigfield was also Associate Editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology from 2000 to 2002 and currently is Associate Editor of Child Development, leading journals in the fields of educational and developmental psychology. He is a Fellow of Division 15 (Educational Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, and has won several awards for his research and teaching.
Kathleen C. Perencevich is a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland-College Park. Her current research explores how various classroom contexts support students' reading engagement. Specifically, her work examines the influence of autonomy-support and conceptual instruction on student motivation and learning. Her work has been published in several journals and edited books and she is a former classroom teacher.