Contact Jennifer Fredricks
Education
Ph.D., Combined Program in Education and Psychology; MA, The University of Michigan; BA, Columbia College, Columbia University
"Reinventing our public schools could provide an exciting opportunity to use our power to create imaginary worlds, share theories, and act out possibilities. This time not just on the playground but in all the varied public arenas in which we meet with our fellow citizens. Schools embody the dreams we have for our children. All of them. These dreams must remain public property."
- Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas
Jennifer A. Fredricks
Associate Professor of Human Development
On Sabbatical for the academic year 2007-08
Joined Connecticut College: 2000
Specializations:
- Human Development
- Social Policy
- Educational Psychology
Jennifer Fredricks studies the effect of the school and family contexts on children's motivation and development. She is interested in how to create schools that optimize positive academic and psychological outcomes for children and adolescents living in diverse environments. Much of her work has focused on the psychological and social factors that can help to explain the motivation gap (differences in motivational and achievement-related outcomes) for females and minority students and the implications of these findings for educational and social policy.
Jennifer has conducted research in the areas of motivation, youth development, gender-role socialization, science instruction, and school reform. In her doctoral dissertation, she used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the effect of the family context on children's motivation in math and sports from first to twelfth grade. She found that the family can positively support children's motivation by serving as a role model, holding high expectations, and providing opportunities in the home.
Jennifer is currently working on a large-scale study of children's engagement and achievement in urban high poverty neighborhoods in collaboration with the MacArthur Network and colleagues at the University of Michigan. The goal of the research is to examine characteristics of schools that have been successful in increasing children's motivation and achievement in high poverty areas.
She was awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral fellowship to further her research project, “Academic, Psychological, and Behavioral Consequences of Extracurricular Participation.” She wants to better understand the characteristics of children and adolescents who participate in extracurricular activities and the impact it has on a person’s education, psyche and behavior.
Jennifer teaches courses "Introduction to Human Development", "Child and Family Policy," and "Children's Rights and Public Policy". In her teaching, she focuses on how to use knowledge of human development to create environments that better support the needs of children and families in a diverse society. She encourages students to apply developmental theory and research to real world problems.
She has published in "Journal of Adolescent Research", "Journal of Youth and Adolescence", and "Journal of Learning Sciences", and has presented her research at national and international conferences including the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, Society for Research in Child Development, Society for Research in Adolescence, and the British Psychological Society.
Visit the human development department web site.