Associate Professor
Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology
School of Education
(812) 856-8352
joalexan@indiana.edu

• Ph.D.,University of Georgia, 1992
• National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Semifinalist, 1998

• Indiana University Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, 1996-97
• Indiana University Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, 1995-96
• American Psychology Association Division 15 Outstanding Dissertation Research Award, 1994

My research agenda has been primarily focused on how learners use metacognitive knowledge in learning situations. Metacognitive knowledge is assumed to play a role in optimal performance on a cognitive task. Learners should take what they know about their abilities, about different strategies, and the situation, and make decisions about strategy use and effort allocation. The specific objectives for my research have been centered around the following three questions:

• What do learners know about mental activities and how do they choose to organize that information?
• How does metacognitive sophistication interact with individual differences in domain knowledge level and intelligence to impact strategy use and a learner's ability to remember in a given situation?
• How can we use the information we know about what affects strategy use to develop effective ways to teach strategies in the classroom?

Alexander, J.M., Noyes, C.R., MacBrayer, E.K., Schwanenflugel, P.J., & Fabricius, W. V. (1998). Concepts of mental activities and verbs in children of high and average verbal intelligence.
Gifted Child Quarterly, 42(1), 16-28.

Manion, V., & Alexander, J.M. (1997). Benefits of peer collaboration on strategy use, metacognitive causal attributions, and recall.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 67, 268-289.

Carr, M., Alexander, J.M., & Schwanenflugel, P.J. (1996). Where gifted children do and do not excel on metacognitive tasks.
Roeper Review, 18, 212-217.

Alexander, J.M., & Schwanenflugel, P.J. (1996). Development of metacognitive concepts about thinking in gifted and nongifted children: Recent research.
Learning and Individual Differences, 8, 305-325.

Alexander, J.M., Carr, M., & Schwanenflugel, P.J. (1995). Development of metacognition in gifted children: Directions for future research.
Developmental Review, 15, 1-37.