Alison C. Koenka, Ph.D.

Education

• Ph.D. in developmental psychology, Duke University
• B.A. in honors psychology, McGill University

Research interests

Motivational consequences of academic feedback, academic motivation in understudied and underrepresented students, developing methodological guidelines in educational and psychological research

Career highlights

• American Psychological Association Division 15 Early Career Research Grant (2019)
• National Study of Learning Mindsets Early Career Fellowship (2018)
• American Psychological Association Division 15 Paul R. Pintrich Outstanding Dissertation Award (2017)

Recent publications/projects

• Koenka, A. C. (accepted). Grade expectations: The motivational consequences of performance feedback on a summative assessment. Journal of Experimental Education.
• Wigfield, A. & Koenka, A. C. (in press). Where do we go from here in academic motivation theory and research? Some reflections and recommendations for future work. Contemporary Educational Psychology.
• Koenka, A. C. (2020). Academic motivation theories revisited: An interactive dialog between motivation scholars on recent contributions, underexplored issues, and future directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101831
• Agger, C. A., & Koenka, A. C. (2020). Does attending a deeper learning school promote motivation, engagement, perseverance, and achievement? Psychology in the Schools.
• Koenka, A. C., Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Moshontz, H., Atkinson, K. M., Sanchez, C., & Cooper, H. (2019). A meta-analysis on the impact of grades and comments on academic motivation and achievement: A case for written feedback. Educational Psychology. doi: 10.1080/01443410.2019.1659939
• Koenka, A. C., & Anderman, E. M. (2019). Personalized feedback as a strategy for improving motivation and performance among middle school students. Middle School Journal. doi:10.1080/00940771.2019.1674768
• Anderman, E. M., Koenka, A. C., Anderman, L. H., & Won, S. (2018). Math and science motivation in internationally adopted adolescents. School Psychology Quarterly, 33, 469-481. doi:10.1037/spq0000276

Bio

Dr. Alison C. Koenka’s primary line of research focuses on academic motivation, especially during secondary school and college and in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In particular, she explores (a) the motivational consequences of academic feedback and (b) academic motivation in understudied and underrepresented student populations. She adopts a variety of methodological approaches to pursue this research, including school-based experimental methods, secondary data analysis, and meta-analysis. Through an additional line of work, she develops accessible guidelines for applying innovative quantitative methods to psychological and educational research.

Koenka teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in human development, educational psychology, and research methods.

Curriculum Vitae

(804) 828-3738 [main number for Department of Foundations of Education]

koenkaac@vcu.edu