Chris Hulleman is principal investigator of the Motivate Lab and an associate professor at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. He is also a fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and codirector of the Motivation Research Institute at James Madison University. His research explores how motivation and mindsets impact human development and growth, particularly in education. He also researches the methods of evaluating educational interventions. In 2014-15, he was a fellow-in-residence at the Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He received his Ph.D. in experimental social and personality psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 and his B.A. from Central College. Prior to his career in psychology, he spent six years as teacher and coach in Iowa.
Chris Hulleman conducts research on educational interventions grounded in theories of social and personality psychology, motivation, and human development. Recently, his work has focused on examining the extent to which helping students find relevance in their coursework for their lives increases learning and interest. He partners with practitioners and other researchers to develop interventions that boost motivation, learning, and achievement in school and sports. Examples of this include a national researcher-practitioner network, a national network of researchers focused on learning mindsets, and a national researcher-practitioner network focused on the transition to college. For more information on his motivation research, see the Motivation Lab website. He also conducts research on methods of evaluating the extent to which educational interventions were implemented as designed (i.e., intervention fidelity). His research on fidelity includes preschool science classrooms (e.g., ECHOS, RISE), the contribution of the Responsive Classroom Approach to children’s social and academic growth, and interventions designed to increase value for students in STEM and other subject areas.
