April Taylor, PhD
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Assistant Professor Department of Child & Adolescent Development California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street,
MC-8263 email me: ataylor@csun.edu |
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Research and Professional Interests Professional Organizations |
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Dr. Taylor became an assistant professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Development at California State University, Northridge in 2004 after receiving her doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and completing an AERA/IES postdoctoral fellowship hosted at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Dr. Taylor's research interests lie in the general domain of the development of motivation and more specifically concern motivation for academic achievement among urban minority youth. Her research program examines social, cultural, and social-psychological influences on achievement motivation, and the identification of theory guided motivation-enhancing practices. Her commitment to studying achievement motivation patterns has resulted in two distinct programs of research. The first entails academic motivation and social skills enhancing intervention programs. This includes collaborative work on a theory driven after-school intervention aimed at increasing prosocial skills and academic motivation among elementary school aged minority males labeled as aggressive. The second line of research, and the focus of her dissertation, investigates the role of values in understanding student academic achievement and motivation. Dr. Taylor is currently examining how oppositional identity may moderate the interaction between students’ gender and ethnicity and their value for academic achievement, achievement outcomes, and peer perceptions. In addition, she is qualitatively examining African American and Latino middle school students’ concept of success – what they think it means to be successful for and among members of their ethnic group. Coursework CADV 150 Foundations of Child and Adolescent Development CADV 350 Applied Cognitive Development CADV 380 Methods of Child and Adolescent Study CADV 470 Advanced Theories of Development CADV 495A/B Graduate School Skills and Applied Research Training
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Selected Publications Hudley, C., Graham, S., & Taylor, A. (2007). Reducing aggressive behavior and increasing motivation in school: The evolution of an intervention to strengthen school adjustment. Taylor, A. & Graham, S. (2006). An examination of the relationship between achievement values and perceptions of barriers among low-SES African-American and Latino students. Wakefield, D. & Taylor, A. (2006). Teaching racial identity. In Y. Jackson (Ed.) Encyclopedia of multicultural society. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
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