Profile

Dr. Michele Gill is a professor of educational psychology in the Learning Sciences and Educational Research Department in UCF’s College of Community Innovation and Education and Program Coordinator for the EdD in Curriculum and Instruction. Her research focuses on teacher beliefs and knowledge, conceptual change, and school transformation. She is the author of the Millennials’ Guide to K-12 Education: What No One Every Told You About How to Help Your Child THRIVE in School and co-editor of the International Handbook of Research on Teachers’ Beliefs. Dr. Gill has served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Educational Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Educational Psychology Review, and Contemporary Educational Psychologist. She is a pioneer in education reform via her work as founder of the Galileo School for Gifted Learning, an award-winning K-8 charter school with two campuses in Seminole County. In 2022, she received the Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award by the American Psychological Association (APA). In that same year, she received a UCF Luminary award for making a significant national impact with her research, scholarship, and creative activity. In 2021, she was elected to Fellow status for APA’s Division 15 (educational psychology). In 2018, she received national recognition from the American Psychological Association as a Citizen-Psychologist. She is the recipient of two UCF Teaching Incentive Program awards, recognizing her teaching effectiveness.

• Teachers' Beliefs
• Conceptual Change
• School Transformation

Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, University of Florida
M.A.E. in Educational Psychology, University of Florida

Dr. Gill's overarching goal is to transform public education in the United States. This goal prefaced her undergraduate thesis on educational reform, and it continues to be the driving motivation of her research. Her professional mission is to improve educational practices in the United States by understanding how deeply held core beliefs influence instruction and learning. She also studies how beliefs and affect advance or hinder students’ cognitive and psychosocial development.

Dr. Gill does this through a three-pronged approach in her research and creative activity:

1. Focusing particularly on deeply held core and often implicit beliefs about learning and instruction, as well as the mechanisms, particularly affective and motivational, involved in changing these beliefs. (BELIEFS)
2. Integrating research findings on beliefs and affect with ways to improve educational practice based on my model of educational reform. (INTEGRATION)
3. Disseminating these findings with stakeholders involved in educating our nation’s youths from Kindergarten through the undergraduate level, particularly other researchers, practitioners, parents, administrators, and legislators. (DISSEMINATION)

• Theory development and testing interventions to promote belief change in teaching and learning
• Teacher development and change and obstacles to change
• How to help students and teachers thrive in school settings

• Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award, American Psychological Association, 2022
• Fellow of Division 15, American Psychological Association, 2021
• APA Citizen Psychologist, American Psychological Association, 2018
• Woman of Distinction, University of Central Florida, 2015
• Teaching Incentive Award, University of Central Florida, 2016, 2009
• Teacher Education Division Publication Award,  Council for Exceptional Children, 2008
• Achievement Award for New Scholars in Social Sciences, Business, and Education, Conference of Southern Graduate Schools, 2006
•  Paul R. Pintrich Dissertation Award, Division 15 American Psychological Association, 2004

• EDF 7517: Facilitating Learning, Development, and Motivation
• EDG 7947: EdD Lab of Practice
• IDS 7501: Issues in Research and Education
• EDP 6213: Seminar in Applied Learning and Instruction I
• EDF 6155: Lifespan Human Development and Learning