FACULTY

Contact Info

baker@umbc.edu

Lab:
Sondheim Hall 408
p.410-455-3138

Status:

Linda Baker, Ph.D.

Professor

Education

Background and Research Interests

Dr. Linda Baker is past director of the ADP program and currently chair of the Department of Psychology. Her research interests are broadly concerned with development in relation to education. Specific areas include literacy development, motivation for reading and schooling, parental beliefs and practices that influence children's school outcomes, children's understanding and monitoring of their own cognitive processes, and instructional interventions to prevent reading disabilities. She is currently investigating the effects of a classroom intervention to improve the literacy development of young African American children attending inner city schools, following three cohorts of children from pre-kindergarten through first grade, with assessments of oral language, early reading, and socio-emotional development. Another current project examines the use of internet-based multimedia to promote academic motivation of adolescents who are disengaged from school. Dr. Baker also conducts evaluations of school and community-based intervention programs for enhancing children's academic development. She recently served as an associate editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of several journals in the areas of literacy, education, and child development. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Selected Publications

Baker, L. (2008). Metacognitive development in reading: Contributors and consequences. In K. Mokhtari & R. Sheorey (Eds.), Reading strategies of first- and second-language learners: See how they read (pp. 25-42). Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon.

Baker, L., & Beall, L. C. (2008). Metacognitive processes in reading comprehension. In S. E. Israel & G. G. Duffy (Eds.), Handbook of research on reading comprehension (pp. 373-388).  New York: Routledge. 

Garrett, A., Mazzocco, M., & Baker, L. (2006). Development of the metacognitive skills of prediction and evaluation in children with and without math disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 21, 77-88.

Serpell, R., Baker, L., & Sonnenschein, S. (2005). Becoming literate in the city: The Baltimore Early  Childhood  Project. New York: Cambridge.

Baker, L. (2003). The role of parents in motivating struggling readers. Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming learning difficulties, 19, 87-106

Baker, L. & Scher, D. (2002). Beginning readers motivation for reading in relation to parental beliefs and home reading experiences. Reading Psychology, 23, 239-269.

Baker, L., Mackler, K., Sonnenschein, S., and Serpell, R. (2001). Mothers interactions with their first grade children during storybook reading and relations with reading activity and achievement. Journal of School Psychology, 38(5), 1-24.

Baker, L. Dreher, M.J., & Guthrie, J.T. (Eds.) (2000). Engaging young readers: Promoting achievement and motivation. New York: Guilford.