Judith L. Meece is a professor of education at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where she teaches in the School of Education. Child and Adolescent Development for Educators draws on her more than 25 years of experience teaching child and adolescent development course to pre-service teachers and graduate students. Before coming to Chapel Hill, Meece taught at Purdue University and completed a post doctoral fellowship at the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh. She received her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Michigan in 1981. Meece’s research focuses on academic motivation, gender differences in mathematics and science achievement, and schooling influences on development. She has authored or coauthored numerous articles and chapters on these topics. Currently she is involved in two research projects focusing on rural youth as part of the National Research Center of Rural Education Support. She is also co-editing a book on schooling and development.

Denise H. Daniels is an associate professor of child development at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. Before coming to Cal Poly, she was an associate professor of educational psychology at Northern Illinois University. Like Meece, she also draws from considerable experience (14 years) teaching prospective and experienced educators and child professionals at undergraduate and graduate levels. She received her PhD in education and developmental studies from UCLA in 1992. Daniels’ research focuses on children’s motivation to learn in diverse educational settings, and children’s and teachers’ psychological understandings. She is also involved with children and families as a consultant for a variety of school readiness projects in the local community, and is a parent of two teenagers.