| Bridget Franks Associate Professor Educational Psychology College of Education University of Florida 1416 Norman Hall PO Box 117047 Gainesville FL 32611 352-273-4342 Fax: 352-392-5929 bfranks@coe.ufl.edu |
|
Research Biography
I am engaged in a program of research exploring the relationships between logical reasoning and reading skill and the deductive reasoning demands of children’s reading materials. I have published research in logical reasoning, gender issues in development, and knowledge and attitudes of preservice teachers about HIV/AIDS in children. My current research program focuses on a cognitive-developmental approach to the study of reasoning processes in the comprehension of narratives and science texts.
I am engaged in a program of research exploring the relationships between logical reasoning and reading skill and the deductive reasoning demands of children’s reading materials. I have published research in logical reasoning, gender issues in development, and knowledge and attitudes of preservice teachers about HIV/AIDS in children. My current research program focuses on a cognitive-developmental approach to the study of reasoning processes in the comprehension of narratives and science texts.
Degrees
Ph.D. - Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1988
Certificate in School Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1985
M.A. - Educational Psychology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1983
B.S. - Human Development, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1977
Key Professional Appointments
Assistant, then Associate Professor, Department of Foundations of Education, College of Education, University of Florida, 1991-present
Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, 1989-1991
Appointed Graduate Coordinator of Department of Educational Psychology, 1999-present
Appointed by the Graduate Faculty to a three-year term on the Graduate Council, 2006
Activities & Honors
Manuscript and book reviews for Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology
Manuscript reviews for Child Development
Program Committees (reviewed conference program proposals for Society for Research in Child Development and Jean Piaget Society).
In the past three years, in collaboration with Drs. Tracy Linderholm and David Therriault, I have developed a new program initiative, emphasizing the cognitive psychology of higher-level reading and writing processes, as a concentration within the graduate program in Educational Psychology. The program includes courses not taught anywhere else at UF in the cognitive processes involved in reading, and also serves as a graduate minor for students in other graduate programs, such as Psychology, Teaching and Learning, Special Education, and Communication Sciences and Language Disorders.
Grants
“Increasing comprehension from expository test: Testing the benefit of perceptually augmenting text materials” Sponsor Agency: Institute of Educational Sciences (Submitted)
Selected Publications
Franks, B. A. (in press). Children’s societal understanding: a Western view. Review of M. Barrett & E. Buchanan-Barrow (Eds.) Children’s Understanding of Society. Applied Developmental Psychology.
Franks, B. A., Miller, M. D., Wolff, E. J., & Landry, K. (2004). HIV/AIDS and the teachers of young children. Early Child Development and Care, 174, 229-241.
Franks, B. A. (2004). A world of trouble (and how children develop in it). Review of Helping Children Cope with Disasters and Terrorism (A. M. La Greca, W. K. Silverman, E. V. Vernberg, & M. C. Roberts, (Eds.) Applied Developmental Psychology, 25, 491-500.
Franks, B. A. (1998). Logical inference skills in adult reading comprehension: Effects of age and formal education. Educational Gerontology, 24, 47-68.
Franks, B. A., Mulhern, S. L., & Schillinger, S. M. (1997). Reasoning in a reading context: Deductive inferences in basal reading series. Reading and Writing, 9, 285-312.
Franks, B. A. (1997). Deductive reasoning with prose passages: Effects of age, inference form, prior knowledge, and reading skill. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 21, 501-535.
Franks, B. A. (1996). Deductive reasoning in narrative contexts: Developmental trends and reading skill effects. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 122, 76-105.
Franks, B. A., & Miller, P. H. (1995). Developmental psychology, epistemology, and gender issues in science education. In D. R. Baker & K. Scantlebury (Eds.), National Association for Research in Science Teaching Monograph: Gender Equity and Science Education, 7. 22-36.
