Professor
Ph.D. Harvard University
Area: Developmental, Combined Program in Education and Psychology

Contact Information

Email: fjmorris@umich.edu
Psychology Office: 2030 East Hall
Psychology Phone: 734-763-2214

Research and Teaching Interests

My research focuses on the nature and sources of literacy acquisition in children during the transition to school. My current work examines the impact of child, family and schooling factors in shaping children's growth and in contributing to early problems in school. In one series of studies I am examining the impact of schooling by using a "natural experiment" (school cutoff) in which children who just make vs. miss the cutoff for school entry are compared on growth of a variety of skills important for school success. In another project, I am a co-investigator on the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. This national study has been following over 1000 children since birth in 10 different sites around the nation, focusing on the impact of different contexts (family, childcare, school) on children's psychological growth. In addition, in collaboration with Carol Connor, we are studying the effects of an intervention to individualize instruction for first grade students, based on their skill levels at fall entry, aided by computer software that recommends amounts and types of instruction for each child.  Across three different studies spanning first through third grade, we have found significantly higher growth in reading skills for children experiencing individualized instruction compared to a control group. Further, the more precisely the individualization matched recommended amounts and types of instructions, the stronger was the children's growth.

 

Representative Publications

• Morrison, F. J., Bachman, H. J., & Connor, C. M. (2005). Improving Literacy in America: Guidelines from Research. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Morrison, F.J., Ponitz, C.C. & McClelland, M.M. (in press).  Self -regulation and Academic Achievement in the Transition to School.  To appear in S. Calkins & Bell, M.A., (Ed.), Child Development at the Intersection of Emotion and Cognition.
• Morrison, F.J. & Connor, C.M. (in press).  The Transition to School: Child-instruction Transaction in Learning to Read.  In A. Sameroff (Ed.),  Transactions in Development.  Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Books.
• Connor, C.M., Piasta, S.B., Fishman, B., Glasney, S., Schastschneider, C., Crowe, E., Underwood, P., & Morrison, F.J. (2009).  Individualizing Student Instruction Precisely: Effects of Child by Instruction Interaction on First Graders' Literacy Development.  Child Development, 801(1), 77-100.