Child Development: Principles and Perspectives

Joan Littlefield Cook teaches in the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. As an undergraduate she majored in Psychology at Tennessee Technological University. She earned a Ph.D. in Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. Over the last 18 years she has taught courses related to child and adolescent development, educational psychology, and cognitive psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Middle Tennessee State University. Her classes have ranged from large lecture courses (with 300 or more students) to small seminars. Students have always appreciated her knowledge of the field and her ability to present information in a way that is useful, motivating, and friendly. In fact, the Student Association at the University of Wisconsin-Madison voted her as one of their most outstanding professors. Joan's research is on mathematical problem solving and cognitive development. She and her colleagues have published paperrs in the Journal of Educational Psychology, Intelligence, Cogition & Instruction, Memory & Cognition, the Gifted Child Quarterly, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology. She has co-authored two other books and numerous instructional materials.

 

Greg Cook also teaches Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He majored in Psychology at the University of Dayton and later received his Ph.D. in Psychology at Vanderbilt University. For the last 18 years he has taught courses in child development, research methods, statistics, and related topics at Whitewater as well as at the Madison and Richland Center campuses in the University of Wisconsin system and Vanderbilt University. At Whitewater, he received a departmental award for excellence in teaching. Students consistently comment on his ability to present difficult information in a clear and understandable way. His research in cognitive development ahs been published in scholarly journals such as Child Development, Developmental Psychology, and the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. He also collaborated with colleagues in the College of Education on studies published in the Journal of Experimental Education, the Journal of Research & Development in Education, and the Journal of Reading Education.