Toni Kempler Rogat
Associate Department Head, Associate Professor
Educational Psychology and Research Methodology,
Educational Studies
Email:
trogat@purdue.edu
Phone:
(765) 494-7295
Address:
Steven C. Beering Hall of
Liberal Arts and Education
100 N. University Street
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2098
BRNG 5124
About
Education
- Ph.D. — Education and Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2006)
- M.S. — Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2002)
- B.A. — Elementary Education with Psychology, Goucher College (1998)
Career Experience
- 2024 – present
Coordinator of Undergraduate Research
College of Education
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - 2022 – present
Associate Head
Department of Educational Studies
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN - 2020 – present
Associate Professor of Educational Psychology
College of Education, Purdue University - 2014 – 2020
Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology
College of Education, Purdue University - 2006 – 2014
Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology
Rutgers University
Research & Publications
My research examines the quality of students’ motivation and engagement contextualized in collaborative group and classroom environments. Specific to collaborative groups, I focus on explaining quality variation in engagement by considering the group’s cognitive, motivational, and socio-emotional processes. At the classroom level, I am interested in students’ motivational experiences, with a focus on teachers’ influence through the use of instructional and motivational practices, situated within inquiry-based science curricular contexts.
As part of my current grant activity, two STEM units that integrate science inquiry, engineering design, and community-based service projects will be co-designed, implemented, and refined. We will examine the curricular features supportive of students’ science and engineering learning and their development of science/STEM interest and agency. This project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) will advance theoretical understanding of effective strategies for deeply engaging students in real-world design projects that reflect the lived experience in their communities.
My research also involves developing theory and observational measures of collaborative group engagement during complex and authentic learning tasks in science and mathematics, drawing on recent advances in conceptualizing student engagement as productive disciplinary engagement. Building on my previous National Science Foundation-funded project, I am empirically examining and theorizing the dynamics of collaborative group engagement in context.
Finally, building from my previous Spencer-Foundation funded project, I am investigating how middle school students respond to the motivational features of the inquiry curricula recommended by national science education reform efforts, with interest in promoting students’ sustained motivation and perceptions as doers of science. This research draws on multiple methods, including surveys, interviews, and classroom observations.
Selected Publications
- Adeoye Olenloa, T.F. & Rogat, T.K. (2025). Social and academic sources of science classroom belonging in inquiry and traditional curricular contexts in middle school. The Elementary School Journal, 125(3). https://doi.org/10.1086/734339
- Rogat, T.K., Adams-Wiggins, K.R., Tan, D. & Adeoye, T.F. (2024). Students’ constructions of mastery-approach goals contextualized in inquiry-based and traditional science curricula. The Journal of Experimental Education. DOI: 10.1080/00220973.2024.2351953
- Rogat, T.K., Hmelo-Silver, C.E., Cheng, B.H., Traynor, A., Adeoye, T.F., Gomoll, A. & Downing, B.K. (2022). A multidimensional framework of collaborative groups’ disciplinary engagement. Frontline Learning Research, 10(2), 1-21.
- Rogat, T.K. & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (2019). Demonstrating Competence Within One’s Group or in Relation to Other Groups: A Person-Oriented Approach to Studying Achievement Goals in Small Groups. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101781
- Rogat, T. K., Witham, S.A., & Chinn, C.A. (2014). Teachers’ Autonomy Relevant Practices within an Inquiry-based Science Curricular Context: Extending the Range of Academically Significant Autonomy Supportive Practices. Teachers College Record, 116(7), 46 pages.
- Rogat, T.K. & Linnenbrink-Garcia, L. (2011). Socially Shared Regulation in Collaborative Groups: An Analysis of the Interplay between Quality of Social Regulation and Group Processes. Cognition and Instruction, 29, 375-415.
- Linnenbrink-Garcia, L., Rogat, T.K. & Koskey, K.L. (2011). Affect and Engagement during Small Group Instruction. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36, 13-24.
- Blumenfeld, P. C., Kempler, T. M., & Krajcik, J. S. (2006). Motivation and Cognitive Engagement in Learning Environments. In K. Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 475-488). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Current Grants & Funded Research
- Youth Learning Science and Engineering while Developing Community-based Agency through Resourceful Engagement in STEM (Youth CARES), Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), 2024-2028. Role on project: co-PI.
- The goal of this project is to develop research-based integrated STEM units that lead to robust learning of science and engineering content and practices while cultivating students’ STEM interest and agency. We will iteratively co-design and refine two units in which students investigate how local environmental conditions, such as water quality, temperature variability, and land use patterns, affect human and ecological health. To stimulate students’ STEM interest and agency, lessons will be framed around anchoring phenomena related to real-life scientific issues of local relevance and global significance, with opportunities to engage in real-world design projects.
Courses Typically Taught
- EDPS 53000 — Advanced Educational Psychology
- EDPS 53600 — Achievement Motivation and Performance
- EDPS 63300 — Seminar in Educational Psychology