Karen Murphy

P. Karen Murphy is a Department Head and Distinguished Professor of Education (EDPSY) in the College of Education at Penn State. Dr. Murphy’s research investigates processes underlying students’ abilities to read and understand text and content, critically examine and evaluate the information presented, and make reasoned judgments from reading. Her ongoing projects pertain to the role of critical-analytic thinking in teaching and learning, promoting high-level comprehension and content area learning through classroom discussion in elementary language arts classrooms and using discourse to enhance content learning and conceptual change in high school physics and chemistry classrooms. Her research is funded by both the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Murphy frequently publishes in such prestigious journals as the Educational Psychologist, Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, and the Educational Researcher. She also recently co-authored a book on instructional leadership and learning for school administrators and has contributed to multiple book chapters, including two recent chapters in the Handbook of Educational Psychology. In addition, Dr. Murphy is a regular presenter at national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of the American Psychological Association, American Educational Research Association, and European Association for Research in Learning and Instruction.