Margaret McKeown (Inducted 2008)

University of Pittsburgh
Learning Research and Development Center

Email: 

mckeown [at] pitt.edu

Mailing Address: 

1273 Bellerock St, Pittsburgh PA 15217

Phone: 

412 657-7020

Curriculum Vitae: 

Biographical Statement

Margaret G. McKeown (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is a Senior Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research and Development Center and Clinical Professor in the School of Education, emerita. Her work addresses practical, current problems that classroom teachers and their students face. Dr. McKeown has pursued two major lines of research, one in vocabulary and one in reading comprehension. The vocabulary work has focused on the effects of vocabulary knowledge on reading comprehension through the implementation of vocabulary programs designed to help students build rich semantic concepts. The comprehension work included the examination of students’ knowledge of school topics developed from textbooks and the development of instructional approaches to help students construct meaning from text. Dr. McKeown began her career teaching reading and language arts in elementary school. Her work has been published extensively in outlets for both research and practitioner audiences, including AERJ, Elementary School Journal, Reading Research Quarterly, and The Reading Teacher. Her work has been recognized with the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the International Reading Association, a National Academy of Education Spencer postdoctoral fellowship, membership in the Reading Hall of Fame, and induction as an AERA fellow.