Dr. Wayne Slater
Wayne Slater is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he has been teaching since 1982. With over 40 years of experience in higher education and educational research, he has long been dedicated to English education, literacy education, and teacher preparation. Dr. Slater earned his Ph.D. in Education from the University of Minnesota, with research expertise spanning English literacy education, reading comprehension, cognitive psychology, linguistics, research methodology, and rhetoric.
Dr. Slater's research primarily focuses on reading comprehension, literacy skills, text structure, vocabulary, text comprehensibility, and cognitive strategies in reading and writing. His work extends to critical thinking, argumentation, and persuasive texts, examining the use of "Stases" as a problem-solving strategy in reading and writing to help students analyze arguments, construct reasoning, and improve literacy skills. His recent research also covers digital rhetoric and its role in written communication, demonstrating an academic signature that integrates diverse research perspectives across language, cognition, reading, and rhetoric.
Dr. Slater's publications and research findings appear widely in prominent academic journals such as the Journal of Educational Psychology, Reading Research Quarterly, and Research in the Teaching of English. He has served as principal investigator for multiple Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title II educational research and partnership projects. In professional service and academic communities, Dr. Slater has long been actively involved with organizations including the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA), and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). In 2015, he received the Exceptional Leadership Award from the relevant AERA Special Interest Group. Invited as a featured speaker at this conference, he will share his research experience and pedagogical practice with participants.