Professor Helen Watt
Brief Biography
Helen Watt is Professor of Educational Psychology and ARC Future Fellow at The University of Sydney, School of Education and Social Work. She began her career as a research methodologist and educational psychologist first at Macquarie University (1997-8), the University of Sydney (1998-2003), University of Western Sydney (2003-4), then was a research fellow at the Gender & Achievement Research Program at the University of Michigan 2003-6 where she worked with Professor Jacquelynne Eccles, before returning to Monash University 2006-2017.
Helen has received awards for her research, highlights including the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Early Career Researcher Award, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division for Human Development Dissertation Award for her PhD, the AERA Division for Learning and Instruction graduate award, research fellowships from the University of Michigan, the Positive Psychology Summer Institute fellowship, and the Sydney University Medal for her Honours thesis. Her expertise relates to measurement, scale construction, motivation, self-concept, academic achievement, maths education, gendered occupational choices, socialisation of gender differences, motivations for teaching and teacher self-efficacy.
Helen’s interests centre on affective, cognitive and social bases for educational and occupational outcomes, utilising large-scale longitudinal designs.