Richard P. VanDeWeghe

Richard VanDeWeghe is an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado Denver. He has taught middle school and high school, he has been a faculty member at two universities, and he is a field director for the National Writing Project. He has directed two sites of the National Writing Project; supervised preservice teachers in the Initial Professional Teacher Education program at the University of Colorado Denver; and worked with practicing teachers in numerous schools and districts on reading, writing, and thinking across the curriculum.

VanDeWeghe has been awarded Teacher of the Year at the University of Colorado Denver, where he was also named a President's Teaching Scholar. He was selected as Outstanding Educational Leader (1992) by the Colorado Language Arts Society, and he was a recipient of the 2006 National Network for Educational Renewal, Richard W. Clark Partner School Award.

His research interests concern theoretical and empirical issues that inform instructional practice—engaged learning; reading, writing, and thinking across the curriculum; teacher education; teacher professional development through inquiry; and the intersection of brain research and humanistic education. He has published articles in such resources as Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, English Education, English Journal, and the Journal of Teaching Writing. He was writer and column editor for the "Research Matters" column for English Journal for six years. He has presented workshops and papers for the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Writing Project, College Composition and Communication, Modern Language Association, and the Australian Reading Association.

VanDeWeghe has a bachelor’s degree in English and speech education from Western Michigan University, a master of arts degree in English from Michigan State University, and a doctorate in English with a specialty in the teaching of writing from Michigan State University.