Michael C Nagel

Biography

Associate Professor Michael Nagel’s research and teaching interests focus primarily on human development and the psychology of learning. His PhD research encompassed an international project that looked at the learning experiences of Australian and Canadian teenagers.

Prior to his arrival at USC, Dr Nagel spent time in the United States researching the developing pediatric brain with a particular interest in early and adolescent development and areas related to a sexually dimorphic brain. Dr Nagel has authored twenty-four books focusing on educational psychology and child development including 'In the Beginning: The Brain, Early Development and Learning' and 'Nurturing A Healthy Mind: Doing What Matters Most for Your Child's Developing Brain', 'In the Middle: The Adolescent Brain, Behaviour and Learning' and ‘Human Development and Learning: Implications for Teaching. These volumes of work have been written for any person whose professional or personal interests encompass child development, learning and parenting respectively.

Aside from his teaching and research activity at the University, Dr Nagel has also conducted workshops and seminars for teachers and parents at over 300 schools in Australia and abroad. He was selected by the Australian Middle Years of Schooling to be their national traveling scholar in 2012 and is a regular presenter for Generation Next which focuses on adolescent health and well-being. Finally, Dr Nagel has won a number of awards for linking theory with the everyday realities of raising and working with children, has appeared on 'Sunrise', 'A Current Affair', 'The Project' and New Zealand TV's Breakfast program and is a feature writer for the Child and Jigsaw series of magazines which offers parenting advice to more than one million Australian readers.

Professional memberships

• International Neuropsychological Society
• Society for Research in Child Development
• European Association for Developmental Psychology
• The Learning and Brain Society
• Queensland College of Teachers

Teaching areas

• Human Development and Learning
• The Psychology of Learning
• Managing the Learning Environment

Expert media commentary

Michael's specialist areas of knowledge include education, early learning, development in children, gender, middle years of schooling, teacher education.