Ian Wilkinson is Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University and Honorary Professor in the School of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand. He completed his Bachelor’s degree at the James Cook University of North Queensland, a Diploma in Psychology, Master of Arts (Qualifying), and Master of Applied Psychology at the University of Queensland, and his PhD in Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). While a graduate student at the Center for the Study of Reading at UIUC, he served as a member of the research staff, and co-author, for the landmark publication, Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading. 

Originally from Tasmania, he has taught and conducted research in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. His entrée to reading came when he was conducting research on the use of the Mount Gravatt Developmental Language Reading Program with aboriginal children in urban and outback Australia. His current research focuses on school and classroom contexts for literacy learning and the cognitive consequences for students. His most recent research examines the impact of classroom discussion and dialogue on students' reading comprehension and argument literacy and the implications for professional development of teachers. As part of this work, he developed, in collaboration with colleagues, Quality Talk, a general approach to conducting classroom discussions about text to promote students’ high-level comprehension.

Ian’s work has appeared in publications such as Reading Research Quarterly, British Journal of Educational Psychology, American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Educational Psychology, The Elementary School Journal, Reading Psychology, The Reading Teacher, Learning and Instruction, Teaching and Teacher Education, Language and Education, the Handbook of Reading Research, Handbook of Research on Learning and Instruction, Sage Handbook of Learning,  the Handbook of Educational Psychology, and the International Handbook of Inquiry and Learning. Ian served as Editor (with David Bloome) of Reading Research Quarterly from 2006-2012. 

His recent books include The Most Reasonable Answer: Helping Students Build Better Arguments Together (Harvard Education Press, 2017, with Alina Reznitskaya) and Quality Talk About Text: Discussion Practices for Talking and Thinking About Text (Heinemann, 2022, with Kristin Bourdage).