Moving Beyond Fulfillment: Wisdom Years Stories of Passion, Perseverance, and Productivity

Seven participants were interviewed to uncover how they remain so productive in their wisdom years, those typically marked by retirement. Participants included a leading educational psychologist, a renowned national television news anchor, a four-time national champion collegiate coach, the founder and former chief executive of Arbor Day Foundation, a university scholar turned playwright, and two female adventurers who quit their jobs, sold their possessions, and have lived a nomadic life, hiking thousands of miles throughout America. Their wisdom years stories describe how and why they shun retirement and remain productive. The article concludes with seven advice-laden conclusions for readers: (a) Do not retire, but if you do, retire to something, (b) follow your bliss, (c) work hard, (d) offset aging challenges, (e) be inspired by role models, (f) be a life-long learner, and (g) take heed of the universe conspiring

Graduate Student Award Winners in Educational Psychology: What Made Them Successful?

Much is known about the factors that make some educational psychologists highly productive. Beginning nearly 25 years ago, Kiewra and colleagues began a series of six qualitative investigations to uncover the keys to scholarly success in educational psychology. The initial study (Kiewra & Creswell, 2000) investigated Richard Anderson, Richard Mayer, and Michael Pressley, who were ranked as the top scholars in a survey of educational psychologists. The second study (Patterson- Hazley & Kiewra, 2013), more than a decade later, investigated productive scholars Patricia Alexander, Richard Mayer, Dale Schunk, and Barry Zimmerman who were ranked as the top scholars in a survey of educational psychologists at that time. The third study (Flanigan et al., 2018) investigated a pre-selected cohort of productive German scholars affiliated with Ludwig Maximilian University: Frank Fischer, Hans Gruber, Heinz Mandl, and Alexander Renkl. The fourth study (Prinz et al., 2020) investigated five productive female scholars from the USA and Europe, stemming from a survey of international female scholars. They were Patricia Alexander, Carol Dweck, Jacquelynne Eccles, Mareike Kunter, and Tamara van Gog. The fifth study (Kiewra et al. 2021) investigated six recent early career award winners in educational psychology: Rebecca Collie, Logan Fiorella, Doug Lombardi, Sabina Neugebauer, Erika Patall, and Ming-Te Wang. The sixth study was a retrospective account of how educational psychologist John Glover was so productive (Kiewra & Kauffman, 2023). This series of studies found several common and critical factors related to scholarly productivity, including centers of excellence, mentorship, collaboration, research management, time management, writing, and support. What follows is a thumbnail synopsis of previous findings