Dr. Roger Azevedo is a Professor in the School of Modeling Simulation and Training at the University of Central Florida. He is the Lead Scientist for UCF’s Learning Sciences Faculty Cluster Initiative. He received his doctorate from McGill University (1998) and completed his postdoctoral training in cognitive psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. His main research area includes examining the role of cognitive, metacognitive, affective, and motivational self-regulatory processes during learning with advanced learning technologies (e.g., intelligent tutoring systems, hypermedia, multimedia, simulations, serious games, immersive virtual learning environments).
More specifically, his overarching research goal is to understand the complex interactions between humans and intelligent learning systems by using interdisciplinary methods to measure cognitive, metacognitive, emotional, and motivational processes and their impact on learning, performance, and transfer. To accomplish this goal, he conducts laboratory, classroom, and in-situ (e.g., medical simulator) studies and collects multi-channel data to develop models of human-computer interaction; examines the nature of temporally unfolding self- and other-regulatory processes (e.g., human-human and human-artificial agents); and, designs intelligent learning and training systems to detect, track, model, and foster learners, teachers, and trainers’ self-regulatory processes.
He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, chapters, and refereed conference proceedings in the areas of educational, learning, cognitive, educational, and computational sciences. He is the editor of the Metacognition and Learning journal and also serves on the editorial board of several top-tiered learning and cognitive sciences journals (e.g., International Journal of AI in Education, Applied Cognitive Psychology, European Journal of Psychological Assessment). His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences, and the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the recipient of the prestigious Early Faculty Career Award from the National Science Foundation.
DL: How and when did you first see yourself as a leader? Who have been your leadership mentors?
Roger: Eldest son of blue collar parents in a Portuguese colony, I spent my early years In Africa. Given the family economic situation, I never imagined becoming a leader due to the lack of opportunities. Being raised in an environment of just following regimented rules, I could never feel like a leader in anyway. Although Angola was a Portuguese colony, the Portuguese school system consisted of a multicultural composition of Asians, Caucasians, and Africans. I spent my K-3 years in the colony before moving to Montreal when I was eight years old. My parents had to leave Angola and emigrated to Canada. I didn’t grow up in a family who were leaders and it was difficulty to break that cycle. My father worked in the cargo department at the airport and my mom worked in a factory. I didn’t have the leadership role models as their roles couldn’t quite translate into my world.
As it was mostly French speaking in Montreal, I had to learn French and English and passed French exams and received a certificate to choose my language of instruction. In high school, I excelled in sports but not in the area of academics. I played volleyball, started martial arts, learned karate and then kung fu, and felt empowered by sports. I learned the early signs of leadership by example, through responsibilities, and derived a sense of purpose and goals. I really responded to that realm of leadership development.
I began to see myself more formally as a leader during graduate school while assembling student teams and organizing various tasks for specific deliverables. The sense of leadership grew as I took on more responsibilities and important tasks, learning how to adapt to different situations. The leadership transition began to take hold as I was surrounded by mentors and doctoral advisers, one of whom modeled for me the art of leadership in dealing with increasing responsibilities and handling difficult situations. Allowing me to practice that, she would trust me enough to step in for her when she was not available to lead out in large team meetings of faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. That confidence she gave me prepared me to handle any other difficult situations.
I have other great mentors from chairs of department to deans. I have tried to emulate them and follow their leadership examples, high expectations, high standards, and they knew how to motivate and inspire. At McGill University in Montreal, Canada, the most influential mentor was Susanne Lajoie. As my doctoral adviser, she had so much impact in my life. When I got married in Pittsburgh, Sue was my best person. She was my academic mom, instilling in me a sense of academic family. She was great at soft skills and impacted me greatly. Great in modeling, she showed me how best to deal with certain situations in very diplomatic ways. A prolific female scholar in a very high pressure leading institution, she demonstrated grace and positivity in the midst of an environment of anxiety and stress, navigating the academic landscape with administrators and colleagues. I have learned most leadership qualities more from women than men. My post-doc adviser was also a woman. From early on with my mom, I have learned tremendously from the way she governed the home in a very orderly, firm, fair, and compassionate fashions.
At Carnegie Mellon University, I was impacted in particular by my postdoc advisor, Roberta Klatzky, a leader with exceptional ability to manage the leading department of psychology in the world. I learned how to balance between managing people, mentoring, and being a scientist in a very demanding department where there were so many egos, so much expectations, and still able to be productive as a scientist. One of the highlights at CMU was meeting Dr. Herbert Simon, the Nobel Laureate in economics. It was particularly momentous for me! A faculty and leader in six departments, he knew just about every topic. I met with him a couple of times and found him incredibly inspiring and impressive. My postdoc years at CMU were filled with exceptional opportunities to grow and develop as a scientist and as a person.
DL: What is your biggest leadership lesson or “Aha” moment?
Roger: Transitioning from the post-doc program to being a faculty member at the University of Maryland (UMD), I found myself strangely in a very different academic setting. While I was an emerging leader in a medical problem-solving setting through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive science (which was all I knew) , I landed in the department of human development. I had to switch my research agenda in a hurry given the expectations of the new department and its’ focus. It was a challenging process to start from the bottom up, still maintaining my journey with lessons learned in leadership skills and start rebuilding my lab.
Starting in a new research area, I realized I was not a leader in the new research discipline (i.e., self-regulated learning). In order to get tenure, I needed to change my research agenda. The tenure clock was ticking and I was expected to change fast. The pressure of publish or perish was mounting. As I was not an expert in the new area, I was wondering how best to accelerate publishing, still using the leadership skills I have learned, repurposing them through a different lens. Two mentors in particular came to mind when I recollected my early experiences at UMD-Alan Wigfield, John Guthrie, and Patricia Alexander being supportive and providing mentoring when I was a junior untenured faculty. Navigating the academic leadership circles, I saw how they exuded leadership and modeled leadership in that field. The leadership lessons I have learned at McGill and CMU came in handy as I applied them in balancing between research, leadership, and mentoring in the new academic home.
DL: How has your leadership style evolved?
Roger: I have become a lot more flexible, adaptive, and collaborative in my leadership style. I see my job as providing opportunities for young scholars and researchers and help them develop leadership skills and other skills to advance professionally. Currently, I’m working on becoming a less rigid and less traditional scholar, more accommodating in meeting needs. During the past 5 years, I have enjoyed assembling teams as it brought a lot of joy and fulfillment. I recognize my knowledge is not unlimited and I look forward to bringing various experts together rather than doing a lot on my own.
DL: Do you consider yourself a natural leader (NL) or serendipitous leader (SL) and how would you work with a NL and SL?
Roger: I’m more of a serendipitous leader (SL), definitely not a natural leader (NL). I do better with SLs. They are adaptive, flexible, willing to learn, and easier to work with. They are not one track minded. I could work well with NLs if it’s a straight forward project. For thinking outside the box, NLs might be a challenge as they are not adaptive, flexible, or not able to see the big picture.
DL: Could you think of a question in your leadership journey that is still perplexing or inexplicable? Why has it been perplexing?
Roger: In general, I’m perplexed why some people are in the leadership roles? Although they have shown no leadership and yet they are selected for those positions. They are not leaders, visionaries, or role models for others. Instead of inspiring and motivating faculty, they are good in doing administrative tasks but not meeting the needs of faculty. In general, any administration should appoint leaders who wants to be leaders, provide leadership training, and have them demonstrate that they have earned it. They need to lead by example rather than merely telling others what to do.
DL: Final thought: what’s ahead in your leadership journey?
Roger: I would like to continue on this never-ending journey of learning every day, developing leadership skills, and balancing between being a leader and a research scientist. Depending on the day and the month, I’m vacillating between them, still looking for a fine balance.
Serendipitous Leaders 