Michael Matthews

Michael S. Matthews is a Professor and Program Director for the Academically/Intellectually Gifted graduate programs at UNC Charlotte. He has served as co-editor of the Journal of Advanced Academics and Gifted Child Quarterly, and is a former Board Member of the Talented & Gifted Division of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC-TAG) and the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). Matthews currently is Chair of the Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent special interest group of the American Educational Research Association and a founding board member and Board Chairperson for Telra Institute Charter School in Charlotte, NC.

Matthews’s scholarship addresses gifted education policy, identification of students for gifted and talented programming, motivation and underachievement, parenting and homeschooling of high-ability children, and educating high-ability students who are English language learners. He is author or editor of six books, over 60 peer reviewed articles, and nearly 30 book chapters. Matthews presents regularly at state, national, and international conferences, and his scholarship has been recognized with the 2025 Distinguished Scholar Award (NAGC), the 2012 Michael Pyryt Collaboration Award (AERA), and the 2020 Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina Association for the Gifted & Talented.

Education

Ph.D. – University of Georgia, 2002, Educational Psychology-Gifted & Creative Education
M.A. – University of Wisconsin, 1991, Anthropology (Archaeology)
B.A. – University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, magna cum laude, 1989, Chemistry

Projects

Board Chairperson, Telra Institute Charter School; Special Interest Group Chair (2026-28), Research on Giftedness, Creativity, and Talent

Selected Publications

Haas, B. S., McCorkle, L. S., Connors, T. W., FitzPatrick, E. R., Matthews, M. S., & Willis, J. (2025). Parent perspectives of behavioral and emotional development of young high-ability children: A pilot study. Education Sciences, 15(5), 610. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15050610

Conry-Murray, C., Waltzer, T., DeBernardi, F. C., Fossum, J. L., Haasova, S., Matthews, M. S., O’Mahony, A., Moreau, D., Baum, M. A., Karhulahti, V-M., McCarthy, R. J., Paterson, H. M., McSweeney, K., & Elsherif, M. M. (2024). Validity and transparency in quantifying open-ended data. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 7(4), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/25152459241275217 

Matthews, M. S., Jolly, J. L., Makel, M. C., Almhawes, A., Daniels, K., & Hujar, J. (2024). Considerations of academically talented students’ homeschooling families for returning to traditional schools. Gifted Child Quarterly, 68(2), 137-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/00169862231222210 

Matthews, M. S., Wylie, O. & Styles, A. (2023). Conceptual replication of “Parental Influences on the Academic Motivation of Gifted Students: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective”. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 46(4), 319-339. https://doi.org/10.1177/01623532231199265

Matthews, M. S. & Jolly, J. L. (2022). Why hasn’t the gifted label caught up with science? Journal of Intelligence, 10(84), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/jintelligence10040084

Peters, S. J., Rambo-Hernandez, K. E., Makel, M. C., Matthews, M. S., & Plucker, J. A. (2019). The effect of local norms on racial and ethnic representation in gifted education: A modeling study. AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858419848446

Jolly, J. L., & Matthews, M. S. (2018). The shifting landscape of the homeschooling continuum. Educational Review https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2018.1552661

Lee, S-Y., Matthews, M. S., Shin, J., & Kim, M-S. (2018). Academically gifted adolescents’ social purpose. High Ability Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2018.1533452

McBee, M. T., Makel, M. C., Peters, S. J., & Matthews, M. S. (2018). A call for open science in giftedness research. Gifted Child Quarterly, 62, 274-388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0016986218784178

Area(s) of Interest and Research

• Identification of gifted abilities (particularly English language learners)
• Assessment in gifted education
• Gifted education policy
• Parenting gifted children
• Homeschooling high-ability learners
• Gifted underachievement and school dropout