John Wright

Associate Dean, & Assistant Professor of Education

Email: jwright@plu.edu

  • Professional
  • Biography

Education

  • Ph.D., Special Education, Vanderbilt University, 2019
  • M.B.A., University of Illinois-Chicago, 1999
  • M.A., Modern Languages, University of Arizona, 1997
  • B.S., Math, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, 1995
  • B.A., German, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, 1995

Areas of Emphasis or Expertise

  • Inclusive Instructional Practices for students with disabilities
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder
  • Early Childhood Special Education
  • Applied Behavior Analysis

Selected Articles

  • Wright, J., Barker, A., Himes, D., & Schaeffer, B. "Inclusive practices to teach preschoolers coding and robotics." Manuscript in preparation. 2023:
  • Wright, J., Knight, V., & Barton, E. "A review of video-based modeling to teach STEM to students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability." Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. 2020: doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2019.101476 .
  • Wright, J., Knight, V., Barton, E., & Edwards-Bowyer, M. "Video prompting to teach robotics and coding to middle school students with autism spectrum disorder." Journal of Special Education Technology. 2020: doi:10.1177/016264341989024.
  • Wright, J., Knight, V., Lemons, C., Lindstrom, E., & Strauss, J. "Implementing Early Numeracy for Students with Complex Communication Needs." Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities. 2020: 55(3), 277-289.
  • Knight, V., Wright, J., & DeFreese, A. "Brief Report: Teaching robotics coding to a student with ASD and severe problem behavior." Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2019: doi:10.1007/s10803-019-03888-3.
  • Knight, V., Wright, J., Wilson, K., & Hooper, A. "Teaching block-based coding of robots to high school students with autism spectrum disorder and challenging behavior." Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 2019: doi:10.1007/s10803-019-04033-w.

Biography

John Wright teaches special education methods courses and first year writing & diversity, justice, and sustainability courses. He is particularly interested in teaching about and supporting neurodiverse students. He is a fan of experiential learning, and in 2025, he took 10 undergraduates to intern in dual language schools in Zürich, Switzerland for a month as part of a comparative education course. He is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and consults with local school districts regarding positive behavior supports. He is active in the education and training efforts for the Council for Exceptional Children and the Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities, and he was a 2023-24 higher education representative of the Fred Rogers Educator’s Neighborhood.

Prior to working in higher education, John was an elementary school teacher and administrator for 13 years. Social justice and equity in education are the guiding forces of this educational philosophy. He is dedicated to preparing the next generation of educators to be compassionate, thoughtful, and inclusive professionals. When not working, John plays a mean game of pickleball, spends too much adult money on Lego, and explores the amazing PNW.