Rate My Professor Bobby Hoffman

Bobby Hoffman is an Associate Professor and Academic Program Coordinator in the Department of Learning Sciences and Educational Research at the University of Central Florida's College of Community Innovation and Education. With expertise in psychology, particularly educational psychology and motivation science, he instructs graduate courses including EDF 6216: Motivation in Learning & Performance, EDP 6213/6217: Applied Learning & Instruction Seminar I and II, EDF 6141: Human Intelligence, EDF 7232: Analysis of Learning Theory, and EDP 6936: Capstone in Applied Learning. Before entering academia, he accumulated over 20 years of experience in human resources management and performance consulting at organizations such as General Electric, NBC, KPMG, and the NBA. His academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Learning & Technology with a focus on Educational Psychology from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2006), an M.A. in Human Resources Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and a B.A. in Psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Dr. Hoffman's research interests encompass motivation science, neuropsychology of belief change, cognitive processes, dopaminergic influences on conceptual change, and biological foundations of motivation. He has produced five books, notably Motivation for Learning and Performance (2011), which debuted as the #1 new book in Cognitive Psychology on Amazon.com; Hack Your Motivation; and the upcoming The Paradox of Passion: How Rewards Covertly Control Motivation (Bloomsbury Academic, October 2025). Among his over 100 publications are highly influential papers such as “I think I can, but I'm afraid to try”: The role of self-efficacy beliefs and mathematics anxiety in mathematics problem-solving efficiency (2010) and The influence of self-efficacy and metacognitive prompting on math problem-solving efficiency (2008). He has presented at international conferences, including the 2024 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society meeting in Belgium on dopaminergic influences on conceptual change. In professional service, Dr. Hoffman has served as Division C co-chair for motivation and cognition research at the American Educational Research Association and twice as motivation section chair for the American Psychological Association. He holds positions on six journal editorial boards, including Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychology Review, and Educational Technology, Research & Development, and serves as associate editor for educational psychology in Frontiers in Psychology. His Psychology Today blog "Motivate!" has reached over 1.2 million readers.