She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1998. She joined the UNLV faculty in 1999. Her research interests involve epistemic cognition/personal epistemology of students and teachers and how these beliefs influence learning, teaching, and teacher education. Currently, she is focusing on epistemic cognition change in the classroom. Dr. Bendixen has authored an edited book: Personal Epistemology in the Classroom and has chapters in the Handbook of Educational Psychology and the Handbook of Epistemic Cognition. She is an active member of AERA, EARLI and is secretary of the Southwest Consortium for Innovative Psychology in Education (SCIPIE). She serves on several editorial boards including Contemporary Educational Psychology and she teaches courses in Cognitive Development, Classroom Assessment, and Mixed Methods Research.