Eric M. Anderman

The Ohio State University | OSU · Department of Educational Studies

This mixed-methods study examined Grade 4 students’ growth in two types of civic competencies—argumentation skills and disciplinary thinking, and how civic competencies interweave and co-develop over an academic year in the context of an interdisciplinary social studies curriculum called Digital Civic Learning (DCL). A total of 106 fourth-grade stu...

Citation: Reddy, L.A.; Perry, A.H.; Martinez, A.; McMahon, S.D.; Bare, K.; Swenski, T.; Dudek, C.M.; Anderman, E.M.; Astor, R.A.; Espelage, D.L.; et al. Student Violence Against Paraprofessionals in Schools: A Social-Ecological Analysis of Safety and Well-Being. Abstract: Violence against teachers has received increasing attention worldwide, with h...

Researchers have examined the importance of school administrative support for teacher safety, victimization, anxiety, and retention; however, studies to date have rarely focused on school administrators’ perceptions of support by their district leaders, and its relation to administrators’ anxiety/stress, safety, and their intentions to transfer or...

Academic misconduct remains a perennial concern in tertiary education around the globe. Research intended to explain this phenomenon has been conducted for almost 100 years. One of the most cited researchers is Donald McCabe, whose work was rooted in a survey instrument he developed in the late 1980s and distributed to 100,000 + students over the f...

Aggression and violence against educators and school personnel have raised public health concerns that require attention from researchers, policymakers, and training providers in U.S. schools. School aggression and violence have negative effects on school personnel health and retention and on student achievement and development. In partnership with...

Weapon violence in schools is a pressing concern with serious consequences. In this study, we propose and evaluate a theoretical framework of school-based weapon violence comprised of contributors, triggers, and motivation leading to weapon behaviors, taking into account weapon type, origin, and availability. This framework provides a foundation to...

This study reports the preliminary efficacy of an innovative school‐based, technology‐enhanced social – emotional learning program called “mindfulness‐based collaborative social reasoning” (MBCSR) for middle school students. MBCSR was developed by an interdisciplinary team of educational psychologists, mindfulness researchers, computer scientists,...

Thomas J. Capretta, Jingyang (Max) Zhang, Eric M. Anderman, and Barbara J. Boone revisit Joyce Epstein’s 1995 Kappan article on overlapping spheres of influence and family-school partnerships. They highlight one idea from the article that has been largely overlooked — the role of student voice and leadership. To refocus researchers’ and practitione...

Peer beliefs and attitudes play a prominent role in adolescent behaviors. Various curricula have been developed to teach students about sexual health from a skills-based perspective with successful, lasting effects. This study examined how adolescents’ expectancies for success in and values held for a sexual health curriculum are related to their a...

Sexual health education in the United States is seeing increased attention and is often viewed as a controversial topic. To better understand young adolescents’ experiences within an LGBTQ+ inclusive sexual health education program (Get Real), we utilized Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate 53 responses from 30 students about what they...

This paper investigates whether 4th and 5th grade students studying about local and systemic issues (in the U.S. and globally), respectively, in social studies classrooms through four units of technology-enriched instruction differed in their use of affect, logic, and morality related words in discussion posts. Our moderation analysis revealed whil...

We examined relations of U.S. teachers’ perceptions of mastery and performance goal structures to violence perpetrated against them before and during COVID-19. We hypothesized that perceptions of an instructional emphasis on mastery (i.e. mastery goal structure) would be related to lower levels of victimization, whereas perceptions of an emphasis o...

Students’ valuing of academic content impacts their engagement in learning and plays a pivotal role in shaping their future academic and career choices. Fortunately, practicing educators can integrate many readily applicable strategies into teaching to enhance students’ valuing of academic content. Drawing from expectancy-value theory, Eric M. Ande...

Teacher well-being and experiences of violence have become issues of national concern, and teacher shortages have increased since the onset of COVID-19. In this national study, we examined verbal and physical violence against teachers from multiple aggressors and the role of anxiety and stress in predicting intentions to transfer positions or quit...

School personnel safety and well-being have received increased attention via national outlets; however, research is limited. The current investigation is the first to examine the reported use and perceived effectiveness of commonly used school-based intervention approaches for addressing school violence, specifically violence against teachers in U....

Immersive storytelling (IST) is usually conceptualized within the framework of technologically immersive tools such as virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. While these tools offer some unique features (such as visual fidelity, interactivity, and embodied, first-person perspective), their level of technological immersion (based on the system’s obj...

In this study, we examined how school policies and strategies (i.e., positive discipline, hardening strategies, and positive behavioral strategies) affect teacher relational factors and teacher reports of victimization and safety. Specifically, we examined the mediational roles of teacher support of student learning, maltreatment of students by tea...

Violence against teachers is a public health crisis that has devastating effects on school personnel well-being, health, and retention, as well as students’ educational outcomes. In collaboration with national organizations, the American Psychological Association Task Force on Violence against Educators conducted the first national survey on educat...

Positive perceptions of the school social environment have been found to be associated with a host of positive outcomes. However, English language learners (ELL) might be less likely to have positive perceptions of their school environment or a strong sense of school belonging compared with their fluent English-speaking peers. The purpose of the pr...

Teachers experience verbal and physical aggression from a variety of aggressors in schools worldwide. However, most school violence and aggression research is focused on students, with few empirical studies examining teacher aggression from parent offenders. This study investigated the school ecology associated with teachers’ experiences of aggress...

Teachers and students construct dialogic spaces that mediate classroom learning. Dialogic space involves multiple voices constructed between individuals, within individuals, or from texts/media (Wegerif, 2007). Supported by technological tools, classroom dialogic spaces can expand from traditional face-to-face or person-text interactions to online...

The present study examines how 4th and 5th grade students choose between using either asynchronous text-based or video-based discussion tools when they express their opinions about controversial social issues. We particularly focus on how their choices are related to their socioeconomic status and online digital citizenship. We analyzed the modalit...

Sexual health education within the U.S. is a controversial topic. To better understand middle schoolers’ experiences within an LGBTQ+ inclusive sexual health education program (Get Real; Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts), we utilized Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate 53 responses from 30 students about what they deemed most...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

Motivation science has advanced tremendously in the past decade. However, it is now clear that future progress is going to be stalled by the extent of disagreement among motivation scientists to some basic, yet controversial, questions. To help move motivation science toward greater coherence, the editors recruited prominent scholars to debate thei...

The disruption of in-person delivery of a sexual health education curriculum to students in 19 urban middle schools in the Midwestern United States was one of many complications in education due the COVID-19 pandemic. Given time constraints and need for program delivery, community partners collaborated to convert the curriculum for virtual delivery...

This qualitative study presents 27 students’ insights about four teachers’ implementation of an immersive Native American history curricular unit designed to equip students with digital skills to critically navigate complex, polarizing social issues. The Digital Civic Learning (DCL) curriculum used Google Suite and Google Classroom or Schoology to...

As the pursuit of multiple goals is an inescapable reality in everyday life, students are consistently challenged to self-regulate toward achieving an array of academic goals as well as social and well-being goals. Nevertheless, prominent self-regulated learning models are limited in explaining and guiding how students can self-regulate in the cont...

Background Adolescents who begin high school with a poor record of academic performance are often at risk for developing maladaptive academic behaviors, which can impede academic success in the long run. Objective Guided by the substantial literature on the academic and motivational benefits of adolescents’ conversations, this study examined the d...

During adolescence, development occurs across several psychological domains. In this chapter we review developmental hallmarks in four domains: cognitive development, social/emotional development, identity development, and motivation development. We emphasize that development occurs at different rates and trajectories both within individual student...

Social network analysis (SNA) consists of a broad set of frameworks and methods to assess how direct and indirect relationships influence individual functioning. Although interest in SNA has steadily increased in the psychological sciences, school psychology has not kept pace. This article provides a general overview of core SNA concepts, including...

Teacher attitudes and instructional strategies impact success of human sexuality programs. Limited prior research has examined the relations of teachers’ attitudes and instruction to the development of adolescents’ sexual self-efficacy beliefs. This study examined how adolescents’ perceptions of their health teachers (i.e., teacher value of content...

Student perpetrated violence against teachers is widespread, yet few studies differentiate teacher experiences of violence by school level (i.e., elementary, middle, and high school). This study, based upon 2,558 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade teacher survey responses, revealed differences in types of student aggression against teachers by sch...

In this chapter, we reflect on 30 years of research on the relationships between academic motivation and academic integrity. We review studies framed within five prominent theoretical perspectivestheories (attribution theory, goal orientation theory, social-cognitive theory, expectancy-value theory, and self-determination theory). We then suggest t...

In studying students' sexual health outcomes, it is important to consider the influences of their peers. This study presents findings of multiple models examining if peer attitudes about waiting to have sex and use condoms moderate the relationship between students' expectancies for success and value of a sexual health curriculum and their self-eff...

The present study examines how 4th and 5th grade students’ collective efficacy (N=87) changed across a three-unit digital civic learning social studies curriculum and how students’ engagement related to their collective efficacy. Students participated in small-group discourse and worked with group members to solve civic-related dilemmas. Results fr...

We studied the feasibility of an innovative blended learning curriculum for early adolescents intended to foster citizenship skills through collaborative dialogue. Our curriculum was implemented during the 2020-2021 academic year, which afforded an opportunity to study feasibility under constrained classroom contexts. We conducted qualitative analy...

Middle school brings rapid developmental changes for adolescents, and parent engagement is as essential as ever. However, what worked for parent-teacher partnerships in elementary school doesn’t fit so well in middle school. Adolescents are building their autonomy, and teachers must help empower parents’ efforts to bolster students as independent l...

We tested whether early adolescents’ fulfillment in basic psychological needs predicts their sense of purpose. Additionally, we investigated how students’ levels of fulfilled psychological needs moderate the association between students’ purpose and different learning goals, respectively. Finally, we explored the role of purpose as a mediator that...

We examine the relationships of executive functioning problems (EFP) to academic cheating in a sample of 855 adolescents. Participants completed assessments of inattention, hyperactivity, and depression using the BASC-2, as well as peer-reports of externalizing behavior. After controlling for known predictors of cheating (e.g., demographics and dep...

Adopted youth often do not achieve in school as well as their non-adopted peers. We used data from the High School Longitudinal Study to examine high school and postsecondary achievement outcomes in adopted youth. We compared outcomes for domestically adopted youth, internationally adopted youth, and non-adopted youth. Results indicate that domesti...

Much attention has been given to investigating specific self-regulatory processes within a single goal context, yet little is known about how students manage to pursue multiple goals. We adopted a multi-method approach to examine the content of college students’ (N = 365) multiple goals, interrelations of goals in a goal network, and the role of se...

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Columbus City School district transitioned to virtual learning in Spring-2020 and has not resumed in-person learning. Through community partnerships, an evidence-based sexual health curriculum, Get Real, was completed in 5 middle schools pre-pandemic. However, Get Real, along with most sexual health education progr...

In this conference presentation, we understand elementary school students' experiences using distributed technologies in social studies classroom. Our study was conducted with 87 students (58% 4th grade; 48% girls; 59% White, 22% Black, 14% Asian, 5% Multiracial) from five classes across two Midwestern public elementary schools (the sample from one...

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09628-9

We examined the relationships between teachers’ communication styles and students’ perceptions of the classroom goal structure. Within the context of high school health classes focused on teaching about HIV/STD/pregnancy prevention, we surveyed 456 students about their teachers’ immediacy behaviors, efforts to make course content relevant, and thei...

Prior work has documented that internationally adopted youth can experience learning difficulties, yet research exploring academic motivation in this population is scant. Moreover, no prior international adoption studies have investigated precursors to motivation. Guided by expectancy-value theory, we attempted to address this gap in the literature...

Much research has been dedicated to supporting school communities in combating the problem of school violence. However, violence directed toward teachers is under‐investigated, and knowledge of how to support teachers is limited. This qualitative study used conventional content analysis to assess teachers' recommendations for preventing and improvi...

The articles in this special issue review the impressive bodies of research that have been generated from achievement motivation theories, emphasizing developments over the past 20 years. In this commentary, I first discuss some of the most noteworthy contributions that have emerged from each of the theories. I then discuss the extent to which ther...

The main aim of the present study was to identify different subgroups of perfectionists and how perfectionism group-membership is related to achievement goals and to five educational outcomes (i.e., school satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, school burnout and academic achievement). The sample comprised 667 undergraduate students (63.3%...

Feedback is a powerful means for promoting learning, but not all forms of feedback are equally effective. Guided by a large body of feedback research, we argue that personalized feedback provides a particularly important opportunity for enhancing motivation and achievement among middle school students. In this article, we review the extant literatu...

School violence is a significant public health concern that occurs in many forms. Physical aggression can cause serious bodily injury and long‐term negative effects, and both teachers and students experience significant rates of physical aggression. There are few studies examining teachers’ experiences of physical aggression. Studies that go beyond...

Objective: The prevalence of verbal aggression in schools is well documented; however, most of this research focuses on verbal aggression between students. Examination of student verbal aggression toward teachers is limited. This qualitative investigation explores events that frequently precede and follow student verbal aggression toward teachers u...

Little attention has been paid to goal structures in health education, despite their well-established roles in motivation and learning. The primary goal of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations of classroom goal structures to high school students’ (N = 636) motivation and learning outcomes in health education. We incorporated two asp...

Despite prior studies documenting learning difficulties among internationally adopted youth (IAY), none has explored academic motivation within this population. The current study addressed this gap by examining expectancies for success and task values in math and science among internationally adopted, domestically adopted, and nonadopted high-schoo...

The authors examined 1,781 rural students' reading motivation and behavior across the transition from middle to high school. Using expectancy-value theory, they investigated how motivational variables predicted changes in reading behavior and achievement across the transition in terms of their expectancies, values, and out-of-school reading behavio...

Violence perpetrated against teachers is prevalent and has the potential to adversely affect teachers’ well-being, efficacy, and longevity in the profession. In this study, we examined teachers’ reactions after having experienced violence, specifically examining the roles of attributional processes. In collaboration with the American Psychological...

Violence against educators is a significant understudied phenomenon that has been largely ignored by policy makers and funders. The primary goal of this paper is to advance measurement and research on educator safety and victimization. We conducted a comprehensive systematic review of the extant literature (1988 to 2016). Although the number of stu...

To address the gap between the importance of the behavioral sciences to teaching and learning and the diminishing role of such sciences in teacher-leader preparation, the American Psychological Association’s (APA’s) Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education (CPSE) developed the “Top 20 Principles from Psychology for PreK–12 Teaching and Lea...

Although violence prevention has largely focused on students, national and state‐level studies suggest that teacher‐directed violence warrants attention by researchers, policy makers, and school stakeholders. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the empirical literature on teacher‐directed violence, including the extent of the problem, types...

Academic dishonesty occurs at alarming rates in higher education. In the present study, we examined predictors of academic cheating behaviors, and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating, in disliked courses at two large universities, using structural equation modeling. Perceived mastery and extrinsic goal structures were related to beliefs about...

Academic cheating occurs frequently in schools. Cheating is a deliberative act, in that students make a conscious decision to engage in academic dishonesty. Students’ achievement goals, which are malleable, often guide the ways that students make such decisions. Educators can incorporate various instructional practices and support academic policies...

This article describes an initiative undertaken by a coalition of psychologists (Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education) from the American Psychological Association (APA) to identify the top twenty principles from psychological science relevant to teaching and learning in the classroom. These principles are identified along with their ba...

Psychological science has much to contribute to preK-12 education because substantial psychological research exists on the processes of learning, teaching, motivation, classroom management, social interaction, communication, and assessment. This article details the psychological science that led to the identification, by the American Psychological...

Research on academic motivation offers important implications for instruction. In this article, we review four current and prominent motivation frameworks that are particularly influential: expectancy-value theory, achievement goal orientation theory, self-determination theory, and social cognitive theory. The basic tenets of each theory are review...

The third edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology is sponsored by Division 15 of the American Psychological Association. In this volume, thirty chapters address new developments in theory and research methods while honoring the legacy of the field's past. A diverse group of recognized scholars within and outside the U.S. provide integrati...

Extant scholarship has primarily examined demographic predictors of teacher victimization. Teacher multiple victimization, or the extent to which teachers experience multiple types of violence, has not been examined. Using social-ecological theory, we examine correlates of violence among 2,324 teachers who reported having been victimized at least o...

The purpose of this study is to examine the relations between principals’ perceived autonomy support from superintendents, affective commitment to their school districts, and job satisfaction. We also explore possible moderation effects of principals’ career experiences on these relations. Data were collected from K-12 public school principals in t...

Background There is much interest in assessing growth in student learning. Assessments of growth have important implications and affect many policy decisions at many levels.AimsIn the present article, we review some of the different approaches to measuring growth and examine the implications of their usage.SampleSamples used in research on growth m...

Teachers in U.S. schools report high rates of victimization, yet previous studies focus on select types of victimization and student perpetrators, which may underestimate the extent of the problem. This national study was based on work conducted by the American Psychological Association Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers Task Force and is...

Research on learning theories is central to most of the articles that have appeared in Theory Into Practice (TIP) over the past 50 years. Scholarship on this topic in many ways undergirds all articles that provide discussions of ways of moving theory into practice within the broad field of education. Indeed, one could easily argue that all research...

Violence directed toward teachers has been understudied despite significant media and empirical investigation on school violence, such as student-to-student victimization and bullying. To date, there are relatively few published studies scattered across many countries. To address this void, the American Psychological Association, in collaboration w...