I am an associate professor at The Ohio State University. Trained as an educational psychologist, my primary research interests lie in understanding how students’ learning and development arise from dynamic social interactions with peers and teachers, and how such understanding can be translated into effective instructional practices. My colleagues, students and I have investigated these issues in several domains. One line of research concerns the process and impacts of collaborative small-group discussion. We study how students collaboratively resolve a complex social issue, how teachers facilitate a productive discussion, and how discussions shape students’ academic and social abilities over time. Another line of research concerns how classroom ecology affects students’ learning and development. We are curious about such issues as how peer social networks, classroom composition (e.g., inclusion of English language learners or students with disabilities), or teachers’ instructional practices shape students’ academic or social development. Outside of my academic life, I am a mother of a five-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. We enjoy reading, playing music, creating art together. I am amazed by their development on every single day.  

I have been interested in education since teaching at Sheepshead Bay High School and Brooklyn Tech high school in New York City more than thirty years ago. I can’t say I was amazingly successful as a teacher. As a matter of fact, the experience convinced me that teaching is the most difficult of all professions. The experience also started my lifelong interest in education.  My classroom experiences made it obvious to me that we needed to develop new approaches to education that in some way touched the lives of our students. I received a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of City University of New York, both because it would keep me close to the city that I grew up in and loved, and because they offered me support. After getting my doctorate, I went to teach in the Human Development department at the University of Houston where Rheta DeVries introduced me to the work of John Dewey, for which I will always be grateful. Dewey’s writings became the oil that loosened my thinking about education and what I hoped it would one day be. It is a fount of wisdom that I return to again and again. 

I’m a Professor of Educational Psychology and of Quantitative Methods, Evaluation, and Research in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. I received my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from The University of Michigan. My research over the past 25 years has focused on academic motivation. I’m a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association. I’m the editor of the journal Theory into Practice, and I recently co-edited the 3rd edition of the Handbook of Educational Psychology with Lyn Corno, and the Visible Learning Guide to Student Achievement with John Hattie. I’m the co-author of three textbooks, as well as many peer-reviewed articles and invited chapters.  My research has been featured in a variety of media outlets, including CBS News, NBC News (Dateline NBC), CNN, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, and numerous other outlets. My research has been supported by a several funding agencies, including the Institute of Education Sciences, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institutes of Health.