April 13th to 17th, 2018, the annual meeting of American Educational Research Association (AERA) was held in New York City. The theme of this year's annual meeting was ”The Dreams, Possibilities, and Necessity of Public Education. The Dean of Educational Psychology, Professor Xiangdong Yang, Associate Professor Yi Jiang, and YangTao, the master student of Professor Yang, attended the event and gave presentations at the meeting.

The paper submitted by Professor Yang and Yang Tao was accepted by the “New Directions in Research on Teacher-Student Relationships” theme group in the form of Paper Session. On April 14th, Yang Tao gave a presentation entitled Effects of Teacher Support on Students' Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analysis, which introduced a highly concerned topic in the field of educational psychology, that is the relationship between teacher support and the academic performance of primary and secondary school students. The presentation provided the corresponding explanation and coping strategies as well. The participating scholars have a great interest in this topic. After the presentation, Chairman Adam Voight and the conference discussant Carly Robinson summarized the talk. Professor Yang and scholars Omer Ari, Gretchen Brion-Meisels, and Zanny Alter, discussed the new development of international research, the confusion and challenges faced under the current teacher-student relationship.

On April 17th, in the symposium “Understanding and Measuring Achievement Motivation in Diverse Contexts Using Practical Measures: Expectancies, Values, and Costs” of the Special Interest Group (SIG) of Motivation, Associate Professor Yi Jiang presented the Collaborative research: Exploring the Cross-Cultural Validity of a Value/Cost Scale in Three Countries. He worked with researchers from the University of Tübingen and Korea University. The symposium was highly praised by experts in the relevant research fields, and the participating scholars also discussed plans to further deepen cooperation after the meeting.