In a previous action research project at a large urban high school, I changed the structure of curriculum, assesssment and reporting, and consequently pedagogy and there was  subsequent shift in student attitude and motivation. My original hypothesis was that the social settings of 'normal' schooling positions students to have a fixed mindset and little sense of purpose in schooling beyond that of distant future goals and that students had a dysfunctional belief in the social meaning of success an failure in a school setting.

I changed the environmental settings which then changed students social perceptions, their beliefs about what constituted 'success' and 'failure'. In turn, this effected their psychology, most notably their sense of self efficacy an risk taking amongst others,  leadng to improved motivation.

The reverse of that experiment has now been tested. The settings I used were effectively blocked by the government at the time and since then I have been much less successful at motivating the unmotivated. I attribute this to a return to the original dysfunctonal social conditions.

Rahimi,

Please clarify. Do you mean. . .

1. How can taking a social psychology class change students’ attitudes so that they are more motivated to work harder?

2. What theories from the field of social psychology predict that attitude changes lead to changes in motivation, and how can this theory be applied to in school contexts?

In a previous action research project at a large urban high school, I changed the structure of curriculum, assesssment and reporting, and consequently pedagogy and there was  subsequent shift in student attitude and motivation. My original hypothesis was that the social settings of 'normal' schooling positions students to have a fixed mindset and little sense of purpose in schooling beyond that of distant future goals and that students had a dysfunctional belief in the social meaning of success an failure in a school setting.

I changed the environmental settings which then changed students social perceptions, their beliefs about what constituted 'success' and 'failure'. In turn, this effected their psychology, most notably their sense of self efficacy an risk taking amongst others,  leadng to improved motivation.

The reverse of that experiment has now been tested. The settings I used were effectively blocked by the government at the time and since then I have been much less successful at motivating the unmotivated. I attribute this to a return to the original dysfunctonal social conditions.

Thanks Davıd and Mark, I wıll wrıte a proper reply later.