Hi everyone who took Motivation with me recently,
Hope you’re semester is off to a great start. I really miss seeing you all regularly! Lucky for me, I have run into some of you once in a while in the halls or around campus. I look forward to running into more of you!
Anyway, I’m emailing to ask a favor that some of you might be able to help with.
I’ve got a new intervention I’m developing focused on enhancing physical science students agentic engagement in the high school classroom. The big idea I’m working on here is that if we can put students in a mindset to realize that their motivation as under their own control and they can use a few behavioral strategies/tricks to enhance it, they will assert their autonomy and engage more during class. In turn, their behaviors should elicit more support from their teachers (because teachers like engaged students!) and help them actually feel more interested, perform better, and persist in science.
You guys probably know or could guess that recruiting teachers in LA to participate in research is close to impossible. It’s especially tough when you don’t know a lot of people yet (that’s me!). So, I’m reaching out to those of you who are science teachers, work at high schools, have science teacher friends, or can otherwise connect me with a principals and teachers that might want to be involved in this research to give me any leads. I actually have permission from LAUSD and Montebello USD, and a positive, but tentative commitment from Compton USD and Green Dot schools to conduct this research in their schools. So connections within those districts/organizations are going to be particularly helpful. But, let me know of any ideas you might have as I try to find physical science teachers to be involved in this work.
We’re starting out small this year. I’m just trying to recruit 12 physical science teachers (e.g., physics, chemistry, engineering, computer science) and about 100 students to participate in focus groups to further refine the intervention, which I originally tested out on college students (FYI, it works). Next year we’ll actually test out this high school version of the intervention, but no need to worry about that yet.
Let me know if you’ve got any good connections or ideas for me!
Best wishes,
Erika
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ERIKA A. PATALL, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education and Psychology
USC Rossier School of Education
Waite Phillips Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4036
Office: Waite Phillips Hall (WPH) 600H
Office Phone: 213.740.2371
Cell: 512.590.1974
Email: patall@rossier.usc.edu
Website: http://motivationlab.wordpress.com/