The School Leader's Guide to Understanding Attitude and Influencing Behavior
Working With Teachers, Parents, Students, and the Community
- Brandt W. Pryor
- Caroline R. Pryor - Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Theron Schutte, Middle School Principal
Boone Community School District, IA
"The book provides a theoretical base for practical application of strategies that will strengthen beliefs and attitudes that support behaviors that can move a school toward the fulfillment of its educational mission."
David Erlandson, Professor
Texas A&M University
"This book keeps its promises: it is truly a guide for action that will be used by educators, especially educational change agents. Each of the authors comes out of an unusual blend of theoretical sophistication and practical experience that make this book a stimulating intellectual read and a solid manual for practice."
Steven Tozer, Professor of Education
University of Illinois
Why do people behave as they do? What makes them take a stand on a specific issue?
Solving school problems and making policy decisions require that we anticipate how people will feel about an issue or how they will behave. School leaders must understand the values, attitudes, and beliefs brought to different situations. The School Leader's Guide to Understanding Attitude and Influencing Behavior makes it possible for educators to scientifically understand and influence the attitudes and behaviors of diverse constituencies, both inside and outside the school.
Using the Model of Reasoned Action (MORA) enables readers to understand how people form attitudes and make decisions about a wide variety of future behaviors. Armed with this information, educators can change attitudes and influence behavior of teachers, staff, parents, and the community. This excellent resource includes:
- Examples of attitude scales
- A sample questionnaire
- A checklist of steps through an attitude-behavior study
- Tables to organize and report data
- Data analysis presented in an easily-applied manner
"In this book, Brandt and Caroline Pryor have presented us with ideas and techniques that will assist the average administrator in successfully addressing needed improvements. It is my intention to add important concepts presented in this book to my principal and superintendent preparation courses."
"School administrators, as well as leaders in a variety of organizational settings, will find this book a valuable tool in their arsenal of strategies to run effective, efficient, flexible organizations."
"A successful school leader is not only an instructional leader, she/he is also an opinion leader who sets the tone and direction for a school. This book can help a principal or other administrator by putting research on attitudes and a model for understanding them into a school context. It provides a process that school leaders can follow when studying, and trying to influence, people’s attitudes."
"This book keeps its promises: it is truly a guide for action that will be used by educators, especially educational change agents. Each of the authors comes out of an unusual blend of theoretical sophistication and practical experience that make this book a stimulating intellectual read and a solid manual for practice."
