The Effect of Educational Intervention on Citizenship Skills of High School Male Students: Application of Theory of Reasoned Action

Citizenship education is one of the most important and challenging tasks of educational systems, so that in many countries around the world, this activity is a large part of the concerns of education officials. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of educational intervention based on the theory of rational practice on citizenship skills of high school male students in Assadabad.

This study was a randomized controlled trial performed on 150 high school male students, in Assadabad in 2020-2021. Sampling was cluster sampling and students were randomly divided into two groups of intervention and control (75 people in each group). Data collection instrument was a questionnaire with the three sections including demographic variables, knowledge, theory of reasoned action constructs. The data were collected three months after educational intervention.

Based on the results of the study; Before the educational intervention, there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of variables of knowledge, attitude, abstract norms and behavioral intention (p <0.05), But three months after the educational intervention, the experimental group showed a significant increase in knowledge score and each of the structures of theory of rational action (p = 0.001), While in the control group no significant difference was observed (p <0.05).

Based on the results of the study, the theory of resoned action can be used as a suitable theoretical framework for designing and implementing educational interventions in schools.  Therefore, emphasis is placed on considering citizenship education in the formal education of schools and strategic planning of education officials.