Date

5-2017

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Jeffery S Savage

Keywords

College Students, Deliberate Practice, Extracurricular Activities, Leadership, Leadership Development, Student Leadership

Disciplines

Education | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership | Educational Psychology | Other Education

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative, causal-comparative study was to determine if a difference exists between leadership behaviors of male and female college freshmen and the amount of extra or co-curricular activities they participated in during high school. Leadership was measured using the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (S-LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2013) and was guided by the theoretical framework of leader identity development (LID) as promulgated by Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella, and Osteen (2005) and revised by Komives, Longerbeam, Osteen, Owen, and Wagner (2009). Participants consisted of 98 male and 84 female incoming college freshmen attending a mid-size Catholic university located in the US Midwest. The following two research questions informed this study: (a) Does a difference exist in the college freshmen leadership skills of students who participated in low, moderate, high, or very high levels of school sponsored extracurricular or co-curricular activities during high school? (b) Is there a biological sex (gender) difference in the leadership skills of students who participated in low, moderate, high, or very high levels of school-sponsored extracurricular or co-curricular activities during high school? Students were administered the S-LPI during the spring of their freshmen year, along with a demographic questionnaire asking for biological sex, number of extra or co-curricular activities, and estimated average number of hours of participation in extra or co-curricular activities during high school. Results indicated that three of the five sub-scales revealed significant differences based on student volume of participation. Biological sex was only significantly different on one sub-scale. Average hours of participation did not exhibit an effect for any on the sub-scales.

Download

Share

COinS