Leadership Development in Students as Part of Attitude Development

Abstract

Leadership development corresponds to the focus on the individual’s success and competitiveness strategy. This is the optimal direction of the organization of attitude development because it covers two aspects of the student’s personality development: professionally-oriented and self-centric. The aim of the study is to identify and compare the leadership level in second- and fourth-year students to see dynamics of development and implementation of the leadership phenomenon in the professional and personal making up of future specialists. The task was to: (1) diagnose the existing educational impact of the university environment on the formation of leadership competencies; (2) clarify the relationship between the objective level of leadership skills development and assessment of leadership characteristics by students themselves; (3) determining tactics for further support and / or stimulation of personal and professional leadership skills of students; (4) elucidating the relationship between leadership skills and academic performance; (5) determining the universal prerequisites for the formation of leadership qualities of students. Based on the theoretical analysis of the issue, the authors developed an objective and subjective diagnostic model for leadership skills. In this study, data of the objective diagnostic technique are the key. Subjective diagnostic technique for leadership skills provides insights for problem interpretation. At the level of the first group of respondents, the average Leadership Skills Level of the second-year students was quite low and was found within the medium level. The second group of respondents consisting of the fourth-year students showed a slight but effective improvement. The Leadership Skills of this group were found at a sufficient level. Positive dynamics was revealed for all criteria of leadership skills as a result of applying objective diagnostic methods: decreased percentage of students with negative and relatively low markers of Leadership Skills Level and corresponding increase in percentage of students with positive markers of Leadership Skills Level. Further research can be organized in the direction of identifying and developing successful universal and professionally-oriented tactics for leadership development in students as part of attitude development.