Objective outcome evaluation of a leadership and intrapersonal development subject for university students

Abstract

A quasi-experimental study with an experimental group (n = 195) and a control group (n = 71) was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a leadership and intrapersonal development subject at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Results showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of gender ratio, age, and background family characteristics. Analyses of covariance controlling for pretest differences between the two groups revealed that students in the experimental group generally showed higher levels of psychosocial competence in terms of composite variables that include resilience, social competence, emotional competence, cognitive competence, behavioral competence, self-determination, self-efficacy, and beliefs in the future. In conjunction with other sources of evaluation findings, the present study suggests that this subject is able to promote the holistic development of Chinese university students in Hong Kong.

Do university students change after taking a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development?

“…Findings of the present study add to the previous results by showing the beneficial effects of a leadership course on promoting the holistic development among the firstyear Hong Kong college students [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The results of the current study showed that participants scored higher in several composite and subscale measures over the course of the semester.…”

“…Multiple evaluation strategies including objective outcome evaluation, subjective outcome evaluation, process evaluation, and qualitative evaluation were used to assess the effects of this subject. The evaluation findings were generally positive in these two pilot studies [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Evaluation of a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development: views of the students based on qualitative evaluation

“…There are some negative Brought to you by | University of Queensland -UQ Library Authenticated Download Date | 6/15/15 2:58 PM Table 3 responses such as "boring" and "inadequate time to teach the materials". These findings are highly similar to the first piloting exercise and second piloting exercise [21][22][23][24][25]. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that there are some negative responses recorded.…”

Adolescent developmental assets and service leadership

“…Compared to the control participants, students who had joined the program showed more positive holistic development and lower levels of adolescent risk behavior [35,36]. Further supporting evidence was found for a leadership subject based on positive youth development constructs offered at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University [37][38][39][40][41][42]. All these suggest that this kind of adolescent development curriculum is worth implementing in university settings.…”