THE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODEL OF SECONDARY SCHOOL LEADERS IN BANGKOK

Abstract

The objectives of this research were 1) to study the causal factors, groups that should be developed first, the promoting factors and causal factor models of democratic leadership of secondary school student leaders, and 2) to study the effectiveness of the prototype program for developing democratic leadership of secondary school student leaders. The research has two phases. Phase 1 was comparative correlational research. The sample group consisted of 344 secondary school student leaders in Bangkok, stratified random sampling. The research instrument was 10 measures with a reliability (α) of .78 - .91. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and reference statistics, Statistics used in hypothesis testing include stepwise multiple regression analysis, t-test (independent), 1-way ANOVA and path analysis. Phase 2 was experimental research. The sample consisted of both student leaders and non-student leaders, each group of 32 people who volunteered from two schools willing to participate in the research, arranged into groups using the random assignment method. There were 3 phases of measurement: before the experiment, at the end of the experiment and two weeks after the end of the experiment. Statistics used in data analysis include t-test (independent), 2-way ANOVA. The research found four important results: Firstly, the group of psychological characteristics variables can explain the democratic spirit and democratic behavior of secondary school student leaders by 46.00% and 43.00%. When adding the group of social situation variables, this can explain 5 and 11 percent more, respectively. Secondly, there are 6 groups of students who deserve to be developed first: males, lower secondary school level, have more than 3 years of leadership experience, belong to secondary educational service area office 1, have a cumulative grade point average (GPA) less than or equal to 2.50, and belong to a large school. Each group has supportive factors to develop democratic leadership, both democratic spirit and democratic behavior clearly. Thirdly, the causal factor model of democratic leadership among secondary school student leaders was consistent with empirical data. The causal factor variables explained 92.00% of the variance in democratic leadership. And fourthly, students who received training with the model program had higher knowledge, understanding, attitudes, and democratic leadership among student leaders than those who did not receive training. and found that when measured immediately after training and when two weeks have passed, this effect remains.