| dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this research is to see if the peer mentors make a difference in the
leadership development of students, their feelings about peer mentors, the Leadership
Living Learning Community, and their acclimation to Texas A&M University.
Leadership is defined as an interaction between members of a group in which
individuals, in the name of the group, act as agents of change, persons whose acts affect
other people more than other peoples’ actions affect them. The five leadership skills
studied were working in groups, positional leadership, communication, decision-making,
and understanding self.
A post-then methodology was utilized with self-reporting as the process by
which data was collected following completion of an academic leadership learning
community. The findings from years one and two participants were computed
individually and then compared to see if the addition of peer mentors during the second
year yielded any significant findings. The major findings for this study were as follows: Year one participants in the
learning community indicated improved leadership skills after participation in the
learning community for the first semester, as measured by the Leadership Skills
Inventory. In addition, year two participants in the learning community indicated a
similar increase of leadership skills after the first semester. Year one participants
indicated a more statistically significant increase when compared to year two on their
leadership skills on the individual questions, while year two participants were found to
have more statistically significant findings relating to the five leadership skills or
Leadership Skills Inventory scales. Responses by year two participants indicated that
the peer mentors who helped them were supportive, gave positive feedback, were good
role models, were knowledgeable about Texas A&M University, were easy to
communicate with, and did not use peer pressure to persuade them to do anything
negative. | en |
