he dissertation examines the problem of developing leadership qualities in bachelor's degree candidates through informal education and proposes a new approach to solving it, which consists in introducing pedagogical conditions for developing leadership qualities in bachelor's degree candidates through informal education.
The dissertation provides a comprehensive theoretical understanding of the phenomena of ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’ as the conceptual basis for studying the leadership qualities of bachelor's degree students. The author's definition of the concept of ‘leader’ is presented as follows: an authoritative personality who, thanks to their own qualities, is able to influence others, lead them and direct joint efforts towards achieving a common goal.
Based on the analysis, the author's vision of leadership is formulated as a multidimensional socio-psychological process that manifests itself in the leader's ability to influence others, form a common vision, change the motivational attitudes, values and behaviour of followers in accordance with the context of the situation, cultural characteristics, cognitive resources and ethical guidelines, combining elements of personal, behavioural, transformational, systemic and other approaches.
A comprehensive analysis of the essence and structure of leadership qualities of applicants for a bachelor's degree has been carried out. The concept of ‘quality’ is revealed as a set of stable personality characteristics that determine its typical behaviour, interaction with the social environment and the ability for self-development and self-regulation. Scientific approaches to the interpretation of the concept of ‘leadership qualities’ have been generalised, and five main scientific approaches have been identified: personality-oriented, integrative-competence, socio-psychological, activity-behavioural, and personality traits. The concept of ‘leadership qualities’ is considered as an integrative personal formation that combines stable individual and socio-psychological traits that ensure the ability to effectively influence others, organise joint activities, make responsible decisions and achieve common goals in changing social conditions.
The author's definition of the concept of ‘leadership qualities of bachelor's degree seekers’ is presented as an integrative personality formation, which manifests itself in the ability to make responsible decisions, engage in effective interpersonal interaction, demonstrate purposefulness, independence, ethics and reflectiveness, think critically, anticipate the consequences of actions in changing social conditions, and be prepared to constructively influence others in order to achieve a common goal.
Based on the analysis, the author proposes a structure of leadership qualities for bachelor's degree students, which covers five interrelated components: value-worldview, purposeful-volitional, cognitive-creative, emotional-communicative, and personal-self-regulatory, each of which is specified through relevant indicators.
The author's definition of the concept of ‘formation of leadership qualities of bachelor's degree seekers’ is presented, namely as a purposeful, systematic and pedagogically organised process of developing personal, cognitive, communicative and value-motivational characteristics, integrated within the interrelated components of leadership qualities (purposeful-volitional, cognitive-prognostic, emotional-communicative, personal-self-regulatory, value-worldview).
The specifics of the formation of leadership qualities in students of various professional fields of training (humanities and social sciences, socio-economic, technical and natural sciences, security and defence, arts and creativity, medical and biological sciences, agriculture and industry) are outlined, and the leading trends, forms and methods of work used in each field are analysed.
Based on a thorough analysis of scientific and educational literature, the dissertation identifies and substantiates groups of informal education tools and their key components that contribute to the formation of leadership qualities in bachelor's degree students, namely: interactive-digital, simulation-gamified, sociocultural, mentoring-reflective.
Based on the results of the survey, four pedagogical conditions for the formation of leadership qualities in bachelor's degree students through informal education have been identified and substantiated: 1) creation of an interactive online platform for leadership to organise collective and individual forms of leisure; 2) introducing simulation-gaming informal education tools to model situations close to real leadership contexts; 3) organising socio-cultural educational events that promote awareness of the importance of leadership as a cultural and ethical phenomenon; 4) introduction of mentoring and reflective practices as a tool for understanding individual leadership positions.
