Leadership Behavior in Dance: Application of the Leadership Scale for Sports to Dance Technique Teaching

Abstract

In response to the paucity of actual data on leadership behavior in dance technique teaching, this study, with reference to Chelladurai’s Multidimensional Model of Leadership, aimed to define factors that may influence the dance teacher-student relationship and promote an effective learning process in dance technique teaching. The Leadership Scale for Sport Questionnaire (LSS) was administered in three versions to 14 dance teachers and 53 of their undergraduate students to measure leader behaviors in five dimensions: Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, Autocratic Behavior, Social Support and Positive Feedback. Discrepancy scores were calculated to compare differences in teachers’ and students’ perceptions as well as differences between students’ perceptions and preferences. Statistical analyses (five one-way and five two-way between group analyses of variance with Tukey’s Honestly Significant Difference post-hoc tests) were computed to provide data on, respectively, the relationships between teachers’ perceptions of their own behavior, students’ perceptions of teaching behavior and students’ preferences for teaching behavior as well as the effect of dance style and student gender on preferences for teacher behavior. Significant differences (p < .05) were found between the three groups in Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, Autocratic Behavior and Positive Feedback, but not in Social Support (p > .05). There were no significant main effects for gender (p > .05) or dance style (p > .05) in any dimension, and interaction effects also did not reach significance (p > .05). The reliability coefficients (Cronbach’s alpha) in this study were not consistent with those reported in other sports studies using the LSS, and the suitability of the LSS as an instrument for observing teaching behavior in dance was questioned. Limitations of the study were identified and recommendations made for future research in leadership behavior in the context of dance training.