LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR OF B.Ed. TRAINEES

Leadership is an important aspect of managing people. It is the art of dealing with and influencing people so that they will try hard happily and actively toward the achievement of group or organizational goals. The leaders understand what makes their followers to get motivated and how well these motivations operate. This understanding will reflect in their leadership behaviour. Preparing young people for leadership responsibility begins at home with an enriched environment that offers opportunities for children to acquire broad interests, self-esteem and the insights and skills that characterize leaders. Parents can provide their children with support and encouragement as they participate in a wide variety of home and community activities. The aim of the present study is to find out the level of leadership behaviour of B.Ed. trainees. The investigator has used the leadership behavior inventory as tool. The sample consists of 300 B.Ed. trainees from six B.Ed. Colleges in Kanyakumari District. Stratified random sampling technique has been used for collecting the data. The major finding reveals that there is significant difference between rural and urban B.Ed trainees in their leadership behaviour.


Rationale for the Study
Education is a noble calling that entails both challenges and responsibilities. One of the main aims of education is to produce good leaders. Strong accountable leadership is always a hallmark of successful individuals. It is a known fact that, the development of a society depends on its directive leaders. A leader is one who guides, organizes, directs and co-ordinates the society. Leadership is the ability to persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically. Adequacy of leadership is very material for the students of higher education. Because, all B.Ed. trainees need leadership qualities and the related skills are needed virtually in all areas. It is the human factor, which binds a group together and motivates it towards the goals. To be effective leaders, they must bring the core principles of quality leadership to their decision making and interaction with others. The emotional component of leadership requires the ability to perceive emotions, facilitate emotions in thought and understand and manage emotions. Leaders possessing these abilities are considered emotionally intelligence. Because intelligently governed emotion play a significant role in directing and shaping one's leadership behaviour and personality. The B.Ed. trainees with ample leadership behaviour can lead anything successfully. The present scenario necessitates the effective intelligent leaders. Being very much inspired by the above discussion, the investigator has prepared her mind to study the leadership behaviour of B.Ed. trainees.

Objectives
1) To find out whether there is any significant difference between male and female B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour. 2) To find out whether there is any significant difference between rural and urban B.Ed.
trainees in their leadership behavior. 3) To find out whether there is any significant difference between undergraduate and post graduate B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour. 4) To find out whether there is any significant difference among Tamil, English, Maths, Physical Science, Bio Science and History B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour.

Methodology
The investigator has adopted survey method of research to study the leadership behaviour of B.Ed. trainees.

Sample
The population of the present study consists of the B.Ed. trainees of six B.Ed. colleges in Kanyakumari District. A sum of 300 B.Ed. trainees is selected as the sample by stratified random sampling.

Tools Used in the Present Study
The investigator has used the leadership behaviour inventory to find out the leadership behaviour of the B.Ed. trainees.

Analysis of Data
To interpret the raw scores meaningfully, the data are analyzed by using mean, standard deviation and 't'test.

Null Hypothesis 1
There is no significant difference between male and female B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour.

Null Hypothesis 2
There is no significant difference between rural and urban B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour.

Null Hypothesis 3
There is no significant difference between undergraduate and postgraduate B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour.

Null Hypothesis 4
There is no significant difference among English, Tamil, Maths, History, Physical Science and Biological Science B.Ed. trainees in their Leadership behaviour.

Findings
1) There is no significant difference between male and female B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour. 2) There is significant difference between rural and urban B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour. 3) There is no significant difference between under graduate and post graduate B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour. 4) There is no significant difference among English, Tamil, History, Physical science and Biological Science B.Ed. trainees in their leadership behaviour.

Discussion
The leadership potential of B.Ed. trainees can be enhanced by encouraging them to plan, initiate and complete a variety of self-evaluated individual projects. Provide opportunities for decision making at an early age which helps them to foster critical reasoning skills necessary to be an effective leader. everyone who has the aptitude will make use of it and become leaders. So, leaders are not born but made. Leadership development is not an event. It is a process of participating in respectful conversations where the leader recognizes his feelings and those of others in building safe and trusting relationships. Leadership development is self-development. The teacher training colleges should provide enough opportunities to B.Ed. trainees to plan and organize various functions and festivals like annual day, sports day, science exhibition, quiz programmes, cultural programmes, youth festivals, releasing the annual magazine, etc. Through such activities alone one could foster the leadership qualities like planning meticulously any programme, mobilising the requisite resources for successfully carrying out the programme, unifying and integrating the men and materials in any given system and the flexibility and courage to incorporate necessary changes in the action plan. Even in teaching, adopting techniques like discussions, debates, assignments and quiz programmes will be of much use in promoting mutual dependence and self-confidence among B.Ed. trainees. Through proper planning and functioning, educational institutions can help in producing the leaders of the next generation.