Investigating the direct and indirect effects of a school-based leadership program for primary school students: Rationale and study protocol for the 'Learning to Lead' cluster randomised controlled trial

Levi Wade; Mark R Beauchamp; Nicole Nathan; Jordan J Smith; Angus A Leahy; Sarah G Kennedy; James Boyer; Ran Bao; Thierno M O Diallo; Josep Vidal-Conti; David R Lubans

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0279661

Investigating the direct and indirect effects of a school-based leadership program for primary school students: Rationale and study protocol for the 'Learning to Lead' cluster randomised controlled trial

PLoS One. 2023 Jan 20;18(1):e0279661. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279661. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Levi Wade^{1

2

3}, Mark R Beauchamp⁴, Nicole Nathan^{5

6

7}, Jordan J Smith^{1

2

3}, Angus A Leahy^{1

2

3}, Sarah G Kennedy⁸, James Boyer⁹, Ran Bao^{1

2

3}, Thierno M O Diallo¹⁰, Josep Vidal-Conti¹¹, David R Lubans^{1

2

3

12}

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Active Living and Learning, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
² College of Human and Social Futures, School of Education, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
³ Active Living Research Program, Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
⁴ School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁵ Hunter New England Population Health, Wallsend, New South Wales, Australia.
⁶ School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia.
⁷ Hunter Medical Research Institute, New Lambton Heights, New South Wales, Australia.
⁸ School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.
⁹ New South Wales Department of Education, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
¹⁰ School of Social Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.
¹¹ The University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Spain.
¹² Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.

Abstract

Background: Leadership is a valuable skill that can be taught in school, and which may have benefits within and beyond the classroom. Learning to Lead (L2L) is a student-led, primary school-based leadership program whereby older 'peer leaders' deliver a fundamental movement skills (FMS) program to younger 'peers' within their own school.

Aim: The aims of the study are to determine the efficacy of a peer-led FMS intervention on: (i) peer leaders' (aged 10 to 12 years) leadership effectiveness (primary outcome), leadership self-efficacy, well-being, and time on-task in the classroom; (ii) peers' (aged 8 to 10 years) physical activity levels, actual and perceived FMS competency, cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular power, and executive functioning; and (iii) teachers' (referred to as 'school champions') work-related stress and well-being.

Method: L2L will be evaluated using a two-arm parallel group cluster randomised controlled trial. Twenty schools located within a two-hour drive of the University of Newcastle, Australia will be recruited. We will recruit 80 students (40 peer leaders and 40 peers) from each school (N = 1,600). L2L will be implemented in three phases: Phase 1 -school champions' training via a professional learning workshop; Phase 2 -school champions' delivery of leadership lessons to the peer leaders; and Phase 3 -peer leaders' delivery of the FMS program to their younger peers. The FMS program, consisting of 12 x 30-minute lessons, will be delivered over the course of one school term (10 weeks). Study outcomes will be assessed at baseline (between mid-March to June, Terms 1 and 2), intervention end (mid-August to September, Term 3), and follow-up (November to mid-December, Term 4. This trial was prospectively registered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR); registration number: ACTRN12621000376842.

Copyright: © 2023 Wade et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Clinical Trial Protocol
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Australia
Humans
Leadership*
Learning
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
School Health Services
Schools*
Students

Grants and funding

The study is funded by the Australian Research Council (https://www.arc.gov.au/) (DP22010099) and the NSW Department of Education School Sport Unit (https://app.education.nsw.gov.au/sport/). DRL is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship (APP1154507). NN is supported by a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Investigator Grant (GS2000053). The funders had and will not have a role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.