The European Students' Union (ESU) feels the need to face the current crisis and to foster the student voice of all students across Europe. In this context its main priorities for 2012 will be: (1) Education as a public good; (2) Internal development; (3) Social dimension; and (4) Bologna and European cooperation. It is of great importance for ESU…

Against the wider background of increasing interest in pupil voice, this article gives examples of the student involvement activity in the largest of the National College of School Leadership (NCSL) development and enquiry initiatives: the Networked Learning Communities project. In programme-level research, student voice and participation were…

Regardless of a school's size or whether its setting is rural, urban, or suburban, the establishment of a student council organization can serve as a unique and valuable learning laboratory for civic education. Student council teaches students many intangible life skills and allows students to take on different roles and learn when to step back,…

Leadership is a subjective concept that can be applied in diverse ways, depending on the circumstances either negative or positive (Ubong and Wokocha, 2001) Subjective as the concept of leadership is, it is definable in relationship with power. Galbraith (1984) used Max Weber's definition of power to make leadership more understandable. In the…

This article argues that students who have leadership skills are empowered toward better learning and decision making and ultimately are more disciplined. Herein, the author offers a number of techniques teachers can use to put group leadership skills into practice in the classroom.

Most school districts conduct annual leadership retreats for their school boards, central and site leadership teams and their business and community partners. Holding leadership development retreats for students, on the other hand, is a new and somewhat revolutionary idea. This article describes a series of leadership retreats where faculty worked…

According to Warren Bennis, professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and a recognized authority on organizational development, leadership and change, becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming oneself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult. In career and technical student…

Leaders in higher education in the US are seeking to make the nation's most selective colleges and universities more accessible to low-income students, but few realize that a good part of the solution lies within community colleges. Highly selective institutions overlook the fact that reaching more deeply into graduating two-year classes will…

A Leadership Skills Development Program for gifted upper elementary and secondary school students includes the Leadership Skills Inventory (a self-administered, self-scoring assessment tool) and a handbook of activities accompanying the inventory. (CL)

Maria Center for Learning and Life Enrichment in St. Louis (Missouri) offers a leadership training program for youth. (JM)

What exactly is perfect? Students describe perfection as a combination of characteristics valued by their peer culture: intelligence, thin and fit physical appearance, social poise. As students chug through their daily lives--morning classes, organization meetings, club sports practice or the gym, dinner, another class, more meetings, library,…

In business school environments, teamwork often factors into discussions about effective pedagogy. However, leadership of classroom teams has attracted virtually no attention from scholars. How teams should be led in the classroom and what kinds of outcomes different types of team leaders produce remain underdeveloped areas of inquiry. In this…

A middle school teacher describes the way in which a gifted program gained prominence and its students acquired peer esteem through a model congress approach in which students learned parliamentary rules and debate principles. (CL)

Wright State University's two-year student leadership program attracts students who are interested in developing a selfless yet influential leadership style characterized by commitment to others. It stresses skills and inner strength and the ability to lead by persuasion, not coercion. A leadership phase follows an initial service phase.…

Describes the history of, rationale for, and implementation of a program at the University of Michigan to train peer facilitators in an undergraduate community service-learning program. Examples of specific training designs and component activities are provided. (EV)