In 1995, Fairfax County Public Schools created a program of studies for a high school course in leadership studies. The purpose of the program of studies is "to empower teachers to plan and provide engaging learning experiences that will enable students to measurably acquire leadership attributes that they can use to serve their school and community."

The Leadership Course Program of Studies addresses many topics related to the development of leadership. Main content areas include Understanding Leadership, Assessing Individual Leadership Style and Skills, Planning and Organizing, Communication Skills and Techniques, Positive Relationship Building, Problem Solving and Decision Making, Personal Wellness and Image, and Community/School Service. Included with each of these topics are notes and sample teaching activities to assist teachers in planning and delivering lessons.

An excerpt from the Leadership Course Program of Studies has been included here to give the reader an idea of the variety of strategies "that can be used effectively within the context of a leadership course." The full document may be borrowed from the CTE Resource Center Library. Request by e-mail at mailto:library@cteresource.org; by fax to (804) 673-3798; or by phone to (804) 673-3778. Please include your name, mailing address, school, phone number, and the library call number (SP170.024).

This excerpt is printed with the permission of Fairfax County Public Schools.

The following content topics are to be included during the teaching of the leadership course. The teaching sequence, depth of coverage, and methodology will be determined by the teacher.

I. Understanding Leadership

1. Definitions
2. Theories
3. Characteristics
4. Roles
5. Role Models

II. Assessing Individual Leadership Style and Skills

1. Self-Assessment
2. Personal Goal Setting

III Planning and Organizing

1. Goal Setting
2. Project Planning, Record Keeping, and Delegating
3. Evaluating Project Outcomes

IV. Communication Skills and Techniques

1. Oral Communication
2. Active Listening
3. Written Communication
4. Graphic Communication
5. Visual Communication
6. Parliamentary Procedure
7. Public Relations

V. Positive Relationship Building

1. Team Building
2. Motivation
3. Affirmations
4. Conflict Resolution
5. Prejudice Reduction

VI. Problem Solving and Decision Making

1. Personal Styles
2. Group Styles
3. Reaching Consensus
4. Methods and Models
5. Ethical Dilemmas

VII. Personal Wellness and Image

1. Personal Image
2. Personal Fitness
3. Nutrition
4. Stress Management
5. Time Management
6. Personal Values
7. Self-Esteem
8. Compulsive and Addictive Behavior

VIII. Community and School Service

1. Record-keeping Forms
2. Service Log

Student motivation and achievement are enhanced by selecting instructional strategies that are matched to the lesson objectives and learning styles. A broad repertoire of instructional strategies will permit the teacher to engage and sustain student interest and provide for the needs of auditory, kinesthetic, visual, and tactile learners.

The following is an alphabetical list of strategies that can be used effectively within the context of a leadership course. This section contains a brief description of each strategy followed by concrete examples.

1. Action Log
2. Contract
3. Cooperative Learning
4. Case Study Method
5. Ethical Dilemmas
6. Fishbowl Technique
7. Hemlock Overlook (George Mason University, Center for Outdoor Education)
8. Incidence Chart
9. Interviews
10. Journal Writing
11. KWL
12. Mentoring
13. Panel
14. Planning Matrix (PERT Chart)
15. Portfolio
16. Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Scenarios
17. Project
18. Quotations
19. Research Paper
20. Retreat
21. Role Playing
22. Self-Assessment
23. Simulations
24. Speakers
25. Special Events
26. Videotaping
27. Visual Organizers (Concept Mapping)

Used in the format of a diary to record daily progress toward the completion of a task or project. The student uses the information for record keeping, and the teacher uses the information to evaluate student progress.

An example of a student in leadership class using an action log would be asking each student to keep a daily log of everything he or she does to complete an assigned responsibility related to planning and implementing a school activity.

Used to specifically identify student expectations and to evaluate student progress.

I, __________________, have selected the following activities to complete during this quarter. I understand that if all assignments are completed on time and meet the project standards identified by the teacher, I will receive the grade of ___.

1. Fifteen hours of school and community service to be completed as follows:
2. Position paper defending or refuting the statement "Good leaders are born, not made." To be completed and turned in by __________.
3. Quality participation in class discussions.
4. Serve as chairperson of the class or SGA __________Committee and complete all duties as assigned.
5. Read and mind-map concepts from three chapters of interest in the class set of leadership resource books or in other sources preapproved by the teacher.
6. Pass each quarter with a score of 90 or better.

The teacher would modify the contract for students wanting to earn a B by decreasing the amount of reading, requiring committee membership rather than chairmanship, and requiring a student to achieve a score of 80 or better.

Used to foster collaboration and team building and to provide diversity of skills, knowledge, perspectives, and attitudes to achieve a specific objective.

An example of a cooperative learning activity in a leadership course would be to assign groups of four or five students to design activities for inclusion in the next school leadership retreat. Each group would be required to work together to determine the name, purpose, description, materials, costs, participants, space, planning, implementation responsibilities, and a method of evaluating the success of the activity. The teacher would then evaluate the cooperative learning process and the process outcome.

Used to foster collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. Students work with realistic problems, which are described in vivid detail, to help students understand the full complexity of the issue or problem being studied.

Students work in cooperative learning teams to:

1. Analyze the problem and its inclusive issues.
2. Brainstorm and research recommended solutions.
3. Critique, through group discussion, the feasibility and value of each proposed solution.
4. Determine, based upon the facts in the case, recommended solutions or actions that can be supported.
5. Present the case and recommended solutions to the class, using oral and visual methods.

The following criteria should be used by the teacher for selecting cases for student study:

1. Involve dilemmas of broad student interest that surround interpersonal relationships.
2. Require examination of values, attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs.
3. Permit a variety of possible courses of action rather than one correct solution.
4. Enable students to feel some identification with the persons described in the case.
5. Ensure the case selected is engaging to students and relevant to the objectives of the course.

Additionally, the teacher should have enough background knowledge on the topic to serve as a discussion leader, consultant, and observer rather than a lecturer or subject matter expert. This method can be used to evaluate students’ abilities to work as team members and to recognize, analyze, and solve realistic problems.

The following are examples of cases relevant to a leadership class.

Case One: A rumor is spreading around school that one clique of students active in student government is planning to sabotage the work of a rival clique within the group. They plan to pretend to cooperate with plans for the homecoming dance. They plan to assume major responsibilities and roles relative to the planning and then not to follow through on their jobs. This behavior is intended to make the rival clique, one of whose members is the chair of the homecoming dance committee, look incompetent and foolish. As a student government officer aware of this "plot," what actions should you take?

Case Two: You are the new chairperson of the student government nominating committee presiding at your second meeting. Agreement regarding officers has been reached, but it is difficult to select committee chairpersons because so many people want the jobs. One of your nominating committee members, Jessica, is pushing her friends. Tran wants his buddies to gain control of some of the committees, so arguing persists. Everyone is anxious to leave the meeting and go to other activities. Rob suggests putting all names in alphabetical order and counting down until all committee chairperson jobs are filled. As chairman, what can you do to restore a more objective, businesslike approach to the deliberations? Should qualifications rather than popularity play a role in selecting the chairs? What are some general characteristics a good committee chairperson should possess?

Used to foster critical thinking about personal and group behavioral choices. Students individually, in small groups, or as a class develop a position in response to a fictional or real dilemma. These positions should be clarified to reflect the underlying value of the decision and its potential impact relative to personal and societal standards of conduct. Dilemmas often include issues of legality, liability, morality, "rightness," and perception of the degree of harm resulting from the resolution of the dilemma. Character traits are also involved when dilemmas involve issues such as honesty, integrity, responsibility, or forced-choice scenarios.

An example of an ethical dilemma appropriate for a leadership class includes the following:

Kyle is assigned to sell tickets for the school homecoming dance. He knows the sponsor and chairperson of his committee are unaware of the number of tickets on the roll he was given. Each ticket costs $35.00. Kyle has two buddies whom he knows want badly to go to the dance but can’t come up with the $70.00 per couple. Kyle ponders what harm could come from his charitable act of giving two tickets to each of his buddies. No one would ever know. What should Kyle do and why? What character traits and values are involved in this dilemma?

Used to encourage verbal interaction among class members to explore issues and share opinions. Chairs are arranged in a circle, or students sit in a circle on the floor. One chair or space is intentionally left vacant. Students are assigned to sit in the inner circle. The other students sit to form an outer circle. Only the members of the inner circle may speak during the fishbowl activity. If a student in the outer circle wants to speak, he or she goes to the one vacant chair or space until they are tapped by another student from the outer circle who wants to take his or her place.

Ground rules should be established by the teacher to match the purpose of the activity. Examples of ground rules are:

• A student must state an idea and support it with fact or opinion; agree with a speaker and add supporting information; or disagree with a speaker and offer fact or opinion to refute it.
• No one may interrupt a speaker. No speaker may speak a second time on a topic until all persons wishing to speak on the topic have had a chance.
• The outer circle may be assigned to listen, take notes, and observe. If a person from the outer circle wishes to speak or ask a question, he or she must come forward and exchange chairs with a member of the inner circle.

The role of the teacher is to act as facilitator by posing the topic of discussion and, if necessary, asking open-ended questions, encouraging, harmonizing, clarify statements, and, in some cases, limiting statements. The teacher also establishes time parameters and notifies the group as the deadline approaches. After the discussion, the teacher helps students process the activity by asking the following questions: What surprised you about the discussion? Have you changed your mind, attitude, or belief about anything in response to the discussion? What things needed to change to make the fishbowl discussion more productive?

Using the fishbowl technique in a leadership class might involve working to reach consensus on any issue about which the class has strong differences of opinion, such as assigning community service as a requirement to receive a grade of A for the quarter, debating the question, "Who makes better leaders, men or women, and why?", or observing and recording the communication techniques used by students in the inner circle (active listening, paraphrasing, clarifying, persuading, factualizing, etc.).

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Used by students to record the frequency and attributes of specific behavior. Sample techniques and how they can be used in a leadership class:

1. Direct each student in the outer (observing) circle of the fishbowl to observe and record every communication technique they see a person using during a ten-minute discussion. These would include using body language, using active listening behaviors, clarifying, presenting information, challenging an opinion, etc.
2. Videotape a student speaking extemporaneously or making a 60-second commercial designed to enhance an opportunity for appointment to an imaginary leadership position. Direct the student to watch the videotape and to record observed behaviors on an incidence chart (the scoring rubric for the chart can be created by the class and the teacher) to evaluate the effectiveness of the presentation. Items on the chart might include the following: lengthy pauses, uhs and aahs, you knows, rapid speech, slow speech, mispronounced words, incorrect grammar, negative or positive body language, enthusiasm, etc.

Used to gather and enhance a student’s understanding for and appreciation of others’ experiences.

Examples of the use of interviews in a leadership class: require students to interview a student leader, an adult leader in the school, and a leader from the community to determine what skills, abilities, values, and attitudes they possess; their definitions of a strong leader; and who these individuals most admire as leaders and why.

Used as a tool to permit students to express in writing thoughts and feelings about topics relevant to a course. It requires the student to conceive of both learning and writing as meaningful processes to help students make connections between what they are learning and what is already known. Journal writings can be used to individualize and personalize instruction, stimulate discussion, start small-group activity, clarify hazy issues, reinforce learning, and stimulate student imagination.

Examples of the use of journal writing in a leadership course would be as a part of a required course notebook. Journal entries should be dated and students permitted to write both in and out of class. Journals should be collected and read periodically. As journals are read, personal comments should be made relative to the entries to promote teacher-student interaction and provide feedback.

Examples of journal assignments are:

1. Respond to a statement such as, "Success comes in cans rather than cannots."
2. Express opinions such as, "What do you think is a fair way to assign committee chairpersons?"
3. Convey knowledge and its application, such as, "From your reading and our class discussion, what do you think is the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence?"
4. Express feelings such as "How do you feel when someone devalues an idea with a verbal put-down?"

Used to determine what students already know (K) about a topic; what they would (W) like to know that they do not know about the topic; and what they have learned (L) about the subject following reading, research, activity, or presentation. This technique avoids re-teaching what is known, piques curiosity, and assesses new learning.

Examples of how the KWL strategy could be applied in a leadership class would be to learn about characteristics of effective leaders, parliamentary procedure, writing committee reports, or projecting a positive image.

Used to enable experienced, skillful individuals to help those with less experience or skill. An example of how this strategy would be applied in a leadership class would be to assign each senior a junior or sophomore co-chairperson who would learn all about a committee responsibility in preparation for assuming that same role in the future.

Used to present information and opinions based upon experience and expertise of those persons not available within the daily classroom and school environment. Examples of how panels could be used in a leadership class are: a corporate leader, a community leader, and a volunteer service organization leader discussing what experiences students should seek to advance their opportunities to grow as leaders or discussing the ethics of leadership; a fitness club worker, an image consultant, and a personal clothing shopper for a department store talking about "first impressions" of a leader based upon physical appearance, dress, posture, and mannerisms.

Used as a tool to provide a visual representation of tasks to be accomplished, identify who is responsible for each task, and to establish deadlines. The PERT chart developed by the U.S. Navy is an acronym for Programming, Evaluation, Review Technique.

Students in a leadership class could develop a PERT chart to plan and implement any student government-sponsored event such as homecoming week activities, election of officers, or leadership retreat. This activity is specifically described in the "Planning and Organizing" section of this document.

Used to provide a holistic in-depth picture of student achievement. Teachers can assess student progress, guide student learning, and motivate students who may prefer a collection of work as evidence of ability rather than standardized or other tests. Portfolios should contain work which is representative of all major course objectives and clearly depict authentic evidence of what the student knows and is able to do. Captions are attached to each document to describe what the document is, why it is evidence, and what it documents.

Examples of possible contents of a leadership student’s portfolio could include: artifacts which are actual examples of student work such as journal writings, planning documents, research papers, or completed projects; visual evidence such as photographs, videotapes, and attestations or written documents written by someone else about the student’s work; productions which are produced especially for the portfolio to demonstrate competence, such as a paper describing the value of being an officer in the school’s SADD chapter; teacher observations; and student self-evaluations.

Used to practice logical, creative, and critical thinking. Examples of the use of these scenarios in a leadership class are as follows:

1. The class can’t agree on the theme of the homecoming dance, so you, the teacher, stop the class and use problem-solving skills to determine a fair way to reach consensus and name the dance theme.
2. Two committee chairpersons complain to the teacher that they can’t get anything done because committee members keep engaging in "side conversations" and do not cooperate. You, the teacher, gather the entire class together to determine a standard of expected behavior for committee meetings and consequences for non-compliance.

Used to permit students to display in-depth knowledge in a particular area. Projects generally occur over time and require specific skills and have a measurable, observable outcome.

The following are examples of appropriate leadership class projects:

1. Plan and execute a presentation for eighth graders to stimulate interest in rising freshmen in extra-curricular student government and club-sponsored activities, and to identify students who become active.
2. Sponsor a school-wide media campaign to foster pride in the school buildings and grounds, which includes a contest for the best suggestion to beautify the school environment.

Used as an impetus to motivate oral or written responses through class discussion or journal writing.

Examples of the use of quotations for a leadership class:

• Have students write a journal entry reacting to the quote, "Leadership is both a process and a property."
• Hold a class discussion about the importance of having goals after reading the following passage from Alice in Wonderland: "Would you tell me, please," said Alice, "which way I ought to walk from here?" "That depends on where you want to get to," said the Cheshire Cat. "I don’t much care where. . .," said Alice. "Then it doesn’t matter which way you walk," said the cat. "So long as I get somewhere," added Alice as an explanation. "Oh, you’re sure to do that if you only walk long enough," said the cat."

Used to require students to apply many skills and abilities over the course of time to complete a relevant task. The process, tools, skills and outcomes can be evaluated by the student and teacher to determine needs for future learning.

Examples of research papers appropriate for leadership class assignments:

1. Use computer databases to discover what articles exist in the literature about motivating volunteers to follow through on responsibilities and ways to recognize their achievements, and write a report for class distribution and discussion.
2. Read and research the "Quality" movement and draw inferences regarding how concepts defining the quality movement can be applied in student government activities.

20. Retreat

Characterized by a set of experiences in which the student leaders are isolated in a group for one or more days to set goals, plan and organize upcoming school year activities, learn and practice leadership skills, and develop positive working relationships with each other and significant adults in the school.

Used to engage students by involving them in active dramatizations that require the players to take the perspective of another. Role players develop communications skills and portray differing points of view. The observers of the role play develop active and reflective listening skills, and they participate in follow-up discussions to express attitudes, values, ideas, facts and feelings based upon the role play. Role play enhances cooperative learning when students work in groups to develop characterizations by sharing different perspectives and behaviors to reach consensus. Role play is enhanced by following these simple guidelines:

1. Write specific, concise objectives for the role play.
2. Select situations which students perceive as pertinent and meaningful.
3. Provide a secure classroom environment by setting ground rules which prohibit put-downs and make students feel free to take risks and make mistakes without negative consequences.
4. Use videotaping to enhance analysis and evaluation of the role play for assessment purposes.

An example of a role play appropriate for leadership class students would be to assign small groups to develop a skit illustrating dysfunctional communication styles which block the ability of a group to reach consensus.

Used to determine strengths and areas in need of improvement and to facilitate using strengths to good advantage in goal setting to improve identified areas.

Examples include the "Multicultural Self-Report Inventory" designed to help students measure their own beliefs about culture; the "Leadership Skills Inventory" designed to assess leadership competencies in seven categories; and the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" designed to identify basic preferences in people in regard to perception and judgment.

Simulations attributes are selected to be as close to "real life" or "perfect practice" as possible. The effectiveness of simulations will depend upon preparation, perceived student value and interest, and the ability of students to transfer learning from the simulation to future application.

Examples of a simulation appropriate to a leadership class:

1. Simulate a student government school-wide election process by rehearsing the process first with leadership class elections.
2. Prepare role behavior cards to simulate a town meeting in which a topic about which there are strong feelings is discussed, to allow students to practice conflict resolution skills.

Used to broaden student knowledge and perspective on any topic covered within the scope of the leadership course.

Examples of the use of speakers in a leadership course are as panel members, persuasive speakers, informative speakers, and role models. Speakers should be approved by the principal and non-controversial in their personal methods, language, or content.

Used to enable leadership class students to develop and practice leadership skills by serving the school and the community.

Used as a teaching and learning tool to observe performance.

Examples of the use of videotaping in a leadership course would be to have students bring in short videotapes of a television personality who they believe models excellent communications skills; to videotape students making speeches or presentations to critique effectiveness; and to videotape the group process for future analysis. Videotapes provide valuable assessment data when used to evaluate continuous student progress.

Used as a tool to show in a graphic way how a concept is perceived by the learner. They may be used in many ways, from evaluating students’ prior knowledge to assessing learning of a content area. Before and after representations can show specific pre- and post-instruction concept meaning held by students and show gains made in cognitive understanding and illustrate meaningful learning. "Meaningful learning" refers to anchoring new ideas or concepts with previously-acquired knowledge. This strategy is a valuable assessment tool.

An example of concept mapping would require students to arrange concepts and main ideas, expressed as keywords or phrases, for the topic "Running a Student Government Meeting" or "Homecoming Dance Planning" in a hierarchy from the most general (superordinate) topics or categories ("Rules of Order" or "Music" in these examples) to the most specific (subordinate) topics or categories (such as "Adjournment" or "Contract for the Band"); draw circles or ellipses around the concepts; and connect the concept circles by means of lines or arrows to show relationship of subordinate concepts to superordinate concepts. The visual organizer, when complete, will show all parts of the whole (meeting or dance) and their relationship to one another in a way which provides significant information to the learner.