As you might expect, as someone really interested in education, schools and community I’m a school governor. One of the things I’m doing in that role currently is thinking about how we make new governors feel supported and able to play a constructive role as soon as possible. So I’ve started re-writing our governor induction pack – this is basically a welcome pack for new governors. It’s lead me on to thinking about not just what information we give to new governors, but what mentoring and training we need to give them and what we need them to do to make the most of it.
You need to create a guide for your school on how new school councillors can do a great job representing their peers and making things happen. You might want to include one of these for some ideas on your roles, collecting ideas and running meetings. Please excuse the shameless plug ;)
It occurred to me that new school councillors could do with a similar sort of pack and that getting current school councillors to write it would be really useful to get your new school council off to a flying start next year.
Below is the process we are going through and how I think it could work for a school council.
Get together a small group of current school councillors – ideally some who have been on the council for a while and some who are new.
Write down a list of all the things you wish you had known when you became a school councillor.
Write down a list of all the support that you have found useful in your role as a school councillor.
Add in any support that you would have liked but didn’t receive.
Write a short document (no more than a page) that will be the cover of your induction pack. This should tell new school councillors what support they will get and list all the useful information that you will put in the welcome pack. We have organised under these headings, they might work for you too:
What we’ll do to support you (the new school councillor)
What we need you to do
The documents attached (that will help you to understand your role and how our school and school council works)
Useful websites (or other sources of information)
Now you’ve got to collect all that information together and work out whatever training, mentoring, etc. you have said you will provide.
Do you already have a school council welcome pack? What is in it or what would you put in it if you had one?
The key issue for school councils is how they involve the whole student body. Not just once a year when representatives are voted on, but on an on-going basis, throughout the year.
For me the core of the answer is in class meetings. Through these every student in the school can be listened to, given a chance to speak and become involved. Not all will want to, and many won’t very often, but the fact that it happens regularly, for everyone makes a huge difference. It is clear that the school (and the school council) are there for you when you need it, and is actively trying to involve you.
Transferring responsibility in secondaries
In secondary schools having these meetings is often seen to be harder than in primaries. The timetable is more prescribed, students move around and swap groups during the day, and so on. Last week when this issue arose at a training session I asked about the class meetings in the teacher’s school. He said that they had got rid of them because they couldn’t rely on the 72 form tutors to run them and pass on the messages. I’ve heard this from so many schools and it makes me sad to think about what this says to the students about how much their form tutors value their opinions. It raises questions of management too, but we’ll leave that to another time.
To me it seems that this is a problem that could be avoided. This shouldn’t be the teachers’ responsibility, it should be the class reps’. They should each have a simple page to assist them to run a class meeting. It lists decisions made, questions to be asked and a space for raising new issues. This makes sure that every class in the school is involved in the discussions of the school council. All the teacher needs to do is ensure that every other Friday 15 minutes of form time is given over to the class rep (as stated in the school council policy).
So I suggested this to the delegates at the training event. They liked the idea and of course asked whether I had a template for this. “Of course,” I white-lied, “I’ll send it out to you all next week.” So this morning I transferred that template from my head to the computer.
Free template
You can download a PDF or a Word version below. There are instructions for the class rep on the sheet itself. Instructions on how to fill it out are at the bottom of this page.
I would suggest you take the Word version and then you can type directly in to it. This is how it needs to be filled out (I say ‘school council’ below but it could be any meeting that is being reported back from, such as a year or house council):
In Section 1 you should put the decisions that were taken at the school council. Keep it succinct but clear, as the rep will just read this section out.
You should just be able to copy the ‘Issue’ from your minutes.
The ‘Action/Decision’ should also be from your minutes, so wherever possible it should be an action: WHO is going to do WHAT by WHEN.
The ‘Reason’ is where you can add some explanation. For example, ‘There was general agreement on this from across the school’; ‘There isn’t the money to do this at this time’
In Section 2 you should write the question that the school council wants to ask the whole school. Make the question clear and simple, so you are sure everyone across the school understands it as written.
Depending on the question, you may find it useful to add some options for classes to select from.
You should leave section 3 blank, this is where ideas from the classes are written down.
You then need a system for collecting and collating these sheets. It could be that they are all handed in to the office straight after form time to be collected by the school council secretary later.
I asked all the delegates to list as many student voice ideas, initiatives and projects as they could, both those used in their schools, and others that they had heard of. This is the list they came up with. I provided the five headings, but I did not offer a specific definition of what ‘student voice’ is. You might find it useful to prompt discussion in your school and give you some ideas for how you could expand student voice. Below the list I offer a bit of analysis of some of the methods.
Teaching and learning
Learning walks to other establishments
1st week of Scheme of Work is planning the scheme with the students
Student curriculum panels
Student governors
Students as researchers
Students into lesson programme
Peer teaching
Student interviewers
Part of departmental review/visits
‘My World’ Project-based learning, completely self-directed with vivas
Drama in Education Theatre Group [Reaction] help organise + deliver assemblies, e.g. work experience/bullying
Student appointment panels
Reading: peer mentors – Y10 top set English used to support low ‘reading age’ students in Y7 + Y8 x 30 mins per week in library
Policy consultation
Mini ‘Insted’ – termly
Peer mentoring
Golden lessons
Lesson feedback + surveys
Student researcher: what makes a good lesson?
Student mentoring
Student-led mentoring
Students used to observe and score candidates’ presentations during SELECTION PROCESS
Student mentoring Y12 pupils mentoring Y10
Reading pairs
Pupils to observe lessons and give feedback
Students involved in departmental meetings discussing teaching and learning issues
Student council
Learning council
Student SEF
Homework review: regularity, consistency, quality, use of school system
Lead learners – student observers
Student lesson observations
Student voice questionnaires in department learning reviews
Student interview panel
Language champions
Student receptionist
Digital leaders
Pupils as observers
Debating society
Student involvement in lesson observations and feedback
Student learning exchange visits
Student panel involvement in staff reviews
Student voice panel on all staff interviews
Learning walks, possible to use students
Student panel involvement in departmental reviews
Environment
Ground Force group
Looking into solar energy
Consultations for colour schemes for school
Keeping an eye on what needs doing
Chickens
Community voice reps
Enterprise reps
Students working with school interior manager to update displays around the school throughout the year
Key stage toilets
Eco school
Student marketing and branding group
School council influence on things such as uniform, dinners, toilets
BeMAD (fundraising group)
Tree planting
School council
Charity reps
Recycling
Relationships
Peer mentoring support groups
Anti-bullying support
Students running societies – e.g. politics society, debating
Student tours for visitors
Partnership with local schools’ council
Meet and greet/guides at open evenings and for visitors
Subject prefects – helping with activities involving younger pupils
Volunteer council
Student ambassadors
Working with primary students – sports leaders + dance leaders
‘Pay it forward’ council
Promoting the school – 6th Form student ambassadors (this also generates feedback)
Confidential clinic
Health and safety society (leads to STI presentations)
Peer mentors – Blue Guardian Angels – used to support younger students with emotional issues, behavioural issues or bullying
Student senior leaders + SCT meetings
Links to town council – chambers for meetings
Rights Respecting Schools
Peer mentoring
Behaviour
Behaviour for learning group
Student duty staff
Pulling pupils out of detention to discuss areas within student voice – gauge their opinion
School policies: uniform, bullying, etc.
Development of anti-bullying policy
Peer mentors – restorative justice
Development of behaviour policy
Students given specific duties to monitor behaviour at break and lunch times
Anti-bullying strategies, e.g. poster competitions/campaign, anti-bullying group
House system – vertical groups mean highest level students can assist younger pupils, e.g. UCAS admissions
Other
Fair trade
Involved in school and student liturgy groups (Catholic school)
Representation at Town Remembrance Service
Peer support
VLE: setting up a student voice forum
Ideas – feedback on student menus
House captains
Open evenings/parents evenings: front of house, tours, speaking
Shadow governors
Student council
Student interview panels for higher TLR posts
Big Idea reps
Involved in staff appointments
Young Enterprise
Charity/fundraising
Student governors
Citizenship Award: For student in Y10 who has taken his/her own initiative to support the school. Focus decided by student.
Primary school links: language, citizenship, PE, etc.
Meeting VIPs
Visiting speakers
6th Form partnership group
Fundraising
On-line Agony Aunt
Youth Parliament
Front desk
Sports leaders
Naming student voice as ‘The Voice’ (also a singing contest pupils like).
Non-uniform days for charities
Sub-committees for various issues (Buildings & Environment, Relationships & Behaviour, Learning & Teaching, Events & Fundraising)
Young chamber
Links with local youth council and local area action group
SNAG: School Nutrition Action Group
Youth Parliament
Prefects involved in charity/local fundraising and activities
International school
Working groups: Environment, Website, Canteen, Fundraising & Events
Student guides
Analysis
The first thing that struck me was simply how many ideas were under the ‘teaching and learning’ heading. A few years ago very few schools even saw this as an appropriate issue for school councils and student voice to touch on. During our discussions throughout the day it was also clear that it was the area that all of the teachers in the room wanted students to be able to have more of an impact on.
The methods suggested demand a little more examination though. This is not my list and I would not suggest any school should be doing all of these things (I don’t even know what all of them are) but most are worth a go. However, whilst there are many very good ideas here, I wouldn’t classify all of them as ‘student voice’. I think a distinction should be made between ‘student leadership’, ‘students given responsibility’ and ‘student voice’. All can be useful but confusing them can have unintended consequences for learning.
Having students as receptionists, showing people around the school and presenting at conferences is excellent: the students learn skills, and better understand how the school works, the school demonstrates its ethos of putting young people at its heart and the guests/visitors/delegates get a different perspective on the school. Everyone wins. Unless you tell the young people that this is their way of having a say in how the school runs, in how they learn, because it’s not. It teaches them that you (and by extension others in power) don’t know how to listen and don’t care to give them the appropriate opportunity to be heard. That’s not a good thing for your school, or society as a whole.
It’s somewhat similar to the experience of the Games Makers at the Olympics. They were integral to its success and thousands of them gave their time gladly and were rightly proud of the part they had played. If they had been recruited with the promise that they would ‘have a say’ in how the Games was run would they have been so happy to turn up on day two when it became clear on day one that their job was just to point people in the right direction?
So be clear about the opportunities available to students, why they are valuable, what they will get out of it, what they can contribute, but don’t over-promise.
Type
(Asher’s) definition
Examples
Learning opportunities
Students given responsibility
Students are asked to carry out duties that someone else has defined.There is little or no opportunity for them to change what these duties are.
Monitors
Prefects
Student receptionists
Guide for visitors
Sports captains
Peer mediators
Skills for a particular job
Learning how the school functions
Responsibility
Mediation
Being a role model
Student leadership
Students take on a leadership role in issues that do not affect the core business of the school or their community.These roles are not initiated by students, but they may be quite self-directed in the way they fulfil them.
Fundraising for external charities
Student mentoring
Debating society
Student ambassadors
Running after-school clubs
Sports/drama/arts leaders (who just assist the teacher)
Being /having positive, young role models
Planning
Organisation
Presenting
Developing responsibility and independence
Student voice – individual
Students are asked, as individuals, to feed in to the decisions made about them in school.
Surveys
Feedback forms
Polls
Individual, self-directed study
That students’ views and opinions are valued
That staff are keen to continue improving and learning
Student voice – democratic
Students are asked to collectively feed in to decisions made about the core business of the school (T&L, buildings, behaviour, policies, rules)This needs to involve some level of discussion, collaboration, negotiation and compromise. It is not simply passing on 1200 views, but coming to some shared positions.
School councils (backed by an effective, whole school structure)
Students as researchers group
Student governors
Student sub-committees
Compromise
Negotiation
Responsibility
Understanding of how the school works
Being a representative
Organisation
Communication
Planning
That students’ views and opinions are valued
That staff are keen to continue improving and learning
I got a lovely email today from one of the schools we’ve been working with this year. They’re thinking about how their school council elections will run next year and wanted some advice. It reminded me that I’d written this resource a while ago but not posted it for some reason.
It contains:
A recommended timeline for setting up a school council election.
2 lesson plans for how to prepare classes across the school for taking part.
A manifesto worksheet for pupils to use to recommend themselves.
Have a look and let us know if you find it useful and how you’ve improved on it.
You can download a PDF here (keeps all the formatting and fonts): [download id=”248″]
Or a Word file here (if you want to edit and adapt it): [download id=”249″]
I also gave the teacher who emailed some other tips:
Get in touch with Haringey Democratic Services: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/council/voting.htm#contact – they should be able to lend you proper ballot boxes and booths, they may even send someone to talk to the school about how elections are run (of course you’d want to check that they were used to speaking to young children).
Have children as the returning officers: counting votes and announcing the results – they need a little training, especially on confidentiality, but it tends to work very well – make sure they only announce the winner, not how many votes each person got as that can be embarrassing and upsetting. If you didn’t want to get children from the school to do it, members of Haringey Youth Council may be able to (if we could get them out of school), they are keen to develop relationships with primary schools.
Make sure you do some prep with all the classes before the nominations, hustings and elections, so people know why they should stand, what they should put in their manifestos and why they should vote for someone (who isn’t their friend). The attached document has a suggested process and some sessions that teachers could run with their classes (of course please feel free to adapt them to your situation).
Obviously if you’re not in Haringey you’ll want to talk to your local Democratic Services and Youth Council, not ours, but you get the idea.
And just because it’s so great to get feedback like this, this is the email that prompted it:
Hi Asher,
Just wanted to say thank you for all your help with the School Council this year- it has really improved a lot! I now meet with my School Council members every week, and there are class council meetings every other week when children give their opinions on a range of important issues. They’ve seen lots of changes take place and are beginning to understand the power of pupil voice. Every classroom has a display and space for children to make suggestions.
Now everyone wants to be in School Council next year! We are going to have manifestos, speeches, and a proper election with ballot boxes voting cards in September. If you can give any advice on how to develop this idea further, that would be greatly appreciated.
“College is a cultural mixing pot, so it’s impossible to say ‘this is what The Students want’, student voice enables teachers to be aware of the huge variety of wants and needs.”
Student governor
Key benefits:
The culture of ‘high respect’ goes hand in hand with ‘high discipline’. There are no bells or uniforms and also no detentions. Students are expected to be responsible, treated as though they can be and so they are.
Staff and students all buy in to and contribute to school improvement: “Staff are with student voice, the school is not for teachers to teach and students to listen; students help the school progress.”
Student-led clubs and societies give every student the opportunity to lead, whilst greatly broadening the range of extra-curricular activities for everyone. This requires minimal staff support.
Students are very clear of the skills they are learning through being representatives, leaders and active participants in their school. They link these directly to the roles they want to take on in later life, both in employment and in wider society.
Top advice:
“Start small, let it grow and learn from other schools.” Student governor
“It’s not necessarily the loudest or most confident students who have the best ideas. Student voice is every student’s view, not just the ‘leaders’ in the school. All roles should be important, it is not to do with how many ‘leaders’ there are.” Student governor
“Communicate and be diverse. If you are the ‘same old, same old’ people, people will not be interested. Give it creativity and glamour. Find different ways to talk.” Student governor
“Student voice is about being in the community, not just the school: connecting students and the school with what’s going on outside.” Student ambassador
“Engrain things from a young age, so people know how to use their voice.” Student ambassador
Beauchamp shows how it values student voice by creating professional-looking posters of all the representatives and teams and the things they’ve been doing. These are displayed all over the college.
Methods used:
Student governors
Rather than a school council the top-level student representation at Beauchamp is a group of four student governors from Year 13 (they are elected while they are in Year 12). This structure was suggested by a student five years ago and has been running since then. Student governors are elected by students from across the whole-school. Any student is able to stand; they realise it will be a significant commitment of time but that their potential to make an impact on the college is equally significant. Their role is to represent the views of all students to the college’s management and to co-ordinate and initiate many of the student-led projects.
The student governors meet with the vice-principal every Monday morning for an hour and a half to catch up with what each other are doing and what the school is working on. Any other student or member of staff can also attend these meetings to comment on issues being discussed or bring up new ones. Students can also get their views to the student governors through their Facebook page, suggestion box or by seeing them in their office. The student governors also attend all meetings of the full governing body – as associate governors – and are given voting rights when they turn 18. Having students as associate governors is a possibility open to all schools.
Student ambassador
The student ambassador is a new role at Beauchamp College. This is an appointed post, rather than elected. The student ambassador’s job is to create links between the student body and the local community. He has been working on representation at the local youth council as well as inter-generational schemes with the local elderly.
The student ambassador sees his role as giving a greater number of students the opportunity and encouragement to become involved in making a contribution to the school and wider community. He has set out to do this in a creative way to add to the avenues for student voice and leadership offered through student governors, INSTED, etc.
‘INSTED’
Like the student governors, INSTED was suggested by a student. It is an internal evaluation of teaching and learning led by a student team that has been running for four years. Places on the team are advertised annually and anyone can apply. Everyone who applies to take part can do so. They are trained by a member of staff who is also an ex-Ofsted inspector, who co-ordinates and supports the INSTED team.
The aims of INSTED are to:
Celebrate the positive aspects of teaching and learning;
Suggest areas for improvement and constructively help the college to move forward to be the best.
The INSTED team do this through lesson observations and discussions with staff and students; these follow a set format developed by the school. The results of these are compiled in to reports by a student co-ordinator. This is given to the teacher concerned and to the head of department.
The scheme is seen as a huge success with students being able to see the impact they are having in the classroom and teachers requesting INSTED observations as they see it as a way to push forward their own practice.
Students appointing staff
Students are heavily involved in all staff appointments at Beauchamp, including the appointment of the new principal. Where they have gone further than most schools is that they have completely managed the appointment of a member of staff. The job description and person specification of the Key Stage 5 manager, a pastoral role, was written by students; they advertised the post, managed the interviews and made the appointment. It was felt that as the role was primarily working for the students then the students should make the appointment. The process gave the students a real insight in to what goes into recruitment and the college is very happy with the appointment made.
In the recent process of appointing a new principal, students were present at all stages or the 2 week process, bar one interview.
Student-led clubs and societies
The college has a system whereby students can apply to set up and run clubs and societies, like in many university student unions. This not only greatly increases the number and range of extra-curricular activities the college can run, but provides a great number of leadership opportunities for students. The sense of ownership and responsibility this gives to students means that minimal staff support and supervision is needed.
These clubs and societies can come from any aspect of students’ lives, covering religious, sporting, cultural, philosophical and creative interests.
Student-led research
This offers all students the opportunity to become involved in research. Students are encouraged to choose an area which is of particular interest to them but is also in some way linked to the college’s corporate plan. All students who join the programme initially attend a seminar at a university campus in order for them to experience a taste of university life as well as learning the rudiments of carrying out a research project. Students can work individually or as a team and are allocated a mentor who supports and guides them throughout the process. There are currently over 40 students involved in the programme.
Students present their recommendations to the college leadership team once their data is collected and analysed. As students frequently tackle these projects from a different perspective to staff, their observations are of particular interest and regularly student proposals are both innovative and thought provoking.
About the school (adapted from Ofsted):
Beauchamp is a coeducational comprehensive 14-19yrs Upper School, with approximately 2150 students. It was formerly an old-established grammar school in Kibworth dating back 600 years. It is currently situated on the southern outskirts of Leicester city, in an area considered to be relatively affluent.
The Sixth Form is one of the country’s largest, with over one thousand of the college’s 2150 students enrolled. 58 per cent of all students are from ethnic minority backgrounds, including 39 per cent Indian, 6 per cent Asian and 13 per cent mixed, producing a rich and diverse centre of learning for students. 32 per cent of students have a first language other than English. The college has about one third of the national average proportion of students with learning difficulties and/ or disabilities. However the proportion of students with a statement of SEN is about average.
Beauchamp consistently achieves above the national average GCSE and A Level results and ‘outstanding’ Sixth Form Ofsted reports. Amongst its other achievements Beauchamp is an International School, with Leading Edge and Training School status. The college gained technology specialist status in 1996 and gained a second specialism in vocational education in 2006.
Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making
“It’s critical that children see the process and can see the end product. It’s more than just having a chat, and the children know this. They know the process is important in school. They know the starting point and what they’ve achieved.”
Assistant headteacher
Key benefits to student voice:
Pupils respect staff because it is clear that the opinions, views and ideas of every child are taken seriously and acted upon appropriately.
Transition and connection between phases is improved by older students working every week with younger students.
All new buildings, equipment and schemes have a high chance of success because the whole-school is actively consulted. The best options for all are chosen and there is a sense of excitement and ownership of them.
Top advice
The critical thing is that projects have a process and that children know the process. See things through to the end, do not give up with any stumbling blocks, bring it back to the school council and the class councils and work through it.
Do not put anything off limits, it will ruin your credibility. Address everything that is brought up in the most appropriate way.
Value every voice, not just those who get elected. So use a structure where the views from the whole class (not just the class rep) are accurately represented to the school council. A strong system of class councils enables this.
Be clear about what the school council process is and how it works. Only certain types of pupil will volunteer to take part in something they do not fully understand.
Keep reviewing your system to make sure everyone is getting heard.
Methods used:
School council and class councils
“The class councils drive the ideas. All the children are involved in everything.”
Assistant headteacher
Class councils form the core of pupil voice at Westfield. They happen every week in every class. Pupils can discuss any issues they like but the focus is always on coming up with solutions that the pupils themselves can carry out rather than just requesting things from staff. These meetings are run by members of the school council, who come from Years 5 and 6. They are supported by the class teacher to ensure that everyone stays reasonably well on track. Every fourth week there is a school council meeting where the pupils representing each class share and co-ordinate views and action from across the school.
“As a class teacher you always think such and such would make a good class councillor, but the children have other ideas, and as children can see the processes, more children are putting themselves forward. We’re clear about the process, so they see that they could do it too.”
Assistant headteacher
Improving representation on the school council for younger children
It had been the case that the school council was made up of members from every year group, but it was felt that this meant that some of the younger children were not being properly represented. Often the class reps from the lower years struggled to remember what they had discussed with their classes and so just gave their personal opinions in school council meetings. It was felt that older children were more able to keep this focus, so the school council was restructured to include just Years 5 and 6.
Each school councillor not only represents her own class but also has responsibility for representing specific classes lower down the school. So whilst younger pupils are not on the school council any more they all have an effective advocate there. They also all have the chance to discuss issues every week in their class, in meetings led primarily by another pupil.
Structures that facilitate action
The school council regularly works directly with the school’s senior leadership team (SLT) and governors. These relationships means they understand some of the possibilities and constraints of running the school. It also reinforces the views of the SLT and governors that pupils’ contributions are practical, mature and important. Furthermore it gives the school council a clear channel for raising key issues in the school with the key people.
To enable them to better deal with the smaller issues the school council requested and got a budget. This allows them to act quickly on ideas brought up in class council meetings so pupils see an immediate connection between them expressing their views and changes in the school.
Pupil-led whole-school consultations
When major changes are happening in the school the school council runs detailed, structured whole-school consultations. These ensure that every pupil is able to play a role in shaping what the school will look like.
Recently this has included what happens in the playground (equipment and activities) and a current consultation is on the ‘the Growing Space’. This is an area of unused land adjacent to the school that the school has acquired as an ‘outdoor classroom’. What will go in to this and what it will look like is being decided by the whole-school. Rather than just rely on each individual class representatives to explain this and discuss it with her class in her own way, which can result in patchy levels of feedback, the school council has designed a process to be run with the whole school. They run an assembly for each of the three phases in the school; then do a presentation in each class council meeting; then collect views from the whole-school before finally collating these views to create a report. This report is presented to the SLT and governors as well as fed back to the whole-school.
“It creates as sense of ownership for students, gives them a sense of achievement and shows what we think of our children, that it’s about what they would like, and they know that, and that’s a real key in terms of the respect the children have for us.”
Assistant headteacher
Putting pupils at the heart of school design
By ensuring that pupils are part of the process of designing the ‘feel’ of the school a great sense of ownership and pride has been developed. This is evidenced both in respect for the building and respect for staff. Pupils worked with a photographer to generate ideas for images for each phase within the school. The children themselves are featured in the images and the school council decided on which ones to use, as well as deciding on materials.
About the school
Westfield Community Primary School is a larger than average-sized school formed in 2005, following the amalgamation of two local primary schools. The percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is three times the national average. The proportion of pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities is above that usually found. The school population is predominantly White British and there are few pupils at early stages of speaking English as an additional language. The school is also a resourced school for the local authority and offers places to pupils with low-severity autism or speech and language difficulties.
Westfield holds National Healthy Schools Status and the Activemark. It has been identified as a National College Leadership Development School. It also holds the Cabinet Office Award.
Involver conducted these case studies for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in 2011, as part of a project to encourage schools to involve their students in decision making
