Describes recent improvements in graphical user interfaces (GUIs) offered by online services. Highlights include design considerations, including computer engineering capabilities and users' abilities; fundamental GUI design principles; user empowerment; visual communication and interaction; and an evaluation of online search interfaces. (LRW)

Defines empowerment and discusses the counseling process in which the goal is empowerment. Describes two underlying assumptions and five core components of counseling for empowerment. Also describes social activism in the context of past and present understanding of the counselor's role. Gives examples social activism relevant to the counseling…

When a Connecticut school's assertive-discipline plan failed to generate a sense of ownership and community, faculty replaced rewards with schoolwide celebrations and consequences with problem solving. When students misbehave, teachers encourage them to reflect on their behavior, consider its effect on others, and devise appropriate restitution. A…

Describes a discussion on child advocacy that the author initiated among fifth graders. Children were surprised at being asked for their opinion on improving their educational situation. Their main problem was getting adults to listen. Advocacy, as one child affirmed, is a matter of making a case carefully, vividly, compellingly so that others…

Discusses the hierarchical chain of command in schools. Describes a three-year program to help urban schoolteachers bring about school improvement. Notes that state-mandated tests can result in increasing powerlessness among teachers. Argues that unless the present hierarchies are flattened, the best and brightest will be discouraged from entering…

Analyzes the stories of three teachers/teacher teams who participated in a grant program designed to empower teachers to integrate technology in the classroom. Instead of experiencing empowerment, the teachers/teams experienced alienation. Two sources of alienation were: resources obtained by teachers through grant acquisition disrupted the…

Discusses how professional school counselors can enhance academic achievement by empowering all students to become self-regulated learners. Presents a framework for integrating current research on self-regulated learning, outlines components of the school context that encourage this development, and identifies learning strategies and the steps…

Interviewed 257 impoverished, urban public housing residents regarding how empowerment, sense of community, and neighboring behavior affected the likelihood of their engaging in discussion about community issues directly affecting their lives and the lives of their neighbors. Overall, sense of community and neighboring behaviors predicted…

A strength-based externalization intervention is described that can be used with clients in establishing counseling objectives and goals. The intervention can be useful in encouraging discrimination between DSM diagnostic labels and the client and his or her strengths, developing strength-based counseling goals, and increasing client empowerment.…

Argues that U.S. students are not being educated to succeed in a world dominated by the globalization of the economics, politics, and cultures of developed and developing countries. Suggests what educators can do to remedy this situation based on observations of Swedish school system. Suggestions include restructuring education, empowering…

Analyses of national survey data on workplace democracy found both managers and workers support worker participation in manager selection and worker control of production processes. Experience of class-related practices strongly predicts attitudes; location in the class hierarchy does not. Once workers gain some control, they seek to broaden it to…

So far, the results of school restructuring efforts have been more rhetorical than real. As several University of Georgia projects illustrate, the work of newly decentralized, empowered schools embodies both high excitement and high anxiety. The contradictions of empowerment lie in attempting inimitable innovations while withstanding uncertainty…

Although the process of participative, school-based budgeting might seem tedious and time-consuming, it can truly empower teachers and administrators. One cannot set instructional and budgetary priorities without knowing costs. A costing formula to help facilitate the budgeting process is presented. Includes 18 references. (MLH)

Discusses positive developments occurring in the teaching profession and the changes needed to nurture them. Teacher empowerment does not mean banishing principals, but enabling teachers to participate in group decision-making and make key choices affecting their own work. Teachers have always been critical to effective schooling. (MLH)

Constructivist listening is a tool for empowerment, community building, and educational change. It enables teachers and principals to think of themselves and their schools as centers for learning and change rather than as the target of change efforts for others. It enables people to assume responsibility for their actions and feelings. (Author)