**5. Grounds of best practice in student leadership and reflection**

Even though there is much literature review on student leadership ([8], p. 39), proof of efficiency of student leadership programs is lacking. It is well-known that it is not much easy to pose individual measurement of every initiative given in the appendices; however, it could be possible to focus on current measurements to see what the best practice about student leadership is like. In a meta-analysis conducted, Mager and Nowak interpret "no systematic reviews of the effects of student participation in school decision-making have been conducted so far" ([8], p. 39). This scholar work included structures and initiatives seen in the former part like school working groups and school councils identifying 52 cases of student participation in the process of making decision in the school context in the international literature.

Results of this study revealed that students included in these groups experienced a variety of individual impacts after taking part in the study, including "improving life skills" (reported in more than half of examined cases); "developing/improving social status" and self-esteem (reported in more than one-third of examined cases); and "developments in academic achievement and learning" (reported in almost one-third of examined cases). Only four cases "showed a positive association between student participation and health or health behaviour" ([8], p. 39). Eleven cases reported some negative effects including "disillusionment, disappointment and frustration" (p. 44) as a result of their participation in school leadership structures including (but not limited to) working groups and school councils.

Likewise, literature review also shows that a student-centered school makes the difference [9] in showing the effectiveness of student leadership. These studies suggest that opportunities provided to input into students' own learning experience in the school context can result in positive personal impacts [9]. Babcock [10], on the other hand, specified research studies showing that student leadership in the school context could raise student motivation and engagement leading to a better academic performance [4, 11–13]. One more striking result revealed by Fielding [14] shows that these positive impacts could be much stronger for students who have traditionally gone through marginalization in the school context. Some other studies incorporated student councils, for example, as in-school initiatives in their understanding of the positive involvements of student leadership on student outcomes, even though they drew on Fletcher [15] to admit that "there are many form of student leadership like the active engagement of students as planners, researchers, teachers, trainers and advocates" (p. 19). We can conclude that we have been witnessing evidence to suggest that "students need greater agency in schools, leading initiatives, leading research teams and participating on staff panels" ([16], p. 15), whereas there is support for existing student council models in the literature.

This type of student leadership increasing student engagement, motivation, and academic performance is a key factor in what is meant by innovative era in Education 4.0 [17, 18]. This clearly requires the learner to manage his or her own learning. This learning management is considered to assist the learner with developing his or her capacity to apply the new technology, which will help them to

#### *Student Leadership 4.0 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90563*

develop according to the changes in society. According to Sinlarat [19], this type of management of learning in Education 4.0 is called as a new learning system, which helps the learner grow with skills and knowledge not only to learn how to read and write but also for their complete life. The learners will need them in their social life. As this type of learning management needs to respond to the changes in social and economy environment to cater the human capital need, we maintain that Education 4.0 is more than just an education. To be able to achieve it, there should be a change in learning management, which requires reflection, which is a great chance for learners to self-evaluate their learning processes. Within this framework, learners are able to grow in a desired way as long as they care about their own learning and leadership developments. Within the context given above, reflection could be seen as a means to change, and there are optional methods to do that [20, 21].
