Journey to Christianity Essay

The preference for a religion or any sense of spirituality is a personal choice and digression. The option either not to actively participate in one’s religion’s rituals, traditions, and customs or do the otherwise, maybe even stay neutral, is still of personal consideration. Nothing or no one can truly and essentially mediate with these affairs unless allowed to do so by the said practitioner of beliefs and doer of such saintly conviction. For me, Christianity has been the choice of religion, and the personal spirituality gained from trusting it brings one’s mind, soul, and spirit in truly an almost enlightened state. Truth is every religion’s destination point and the journey to and through Christianity is one which continues and grows with each passing day. Journey to Christianity The discernment on religion and spirituality is one of the greater existential and even transcendental issues of human existence. Moreover, the concept of a greater being, or sometimes even beings, have been constructed into almost gloriously confusing and still remarkably mysterious belief systems which seemingly condemn the evil and venerate the good. But one thing holds true, pure, and private, no matter what: every individual is given that personal right to choose whatever it is that he or she wants to believe in or not—to condemn and venerate, or not. Christianity, a monotheistic faith, centers on strong belief system which only holds a One Higher and Greater Being to be God and His Son, Jesus Christ the Messiah—the Chosen One who stands as the prophesized-man’s key to salvation. All certainty, knowledge, and wisdom are believed written in the Holy Bible, which content is also believed to be beyond contestation. But before everything else is settled in both my religious and spiritual points of view, the journey is one which should continue and develop day by day by day. My journey began as a child. Like mostly everybody else, any form of belief, opinion and sense of culture begins at home and in school. As I did remember, it was in a simple arithmetic math class and a church sermon that I tried to make the correlations in between. I tried to make sense of things in such an early age. In class, we did simple arithmetic exercises which tested our accuracy in basic addition and subtraction. Then, as I remembered the weekend before, the priest from the church had mentioned the concept of the Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) — this snatched my attention from the class’s activities and carried on through the rest of the day. I thought to myself, how could three things be formed into one, if by plain law of mathematics one plus one equals two, then it also suggest that one plus one plus one cannot equate to one? In some way, even at an early age, I thought of things this way and looked for the interconnectivity among things, people, and events. Such matters stimulated my own process of trying to better learn the how’s and why’s of Christianity, and moreover about life and everything else in it. I tried my best not to accept everything as there are and were — this was my journey’s most definitive moment, for it spurred the essence of life—to search for something greater, to live with purpose and meaning. Such interest and zest carried on as years passed; it was a quest. A series of continuing investigations within myself, things around me, and with the people I knew, know, and came to know all played crucial roles in my own discernment of deity, concept a of Greater being, and everything else in between. Understanding the way they thought and perceived life contributed in my own personal process of thinking, in my decision making developments, and in my belief in both the earthly and divine elements. But amidst the enduring efforts, there was a gap which would never be answered, and the notion of not knowing would only be the somewhat and only agonizing conclusion. Even considering the long, comprehensive history of man and life and of various disciplines and sciences as only part of one speck in the whole universe, there is no way of actually and absolutely finding out the truth about God and all else that comes with it. Hence, there is faith. Faith is that intangible emotion of believing in something, someone—despite and in spite of all and any circumstance. This is the very essence of Christianity to accept as true—to love and to be a believer amidst temptation, sin, and what is wrong. Even though, at the end of it all, it is still a matter of personal choice, I chose Christianity because this is what fills and completes the gaps between my philosophical and spiritual trenches. No matter how far I would begin to discern, whether or not there is a God, whether or not there is salvation, it all brings me back to faith. All its teachings serve as a guide. All its lessons serve as a channel of reference. The journey to and through Christianity is one which has not been concluded, for it must be a long lasting process. Only in its conclusion will one find truth.

Most Important Scientific Event of 2007

The scientific event with the most significant implications for the future was recognition of unique differences between genome sequences of individual people (Pennisi, 2007). It is believed that about 99.5% of human DNA is exactly the same in every person. Within that 0.5% lies the variations that are responsible for individual traits and diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression, alcoholism, heart disease, and other serious diseases (National Human Genome Research Institute). Genetic variations also affect how individuals respond to drugs and environmental factors. The goals of National Human Genome Research Institute are to discover and type single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other forms of genetic variation on a large scale across the genome; to develop high-resolution maps of genetic variation and haplotypes; and to develop methods for the large-scale experimental and statistical analysis of SNPs, other forms of genetic variation, haplotypes and complex traits (National Human Genome Research Institute). Previous work on the human genome has including the search for a relationship between specific genes and various diseases, such as an â€Å"addiction gene† or a â€Å"cancer gene† or some similar link. This research has already led to the identification of specific genes that are responsible for several diseases. Previous research on the human genome has also identified what separates humans from other primates, genetically speaking. In addition to identifying the genome sequences that are responsible for diseases, breakthroughs that occurred during 2007 will allow scientists to pinpoint the genetic variations that make me, me and you, you. Individual genomes appear to include the causes of behavioral traits that had been previously attributed to personality or psychiatric characteristics and not to genetics (Pennisi, 2007). The most obvious application of this research will be in the use of gene therapy to combat diseases. At the simplest level, understanding an individual's predisposition towards certain diseases will allow physicians to recommend preventative treatments and lifestyle choices that can reduce or eliminate the genetic threat. On a more complex level, genetic research can provide new, customized treatments that are specifically designed to match the genetic needs of the individual patient. Genetic medicine could be used to treat diseases after the disease has developed or, in some cases, used to treat genetic disorders during pregnancy. While the medical applications for genome research show much promise, there are also serious implications for individual privacy and genetic discrimination. Once again, legal and ethical development has not kept pace with scientific and technological development. Despite the introduction of several pieces of legislation designed to help ensure genetic privacy and to shield individuals from the misuse of genetic information, there is still no federal legislation that addresses the issue of genetic discrimination in individual insurance coverage or to genetic discrimination in the workplace (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, 2007). As the ability to sequence the genome sequences of individuals becomes more practical, insurance companies and other interested parties might consider it cost effective to use genetic sequencing to reduce any potential liabilities from policy holders or applicants. Many insurance companies already have policies regarding preexisting conditions. The leap from policies that exclude   preexisting conditions a policy that excludes diseases for which the individual has a genetic predisposition is not that far removed. The ability to map individual genomes will open new doors for medical treatment of disease. Hopefully, 2008 will see breakthroughs of a similar magnitude in ethics and laws regarding the gathering, sharing, and use of genetic information. References National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health (2008). Genetic variation program. Online. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from http://www.genome.gov/10001551 Pennisi, E. (2007). Breakthrough of the year: Human genetic variation. Science, 318 (5858), pp. 1842 – 1843. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/318/5858/1842 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (2007). Genetics Privacy and Legislation. Online. Retrieved May 1, 2008, from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/legislat.shtml

Preliminary Data Analysis and Reporting Plan-Qualitative Research Paper

Preliminary Data Analysis and Reporting Plan-Qualitative Method-submit a preliminary qualitative data analysis and repo - Research Paper Example Introduction According to agency theory, managers may have personal goals that compete with the goal of the institution or company they are running. Due to the imperfect labor and capital markets top managers seek to maximize their utility at the expense of the company. The need to expand rapidly and gain recognition among the top managers can lead to the manipulations (Bowie and Freeman, 1992) of accounts and give false reports to the boards of directors and the public. The managers also sometimes manipulate accounts for the sake of cushioning the company earnings. In order to hide corrupt deals in the company the managers are also engaged in the vice. In addition to the above, top managers are likely to manipulate the accounting to create false perceptions among the interested individuals and other firms in order to expand (Mohanram and Bartov, 2004). Research on earnings management estimate that 8-12% of companies with small pre-managed earnings decreases manipulate earnings to ac hieve earnings increases and 30-44 percent of companies with small pre-managed losses manage earnings to create positive perception (Barth and Taylor, 2010). Many managers have however engaged in financial reporting fraud instead of the legitimate earnings management (Beneish, 1999). Study design. ... In the institutional approach not all the managers are willing to give out the financial information of the company hence secondary information is necessary (Neuman, 2006). The advantages of this method of study are that it ensures specific information is obtained on the company the institution being studied. The approach also covers a given time in the lifespan of the selected institution hence it is easy to identify the manager in charge of the company or institution management at the time. In addition the approach permits in depth and detailed study of the selected category being studied (Patton, 2002). In this case I am going to analyze a case study of Tyco Company. Sampling technique The sampling method used in the research was the purposive sampling in which the institution being studied was singled out due to its past record and secondary information. To settle on the company earnings management various articles touching on the management of the company under the leadership of Dennis Kozlowski were reviewed. In addition to the articles, the information collected also contained the court proceedings and perceptions of various people including Kozlowski on the fraud he was charged with (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994). Under the leadership of Dennis Kozlowski, who became CEO of Tyco in 1990, the company’s revenues expanded from $3.1 billion to almost $40 billion. Most of this growth was due to a series of acquisitions that took Tyco into a diverse range of unrelated businesses. Kozlowski was initially lauded in the business press as a great manager who bought undervalued assets and then enhanced their value by imposing tight financial controls at the

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE EFFECTIVE CARE MANAGEMENT OF A PATIENT WITH Essay

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THE EFFECTIVE CARE MANAGEMENT OF A PATIENT WITH CHEST DRAIN FOLLOWING A STABBED WOUND AT THE RIGHT SIDE - Essay Example However, the cases of hemothorax and pneumothoraces have dominated the list of recent nursing care emergencies resulting chest injuries as observed by Mowery et al. (2011, p.513). As a senior nurse in the ortho/general surgical department, my healthcare team is bound to encounter such medical emergencies. On the other hand, it is of paramount importance to have relevant expertise in the aforementioned ortho/general surgery portfolio so as to keep an excellent edge in offering the required leadership and professionalism in nursing emergency care. For that reason, this module provides an ideal opportunity to learn and internalize the approved medical manoeuvres in the management of patients with chest drain that has caused pneumothorax. The knowledge will enhance my professional development, nursing competency, clinical exposure and personal confidence in handling similar chest drain cases in the future. This paper focuses on experiential reflection on the effective nursing care manage ment of chest drain patient with pneumothorax with reference to the analytical application of Gibbs Model 1998 (Nicol 2012). Accordingly, the chronology of this reflection examines the details of the case, the resulting personal feeling about it and the professional sense drawn from such clinical experience. Objective application of this model enables the learner to acquire practical insights that will go a long way to improve the fidelity of the portfolio as well as her professional performance in the relevant medical department (Gibbs 1988; Oelofsen 2012, p.22). Case Summary The simulation hitherto involves a 50 year old male patient brought to the ortho/general surgery department with a stub wound on the right side of the chest. From clinical diagnosis, the patient developed chest drain from the stub penetration which has consequently caused pneumothorax. Based on the facts that the chest injury was penetrative with no medical history of spontaneous pneumothorax, this clinical em ergency could be classified as open traumatic pneumothorax as reiterated by Sharma and Jindal (2008, p.35). This is the situation at hand for which the medical team seeks to apply the best line of care and treatment to stabilize the patient towards full recovery from traumatic pneumothorax. Reflective Nursing Care Management for Chest Drain Patient Description of what happened The patient presented at the hospital with chest injury sustained from an apparent stub wound. As such, pre-treatment nursing care management required rapid assessment of the situation to accurately diagnose the case and establish the magnitude of the

Research Skills for Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Research Skills for Marketing - Essay Example The cost applied here also is very much important. The data sources applied here are primary data. The information are collected only through the primary data i.e., collecting direct information from the respondents. The research approaches include Observational Research: which is just observing the buying behaviour of the customer Survey research: This is done by conducting survey directly to the customers. Behavioral Data: by finding out the traces of the purchasing behavior in the store, scanning data The Research instruments include Questionnaire and by Qualitative measures The expectations can be identified by setting up the questionnaires and conducting analysis and by customer opinion. Sampling Plan is the sampling unit ie., who is to be surveyed, here men,women and children. The sampling size should be large so that the good analysis is done hence a sample of nearly 500 respondents are to be taken. The sampling procedure is the probability sample. The contact is done through mail Questionnaire, online interview and direct interview 3. COLLECTING INFORMATION: The information is collected through feed backs like questionnaires, interviews and surveys. 4. ANALYZING THE INFORMATION: The information is analyzed here through various techniques like tabulation, frequency distribution, averages, measures of dispersion and SPSS methods. The more the analysis the more the accuracy of results. 5. PRESENTING THE FINDINGS: The findings here were on the Arrangement of the products in the store. The cost of the products. The method of payments Products available. Methods of promotion. The service availed. 6. MAKING THE DECISION: Hence by conducting research in all these areas it is suggested to have a moderate price for the...Why the customers behave as this and what is the wrong found in the shop. The information is analyzed here through various techniques like tabulation, frequency distribution, averages, measures of dispersion and SPSS methods. The more the analysis the more the accuracy of results. 9. Esty, Katharine, Richard Griffin, and Marcie Schorr-Hirsh (1995). Workplace diversity. A managers guide to solving problems and turning diversity into a competitive advantage. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corporation.

Web-Based E-Compensation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Web-Based E-Compensation - Research Paper Example They can conduct salary surveys, which they can use for requesting salary changes by using e-compensation software tool. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using a Web-Based Compensation Tool versus a Client-Server Based System One of the benefits of using the web-based tool are that the computerized approach replaces tiresome manual procedure; hence making any reimbursement program very easier to administer and it is virtually free of error. Secondly, this system does not require installation and any updates; thus saving a lot of time for managers. The web-based compensation can be accessed from anywhere using the Internet connections and the standard browser; thus saving time for managers. The data for this tool can be stored remotely and it takes a little disk space. On the other hand, client-server based would require a manager to manager to maintain, implement, and formulate policies, as well as, processes for maintaining the security and integrity of the server or the client datab ase by resolving any database problems. However, one of the drawbacks with web-based compensation tool is that of the poor user experience due to performance challenges and browser constraints. Secondly, the remote server can be compromised and this is a disadvantage because private information can be disclosed easily to another party. Moreover, the web-based compensation tool requires Internet connections and this can be a limitation since lack of Internet connection can hinder the server from accessing information. Even though access to the Internet connections is increasing, it is still not everywhere; thus it may hinder server form easy access to information. On the other hand, in case of the client-server based, the client-server requires the user to be on the local network because the software is accessed through using the local network. The business entity has to invest in a remote for better access such as having PC everywhere in order to enable the user to access the softwa re. Lastly, accessing the software by using the local network connections is imperative because it can create a realistically swift response and self-sufficiency from the Internet. In my opinion, the client-server based or stand-alone PC-based system would be the most effective for offering the most value to stakeholders in an organization because of varied reasons. One of them is that this tool offers high security to the server; thus employing it in an organization can enable stakeholders to access their private information effectively. Secondly, the client-server based provides set-ups and can be altered without disturbing the clients; hence, it is an effective system for offering valuable services to the client. Moreover, the user and the client can share files effectively through web browsing, use of emails or chat rooms, and lastly, client-server is typically desktops, which are less costly because they can enable the stakeholder to access information even from remote areas as long one is connected to the local network.

Summery for <the contemporary global economy> Essay

Summery for - Essay Example Because of its potential benefits, governments and other stakeholders as well as advancements in technology have ensured sustainable globalization. However, critics argue that globalization is responsible for adverse socio-cultural, economic and environmental conditions in developing nations. Critically assessing chapter four, this article relates to the production of cocoa for export in Ivory Coast. The arguments in the article resonate with the story of cocoa production in Ivory Coast. In Ivory Coast, cocoa produced finds its way to foreign market, mainly the United States because of globalization. However, the cocoa is produced from small farms under forced child labor and is subject to fluctuating world market price. Farmers in Ivory Coast have no say on the prices paid for their cocoa. As such, they are compelled to seek cheap labor, which has been found on forced labor. From the article, it is apparent that globalization promotes international trade by opening up new markets for products of countries and firms. However, developed countries seem to benefit more from globalization than developing countries. As such, it would be better to implement international trade laws checking on unhealthy competition, price stability and equal benefit of all participants in international

Intro & Conclusion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Intro & Conclusion - Essay Example An estimate taken in 2006 on the consumption of gasoline and diesel by commercial trucks was a staggering 54 billion gallons. The American Trucking Association (ATA) has always been under great scrutiny in the field of research and technology in order to reduce the hazards facing this massive industry. With great support from its intermodal conference, the ATA are making all efforts to bring about a much safer trucking industry through their various programs like the ‘Clean Trucks Program’ and others. The trucking industry has also committed itself in taking drastic steps towards reducing the consumption of fuel by about 86 gallons, thereby lessening the carbon footprint of its vehicles by approximately a billion tons n its agenda for the following 10 years. The ATA also proposes to provide a safer and cleaner environment for its 8.7 employees in its industry by implementing innovative methods that have undergone tried and tested research especially in the areas of energy and fuel conservation, fuel consumption, rules for air pollution, fuel standards, disposal of waste products, standards for vehicle emission and improvements in energy efficiency. The ATA is also striving to find solutions to the various challenges that face them regarding the Traffic policy of the Government and to bring about a more pleasant and harmonious working experience in its trucking

Supply and Demand Simulation Essay Example for Free

Supply and Demand Simulation Essay Supply and demand is considered a basic economic concept, as well as a vital part of a free market economy. In whereas supply is the amount of something, such as a product or service, demand is the amount of the product or service that buyers want to purchase. The relationship between supply and demand has a good deal of influence on the price of goods and services. In the scenario, a number of factors, including price increases or decreases, cause change in supply and demand. For example, a decrease in the rental price of two roomed apartments caused an increase in the demand of houses by a significant margin. A rise in the population of Atlantis led to a greater demand for housing which in turn contributed to the rise in rental prices as demand-outstripped supply. As a consequence, the suppliers were eager to supply more units at improved rental prices. When the population decreased, the demand for housing fell and the available units were leased out at low prices. Naturally, the suppliers were not very keen to supply all their units to the market at depressed prices. Available substitutes affect the demand and supply of a commodity. A number of people in Atlantis owned homes in the suburbs and did not need to rent houses in the town. The demand for houses dropped and this forced the suppliers to cut back on supply or reduce rents in bid to attract more clients. Consumer tastes and preferences affect the supply and demand of goods and services in the market When consumer trends shifted from two roomed apartments to detached houses, the shift in demand for apartments fell while the demand for detached houses rose. As a result, suppliers increased the supply of detached houses. Under free market conditions, a negative shift in demand results in lower quantities demanded and as such, suppliers are inclined to reduce supply. A positive shift in demand leads to a rise in quantities demanded and a positive shift in supply as supplier’s position themselves to take advantage of higher prices. As a supplier, the lower the price, the less I will supply to the market in a bid to push up prices when demand increases. With a rise  in demand, supplying more units to the market would make more profits by charging higher rents. The simulation focused on the following key points: The equilibrium price and quantity, Shifts in demand, Shifts in supply, and Changes in price. The concepts of demand and supply, as demonstrated in the simulation, instruct one how to respond to changes due to shifts in market fundamentals. Whenever there is a change in demand due to any of the factors affecting it, an entrepreneur should be quick to respond appropriately to maintain one’s share of the market. This may involve lowering of the price and a reduction in the number of units supplied. In the event that demand rises, the supplier should increase supply to realize higher profits from increased sales at higher prices. When government authorities impose price restrictions, a supplier should only supply that number of units that correspond to the restricted price as determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curves. In regards to my results of the simulation, my vacancy rate was constant 12 % that generated total revenues of $ 1.8 million. Battling the rise and demand, I opted for those rents that equaled the equilibrium price as determined by the intersection of the demand and supply curves. With the imposition of a price ceiling, I chose the quantity supplied that equaled that quantity determined by the intersection of the supply and demand curves at the predetermined price. The underlying criteria I adopted for deciding on a particular price was the concept of equilibrium; I decided that the market forces of demand and supply are the best determinants of what is optimal for both producers and consumers.

Christianity verses islam Essay Example for Free

Christianity verses islam Essay The attitudes of Christianity and Islam toward merchants and trade are similar yet different. Over time Christian and Islamic attitudes towards the merchants and trade have changed.  The attitudes of Christianity and Islam toward merchants and traders are similar. A way that these two religions attitudes towards their merchants and trade was that they both allowed being treated better under god easier for merchants to achieve if they were honest about what their trade. In the Muslim Qur’an it states â€Å"On the day of judgment, the honest, truthful Muslim merchant will take rank with the martyrs of the faith† (Doc 2). This statement proves that merchants could be treated better under god if they were honest. Also in the Christian Bible, New Testament (Matthew) it states â€Å"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of god† (Doc 1). This means that it is easier for the honest merchants to enter the kingdom of god than the rich upper-class Christians. All in all, the Christian and Islamic attitudes toward the merchants and trade are similar. As well as the attitudes of Christianity and Islam toward merchants and trade being similar they were different. A way that Christianity and Islam attitudes were different was that some Christians thought that if they gave away their money earned to charity they would be able to become closer to God by serving him, but in Islam they only thought that honesty could get you closer to God. In The Life of St. Godric by Reginald it states â€Å"now he had lived sixteen years as a merchant, and began to think of spending on charity, to God’s honor and service† (Doc 3). Although this statement proves the difference it may be bias because it was written by a colleague of a merchant, this could mean that he was experiencing things different than what they were really supposed to be by law. In the Qur’an it states â€Å"On the day of judgment, the honest, truthful Muslim merchant will take rank with the martyrs of the faith† (Doc 2). The statements from these two wr itings together prove that the attitudes towards merchants and trade were different between Christianity and Islam. Over time both Christianity and Islam attitudes towards merchants and trade  changed. Christianity started off with the Christian merchants not bidding with the traders to bidding with the traders. Thomas Aquinas wrote â€Å"the seller must not impose upon the bidder† (Doc 4). And this change was presented when a letter was written placing an order for English wool saying â€Å"with god always before us, we will carry out your bidding† (Doc 6). Both these statements could be bias due to the writer, the first quote from Aquinas could be bias because he was a theologian which means he studied gods and so he could have wrote more about what the bible states and not what actually happened. Then the letter was written by a merchant which means they could have had different experiences with trade than other merchants. Islam started off with their merchants needing to be honest and ended up with their merchants seeking to make profits and gambling, and gambling for more money is not very truthful. The Qur’an it states â€Å"On the day of judgment, the honest, truthful Muslim merchant will take rank with the martyrs of the faith† (Doc 2). Ibn Khaldun a leading Muslim scholar wrote â€Å"We have already stated that traders must buy and sell and seek profits† and he wrote â€Å"they come under the heading of gambling† (Doc 5). All in all both Christianity and Islamic attitudes toward merchants and trade changed over time. In conclusion Christianity and Islam had attitudes toward merchants and trade that were similar and different, and that both religions attitudes changed over time. A document that was not present that would have been helpful would be a document written by Muslim or Christian merchants because the documents that were written by merchants were written by British and Italian merchants.

Theories and Approaches to Learning

Theories and Approaches to Learning Write about helpful and unhelpful approaches to learning during your own education. What was positive about those approaches? Did they reflect or express any particular theories of learning? Life is a learning experience. When I was a young girl I was so confident and positive about what I wanted. Maths and Science were my favourite subjects but I was not given freedom to learn as I wanted to learn these subjects. I realized this after I gained a very good experience in teaching primary school children. Student motivation is rooted in students subjective experiences, especially those connected to their willingness to engage in lessons and learning activities and their reasons for doing so. (Brophy, 2004, p. 4) According to Brophy, I must say learning is, interesting fun and exciting when the curriculum is well matched to students interests and abilities and the teacher emphasizes hands-on activities in order to keep the students busy and engaged. When the teacher teaches the right things the right way, motivation takes place by itself. If students are not enjoying learning, something is wrong with the curriculum and teachers instruction. At times I felt my school life was boring and frustrating because I hated all subjects except Maths and Science. I had to sit and listen to longtime instructions and copy the notes from the chalk board. I managed myself for learning because I had to show the Progress Report with good grades to my dad. Ê »Science is like everything, I guess and I think everything has a science to it. [When] baking cookies you have to add the right amount of eggs and milk and stuff like that (Kaufman, Moss, Osborn, 2003, p. 48) As I agree with Kaufman, Moss Osborns point of view, these two subjects add lot of fun to learning as they contain lot of practical activities which are conducted in the school laboratory. I loved to learn through doing and touching, it is because I had trouble sitting still and learning. My worst day during Science period was when my teacher said no when I offered him my help to fix the Bunsen burner to the gas cylinder. He said ‘you are still young so must stay away. Now I understand that I was a kinaesthetic learner that time, my teacher could have engaged me in his work because I could be better able to understand information by doing hands-on activities. I am not going to blame my teacher for this because at the time of my learning teacher centred education was given importance by educators. If teachers are able to understand childrens learning needs, it will reduce lot of frustration like homework incompletion, failures in assessments and sports and speaking in public. A s long as I know sometimes kids are just doing what works for them but, the curriculum in practice when I was in school did not cater the childs individual needs and the educators did not consider the childs learning style. I know that cognitive focuses on the inner mental activities such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving so, I think at cognitive stage the children should be catered carefully according to their learning needs. I gained lot of experience in teaching, today I am an experienced teacher, I wish I was my teacher when I was in school because when I was a child I did not get what I give to the pupils in my classroom now. As a teacher, I work in my classroom according to my childrens expectations. I believe in group work, differentiated planning, reading a lot for fun, guided reading, shared reading, classroom policies, and ongoing assessments which help me know the level of progress frequently. The few hyperactive boys in my classroom are always my helpers; they are always engaged in classroom jobs. In a typical classroom, some children process information best by hearing the teacher explain it, some learn by seeing whats on the chalkboard, and others learn through hands-on exercises. Nowadays colleges have increasingly begun teaching new students about learning styles so they can develop effective study habits. Three basic learning styles are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual. Auditory learners prefer listening to explanations over reading them and like to study by reciting information aloud. These types of learners may want to have background music while studying, or they may be distracted by noises and need a quiet space to study. Kinaesthetic learners learn by doing and touching. They may have trouble sitting still while studying, and they are better able to understand information by writing it down or doing hands on activities. Visual learners process new information by reading, looking at pictures, or watching a demonstration but, they may grow impatient listening to an explanation. I still remember the learning style and classroom setting when I was small which is mostly similar to what shown on the video clip of ‘The four UK teachers experience in a Kenyan school. At least for ten years my classroom strength was 35-40 children, our tables and chairs were laid in rows, teachers table and the chalk board was at the front of the class. The classroom layout was so congested, though we learnt how to move around without any incidents, our teachers never approached each table in order to assist the individual needs. Teacher instruction was mostly lecture based and activities contained more board work. We were never treated according to our learning styles which are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual instead the whole class was given the same type of activities only the able children understood them and completed on time and the rest were neglected. Regret to say that our teachers failed to realise that all of us are designed to absorb information differently; each learning style results in people with various interests, desires and talents and learning is more fun and effective when the teachers look into multiple learning styles. Children learn more efficiently on their own way and can reach their potential by working smarter. Once a teacher identifies the childs learning style, she can give that child the freedom to learn which will support his work at home, at school, and in life. Once my English language teacher asked us to write a simple paragraph on ‘Good Schools, since I like role play activities, I wrote the paragraph and drew pictures of girls and wrote two dialogues in the speech bubbles as they speak the positive things in the school. My teacher saw my work and crossed out the picture and said ‘this is not required here. That time I took this as my teachers valid point of view but later when I became a te acher I thought my teacher should have appreciated my speech bubbles and corrected the sentences or showed me what rules I should follow when I write statements in the speech bubbles. In this way the teacher put a full stop to my desire in learning or trying new concepts. The educators should be able to understand the learning styles of the learners and should provide opportunities accordingly. A kinaesthetic learner should be given more activity based work, for an example- in maths lesson for addition; this type of a learner can be given counters rather than asking him to work out the sums mentally. Kinaesthetic learners should be able to experience and explore the learning aids/ models which are available in the classroom or lab. Learners with strength for visual learning tend to process information by visualizing and seeing it. During a PD training which I attended recently I learnt that about 65% of the population prefers to learn visually. Visual learners in schools can be given opportunities to use colors to organize, receive written instructions and lists, look at graphics like film, flow charts, or diagrams, use visualization when memorizing information, take detailed notes and draw graphics as they learn by looking. People with strength for a uditory learning tend to remember information they hear and discuss. According to what I learnt, about 30% of the population prefers learning with an auditory style. Auditory learners in the classroom can be given recordings of materials like video clips of rhymes or documentaries to be learned; can participate in discussions or discussion groups, have questions read out loud, receive verbal instructions and read written information out loud. It is very sad to say at the time of my learning in the schools I did not see teachers had any knowledge of the types of learners and teach them according to their needs but learning was on going in the classroom. If this is the case how did I learn? This is a very difficult question for me to answer. The learning theories of the school where I studied were forced me to learn in the way I did not want to, the classroom instruction in my school life was mostly suitable for visual learners as there were activities like reading text with pictures, key points of the lesson given on the chalk board and copying texts from the chalk board to the note books. There were hardly any resources around the classrooms; the teaching aids were the text books, chalk board and the chalks. I liked to spend more time in the Science lab its because of the laboratory equipment which our Science/Maths teacher used during practical lessons. I enjoyed these subjects though there were limited resources available in the school lab; the teachers conducted the lessons as for the whole class without realizing the individual needs of the children. I did not study the English language as the way I studied Maths/Science. English was taught through visualizing things, long instructions and reading paragraphs in tex ts. If teachers use a lecture style for instruction, the English language learner will not receive as much comprehensible input. (Haynes, 2007, p. 6) Haynes argument is right. I became impatient listening for long periods during English. Once my English teacher caught me reading my favourite story book in the class and said ‘you must spend time with your text books, you should never read story books it is a waste of time. I followed her instructions and never read story books ever since she told me. Why did not this teacher realize that reading open doors for many worlds? Had I read a lot or be encouraged to read that time I would have had a rich vocabulary when I entered the High school. Another day a story teller visited our school to read stories to each year group and involved the students in making story props and acting out the stories. This was the most enjoyable moment during my English lesson; I had an opportunity to learn new vocabularies too. Everyone had fun during this lesson because the story teller involved each and every student in a kind of activity. Another issue was no school policies were read to us on the first day of school as there were no many policies constructed for the school at that time. We knew how to go in a line to the library, hitting and verbally abusing the peers not allowed, wore neat uniform every day, respect the teachers and so on but we were never taught any of these. I think the hidden curriculum in my school was stronger than the curriculum which was in use that time. Then I moved to a college for my higher education. I can say from my college experience that many higher education instructors still do not realize that students vary in the way that they process and understand information or attempt to respond to those differences in their pedagogical efforts. Effective teaching cannot be limited to the delivery of information; instead it needs to be based on a model of minds at work. Effective instructors are those who understand the importance of involving all of their students in learning how to learn. Effective learners are created when instructors affirm the presence and validity of diverse learning. At the college level the cognitive development occurs at the same pace but the learners experience different kind of problems or issues due to many changes. One of them is ‘culture shock. Newcomers have usually left behind family members, friends, teachers, and pets. They are no longer surrounded by a familiar language and culture. Children often do not have the full support of their parents because the parents are experiencing culture shock, too. (Haynes, 2007, p. 2) I agree with Hayens because the greater the difference between the students new culture and the students primary culture, the greater the shock. During this stage, I as a newcomer was excited about the new lives. Everything was wonderful and we were having great time learning about the environment. For me the differences between the new culture and the old one become more apparent. I rejected my new surroundings because there was so much that I did not understand. At times I felt sleepy, irritable, uninterested, or depressed; there were few more students who felt the same as I did. In my college the English language learners were frustrated because they could not communicate and are bombarded with unfamiliar surroundings, unreadable social signals, and an unrelenting barrage of new sounds. I was homesick and missed my family, friends, and familiar sights and sounds but, our instructors failed to realise this and started their duty stuffing our brain with Physics, Chemistry and Biolo gy. I was compelled to listen and follow what they instructed but, I did not know how much I learnt at that stage. In fact, I was surprised and overwhelmed by the lectures though we were forced to learn what we were supposed to, because the instructors knew so much about the subject taught. At times I asked myself, how did the instructors prepare themselves so well in order to answer all types of questions asked by the students? I saw them as good role models from the way they socialized with others, and delivered the content of the subjects during lectures. Listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge but, most of the time I felt that the instructors could have included videos to their instructions, involved us in presentations or group discussions as I loved these types of activities. ACTIVITY 2: Why are theories of learning important? Write down some initial thoughts about your own priorities at this stage of your development as a (head) teacher. To what extent do your own current priorities coincide with the priorities mentioned above? There are many different theories of how people learn. What important and useful is to consider their application to how our students learn and we teach our educational programs. It is interesting to think about our own particular way of learning and to recognize that everyone does not learn the way we do. In my opinion one of the main points is a teacher should know that each student does not learn in the same way others do. This means if the teacher chooses just one style of teaching such as direct instruction or collaborative learning or inquiry learning the students will not be maximizing their learning potential. For sure a teacher cannot reach every student on the same level during one lesson, but implementing a variety of learning styles throughout the course allows all the students to experience the chance to learn in at least a way that matches their learning style. Most of the materials used to educate students beyond primary school are largely text and lecture based, which have significant limitations. Those students are not involved in group work or discussion activities. Reading is a very important learning mode but, not all students learn effectively from reading. There are students who do not like reading a lot but, respond better to visual and audio stimuli of lecture but often get lost in the material or lose interest in the presentation. In this type of a learning environment, students have limited opportunity to ask questions or may be uncomfortable asking a question in front of the class. So the learning theories we have should cater the individual needs of the children. I believe student learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the help of the teacher along the way. Therefore the learners should be involved in activity based learning and given the freedom to use the classroom resources around them. Another im portant point is that the best way to learn is by having students construct their own knowledge instead of having someone construct it for them. For an example, for giving them the concept of Addition they should be given counters or an abacus to find the sum of two numbers rather than explaining this on the chalk board. For the language development they should be given activities for listening and writing which will be an interesting activity too. Science and Geography can be taught through pictures, video clips, lab work with a lot of experiments and the use of internet. At times I did not get the clear concepts of the subject taught when I attended the lecture type classes but I had an opportunity to understand better when I was asked to teach the same concept to someone else on my own. An experienced teacher should always use cognitive terminology such as classify, analyze, predict, and create when assigning tasks to the students, this helps the students to explore and research to find lot of information about the subject. We should encourage student critical thinking and inquiry by asking them thoughtful, open-ended questions, and encourage them to ask questions to each other. Further, we should provide enough time for students to construct their own meaning when learning something new. We should acknowledge that, students understanding and prior experiences about a concept before teaching them, which is as vital as breathing. Group discussions that we organize should encourage communication between the teacher and the students and also between the students. All learning and some elements of non-learning begin with situations where there is a disjuncture between a learners biography (past experiences) and their construction of present experience. (Jarvis, Holford Griffin, 2003, p. 70) As Jarvis, Holford Griffin explain educators should pay importance to the childs prior learning experience in order to give them the proper foundation on learning. In the school where I work the children speak English as a second language therefore I had to construct my learning theories according to their past experience with the language of English. One of the word level objectives of English for first graders is ‘to represent in writing the three phonemes in CVC words, spelling them first in rhyming sets, then in non-rhyming sets. This is a very simple objective but difficult for a first grader in my school as their prior knowledge in English is zero due to use of no English at home. In that case if I as a teacher insist them to learn this objective then I will be committing a crime for not having any knowledge on their biography. So it is vital for me to spend correcting prior knowledge before new learning can occur, in fact we in our school where I work now spend at least 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the first term to learn the biography of the children. Teachers must be fair in distributing their praise and all students should receive praise. They should look for positive things to say about a students work even when pointing out problems or mistakes during lesson. Some might receive praise for bigger achievements than others but, even the lower performer needs a regular pat on the back. Teacher should also give praise or verbal rewards to the class as a whole to encourage the class and build team unity. True, the learning theories help support planning and teaching, help to critically evaluate classroom practice and help in the diagnosis of classroom problems but in my opinion the important person who constructs the learning theories in the classroom is the teacher who is not given enough opportunities to implement these in her classroom to experience the consequences. I hear teachers of other schools say that excess amount of paper work and work load do not provide enough time to engage the children on learning. In the school where I work our teachers are not given extra duties such as after school duty, snack duty etc in order to make sure that they spend more time in the classroom and prepare for students learning. We have special subject teachers for ICT, Physical Education and second languages so the class teachers can concentrate only on the core subjects like Literacy, Numeracy, Science and Geography. One may ask, why do our teachers are kept away from teaching ICT? In my opi nion ICT should be integrated in learning however, in some cases, teachers feel ICT increases their workload, with some tasks taking longer time to complete. This can often be traced to one or more of: a lack confidence or lack of ICT skills, ineffective networks or a lack of appropriate training or technical support. To reduce teacher workloads in our schools in future, ICT strategies will be included specific workload aims although this should not be at the impression of continuing to find ways in which ICT can raise quality and pupil performance. (We are planning to improve ICT strategic planning through strategic aims, hardware, software, connectivity, technical support and staff training and development in future and involve the teachers in integrating ICT to learning). Staff meeting or Curriculum meeting is conducted only once a week, which helps the teachers to spend more time with their work in the classroom and during their non contact periods they are supposed to prepare additional activities for the lesson they have planned. Progress Report for the pupils are being sent only thrice a year rather than every month, the teachers in our school have to spend less time dealing with behavioural issues because we have well constructed standardized policies for discipline, behaviour, uniform, food and bus and the Social worker is highly involved in implementing the policies. In our school calendar there are few days allocated as ‘Staff in Students out for professional development which is very important for the educators to upgrade their skills. I have seen few schools in this country utilize the student time I mean have shortened day in order to organise PD for the staff. In some schools teachers spend most of their time on disciplining the children and dealing with behavioural issues because of the weak hidden curriculum in place and no proper plan or policies to manage these types of issues there. Some educators want to expose themselves as good teachers or professional and show that they can manage the children very well, so they spend more time on putting up class displays, classroom management and less time on teaching the children. I have seen educators who work only for survival, their aim is to spend the days in the school and get monthly wage on time. The overall goal of the teachers should be to help and support students develop into self motivating learners. Students who are encouraged to become motivated lifelong learners will be more successful in and out of the classroom. When I worked as a teacher in other schools I had to teach all the subjects including IT and Physical Education, send monthly progress report home, prepare student portfolio for each child in my class, do after school duties and attend meetings with the Principal for four days in a week. I must say at that time I was frustrated for not having enough time to concentrate on the learning of my students and I was able to realise that they were not gaining anything according to their learning style. So, when I became as a head of a school I made sure that the teachers are given more time to spend for the children not with paper work and so on. The Social Worker and I are directly involved in solving behavioural issues in the school so the teachers will not have to spend time on this issue. The school policies and curriculum should be child centred and focus only on their learning. Educators should spend more time on pupils learning for which the strong hidden curriculum of the school should be helpful so that the teachers can construct proper planning for their teaching rather than wasting their time on other issues like behaviour and discipline. What I am trying to explain is that the learning theories we construct should focus on the childs academic and intellectual development. ACTIVITY 3: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation List eight ways in which you motivate pupils in your classroom and school. Explain which motivational forms are intrinsic and which extrinsic. We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it. Peter Drucker I have read a lot about ‘Motivation in books and on websites. I think Drucker is concerned about the nature of understanding the term ‘Motivation. I know what motivation is but, I do not think that I have made a closer inspection to it ever in my career. I have motivated the learners to read a lot, work smarter, behave well and be a good role model through rewards and appreciation as the way the factory workers are encouraged by ‘end of year bonus so that production improves and absenteeism falls. No one can know the future at least in any detail. In preparing the future, students should be able to develop viable occupational skills. Learning a discipline and doing it well provides the foundation for a sense of purpose, security and confidence in adulthood. In addition to this the students should prepare for change. As we see, change is best handled and even welcomed, when individuals possess a well developed mental skills associated with original creative and independent thinking. Further, according to Martin V. Cavington, the greatest legacy of education is to encourage in our students a will to learn and to continue learning as personal circumstances-change in short to promote a capacity for self renewal. Today many students drop out of school without a single achievement for which they can feel uniquely responsible for it. More ever the majority of the students fail achieve their potential due to lack of motivation in schools and home. How to always be motivated? Keeping our motivation high is the key factor to achieve our goals. We all face setbacks in life but, the ability to turn it into a lesson and move through a positive direction should be our aim for which motivation is highly required. If we are not motivated, we will experience difficulties in turning our great ideas into great results, wake up in the morning without any desire, ask people around us for support, give up our tasks before finishing them, postpone important decisions and wish that we will have a set of helping tips to overcome our setbacks. If we as adults will have to face a great deal of inconveniences due to lack of motivation, what will happen to those who just started their life in schools as children? What will be the consequences for being not motivated by important factors? How motivation takes place in classrooms and schools? A primary concern for educators is how to balance the use of extrinsic incentives as needed to promote student task engagement while establishing a climate that also fosters intrinsic motivation. (Alderman, 1999, p. 213) The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task he does or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on it. As Alderman explains, we should equally balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in order to promote engaging students on task. According to what I understood intrinsic motivation means motivation which comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money, trophies or grades. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money, trophies or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide. Is intrinsic motivation the solution for increasing student engagement? One perspective is that intrinsic motivation to learn is a necessary, but insufficient, component for academic achievement in classrooms; that is, one can enjoy learning or have an interest in a subject, but lack the strategies necessary for continuing motivation (Alderman, 1999, p. 218) According to Aldermans argument, an extrinsically motivated student will work on a task even when he has little interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction he will get from some rewards. The rewards can be something as minor as a smiley face to something major like a trophy or free computer game. For example, an extrinsically motivated child who dislikes maths may work hard on maths problems because he wants the reward for completing it right. For me it is very difficult to agree with Aldermans point of views on ‘motivating extrinsically will result positively as I have teaching experience with children of some (sorry to say) arrogant parents, rich parents who are proud of their wealth and children who enjoy the most lavish life in this country which is completely different where I come from. I have implemented many strategies for motivating children in my class; I never had an opportunity to discriminate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation until I come across some readings on these topics by Jerome S. Bruner and Alderman. All I knew were about motivating children to be engaged on task. Two years back I had few children in my class, whose parents especially the mothers were not supportive at all; their children most of the time turned in completed homework, they had poor reading skills and had unacceptable behaviour in the classroom. In order to motivate them towards task, I used to tell them if they complete work on time or behave well they will get a smiley sticker or a badge but, I always had reply from these kids ‘I dont need I can buy them when I go out with my driver or ‘who cares of those cheap stickers or ‘I have got plenty of them at home. In such a place where I am in, most of the children are not attracted by those extrinsic motivations rather they would like to get motivated by intrinsic factors. I have spent a lot of time trying to think of ways to motivate my more reluctant students. I have tried fear† If you are late again, I will call home†. I have tried rewards â€Å"If you follow the classroom code of conduct you will earn points that you can redeem for a free homework pass or computer game. As a motivational support fear and rewards do work, for a while but, I did not want to threaten my students, and I did not want to bribe them. I want them to develop a will to come to class and learn. I wanted their motivation to be intrinsic. The question then was how I get my students to become more intrinsically motivated so that the classroom experience is more enjoyable for everyone. When Iencouraged mystudents self motivation by structuringmy class and my teaching I met their needs which are love, respect, emotional support and to move about the classroom freely. I followed many ways to motivate the children but now, I can differentiate them according to intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. Intrinsic motivation takes place when there is a positive relationship between the learners and the educators. As Jerome Bruner (1966), explains that extrinsic reinforcement may lead to a desirable kind of activity and cause its repetition but will not ultimately encourage sound learning. His belief was that intrinsic rewards are more important than extrinsic rewards in the long term. Intrinsic motivational factors I implemented in my classroom and school were, 1- When I asked my students to volunteer to be my assistant and assigned jobs for them more learning went on than if I did all the teaching myself. 2- When I had those students who could not sit still for very long and lose focus easily did their maths questions on the board, they were more likely to stay focused and learn which develop the interest of involvement. 3- When I greeted my students at the classroomdoor early morning with a smile and allocate games and puzzles for them to d Theories and Approaches to Learning Theories and Approaches to Learning Write about helpful and unhelpful approaches to learning during your own education. What was positive about those approaches? Did they reflect or express any particular theories of learning? Life is a learning experience. When I was a young girl I was so confident and positive about what I wanted. Maths and Science were my favourite subjects but I was not given freedom to learn as I wanted to learn these subjects. I realized this after I gained a very good experience in teaching primary school children. Student motivation is rooted in students subjective experiences, especially those connected to their willingness to engage in lessons and learning activities and their reasons for doing so. (Brophy, 2004, p. 4) According to Brophy, I must say learning is, interesting fun and exciting when the curriculum is well matched to students interests and abilities and the teacher emphasizes hands-on activities in order to keep the students busy and engaged. When the teacher teaches the right things the right way, motivation takes place by itself. If students are not enjoying learning, something is wrong with the curriculum and teachers instruction. At times I felt my school life was boring and frustrating because I hated all subjects except Maths and Science. I had to sit and listen to longtime instructions and copy the notes from the chalk board. I managed myself for learning because I had to show the Progress Report with good grades to my dad. Ê »Science is like everything, I guess and I think everything has a science to it. [When] baking cookies you have to add the right amount of eggs and milk and stuff like that (Kaufman, Moss, Osborn, 2003, p. 48) As I agree with Kaufman, Moss Osborns point of view, these two subjects add lot of fun to learning as they contain lot of practical activities which are conducted in the school laboratory. I loved to learn through doing and touching, it is because I had trouble sitting still and learning. My worst day during Science period was when my teacher said no when I offered him my help to fix the Bunsen burner to the gas cylinder. He said ‘you are still young so must stay away. Now I understand that I was a kinaesthetic learner that time, my teacher could have engaged me in his work because I could be better able to understand information by doing hands-on activities. I am not going to blame my teacher for this because at the time of my learning teacher centred education was given importance by educators. If teachers are able to understand childrens learning needs, it will reduce lot of frustration like homework incompletion, failures in assessments and sports and speaking in public. A s long as I know sometimes kids are just doing what works for them but, the curriculum in practice when I was in school did not cater the childs individual needs and the educators did not consider the childs learning style. I know that cognitive focuses on the inner mental activities such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving so, I think at cognitive stage the children should be catered carefully according to their learning needs. I gained lot of experience in teaching, today I am an experienced teacher, I wish I was my teacher when I was in school because when I was a child I did not get what I give to the pupils in my classroom now. As a teacher, I work in my classroom according to my childrens expectations. I believe in group work, differentiated planning, reading a lot for fun, guided reading, shared reading, classroom policies, and ongoing assessments which help me know the level of progress frequently. The few hyperactive boys in my classroom are always my helpers; they are always engaged in classroom jobs. In a typical classroom, some children process information best by hearing the teacher explain it, some learn by seeing whats on the chalkboard, and others learn through hands-on exercises. Nowadays colleges have increasingly begun teaching new students about learning styles so they can develop effective study habits. Three basic learning styles are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual. Auditory learners prefer listening to explanations over reading them and like to study by reciting information aloud. These types of learners may want to have background music while studying, or they may be distracted by noises and need a quiet space to study. Kinaesthetic learners learn by doing and touching. They may have trouble sitting still while studying, and they are better able to understand information by writing it down or doing hands on activities. Visual learners process new information by reading, looking at pictures, or watching a demonstration but, they may grow impatient listening to an explanation. I still remember the learning style and classroom setting when I was small which is mostly similar to what shown on the video clip of ‘The four UK teachers experience in a Kenyan school. At least for ten years my classroom strength was 35-40 children, our tables and chairs were laid in rows, teachers table and the chalk board was at the front of the class. The classroom layout was so congested, though we learnt how to move around without any incidents, our teachers never approached each table in order to assist the individual needs. Teacher instruction was mostly lecture based and activities contained more board work. We were never treated according to our learning styles which are auditory, kinaesthetic, and visual instead the whole class was given the same type of activities only the able children understood them and completed on time and the rest were neglected. Regret to say that our teachers failed to realise that all of us are designed to absorb information differently; each learning style results in people with various interests, desires and talents and learning is more fun and effective when the teachers look into multiple learning styles. Children learn more efficiently on their own way and can reach their potential by working smarter. Once a teacher identifies the childs learning style, she can give that child the freedom to learn which will support his work at home, at school, and in life. Once my English language teacher asked us to write a simple paragraph on ‘Good Schools, since I like role play activities, I wrote the paragraph and drew pictures of girls and wrote two dialogues in the speech bubbles as they speak the positive things in the school. My teacher saw my work and crossed out the picture and said ‘this is not required here. That time I took this as my teachers valid point of view but later when I became a te acher I thought my teacher should have appreciated my speech bubbles and corrected the sentences or showed me what rules I should follow when I write statements in the speech bubbles. In this way the teacher put a full stop to my desire in learning or trying new concepts. The educators should be able to understand the learning styles of the learners and should provide opportunities accordingly. A kinaesthetic learner should be given more activity based work, for an example- in maths lesson for addition; this type of a learner can be given counters rather than asking him to work out the sums mentally. Kinaesthetic learners should be able to experience and explore the learning aids/ models which are available in the classroom or lab. Learners with strength for visual learning tend to process information by visualizing and seeing it. During a PD training which I attended recently I learnt that about 65% of the population prefers to learn visually. Visual learners in schools can be given opportunities to use colors to organize, receive written instructions and lists, look at graphics like film, flow charts, or diagrams, use visualization when memorizing information, take detailed notes and draw graphics as they learn by looking. People with strength for a uditory learning tend to remember information they hear and discuss. According to what I learnt, about 30% of the population prefers learning with an auditory style. Auditory learners in the classroom can be given recordings of materials like video clips of rhymes or documentaries to be learned; can participate in discussions or discussion groups, have questions read out loud, receive verbal instructions and read written information out loud. It is very sad to say at the time of my learning in the schools I did not see teachers had any knowledge of the types of learners and teach them according to their needs but learning was on going in the classroom. If this is the case how did I learn? This is a very difficult question for me to answer. The learning theories of the school where I studied were forced me to learn in the way I did not want to, the classroom instruction in my school life was mostly suitable for visual learners as there were activities like reading text with pictures, key points of the lesson given on the chalk board and copying texts from the chalk board to the note books. There were hardly any resources around the classrooms; the teaching aids were the text books, chalk board and the chalks. I liked to spend more time in the Science lab its because of the laboratory equipment which our Science/Maths teacher used during practical lessons. I enjoyed these subjects though there were limited resources available in the school lab; the teachers conducted the lessons as for the whole class without realizing the individual needs of the children. I did not study the English language as the way I studied Maths/Science. English was taught through visualizing things, long instructions and reading paragraphs in tex ts. If teachers use a lecture style for instruction, the English language learner will not receive as much comprehensible input. (Haynes, 2007, p. 6) Haynes argument is right. I became impatient listening for long periods during English. Once my English teacher caught me reading my favourite story book in the class and said ‘you must spend time with your text books, you should never read story books it is a waste of time. I followed her instructions and never read story books ever since she told me. Why did not this teacher realize that reading open doors for many worlds? Had I read a lot or be encouraged to read that time I would have had a rich vocabulary when I entered the High school. Another day a story teller visited our school to read stories to each year group and involved the students in making story props and acting out the stories. This was the most enjoyable moment during my English lesson; I had an opportunity to learn new vocabularies too. Everyone had fun during this lesson because the story teller involved each and every student in a kind of activity. Another issue was no school policies were read to us on the first day of school as there were no many policies constructed for the school at that time. We knew how to go in a line to the library, hitting and verbally abusing the peers not allowed, wore neat uniform every day, respect the teachers and so on but we were never taught any of these. I think the hidden curriculum in my school was stronger than the curriculum which was in use that time. Then I moved to a college for my higher education. I can say from my college experience that many higher education instructors still do not realize that students vary in the way that they process and understand information or attempt to respond to those differences in their pedagogical efforts. Effective teaching cannot be limited to the delivery of information; instead it needs to be based on a model of minds at work. Effective instructors are those who understand the importance of involving all of their students in learning how to learn. Effective learners are created when instructors affirm the presence and validity of diverse learning. At the college level the cognitive development occurs at the same pace but the learners experience different kind of problems or issues due to many changes. One of them is ‘culture shock. Newcomers have usually left behind family members, friends, teachers, and pets. They are no longer surrounded by a familiar language and culture. Children often do not have the full support of their parents because the parents are experiencing culture shock, too. (Haynes, 2007, p. 2) I agree with Hayens because the greater the difference between the students new culture and the students primary culture, the greater the shock. During this stage, I as a newcomer was excited about the new lives. Everything was wonderful and we were having great time learning about the environment. For me the differences between the new culture and the old one become more apparent. I rejected my new surroundings because there was so much that I did not understand. At times I felt sleepy, irritable, uninterested, or depressed; there were few more students who felt the same as I did. In my college the English language learners were frustrated because they could not communicate and are bombarded with unfamiliar surroundings, unreadable social signals, and an unrelenting barrage of new sounds. I was homesick and missed my family, friends, and familiar sights and sounds but, our instructors failed to realise this and started their duty stuffing our brain with Physics, Chemistry and Biolo gy. I was compelled to listen and follow what they instructed but, I did not know how much I learnt at that stage. In fact, I was surprised and overwhelmed by the lectures though we were forced to learn what we were supposed to, because the instructors knew so much about the subject taught. At times I asked myself, how did the instructors prepare themselves so well in order to answer all types of questions asked by the students? I saw them as good role models from the way they socialized with others, and delivered the content of the subjects during lectures. Listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge but, most of the time I felt that the instructors could have included videos to their instructions, involved us in presentations or group discussions as I loved these types of activities. ACTIVITY 2: Why are theories of learning important? Write down some initial thoughts about your own priorities at this stage of your development as a (head) teacher. To what extent do your own current priorities coincide with the priorities mentioned above? There are many different theories of how people learn. What important and useful is to consider their application to how our students learn and we teach our educational programs. It is interesting to think about our own particular way of learning and to recognize that everyone does not learn the way we do. In my opinion one of the main points is a teacher should know that each student does not learn in the same way others do. This means if the teacher chooses just one style of teaching such as direct instruction or collaborative learning or inquiry learning the students will not be maximizing their learning potential. For sure a teacher cannot reach every student on the same level during one lesson, but implementing a variety of learning styles throughout the course allows all the students to experience the chance to learn in at least a way that matches their learning style. Most of the materials used to educate students beyond primary school are largely text and lecture based, which have significant limitations. Those students are not involved in group work or discussion activities. Reading is a very important learning mode but, not all students learn effectively from reading. There are students who do not like reading a lot but, respond better to visual and audio stimuli of lecture but often get lost in the material or lose interest in the presentation. In this type of a learning environment, students have limited opportunity to ask questions or may be uncomfortable asking a question in front of the class. So the learning theories we have should cater the individual needs of the children. I believe student learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own with the help of the teacher along the way. Therefore the learners should be involved in activity based learning and given the freedom to use the classroom resources around them. Another im portant point is that the best way to learn is by having students construct their own knowledge instead of having someone construct it for them. For an example, for giving them the concept of Addition they should be given counters or an abacus to find the sum of two numbers rather than explaining this on the chalk board. For the language development they should be given activities for listening and writing which will be an interesting activity too. Science and Geography can be taught through pictures, video clips, lab work with a lot of experiments and the use of internet. At times I did not get the clear concepts of the subject taught when I attended the lecture type classes but I had an opportunity to understand better when I was asked to teach the same concept to someone else on my own. An experienced teacher should always use cognitive terminology such as classify, analyze, predict, and create when assigning tasks to the students, this helps the students to explore and research to find lot of information about the subject. We should encourage student critical thinking and inquiry by asking them thoughtful, open-ended questions, and encourage them to ask questions to each other. Further, we should provide enough time for students to construct their own meaning when learning something new. We should acknowledge that, students understanding and prior experiences about a concept before teaching them, which is as vital as breathing. Group discussions that we organize should encourage communication between the teacher and the students and also between the students. All learning and some elements of non-learning begin with situations where there is a disjuncture between a learners biography (past experiences) and their construction of present experience. (Jarvis, Holford Griffin, 2003, p. 70) As Jarvis, Holford Griffin explain educators should pay importance to the childs prior learning experience in order to give them the proper foundation on learning. In the school where I work the children speak English as a second language therefore I had to construct my learning theories according to their past experience with the language of English. One of the word level objectives of English for first graders is ‘to represent in writing the three phonemes in CVC words, spelling them first in rhyming sets, then in non-rhyming sets. This is a very simple objective but difficult for a first grader in my school as their prior knowledge in English is zero due to use of no English at home. In that case if I as a teacher insist them to learn this objective then I will be committing a crime for not having any knowledge on their biography. So it is vital for me to spend correcting prior knowledge before new learning can occur, in fact we in our school where I work now spend at least 2-3 weeks at the beginning of the first term to learn the biography of the children. Teachers must be fair in distributing their praise and all students should receive praise. They should look for positive things to say about a students work even when pointing out problems or mistakes during lesson. Some might receive praise for bigger achievements than others but, even the lower performer needs a regular pat on the back. Teacher should also give praise or verbal rewards to the class as a whole to encourage the class and build team unity. True, the learning theories help support planning and teaching, help to critically evaluate classroom practice and help in the diagnosis of classroom problems but in my opinion the important person who constructs the learning theories in the classroom is the teacher who is not given enough opportunities to implement these in her classroom to experience the consequences. I hear teachers of other schools say that excess amount of paper work and work load do not provide enough time to engage the children on learning. In the school where I work our teachers are not given extra duties such as after school duty, snack duty etc in order to make sure that they spend more time in the classroom and prepare for students learning. We have special subject teachers for ICT, Physical Education and second languages so the class teachers can concentrate only on the core subjects like Literacy, Numeracy, Science and Geography. One may ask, why do our teachers are kept away from teaching ICT? In my opi nion ICT should be integrated in learning however, in some cases, teachers feel ICT increases their workload, with some tasks taking longer time to complete. This can often be traced to one or more of: a lack confidence or lack of ICT skills, ineffective networks or a lack of appropriate training or technical support. To reduce teacher workloads in our schools in future, ICT strategies will be included specific workload aims although this should not be at the impression of continuing to find ways in which ICT can raise quality and pupil performance. (We are planning to improve ICT strategic planning through strategic aims, hardware, software, connectivity, technical support and staff training and development in future and involve the teachers in integrating ICT to learning). Staff meeting or Curriculum meeting is conducted only once a week, which helps the teachers to spend more time with their work in the classroom and during their non contact periods they are supposed to prepare additional activities for the lesson they have planned. Progress Report for the pupils are being sent only thrice a year rather than every month, the teachers in our school have to spend less time dealing with behavioural issues because we have well constructed standardized policies for discipline, behaviour, uniform, food and bus and the Social worker is highly involved in implementing the policies. In our school calendar there are few days allocated as ‘Staff in Students out for professional development which is very important for the educators to upgrade their skills. I have seen few schools in this country utilize the student time I mean have shortened day in order to organise PD for the staff. In some schools teachers spend most of their time on disciplining the children and dealing with behavioural issues because of the weak hidden curriculum in place and no proper plan or policies to manage these types of issues there. Some educators want to expose themselves as good teachers or professional and show that they can manage the children very well, so they spend more time on putting up class displays, classroom management and less time on teaching the children. I have seen educators who work only for survival, their aim is to spend the days in the school and get monthly wage on time. The overall goal of the teachers should be to help and support students develop into self motivating learners. Students who are encouraged to become motivated lifelong learners will be more successful in and out of the classroom. When I worked as a teacher in other schools I had to teach all the subjects including IT and Physical Education, send monthly progress report home, prepare student portfolio for each child in my class, do after school duties and attend meetings with the Principal for four days in a week. I must say at that time I was frustrated for not having enough time to concentrate on the learning of my students and I was able to realise that they were not gaining anything according to their learning style. So, when I became as a head of a school I made sure that the teachers are given more time to spend for the children not with paper work and so on. The Social Worker and I are directly involved in solving behavioural issues in the school so the teachers will not have to spend time on this issue. The school policies and curriculum should be child centred and focus only on their learning. Educators should spend more time on pupils learning for which the strong hidden curriculum of the school should be helpful so that the teachers can construct proper planning for their teaching rather than wasting their time on other issues like behaviour and discipline. What I am trying to explain is that the learning theories we construct should focus on the childs academic and intellectual development. ACTIVITY 3: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation List eight ways in which you motivate pupils in your classroom and school. Explain which motivational forms are intrinsic and which extrinsic. We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it. Peter Drucker I have read a lot about ‘Motivation in books and on websites. I think Drucker is concerned about the nature of understanding the term ‘Motivation. I know what motivation is but, I do not think that I have made a closer inspection to it ever in my career. I have motivated the learners to read a lot, work smarter, behave well and be a good role model through rewards and appreciation as the way the factory workers are encouraged by ‘end of year bonus so that production improves and absenteeism falls. No one can know the future at least in any detail. In preparing the future, students should be able to develop viable occupational skills. Learning a discipline and doing it well provides the foundation for a sense of purpose, security and confidence in adulthood. In addition to this the students should prepare for change. As we see, change is best handled and even welcomed, when individuals possess a well developed mental skills associated with original creative and independent thinking. Further, according to Martin V. Cavington, the greatest legacy of education is to encourage in our students a will to learn and to continue learning as personal circumstances-change in short to promote a capacity for self renewal. Today many students drop out of school without a single achievement for which they can feel uniquely responsible for it. More ever the majority of the students fail achieve their potential due to lack of motivation in schools and home. How to always be motivated? Keeping our motivation high is the key factor to achieve our goals. We all face setbacks in life but, the ability to turn it into a lesson and move through a positive direction should be our aim for which motivation is highly required. If we are not motivated, we will experience difficulties in turning our great ideas into great results, wake up in the morning without any desire, ask people around us for support, give up our tasks before finishing them, postpone important decisions and wish that we will have a set of helping tips to overcome our setbacks. If we as adults will have to face a great deal of inconveniences due to lack of motivation, what will happen to those who just started their life in schools as children? What will be the consequences for being not motivated by important factors? How motivation takes place in classrooms and schools? A primary concern for educators is how to balance the use of extrinsic incentives as needed to promote student task engagement while establishing a climate that also fosters intrinsic motivation. (Alderman, 1999, p. 213) The motivation comes from the pleasure one gets from the task he does or from the sense of satisfaction in completing or even working on it. As Alderman explains, we should equally balance extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in order to promote engaging students on task. According to what I understood intrinsic motivation means motivation which comes from inside an individual rather than from any external or outside rewards, such as money, trophies or grades. Extrinsic motivation refers to motivation that comes from outside an individual. The motivating factors are external, or outside, rewards such as money, trophies or grades. These rewards provide satisfaction and pleasure that the task itself may not provide. Is intrinsic motivation the solution for increasing student engagement? One perspective is that intrinsic motivation to learn is a necessary, but insufficient, component for academic achievement in classrooms; that is, one can enjoy learning or have an interest in a subject, but lack the strategies necessary for continuing motivation (Alderman, 1999, p. 218) According to Aldermans argument, an extrinsically motivated student will work on a task even when he has little interest in it because of the anticipated satisfaction he will get from some rewards. The rewards can be something as minor as a smiley face to something major like a trophy or free computer game. For example, an extrinsically motivated child who dislikes maths may work hard on maths problems because he wants the reward for completing it right. For me it is very difficult to agree with Aldermans point of views on ‘motivating extrinsically will result positively as I have teaching experience with children of some (sorry to say) arrogant parents, rich parents who are proud of their wealth and children who enjoy the most lavish life in this country which is completely different where I come from. I have implemented many strategies for motivating children in my class; I never had an opportunity to discriminate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation until I come across some readings on these topics by Jerome S. Bruner and Alderman. All I knew were about motivating children to be engaged on task. Two years back I had few children in my class, whose parents especially the mothers were not supportive at all; their children most of the time turned in completed homework, they had poor reading skills and had unacceptable behaviour in the classroom. In order to motivate them towards task, I used to tell them if they complete work on time or behave well they will get a smiley sticker or a badge but, I always had reply from these kids ‘I dont need I can buy them when I go out with my driver or ‘who cares of those cheap stickers or ‘I have got plenty of them at home. In such a place where I am in, most of the children are not attracted by those extrinsic motivations rather they would like to get motivated by intrinsic factors. I have spent a lot of time trying to think of ways to motivate my more reluctant students. I have tried fear† If you are late again, I will call home†. I have tried rewards â€Å"If you follow the classroom code of conduct you will earn points that you can redeem for a free homework pass or computer game. As a motivational support fear and rewards do work, for a while but, I did not want to threaten my students, and I did not want to bribe them. I want them to develop a will to come to class and learn. I wanted their motivation to be intrinsic. The question then was how I get my students to become more intrinsically motivated so that the classroom experience is more enjoyable for everyone. When Iencouraged mystudents self motivation by structuringmy class and my teaching I met their needs which are love, respect, emotional support and to move about the classroom freely. I followed many ways to motivate the children but now, I can differentiate them according to intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. Intrinsic motivation takes place when there is a positive relationship between the learners and the educators. As Jerome Bruner (1966), explains that extrinsic reinforcement may lead to a desirable kind of activity and cause its repetition but will not ultimately encourage sound learning. His belief was that intrinsic rewards are more important than extrinsic rewards in the long term. Intrinsic motivational factors I implemented in my classroom and school were, 1- When I asked my students to volunteer to be my assistant and assigned jobs for them more learning went on than if I did all the teaching myself. 2- When I had those students who could not sit still for very long and lose focus easily did their maths questions on the board, they were more likely to stay focused and learn which develop the interest of involvement. 3- When I greeted my students at the classroomdoor early morning with a smile and allocate games and puzzles for them to d

A Review of University Days by James Thurber Essay examples -- James

In the essay, â€Å"University Days† James Thurber does a sensational job keeping the reader’s interest throughout the entire story. He explains his college experiences in a way that makes the reader both interested and amused at the same time. Thurber portrays the message that the all-star football player was not the brightest bulb on the tree, which is humorous because many people can relate to that because it’s the same at their school. The author uses a creative writing style to try and capture his audience’s attention throughout the entire essay. He uses descriptive wording, humor, and stories that relate to the reader to accomplish his goal of telling his college stories in an exciting and memorable way. The descriptive wording used in this essay contributes to the enjoyment of the story. Many authors just tell stories without going in-depth and it makes the reader’s mind wander. That’s why Thurber’s style is so effective; he explains every situation very clearly and also backs them up with examples. He recalled the story about his classmate, Bolenciecwcz who was seen as the star of the football team. He was reminiscing on a time in particular that their teacher asked the football player what form of transportation he took to get to school. Bolenciecwcz had a tough time comprehending the question and was beginning to feel some pressure from his classmates to answer the question correctly. He was having so much trouble searching for an answer that the author described the situation by saying, â€Å"At this time, Bolenciecwcz was staring at the floor, trying to think, his great brow furrowed, his huge hands rubbing together, his face red.†(346) His classmates burst out into laughter at this point; in order to help the speechless... ...rd work really does pay off. This is an example that if a person fails the first try, rather than quitting, they should work even harder to accomplish the task. All of these examples were extremely influential on Thurber’s life and changed him into a more responsible person. The author’s unique writing style which includes; descriptive wording, humorous quotes, and stories that relate to the reader contribute to making the essay very easy to follow along with and it also helps enhance the excitement of the story. Thurber’s style allows him to express his thoughts in a way that makes the reader laugh and want to continue reading on. This is a sensational short story that I recommend to anyone looking to read a well-written essay or even anyone just trying to get a laugh. It’s a quick and easy read, and his creative writing styles make the story well worth it!

Perceptions of the Cold War Essay -- Cold War Interviews

This is an interview project with the goal of discovering how people understand the Cold War. In this essay, I will analyze how people understand the Cold War today. I will explain to what extent their definition or understanding of the Cold War differs from the definition provided. I will explain why the respondents’ understanding of the Cold War is different from the way the Cold War is defined in this course or explain why the respondents’ definition is similar to the way the Cold War is defined in this course. This course defines the Cold War as the geopolitical tensions, and proxy wars fought between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union and the United States repeatedly annoyed each other through political scheming, military alliances, spying, publicity, arms accumulation, financial aid, and proxy wars between other nations, but did not fight directly during the Cold War (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, n.d.). The Cold War is a title that was given to the communication that established for the most part between the United States and the Soviet Union after World War II (Trueman, 2013). The Cold War began in 1945 and ended in 1991 (History Rocket, 2012). The Cold War began because the communist nations did not permit fundamental human freedom, so the United States had hostility against the communists (History Rocket, 2012). The increase in weapons of mass destruction had many worried. The Cold War defined American political view and molded foreign policy (Naranjo, 2014). Mary Wheatly a registered nurse born in 1968 was the first person interviewed. The first words that come to mind when Mary think of the term Cold War is â€Å"the United States and Russia having a disagreem... ...finition provided in the Overview section of this unit’s reading. I have explained why the respondents’ understanding of the Cold War is different form the way the Cold War is defined in this course. Works Cited History Rocket. (2012). Why was the Cold War important? Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.historyrocket.com/World-War/cold-war/Why-Was-The-Cold-War-Important.html John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. (n.d.). The Cold War. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Cold-War.aspx Naranjo, R. (2014). Historical analysis of the Cold War. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://ehistory.osu.edu/world/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=66 Trueman, C. (2013). What was the Cold War? Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/what%20was%20the%20cold%20war.htm