Implementing Talent Development Strategies Essay

The organizations that are running the talent development programs may soon begin to find the high quality people who can be able to lead and to motivate others in order to achieve the highest levels of performance and productivity in the organization. This means that identifying the organizational education culture for the organization, people and top performers of the organization will revolve around some factors that lead to the development of an all round business professional. (Davis and Cutt, 1988). These include strategizing market and product or the services, instilling the manufacturing know how to the people, educating people on the distribution channels, financing strategies among others. Educational issues cover many issues such as cash and expense flow, position of the firm’s cash flow. The people undergoing the talent development will require getting instructions from skilled staff members to make solid decisions and to understand the technical issues that are involved. Education programs will include development of self awareness knowledge, effective problem solving and having good interpersonal communication. (Davis and Cutt, 1988). Training In the organizations if internal training programs are necessary for talent development, they should therefore be updated regularly. The management should also review these programs to see that they are up to date. Again, working in the training program should be a temporary move by employees who are in need of improving their career skills by sharpening their technical as well as presentation skills. (Davis and Cutt, 1988). An organization that is implementing the talent implementation program is likely to receive problems and resistance. This is because young employees are often faced with many problems sometimes that may come immediately after they begin their careers. (Davis and Cutt, 1988). The first problem which involves being offered jobs that they are not trained in. secondly, the firm may face the problem of too much experience which is caused by narrowing down of the career. In addition, the organization may face the problem of using techniques of talent development in order to protect ones career especially towards the person’s retirement. The above problems show that the development of new talents will stop if the firm fails to give appropriate conditions. This may be achieved through employee training. (Davis and Cutt, 1988). An OPD professional might help implement the strategies as well as address or resolve any problems or issues in the implementation of the talent program by making it clear to the organization the organizational requirements to maintain an organization’s competitive edge and to ensure the survival of the organization. The professional may provide means of developing the organizations effectiveness. The professi9onal is required to understand the strategic goals of the organization and to translate this in to the day to day running of the organizational processes. (Davis and Cutt, 1988).

Indroduction and dramatization Essay

At first, she spoke hurtful words directed at Elizabeth, however the power to condemn her of witchcraft dawned on her later, which took effect towards the conclusion of the play. She faked experiencing demonic presences, blamed it on Elizabeth, and acquired her desired outcome – the imprisonment of Elizabeth. This ties in with the theme of guilt too, as revenge was a result of the affair. Rebecca Nurse’s involvement in the case portrayed a further key element of this play; she displayed others’ loss of innocence, â€Å"It’s strange how I knew you, but I suppose you look as such a good soul should. We have all heard of your great charities in Beverley. † [Page 30 Reverend John Hale] We know immediately that Hale highly esteems her; she is trustworthy and possibly the finest character in the play to unravel this mystery. When she came in contact with Betty, she instantaneously soothed her and she could establish the girls silliness, during the bogus ‘devil’s presence’ charade in Act 1. Due to this charade, Salem could not resist hysteria or accusations, hence the harrowing finish to the innocent people of Salem. Even the most righteous of characters were noosed and left to swing – this showed the extent to how matters got out of hand. Miller stages loss of innocence most significantly during the girls ‘devil’s presence’ charade. â€Å"Stop it,† cries Mary as the girls constant echoing of Mary’s words enraged her. This raised suspicion in the court, where Deputy-Governor Danforth seemed convinced. On top of this, Abigail pretended to be attacked by a ‘yellow bird’ while ‘pleading’ with Mary Warren to stop. Arthur Miller intended to develop tension in this part of the act by exchanging the dialogue quickly and concisely, â€Å"I’m not hurting her†¦ She sees nothin’! She see’s nothing† [Mary Warren page 93] and â€Å"They’re sporting. They -! [Mary Warren], They’re sporting [Girls page 93]†¦ Abby stop it! [Mary Warren], (stamping their feet) Abby, stop it! † [Girls]. If neither of the other topics were a catalyst to the uprising of this insane and barbaric event, then Reverend John Hale’s persistent dangerous implications to a zealous witch-hunt, tightened the knot, â€Å"When the Devil come to you does he ever come-with another person? (She stares him into his face. ) Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you know? † [Page 37 Reverend John Hale] Hale’s questions prompted false confessions from Tituba and Giles Corey; both characters were able to save themselves and allow another character to take the blame. In the end, Corey’s wife was imprisoned due to this method of interrogation, so Hale pulled out of the proceedings as he distrusted the witnesses condemning her to an ill-fated destiny. The beginning of many dangerous implications to follow only raised one question in the mind of the audience; would the influence of these ridiculed implications determine the result of this witchcraft case? Sadly, the answer was yes. Highly evident from the dialogue, ‘The Crucible’ was built up of many interesting themes, all of which are of contemporary relevance. It would be easy to fathom about the people in this world that are still affected by these struggles. We only had to see the racial abuse towards black footballers, whom monkey imitations were directed at from the fans. In the zealous witch-hunts case, witches’ unusual view upon lifestyle and faith was discriminated against, so the rituals had to be held secretively. Also in the modern era, we see cases of revenge splashed across newspaper front pages; the events of 9/11 (twin tower suicide bombing) was believed to be an act of revenge from the Afghans towards the USA, due the USA’s previous cases of hatred and abuse. I personally believe reputation was probably one of the most significant themes; most events either improved or did the opposite to a certain person’s reputation. It almost certainly is applicable today: jobs, shops, sports, music or communities portray some form of reputation, which shapes arguments for or against them. As a final thought, ‘The Crucible’ did not only display life in Salem, but displayed life as it were today; it is the humans’ version of the ‘animal kingdom’ and ‘where one stands is how one may live. ‘ Mitul Dave 10SD 1 ‘The Crucible’ English coursework Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Was Reconstruction a Failure or Success Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Was Reconstruction a Failure or Success - Essay Example Slavery may have temporarily ended but the much anticipated improvement of the lives of Negroes did not happen.   For example, the change that happened in most black nuclear families was mainly to seek their independence from white authority.   Slave quarters may have vanished but tenant farms replaced them which have very little improvement from its previous state.   Perhaps what made the failure â€Å"splendid† was because the period gave Black Americans an idea of what their future might be as free men and the possibility of reaping their own labors as free citizens and not as bondage towards plantations.   Despite little improvement in their economic conditions, the African Americans were given the right to vote by the Freeman’s Bureau.   Many of the Black American’s were also educated that gave them an idea of what a real freedom would be.   One converging account why the Reconstruction failed was also attributed to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln whose great project – the Reconstruction remain unfinished.   The way his successor President Andrew Jackson handled the Reconstruction only highlighted that it was only Lincoln who was capable of handling the transition of Blacks into modern American society.   President Jackson was not able to compromise with the Republicans but instead created a political gridlock that disabled his ability to continue Lincoln’s Reconstructionist policy in the South.  ... President Jackson was not able to compromise with the Republicans but instead created a political gridlock that disabled his ability to continue Lincoln’s Reconstructionist policy in the South. The Republicans left on their own was also equally inadequate as it negated President Andrew’s intention to continue the Reconstruction policy of Lincoln and instead instituted its own brand of hatred politics towards the defeated Confederacy by instituting black supremacist government. Corruption and ineptness followed whereby the Freedmen did not know how to exercise responsibly the newly found political power entrusted upon them and instead squandered them away. Instead of ending segregation between races, the black Southerners contributed to the failure of Reconstruction by imposing their own brand of discriminatory policies whereby the whites retaliated and overthrow the â€Å"dominance† of the black government and restored the home rule or white supremacy (Fitzgerald , 2008). And so the old status quo was restored and this time, with more hatred among the Southerners (the white community) that it made them unalterably opposed to any idea of ending segregation, readmission or reintegration of blacks into American society. This served as the final nail on the coffin of Reconstruction which was doomed to fail with the death of Abraham Lincoln. There are several evidences why the Reconstruction failed. First, the Southerners reasserted â€Å"home rule† or reinstitution of white supremacist policy in the South and the emergence of Klu Klux Klan who were clod in white garments in imitation of the African American’s ghostly superstition. This

Weber's Sociology. The Ideal-Type Explaining Social Phenomena Essay

Weber's Sociology. The Ideal-Type Explaining Social Phenomena - Essay Example To do so however, it is not sufficient to observe action of one individual or collect data from a group of individuals. It requires selection of method to address the peculiar question the action raises (Schtz, Walsh & Lehnert, 1967 5). Weber does not find description alone sufficient; there should be understanding from an individual action. A few causal explanations could be made e. g. I am certain the window broke because it was struck by a rock - I saw it myself; but I can not predict on the basis or rules or laws as to what blows will break which windows. At the most a generalisation like 'Windows are fragile, and fragile things tend to break when struck hard enough, other conditions being right.' (Ringer, 1997-85)... Weber's method of understanding meaning of an action is by construction of ideal types. These are not statistical averages since these depend on unusual questions being asked at that time and they are created as per the methodological demands of these questions (Sch tz et al. 1967 5). The article focuses on Weber's concept of ideal-type and rationality as a tool for understanding social phenomena through interpretive sociological research. An ideal type is a mental construct or picture which the investigator uses to address the reality. The ideal type is different from 'ideals' and it is ideal in coherent way. For an investigator the ideal type is an instrument that he or she uses to give a meaning to the diverse reality. Its usefulness lies in "its success in revealing concrete cultural phenomena in their interdependence, their causal conditions and their significance" (Weber 1949 as in Andersen & Kaspersen, 2000, p 79). The investigator designs an ideal type by " the one sided accentuation of one or more point of view and by synthesis of a great many diffuse, discrete more or less present or occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena, which are arranged to those one- sidedly emphasised viewpoints into a unified analytical construct" (Weber 1949 as in Andersen & Kaspersen, 2000, p79). Weber's definition may be understood by a simple example. Suppose A and B are playing chess. Their behaviour is oriented to an action model, M. The model is not restricted to A and B only, it is an ideal type chess player. Schutz et al (1967) explain that beyond their individuality as chess player, the other concrete individual living experiences of A and B are neither identical nor are being compared here. Andersen & Kaspersen (2000) clarifies that the ideal type are human construct and do not have any counterpart in reality. The social laws are examples of ideal type. Knowledge of law is not the knowledge of reality; these are path leading to understand the reality. The origin of ideal type is attributed to the finding that social sciences lack the causal laws and experimental regularities of natural sciences. Weber cautioned social scientists against using historical constructs as such for explaining reality in contemporary times; he rather advises them designing their own construct using these as basis. The historical constructs show beliefs and attitudes prevalent at that time. Human behaviour is not predictable or constant phenomenon (Ringer, 1997, p110). There are always individual elements associated with it. Weber had maintained that we keep ourselves to certain aspects of reality while exclude other since the chosen aspects are relevant to our values. We thus reduce the complexity of data by constructing abstract concepts containing only

Causes and impacts of the UK currency devaluation Essay

Causes and impacts of the UK currency devaluation - Essay Example ng the currency with the fourth highest trading volume in the foreign exchange market behind the US dollar, the euro, and the Japanese yen respectively (Pan). The sterling has been generally regarded as one of the high value based currency reserves of the world. Its value, in respect to the other currencies, has been on the higher side. This has been because of various reasons, one of the main being the good and reliable financial markets that the United Kingdom is able to offer to investors worldwide. Due to the stability within the UK, and the ensuing level of trust, it has been able to attract massive inflows because of the bourses and financial markets, particularly in London, providing burgeoning returns. The high value further, allowed greater consumption by the people of the United Kingdom, allowing greater imports and out of country vacations. The current financial crisis however sees the Pound Sterling being drastically devalued. In recent months, the Sterlings decline in value in relation to the euro is interpreted by economists and some political elements within the United Kingdom as evidence of diminishing faith in the British economy on worldwide currency markets. Political elements, especially those belonging to the liberal side have rushed to blame the policies of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the collapse in the Sterling’s value (Heffer). Sources close to the treasury hinted that the decision in the pre-Budget report to increase borrowing to fund reduction in taxes had led to a downturn in economic confidence and thus had affected willingness of people to spend, ultimately leading to the drop in the Pound. A Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman observed that while the decrease in interest rates had been the main reason behind the fall in the sterling’s value, it was supplemented by the expectation that the rates would decline even further (Heffer). The sterling fell almost 17 per cent compared with the euro in 2008 as the Bank of England

Do the courts (judges) make policy Should they Essay

Do the courts (judges) make policy Should they - Essay Example This has made it possible to make rulings that are up to the time, and work in favor of the situation at hand. Judicial activism should exist in order to allow courts make decisions without fear of reprisal or reprimand from policy makers, who tend to pass the buck whenever things are tough. It is sometimes difficult to put the blame on judges once they make a ruling on certain cases, especially after being thrown some of the hardest choices in legislations they sometimes have to contend with. Policy makers are always quick to spinelessly punt the courts with the toughest legislations hoping that they might make decisions to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, they are the first individuals to criticize and chastise the courts for their efforts whenever things go awry. The formulation of ambiguous legislation in most areas of the United States is what leads individuals to believe that judicial activism should exist in order to bring some sanity to the justice system. It is my belief that the courts (judges) make policy in a bid to shed some light on some of the ambiguous statutes that exist (Taylor, 2009). This paper will examine how judicial activism is exhibited in most courts, and how this aids the judicial system in its everyday functions. Every time a judge makes decisions based on the ambiguous statutes passed by the legislature, or gives contradicting facts about certain issues, the court (judge) is said to be engaging in judicial activism. For every defendant that is sent to trial, judicial activism comes into play. The truth of the matter is courts, especially courts of appeal, deal with numerous and countless ambiguous legislations. This means that in the passing of judgment, it may be next to impossible to pinpoint which area exactly the law should be implemented, and how it should be applied (Stone, 2012). In most cases, there is a lot to interpret, which means that judges have to make the call on what

A Public-Private Education Controversy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

A Public-Private Education Controversy - Essay Example t the slight private school advantage discovered by Coleman vanished when differences in pupils’ course preference and family context were considered (Cookson, 1992). John Chubb and Terry Moe are the current sources of ‘impartial evidence’ of the superiority of private school. Numerous policymakers and opinion-editorial writers have reiterated their argument as dogma, and large numbers of people have been convinced of public assistance for private schools on their influence (Hakim et al., 1994). As analytical writers and peer analysts have emphasized, the study of Chubb and Moe of private and public high schools falls short in locating a private school lead when pupils’ course preferences and background attributes are examined. The failure of the investigation of Chubb and Moe to provide them substantiation for their arguments is not that unexpected. The proof they draw upon originates entirely from the ‘High School and Beyond Study’, the infor mation that also botched Coleman’s study (Hakim et al., 1994, 66). Furthermore, in spite of the many pages they used on justifying why their treatment of this information is superior over the methodologies of other researchers, Chubb and Moe disregard almost all that has been taught about how to ethically deal with significantly erroneous, otherwise insignificant, information (Cookson, 1992). Yet, they chose to work unconventionally. Some of their questionable methods are (Hakim et al., 1994, 66): (1) developing a school organization instrument consisting of a large number of factors, making it practically unattainable to isolate the impacts of any one factor; (2) merging private and exclusive private schools alongside Catholic ones in a manner that involuntarily awarded a private school lead in their study; (3) and... School choice could be an exceptional encouragement for schools to strive more to draw the attention of customers but it is no replacement for planning educational motivations where in there are incentives for enhancing academic performance and sanctions for failure. The notion of an accountability mechanism for education institutions that includes incentives and sanctions is contentious and unconventional. The notion of an accountability mechanism founded on private school choice is contentious and unconventional too, and the NAEP and other findings reveal that it would fail. It is quite evident that even though the people refuse to accept private school choice, it will not cope with the existing situation in public education. There are two possibilities: one, there will be a novel form of accountability process in education that the educator and the people can trust, or, second, some unwise accountability program that will only harm education will be enforced.

Pet owners who eat meat Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pet owners who eat meat - Case Study Example This law come to the aid of those people who get infected by the infected people purposefully. A concern in regards to this issue comes with a thought provocation as to whether the law shall help in preventing the spread of the disease or the passage of the law shall escalate the spread of HIV/AIDS. The disease has been on the increase since the time it was recognized in the early 1980s. since then, its prevalence rate has escalated though to some extent the medics have tried containing it all along. There has been invention of drugs that can contain the harmful effects of the viruses (Kalichman, 76). The discovery of the antiretroviral has helped in prolonging the life of the infected people. Medics and researchers are also on the lookout researching the mechanisms through, which this disease could be cured. The criminalization of the intentional spread of HIV is not a new concept. The same law is in effect in states such as Illinois, Arizona, and in so many other states and nations in the world have adopted the same law to help curb the spread of HIV and AIDS. The cost of HIV and AIDS is too high. Living with the condition is awesomely high and the trauma of handling the disease is just unbearable though manageable. It would be unfair for one to subject another person to the same condition knowingly. One would therefore have to make a choice because the law would charge one with the responsibility of being free with their sexual partner in regards to their sexually transmitted infections. Failure of which one would be left with dares consequences and choices to make. The probable choices and conditions available for not revealing one’s status would be choosing to go to prison, loose one’s job, and the government housing. The law also would pose psychological effects on people; such issues that may cause stigma and self-concepts. One would feel humiliated and deprived of the right of health privacy (Kalichman, 24). The law also would penetrate th e cultural spheres and create a society where there is not private health information. People would thus be compelled to share their health status without hiding anything from another. There are issues that must be taken care of with the passage of this law lets people shy away from taking the test to hanker on ignorance of their status. There should be incentives associated with testing and in the event one is found HIV positive, the federal government should offer the infected person some incentives. The incentives should include giving of tax breaks and exempting one from heavy work backlog without reducing the pay. The law should also be molded to offer a manageable punishment to the already infected people who have knowingly transmitted the disease to other to prevent causing more harm to a person who has already be harmed by the fangs of the virus. The table below shows the pros and cons of passing the bill into law Pros Cons Option 1: Passing bill that would criminalize the k nowing transmission of an STD -More likely to inform partner, thus decreasing spread (C, A, V) -Medical advances would evolved quicker because the virus would not evolve as fast with less transmissions (C) -Allows person B to protect themselves ( -Less likely to be tested so in case of transmission, it would be unknowing (C) -Economic burden on state (C) -stigma/negative stereotypes that go along with STD’s increase (E) -Violate right to privacy (R) (HOWEVER, right to live trumps right to privacy ie antithesis for this point) -Takes

My views on the future Essay Example for Free

My views on the future Essay This paper presents a concise overview of my views on the future. My personal vision will be based on current socio-economic trends being exhibited within my surroundings, lifestyle trends, individuality and community. Lastly, the vision being presented in the succeeding text will be explained as to why it is necessary for this vision to be actualized. This paper is focused on my vision for my country of origin. It is my firm belief that my countrymen would not give up on their country and my countrymen have the capacity and will build an empowered country. This can be achieved by a continued commitment of everyone’s collective genius, passion and strength in accordance to being able to put to order the dignity and actualize the potential of the poor and powerless for excellence (â€Å"Thinking About the Future†). This is based on the fact that everyone’s spirit as a nation is rising and is becoming strong again. It has been discovered by every man woman and child that is part of this my country has the capacity to liberate himself/herself from the shackles of the past, the label that has hounded them for generations, and the mark of a third world country stamped all over the nation. They have the capacity to become law abiding, truly hardworking, honest and excellent in everything that they commit themselves to do. My country can have a sustainable environment and can constitute a firm foundation for the future of this nation. We can further our capacity to provide dignity to most of our countrymen in the future. It is my personal vision that our country can provide equal opportunity to all of our countrymen, thus providing them with the capacity to empower themselves and give them more choices in life. It is a proven fact that the writer’s countrymen are not known for their laziness. T has been identified that when compared to other ethnic group in other countries. Their determination in order to achieve financial stability in other countries can be seen in their ability to do seemingly impossible tasks such as taking two and even three jobs at a given period. My countrymen are tough tested, they are hardworking when they are highly motivated, they resilient when they are tested (â€Å"Key Social and Political Trends†). We have to believe that our country is destined for greatness and that they deserve more than what is currently being accorded to them. We must believe that we were designed for excellence. All around the world, doctors from my country heal the sick. The seamen originating from my country continually dominate the seas in whatever mode of marine transport – either for commerce or for pleasure. Even in the thriving economies carry the mark of my countrymen bearing the managerial expertise for the international corporations (â€Å"Thinking About the Future†). On the other hand, although we are top of the line, creme de la creme and can be considered as the best of the best in other parts of the world however it is exactly the opposite in the my homeland. But even as Globalization has created venues where the most promising of my countrymen are given the opportunity to grow, large majorities are still left behind (â€Å"Ideas about Manipulating Nature†). If the country can ever be rescued from this perpetual poverty and plight, it is important for everyone to stop this inanity and hypocrisy. This country should step up and stop cracking jokes about the perpetual shame and misery our countrymen have continually experienced and endured. Instead of what was previously mentioned, our countrymen should be able to celebrate with our hard work and integrity the coming return of our country’s dignity and our country’s honor and pride as a gifted people, blessed by God with this blessed and bountiful country. This country and its countrymen should be able to honor each and every honorable and nationalist deed, every heartfelt and unselfish sacrifice, and every uncompromising kindness that this country’s populace has given to our brethren that are disadvantaged and are in need of support and companionship (â€Å"Thinking About the Future†). It is important then to finish once and for all this on going lamentation. The country and its people have undergone so much suffering for as long as all of our countrymen can remember. For more than a four centuries this country has been clenching its teeth for change, always blaming each other, bringing each other down in order to progress their selfish vendettas and more than that continued to point God as the main reason for all the country’s problems and tribulations (â€Å"Key Social and Political Trends†). Now is the time for this country’s people to focus on collaborative work, unity and collective effort into bringing this nation back on its feet. It is true that there is a capacity for this nation to rise up once again if there is a continued option for this nation’s people to nurture this emerging spirit or renewed faith and resilience. In order to do so, this country can show love by being able to express their love for the almighty by being able to provide the necessary support for our countrymen. This kind of paradigm shift is mainly about being able to provide the necessary love and justice to provide in a country that a strong majority of this country’s population have no proper shelter and millions more are living in artificial homes – shanties where they face hunger and are exposed to disease on a daily basis. Corruption is rife within the government and even with corporations, the environment has yet to reach a point of sustainability that can ensure a brighter and sustainable environment for our future(â€Å"Key Social and Political Trends†). This country would be able to break from its bondage of this current paradigm if we have a collective Unitarian line of thought, if we see our children as heir to their own riches but in actuality are the heirs of our country’s present and future. It is only with a shift in mindset that people consider the poor as their own, they are able to see Christ’s being within each and everyone and within their family and see a potential for heaven on earth for every of our countrymen that can be emancipated from this current paradigm (â€Å"Lifestyle Trends†). The vision for the future looks bright as people are given proper homes, sustainable environments to support their daily needs, and communities where they can live in, they are given the proper dignity that they deserve and provide a spark within them in that can be used as a jumping point for other initiatives for progress and a change in lifestyle amongst the people. Confidence and self-respect of our countrymen that are given the appropriate shelter and homes are returned and is increased dramatically (â€Å"Lifestyle Trends†). Their initiative to do more and legal jobs and roles are increased and they have a generally positive look towards the future. The desire of our countrymen to have more legal and equivalent lifestyles is equally amazing. It is clear that the spirit of the poor will be continually rising because of the reason that all of us consider everyone part of a larger chain and that everyone is acknowledged as an equal – no rich, no poor, everyone is given the dignity they deserve (â€Å"Key Social and Political Trends†). Everyone is given a chance to live as humans. More than just houses, medical groups are also on the move in creating not just houses but at the same time hospitals and medical centers available to all and those that do not have direct access to medical services. This kind of love for our country has already spread throughout the world due to our countrymen overseas. It is with this that we can utilize effectively globalization and technology to bring our countrymen working overseas home closer. Our countrymen that are working abroad are now starting to deliver a stream of financial support that will further augment further our current economic standing. All the signs of development are evident and are happening now. Christians around the communities of our country’s Moslem groups have set aside their inhibitions and misconceptions and initiated community development projects with our Moslem brethren for unity and collective effort. Students of our colleges and universities are going out of the classrooms to learn about life and what â€Å"Love for God and Country† really means as it is applied in our nation (â€Å"Lifestyle Trends†). Local government units are already hard at work in conducting massive infrastructure projects in unison with other Filipinos, rich or poor, Christian or Moslem in order to further stem out the impaling poverty that has racked this nation for a better half of its history (â€Å"Ideas about Manipulating Nature†). The youth today have a greater responsibility in this. It is my vision for the youth of today to take up the call of nation-building. The youth of today have the option and the opportunity ready for the taking in order to correct the mistakes that were done by the previous generations. They have the opportunity in order to build a far better future that is full of hope for this country. They can be neophyte political leaders that can break the seemingly perpetual graft and corruption that has plagued our nation and can gain support from the people. The youth of today can be tomorrow’s business leaders that create profit by using their conscience and their faith in God as their basis for doing business, they can provide jobs to the needy yet experienced and give them the opportunities for further development that they deserve. I believe that we as a nation and its countrymen have compromised our core values shamed our fallen heroes and have continually tolerated the incompetence of our corrupt leaders long enough. We have compromised our ethical values based on a religion that does not consider compromise as part of its religion. This country has lowered tremendously its standards and has continually seen poverty and gave it a blind eye. This country has lost its grip over its future and its people have started to choose despair over hope. It is my vision that my countrymen can stand up and fight. It is my personal vision that my countrymen should be able to confront this country’s enemies, tangible or intangible, foreign or domestic, regardless of the odds. I believe in a future that can further provide a venue for a sustainable environment for us and for our future. In addition, I believe that with the current socio-economic trend, we can be able to fully maximize and optimize the spread of Globalization throughout the world (â€Å"Ideas about Manipulating Nature†). Lastly I believe in the vision that the youth of today are the generation of patriots that will be able to stop this country’s uncontrollable spin towards poverty and corruption and bring it back to its feet, and breathe life and reinvigorate this once illustrious nation and bring back the pride of its countrymen. REFERENCES: Thinking About the Future, (n. d. ), University of Maryland University College Key Social and Political Trends, (n. d. ), University of Maryland University College. Lifestyle Trends: Individual and Community (n. d. ), University of Maryland University College. Ideas about Manipulating Nature (n. d. ), University of Maryland University College Key Social and Political Trends (n. d. ), University of Maryland University College

The Psychology of Family Resilience Essay Example for Free

The Psychology of Family Resilience Essay At the start of the discussion of â€Å"Family Resilience: Israeli Mothers’ Perspectives†, the meaning of the term resilience was presented by Cohen, et. al as defined by different authors. Resilience, according to the Cohen et al, is an â€Å"adverse situation experienced by children with risk present†, which later developed to â€Å"a process of successful coping with risk† (Anderson, 1997 as cited by Cohen et al, 2002). Another description that was cited was by Valentine Feinauer (1994), â€Å"resilience as dimension of growth and development and related to the ability of the family to bounce back, to survive, to overcome their difficulties and to improve†. Summing up the different description of resilience by different authors, family resilience is how family members manage to cope with the presence of stressful events. The main objective of the study is to investigate how women in stressed family systems identify and understand family resilience in Israel which is believed to have a strong stand on family closeness and protection; and is a contribution to studies and researches done in the psychology of resilience. The method used has an assumption that people tend to select what experience they wanted to talk about and produce something out of that experience. The sample included fifteen Israeli mothers, having children below eighteen years of age, who had experienced a crisis such as death, accident or illness for the past year were interviewed at their own houses using Hebrew as the language from one to four hours. The manner of interviewing managed to extract respondent’s feelings towards the stressful event. Questions regarding the â€Å"stressful event, meanings towards the experience, description of family healing and definition of family resilience† (Cohen et al, 2002) were asked off the respondent. The analysis of the data was done by each of the author using the grounded theory methods with constant comparative method and open, axial, and selective coding. With open coding, relevant ideas were identified from the research questions, while axial coding uses the ideas from open coding in order to extract useful quotations and selective coding focuses on the reduction of categories to be able to achieve theoretical saturation wherein â€Å"no new or relevant data seems to emerge† (Cohen et al, 2002). Findings were categorized to: expressiveness, connectedness, flexibility, optimism and family values. These five categories had helped, as admitted by the respondents, in the process of healing from a stressful event even though some of the family members find it hard manage or lack these categories ended up with a rating of low family resilience. Cohen et al (2002) mentioned that it is important to have communication and openness during crisis to be able to overpower the condition. The categories presented by the authors in which the results of the interviews were sorted out positively to encourage respondents. With the presence of expressiveness, connectedness, flexibility, optimism and family values, an improved communication within family members might occur. And as a result each of the members of the family will end up finding ways helping one another to overcome certain crisis. Communication and openness within family members will sooner improve the present relationship of members. Since they are more open with each other closer ties will be binding them up. An article entitled â€Å"Children of a parent with a mental illness: perspectives on need† examined different points of view, the parent, the children and the mental professional; with the issues of children whose parents are experiencing mental illness. This study’s objectives are as follows: the examination of different viewpoints on the issue and the determination of perspective differences through separate interviews of children and parents. In order to meet these objectives, authors used two components for the methodology. The first one is establishing focus groups for both parents and children and the other one is creating a questionnaire to be able to quantify the coping strategies of children given that their parents with mental illness are hospitalized. Questions were made in order to pursue positive discussions and facilitators were chosen based on understanding of mental health and research. Results for parent focus groups were categorized into seven as enumerated by the authors: (1) issues around major mental health episodes, (2) importance of siblings, (3) children coping mechanisms, (4) external support for children with a parent that has mental illness, (5) education for children who have a parent with a mental illness, (6) community education, and (7) respite. On the other, the authors also mentioned the categorized result for the children focus groups as the following: (1) issues on major mental health episodes of the parent’s illness, (2) importance of siblings, (3) children coping strategies, (4) importance of friendship and (5) taking on extra roles when the parent is unwell. There would really be changes in the way children would be living their every day lives having a parent with mental illness. The situation they are in at present might trigger the same effect on the children since they can see what happens with their parent. They may end up thinking that they will somehow acquire the same illness as their parent. During times of hospitalization of the parent, children must have someone who fully understood the illness to provide the children a thorough explanation of what had happened and why the parent has to be hospitalized. The presence of friends of the same age will also be a great help to lure away their minds from the situation and made them enjoy their childhood. Having friends around may temporary take them away from pursuing adult roles. The journal articles presented both have problems that needed solutions that may help the respondents. The method used by both studies was interview and/or questionnaire. And at the end of the discussion, authors point out some things that might be able to help the affected people respond and manage their situation. Cohen et al mentioned that communication among family members is important while Mayberry et al specified that young people should know how to manage their own lives than to rely to the people around them for support. The article â€Å"Family Resilience: Israeli Mothers’ Perspective gathered the information needed from mothers, as interviewees, from a family that had recently experienced a stressful event. On the other hand, the article â€Å"Children of a parent with mental illness: perspectives on need† acquired data from both children and parents, as respondents, from a family with a parent having mental illness.  Scientific evidences were provided by authors of both articles that they mentioned what methods they have used and done to interpret the data and get the results. In conclusion, both the articles dealt with family problems and how the members are able to cope and adjust from their present situation. The difference of the two articles is on which family member they had focused on, Cohen and his colleagues focused on mothers while Mayberry and his colleagues focused on children and parent (not mentioning which parent is involve or has mental illness).

Facilitation Theory Or The Humanist Approach?

Facilitation Theory Or The Humanist Approach? Teaching and learning today are completely different from yesterday because we are facing the challenges of changes in higher education for the future prosperity with todays young students and their readiness to take up these challenges to face up to the coming centuries. Understanding teaching and learning is not easy, not something that can be based on the representation of what has been perceived or limited to a few methodological prescriptions. In this chapter, we are going to go back and shed light on some theories of learning to understand better to what extent teaching is related to learning and how they can impact in society. 1.1 languages Teaching and Learning Language teaching and learning still requires much effort to be stored in individuals mind perfectly. It should have acquired an appreciation of the values of a broad range of intellectual disciplines such as linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and mainly applied linguistics as well as general detailed knowledge. So, how can language pass on these disciplines to become dynamic and pragmatic in use? To answer this question, let us see what Campells theory depicts, in figure 1 below, about the relationship between three disciplines: linguistics, applied linguistics and pedagogy. Campbell ( 1980:7) says: The relation between the language sciences and language teaching has emerged as one of the key issues in the development of a language teaching theory à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦For him: Applied linguistics is the mediator between the practitioner and the theorist.. See Fundamental concepts of language teaching book of H.H.Stern,(1983:36) Linguistics Applied linguistics Pedagogy Theoretician Mediator Practitioner Figure1 Campells model of the relationship between theory and practice According to Campells theory starting from linguistics, the scientific study of language, alone is not enough to get an effective relation between pedagogy and linguistics. The latter requires much practice to relate theory to practice and make language more effective. For that reason, to consolidate the three disciplines, Campell included three extra elements to his conceptual framework. These elements are psychology, sociology and anthropology. Campells model of the relationship between theory and practice made Spolsky( 1980:72) argued and then modified Campbells theory .For Spolsky, sociolinguistics discipline is very interesting to achieve a good result in the relation between theoreticians and practitioner. He divided language teaching into three main sources: Language description: General Linguistics Language teaching: psychology for the theory of learning and psycholinguistics for the theory of language learning Language use in society : sociolinguistics What we can understand from Sposkys theory language teaching is an interesting amalgam of disciplines, each one contributes to educational language in practice and the focus here is on the educational language. Pragmatically speaking, according to many people the understanding of language is not only learning theories but it is also our reflection and thinking of knowing to what extent can be these theories impact on the teaching of language. The theories are different of how we learn, and they are useful and ready for how students learn and also how teachers teach. Each one of them, student and teachers, has own way of thinking of own different way of learning. So who are we in these theories? And what are these theories? To answer these questions let us see some fundamental theories of learning: 1.2.1 Reinforcement Theory This theory was developed by the behaviourist school of psychology, notably by B.F. Skinner (Laird 1985, Burns 1995). Laird (1985) sees this aspect of behaviourism not relevant to education. It is about some positive and negative tasks the learners made in his daily life. This theory requires much Competency Based Training ( henceforth, CBT), It is useful in learning repetitive tasks like multiplication tables and those work skills that require a great deal of practice but higher order learning is not involved in it. The criticism of this approach is that it is rigid and mechanical (Burns 1995). 1.1.3 Cognitive-Gestalt Approaches The focus in this theory is on the importance of experience, meaning, problem-solving and the development of insights (Burns 1995, p 112). Burns notes that this theory has developed the concept that individuals differ from one to another, they have different concerns at different times with different subjective interpretations in different contexts. This theory is very close to learners to get themselves in learning language by knowing to what extent they are different from each other. It is also very close to the learners characteristics of today (for more details see chapter 3) 1.1.4 Holistic Learning Theory The basic understanding of this theory is that the focus is on the composition of the individual personality which consists of many elementsspecifically the intellect, emotions, the body impulse (or desire), intuition and imagination (Laird,1985, p 121) that all require activation if learning is to be effective. This theory is about a complementary theory to Cognitive-Gestalt approaches. 1.1.5 Experiential learning In this theory, Kolbs research found that people learn in four ways in learning (McGill Beaty 1995). The ways are as follows: Concrete experience Testing implications of Observations and Reflections concepts in new situations Formation of abstract concepts and generalization Figure 1 the Experiential Learning Model (Kolb, 1981) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Learning through concrete experience à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Learning through observation and reflection à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Learning through abstract conceptualization à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Learning through active experimentation In discussing these theories, we confirm from the educational researchers concept that learners are different in their way of learning. Kolb, one of these educational researchers whose interests are involved in proving that learner, individually, can choose any style and way of learning which reflects his behaviour to act in learning which is the link between him and his society through actions and reflective process (McGill Beaty 1995). This theory confirms Spolskys argument ( 1980:72) 1.1.6 Facilitation Theory or the Humanist Approach Carl Rogers and others have developed the theory of facilitative learning. The basic introduction to this theory is that learning will occur by the educator acting as a facilitator, that is by establishing an atmosphere in which learners feel comfortable to consider new ideas and are not threatened by external factors (Laird 1985). Other characteristics of this theory include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Human beings must be eager to learn (prompt willingness) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Human beings must be curious to learn (curiosity) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ To change on selfs concept we must be involved in a significant learning. ( flexibility and readiness). Carl and Rogers see that: The Characteristics of Facilitative Teachers are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They are not more protective of their beliefs than other teachers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They are affectionate they are all listening to learners, especially to their feelings à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ They are much attentive to their relationship with learners in the classroom. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ be open-minded and apt to accept feedback, whether positive or negative and to use it as a reflective and constructive insight into themselves and their behaviours. Some of these characteristics do fit our changes into innovative and modern teachers but others still to be modified according to our readiness for being autonomous teachers. In this work, we are going to focus on the changes from the traditional, affectionate and facilitative teachers into modern teachers. The characteristics of learners: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Must be courageous, autonomous and responsible for their own learning à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Must care and provide much information (input) for the learning which occurs through their deep perception (insights) and experiences. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ are encouraged to evaluate themselves before their teachers and to be aware of their learning needs to focus on what factors may contribute to achieving significant results. These characteristics are mandatory and required in the new systems implementation. To understand better this theory which impacts strongly our work we must understand the relationship between teachers and learners or in another words between learning and teaching as well as the strategies made to enhance this relationship. So what is learning and what is teaching? And what is the relationship between them. Teaching is to get and pass on knowledge while learning is to acquire this knowledge by studies; it is also the process where knowledge is created through transformation of experience (see page 3 David Kolb 1981). It seems that the relation between them is very strong and interrelated. From these definitions, we can also understand that the relationships between teaching and learning lead to the best academic achievement for students having the desire to acquire learning language which represents an individuals receptive cognition to learning different tasks depend on the context (Peterson, et al., 2009). It is an input which differs from one individual to another depends on the teachers in regard to what type of information is most effective. The concept that students and teachers have different competence that vary from one to another to learning and teaching language in different styles and ways lead theoreticians and practitioners, those who are responsible for curriculum control and revision, to think of the curriculum framework, i.e. how to be in charge of approaches and systems to structure teaching language and planned in the curriculum frame work. The curriculum is now very interesting to empower both learners and teachers to develop their potential in knowledge. So, what is Curriculum? Who are responsible for planning it? And what is it for? To respond to these questions we need first understand the curriculum meaning. 1.2 What is Curriculum? The curriculum is concerned with two terms teaching and learning, i.e. what is given in learning and teaching, and how they take place. What teachers teach or learners learn comprises aims, strategy, knowledge, skills and outcomes of learning students are intended to make obvious. The how of the curriculum concern teaching/learning methodology, teaching strategies and media resources. The curriculum has been changed due to changes in systems implementation such as CBA, LMD and ICTs integration in the classroom. The latter needs some cases of the invention of new technology to modify the content and enlarge knowledge to make a good curriculum. The systems , CBA, LMD and ICTs integration, in many ways can be seen to be affecting the curriculum both in terms of content and methodology. Further, we mean by the word curriculum run a Course, i.e. it describes a series of steps in teaching and learning specific contents. It is also considered as a sequence of learning experiences; the fact of these definitions that without curriculum none can control the individual students experiences. Thus through curriculum students can be provided with opportunities to learn a specific content. From the latter, we can understand also that the suitable definition to the curriculum is a sequence learning opportunities given to students in their study for specific purposes. A sequence of learning opportunities cannot be seen but it can be planned and made through the classroom activities. Thus, curriculum appears in different aspects which exist in textbooks for specific contents to facilitate teaching and make teachers efficient to pave this sequence of learning opportunities for students. It is actually made to develop learners competence; herein we are speaking about the importance of curriculum development 1.3 The Importance of Curriculum Development The importance of curriculum development appears in its focus on knowledge transmission and skills development in regard with competency based language teaching (henceforth CBLT) or learning outcomes. That is to say, working on the four skills (reading, speaking, writing and listening), knowledge and attitudes make effective teaching strategies. In relation to CBLT, Docking says that: CBLT [Competency-Based Language Teaching] is designed not around the notion of subject knowledge but around the notion of competency. The focus moves from what students know about language to what they can do with it. The focus on competencies or learning outcomes underpins the curriculum framework and syllabus specification, teaching strategies and assessment. (Docking, 1994: 16) From the above quotation basing on what have been already said, we can understand that Competencies focus on four main parameters appears in the following: Learning outcomes Curriculum Syllabus Teaching strategies (a course) Assessment Figure 1: The Main Parameters of Learning Outcomes or Competencies Figure one represents the relationship between curriculum and its aspects (syllabus, teaching strategies and assessment) in regard with learning outcomes. These four fundamental concepts help theoreticians and practitioners to define the context in relation to the students needs about the curriculum framework which is clearly related to students learning needs. To respond to learning needs and CBLT the curriculum planning must take care of the following points: Setting: Students number, age, gender, purpose, education Aim: Type and purpose of course, mandatory and required tests . Materials needed or available: text, books, e- books, magazines, articles or computers, laptops with their connection to the net and so forth. Time: How many hours, day of week, time of day. These four points can also be viewed as part of syllabus. The latter is very important to design a course that must focus on the needs of learning outcomes. Herein, to understand more the concepts given let us have a look at what is a course in regard with syllabus or vice versa. 1.3.1 Course A course is an integrated series of teaching-learning experiences, whose ultimate aim is to lead the learners to a particular state of knowledge. (Hutchinson and Waters 1996: 65) The distinction between a curriculum and a course is important because some of the areas of concern in curriculum development as: societal needs analysis, testing for placement purposes or program wide evaluation may be out of the hands of teachers who are developing courses (Richards, 2001). 1.3.2 Syllabuses Syllabus is a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level Dubin Olshtain, (1997: 28), Syllabus is essentially a statement of what should be taught, year by year through language syllabuses often also contain points about the method of teaching and the time to be taken (Lee 1980:108). Another opinion is that that Syllabus is a more detailed and operational statement of teaching and learning elements which translates the philosophy of the curriculum into a series of planned steps leading towards more narrowly defined objectives at each level Dubin Olshtain, (1997: 28). Syllabuses are more localized and are based on accounts and records of what actually happens at the classroom level. Given these definitions it is suggested that it seems helpful to define a curriculum and a syllabus as separate entities. To conclude we can now ensure that we can see syllabus design as part of course design, they are complementary and parts of curriculum whose importance appears also in the following: The educational purpose of the program. The content teaching procedures and learning experience which will be necessary to achieve this purpose .(the means) Some means for assessing whether or not the educational ends have been achieved. ( Richards, Platt and Platt 1993: 94) From these most significant points Allen sees that: Curriculum is a very general concept which involves consideration of the whole complex of philosophical, social and administrative factors which contribute to the planning of an educational program. (Allen quoted in Nunan, 2000: 6) Thus, it is the change of instructions in teaching and learning in all over the world. For that reason, most developing countries institutions among them Algerian institutions have amended and revised their curricula in another words their syllabuses, methods, approaches and systems to respond to the world requirements, taking into account the various factors( external or internal) that influence learning process. To understand more this policy of education we must understand its basic notions in the structural education such as competencies or learning outcomes, syllabus, course, assessment and curriculum. Today, there are many of teachers and students who think that curriculum is syllabus; in fact, syllabus is a part of a curriculum. It describes the content of a course .i.e. It shows the content of what is going to be taught including a set of knowledge and skills. Herein, the importance of presenting the basic notions education is to go over the global changes and structures of the various disciplines to learn from others and to be apt to know what others think of us. In addition to curriculum development made by policy makers which enables learning to take place, during the course of study, in terms of knowledge and skills, teachers should highlight the main syllabus to present the main learning and methods and to provide the learners with resources and equipments to support the effective teaching of the course. In this case the teacher notion must focus on how to structure the knowledge to be well received by learners. The following quotation ensures our saying the learning structure through teaching. Teaching is knowledge transmission, management of learning. The teacher is a decision maker, provider of learning structure, collaborator, and resource. (Adapted from Graves 2000: 31) Our aim from understanding the curriculum development and its importance is to ensure a successful and effective teaching of the language through official curriculum delivered by policy makers to be implemented in schools and universities. Implementing such curriculum requires much effort to respond to the learners needs and competence. Algeria as one of developing countries and a multilingual schooling is in the process of growing out of its historical roots run riot to make changes in educational policy encouraging the education ministry to revise, modify and update the curriculum for basic education, particularly in basic education programs. Speaking about changes in educational programs and organizing content lead us to think of the CBA approach and LMD system that are the fundamental concepts, today, of the curriculum whose interests are in organizing and exploring learners competence (knowledge and skills). They both work on input (data/ knowledge) and outcomes. The question to be raised here what are these implementations? These systems implementations are CBA approach in primary and secondary schools and LMD system in universities. 1.4 Historical Background about CBA In 1973, the word competency was introduced to psychology literature when David McClelland argued in his article Testing for competence rather than for intelligence that neither job performance nor success can be got through old and traditional tests of academic discipline. Thus, the search for theory and tools that could unfailingly see coming effectiveness in the workplace began (McClelland, 1973). In1982 it was Boyatzis who first drew together comprehensive data that had been collected inthe USA using the McBer Company Job Competence Assessment method. Since then, competency has become a significant factor in HR development practices (Simpson, 2002). The word competency comes from a Latin word meaning suitable (Bueno Tubbs, 2004). Boyatzis (1982) defines a competency as an underlying characteristic of a person which results in effective and/or superior performance in a job (p. 97). According to Boyatzis (1982) a job competency represents ability. An individuals set of Contemporary Management Research 49 competencies reflect their capability or what they can do. A job competency may be a motive, trait, skill, aspect of ones self-image or social role, or a body of knowledge that an individual uses, and the existence and possession of these characteristics may or may not be known to the individual. Similarly, Mitrani et al. (1992) state that competencies could be motives, traits, self-concepts, attitudes or values, content knowledge, or cognitive or behavioral skills. A competency is an individual characteristic that can be measured or counted reliably and that can be shown to differentiate significantly between superior and average performers, or between effective and ineffective performers. Meanwhile, competency can be described as a set of behavior patterns that an incumbent needs to bring to a position in order to perform its tasks and functions in the delivery of desired results or outcomes (Bartram, et. al, 2002; Woodruffe, 1992). Spencer and Spencer (1993) viewed competency as an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation (p. 9). They recognized five types of competency characteristics consisting of motives, traits, self-concept, knowledge and skills. First, motives are the things that an individual consistently thinks about or wants that stimulate action. Motives drive, direct and select behavior toward certain actions or goals and away from others. Second, traits are physical characteristics and consistent responses to situations or information. Third, self-concept is an individuals attitudes, values or self-image. Fourth, knowledge is the information that an individual has in specific content areas. Finally, skill is the ability to perform a certain physical or mental task. Knowledge and skill competencies tend to be visible and relatively surface characteristics, whereas self-concept, traits and motive competencies are more hidden, deeper and central to personality. Surface knowledge and skill competencies are relatively easy to develop and training is the most cost-effective way to secure those employee abilities (Spencer Spencer, 1993). Figure 1 illustrates central and surface competencies. Knowledge Attitudes, Values Trait Motive Surface: Most easily developed Core Personality: Most difficult to develop Skill Knowledge Self-Concept Trait Motive T Skill Knowledge Self-concept Trait Motive tr The Iceberg Visible Hidden Figure 1 The Iceberg Model and Central and Surface Competencies Source: Spencer and Spencer (1993: 11) In other words, visible competencies such as knowledge and skills may be somewhat technical competencies basically required by the job, whereas hidden competencies such as self-concept, traits and motives are behavioral competencies that drive an individuals performance in the job. Boyatzis (1982) states that motive and trait competencies have the most direct impact on self-concept and also have an impact on skill. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO, 2002) defines competency as a set of skills, related knowledge and attributes that allow an individual to perform a task or activity within a specific function or job. If an individual possesses these three elements of competency they can effectively perform duties as required by the specific job. From the wide range of related literature, the definition of competency can be summarized as an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/or superior performance in a job or situation. Job competency is a set of behavior patterns that a job incumbent needs to bring to a position in order to perform its tasks and functions with competence. A job competency can be a motive, trait, skill, self-concept, body of knowledge or an attribute that allows an individual to perform a task or activity within a specific function or job. 1.4 The Implementation of the CBA Approach in the Algerian Classroom The CBA approach has been adopted by the Algerian education ministry to be integrated in the primaries and secondary school to improve teaching and learning. It is imposed on both teachers and learners to explore their competence and roles in lifecycle. A competency based approach is a new reform contributes to better the learners knowledge situations that may varied in a range of skills. The CBA is closely related to a context-of-use. In other words, students will be good learners to use language effectively in their lifecycle by drawing a map to master what they have learned in schools. 1.5 The reasons of the CBA Approach Implementation in the Classroom The reasons why the Algerian authoritarians those who are responsible for educational policy implement the CBA approach in the primary and secondary school classrooms is to develop students linguistic and problem-solving capacities that will make students to deal with different tasks cognitively and pragmatically challenging any difficult situation in the classroom. It will also make learners autonomous and see learning as an essential process for both their studies and their future. So it is implemented in schools because it is a productive approach basing on what the learners are expected to do rather than on what they are expected to learn about. 1.6 The Characteristics of the CB Approach The CBA approach enables learners to check their capacity to overcome obstacles and problems; it is problem- solving approaches that make learners think of well doing. It is a creative use of a newly constructive knowledge. Moreover, it characteristics can be listed as follows: It makes students challengers to endure and encounter all kind of complexity and ambiguity in learning. It is about reflection, self-assessment, and performance review are fully integrated into the exercise. As a result, challenge becomes success. Collaboration in teamwork is essential to the effective learning experience. It enables students competence to affect the world beyond the classroom and to make contributions that are valued by professional and experts. It provides learners with information based on assessment tasks. It is based on authentic language proficiency across sociolinguistic context. It reveals the learners innateness. It is usable for instruction and curriculum adaptation to the learners needs. It is based on the outcomes as in Schencks saying: It is outcome-based and is adaptive to the changing needs of students, teachers and the community à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ competencies differ from other students goals and objectives in that they describe the students ability to apply basic end other skills in situations that are communally encountered in everyday life. Thus CBE (Competency Based Education) is based on a set of outcomes that are derived in life role situations. Schenck (2001:14) To reinforce what has been said about CBE let us see some extra definitions of Competency Based Education to understand better from where does CBA come from? Richards and Rodgers (2001) says: Competency Based Education focuses on outcomes of learning. CBEaddresses what the learners are expected to do rather than on what they are expected to learn about. CBE emerged in the United States in the 1970s and refers to an educational movement that advocates defining educational goals in terms of precise measurable descriptions of knowledge, skills, and behaviors students should possess at the end of a course of study. Richards and Rodgers(2001) To reinforce Richards and Rodgerss definition of CBE Savage see that CBE is a functional approach to focus on skills depends on the learners needs and competence. He sees in his definition the following: Competency Based Education is a functional approach to education that emphasizes life skills and evaluates mastery of those skills according to actual leaner performance. It was defined by the U.S. Office of Education as a performance-based process leading to demonstrated mastery of basic and life skills necessary for the individual to function proficiently in society. Savage (1993: 15) For Mrowicki, referring to skills only is not enough in speaking about CBE because competency is an interesting amalgam of knowledge and attitudes for more effective results. Thus he sees in his definition the following: Competencies consist of a description of the essential skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective performance of a real-world task or activity. These activities may be related to any domain of life, though have typically been linked to the field of work and to social survival in a new environment. Mrowicki (1986: 144) It is very interesting to understand what we have presented as most significant definitions of CBE regarding the Communicative Approach which is at the basis of the Competency Based Approach, the educational system applied in Algeria, and which can be also considered to be at the basis of the LMD system applied at the level of the University, next section is devoted to the presentation of the latter, i.e. of the LMD system, to see in what way is the LMD system a continuation of the CBA. 1.7 What is LMD? The LMD system, introduced in the Algerian universities by 2003-2004, is a current issue that specialists in Algeria and elsewhere are interested in. The LMD system (Licence, Master and Doctorate) is the latest reform applied in the Algerian universities. It aims at bringing the Algerian diploma to the universality and to bring the Algerian student to a higher level of learning on the one hand and to the world of job on the other hand. The introduction of LMD in the Algerian universities should be accompanied by these new ideas for innovative teaching practices to improve the performance of the university system but also lead to greater employability of graduates. 1.8 The Characteristics of the LMD System In practice, we observe that the formalization of thes

freud - is civilisation problematic :: essays research papers

DOES FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE PSYCHE TURN CIVILIZED EXISTENCE INTO SOMETHING PROBLEMATIC? The question I have chosen is   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Does Freud’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the psyche turn civilized existence into something problematic?†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This question is essentially asking whether what Freud believes about the human psyche (or mind) contradict a belief in an harmonious society, and therefore is civilised existence essentially nothing but a dilemma.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I will attempt to answer this question by drawing on what Freud postulated about the psychical. This will then be used to explain why the ‘human psyche’ is on a constant quest for ‘the whole’, or satisfaction, and how this only leads only to constant discontent and an unconscious drive for self-destruction, known as the ‘death instinct.’   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Firstly, Freud proposed many theories about the psyche, the basis of which being the segmenting of the psychical into three sections: the conscious, the unconscious and the preconscious. The conscious is the section of the mind containing thoughts that we are aware of. Conscious experiences can be thought about rationally as well as verbalised. The unconscious is the section of the mind that is not directly accessible to awareness, and has been described as a ‘dump box’ for thoughts and emotions relating to hurt, conflict and anxiety. Freud argues that these thoughts and emotions have not disappeared but that they are constantly, unconsciously, influencing what we do and the decisions we make. And finally, the preconscious is where ordinary memory is stored. Thoughts and feelings stored here are neither conscious nor unconscious, however, they are capable of becoming conscious at any time . This division is the foundation of psychoanalysis, and understanding its complexities is necessary when one is to comprehend mental pathological processes. In Freud’s analysis of civilisation, he postulated that civilisation has two characteristics, which are inter-dependent upon one another. As stated by Freud in The Future of an Illusion, civilisation ‘includes on the one hand all the knowledge and capacity that men have acquired in order to control the forces of nature and extract its wealth for the satisfaction of human needs, and, on the other hand, all the regulations necessary in order to adjust the relations of men to one another and especially the distribution of the available wealth.’ In other words, civilisation is characterised by the knowledge man has gained and used to manipulate the forces of nature with the purpose of satisfying man’s needs, as well as the regulations which alter man’s interactions with each another and the allocation of wealth.

Vanadyl Sulfate: Could it be a wonder drug for the future? :: Sports Medicine Health Essays

Vanadyl Sulfate: A Wonder Drug For The Future? Introduction In the competitive world of sports, athletes are always trying to get an edge. When practice is not enough, many athletes try to change their diets to gain an advantage over the competition. To make more educated decisions about what they eat, many athletes look closely at what happens to food once it enters their bodies. From studying the gastrointestinal and endocrine systems, athletes and researchers have learned to appreciate the role of insulin in athletic performance. In order to enhance performance, researchers have developed a product called vanadyl sulfate, which supposedly mimics the effects of insulin. While its effectiveness as a workout supplement is still in question, vanadyl sulfate also has promise as a possible alternative treatment for diabetes. The Insulin Theory To properly comprehend the importance of insulin and the rational behind wanting to increase it artificially, one must first understand the process of sugar metabolism. Sugar metabolism is the process by which the body converts food into energy that can be used by muscle cells. (http://encarta.msn.com/find/default.asp) The process begins when enzymes break down food into glucose, a simple six carbon sugar that can be easily absorbed in the intestine. From there, the hormone insulin plays several important roles. It is obvious that the cells that make up a person need energy to survive and function. Insulin is crucial in the delivery of energy to cells. In the body, glucose is the standard form of energy after digestion. Unfortunately, glucose's size and structure make it hard for the molecule to pass through the outer membranes of many of the body's cells. Insulin helps to fix this problem. Specifically, insulin bonds with the outer membrane of cells to increase permeability. This enables glucose to pass through the cell membrane more easily and gives the cell access to more energy. Without insulin, it is extremely difficult for glucose in the blood to be used by the body's cells as energy. Conversely, an abundance of insulin increases the rate at which glucose is used by the cells and therefore lowers the amount of glucose left in the bloodstream (Guyton, Hall, 972). In addition to helping to provide the cell with energy, insulin can also help the cell in other ways.

Organizational Behavior Final Project

LIU MBA Students for the North Shore Animal League Organizational Behavior For the group project our group chose option A, to design and implement a community service project. We chose to help the North Shore Animal League based in Port Washington, New York. We think this is an important charity to help because the organization receives no federal funding and relies solely on donations from the public. North Shore Animal league is one of the largest no-kill shelters and they have saved close to 1 million cats, dogs, kittens and puppies to date.After our initial meeting in class we brainstormed some ideas on how to fundraise via e-mail. We decided to do a combination of things to raise money for the North Shore Animal League. First, to spread the word, we created a Facebook page to share our project with our friends, family and acquaintances. The page is also viewable to friends-of-friends so it reaches a wide scope of people. The page tells the viewer about the league and our project ; the page features pictures and a link to a fundraising website.The fundraising website was created through North Shore Animal League and gives viewers the opportunity to donate using a credit card. These donations go directly to the league and are tracked through the website. We tried talking to the campus bookstore to see if they would donate some merchandise we could then sell for the cause, but they were unable to. We decided to purchase some snacks in bulk from Costco to sell to raise money. We made the decisions to target a highly populated area with a large amount of foot traffic, in order to reach the most people.Therefore, we orchestrated a fundraising day in Flushing and Hunter’s Point where we passed out fliers, collected donations, and sold the snacks. To reach a larger scope of people, we talked with a local pet store, located in Northport, and they allowed us to set up a table and solicit donations for the league from customers go in and out of the store. We th ought this was a good location because we would likely be reaching animal lovers who would be sympathetic to our cause and therefore more likely to contribute. We also distributed fliers while at the pet store, which included the address for our undraising website so the customers could donate to the animal league when they got home. Psychological contract is defined as individual beliefs, shaped by the organization, regarding terms of an exchange agreement between individuals and their organization (Rousseau). According to the project's instructions, we have 400 points to split amongst the four group members. Our group's psychological contract is that as long as each group member attends each meeting, participates in the fundraising activities, and completes their share of the work equally, each group member will receive 100 of the 400 points.However, if someone cannot fulfill their share of the work, the other group members can deduct points from this member and add them to their own grade. The psychological contract depends on the trust between the group members. In our group we valued the promise to every member to share the work equally and did not violate our contract. Every member was able to express their opinion freely, if someone felt that a group member’s performance was lacking, they can talk openly with the other members and discuss redistributing the points.Our group's psychological contract could not be violated easily because we all wanted to share the work to ensure we got the best grade possible. Through the learning of psychological contract, we built a strong and efficient team. With an effective performance system and strong trust among our members, we reached great achievement. It is very important to figure out how you can motivate the members in a group since it will increase the productivity of the group. The four members in our group have different personalities and personal goal; therefore, the methods to motivate them are tot ally different.There is that minority which is challenged by opportunity and willing to work hard to achieve something (McClelland). For our project we all needed to be part of this minority because we had such limited time. In McClelland’s discussion of Motive A, he talks about setting â€Å"moderately difficult, but potentially achievable goals†¦ tasks to make them stretch themselves a little. † Our group decided early on to set a goal of raising $250, which we thought would be a good amount to strive for considering our time constraint.We found this amount to be difficult, but do-able. Something else McClelland discusses is how the nAch person is constantly spending their time thinking of how to do things better. Through trial and error we were able to figure out what worked for our group. For example, we had a not so successful day fundraising in Flushing, raising only $20 in about 4 hours, and were able to use this experience to find a better way to do this n ext time. The expectancy theory could be used to help outline how we made decisions on how to behave in our group.To begin, you can look at the concept of performance-outcome expectancy, which states every behavior has an associated reward or punishment. For example a group member could have chosen to sit back and let the other members perform, or could have chosen to make a genuine effort. The consequences are that we won’t receive the best grade and won’t raise the most money possible; or our group will flourish with everyone’s involvement. The concept of valence, the idea that each outcome has a specific worth to the individual was apparent as well.Luckily, we all want the some outcome, to raise the most money possible for the animal league and to be graded fairly by our peers, so this wasn’t an issue when it came to motivating our group. Lastly there is effort-performance expectancy, which states that every behavior has associated with it a certain pr obability of success. With this concept we all needed to understand that our efforts would be rewarded with donations. Once we started to receive donations we used this as motivation to get more.Ethical dilemmas are very complex for individuals, according to textbook, â€Å"the notion that its easy to be ethical assumes that individuals automatically know that they are facing ethical dilemma and that they should simply choose to do the right thing. † However, the definition of â€Å"doing right thing† may be different for different people, depending on their culture or background. In our project, we have two ethical dilemmas. First, are we going to donate the exact total amount of money we have raised to North Shore Animal League.The first spot we were collecting donations was in Flushing, where we explained our project to pedestrians and they were usually rude, impatient and less willing to listen to us. Because of this we decided to move to another spot, a park in Hu nters Point where the people were more patient. We collected 20 dollars in this spot, which is much more than we were able to collect in Flushing. We quickly saw that people in these two spots have different characteristics; the people in Hunters Point were more willing to trust us and believe that we were being ethical.The people in Hunters Point stopped and ask us about our project, and about our cause. The people in Hunters Point believed in the good side of people and were more willing to trust us and in return donate. The people who donated to us believed that every penny they were giving us was going to help the animals at North Shore Animal League, therefore, we cannot let them down and we have a responsibility to deliver all of the money we collect. The second dilemma is whether or not we should deduct the cost of the products we sold from the donations we collected.We bought Lays and Doritos for twenty cents per package and bottled water for sixty cents per bottle; we then sold the items for one dollar each. The person who bought the products could say that they should take back some money to compensate themselves for the cost of buying the items. In this case, it is a grey area. If the person does not request to get their money back, one could say they are a person who really cares about the cause they are raising money for. If they did ask to get some money back, one might say they are doing this activity just for a grade.Also, if the person who purchased the goods decided they wanted to be reimbursed, they could embellish the cost and get back more than they paid. This is similar to the activity we did in the classroom where employees were compensated for meals while out on the road. As long as the amount did not exceed eighty dollars per day, they would be reimbursed for food and they did not need to show receipts. In our case, people donated their money to us based on the idea that we will forward all of the money to the North Shore Animal League Our behavior was very important, as it dictated how others made judgments about us.As mentioned in the textbook, some factors of behavior include: tone of voice, body language, gestures and the words we say. People could be led to believe that we are a group of people doing good or committing fraud based on these factors. We found that certain things helped increase the level at which people trusted and believed we were doing good. Our image and the overall passion we conveyed were important factors to ensure other people’s trust us. People were more willing to trust us if we had an advertising board, Facebook website, and a donation website with the North Shore Animal League.Overall, we needed to appear as professional as possible to have the best results. People tend to doubt people they are not familiar with, especially in New York City; thus, we were able to gain their trust by conducting our project in a professional manner. The way we were asking people to make donatio n was also important. We needed to put our message in a way that conveyed the right meaning. It is not easy asking another person for money, people were less willing to donate if they felt they were not getting anything in return.We decided to sell something to deal with this issue, so we could make donors feel that they are donating to a worth cause while buying something. The way that we asked them was also important, if we said, â€Å"Excuse me, would you like to make a donation to support our program? † people usually walked right past us. However, if we said, â€Å"Excuse me, would you like to purchase a bottle of water or a bag of chips to support our program? † people would generally stop and listen to what we had to say. In this assignment, the ability to communicate across language barriers was key.Our group of four consisted of a male (Alex) and female (Danielle) from New York, a male from China (Yunjie), and a male from Taiwan (Wei). Alex and Danielle were u nable to speak any Chinese, and while Wei and Yunjie’s grasp of the English language was exceptional there were still times when communicating proved to be difficult. However, our group was able to continually overcome these communication barriers. For example, in situations where Wei was unable to understand certain English words, Yunjie would explain it to him in Chinese, and vice versa.Also, Alex and Danielle would try and clarify any confusing language by using the simplest English possible. By using the above-mentioned techniques our group was able to consistently overcome any language barriers and communicate effectively to achieve our goals. In addition to communicating across language barriers, our group was also faced with the challenge of communicating across cultures. This difference in cultures was most evident when the group attempted to raise funds for the North Shore Animal League by selling potato chips and water bottles in Flushing, Queens. In the U. S. selli ng lemonade on the street is almost considered a right of passage for many young children. Many American children take the idea of capitalism for granted, having been instilled with the idea of a free market economy from a young age. However, capitalism is not practiced throughout the world. Consequently, Wei and Yunjie had no prior experience selling goods to customers on the street. At first, because of their inexperience, Wei and Yunjie had a difficult time selling potato chips and water to customers. They were unable to reach out to customers and convey the fact that all of the proceeds from the sale would be going to charity.However, after being instructed on various selling techniques and following the example set by their fellow team members, Wei and Yunjie began reaching out to more and more customers. They fully embraced the fundraising concept and acquired the ability to effectively connect with customers to achieve our goals. Aside from highlighting our cultural differenc es, the fundraising experience in Queens also taught our group about the â€Å"Ladder of Inference†, as described by Rick Ross in his article The Ladder of Inference. While fundraising we noticed that many potential customers were extremely cautious about our group’s intentions.Many people did not believe that we were raising funds for the North Shore Animal League and instead thought that we would pocket the money for ourselves. People would take one look at our group and our surroundings and would automatically assume that we were â€Å"conning† them without actually taking the time to see what our true intentions were. This is an example of these potential customers climbing â€Å"The Ladder of Inference†. After we became aware of this we started to hand out fliers for the North Shore Animal League hoping that it would make our position more believable.While this did alleviate some customers concerns there were still many people who simply did not beli eve us. This was an extremely frustrating obstacle that was difficult to overcome. During a team meeting following our fundraising efforts we discussed how we could overcome this obstacle in the future. Our conclusion was that in order to establish trust with potential customers and thereby prevent them from negatively climbing â€Å"The Ladder of Inference† we must make ourselves appear more presentable and official.In the future we would dress in uniforms with nametags. In addition, we would apply for permits to fundraise on city grounds such as parks and playgrounds. It is our belief that by implementing these tactics we would gain the trust of potential customers and become more effective in our fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we were unable to implement these changes, however, through this process we learned a great deal and can use this experience in our future endeavors. In our group there was not one decisive leader.We all needed to be lea ders; as we learned from our leadership discussion, leaders are generally the ones who are finding new ways to do things. We all needed to come up with ideas on how to fundraise, and needed to figure out how we could actually get it done. During our class lecture on leadership, we discussed characteristics that all great leaders appear to have. Characteristics that came up over and over again included determination, well liked, personable, persuasive, and someone who has a good support team.By working hard, and working together, we knew we would achieve the best results. As discussed in â€Å"Level 5 Leadership,† a good leader knows that the cause is bigger than them. We used this idea when fundraising; we couldn’t simply go through the motions just to get the grade. We needed to really care about the cause, as great leaders are generally passionate about what they are doing. This is why it was important for our group to visit the Animal League. We thought it would be good to see what they do first hand, and tour their facility.This was an enjoyable experience because we were able to see some of the animals that we are helping, and were able to use our visit as motivation to raise more money. Our group worked together extremely well. We kept in contact through e-mail, weekly meetings before class, and a group text message on our cell phones. Each member offered ideas on how go about the project. We freely critiqued each other’s ideas to find out what would work best for our group. We recognized each other’s strengths and weaknesses and assigned tasks for each group member accordingly. In total we raised $xxx.

Week Term Paper

What Is the vision/Nilsson behind the Good Hotel concept? The vision/mission behind the Good Hotel concept is to maintain its identity as a â€Å"hotel with a conscience† – encompassing a positive attitude, environmental sensitive, and philanthropy. The intent of the vision is to inspire the â€Å"good in us all†. (Pearce, 2012 p. 10-1, 10-2) 2. What three alternatives Is Pan Cajuns considering for her recommendation to the new ownership of Good Hotel? Provide pros and cons of each.General Manager of Good Hotel, Pam Cajuns has made great strides in getting to know her staff, guests, ND neighborhood over the last six months. She has beat financial forecasts for the first quarter 201 0 and guest service is on the rise. (Pearce, 2012, p. 10-2) With these accomplishments, Pam is faced with a challenge. Good Hotel, owned and operated by Joel De Veer Hotels has decided to sell and Pam Cajuns Is charged with preparing an evaluation and recommendation to the new ownershi p.Pam's recommendation considerations are to continue, expand or discontinue the current concept of Good Hotel. Continue the current concept: Good Hotel branded as a boutique hotel, one which â€Å"provides personalized accommodations and services and facilities†, (Pearce, 2012, p. 10-6) has established itself in the $77-billion market. With demonstrated Increased occupancy and revenue from November 2008 through March 2010, Good Hotel has a positive track record to continue its current concept.The downside to this decision Is Good Hotel's position as a green hotel may be perceived to be trendy and trends can change. Customers may no longer be willing to pay a higher price if the Green â€Å"wave† changes. To prevent this, Good Hotel must strive for more innovative ways to attract customers. Judd senior vice president of operations and green committee chair, Carlen Holman, launched the company's Green Dreams portal, a dedicated page on Its Web site where consumers could track the company's ongoing efforts to preserve the environment. † (Pearce, 2012, p. 0-8, 10;9) Ideas Like this are paramount in keeping the consumer base informed of Good Hotel's dedication to its mission and vision. Expand Current Operations: Because Good Hotel has demonstrated positive gains and performance I do not feel expansion is a wise decision. Though the current trends show increases, the data rend Is only 17 months, not long enough to support this decision. Discontinue Current Operations: Lastly, there is sufficient data to support continued operations therefore: to discontinue operations I feel would not be wise.JDK has found a niche market who is willing to pay the increased cost to visit Good Hotel. 3. How would you characterize Good Hotel's target customers? American sociologist Paul Ray coined the phrase â€Å"Cultural Creative† or Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (ALOHAS)†. (Pearce, 2012, p. 10-5) This Is a population of demonstrates the h ousehold income for the target audience at $65,700 (Brooks, S) not allowing enough expendable income to support frequent stays at Good Hotel.However, this is only a segment of a customer base consisting of 38 million people with the spending power of $209 billion annually according to the Natural Marketing Institute. (Pearce, 2012, p. 10-5) 4. What is Judd marketing strategy to promote Good Hotel? Joe De Viewer's marketing strategy for Good Hotel is social media and word of mouth. The strategy of word of mouth is most effective through positive execution of the mission and vision. Effective execution results in enhanced customer satisfaction which yields positive word of mouth advertisement.The use of social media is also an effective marketing tool when targeting this age group. The primary form of media for this age group is the computer. However, additional use of other forms of media (television and/or radio) would reach a larger market. 5. How would you competitively position G ood Hotel relative to its rivals? Good Hotel has established itself as a Green hotel and targeted the correct audience. There exists a tremendous trend now with being environmentally conscious and leaving things better than the way we found them.