Key aspects of legislation Essay

Summarise key aspects of legislation, regulatory requirements and codes of practice relating to own role and responsibilities. (7.1.1) The BTEC PTLLS award is necessary before a person can teach at a Further Education institution such as Aylesbury College. To support this qualification Lifelong Learning UK has published a new set of overarching professional standards 1 that any teachers in this sector will need to adhere to. This describes in generic terms, the skills knowledge and attributes for those that perform roles in this sector. It is disconcerting to hear that the qualification will soon be replaced following the Lingfield review. Other areas of legislation, that is important in the teaching context is the Health and Safety at Work act 1974, which states how all employers and employees need to take responsibility for their own safety needs. Key legislation that also needs to be considered for the learning environment is the Data Protection Act 1998. The collection and analysis of personal data is intrinsic to any learning institution and this act defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. It is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK and in practice it provides a way for individuals to control information about themselves. It is not just in the IT area but for all systems and paperwork when dealing with personal data, within the IT area it is especially important to consider when teaching the design of systems security and access procedures. Another area relevant to teaching IT are the Display Screen Regulations 1992/2002 which is an amendment to the Health and Safety act, this requires all employers who require their employees to use display screens to ensure that the seating position and lighting is properly adjusted and that the employee can take regular breaks from the screen. Other blanket legislation that applies in the workplace but not specifically to a learning institution are: * Race Relations Act 2000. * Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 2005 (DDA). * Equality Act 2010. This brought together the numerous array of Acts and Regulations, which formed the basis of anti-discrimination law in Great Britain. This was, primarily, the Equal Pay Act 1970, the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race Relations Act 1976, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and three major statutory instruments protecting discrimination in  employment on grounds of religion or belief, sexual orientation and age. Regulations more specific to the teaching environment are the following: * Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001. The act required education providers to make reasonable provisions to ensure people with disabilities or special needs were provided with the same opportunities as those who were not disabled. * Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A key point here is that only about 10% of any published document can be copied and circulated for educational purposes before copyright is infringed. * IfL Code of Practice for Teachers (2008). This is a straightforward code of practice for teachers to gives boundaries on their professional integrity, behaviour etc. * Safer practice, safer learning (2007) – responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable adults in the learning and skills sector – published by NIACE and DES. Analyse own responsibilities for promoting equality and valuing diversity. (7.1.2) In the class discussion on this topic, we discussed that equality is not treating everyone the same, it is rather treating everyone as unique to enable them as far as possible to have equal opportunities to learn, this is what myself as a teacher will have to work to achieve. Promoting equality should remove discrimination in all of the areas covered by the Equality act. Bullying, harassment and victimization are also considered as equality and diversity issues. Diversity aims to recognise, respect and value people’s differences, and their ability to contribute. A teacher should aim to help them reach their full potential by promoting an inclusive culture for all students (and staff). Equality and diversity is becoming more important in all aspects of our lives and work for a number of reasons. Where I was previously working, the employees were recruited globally and could be posted anywhere, they were selected because they showed potential. Inclusivity and diversity was heavily promoted as it was recognised that having a diverse workforce enhanced the company commercially. People with different backgrounds bring different approaches to solving problems or commercial negotiations which is reflected in the company’s performance. In a college, recognising, embracing and valuing difference will lead to improvements for everyone, including: * A more vibrant staff and student  population; * A better working and studying environment; * Attracting and retaining the very best staff and students; As a teacher I can promote equality and diversity by: * Treating all learners fairly. * Creating an inclusive culture for all learners. * Ensuring equal access to opportunities to enable learners to fully participate in the learning process. * Enabling the learners to develop to their full potential. * Equipping learners with the skills to challenge inequality and discrimination in their work/study environment * Making certain that any learning materials do not discriminate against any individuals or groups * Ensuring sure policies, procedures and processes don’t discriminate It was discussed in class that equality can be promoted in different ways, such as discussing privately with a student if they have problems with dyslexia, which could be helped by the simple use of different coloured backgrounds to the powerpoints or handouts. A teacher must be aware of continually promoting inclusivity in all the course material and class discussions, some actions that can be positive are for instance, prior to the class, check the names, ages and any other details of the learners and if possible try to find photos or material that will hopefully be more relevant to their background. Although this shouldn’t be done to such an extreme to alienate others, it’s a fine balance. Also it is good to make sure that different types of learners are covered in the lesson plan by differentiating for learning styles. This also helps to keep the lesson interesting as one form of lesson delivery could get fairly dull. One key point would be to be careful of my language, jokes about stereotypes and casual comments could easily cause alienation. It is also necessary to have a plan on how to deal with inappropriate remarks and behaviour by the learners. Within a college there will also be other internal organisations available to meet the potential needs of learners such as : * Student services / welfare / financial aid / student support * Careers services / advice and guidance * Learning mentors / teaching assistants * Learning difficulties and disabilities assessment and support * International office for overseas learners * Chaplaincy or medical services including sexual and mental health Tutors will be the main point of contact for anything for a learner so it is important to understand how to get in touch with the various people working in the roles for my organisation. Evaluate your own responsibilities in lifelong learning (7.1.3) In class we discussed the role and responsibilities of a tutor in lifelong learning, a number of key roles were identified, such as a tutor needs to be knowledgeable about the subject, but not necessarily an expert, they need to be confident and communicate their points well, they need to be well organised with planned lessons and good timekeeping. The tutor must set an example with their behaviour, and direct the learners, but in further education, as opposed to compulsory education, you will not be acting as a leader and counsellor, rather a facilitator. Of key importance is establishing a contract with the learners at the start of the course, so that they understand the boundaries that are set and what my expectations of them are. In the FE sector this is more important with young adults (16-18 years) than in adult education. Bearing in mind that all learners will be slightly different and work at different levels and may have different needs, it is important for me as a tutor to understand this and if necessary give additional help and guidance as required. Without regurgitating the full list of responsibilities, some key ones to additionally pick out are: * Keeping up to date with developments in the core subject as well as keeping up to date with any new teaching guidelines or changes to the curriculum. * Encouraging the learners to progress and develop their careers by giving constructive feedback. * Continually reflect on my teaching performance and evaluate each session taught and change if necessary. Review own role and responsibilities in identifying and meeting the needs of learners. (7.1.4) A key responsibility would be to get to know the learners in the class as individuals, and to understand their different abilities and learning styles. The techniques already used in the first lesson would be a  very good start, such as the learning styles questionnaire (although interpretation of the results is very subjective.), the basic skills testing, and the group introductions. The group introductions and the personal interview prior to starting the course was a way of understanding the motivation of the learners, and why they are undertaking the training. With this knowledge the tutor can aim to ensure that the lesson delivery is varied to suit the different needs of the learners and give personal help if necessary. These activities are part of the ‘Identifying Needs’ stage of the Teaching and Leaning Cycle and are documented by Gravells 2, although she has the roles and responsibilities a little confused. As the course progresses, the tutors understanding of the needs of the individual learners will become clearer as they get to know them, changes and adjustments can be made to the lesson delivery. This is an application of Kolb’s Reflective Cycle, to put it simply – Planning, Doing, Reviewing, Learning and back to planning. References 1 Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) New overarching professional standards for teachers, tutors and trainers in the lifelong learning sector. 2 Gravells, A., (2011) Preparing to teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector Websites www.excellencegateway.org www.ptllsresource.co.uk http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/equalityanddiversity/

The Crucible Diary

I cannot believe that John Proctor! Why has he chosen his sniveling wife over me? I am more of a woman than Goody Proctor. Goody Proctor does possess of the qualities needed of a good wife. She is naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve, simple, and talented. However, I possess the qualities of a lover. I am intelligent, able, and adventurous. To be blatantly honest, I think any man would be lucky to call me his wife. Diary, why am I good enough for any man, but I am not good enough for the man I desire? I know why. It is because I want a married man. Diary, do you agree that John should leave Goody Proctor and marry me? Do you think I am better than she is? I believe I would be a much better wife. Think about it, if Goody Proctor were good to John would he have come to me? I do not believe so. To me, it is the duty of a wife to keep her husband satisfied and in line. However, if John had not strayed from his wife, John would have never sought me. If John had never sought me, I would have never felt love. John may have sought me, but he is still married to Goody Proctor. She is keeping me from my John. Because of that, I loathe her. There is not a single thing in the world that she can do that I cannot. She can cook, clean, and pray. I can do all that, and even more! I am willing to do anything to be with my John. All I want is to be with him. Diary, do you have any ideas to cause the end of the Proctor marriage? I believe I do. I will receive vengeance on Goody Proctor. I will claim that Goody Proctor is a witch! It is a brilliant idea. When Salem village hears of this, the village people will believe it and order her hanging. It is genius! I would be overcome with joy to see the body of Goody Proctor hanging. At last, I would be with my beloved John! Oh Diary, I know it is a terrible to wish death upon someone, but in this case, Goody Proctor's death is necessary in order for John and me to be together. Diary, I need to be with John. He loves me and I love him. I know we are destined to be with one another. Diary, I thank you for listening to me. You have always been a faithful friend. Besides John, no one seems to want to listen to me, Oh, how I miss my John! Oh no, I fear Uncle has arrived home. I must go. He will be expecting me. I promise I will write again soon. Love, Abbey

Career Outlook For Information Technology

Information Technology is one of the most trending educational sectors in US. Thousands of students are now pursing various courses of Information Technology, since this domain is making significant progress; hence, students are being more attracted towards this field of study. With the advancements in technology all over the world, Information Technology is one of the subjects that is in high demand among the students. Studying Information Technology in bachelors’ level or Masters level opens various career prospects for a student. The various career options are mentioned as follows: One of the most common job profiles that a student with a degree in Information Technology might pursue is being an IT consultant (Badage & Karande, 2016). This is one of the most common designations where the students find employment. Being an IT consultant, an employee has to work in partnership with the clients and advising them successfully to meet the business objectives, using all the resources in the best way, with the minimum cost.    A web-content developer design and create various websites. They take care of the various features of a website and enhance the performances, such that the users are able to experience a good user interface and a better navigation in the website (Baller, Dutta & Lanvin, 2016).   Ã‚   A system administrator has the responsibility for the overall administration of a computer system, such that the system works efficiently and performs well, in order to maintain the ease of usability, along with decreasing the wait time for each activity (Benson, Morgan & Filippaios, 2014).   Ã‚   One of the most popular career options that a person with a degree in Information Technology might pursue is that of a Network architect. This person is responsible for designing of the computer network, along with enhancing the communication systems of a business organization. A database administrator is responsible for maintaining the integrity of a database of any organization (Benson, Morgan & Filippaios, 2014). The responsibilities include maintaining the security of a database and troubleshoot as and when there is trouble in the database. Studying Information Technology might find employment as a data analyst as well. A data analyst is responsible for interpreting graphs and charts that are generated from various computerized reports and interpret them successfully to understand what the statistical data represents in the given business context (Benson, Morgan & Filippaios, 2014).    Programming languages are used to make Software. A computer programmer has the responsibility of making various software using coding. Various programming languages such as C, C++, Java, Python, dot net is used in order to make various applications and software. A computer support specialist provides technical support to all computer related queries and questions and solves those issues (Lloyd, 2017). These professionals might run diagnostic programs in order to detect the area of issues and solve them with his skills and expertise. All of the above mentioned job roles need in-depth knowledge and understanding of the various subjects of Information Technology (Ã…  krinjari?, 2014). The domain of Information Technology is not a theoretical one. It needs practical experiences and hands-on skills for working successfully in the various career options. In BC, Canada, Information Technology is in high demand. A recent report revealed that more than 182000 people are needed in various IT positions by 2019, to fulfill the demand in Canada (Ã…  krinjari?, 2014). This statistics provides an idea about the prospect of IT in Canada. In order to meet these demands, the business organizations have been recruiting students with IT background. Canada has been facing major IT talent shortage, since the number of people studying IT is not enough to fulfill the created demand (Wong, 2015). The government of Canada has also been taking initiatives to encourage the students of various other backgrounds to pursue short-term courses of IT, so that they might also join the pool of potential IT employees. Thus, the talent gap is to be fulfilled such that the advancements in the information technologies could be carried out successfully. Figure 2: Province-wise ICT labour demand in Canada (Source: Benson, Morgan & Filippaios, 2014) British Columbia, Canada has one of the most popular companies that need IT employees. Thus, the career prospect for the students studying Information Technology is high and diverse. Moreover, various new research domains of Information Technology such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) are being developed, thus widening the career prospect of IT even more. Thus, the career outlook of Information technology is high and increasing day by day, with the increase in the technological demands all around the world.   Badage, R. N., & Karande, K. J. (2016). Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) In Career Planning of Rural Youth of India. Baller, S., Dutta, S., & Lanvin, B. (2016). The global information technology report 2016. In  World Economic Forum, Geneva  (pp. 1-307). Benson, V., Morgan, S., & Filippaios, F. (2014). Social career management: Social media and employability skills gap.  Computers in Human Behavior,  30, 519-525. Lloyd, I. (2017).  Information technology law. Oxford University Press. Ã…  krinjari?, B. (2014). William G. Bowen: Higher Education in the Digital Age.  Croatian Economic Survey,  16(1), 171-185. Wong, Z. (2015). Student Attitudes toward Information Systems Management as Major and Career Options.  International Journal of Information and Education Technology,  5(6), 409.  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Mr.Nobody Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mr.Nobody - Essay Example Indeed, the room where two characters are sitting is bright and there are hardly any shadows. This is dramatically different from the most of contemporary rooms, where light comes from a single source. In addition to that, the lighting in the scene conveys the futuristic atmosphere where everything is much better in every aspect. There is no doubt that the scene was not shot in authentic setting, but on set. To be more specific, it is quite possible that the two actors were shot in from of the so called green screen. In other words, all the background that is visible, including some of the object in the middle ground, such as flying droid were generated by computers. This was done in order to enhance the atmosphere is future and emerge the viewers into the setting every further. Speaking of the props that the actors were using, one might mention several. Thus, at one point Dr. Feldheim asks Nemo Nobody to take a look at a newspaper. The latter features some movies images and surely does not exist in reality. It is quite obvious that he touches a special prop that was latter modified by a computer. In other words, there were really few real life props in the scene, probably only the chairs they were sitting on and the desk. Another point that should be mentioned is that the scene should be understood in the context of all the previously shown scenes: the main character keeps waiting up from one nightmare to another one. That is why the directors did their best to make sure that the audience understands that what the character experiences at the moment is the reality. However, at the end of the scene, Nemo Nobody screams that he needs to wake up. This shows the fundamental conflict of the movie. Finally, one should also point out the significance of make up in the scene. On the one hand, Dr. Feldheim had strange looking marks on his face: the latter cover his entire head and make it difficult to understand

A Role Of Law In Business World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

A Role Of Law In Business World - Essay Example Numerous studies have been conducted in order to determine the level of employers' concerns about the law. Therefore, in the study conducted by Robert Drago, Ph.D., and Vicky Lovell, Ph.D.: â€Å"The law makes sense and creates a better, less stressful work environment; We [Bi-Rite Market, (San Francisco)] even took it a step further and pay out any time accrued when an employee leaves our organization, not required under the current law which is „use it or lose it†. What is even more important is the fact that the study found no abuse of paid sick days, but save these days. San Francisco researchers claim that like in the other American States, employees, who have paid sick days are healthier and work in a more productive way. Unfortunately, these policies are more relevant to corporations. Small business owners often neglect Health and Safety issues. That is why for business students it should be known that taking care of the health of their employees is a right way to the success of their company. As far as we can see, in the result of our research, we have found out that multidisciplinary knowledge of business students play an important role for their future professional career. Thus, students’ knowledge about legal regulations in the field of financing or corporations’ management is of crucial importance for relevant regulations of business conduct. Moreover, relations between employees and employers should be also regulated in accordance with international legal regulations.

Shaping the Marketing Offer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Shaping the Marketing Offer - Essay Example Basically when one shops for necessities or functional items like vegetables, bread paper towels and so on, they are not likely to worry too much about the price. But when they buy some item, even a food item like ice cream, which is not a necessity, they become price conscious. In a larger social group, among friends for instance they may not hesitate to spend on the ice cream. As Kirk L. Wakefield and J. Jeffrey Inman point out, most people do not like to be thought of as 'cheap' or miserly when in a group. In this context it can be said that it is highly price sensitive people who will shop for value in a website like Price line. As is mentioned in the article 'Markets, Pricing Models and Digital Economics Evolution of Markets', Price line uses what is called the Reverse Pricing Model. Here consumers can 'name their price' which is state the price they are willing to pay for the product. If the service provider, (airline, hotel, mortgage company etc) is agreeable to that price, they get it. The travel and mortgage business, which is highly price- sensitive, is the core focus of Price line.

Jane is a Department Head in a Library of a College or University Essay - 1

Jane is a Department Head in a Library of a College or University - Essay Example This paper declares that ponsibilities might include managing all activities to ensure that materials acquired by the library are accurately and consistently described and classified for effective and efficient retrieval and utilization, managing authority control for use in bibliographic records, develop and maintain policies and guidelines for all bibliographic, cataloguing, indexing and classification work, managing membership, subscription and keeping up to date with bibliographic utilities for purpose of acquisition of bibliographic records, and managing physical processing and binding of all library materials. It is evident from the information provided that when her staff is not at a full contingency problems arise, but from the concerns brought up at the meeting of department heads, it is also apparent that this is an ongoing problem, with some other issues involved. Two questions arise which much be answered. What are the specific problems, and what can be done to improve th e situation? Another very serious issue must be resolved for the long term. Is the underlying problem Jane’s supervision? What can she do to change her management skills that will affect the performance of her entire staff? An additional issue brought up at the Department Head meeting is the backlog of cataloguing and how to resolve this problem. This is not of lesser importance than the other issues, but its resolution is dependent on the solutions Jane devises. Jane should feel frustrated by now. Not only have the problems in her department raised her stress level for the day, they have been noticed by the other Departments. Now it’s time to look at the real issues. Apparently the chain of command in the Department is not clearly set. There should be someone beneath Jane, either an office manager or administrative assistant to organize the day-to-day functions of the department and answer questions.

Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish Essay

Grammatical Structures of English and Spanish - Essay Example According to Stockwell and Bowen (2005, 77), the basic structure of the Spanish sentence is the same with English sentences. For example, just like in English, the word order of the Spanish sentence has generally followed the Subject-Verb-Object order. Generally, many experts concur this may be attributed to the fact that both Spanish and English language grammar structures are usually based on the tense. However, it is worth noticing that Spanish allows for more grammatical structure flexibility and this can be explained by the placement of the word â€Å"no† (not) at the end of the sentence to put more emphasis on it. This flexibility usually results in non standard syntax when Spanish is directly translated into English . Another visible grammatical feature of the above Spanish sentence with respect to structural similarities and differences with English language is the use of the relative pronouns. Spanish language has a wide range of pronouns that are often used differently as compared to the English pronouns. Some of the common Spanish relative pronouns that are commonly used in everyday Spanish include la que(singular feminine), los que(plural masculine) and las que(plural feminine). For example, the Spanish relative pronoun â€Å"que† has been used twice in the above sentence to refer to both a person and an object. ... â€Å"that the boy† and â€Å"que se escapo†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. â€Å"who escaped† as used in the first part of the sentence have all been applied to refer to the boy(singular masculine). Generally, in most cases, the use of â€Å"que† in either objects or subject position in Spanish is often equivalent of the use of the English words such as â€Å"whom, who, that and which† in the contemporary English grammar as shown in the following examples: El hombre que es pobre†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦The man â€Å"who† is poor (Person, Subject) La senorita que conoci†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ The young lady â€Å"whom† I met (Person, Object) In English, relative clause usually follows the noun which it modifies. The choice of relative pronoun is normally affected by whether the clause is modifying human or non-human noun as well as the role of the relative pronoun in the rel ative clause2. For example, â€Å"who† is applied for a human antecedent while â€Å"that† is only used for a non human antecedent. However, a major difference in the use of relative pronouns in Spanish and English is that while relative pronoun is usually omitted in English, this is not the case in Spanish as shown below: La casa  que  compramos es nueva†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦The house â€Å"that† we bought is new. As seen in the English version, the relative pronoun â€Å"that† can easily be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence. On the other hand, just like English, Spanish also has a number of definitive article articles (equivalent to â€Å"the†) as well as indefinite articles (equivalent to the English â€Å"a/an, some†). However, unlike English, the Spanish articles are normally categorized into feminine, masculine, adjective, singular or plural. Lastly, with regard, to verb Ser/estar, the word â€Å"se † in the

Reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

Reflection paper - Essay Example Specifically, the emotional intelligence (EI) skills I have learned in this semester shall enable me to understand my strengths and weaknesses as a public administrator, the effects of those qualities on my workmates and the public in general as well as my effectiveness in different capacities. The EI skills shall enable me to acknowledge the origin of tension and other risks that impede normal working relationships in public administration and identify emotional undercurrents that work best in every situation. As such, I will be more capable to manage my impulses and emotions as well as maintain knowledge of the social needs and interests of various stakeholders in public administration1. The capacity to identify and summon appropriate emotions within me and in others will definitely contribute towards my effectiveness as an administrator. By accurately assessing the feelings of my subordinates, for instance, I will use the outcomes to manage their emotions so as to achieve the overall goals of the organization. This is especially true considering that knowledge of the emotions will play a pivotal role in improving my decision making capacities in respect of their administration. And researchers have noted, owing to my massive EI skills, I will be able to make accurate assessments of emotions and thus make an effective judgment about those which are associated with opportunities or challenges, and thus make appropriate decisions based on their respective potential impacts2. In addition, the EI skills I have obtained already will enable me to develop the capacities to motivate subordinates by identifying their emotions and modeling their behavioral changes to the better. As a public administrator, I will be ready and better-placed to handle conflicting demands of administration policy requirements and public needs, for instance, by managing stress occasioned by the conflict by taking a middle-ground stance. A public

Compassion of Strangers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Compassion of Strangers - Essay Example Nying Je can be paraphrased as love and respect--compassion in its purest form is ‘unconditional and universal in scope’. The Dalai Lama’s compassion is described differently and in a much wider context, encompassing a notion that some of us might describe as unconditional love: "At the heart of Buddhist philosophy is the notion of compassion for others†¦[it] is not the usual love one has for friends or family. The love[†¦]is the kind one can have even for another who has done one harm. Developing a kind heart does not always involve any †¦ sentimental religiosity [†¦] It is not just for people who believe in religions; it is for everyone who considers himself or herself to be a member of the human family, and thus sees things in accordingly large terms.† In essence, this love is for all sentient beings as an extension of oneself. The writer continues, noting that "the rationale for universal compassion is based on the same principle of spiritual democracy[†¦]the true acceptance of the principle of democracy requires that we think and act in terms of the common goo d.† Compassion, in this essay, takes on a significance slightly different than that commonly accepted by western civilization. We feel compassion as a type of absent sympathy, as something that touches us, sometimes profoundly, on the part of another; however, compassion in our society is largely a secondary emotion. According to His Holiness, however, true compassion is a selflessness that lends itself everywhere and to everything; in the moment that a compassionate human being witnesses the suffering of another, that human being is immediately moved and internally obligated to do whatever possible to alleviate said suffering. Within compassion is mentioned the concept of universal responsibility, as both an offshoot and a critical component of this emotion: "[†¦]

Research project Essay Example for Free

Research project Essay Juveniles may well be the most maligned age around in our society myths abound about their contribution to crime and the extent of damage for which they are responsible. The ones who are involved in delinquent behavior are young youths between the ages of 18 – 21 years. According to the study done by the Citizen Television (TV) on June 2012, young boys between the age of 15 yrs to 18 yrs are spending their life behind bars in Borstal Institutions (BI) i. e. Shikusa BI in Kakamega and Shimo la Tewa BI in Mombasa. Many nations are not productive because these youths who are expected to work and eradicate poverty lose their life at an early stage and others turnout to become adult criminals hence becoming a threat to the country and the world at large. Juvenile delinquency is an imprecise social and legal label for a wide variety of law and non-violating behavior. Delinquency is a behavior against the criminal code committed by an individual who has not reached adulthood. Legally, a juvenile delinquent is one who commits an act defined by law as illegal and who is adjudicated delinquent by an appropriate court. According to William Blackstone, one of the earliest England lawyers who influenced the England law on Juvenile Justice System; he grouped people into two; i. e. â€Å"Infant† and â€Å"Adult. † Children under the age of seven were as a rule classified as infants who could not be guilty of a felony. Children over 14 yrs were liable to suffer as adults if found guilty of a crime. The delinquent behavior has several consequences ranging from physical, social, economic and education. Delinquent boys face death, school dropout, assault, influence in drug and substance abuse and sexual harassment. The most victims of delinquency behavior are the youths specifically ranging between 15 yrs – 18 yrs of age on survey from Kenya Prisons Service according to the report from Borstal Institutions and YCTC. 1. 1: BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF THE STUDY AREA: King’orani sub-location is found within Mombasa District. It’s along Indian Ocean to the East. The sub-location is in the Coast Province Mombasa County and more than 500 km squares away from the capital city of Kenya, Nairobi. King’orani sub-location has a total number of ten thousand, eight hundred  and ninety five (10,895) households. It covers an area of 16. 2 km2. The total population of women is twenty one thousand, nine hundred and fifty seven (21,957) while that of men is twenty one thousand, four hundred and seventy seven (21,477); giving a total of forty three thousand four hundred and thirty four (43,434) people in the sub-location. The whole district has a total of 27333, households. It covers a n area of 7,792. 2km2. The number of female is 203,833 while that of male is 196,681 hence giving a total of 400,514 people in the district. This figure (400,514) includes even children in the district. 1. 2: POPULATION: Most of the people in the district are Mijikenda, Europeans, the Swahili and the highland people each comprising 75%, 5%, 15% and 10% of the population respectively. The most spoken language in the area is Swahili and Mijikenda. According to the recent census statistics, the number of youths or rather the young people is more than that of the old; 30% of the population is for the old while 70% is for the youth. 1. 3: PROBLEM OF THE STATEMENT: The problem of the delinquency behavior is not only in Kenya but also a world disaster too. Delinquency behavior has brought many social evils in the community such as death, increased number of school dropouts and unemployment. A survey was conducted within the king’orani sub-location among some families and individuals to find out the age of the men who are at a high risk of becoming delinquent. 1. 4: PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of the study was to carry out an investigation on the causes of Juvenile Delinquency in king’orani Sub-location Mombasa District. The study looked at causes such as family influence, poverty, peer pressure, drug and substance abuse, schools and genetic factors and the impact they have on the living standards of the people and the society at large. The major aim/purpose of the research was to find out why the youths in king’orani Sub-location within Mombasa District are involved in delinquency/criminality and how the solution will be realized. 1. 5: RESEARCH OBJECTIVES a)To find out the causes of Juvenile Delinquency in king’orani Sub-location b)To determine the effects of Juvenile Delinquency in king’orani Sub-location c)To investigate the attitude of the community towards delinquents d)To investigate if there are measures in place to curb delinquency behavior e)To investigate the role of parents in controlling delinquents 1. 6: RESEARCH QUESTIONS: a)What causes Juvenile Delinquency? b)What role do parents have in controlling delinquency? c)What role does the Government have in controlling delinquency? d)What measures should be taken to prevent delinquency? e)What effects do delinquents have to the society? 1. 7: RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS: a)Juveniles involve in delinquency behavior due to povertym  b)Juveniles become delinquents due to peer pressure c)Juvenile delinquency affects the nation negatively d)Juveniles become delinquent due to genetic/biological factors e)There are no firm measures in place to curb the menace in the area. 1. 8: RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS LIMITATIONS: The research project was carried out at king’orani Sub-location in Mombasa District Mombasa Cou nty. The search aimed a population of forty three thousand four hundred and thirty four. This was very hard for the researcher to obtain the information. However, the researcher struggled by visiting almost all the villages and schools in king’orani Sub-location and collected the data. The researcher targeted to interview 200 people but managed to get 95 out of the targeted ones. A TABLE OF INTERVIEWED AND UNINTERVIEWED RESPONDENTS: (TABLE 1. 1). 10 – 20 YRS21 – 30 YRS31 – 40 YRS41YRS +TOTAL INTERVIEWED2030202595 UNINTERVIEWED23342226105 TOTAL43644251200 LIMITATIONS FACED: A lot of money was used in preparations of the interview guide and questionnaires in order to accomplish the report. The researcher consumed a  lot of time waiting for the questionnaires to be filled by the respondents Since it was a rainy season, majority of the population were very busy in their shambas hence forced the researcher sometimes to follow them in their farming fields. Some of the interviewees were very busy to give out the information hence denying the researcher some crucial information. There were insufficient funds to t ravel from one village to another seeking fact of this report. The researcher faced ignorance from some of the respondents. There was unwillingness of the respondents which limited the accuracy of the study. The time given for the researcher to finish-up the report was insufficient hence forced him not to sleep for several days. HOW THE RESEARCHER OVERCAME THE PROBLEMS The researcher used many ways to ensure that the respondents participated in the interview group. The researcher used stakeholders in the village to enlighten the members on the importance of the study. The researcher created more time to follow up on the questionnaires to ensure it has been completed. The researcher got funds from his guardian in order to carry out this research work. The researcher used his time to explain the importance of the research project to the respondents. ASSUMPTIONS: During the study, the following assumptions were made: The language was simply for the respondents to understand. The aimed population was important to the study. Interview guide and the questionnaires were related to the objectives. The samples were true of the whole population. The information from the respondents was believed to be true. The questions were not complicated for the respondents. 1. 9: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH: The study brought out useful data on the causes of juvenile delinquency in king’orani Sub-location in Mombasa District. The findings were useful to the policy makers and stakeholders for appropriate guidance towards improving the living standards of the community, and also led to a more comfortable life not only in king’orani Sub-location in Mombasa District, but also in other locations in Kenya with similar trends towards delinquency. 1. 10: STUDY JUSTIFICATION: This study was important because most of the people in the district were youths. According to the census done in the year 2009, it was found that youth comprised 70%. This indicated that the youth were more compared to the older people. There is need to protect the youths from delinquency behavior because they are the leaders of tomorrow. If this issue is not going to be strictly addressed, then we have no future direction. We have heard news around the world that many people especially the teenagers have lost their lives because of delinquency behavior. This research project will aid the government, non-governmental organizations and other related institution with facts on the problem and provide some of the possible solutions. CHAPTER TWO 2. 0. LITERATURE REVIEW: The literature review looked into various factors that promote juvenile delinquency. All the causes and effects of juvenile delinquency were discussed, examined and analyzed. The factors that lead to poor education and poor living conditions were highlighted. The way forward to the crimination of such factors by the community policy makers and other stakeholders were suggested. According to the criminologist, juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by a minor who falls under a statutory age limit. According to scholars, there are a number of factors which contribute to the delinquent behavior. They also said that several young people develop a curiosity about delinquency behavior from both their peer and their role model. In his book; Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency, Howell, C. J. (2003) further examined the causes and effects of delinquents. He says that delinquency behavior turn youth into liars and thieves. Some juveniles learn this behavior and turn out to become adult criminals. Connecting Howell, C. J. and criminologist, here I am and I would like to go beyond in the following manner: 2. 1: CAUSES OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY There are many causes of juvenile delinquency. Among the factors are: Poverty and Social Class Peer Pressure / Association Drugs and Substance Abuse Family Background School Failure Academic Performance Poverty and Social Class: The development of delinquent subculture is a function of the social and familiar conditions children experience as they mature in deteriorating inner city environment (slums). Lower-class families are incapable of teaching their off springs proper socialization techniques for entry into dominant middle-class culture. These lower class families produce children who lack the basic skills necessary to achieve social and economic success in a demanding society. Developmental disabilities produced by such an upbringing include lack of educational training, poor speech and communication skills and inability to delay gratification. Peer Pressure / Association: This was one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of delinquency. Relationship between peers is usually very strong. Adolescents who maintain delinquent friends are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior and drug abuse. Drugs and Substance Abuse: Many adolescents are involved in drugs and alcohol. Adolescents’ substance abuse and its association with youth crime and delinquency continue to be disturbing problems. Most of these youths who are alcoholic tend to have antisocial behavior hence turnout to become delinquents. These juveniles then commit crimes to pay for their habits. Indeed, most of the youths who abuse alcohol are the ones most likely to engage in violence. Family Background: Children living in broken and conflict ridden families exhibit juvenile traits. The study focused on the following family factors/causes: a)Family makeup: The makeup and definition of the family are undergoing change. Divorce rates are high and children of divorce are more likely to undergo marital breakup  as adults, creating a cycle of family dissolution. Single parent households have become common. More single women than ever are deciding to keep and raise their children, and there are also many teenage girls under 18yrs who give birth. b)Family Breakup: Children growing up in homes with one parent due to divorce separation may prone to antisocial behavior. A broken home is a strong determinant of a chi ld’s law-violating behavior. The connections seem self-evident because a child is first socialized at home and from the beginning learn behavior, values, and beliefs from parents. c)Family Conflict: Not all unhappy marriage end in divorce; some continue in an atmosphere of discord and conflict. Studies have shown that children who grow up in maladapted homes and who witness discord or violence later exhibit patterns of emotional disturbance, behavior problems and social conflict. Damaged parent-child relationship is generally associated with delinquency. It’s often assumed that the existing family problems cause delinquency. d)Family Size: Large families are more likely to produce delinquent than smaller ones, and middle children are more likely to engage in delinquent acts than first or last born children. Middle children may suffer because they are the most likely to be at home when large number of siblings are at school and economic resources are the most stressed. This lack may make them engage in criminality. e)Discipline: Parents of delinquent youths tend to be inconsistent disciplinarians; either overly harsh or extremely lenient in their disciplinary practices. It is possible that physical punishment and overly strict parenting encourage children to become more secretive and eventually dishonest in their activities. f)Supervision: Inconsistent supervision can produced delinquency. F. Ivan Nye found that mothers who threatened discipline but failed to carry it out were more likely to have delinquent children than those who were consistent in their discipline. Youths who believe their parents care little about their activities and companions are more likely to engage in criminal acts than those who believe their actions will be closely monitored. Supervision is not merely having parents in the home, but it reflects the lifestyle, quality and intent of parenting. Parents who closely supervise their children also have closer and more emotional ties with them, helping to reduce their delinquent behavior. School Failure: Failing to achieve success in school can result in frustration, anger and reduced self-esteem, which may contribute to delinquent behavior. Believing they will never achieve success through conventional means, these children seek out like-minded companions and together engage in antisocial behaviors. Academic Performance: Students who are chronic underachievers in school are also among the most likely to be delinquent. School failure is a stronger predictor of delinquency than personal variables such as economic class membership, ethnic background or peer groups relations. 2. 2: EFFECTS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY The study focused on the following effects; a)School Dropout Due to delinquency, many teenagers drop out of school in order to join their friends who already are delinquent. This leads to street children especially in the city. b)Criminality Most of the delinquent turnout to become adult criminals; they get involved in criminal behavior e. g. theft, burglary and rape. c)Imprisonment According to the statistics from Kenya Prison Service, many youths and teenagers are spending their life behind bars in the BI i. e. Shikusa BI and Shimo la Tewa BI. d)Death Some youths end up losing their lives when caught by police in the criminality activities. Your example is the most important tool for preventing your children from becoming delinquents. Studies show that many factors influence teen’s in delinquency behavior but parental attitudes and actions can influence them most. God: Unfortunately, the secularization of values has left today’s kids without stun darts are still best. Too many young people picture God as a great kill joy in the sky instead of their strongest ally who loves them unconditionally and whose deepest desire is for their best. Some may call us naive simplistic, but in our experience, people who pursue in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ have a better chance of staying clear from delinquency than those who don’t. It’s true, that little difference exists between churched kids and un-churched when it comes to delinquency. Unconditional Love: It implies that if you act a certain way or do certain things, love will be given. There is a way, a sense that children mess up too badly, the love will go away. When children fill the uncertainty of conditional love, they’re challenged to see how bad they can be and still receive love. It’s a way of determining their basic worth. Rather than being motivated to greatness so as not to lose their parent’s love, they’re motivated towards delinquency. Contracts: Contracts governing children behavior can be controversial. We don’t advise them for every situation. However, when it comes to delinquency, they work well. Contracting for appropriate behavior can also be good preparation for the adult world, where people frequently contract for jobs to be done and behavior levels to be met. Pressure: Pressure is a key reason kids become involved with delinquents. The word â€Å"no† is a powerful device for resisting pressure and avoiding a life time of misery. 2:4: CONCLUSION Majority of the researchers and scholars have concluded that juvenile delinquency is a worldwide disaster and the group which is at risk is the youths. They have said much about negative effects of delinquency, but they have not explained about the permanent solution towards the problem. CHAPTER THREE 3. 0: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The research methodology outlines the plan on how research activities were carried out in the study. It describes and explains the techniques used in collecting and obtaining data which assisted in the research work. These includes, the methods of organizing, collecting and analyzing data i. e. the way to design the population, sample size together with sampling techniques were discussed including the instrument of data collection. 3. 1: RESEARCH DESIGN This being a case study, the research was carried out in the communities of Shella Sub-location in Malindi District of the Coast Province. The area of study had a total number of forty three thousand, found hundred and thirty four people. The targeted population was two hundred in different villages within the sub-location, this being secondary schools, teachers, inmates in Malindi Prison, prison officers and 20% of the community population. 3. 2: TARGET POPULATION The study population: This research project was carried out at Shella Sub-location in Malindi District of the Coast Province. The area of study had a total number of forty three thousand, four hundred and thirty four people. Sample of the Study: The number of people in the Shella sub-location was big for the researcher to carry out the research conveniently. However, the researcher tried the best level and interviewed a total number of ninety five out of the two hundred targeted in different villages within the sub-location. 3. 3: SAMPLE SELECTION A sample is a small part of the population to be studied. Sampling is an act, process, technique of selecting a situation representing part of the whole population. Some of the sampling methods are random sampling, systematic sampling, and stratified sampling among others. The researcher used random sampling method. Due to this, the researcher selected ninety five people to represent the whole population. The table 1.1 shows all the information. The information from the respondents was based on the facts because the sample and the groups from the villages comprised people of different ages. 3. 4: SAMPLING TECHNIQUES When a population is very small one may study the whole population, but in this case, the population is big, so the researcher decided to choose a sample to represent the whole popu lation. The following is the sampling technique which the researcher used. Stratified Sampling Technique: Stratified Sampling is the process of dividing a population in sub-population (strata) and random samples are taken from each stratum. The researcher divided the population into the following: The age between 10 – 20 years The age between 21 – 30 years The age between 31 – 40 years The age 41 years and above. Importance of Sampling: The researcher could determine the adequate respondents from the total number of the targeted people. The advantages of the researcher using the stratified sampling technique are because; It saves time to study the whole population would require a lot of time which the researcher may not have. Reduces Cost – Also to study the whole population would require a lot of money. 3. 5: DATA COLLECTION The following were the methods used during the collection of data. Interviews: This is a method of research in which the interview gets information from the subject (interviews) through interaction. The interviewer asks the interviewee different type of questions depending on the researcher problem. Advantages: 1)The interviewed enabled the researcher to get immediate feedback 2)It gave an opportunity for the researcher to reset some questions when the interviewee didn’t understand the questions well. 3)It gave the researcher an opportunity to use any language so that the interviewee can understand well. 4)The researcher gave an opportunity to administer and personally establish rapport between interviewee and interviewer. 5)The researcher had time to clarify issues for the interviewees on the same. Disadvantages: 1. It was time consuming; since each member in the group had to be given time to contribute 2. During the group discussion some respondents were shy; this made the researcher to miss some information. QUESTIONNAIRES: A questionnaire is a research tool which contains several questions on a specific issue or problem being investigated. It can be mailed to the respondents or administered by the researcher. If administered by the researcher, the researcher will have time to explain the purpose of the study and the meaning for the questions if they are not clear to the respondents. This is where the researcher formulates the questions for the respondents to answer. The questions were close ended whereby the respondents required giving the answer in the form of YES or NO. Advantages: 1. It was cheap for the researcher, since the researcher saved money in travelling when mailing the questionnaires. 2. The information given out was easy for analysis. 3. The information from the respondents was based on facts. 4. There was no hurry whatsoever for the respondents in terms of answering the questions. 5. It saved time for the researcher since Disadvantages: 1. It was not possible for the researcher to respond to the respondents’ reactions. 2. Some of the questionnaires were not returned on time, hence made the work to delay. 3. Some respondents didn’t understand the questions without an explanation from the researcher. 3. 6: DATA ANAYLYSIS: Data is referred to facts and figures. Analysis is the process of preparing, computing and interpreting. Therefore, data analysis is the process of collecting, recording, analyzing, presenting and interpreting data. In this study area, it deals with data and analysis for better and easy understanding of this work. Based on data analysis the researcher used the following: Pie Chart Bar Charts Tables CHAPTER FOUR 4. 0: DATA PRESENTATION ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION The work of this area or selection is to analyze, present and interpretation of this data which has been carried out by the researcher. The researcher decided to analyze, present and interpret this work using tables and charts for easy understanding. In collection of data, the researcher used only two methods, questionnaires and interview guide. A case study of Shella Sub-location, Malindi District Kilifi County with the Coast Province; in the sub-location ninety five people were interviewed from different villages in the sub-location. The people who were interviewed were aged 10 – 20 yrs, those aged 21 – 30 yrs, those aged 31 – 40 yrs, and those who were 41 yrs and above. For every researcher who wishes to investigate on a certain problem, the researcher should use appropriate methods which will enable to get facts and accurate data. In using the interview guide and questionnaires, the researcher found out reasons why youths in Shella Sub-location become delinquent. Based on the same, the researcher found that there were measures in place though they were not effective. The information from the respondents showed that peer pressure was the major cause of juvenile delinquency among the youths in Shella Sub-location. Other answers were idleness, lack of education, bad companies, poverty, family background, drug abuse among others. The respondents also proposed that juvenile delinquency had negative effects to the development of the country. The following were the findings expressed by the researcher: A. PEER PRESSURE AS A MAJOR CAUSE OF JUVENILE DELINQUECNY AMONG THE YOUTHS IN SHELLA SUB-LOCATION. The questionnaires were seeking to find out find out if peer pressure is the major cause of juvenile delinquency among the youths in Shella Sub-location. A table showing if juvenile delinquency among the youths is caused by peer pressure (Table 4. 1) 10 – 20 yrs21 – 30 yrs31 – 40 yrs41 + yrsTotal RespondentsTotal Respondents in % Agreed162718248589. 5% Disagreed432110 10. 5% TOTAL2030202595100% The pie chart below shows the above table as a result of the findings (Figure 4. 1) Based on the above pie chart, 89. 5% of all the respondents agreed that peer pressure was the main reason which caused juvenile delinquency while the disagreed were 10. 5% of the whole population. In regard of the same, the respondents also commented that juvenile delinquency is caused by the following reasons: 1. Parents and guardians spend little time with their children hence these children miss guidance from them. 2. Children can easily imitate behaviors from criminal parents or friends. Parents and teachers don’t make a follow up, footsteps of their children. For example, the teacher would not ask why the student is absent likewise the parents will not bother whether their kids have gone to school or not. This facilitates truancy among children hence involved in delinquency behavior. B. EFFECTS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY ON COUNTRY’S DEVELOPMENT The questions which were asked in this part were targeted to find out if juvenile delinquency among the youths has negative effects on a country’s development. The interviewed people were ninety five out of the two hundred as it was targeted by the researcher. The findings were as follows: A table showing the effects of juvenile delinquency on the country’s development (table 4. 2) 10 – 20 yrs21 – 30 yrs31 – 40 yrs41 + yrsTotal RespondentsTotal Respondents in % Agreed202819259296. 8% Disagreed_21_33. 2% TOTAL2030202595100% The pie chart below shows the above findings (Figure 4. 2) These were the effects on the country’s development highlighted by the respondents: a)It brings about increase in crimes in the urban center b)It increases the spread of HIV/AIDS due to unprotected sexual behaviors. c)It leads to death of many young youths.d)It becomes a burden of dependency because a large number of the school dropouts depend on their parents for their survival. e)Much of the time is wasted by the delinquent in drinking and smoking instead of doing some productive activities. f)Most of juvenile delinquency do not relate well with their families hence leading to disintegration of good relationships. g)For juveni les who are students in universities, college, secondary and primary schools, they end up recording poor performance in these institutions. C. MEASURES TO CONTROL JUVENILE DELINQUENCY In this part, the questions given to the respondents aimed at finding out if there any measures whatsoever in place to control the evil of juvenile delinquency in Shella Sub-location. A total number of ninety five people out of two hundred were interviewed. A table showing responses of the respondents if there are any measures in place to control drug abuse problem (table 4. 3) Total RespondentsTotal Respondents in % Agreed6568. 4% Disagreed1313. 7% Not Aware1717. 9% TOTAL95100% Information of Table 4. 3 and its number of interviewees (Figure 4. 3) INTERPRETATION 65 out of 95 people agreed that there were measures in place to control the problem of juvenile delinquency which is the same as 68. 4% of the whole population. A total number of 95 people were interviewed. 17 out of 95 respondents claimed that they were not aware if there are measures to curb the issue of juvenile delinquency in the sub-location, which is equal to 17. 9% of the whole population. 13 out of 95 respondents disagreed that there were measures in place to control the problem because of the way the problem has spread in the area. This is equal to 13. 7% of the whole population. Due to the spread of this problem, the respondents in the area mentioned the following organizations which have taken into consideration of educating the youths on the dangers of juvenile delinquency. The groups were: The Islamic group Omar project The Kenya Red Cross (Malindi Branch) The Churches Aphia II The Assistant Chief CHAPTER FIVE 5. 0: SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS The following findings were made during the research exercise: Most of the people in the community said that juvenile delinquency among the youths was caused by peer pressure and bad companies. Majority of the respondents said that the youths are the ones who are highly involved and affected by the problem. The interviewed said that juvenile delinquency among the youths affects the sub-location and the country in terms of development. 68. 4% of the respondents said that there were measures in place to control the problem of juvenile delinquency. 5. 1: CONCLUSIONS The following conclusions were based on the findings which were obtained from the interviewed during the exercise. Majority of the people accepted that juvenile delinquency among the youth was caused by peer pressure and bad companies. Majority of the population agreed that youths are the ones who are mostly involved in the delinquency problem. The development stakeholders and the community members accepted that juvenile delinquency affects the country’s development. The measures to control the problem were in place, though they were not effective. 5. 2: RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations were based on the conclusions. The researcher came up with an idea that parents, caregivers, teachers and guardians should spend more time with their children counseling them and enquiring on the type of friends that they have at school and out of school. More job opportunities should also be created for the jobless youths. This will eradicated idleness among the youths, and make the productive members of the community. These activities can be sports, projects and community participation among others. Due to the fact that youths are the productive members in any community, the government and non-governmental organizations should come up with ways of assisting the youths to change their undesirable behaviors. More attention should also be put on the already existing measures of controlling drug abuse so that fruitful results can be realized. 5. 3. 0: APPENDIX (A) References Flin, R. and Soencer, RJ. (1990). â€Å"The Evidence of Children† (2nd Ed). London. Bell and Blain Ltd: Glasgow. Hollin, R. C and Howeus, C. (1996). â€Å"Clinical Approaches to Working with Young Offenders. † England: John Willey. Howel, C. J. (2003). â€Å"Preventing and Reducing Juvenile Delinquency. †Australia: Sage. Lipsett, P. (1968). â€Å"The Juvenile Offenders Percep

Cadbury Dairy Essay Example for Free

Cadbury Dairy Essay Cadbury Dairy milk is in the mature stage of the product life cycle, the reason being is that it is a well-established product since 1905. The maturity point is generally reached when about half the potential users have adopted the product. Since Cadbury Dairy Milk is Australia’s favourite chocolate, it is safe to say that there is already consumer trust and loyalty to the brand. However customers still need continued satisfaction and loyalty, built on lower cost, differentiation or customer service. Seeing that Cadbury chocolate is considered a common brand name in households all over Australia, there is nothing within the external environment that should be modified and it will remain in a strong steady position in the confectionery industry. Product: In order to continue generating sales, Cadbury took into consideration one of the threats that the confectionery industry is facing today. Consumers are becoming more health conscious; therefore Cadbury will support and promote physical activity by giving away mountain bikes to 100 lucky winners around Australia! The promotion will only feature in the Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate block range: including the Fruit and Nut, Hazelnut etc†¦ Featured on the wrapping will be, â€Å"WIN A MOUNTAIN BIKE† with a picture of the bike that will be won. Price: The pricing of Dairy Milk Chocolate will also maintain the same pricing strategies to remain competitive with its competitors Nestle and Mars. Place: The distribution of Cadbury Dairy Milk should be at its maximum capacity, remaining readily available in supermarkets, convenience stores, seven elevens and kiosks. Promotion: Cadbury should continue to generate promotions to remind and encourage consumers to purchase Dairy milk chocolate. In order to maintain the sales of Dairy Milk, sales promotion should be implemented to generate growth. This is done by creating advertisements on Television and in-store promotional posters to display the promotion that is running. The television and in-store promotion is to inform consumers of the promotion that is currently running. The sales promotion will be â€Å"WIN A MOUNTAIN BIKE† This promotion is for the Cadbury Dairy Milk block chocolate range. Every consumer that purchases a block range from Cadbury’s will have the opportunity to enter the competition by text via SMS a code that is given inside the wrapper. f. ) Marketing Action Plans: A key objective is to hold current customers and to maintain and increase the retail and brand market share to make sure that the Cadbury brand and products remain one of the top selling confectionery brands in Australia. Since Cadbury Dairy Milk is in the top five selling chocolates list, there will be no need for any tremendous change. A good way to promote The other Cadbury block chocolate range such as Fruit and nut and Hazelnut†¦etc will also have his competition. Price: Cadbury’s human resources department will need to find a place that will provide us with the mountain bikes. The costing of the bikes and the overall promotions will need to be considered, as Cadbury does not want to spend so much on promotions, when Cadbury Dairy Milk is not declining any time soon. Promotion: Pictures of this new competition will need to be put in magazines such as: Women’s day, News Idea, newspapers†¦. etc†¦designers will be needed to create the advertisements for this promotion. However, to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk’s new competition, television is the key to ensure that viewers all around Australia will know about the â€Å"WIN A MOUNTAIN BIKE† promotion. As television is the main and preferred type of advertising, it is certain that consumers will know about the competition faster. And in addition to that, the Cadbury chocolate commercials will still be showing, to heighten promotions. It is best to air the promotion on television between 4:00 pm – 9:00pm, since that is the time when consumers are most likely to be at home. Place: The exposure of Cadbury Dairy Milk promotion will need to be more publicized in convenience stores and kiosks in the form of a poster. g. ) Management of the marketing effort and the marketing function: In order to make sure that they marketing effort and function works accordingly a few steps have to be taken in regards to the management of the planning. The three step process that will have to be put in place will be based around †¢Marketing Implementation –The process of putting marketing strategies into action †¢Intended Strategy The strategy that the company decides on during the planning phase †¢Realized Strategy – The strategy that actually takes place Cadbury must be able to respond and adapt to its internal marketing department. Coordinating internal exchanges between the firm and its employees to achieve successful external exchanges between the firm and its customers is very important as it allows for a gauge or a measure to be received as a result of acceptance and understanding. In regards to the marketing activities it all starts within the Cadbury management team. The ability to motivate marketing personnel plays a large part in the initial process to get the promotional idea off the ground, once the team is able to have a grip of the idea that tackles the current health issue and that a bike will be awarded as a prize and health product then extreme communication within the marketing unit will be essential. Openness and responsiveness from other marketing departments will be just as important to make sure that the management and strategy travels across all channels. This will be indispensable to the organizing and coordinating of marketing activities which then lead to a schedule for implementation. The marketing control process consists of three steps; Establishment of control standards, Evaluation of actual performance relative to established standards and corrective action if necessary. A few key guidelines that will help Cadbury in controlling marketing activities: Within the Marketing Control Process †¢Establishing performance standards and trying to match actual performance to those standards Establishing Performance Standards Expected levels of performance †¢Taking Corrective Action oImprove actual performance oReduce or change the performance standards oDo both †¢Problems in Controlling Marketing Activities oLack of the information required to control activities oUncontrollable influence of market environment changes on marketing activities oTime lag that occurs between marketing campaigns and their results delays corrective actions A few problems can also occur in the controlling of marketing activities, however the ability to act on these problems will only make the campaign more successful and responsive.

Essay on my Favourite Book Snow White

Essay on my Favourite Book Snow White Snow White was the heroine of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in 1937. Snow White is young, pretty, virginal, sweet-natured and obedient. She doesnt mind housework because she is sure that a rich young man will soon come and take her away. When Snow White is afraid, she runs away and falls down in tears. When she finds shelter in a dirty little house in the woods, she immediately cleans it from top to bottom. When she lives there, she continues to do the housework: the group of (small) working males who live in the house clearly need a mother to clean for them, so this is Snow Whites natural role. SHELTER is something that protects you and keeps you safe from weather or from dangers Snow Whites only enemy is her wicked and powerful step-mother. (Another typical Disney character is the evil older women, who has a lot of power. She is always destroyed.) WICKED: bad, evil A STEP-MOTHER is a woman who marries someones father after their mother died Snow Whites wicked step-mother tricks Snow White into eating a poisoned apple and she falls into a coma. The dwarfs cannot help her. Snow White must wait until she is rescued by the kiss of a handsome prince, and then she rides off happily with her new love. TRICK: (v) to fool or deceive When someone is in a COMA, they are completely unconscious and cannot be awakened This is typical of Disneys movies. Young women are naturally happy home-makers; they wait (like Snow White in her coma) until a man comes along to give them life. Something is TYPICAL if it has the usual qualities of a type of thing. After Snow White, Disney used other fairy tales for his movies, for example Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). The heroines and their stories were very similar to Snow White. FAIRY TALES: stories that are told to children about magical places and people Then, in 1966, Walt Disney died and the Disney Company did not produce any good animated films for a long time. Then, in 1989, the company produced a new, and very successful, cartoon feature film, The Little Mermaid. FEATURE FILM: a full length movie The Little Mermaid Ariel, the mermaid, is the heroine of the movie. It seems that Disney did not pay much attention to the Womens Movement: Ariel is the same as the earlier Disney heroines, except that she is somewhat sexy and wears a bikini made from shells. And the answer to all her dreams is to get her man. Ariel will do anything to make the prince fall in love with her. She even gives up her voice so that she can have legs. (What message does this movie give to young girls Keep quiet and be beautiful?) But Disney movies have happy endings, and so Ariel gets her voice back and she keeps her prince. On the other hand, she loses everything else. When she becomes human and marries the prince, she must leave behind her underwater home, her father and her friends. She gives up everything in her life for romance. Thats OK for a fairy tale, but it is not a good idea for young girls in real life. MERMAID Mermaid Many women complained to Disney about The Little Mermaid, and Disney promised to think more carefully about womens roles in future. They hired a female screenwriter for their next movie, Beauty and the Beast (1991). Disneys publicity people promised that Belle, the heroine, would be modern, active, and even feminist. SCREENWRITER: the person who writes the words of a movie Beauty and the Beast The press thought Disney had done a good job, but the only real improvement is that Belle likes reading! BELLE is the main woman character in Beauty and the Beast However, the most important problem in this movie is not the Disney companys idea of an independent woman. The problem is how Disney changed the hero, and the message of the story. In the original story, the Beast looks terrible and frightening, but he is really kind and gentle. The message of the story is that you should not judge someone by what they look like. An ugly outside can hide a loving heart. Disney changed this. The company decided to create a Beast with a very serious problem. Disneys Beast terrifies his household and frightens Belle, his prisoner. The Beast does not attack Belle, but the threat of physical violence is present. In the Disney movie, Belle changes the character of the Beast. Her beauty and her sweet nature change him from a beast into a prince, from someone who is cruel, into someone who is kind. So the movies message is very different from the message of the fairy tale. SWEET-NATURE: being kind and pleasant The movie says, if a young woman is pretty and sweet-natured, she can change an abusive man into a kind and gentle man. In other words, it is a womans fault if her man abuses her. This is another dangerous message for young girls because it is not true: if Belle lived in the real world, she would almost certainly become a battered wife. Someone who is ABUSIVE treats people very badly ABUSE: (v) to treat someone very badly BATTERED: badly beaten Aladdin Princess Jasmine, the only female character in Aladdin (1992), is a lot like Disneys other women. But there is another very worrying thing about this movie, its racism. Listen to some of the songs, for example: I come from a land. where they cut off your ears if they dont like your face. Its barbaric, but hey, its home. RACISM: the belief that people of your race are better than people of other races BARBARIC: violent and cruel And look at the characters. The evil characters, like Jafar, look very Arabic. On the other hand, Aladdin, the hero, looks and sounds like a fresh-faced American boy: his skin is much paler, and he asks people to call him Al, an American name, not an Arabic name. FRESH-FACED: clean and innocent. Something is PALER than something else if it is lighter-colored or whiter. Of course, Disney does not intend to offend people that would be bad business. Most people who watch the movies are probably caught up in the Disney magic and dont notice these things. But thats the problem. One way in which Disney creates the magic is by using stereotypes that people respond to without thinking. Aladdin looks right for a hero; Jafar looks right for a villain. We dont think about it. If you are CAUGHT UP IN something, you are very involved and interested in it. STEREOTYPE: a fixed image or idea of what a type of person is like. By using quotation marks [RIGHT for a hero], the writer makes clear that she means this ironically. The Lion King The Lion King does the same thing. The characters are animals, but their voices show racist stereotypes. Even though The Lion King takes place in Africa, two white American actors are used for the voice of Simba, the hero. However, the hyenas who are bad characters in the film, speak non-standard English and are played by actors like Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin. The villain, Scar, suggests homosexuality. And, of course women (the lionesses) are weak and need a male hero: when Simba runs away, the lionesses cannot protect themselves from the evil Scar and must wait for years until Simba returns to save them. RACIST STEREOTYPES: a fixed idea of what people of different races are like. HYENAS: an African animal that feeds on dead animals; its cry sounds like a laugh. SUGGESTS HOMOSEXUALITY: gives the idea that he might be homosexual. Pocahontas After The Lion King, Disney became interested in the idea of multiculturalism and made Pocahontas in 1995. This movie mixes Disneys favourite story of the princess- in-love with a real story from Native American history. That is a problem because Pocahontas was a real woman, and she was very different from the Pocahontas that Disney invented. To give only one example: in real life, Pocahontas was a child when she first met the hero John Smith and there was no romance between them. When Pocahontas met Smith again years later, she called him father. MULTICULTURALISM: the idea that it is a good thing to include people from many different cultures. But there are even more serious problems with the Disney version of Pocahontas and the video follow-up, Pocahontas II. The movies ignore the real fate of both Pocahontas and her people. The first movie ends cheerfully with peace between the colonists and natives; in fact, many, many of the Powhatan Nation (Pocahontas people) were later killed. COLONISTS: the first groups of people who came from Europe to America, to settle and make a home for themselves IGNORE: do not show As for the real Pocahontas, she was kidnapped and held hostage. She was forced to become a Christian and behave like a civilised white woman. She was married to a colonist who believed that the civilisation she grew up in was evil. Later, Pocahontas was taken to England, to help advertise the colony of Virginia. In England, she was homesick. She became ill and died before she could return to her homeland. CIVILISED: from a more advanced society. The quotation marks around the word show that the writer is being ironic. HOMESICK: feeling sad because you are away from home None of this is in Disneys movie. And that is very worrying, because many people believed that they were learning about history when they watched Pocahontas. Mulan Disney has done a similar thing with Mulan (1998), the story of a Chinese hero. The real Hua Mu-Lan lived so long ago that her story has become a Chinese legend a legend that Disney has reinvented so that it fits the pattern of a young woman in love. LEGEND: a famous story about a great hero Disney created Shang, a male hero for Mulan. He is her commanding officer. In the movie, Mulan is wounded in battle and everyone finds out that she is a woman. Her punishment is death but Shang cannot kill her, so he sends her away. After the war he comes to find her and marry her. In the military, your COMMANDING OFFICER is the person who gives you orders. Disney has done it again. Brave, kick-boxing Mulan does not look like Snow White but, in fact, the life of a Disney heroine has not changed very much. Men still have power over them (Shang quite literally decides whether Mulan will live or die); and the best thing that can happen to them is to marry the hero and live happily ever after. KICK-BOXING: a kind of fighting that uses both punching and kicking.

From Homer’s Odyssey to Star Wars - The Unchanging Path of the Hero Ess

From Homer’s Odyssey to Star Wars - The Unchanging Path of the Hero In the fiction world heroes have been one of the most entertaining figures. It has always been fun and interesting to read about heroic stories and about different obstacles that heroes had overcome. When someone mentions the word "hero" it is more likely to think of characters like Batman or James Bond, but it is for sure that if we had the chance to ask the same question centuries before, the answer would have been different. From comics or TV it is seen that heroes change physically and spiritually through time, but the heroic pattern stays always the same when moving from ancient times to today's heroes. The first hero whose pattern I am going to unfold is Oedipus. Just like all other heroes he lives an extraordinary experience which normal people would not live, and that is one of the reasons that the heroic pattern seems so appealing to people. People could read and think about the situations that would not happen in their life, and the situations which people would be interested to know about. Going back to the topic, it has been foreseen that he is going to kill his father and marry with his mother. In the story these events come true and Oedipus becomes the new King, but the gods of the city curses him and his city. After realizing his sin, he sacrifices his eyes and blinds himself Oedipus contains courage, strength and he makes the journey that most of the heroes go through. However it is not clearly visible as modem heroes and it carries more of a symbolic tissue. With information told by a fortuneteller his parents believe that Oedipus is going to kill them, so they decide to take in action before Oedipus and try to kill him. Oedipus escapes by... ...attern could change but there is a heroic pattern that always stays the same. Works Cited Star Wars, A New Hope George Lucas, Gary Kurtz. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher. Science‑ Fiction, 1977 Star Wars, the Empire Strikes Back George Lucas, Irvin Kershner. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher. Science‑ Fiction, 1980 Star Wars, the Return of the jedi George Lucas, Richard Marquand. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher. Science‑ Fiction, 1983 Batman Tim Burton. Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger. Science‑Fiction, Fantasy, 1989 James Bond, Goldfinger Guy Hamilton. Sean Connery, Honor Blackman. Action, 1964 Green, Roger Lancelyn. Heroes of Greece and Troy, retold from ancient authors. New York: H.Z Walck, 1961 Hendricks, Rhoda A. Classical Gods and Heroes. New York: Ungar Pubs Co., 1972

public education :: essays research papers

The topic that I am going to be talking about in this essay is a very big and controversial issue. That is rather it is a good idea or bad to charter our failing public school system. So far it seems the non-chartering path is in the lead, but charting school is catching up fast. In this essay I’m going to summarize one article title The New School, by Chester E. Finn Jr. that supports the charter system. Also I will summarize an article title To Market, To Market, by Phyllis Vine who seem to strongly opposed the charting our public system. As far as my personal opinion goes, I believe charter schools are still in it’s infancy, we should give it more time to develop before we can actually decide rather charter school is a good idea or not. I would go into greater detail later in the essay.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pro-charter article titled The New School, by Chester E. Finn Jr. who is the former assistant secretary of education believed and I quote â€Å"charter schools offer the benefits of both public and private schools and can revitalize urban education.† He started the article by stating that currently the charter systems enrolling about 170,000 students, with about twenty-nine school authorizing and allowing charter schools to be built and operated, states such as California, Michigan, Texas, Massachusetts. What is a charter school? Well, according to the article, it is â€Å"a public school with some of the most highly prized features of private schools.† The best part is it is offered to anyone who wishes to attend, with no additional cost to the parents, because it is pay for by the tax dollars. Out of all the charter school, many are owned and operated by local community and parents. But there are about two dozen that are operated and owned by t he Edison Project and the Educational Alternatives Inc. For some other firms instead of operating and owning the entire school, they target specific area, such as the furnishing, tutoring, and technology to name a few. According to this article the educational system in the United States is $300 billion enterprise. While Chester states maybe a reason for some firms to try to jump on board the chartering business. From Chester’s article he stated that in two years time he visited about sixty schools in fourteen states and interviewed few hundreds of those either worked or attended those schools.

The Dramatic Effect of El Nino on Southern Californias Seal and Sea Lion Population :: Animals Nature Environment essays Climate

At the beginning of our winter season, El Nino left some dramatic effects on our seal and sea lion population here in Southern California. Since June of 1997, about 6,000 sea mammals have perished on this San Miguel Island, 50 miles off the Ventura coast. This island is home to the largest population of seals and sea lions south of Alaska. Scientists estimate that there are approximately between 85,000 and 180,000 California sea lions breeding on this island and other Channel Islands. There are about 11,000 Northern Fur Seals on San Miguel Island. The adult sea lions go to northern California and British Columbia after they breed, while the pups are left behind around the central coast. In one of the most physical demonstrations of El Nino, oceanic warming drove away much of their food supply: squid, anchovies, herring, and sardines. The pups are spending most of their energy in search of colder waters for their daily intake of 30 pounds of food. Experts in marine biology are strictly observing and documenting the famine, not attempting to rescue the dying animals. They have been conducting studies on this island since the 1960s. Several rescue groups, such as Sea World located in San Diego, were ready to bring back the starving pups. However, the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits them from going to the remote island and disturbing their natural habitat. Experts would rather wait for the mammals to get washed up ashore than to separate a pup from its mother. The goal is to minimize human impacts. Scientists are now trying to learn from the mistakes they made when studying the effects of the 1983 El Nino. There was a research project conducted on the marine ecosystem at the Punta San Juan de Marcona sea lion reserve, a remote point of land on the coast about three hundred miles south of Lima, Peru. The project consisted of an in-depth study of the sea lion and the ecosystem it inhabits; it focused primarily on the behavior of more than fifteen thousand sea lions, the largest sea lion colony in the South American Pacific. Documenting the sea lions living traits for over 10 years, the biologists are also observing behavioral changes produced by El Nino, the same Pacific current that altered oceanic conditions. When El Nino dampens the point in warmer water, the sea lions' prey swims deeper. Consequently, the pups remain with their mothers longer, until they are able to dive themselves to hunt for food.

Education has undergone a paradigm shift

Education has undergone a paradigm displacement in recent old ages with accent traveling towards larning instead than learning. Learning is no longer regarded as a unidirectional procedure of cognition transferral/distribution, but instead is considered a transformational procedure in which scholars get facts, theories and rules as conceptual tools for problem-solving and concluding within meaningful contexts. Distance acquisition ( DL ) has non been immune to this displacement and the technological developments of recent decennaries has hastened the rate of alteration. Distance acquisition is defined by the separation of scholar and instructor in infinite and/or clip ( Teaster and Blieszner, 1999 ) and Keegan ( 1995 ) considers that it consequences from the technological separation of scholar and instructor which removes the necessity of â€Å" going to a fixed topographic point†¦ at a fixed clip†¦ to run into a fixed individual†¦ in order to be trained or educated à ¢â‚¬  ( p.7 ) . Although distance acquisition might be thought of as a comparatively new term, it has existed in assorted signifiers for over a hundred old ages, get downing life through correspondence classs and go oning in this manner until being superseded by instructional telecasting and wireless in the mid twentieth century ( Imel, 1996 ) . While it is acknowledged that DL continues to take topographic point through diverse media, and that on-line bringing is merely one of these methods, the groundswell in synergistic engineerings in recent old ages has concomitantly fostered the development of new methodological analysiss which engender ( societal ) constructivist attacks, and it is the issues which surround these developments, and in peculiar some of the ways in which constructivist ideals can be realised in DL that will be the focal point of this assignment. One of the salient characteristics of DL is that it enables larning to be clip and topographic point independent, big scholars are able to set up larning around their mundane modus operandis without being constrained. In the age of IT a diverse scope of instruction ( and other ) engineerings exist to ease distance instruction where teacher and scholar are spatially separated and on-line media are used to cross the educational spread. As engineering has advanced, so the definition of DL has changed, videotaped talks were the standard signifier of bringing in university/professional DL classs in the 1980s and 1990s ( Moore and Lockee, 1998 ) and this theoretical account of spacial and temporal separation continued until the Internet, electronic mail and compressed picture moved DL into new waies and allowed it to happen in real-time. Ongoing technological developments: confab suites, wikis, treatment boards, weblogs and videoconferencing have continued to cut down the distance in DL as societal media engineerings have enabled an addition in engagement through coaction. The usage of Web 2.0 tools has accelerated the acceptance of two-way, synchronal, collaborative e-learning experiences that are get downing to replace the top-down, unidirectional instructional theoretical account. These alterations have led many observers to propose that DL requires a new, qualitatively different teaching method built upon this emerging relationship between te achers and scholars. Pedagogical considerations must recognize that the practical schoolroom possesses a typical social-interaction context and that, although engineerings may be considered transformative, they can non, of themselves, transform the acquisition experience and pedagogues must understand that â€Å" distance instruction is truly about making a different sort of construction for acquisition and instruction, non the usage of engineering † ( Kearsley 1998, no page no. ) . Petraglia ( 1998 ) has suggested that educational engineers may hold misunderstood the challenges which are posed within the DL scene by â€Å" the effort to do learning stuffs and environments correspond to the existent universe prior to the scholar ‘s interaction with them † ( p.53 ) . These efforts at pre-authentication hazard sabotaging the epistemic dimension of constructivism since the pedagogue pre-determines what reliable acquisition is, and this may be in struggle with the scholar ‘s ain perceptual experience of what is reliable for them. This effort at contextualising larning bounds constructivism ‘s application since â€Å" we need to convert scholars of a jobs genuineness instead than advance environments that deliver pre- authenticated jobs † ( Ibid. , p.13 ) . Knowles, Holton and Swanson ( 1998, p.23 ) have criticised ‘chain-like ‘ sequencing of larning events as being elemental instead than holistic, and yet some online acquisition theoretical accounts still use ‘chain-like ‘ sequencing which fail to integrate constructivist elements or take advantage of grownup larning theories to heighten the acquisition environment. Since DL operates in a different environment from the traditional schoolroom, distance pedagogues must utilize typical perceptual experiences and techniques to guarantee success, and some educationists ( Moller, 1998 ; Petraglia, 1998 ; Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, Campbell and Haag, 1995 ) have proposed that constructivism is most relevant to this context. Furthermore, grownup scholars have peculiar demands and demands compared with striplings and kids, hence, distance pedagogues must cognize how adults might larn best because of their peculiar demands. Therefore, this assignment will try to analyze the impact that constructivism has in the distance acquisition environment when focussed upon grownup scholars, and the ways in which new engineerings are back uping the development of constructivist and societal constructivism ideals within this environment. From behaviorism to constructivism Conventional instruction has normally relied upon an objectivist epistemology, this position presumes that cognition can be transferred from coach to student via direction and pattern, and that ‘true world ‘ can be discovered by the amassing of facts ( Kelly, 1970 ) . Teaching underpinned by this doctrine discourages diverse apprehensions and positions, disregards the different contexts/experiences of the person, and considers pupils to be the inactive receiving systems of cognition. Although the didactic, information-giving technique may be appropriate for some acquisition manners and in some contexts, its continuance as a dominant teaching method has stifled acknowledgment of diverse acquisition penchants. In this context accent is placed on teacher-control and student-compliance, in contrast, an recognition that adult scholars bring their ain peculiar larning features to any learning state of affairs leads effectual pedagogues to recognize these features when planning and presenting acquisition. DL has a different scene from the traditional schoolroom ensuing non merely from the spacial separation of instructor and scholar, but besides from the differences in instructional design ( Moore, 1991 ) . Since DL can non ease face-to-face interaction in the same manner that the conventional schoolroom does, and as Moore ( Ibid. ) has noted, group or single interaction is influenced by the educational doctrine in usage, assorted research workers ( McHenry and Bozik, 1995 ; McDonald and Gibson, 1998 ; Comeaux, 1995 ) have focussed upon the survey of interaction in DL. Constructivists ( e.g. , Dewey, 1916 ; Bruner, 1966 ; and Vygotsky, 1978 ) see cognition as socially constructed through scholar ‘s interaction with others. However, Knowle ‘s ( 1970 ) grownup larning theory ( andragogy ) might be viewed as conflicting with the ideals of collaborative larning due to its focal point on learner-centred direction and single acquisition aims and penchants. Collaborative teamwork is likely to be regarded every bit antithetical to these ideals unless the grownup scholar can see positive benefits from engagement. The theories relevant to this country will now be considered. Constructivist and Adult Learning Theory reviewed. Constructivism In recent old ages educational discourse has challenged the objectivist position, with an increasing apprehension that there are many ways of understanding world. Whilst constructivist authors have described assorted signifiers of constructivism, all recognise the active function which the scholar plays in construing the universe ( Larochelle and Bednarz, 1998 ) . Constructivism contests objectivism ‘s position that cognition reflects ontological world ( Ibid. ) , and alternatively proposes that our buildings and universe positions are non stable, but instead are in a province of flux as we build upon old experiences. These alterations signify acquisition, and back up the apprehension that we are ne'er inert, but alternatively are ever larning and interacting ( Kelly, 1970 ) . The Hagiographas of Dewey ( 1916 ) , Vygotsky ( 1965 ) , Bruner ( 1966 ) and Piaget ( 1926 ) have all proposed that pupils learn actively and organize new apprehensions based upon anterior cognition, and these positions view the function of the teacher altering from â€Å" a sage to a usher † ( Mason, 1998, p.4 ) . Dewey ( 1916 ) believed that larning state of affairss represent the experience ( s ) of the environment which affect the scholar, and that interaction occurs between the scholar and the environment. Therefore cognition is predicated upon active experience. Both Dewy and Piaget considered that pedagogues have a function to play both in determining the pupil ‘s experience from the environment, and understanding which milieus are likely to breed experiences that will take to growing. Dewey ( 1916 ) believed that instruction ‘s chief map was to develop the logical thinking procedure, and that jobs to be studied should be drawn from the scholar ‘s ain involvements. He viewed it as indispensable, hence, that â€Å" there be a uninterrupted activity in which he is interested for its ain interest † ( P.163 ) and that â€Å" †¦ a echt job develop within this state of affairs as a stimulation to thought † ( Ibid. ) . In this manner, constructivist methods underscore the development of the scholar ‘s ability to work out real-life jobs, and in making so ‘free-discovery ‘ and ‘problem-solving ‘ come together. As a consequence, cognition is dynamic and constructed upon the find proce dure ( Dewey, 1916 ) , and the teacher is viewed as a usher alternatively of as a manager of larning since acquisition allows for originative interaction instead than being purely outcome-based. Vygotsky ( 1965 ) moved beyond concentrating upon the person, interpreting and building significances of world, alternatively seeing single acquisition as grounded in the socio-cultural context, and symbolically mediated through language/dialogue. For Vygotsky, the scholar ‘s societal interactions, including those with instructors and other scholars, are critically of import to cognitive development, ensuing in Vygotskian theory frequently being referred to as societal constructivism. Vygotsky ‘s Zone of Proximal Development ( ZPD ) describes how engagement with another ( instructor or equal ) enables scholars to polish their thought or public presentation and do it more effectual ; this thought was taken farther by Bruner ( 1966 ) in developing the construct of scaffolding. Bruner ( Ibid. ) views instruction as a procedure of personal find, with cognitive growing happening as pupils progress through three larning phases: enactive, iconic and symbolic. In order to bring f orth apprehension, pupils must travel through the phases in turn, bring forthing new constructs and thoughts in a procedure of find acquisition, or, with the aid of another, through guided find. Knowles et Al. ( 1998 ) contend that this find should take topographic point in real-life state of affairss in order to be genuinely effectual and argue that much grownup acquisition is informal. Knowles is best known for his proposal of a theory of grownup larning which will now be reviewed. Adult larning theory Andragogy as an political orientation of constructs, thoughts and attacks for grownup instruction and acquisition was introduced by Malcolm Knowles in 1968 in acknowledgment of the different demands and motives of grownups compared with younger scholars. Conventional pedagogical theoretical accounts do non take history of these differences and so may bring forth tenseness, opposition and feelings of bitterness ( Knowles et al. , 1998 ) Six rules of grownup acquisition have been outlined: Need to cognize – grownups want to cognize why something should be learned, â€Å" what acquisition will happen, and why acquisition is of import † ( Ibid. , p.133 ) . The objectivist theoretical account assumes that pupils will larn what they are told to larn. However, grownups are used to commanding and understanding what they do, hence they want to cognize why something should be learnt and what benefit ( s ) larning will convey. Self concept – â€Å" Adults resent and resist and resist state of affairss in which they feel others are enforcing their volitions on them † ( Ibid, p.65 ) . Whilst they feel the demand for liberty, old educational experiences may hold made them dependent. It is the grownup pedagogue ‘s function to promote pupils to go self-directing, taking duty for their acquisition. Role of experience – Adult scholars are more heterogenous than immature pupils, their anterior experiences impact on acquisition, and they want to do usage of bing foundations of cognition, using them to new learning experiences. Readiness to larn – Adults are merely prepared to larn if/when their life state of affairs creates a demand to larn ( Knowles, 1970 ) . Orientation to larning – Adults favour problem-solving orientations, larning best when real-life contexts are used to show cognition. Motivation to larn – Internal precedences are more of import than external incentives, grownups are motivated to larn when the cognition can be utilised to work out jobs in their lives. Brookfield ( 1995 ) besides considered attacks to andragogy, holding with Knowles that grownups need to be autonomous and take control of their acquisition, and that this acquisition should be grounded in experiences. Additionally, Brookfield identified as of import critical refection – focusing on how adults thinks contextually and critically, and larning to larn. Brookfield ( Ibid. ) describes the instruction of grownups to larn how to larn as an â€Å" overarching intent for those pedagogues who work with grownups † ( no page no. ) Distance acquisition and ( societal ) constructivism Behaviourist educational schemes, trusting on the development of instructional sequences with results that are predetermined, have formed the footing of capable development for a figure of old ages. Constructivists are critical of this theoretical account because of its delegating of the function of the pupil to one of inactive receiver, and it reliance upon ‘drill and pattern ‘ larning activities with small attending paid to mental schemes or the significances behind them. This attack does non do allowances for negotiated shared significances, and fails to recognize the value of larning from errors made ( Williams and Burden, 1997 ) . Constructivism, in contrast to behaviorism, focuses on pupil ‘s innate efforts to do sense of the universe as the footing for the acquisition procedure, and recognises that persons use their anterior experiences in this procedure. The burden on the pedagogue displacements, hence, from being the ‘mechanic ‘ of cognition transportation, to going the ‘midwife ‘ in understanding ‘s birth ( von Glaserfield, 1996 ) with duty for making rich acquisition environments which provide the chance for meaningful experiences. In sing the function of constructivist theory in distance acquisition, Jonassen et Al. ( 1995 ) suggest four rules for constructivist environments that â€Å" engage scholars in cognition building through collaborative activities that embed larning in a meaningful context and through contemplation on what has been learned through conversation with others † ( p.5 ) . The rules propose that on-line distance larning environments should b e built with a focal point upon: Context, including a real-world component to avoid ‘chain-like ‘ sequencing ; Construction, leting active cognition building through articulation and contemplation ; Collaboration, happening amongst scholars to back up the development and rating of beliefs and hypotheses, and Conversation, for the dialogue of solutions to jobs. The acknowledgment of the importance of coaction and conversation amongst scholars as cardinal elements in the acquisition procedure is rooted in constructivism ‘s outgrowth: societal constructivism, which emphasises larning ‘s societal and collaborative nature ( Vygotsky, 1978 ) . McLoughlin and Oliver ( 1998 ) see that the constructivist position fails to to the full recognize that societal procedures, for illustration coaction, peer interaction and linguistic communication usage, have an of import impact on larning. Social constructivist believing positions cognition as constructed when scholars engage in conversation or activities about common undertakings or jobs. Meaning is constructed through a dialogic procedure and acquisition occurs as pupils are enculturated by better skilled equals ( Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer and Scott, 1994 ) . Through this procedure, cultural tools are acquired via engagement in cultural activities. Wells ( 1999 ) considers that Vygotsk ian theory supports this thought of a teacher-led collaborative community in which â€Å" all participants learn with, and from, each other as they engage together in dialogic question † ( p. twelve ) . Therefore, it is possible to see larning non as the teacher-directed lone activity of making specific responses to precise cues as behaviorism suggests, nor as an independent manner of researching the universe and doing sense of the experience as Piaget proposes. Rather societal constructivism positions larning as a socially synergistic procedure in which persons make significances through interactions with others. Mediation, hence, can be seen as an indispensable component in the societal constructivist larning procedure. A go-between is another who is more knowing or experienced than the scholar ( i.e. instructor, parent or equal ) who assists the scholar in doing sense of their experiences in order to manner new apprehensions. By adding the factor of mediation to the construct of constructivism, Jonassen et Al. ( 1995 ) and Williams and Burden ( 1997 ) have proposed that four factors influence acquisition, these are: instructors, scholars, undertakings and contexts, and Williams a nd Burden ( Ibid. ) consider that â€Å" they all interact as portion of a dynamic, on-going procedure † ( P. 43 ) . In this manner, societal constructivism regards the instructor as usher or facilitator working with scholars in a collaborative group working within real-world contexts to make significance from problem-based undertakings. Constructing communities and contracting the distance The challenge for the distance pedagogue is to unite these factors into a successful acquisition environment and diverse issues of constructivism and andragogy demand to be considered. Palloff and Pratt, ( 2007 ) suggest that making successful distance instruction utilizing on-line methods will affect reassigning our best patterns from the schoolroom into a new sphere, â€Å" in this new sphere, nevertheless, the patterns may non look precisely the same † ( p.6 ) . The on-line medium obliges DL pedagogues to believe otherwise in order to use its learning-enhancing functionality and pedagogic/andragogic potencies. It poses the challenge, and presents the chance, of making a sense of community which can breed societal constructivist acquisition. Within instruction, sense of community includes larning community and societal community ( Rovai, Wighting and Lucking, 2004 ) , and community-building has been identified as a factor in cut downing or forestalling the feelings of disaffection and isolation which may lend to student abrasion in DL ( Rovai, 2002 ) . Learning community comprises of how members perceive group rank with respect to shared norms/values and to the ability to run into educational aims/expectations ( Rovai et al. , 2004 ) . Social community is representative of the feelings of community members towards their connection, coherence, safety, mutuality, common trust, and sense of belonging ( Ibid. ) . The DL pedagogue Fosters this sense of community through the creative activity of a safe environment wherein pupils do non experience threatened when showing thoughts, by advancing socialization, exposing regard for diverse backgrounds, supplying feedback which directs and keeps communicating fluxing, reacting to pu pils ‘ educational demands, and keeping an obvious online interceding presence. Brown ( 2001 ) links the grade of community experienced by scholars with the degree of battle and duologue within the category and this is a position shared by Moore ( 1993 ) who considered the dealing of distance acquisition. Transactional distance theory defines the distance in DL as more than merely the spacial disjunction of instructors and scholars, but instead as a distance of perceptual experiences and apprehensions which is partly caused by geographic separation ; this separation must be reduced if effectual acquisition is to happen. Transactional theory evolved from work by Dewey and Bentley ( 1949 ) , and â€Å" connotes the interplay among the environment, the persons and the form of behaviors in a state of affairs † ( Boyd and Apps ( 1980 ) , cited in Barbadillo, 1998, no page ordinal number ) . The DL dealing takes topographic point between scholars and instructors within an environment with the typical feature of spacial separation and the attendant array of part icular acquisition and instruction behaviors. Transactional distance is engendered by the physical separation which creates a communicational spread, or psychological infinite – an country of possible mistake between the inputs of the instructor and scholar ( Moore, 1993 ) . Moore ( 2007 ) considers that transactional distance is comparative, non absolute, and that larning programmes are non ‘distance ‘ or ‘not distance ‘ but instead they have â€Å" more distance or less distance † ( p.91 ) . Transactional development is influenced by three factors: duologue, construction and liberty ( Moore, 1993 ) . The nature and extent of duologue may be affected by diverse factors ( class design, teacher/learner personalities, capable affair, environment etc. ) , but the medium of communicating is besides an of import factor. Programs with small or no dialogic interplay have a greater transactional distance than those which foster dynamic duologue. The usage of synergistic, electronic media supports this dynamism and so help the shortening of transactional distance. Structure is evaluated by Moore ( Ibid. ) from the position of the class ‘s flexibleness or rigidness in footings of the constitution of learning techniques, educational ends, appraisal processs and the grade to which single demands are met. Finally Moore ( Ibid. ) views liberty as the extent of scholar control exercised over acquisition processs – the sum of pick the pupil has over issues of larning ends, rate of advancement, mode of instruction and assessment methods. Moore ‘s theory has obvious analogues with constructivist, societal constructivist and grownup acquisition theories, and it is evident that as andragogical and constructivist elements are introduced, transactional distance will diminish. Transactional distance and duologue are reciprocally relative, therefore a lessening in duologue will ensue in an addition in transactional distance, whilst an addition in dialogue reduces distance. Although Moore ( 1993 ) focussed upon the dialogic interplay between instructor and scholar, using constructivist attacks in combination with societal package Fosters dialogue amongst equals every bit good as between scholar and instructor in the spirit of Williams and Burden ‘s ( 1997 ) socially-constructed, dynamic procedure. Dialogue is besides relative to class construction, an addition in construction lessenings duologue and accordingly increases transactional distance ( Moore, 1993 ) ; Moore speculated that grownup scholars of course exh ibit independent behavior and this liberty relies upon decreased degrees of transactional distance e.g. low degrees of construction and high degrees of duologue. Constructivist ideals can further the decrease of transactional distance and so increase liberty in the spirit of Knowle ‘s self-conception. Interaction plays an of import portion in this procedure, and the ways in which engineering can help this must be considered. Interaction There are basically two types of interaction in a learning state of affairs. One consists of the scholar interacting separately with content, while the other involves societal activity – the scholar ‘s interactions with others ( equals or instructor ) about the content. A DL environment that is to supply affectional and effectual acquisition whilst making a sense of community and contracting the transactional distance must breed both sorts of interaction. In the yesteryear, societal interaction about content chiefly took topographic point between the pedagogue and scholar, but emergent engineerings have made it progressively executable for scholars to interact with each other and this interaction gives learners the chance to reflect, reconsider and cooperate in reliable problem-solving ( Lave and Wenger, 1991 ; Berge, 1995 ) . Social interactions which would usually happen in the conventional schoolroom ( e.g. sharing, treatment, group activities, equal reviewing, etc. ) must alternatively take topographic point via tools and engineerings in distance acquisition environments. However, some of these tools/technologies have restrictions which may impact the kinds of interactions that are possible or likely to go on. Online engineerings provide affordances that can be utilised for larning through substructures which allow connexions to objects and people that are in other environments ( Ryder and Wilson, 1996 ; Harasim, Hiltz, Teles and Turnoff, 1995 ) . Although these engineerings can further good interactions, they may besides impede them since pupils can non interact efficaciously unless they are easy able to use the media that they have been tasked with utilizing ( Kruper, 2002 ; Salmon, 2001 ) . Web 2.0 engineerings, which encompass a diverse scope of constituents that can be used to heighten the constructivist larning procedure, may offer a solution to this job. These tools are characterised by their celerity of deployment/ease of usage, enabling powerful information sharing and breeding constructive coaction ( Boulos, Maramba and Wheeler, 2006 ) . The minimum accomplishments needed to entree the characteristics of these engineerings allow scholars to concentrate upon information exchange and collaborative undertakings without the distraction of an environment which is technologically complex ( Kirkpatrick, 2006 ) . These tools – wikis, web logs, RSS provenders and podcasts etc. have been jointly called ‘social package ‘ and encapsulate a scope of coaction and information-sharing characteristics which may move as cognitive contemplation tools, helping building of significance as scholars develop content. The collaborative nature of societal package allows for the edifice of cognition both with and for others, concentrating upon the community instead than the single scholar. Collaborative acquisition may be synergised by happening in a community of pattern context – with scholars engaged in corporate acquisition within a shared sphere ( Lave & A ; Wenger, 1991 ) . Social package tools can move as cognition platforms for such a community, enabling information-sharing, treatment and coaction therefore helping the development of a constructivist environment. However, Marjanonic ( 1999 ) has criticised synchronal collaborative tools for enabling â€Å" communicating†¦ instead than computer-mediated coaction † ( p.131 ) . Hesse, Garsofsky and Hron ( 1997, cited in Pfister and Muhlpfordt, 2002, p.1 ) delineate the possible restrictions of utilizing synchronal text-based tools for collaborative discourse: deficiency of societal consciousness, deficient group coordination a nd lacking coherency of parts ; Pfister and Muhlpfordt ( 2002 ) besides stress the troubles that there may be in breeding consistent communicating, and equalizing parts within synchronal discourse. However, even in the schoolroom environment collaborative acquisition is non without its jobs, there may be, for case, pupils who dominate, inactive pupils, pupils who are loath to show their thoughts ( peculiarly if these contradict the instructor ‘s ) , or pupils making no work at the disbursal of others. The on-line environment may really assist to extenuate some of these jobs and lead pupils to comprehend online group treatments as more democratic and just than the traditional schoolroom ‘s opposite number ( Swan, 2001 ) . Some ( e.g. Jonassen and Kwon, 2001 ; Lai, 1997 ) assert that topics affecting treatment, brainstorming or contemplation are peculiarly suited to the online environment, and brooding acquisition – attacks that enable scholars to reflect on their acquisition and their acquisition processes – may be particularly effectual in this context. An of import component of brooding acquisition is that of reflecting upon cognition in order to do i t explicit. Social package, for illustration wikis, enables this contemplation to take topographic point collaboratively, conveying larning closer to the societal constructivist ideal. Employing tools which foster contemplation and self-assessment is a type of meta-cognitive staging that assists pupils in associating larning procedures to aims, and motivates them to presume duty for their ain acquisition. The usage of scaffolding as an foil of pupil acquisition was proposed by Bruner ( 1966 ) edifice upon the work of Vygotsky ( 1965 ) and in its original signifier viewed the instructor as the most likely scaffolder, making support systems for the pupil. However, in a technologically supported, constructivist environment where the pedagogue ‘s function as guide/facilitator is emphasised, equals, support tools or computing machine coachs are merely every bit likely to supply scaffolding. Beed, Hawkins and Roller ( 1991 ) see that scaffolding must take topographic point within a collaborative context, runing across the scholar ‘s ZPD, and be withdrawn as the scholar develops competence. From this it is clear that scaffolding within a DL environment may be an inherently societal procedure within which supportive interaction occurs in a collaborative context. Decision Much has changed in distance acquisition since its birth, rooted in correspondence classs, in the 1800s. Early classs were extremely structured, with minimum duologue between instructor and taught, and accordingly the distance between them – Moore ‘s psychological and communications gap – was great. Subsequent developments in communications engineering narrowed this distance, but the objectivist doctrine underpinning the exchange remained basically the same. Whilst it has been recognised for a figure of old ages that constructivist attacks may better the quality of instruction and acquisition in our schoolrooms, it has merely been in recent times, with the widespread usage of broadband and the development of tools which take advantage of its capablenesss, that constructivist ideals have been to the full capable of integrating into DL programmes. The new capablenesss afforded by societal package engineerings and the on-going development of online synchronal communi cations enable advanced staging and breed societal acquisition. However, distance pedagogues should non be tempted to utilize the advantages that engineering offers to try to animate the traditional schoolroom virtually, or to make state of affairss which pre-determine acquisition. This risks restricting the application of constructivism, and fails to admit that distance larning occurs in a typical socio-interactive context which requires a alone attack to learning and acquisition. Recent decennaries have seen important alterations in the bringing of DL as a consequence of new apprehensions about how grownups learn, and prefer to larn, every bit good as the rise of engineerings which enable the distance pedagogue to be ‘present ‘ even though temporally or spatially separate. The application of constructivist and andragogical theories combined with emergent engineerings have enabled the creative activity of practical schoolrooms within which collaborative communities can develop together, with the pedagogue presuming the function of facilitator in the group ‘s co-construction of cognition and significance. This interactive combination of theory and engineering has allowed distance larning to offer the grownup learner the ability to larn without clip or topographic point restraints whilst besides supplying the benefits – sense of belonging and collaborative endeavor – which the conventional schoolroom may offer. As a consequence, p upils no longer hold to ‘trade-off ‘ the advantages of synergistic acquisition against the convenience of distance survey, but instead can bask the benefits of both.