Is College Degree Necessary For Success - 1399 Words

I have read an article Is a College Degree Necessary published by Los Angeles Times, and was written by Mike Rustigan in my English class. The author wrote about the number of dropouts from the university because they feel that school is not the appropriate place for them to learn the knowledge and life. They just want to work with your hands, and learn a skill by itself after high school. By contrast, President Obama wants every student has the opportunity to attend college to obtain higher education. President Obama told Congress, We expect all our children not only to graduate from high school but to graduate from college and get a good-paying job. (Los Angeles Times). After reading the article, there is the big question in my mind is: Is there a college degree necessary for success? Some people may think that not going to college will not have much influence on their life, because going to college or a vocational school, finally, people still go to work and earn money to support themselves and their families, should a college degree is not important and necessary; as long as we have the ability and effort, we will succeed. Is really very difficult to believe that a person needs a college education to succeed in life because success in life has different meanings for different people, and there are many who have succeeded , become a billionaire, but not through a whole school or class in life. Some others said that the university is not only a success, but the pathShow MoreRelatedSuccess Do Not Come With Any Rules947 Words   |  4 PagesSuccess do not come with any rules. Success is when someone achieve their purpose or aim in life. It can come in many ways. Many people living today are a witness testimony that it do not take a university degree to be successful in life. A lot of people have achieved greatness and did not receive any type of degree. Although having a degree looks well, it is still no guaranteed job in a career of your choice. A unive rsity degree is not necessary to success because some middle, high, and lowRead MoreThe Importance Of College Education1257 Words   |  6 Pageswhen deciding whether to go to college or which college to attend. The importance of college has been a long-debated topic that is becoming more and more popular. It used to be that a high school education was necessary to succeed, and a college degree was merely beneficial. However, today college has escalated into something that is considered necessary to succeed. New York Times columnists, David Leonhardt, states that â€Å"if youre someone who can get into college, going is practically a no-brainerRead MoreThe American Dream and Education Essay1472 Words   |  6 Pagesfrom all walks of life can find success and prosperity here. It shapes from our opinions, desires, interests, cultures, geographical locations, and religions. Some presume the dream of becoming an engineer, a medical doctor, an athlete, a politician, or even maybe foll owing their father’s footsteps and carrying on the family tradition of owning a restaurant. Sometimes, achieving this success is associated with the conception of receiving an education, especially a college education. The common debateRead MoreIs Higher Education Necessary?1193 Words   |  5 PagesIt has always been said that college is the next step to a bigger future after high school. So many people look forward to the fun, the new experiences, the new people, and the new life. College is sometimes a getaway for that bullied student or a safe haven for that scientific nerd, but where do these people end up after college? A college education is not a decision for everyone, as several students graduate with a huge amount of student debt and qualified job opportunities. Do they even completeRead MoreBenefits Of A College Education904 Words   |  4 Pages The success stories of prominent entrepreneurs, such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, are common knowledge to the general public. After dropping out of college, these men crawled their way to the top, and became some of the most wealthy, and well known public figures of today’s era. While neither of these billionaires needed a college degree in order to achieve success, they are not representative of the norm. The act of going to college is an important first step in leading a successful life, becauseRead MoreCollege Is Necessary For Success And Survival907 Words   |  4 Pagesevolves and the price of higher education increases, alternatives to College are considered. Some people don’t believe a college education is necessary to be successful. Instead, they decide to go into business for themselves, using the skills and crafts that they ve developed on their own time to become entrepreneurs. In this day and age, it is easier than ever to learn from the comfort of ones ho me and actually get a degree in something with a high pay out, such as a real estate license or accountingRead MoreThe Reasons For Attending College879 Words   |  4 Pages Classify reasons for attending college Attending college can be a prodigious next step for someone freshly graduated from high school. There is a plethora of majors, clubs, and organizations for a student to take advantage of that will make college life full of unique opportunities. If a person attends college, their chances of earning a larger income, enjoying more success, and securing their future financial stability is increased greatly. Going to college not only leaves someone with better opportunitiesRead MoreAttending College : A Step For Someone Freshly Graduated From High School879 Words   |  4 PagesAttending college can be a prodigious next step for someone freshly graduated from high school. There is a plethora of majors, clubs, and organizations for a student to take advantage of that will make college life full of unique opportunities. If a person attends college, their chances of earning a larger income, enjoying more success, and securing their future financial stability are increased greatly. Going to college not only leaves someone with better opportunities, but it can also instill inRead MoreIs College Degree Necessary Or Not?1302 Words   |  6 Pagesopinion among people when asked if a college degree is necessary or not. This is because, it is a very open-ended question as the parameters of success differs from person to person. Moreover, different people have different ambitions in life. For some, being wealthy is success while for others stability in life may be success. Some may consider being famous to be a critical parameter for success. A college degree does not necessarily guarantee your success, though in most cases, it has helped peopleRead MorePaying for Higher Education Essay1081 Words   |  5 PagesCollege is a necessary part of higher education for many reasons. Though college may be expensive and time consuming, there is no way to get a degree without it. People may be able to learn without having to go to college but college is fundamental to getting a pie ce of paper that says you went and achieved a degree after years of hard work. However college is not meant for everyone, in some cases people are not able to function in a college setting so they turn to alternative forms of education

Essay about Understanding Piaget’s Theory and Current...

Several years ago, an insightful and profound man, Jean Piaget, established a theory of cognitive growth during childhood. This theory was viewed as a major model for understanding the intricate steps of mental development from the thinking to understanding for a child. This theory also gave rise to the mentality that cognitive processes during childhood are not minuscule versions of adults but rather an irrational yet unique process with its own rules. Even though Piaget’s theory seems quite reasonable and logical, under the light of recent speculation his theory has been widely challenged. However, Piaget’s theory holds great impact in today’s psychology. But to understand the effectiveness of Piaget’s theory, one must first understand†¦show more content†¦(Piaget 1963) Next, the pre-operational stage is the second stage of Piaget’s theory. This stage lasts from around 2 - 7 years. In this stage, Piaget proposed that a child fails to unde rstand the concept â€Å"conservation† - the belief that things remain constant in terms of number, quantity and volume irrespective of variations in appearance. In experiments to test number conservation, Piaget showed the child two sets of checkers, which had exactly the same number of checkers in each set. He then changed one of the checker sets, keeping the same amount of checkers in it, so that it was only different in appearance. When the experiment ended, the results showed that the children believed that the sets were of different quantity, thereby, proving Piaget’s theory factual. (Piaget 1952) Furthermore, within the pre-operational stage Piaget identified a characteristic that he referred to as egocentrism. This is the child’s inability to see the world from another’s perspective. Piaget observed this phenomenon in his Three mountains scene experiment (Piaget Inhelder, 1956). In an experiment, a child sat on one side of a model of three mountains, with a teddy sat at the opposite side. The child then was asked to choose a picture that showed the scene, which the teddy was able to see. At end, the child only chose what he was able to see. This result did surprise Piaget because he knew a child’s inability to de-centre at this preoperational stage. Next, the â€Å"concreteShow MoreRelatedPiaget s Theory Of Cognitive Development1401 Words   |  6 PagesPiaget’s Theory Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is named after Jean Piaget, the Swiss clinical psychologist who came up with it. As the name suggests, the theory focuses on the nature of knowledge and how human beings acquire it, construct, and later use it for a particular purpose. According to Piaget, mental development is a progressive reorganization of conceptual process that results from the environment experiences and biological maturation. The theory focuses on the cognitive of childrenRead MoreThree Theories of Cognitive Development1674 Words   |  7 PagesThree Theories of Cognitive Development The Swiss psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is well-known for his work towards the cognitive sciences. Arguably one of his most important contributions involves his theory of cognitive development. In this theory, thinking progresses through four distinct stages between infancy and adulthood. Similar in scope to Piaget’s theory is Information Processing, in which human thinking is based on both mental hardware and mental software (KailRead MorePiaget s Theory On Cognitive Development1449 Words   |  6 PagesThis essay seeks to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of Piaget’s theory on cognitive development. It will focus on Piaget’s work highlighting positive attributes and how they’re being applied in modern day and also delve on key limitations of the theory. Piaget was a Swiss psychologist who was interested on why children would give similar but wrong answers in an intelligence test (Vidal, 1994). Based on his observations, he concluded that children undergo sequential cognitive developmentRead MoreDevelopment Of A Child And Adult1552 Words   |  7 Pageswider world and understanding. However, everyone takes in educational concepts differently and all adults and children have different speeds in which they develop. This concept leads to a few proposed theories which were studied by Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget in the early 20th century, possibly changing the way educators and psychologists viewed the development of a child and adult although their work did not receive light until recently. Between these educators, there are theories which are effectiveRead MoreCognitive Development Theory Of Moral Judgment1082 Words   |  5 PagesHis cognitive development theory has three key components, the first one is scheme, the second one is adaption which is an important process that helps a child to go from one stage another such equilibrium, accommodation and accommodation. The third one is cognitive devel opment with four different sub theory such as, sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational (McLeod, 2015). The focus of this assignment will be on sensorium stage and theory of moral judgment. SensorimotorRead MoreChildren s Learning And Development1159 Words   |  5 Pagesdevelopment Piaget The essay focuses on children’s learning and development. I will attempt to outline and discuss the fundamental theory of Jean Piaget who has established the foundation of childhood development. In particular I will discuss Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, Schemes, the pros and cons of his theory, the criticism of other academics in relation to Piaget’s findings and contrast them with my own observation and practice of childhood development. Jean Piaget was born in 1896 in SwitzerlandRead MoreVygotsky And Vygotsky s Impact On The Early Childhood Sector Essay1302 Words   |  6 PagesThis essay will discuss Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and their theories as well as critical points from their theories and explain how they relate back to each theory. It will discuss how both of these theories can be applied to work in relation to a role in the Early Childhood sector. It will include Dr. Rangimarie Pere’s studies in education and how they compare to those of Piaget and Vygotsky. This essay will also link the chosen theories back to Te WhÄ riki and the New Zealand early childhood curriculumRead MoreDiscuss Major Theories Of Human Development And Learning Essay1617 Words   |  7 PagesDiscuss major theories of human development and learning, including MÄ ori and Pasifika perspectives. This essay will discuss Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky and their theories as well as critical points from their theories and explain how they relate back to each theory. It will discuss how both of these theories can be applied to work in relation to a role in the Early Childhood sector. It will include Dr. Rangimarie Pere’s studies in education and how they compare to those of Piaget and Vygotsky. ThisRead MoreTheories And Research Of Educational Psychology1615 Words   |  7 Pagesapplied psychology in this module. Discuss how theory and research in this area has been helpful or unhelpful in addressing human problems. Educational psychology has produced a vast array of theory and research that can be applied to educational settings to address problems that may occur. This essay will discuss how helpful, or not so helpful, research and theory has been in dealing with problems found in schools such as morality and understanding how children learn in order to create a roundedRead MoreJean Piagets Theory Of Genetic Epistemology Essays2307 Words   |  10 Pagesfor me since first learning about him in my developmental psychology class. Piaget’s tireless journey to figure out how knowledge grows is a fascinating one. In the interest of obtaining a greater understanding for Piaget’s theories as well as the processes behind those theories, we must first look at Piaget’s Theory of Genetic Epistemology. Piaget’s theory of Genetic Epistemology, as well as the criticism of his theory, will be the focus of this paper. Jean was born in Switzerland on August

Global Security free essay sample

Since the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki one of the foremost global concerns has been the peaceful use and control over atomic energy and nuclear power. When the US dropped nuclear bombs on Japan in 1945 approximately 70,000–80,000 people were killed immediately and another 70,000 were injured. These two atomic bombings resulted in calling global attention to the misuse of atomic energy and as a result, denuclearization and non-nuclear proliferation eventually gained importance in world politics. Ultimately we have seen the emergence of the concept of global governance. Since the beginning of the Cold War, â€Å"global governance† (GG) has played a major role in world politics and GG is particularly important in the new millennium as the world faces threats to global security, pandemics, and a growing oil crisis. Consequently, new actors have been created to deal with growing global problems, such as transnational organizations, and international government organizations (IGOs). Many of these organizations have proved effective in resolving global matters but on occasion they have failed to do so. Three important international relation theories have helped GG theorists obtain better insight on the term global governance by initiating different approaches towards the subject. These IR theories have conducted distinct analytical methods in managing global problems such as environmental issues, financial crises or global health issues. For the purpose of using nuclear/atomic energy for peaceful causes and non military motives the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was established in 1957 within the United Nations family. The IAEA has been a significant example of global governance and as of December 2009 it had 151 Member States. The organization was designed to create confidence about peaceful nuclear activities within member nation-states that had already acquired nuclear weapons and to reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons in non-nuclear nation-states. Liberalism has always been the best IR theory to identify instances of governance and explain when and why governance has been achieved or not. Contrary to popular belief, liberalism has, on occasion been unable to explain the failures of international agencies to resolve world issues. IAEA, like other international agencies has also had similar limitations. Thus, this essay will examine the way in which neo-realism theory is a better way to explain why global governance agencies have limitations in managing world issues by investigating what kinds of limitations the IAEA has had in curbing the spread of nuclear weapons. The IAEA’s initial task was to work with its Member States and multiple partners to encourage safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies. The IAEA Secretariat is a team of 2200 multi-disciplinary professional and support staff from more than 90 countries. The IAEA Secretariat is headquartered at the Vienna International Centre in Vienna, Austria. Operational liaison and regional offices are located in Geneva, Switzerland; New York, USA; Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan. The Agency sets its programmes and budgets through decisions of its own policymaking bodies such as the Board of Governors and the General Conference of all Member States. One can see that the Agency has been working under corporate imperialism, governments of nation-states and international organizations working together on a mutual goal. this needs further explication}At the onset the Agency’s intention was to discourage any states from possessing nuclear weapons although by that time it was known that five states possessed nuclear weapons; the USA, USSR (Russia), the UK, France and China. As a result, US President Eisenhower emphasized the concept of â€Å"Atoms for Peace† at the General Assembly of the UN on 8 December 1953. This indicates that these five nuclear weapon states (NWSs) feared that states, especially developing ones might use atomic energy in order to possess nuclear technology. The IAEA Statute, unanimously approved by 81 nations came into force on 29 July 1957, was to ensure that other nation states did not acquire nuclear weapons. This Statue was shaped under the three pillars of the Agency’s work; nuclear verification and security, safety and technology. In addition, a safeguards system, prescribed in the Statue, was designed to account for all nuclear material in the Member States of IAEA. By the assist of safeguards, the IAEA gained the power to track all the nuclear material in a country as it flows into, through or out of the national fuel cycle. Moreover, plant managers report every month to the IAEA via their national authorities. However, there have been disputes on the implementation of safeguards. For instance, India insisted that nuclear energy could enable the developing world to accelerate the process of development thus resisted the West’s proposals and in the end refused to join the Agency. Furthermore, the US wanted safeguards to apply to all supplies except those made to them and Britain and Soviets persisted in their opposition to the safeguards until mid-1963. THIS IS AMBIGOUS ; DO YOU MEAN THE US WANTED ALL SAFEGUARDS TO APPLY TO ALL SUPPLIES EXCEPT THOSE MADE TO THE US AND BRITIAN AND THE SOVIETS OPPOSED THIS? ] This proves another realist principle; states seek their own national security at the end of the day. The basic tenets of realism are anarchy and self-help and lead one to the assumption that once the splitting of the atom had been achieved, any state with the scientific and economic means to ob tain this ultimate tool of deterrence would do so. As leading theorist John Marsheimer argues, anarchy and self-help combine to create powerful incentives for states to strive to get the maximum military capability. Realism says that a potent nuclear arsenal is the guarantee of absolute security. Moreover, Kenneth Waltz , a leading realist theorist, argues that the value of nuclear weapons is greater for states seeking security in an anarchic political system since nuclear weapon states would be reluctant to attack other nuclear weapon states because of the cost of such a war. Therefore, states constantly strive to deter their rivals and to gather power at their rivals’ expense. World politics has seen many examples of states fearing other states about the possession of nuclear technology. For instance, Egypt has worried that if Iran had nuclear weapons it could assert hegemony over the entire Gulf area. Israel, in fact, acquired nuclear technology to avoid an Arab invasion, especially from Egypt. Moreover, in the Asian continent, Japan has begun to argue that it too should have nuclear weapon capability to confront any threats from China or the United States. Regardless of any states’ will to obtain nuclear technology, the IAEA came up with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968 to freeze the number of declared NWSs at five; USA, USSR (now Russia), UK, France and China. NPT came to force in 1970 and it is now the most universal disarmament treaty with 187 members. In the treaty, non-nuclear weapon states (NNWSs) are required to forswear the nuclear weapons option and to conclude comprehensive safeguards agreements with the IAEA on their nuclear materials. The NPT’s main goal has always been to ensure that no new states should be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons and that states with nuclear weapons should work to reduce and eventually eliminate them. According to the NPT, non-nuclear weapon states have to accept IAEA safeguards on all source and special fissionable material in all peaceful nuclear activities of the state. However, some of them refused to do so such as, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Under a realist perspective, these refusals were understandable since NPT tried to oblige its members to share their information on nuclear activities with the IAEA and compel them not to have nuclear weapons. These four countries felt that they required nuclear technology for their national security and hence refused to sign the treaty. The IAEA has had some limitations on forcing NNWS’s not to obtain nuclear weapons. This ranges from its own limited authority, the inability to compel acceptance of inspectors, limited access of inspectors and having no say over the capacity of national nuclear programmes. The IAEA has no power to compel any government to take any action or to refrain from doing so. Governments are also free to reject an IAEA proposal to appoint a particular individual to inspect plants in their country. Many governments still regard certain IAEA inspectors as agents of a foreign power rather than as international officials. For instance, on 10 June 2010 the Agency received a letter from Iran objecting to the designation of two IAEA safeguards inspectors. Furthermore, inspectors may not roam around freely in search of undeclared plants and they must give advance notice of an inspection. This limits the IAEA’s ability to take any action when a state prepares or develops nuclear activities which do not fit into the declared program of normal civil activities. Finally, the last limitation is that the Agency cannot direct nor officially predict the future nuclear programmes of any nation. Realists also argues that most non-nuclear states eventually will feel threatened by one or more other states which already acquired nuclear technology hence they will decide to build nuclear weapons. Moreover, realism claims that because of scepticism of anarchic international politics states do not fully trust international organizations. For instance, IAEA’s policymaking bodies do not represent all the Member States. The Board of Governors is composed of only 35 Member States. Even though the General Conference, composed of representatives of all Member States of the Agency, decides and elects the Board of Governors. This actually caused a conflict during the meetings of the IAEA Statue since delegations were unhappy because the concentration in the Board of Governors consisted largely of states advanced in nuclear technology and likely to be dominated by the USA and its allies. Therefore, it is understandable that the IAEA’s limited representation of the policymaking has upset some developing NNWSs and has encouraged these states to acquire nuclear technology. Another argument proposed by realists is that while strong states may be able to balance against nuclear threats by developing their own nuclear capability, weaker states may instead seek to balance by aligning with a powerful, nuclear-armed ally. Consequently, the US nuclear umbrella may be a better explanation for nuclear restraint of the weak states. Furthermore, Mearsheimer states that nuclear alliances on non-proliferation are only temporary marriages of convenience, where today’s alliance partner might be tomorrow’s enemy. One could justify this statement by pointing to the withdrawal of the Democratic People? s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from the IAEA in 1994 even though they joined the Agency in 1974. Despite the incentives to proliferate the usage of nuclear weapons in the world by realists, the IAEA started contributing to international security and began to cooperate with other international institutions such as the World Bank and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in assisting developing countries to gain peaceful nuclear science techniques and to protect people and the environment from harmful radiation exposure. As a result the demand for new nuclear power plants had declined sharply in the most Western countries and it shrank to almost zero after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. In addition to the Chernobyl disaster the Three Mile Island crisis persuaded governments of nation-states to strengthen the IAEA’s role in enhancing nuclear safety. Finally, in 1995, the NPT was made permanent. However, states have never abandoned their scepticism on the nuclear issue. Nuclear weapons have always been the ultimate tool of national security. Yet, why have so many countries refrained from having nuclear power plants? Realism offers several possibilities in answering this question. For instance, if states have no threats from their enemies including regional ones, they will not seek to acquire nuclear weapons. Likewise, if states have security guarantees like a nuclear umbrella, they will more likely forgo nuclear weapons. A different possibility might be that if states have stocks of chemical and biological weapons they have no need to seek nuclear technology. Moreover, they might be unable to commit the economic resources needed to have a nuclear program or they might be concerned about the political and diplomatic costs of a nuclear weapons capability. Consequently, states might have refrained from having nuclear power plants. However, realists think that these reasons will not alter the states’ sceptical behaviour on acquiring nuclear weapons in order to secure their national interests and eventually they will decide to have a nuclear program on the purpose of deterrence against their rivals or they will align with a powerful NWS. In conclusion, since World War Two, states have been worrying about the use and misuse of nuclear technology. Globally, various nation states and IGO’s have been trying to figure out how to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to reduce the NNWSs’ will to acquire nuclear technology. International organizations such as the IAEA have been aiming to achieve this objective. However, they have not been fully successful in doing so. For realists, the reason why such international organizations failed to manage world problems is the anarchic political system and states’ self-help and sceptical behaviours. Therefore, the nuclear non-proliferation has not fully stopped NNWSs from having nuclear weapons. In fact, it has been giving countries access to nuclear technology and diplomatic cover to develop nuclear weapons programs for their national security needs.

Profanity Essay Example For Students

Profanity Essay The evolution of written profanity began roughly in the sixteenth century, and continues to change with each generation that it sees. Profanity is recognized in many Shakespearean works, and has continually evolved into the profane language used today. Some cuss words have somehow maintained their original meanings throughout hundreds of years, while many others have completely changed meaning or simply fallen out of use. William Shakespeare, though it is not widely taught, was not a very clean writer. In fact, he was somewhat of a potty mouth. His works encompassed a lot of things that some people wish he had not. That includes a fair helping of sex, violence, crime, horror, politics, religion, anti-authoritarianism, anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia, sexism, jealousy, profanity, satire, and controversy of all kinds (Macrone 6). In his time, religious and moral curses were more offensive than biological curses. Most all original (before being censored) Shakespearean works contain ve ry offensive profanity, mostly religious, which is probably one of many reasons that his works were and are so popular. Shakespeare pushed a lot of buttons in his day- which is one reason he was so phenomenally popular. Despite what they tell you, people like having their buttons pushed (Macrone 6). Because his works contained so many of these profane words or phrases, they were censored to protect the innocent minds of the teenagers who are required to read them, and also because they were blasphemous and offensive. Almost all of the profanity was removed, and that that was not had just reason for being there. Some of the Bards censored oaths are; Gods blessing on your beardLoves Labors Lost, II.i.203 This was a very rude curse because a mans facial hair was a point of pride for him. and to play with someones beard was to insult him. Gods body1 Henry IV,II.i.26 Swearing by Christs body, (or any part thereof,) was offlimits in civil discourse. Gods Bod(y)kins, manHamlet, II.ii.529 T he word bod(y)kin means little body or dear body, butadding the cute little suffix does not make this curse anymore acceptable. By Gods blest mother!2 Henry VI, II.i;3 Henry VI, III.ii;Henry VIII, V.i Swearing by the virgin was almost as rude as swearing byher son, especially when addressing a catholic cathedral as Gloucester did in 2 Henry VI, II.i Perhaps the two worst of these Shakespearean swears were zounds and sblood. Zounds had twenty-three occurrences. Ten of them were in 1 Henry IV. The rest appear in Titus (once), Richard III (four times), Romeo and Juliet (twice), and Othello ( six times). Iago and Falstaff were the worst offenders. Zounds has evolved into somewhat of a silly and meaningless word, but was originally horribly offensive. This oath, short for Gods wounds, was extremely offensive because references to the wounds or blood of Christ were thought especially outrageous, as they touched directly on the crucifixion. Sblood had twelve occurrences in all. There were eight times in 1 Henry IV (with Falstaff accounting for six), plus once in Henry V, twice in Hamlet, and once in Othello. Sblood occurs less than zounds, but is equally offensive and means basically the same thing.Several other words came from Great Britain, but were not included in Shakespeares works. Today the expression Gadzooks! is not particularly offensive to most. Of course, most dont know what it originally meant. Gadzooks was originally slang for Gods hooks, and was equally offensive to zounds and sblood as it also referred to the crucifixion. An interesting note is that there is a store called Gadzooks which everyone thinks of as a pop-culture vendor to Americas youth. Some (but not many) of Gadzooks shoppers would be very offended if they knew the true meaning of the stores name. Another word from this region is a Cockney expression, Gorblimey, which is a word used to swear to the truth, and is a shortened form of God blind me. Also, in England, words such as bloody, blim ey, blinkin, beginning with the letters BL are taken offense to because they, once again, refer to the blood of Christ and the crucifixion.The military has an interesting technique for swearing their brains out without .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 , .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .postImageUrl , .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 , .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:hover , .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:visited , .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:active { border:0!important; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:active , .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531 .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u4964fd9b3af08ac829a7d211c9afa531:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Harley Davidson International Management Essay

The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill

Introduction The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill is a New Jersey training centre at Commerce University, with Deborah Jacovelli being the dean of the university who observed that there were many innovative methods for energizing the company’s employees that had been developed. For example, people wore Halloween costumes and embellished their cubicles, which was not a usual behavior initially for the bank staff.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The commerce bank was founded by Hill in 1973 and there very high expectations from all people that he would make it an exceptional bank. He reasoned that the bank should not be just like any other financial institution. He initiated a society bank with only $1.5 million in Southern New Jersey and since had developed it, without acquisitions, into Pennsylvania, New York, and Delaware. Additionally, he created a retail business that had outlets, and operating from 7.30am-8.00pm during the week while Saturdays and Sundays have modified hours. The company had come up with a ’10-minute rule’ which demanded that the branches be opened 10 minutes earlier and 10 minutes after the normal closing hours. The SWOT of Commerce Bank Strengths These refer to the strong points of the company; some of the highlighted strengths include the following. Customer care -There is excellent customer care service whereby making them happy is the bank’s top priority. In addition, there are ways of strengthening customers relationship that were put in place by Jacovelli and her co-workers which consisted of an internal system of incentives and cultural training. Moreover, awards, commendations, and compensation were accorded. According to Commerce Chairman and CEO, Vermon, delivering above customers expectations was their core objective. Retail Experience – According to Hill, retail ope rations pay off much better than the banking sector as exhibited by the escalating stock price at commerce bank since 1990. Although many other banks have tried to push away customers out of the branch since it is the high-delivery channel, the commerce bank decided to retain them. Other banks wanted to push their clients online, but commerce bank rejected.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More On the contrary, commerce bank gives customers the best of every channel knowing that they are going to utilize them all. While the big banks attitude sees customers as a liability or cost, commerce bank sees them as revenue generators, it does all it can to retain them. Good infrastructure – commerce bank provided good service infrastructure like ATMs, call centers, branches and internet. The payment mode was facilitated through electronic transfers and cheques, which made the who le process much easier and faster. In addition, Commerce bank offered deposit and loan products, which earned them more income from the accrued interest. Moreover, the bank provided a wide scope of checking accounts, which were differentiated from others by offering minimum balance required to avoid charges, checks that attracted no fees and overdraft protection. Moreover, almost all the banks were automated such that they had call-centers operating 24/7 as well as a Voice Response Unit (VRU). More development was reached when internet banking was invented in 2002, thus increasing operations. Growth – There was increase in both deposits and loans between 1998 and 2001 of over 20%. In the year, the bank loaned more than 90% of its deposit in 2001, which was an exceptional achievement as most of the larger organizations achieved above average growth through mergers and acquisitions. Primarily, the company grew through two important phases i.e. cross selling of customers’ products and growth towards fee revenue or non-interest income. Hill embraced very unique ways of attracting customers like investing back on the customers from the returns gained after offering their services unlike other banks that focused on developing themselves; to commerce bank, the customers were key. Additionally, the employees were also put into consideration as the management always ensured they were enthusiastic.Advertising We will write a custom article sample on The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Weakness Despite having strength in various operation units, the bank is never devoid of weaknesses that need to be improved upon. First, the bank is embracing a wrong method of ‘cross-selling’ its products. Comparably, most of the other institutions recovered a much higher return than the average of 1.5-2.5 products that was gained by the commerce bank. Second, the Commercial bank l acked a good criterion of distinguishing the services to be provided to customers depending on individual customer’s profitability. This led to very poor outcome concerning customer satisfaction where only the customers from the smaller credit unions got satisfied by the service provided. As a result, the bank lost up to a third of its potential customers on yearly basis due to attrition. Indeed, the largest documented decline or destruction of active customers occurred in the first year of the bank’s operations, which saw up to 34 percent leave the company out of dissatisfaction with steep fees and sudden fees, poor service and mistakes. Most of these customers left because of limited bank branches while others were attracted to better services provided elsewhere. Opportunities These refer to good prospects or chances that are available for the firm in the near future, which are yet to be tapped. Incentives and training – There were several ways of ensuring tha t the customers were always satisfied. For example, when most operations of the bank became automated, the bank strongly advertised the advantages of using these self-service channels, gave monetary rewards for adopting these channels while penalizing those who continued using the expensive channels like being attended to by a teller. Indeed, these automated services promised better, faster and more convenient services.Advertising Looking for article on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The bank provided an opportunity for growth to its employees by offering in-house training. Some of the training entailed bank’s specific policies and procedures as well as deposit and loan accounts features. The bank’s potential market is very promising given that there are quite a number of potential customers that are yet to be provided with banking services. In order to ensure this is achieved, the bank upped its customer service to attract more customers as well as retain the existing ones. For example, the bank introduced free gifts to customers whenever they opened account, which encouraged them to return, in addition to offering many forms of entertainment thus creating more opportunity for personal growth. Threats These refer to the dangers, risks, or limitations that are at hand or are likely to be experienced. One of the threats the bank may be facing is that, with New York being the highest over-banked state, the commerce bank faced a tough competition to b e able to cause a positive impact to the country. For instance, commerce bank pumped in the largest amount of money on advertisement way above the other banks during its establishment. Hill purposed not to join the other companies that cut their cost of expenses through mergers and acquisitions but rather start from the scratch, which must have been a great challenge to keep up on top of the others. The bank therefore took a long period to achieve its goals. In terms of competition, it was discovered that some competitors imitated the Commerce Bank’s extra service features like weekend and evening hours. Conclusion The Commerce Bank has achieved a lot during the time it has been in existence. In analyzing the bank through SWOT, it has been established that the bank has strengths in customer care, delivery channels, infrastructure, and human resources. However, the bank is weak in cross selling and differentiation of products. In the external environment, the bank sees opportu nity in expansion, as there is a large untapped market; however, the bank is threatened by stiff competition to an extent that there is imitation of its strategies by competitors. This article on The Commerce Bank Cherry Hill was written and submitted by user Eli Reyes to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

lotf essays

lotf essays William Golding has portrayed the characters from the beginning into very different people as the book has gone on. In particular, there have been major contrasts between the character and major changes within the characteristics after each chapter, especially involving Jack, Ralph and Simon. Chapter 1 is the basic introduction to the main characters, meeting each other on the island for the first time and how they have learnt to cope without the supervision of the adults. The first two characters to meet are Piggy and Ralph and due to the descriptive characteristics of the two characters there are already signs that the two of them are completely different people. Piggy is definitely the more reserved and disabled of the two as it says on p.13: My auntie told me not to run, On account of my asthma. Ass-mar? This shows that Piggy probably has a better education than Ralph and that Ralph hadnt been taught as well. P.15 also shows that Ralph is probably a lot more confident kinaesthetically and this can be seen in one incident where it says: He undid the snake clasp of his belt, lugged off his shorts and pants, and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water. This suggests that Ralph is showing signs that he is enjoying the idea of freedom, now that there are no rules applied. Piggy being the more intelligent however manages to find the other boys on the island when he tells Ralph that he might able to find the others by blowing the conch. In doing this 4 other characters appear on the scene, Jack and his choir, Sam, Eric and Simon. There is a lot of friction between Ralph and Jack due to the fact that Jack already is leader of his own group and now that all the other children have been found Ralph as been made overall chief on the island. This is displeasing to Jack; however, Ralph tries to show he wants a mutual friendship and says on p.31, The choir belongs to ...

Report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Report - Assignment Example This in turn would aid in taking decisions in an organization effectively. Discussion Combination of Both, the Text Chapter and Journal In today’s competitive business world, it is vital for every association to analyse the external along with internal settings before making any final decision. With reference to the book i.e. ‘Organisational Behaviour, An Introductory Text’ by Huczynski and Buchanan it can be viewed that the writers have underlined the significance of studying an environment in an business as it aids in making decisions that do help in mitigating a risk arising situation. This in turn facilitates to make effective strategies and policies to deal with any future risks. Moreover, the writers have also helped in understanding that conducting study to implement certain policies within a business may fail at times as it would not provide a detailed analysis of the outer world which comprises the changing trends, demands and all those factors that may a id a business to achieve its desired goals. The aspect of impression management has also been delineated as a crucial element as establishing a brand image has become vital for every organisation to maintain a substantial customer retention rate (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2001). With reference to the journal i.e. ‘The Interorganizational Virtual Organisation’ by Kasper-Fuehrer and Ashkanasy, it can be viewed that the author here explains the importance of establishing virtual organisation (VO) in today’s commercial world. Additionally, the journal mainly highlights the importance of establishing interrogational forms that focus on establishing a cooperative purview to attain individual organisational goals. However, the journal article has also stated the importance of intra-organisational form. The main reason behind selecting this journal is that it has not only facilitated in understanding the different forms of virtual organisation but has offered evidences regar ding the way in which the establishment of VO can aid an organisation in every sphere (Kasper-Fuehrer & Ashkanasy, 2003). Self-Reflection With emergence of globalisation and the rapid technological proliferation, today’s businesses are growing at a rapid speed. It has therefore become vital for every business corporation to understand the external environment as it helps in making effective decisions along with enabling to identify techniques and potential impacts of the external trends. This external force mainly includes change in demand, change in technology, increasing competitiveness of the competitors, environmental policy and laws among others that have a direct influence on the internal operational characteristics of an association (Marcin & Wojciech, 2013). In this context, I would like to state that I have been a part of an organisation that mainly emphasised following contingency theory as an integral part of the operational activities. On close analysis, I have co me know that the main reason behind following the theory within the organisation has been owing to its acceptance factor that facilitates a business to analyse the environment along with making its sure that the proposed plan meets all the current requirements of the environment.

Legal, Environmental and Social Constraints Essay

Legal, Environmental and Social Constraints - Essay Example The regulation aimed at controlling the most polluting processes such as at power stations. The following hydrocarbon processes, as prescribed by The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991 (SI 1991/472), require authorization if they are likely to release prescribed substances." (Environmental legislation applicable to the offshore hydrocarbon industry (England, Scotland and Wales) The proposed expansion of Stansted Airport faced a lot of controversy. A preservation group protested and stated that the expansion could lead to the destruction of many historic buildings. Although the Government assured that the listed properties could be rebuilt outside the new boundaries but the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings kept the stance that the airport expansion will lead to maximum damage to the country's heritage including two important monuments Waltham Manor and The Grange. The controversy also directed towards the lack of planning in order to deal with the increasing demand of future air travel. The pressure groups warned for the legal action against the airport authorities that presented the proposal to build another runway on Stansted Airport. The group took the stance that the costs attached to the expansion of the Stansted Airport are lot more than the benefits attached to the plan. Reference SSE News Archives, 27 December 2003 http://www.stopstanstedexpansion.com/news_archive06.html Q 3. Explain what is covered by EMC legislation, What part was played by the EU in this piece of legislation. "The word EMC does not include the influence of electromagnetic waves (either desired or undesired) on biological systems. This is a much larger field and is covered by the expression "EMCE" ("E" is for environmental), which is not the topic here and is also not the field in which EM TEST works." (Mohr) The EMC makes sure that all the electrical products shall work in their environment and will not generate electromagnetic disturbances, which can effect the performance of other products. The EMC also covers the

Computational modeling of cerebellar model articulation controller Dissertation

Computational modeling of cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) and it's application - Dissertation Example It will address simulations of the cerebellum and neural networks to accomplish biped robot leg and control leg swing in environments with obstacles, in multi output, non-linear systems. According to Miller, Glanz, & Kraft, the cerebellar mode articulation controller (CMAC) can serve as a substitute method to back propagation (Miller, Glanz, & Kraft, 1990). The method includes a footstep planning strategy that is based on the Q-learning concept for biped robot control in dynamical environments. The effectiveness of major problem solving methods in control robot technology research is also of central focus. Predictable and unpredictable dynamic obstacles encountered in the system, such as memory usage, are discussed and a strategy to overcome these obstacles is presented. The empirical analysis includes identification of likely Cerebellum Model Articulation Controller (CMAC) problems in specific environments, inputs and outputs, and viable solutions. The aim of this research is to pre sent a HCAQ-CMAC model that provides memory size and footstep planning solutions for the biped robot in a dynamic environment. Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...2 ABSTRACT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦....3 Contents†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 List of Figures†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦6 List of Tables†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦..9 Chapter 1 Overview†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..10 SECTION 1.1 Timeline of development†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦10 Section 1.2 The cerebellum†¦...12 subsection 1.2.1 INPUTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ .14 subsection 1.2.2 OUTPUTS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.14 subsection 1.2.3 CEREBELLAR CORTEX†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.15 CHAPTER 2 Brain Computer Interface (BCI) INPUT AND OUTPUT†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...16 Section 2.1 Neural Networks †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦19 Section 2.2 Q-Learning AND FUZZY CMAC†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.22 Chapter 3 theory†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦. 28 Section 3.1 The cerebellar mode articulation controller (CMAC)†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 28 Section 3.2 CMAC Hierarchically Clustered Adaptive Quantization†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.34 subsection 3.2.1 Mossy Fibers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.36 Section 3.3 CMAC for design of Biped Robot†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 38 subsection 3.3.2 heuristics†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦40 CHAPTER 4 fOOTSEP pLANNING; fUZZY q†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â ‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦44 section 4.1 Control Strategy for obstacle Avoidance †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦

Criminal Justice Organizations And Challenges Faced

Criminal Justice Organizations And Challenges Faced In the world of criminal justice organizations, leaders are facing challenges that have become a part of the daily routine. Criminal justice organizations consist of corrections, courts, and the police. These organizations each have an important role in the criminal justice system that results in the leadership of each organization. This paper will explain some of these challenges of the leaders and steps that can be taken to affect change for the future. Leadership The ability to effectively lead a group of followers making the organization and the followers successful is leadership. An individual must have dedication, commitment and not be afraid of taking in leadership. In leadership, learning and communication skills are important in the accomplishing these tasks while still being able to maintain valid ideas and principles. To ensure their success, leader must know how to treat the followers. In addition, leaders should know how to motivate others and stay consistent their values, morals and ethical standards (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, Uhl-Blen, 2010). Challenges There are many challenges that leaders face in criminal justice organizations. Some of these challenges include increased criminal activity, staffing, budgeting, legal and political, terrorism, conflict and power, communication, and ethical and moral issues. Most of these challenges relate to other challenges. Resolving one challenge may help resolve another challenge. Criminal activity increases as the population increases. Police officers, the courts and other criminal justice organizations are not able to protect and serve the public and ensure safety because of the shortage of professionals. Hiring additional staff or introducing more community programs is necessary to help reduce criminal activity. The question of additional staff brings another challenge of budgeting. Leadership in criminal organizations is battling shortfalls in the budget which brings about staffing and equipment shortages. Politically, state judges and prosecutors are in position from election votes. When applicable the election can bring in new appointments and result in a number of changes within criminal justice organizations. In terms of legal challenges, the changing of laws, policies and procedures can be become a challenge in enforcement and being aware of political alliances (Duelin, 2010). Conflict and power are two other challenges that leaders face in the criminal justice agencies. The conflict occurs among the variety of agencies inside the criminal justice system. An example is between the courts and the police. The police have a job to uphold protection and safety, so they may make arrests charging individuals with crimes with the hope that these individuals are prosecuted and punished for these crimes. On the other hand, the courts decide what the punishment should be and how it is carried out. These two agencies do not have the same goals and this becomes a conflict. The police and courts have a substantial amount of power with these responsibilities. Leadership for these criminal justice agencies must balance this power with fairness (Duelin, 2010). Another leadership challenge is communication. The barriers of communication are individual and organizational. Individual barriers relate to how an individual interprets a conversation or message. Organizational barriers relate to the culture of an organization. Leadership includes being an effective communicator. An effective communicator will have the ability to handle these barriers. Within the criminal justice system, organizations have different jargon which is a part of their culture. This can make it very difficult to communicate with other organizations. Another communication barrier is between the professionals in the criminal justice organizations and the public. With the increasing population, our society includes many races, nationalities, cultures and languages. The ability to communicate with the public is essential. Other important leadership challenges are ethical and moral standards. Ethics allows us a way to make moral choices at times when we are uncertain of what to do in a situation involving moral issues. In the criminal justice system, ethics is important in management and policy decisions that relate to punishment and the rationality in making decisions. These decisions regarding punishment are to rehabilitate, deter or impose imprisonment. A criminal justice organization consists of professionals that carry power and authority over others and in some case have authority to use force and physical coercion against others. Ethical rules and responsibilities are given to these professionals as the law or accepted standards of behavior that require them to be aware of these ethical standards while performing their duties. To avoid any attempt to abuse power, ethics are crucial in decision making that involves discretion, force, and due process. Domestic terrorism is the greatest challenge for criminal justice organization. Since 9/11, safety and security is a top priority. Every role in the criminal justice system is affected by terrorism. Although a number of new policies and procedure have been put into place to help ensure the safety of all, terrorism is an ongoing challenge. Employees from many criminal and correctional agencies are away from their regular jobs and are serving active duty for the military regarding the war on terrorism. This means these departments are suffering and have a lack of security. Other employees such as the local police and persecutors have to take more prominent roles in the investigation and prosecution of crimes that would normally be the responsibility of federal law enforcement (Daniels, 2002). Affecting Change for the Future Criminal justice professionals can affect changes in the future by reducing the opportunity for crime, changing peopleà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s fundamental values, nurturing these values into the youth, and motivating the people responsible for crime will reduce the likelihood of future criminal behavior. Continuing to use the advancement of technology such as DNA analysis, forensic testing, surveillance, stoplight cameras, biometrics, and radio frequency identification microchips will continue to enhance crime solving and prevention. Also increasing the intelligence of databases for use by the general public in addition to the use by analysts and police officers will help educate and make the public aware of criminal activity. A current example of this is the sex offender registries and access to inmate information (Ritter, 2006). In terms of improving communication and information-sharing, the Office of Justice Programs is working together with the FBI to widen access to the Regional Information Sharing System and the FBIà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s Law Enforcement Online system to combine the operations of the two systems. This will allow the RISS program to network a variety of different federal and state law enforcement information-sharing to create a secure network that can share information at levels of the government in law enforcement (Daniels, 2002). In order to facilitate change, hiring additional criminal justice professionals and providing excellent training skills will be a necessity. The training should consist of ethical and cultural standards, policies and procedures, weapons, equipment, and communications skills. The Police Service program has volunteers and the program works to increase the citizen volunteers in law enforcement agencies. This allows the law enforcement professionals to be available to perform their front-line duties. In additions, it allows the law enforcement agencies to enhance existing programs and start new programs while expanding ways to use citizen volunteers (Daniels, 2002). In terms of terrorism, criminal justice organizations must stay alert in linking terrorism to other crimes. These crimes include cybercrime, drug trafficking and identity theft. In the 9/11 situation, drug trafficking was the source of finance for the terrorists, the hijackers stole the identity of innocent victims to start and build credit and bank accounts to cover terrorist activities. Law enforcementà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s determination of cybercrime was found. The terrorists were using computers to attach banking networks, and defense system computers. The internet is the method chosen by terrorist organizations to communicate with members by e-mail and to raise funds. A balance between neighborhood security and national security must be made. In creating this balance maximizing our resources will allow the continuation of making advances on both sides. This means that criminal justice organizations at every level will have to work together to resolve the terrorism challenge. Conclusion Leadership is an important aspect in criminal justice organizations. Challenges arise on a daily basis. Addressing organizational change including more cooperation between the community and law enforcers, and the institution and advancement of technology in law enforcement, and more training will help alleviate some of the current challenges and help with future challenges.

Ray Bradbury :: History

Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury was born on August 22, 1920. He was the third son of Leonard Spaulding Bradbury (a telephone lineman for Waukegan Bureau of Power & Light [Wolfe 62, http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm]) and Esther Marie Bradbury (a Swedish immigrant [Snodgrass 73]). Ray lived in Waukegan, Illinois for six years until his family left to Tucson, Arizona in 1926. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm. When Ray Bradbury was eleven, he would be writing stories on butcher. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) Ray was very much into science fiction, horror movies, books, comic books, and magic acts. (Snodgrass 73) At age 12, Ray read a newspaper headline reading "World Would End Tomorrow". (Tucson 1932) Young Ray was all excited about this event so he and his brother packed a lunched and camped out on a ridge to see the end. They waited for some time and nothing happened. Disappointed, he and his brother left the ridge and went home. From that point on, Ray vowed to separate from religion. Why? Because he doesn't like a god who likes to see his people run in pseudo-terror. (Vollmer) In 1932, - after his father, Leonard Spaulding Bradbury, was laid off work because of the depression - his family moved to Los Angeles, California. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) In 1935, at the age of fifteen, Ray would continue writing stories. Every once in a while he would send them to national magazines for print. (Wolfe 63) None of his work, at this time, was printed. Even though his work was never published, that didn't dispair him from his love of science fiction. With that, he joined the Los Angeles Science-Fiction Society. (Snodgrass 73) Later in the same year, Ray printed out his own magazine called Futura Fantasia. Futura Fantasia only consisted of Ray Bradbury's work. The magazine lasted for only four issues. (Snodgrass 73) In 1938, Ray Bradbury finished High School at Los Angeles High School in Los Angeles, California. (McNelly 918) Nearly four years of trying to have one of this stories being published, Ray has his fist printing with Imagination! Magazine and the story called Hollerbochen's Dilemma. (http://www.brookingsbook.com/bradbury/biography.htm) This was a big break for Ray. He had never had a piece of work of his being printed. Some of Ray's influences have been "†¦ L. Frank Baum's magic land of Oz, the never-never Africa of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan of the Apes, and Barsoom, Burroughs' impossible, romantic Mars†¦". (McNelly 918) But with even these writers, his biggest influence was not of a writer, but of a magician act of a passing circus.

Feedback in learning Essay

1.0What is feedback?:â€Å"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great inspires† William Arthur Ward A teacher carries a big responsibility in area of learning. Some people believe a teacher’s job is to teach and a student’s job is to learn. In today’s classroom, the role of teacher is totally different. Teacher as a facilitator of learning, mentor for learner and classroom supporter. The excellent teacher will take various actions in way to help their students to be successful in their life. So that, one of the action is teacher should provide assessment feedback in way to enhance the learning. Feedback is normally something which happens as a result of cycle teaching and learning action. It can give either before, during or after the learning had been occurs. Generally, what is feedback? Is it guidance, evaluation or praise? As mentioned by Ramaprasad (1983), feedback is information about the gap be tween the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way. Furthermore, the definition by Ramaprasad also supported of new research by Shute (2007) that define the feedback as represent information communicated to the learner that is intended to modify the learner’s thinking or behaviour for the purpose of improving learning. Hence, in learning, feedback should usually presented as information to a student in response to some action on the current level of performance and help them to be better. Correspondingly the educationist agree that assessment feedback is an important part of learning cycle but nowadays students frequently express disappointment and frustration in relation to the conduct of the feedback process. Students may complain that feedback on assessment is unhelpful or unclear and not provide any tips to them to improve their current performance. As a result, students will always repeat the mistake until they get to know the correct answers. Studies of the impact on student learning achievement indicate that feedback has the potential to have a significant effect on student learning achievement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Feedback should give immediately during the learning process. That can really help student to do self-reflection on their quality of learning. They can figure out did he/she in the right track and how to improve their understanding. Types of feedback: Main focus of given assessment feedback is to describes qualities of work in relation to the learning target. Teacher should give attention to the quality of their written feedback. There are two types of feedback, evaluative feedback and descriptive feedback. Evaluative feedback refers to a summary of student current achievement or performed on the particular task. This feedback is often come out with letter of grades, numbers, check marks, symbols and generals comment such as â€Å"good†, â€Å"excellent† and â€Å"need help†. While, descriptive feedback is specific or detail information in the form of written comments or conversations that help the student understand what he/she needs to do in improve their level of understanding. There are several examples of evaluative and descriptive feedback: Evaluative Feedback Descriptive Feedback â€Å"Try harder next time† â€Å"Your topic discussion is clear and have good examples, your next step might be to check back your grammatical errors† â€Å"90%! A+! Excellent Work! Keep it up!† â€Å"You’re made some simple mistakes in your calculation, remember back the formula use. Please check back the first step until the last step in your calculation for question 10.† Table 1: Examples of Evaluative and Descriptive Feedback Based on examples given, evaluative feedback more to provide a judgement on the quality of the learning task that student did while descriptive feedback focus on helps the student understand what he or she needs to do to improve their current achievement. Besides that, evaluative feedback shown to us those teachers only tells learner or students how they compare to others and descriptive feedback will provide specific information in the form of written comments or conversations more help learner. Regardless of the types of feedback given, either evaluative or descriptive, effective feedback needs to be informative, prompt and guiding. Informative feedback highlights strengths and weaknesses, giving specific examples or explanations. Prompt feedback is returned to students within an agreed timescale for the work submitted. Guiding feedback offer suggestions about how students can improve their learning. All of that combining together to help students to do better the next time. This statement also have support  by Hattie and Timperley (2007), they mention that the most improvement in student learning takes place when students got information feedback about the task and how to do more effectively. Below are examples of evaluative and descriptive feedback given by teachersFeedback as teaching style of scaffolding: As we already know, feedback provides information and guide to students by teachers about learning. That is one criteria of scaffolding. Scaffolding is the core of traditional apprenticeship. It is refers to given support that provides by expert or teacher as steps to improve their learning. It helps to reduce the gap between the student current level of understanding or performance and a desired goal. According to Hattle and Timperley (2007), they mention that depending on the nature and delivery of the feedback, it can have powerful positive effects on student learning and engagement. Beside that in the research by Assessment Reform Group (2002) , also mention that feedback as coaching and scaffolding students. The given feedback is an essential practice of assessment for learning. The process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learner and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there by helping of teachers. That the main reason why the teacher’s feedback important, providing the support necessary for student to proceed towards the next stage or level and achieving the learning goal. Student will view the feedback as improving tips in which students receive information and construct meaning to close the gap. The students need to do something based on the guided giving in the feedback. Scaffolding instructional originated from Vygotsky’s ideas on learning. Vygotsky’s comes out with two levels of learning development. The first level is Actual Development that what learner has already reached. It is the level which the learner is capable of solving problems independently. The second level is called Potential Development which the learner not capable of doing the moment but have potential to do so. Between the actual and potential levels, Vygotsky said that there was what was called a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Proximal means next. In context of feedback, it should act as scaffold by providing tips and support necessary for student to proceed the next stage or level. Without the support students may be unable to accomplish the target. As the result, students will extend their understanding and make improvement. Figure 3: ZPD (Zone of Proximal  Development) Diagram When teacher incorporate scaffolding in feedback, they become more to mentor and facilitator of knowledge rather than the dominant content expert. This teaching style that include with scaffolding will make student active role in class to achieving learning goal. Besides that, it also provides a welcoming and caring learning environment. â€Å"I take care of you and I hope you will be success in future†. Expiration in feedback on student assessment will make them realize that even they did wrong is not means he/she is stupid student. They have room to improve. As conclusion, the best assessment feedback, scaffold student to achieve the higher performance in learning target. Feedback as affective domain in learning: Since 1950’s, research have been done in cognitive theory and educationist had use the Bloom’s (1956) taxonomies of learning. Bloom has mentioned that in learning should have three learning domains. The cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain. Feedback is referring to affective domain. In affective domain includes feeling, emotion, attitudes, values and motivation. As students that receiving the feedback, they need all of the aspect that include in affective domain. Teacher should play with all of these aspects. Teacher must provide clear understanding. Feedback should be brief, concise statements, in student-friendly language that describe what students are to know and be able to do at the end of feedback. Feedback can be one of the ways to encourage positive motivational belief and self-esteem. There are some ideas for motivating students. Teachers can start the feedback with praises like good job, excellent job, great, brilliant idea, â€Å"You are starting to understand this but†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"This is quality work because†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"Two things you really did well are†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and many more on what they do well. Praise the work or process that focus in achieving the learning goal. Second step, teachers proceed with intervention that tells the student what needs improving and give enough information in way to help them to do better. It can sound like â€Å"Your thinking shows†¦.†, â€Å"One thing to improve on†¦..†, â€Å"You need more†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ , and many more. Next step, teachers share the improvement strategies such as â€Å"Your next steps might be†¦..†, and â€Å"You might try†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The ways that teachers give the  feedback have relationship with the flow of affective domain as described by Krathwohl et.al (1964). They start with receiving, responding, valuing, organizing and ended with acting. Students will receiving the feedback as their new information of mark, wrong answers and the current level that he/she mastering the knowledge. Am I really understood or I just understand little bit? Step 2, responding. Students will respond on feedback given by teacher. They being actively participating bas ed on feedback given to achieve learning goal. Step 3, valuing. They attaching worth to feedback given and try to do correction on the task. After they do the correction, they will organize the new concept and change their existing understanding. The last is characterization. They have the correct understanding and will apply the concept in correct way without misconception. It is the effective way that feedback can help students learn better in positive environment in implement the affective domain. Feedback will demonstrate appropriate ways of enhancing the performance on the task and offer strategies that invite more learner responsibility to improve. â€Å"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire† William Butler Yeats Feedback as reflection on learning process: Reflection needed students to capture back on their performance in the task given. It also needs students to have clear comparison about their previous performance and current performance. There are three types of reflection that suite with the feedback: reflection on your process, comparison of your performance to that of others and comparison of your performance to a set of criteria for evaluating performance (Schon, 1983). How feedback can be as reflection on learning process? Firstly, reflect on the feedback process. By feedback, students are encourages to look back at how they react and given answer on the task. Teachers will describes the qualities of work in relation to the learning targets. That can make them see how they might have done better and what they need to improve. That is the first step as feedback starter, reflect on achievement. Second, compare of student performance with others. These types of reflection are referring to evaluative feedback. In evaluative feedba ck teachers will give grades, numbers, check marks, symbols and generals comment such as â€Å"good†,  Ã¢â‚¬Å"excellent† and â€Å"need help†. Based on the feedback, students analyze by comparing their performance with friends in hope he/she will motivate to achieve better. The final types of reflection are comparison of student performance to a set of criteria for evaluating performances. These are focus on intervention and improvement that include in feedback. Teachers will share idea on what students needs to improve and gives enough information so the students will knows what the next step to apply. That really show the function of feedback as reflection, facilitates the development of self-assessment in learning.Conclusion: Assessment feedback should play as important role in teaching and learning. Firstly, feedback is a way that teacher can use to determine and analyse how far your student gain the knowledge and what should you suggest to them in helping them success in mastery the knowledge. Secondly, assessment feedback will attract low achievement students to be active learner and more motivated to achieve the learning goal. Overall, assessment feedback should take as important aspect in learning process. Teacher need to apply and change the feedback given in way to help student to be success in future.

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients

Reducing Out-Group Bias in Huntingtons Disease Patients Free Online Research Papers Huntington’s disease (HD) is a genetic condition, which results in a variety of physical and psychological symptoms. The disease leads to loss of neurons in the striatum, with more severe neuronal loss as the disease progresses. The present study aims to investigate how such degeneration may affect social stereotyping. Perspective taking has been used by numerous authors to try and reduce stereotypes, and bias against groups outside of one’s own. It was hypothesised that due to degeneration of brain areas thought to be key to the process of perspective taking and reducing bias, that HD patients would be unable to use a perspective taking task to reduce their in-group bias. The participants for this study were nine HD patients attending the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital HD clinic, and fourteen control participants, matched for educational background. A number of measures were used, including a relative positivity scale andtrait overlap to measure in-group bias, and tests of prefrontal cortex function. Analysis showed no support for the hypothesis, with no significant differences found on the measures of relative positivity and trait overlap. However, a number of methodological problems are discussed, along with directions for future research. Introduction Huntington’s disease (HD) is an inherited, degenerative illness, thought to affect between four to ten individuals of Caucasian origin in every 100 000 (Reddy, Williams and Tagle, 1999). The disease results in a variety of motor and psychiatric symptoms. These symptoms usually begin around the age of 40 to 50 years. In the early stages of the disease, these symptoms include fidgeting, clumsiness, dance like movements referred to as chorea, absentmindedness, depression, apathy, irritability and psychosis. As the disease progresses, these symptoms worsen, with speech deterioration, facial grimacing and the development of an inability to swallow. There is also a decline in cognitive functions, especially spatial deficits, and executive function (Brandt, Leroi, O’Hearn, Rosenblatt and Margolis, 2004). In its juvenile form, the age of onset is much earlier, and the symptoms more severe. The disease eventually leads to death. Snowden, Gibbons, Blackshaw, Doubleday, Thompson, Crauford, Foster, Happe and Neary (2003) also reported some social cognition deficits in patients with HD. In their study, HD patients were found to have deficit compared to controls in the comprehension and understanding of humourous cartoons and story vignettes, although these deficits were more pronounced in patients with frontotemporal dementia, another disorder affecting the frontostriatal systems. HD is an autosomal dominant genetic condition. The disease has been linked to a mutation of the IT15 gene on chromosome 4 (the Huntington’s Disease Collaborative Research Group, 1993). The mutation of this gene causes the polymorphic trinucleotide repeat of the sequence CAG, which codes for the huntingtin preotein, to expand to over 36 repeats. This in turn causes the protein Huntingtin to fold abnormally (Li and Li, 2004), initiating a protective cellular response meant to prevent the build up of the Huntingtin protein. However, this response puts the endoplasmic reticulum of the mitochondria under stress (Rao and Bredesen, 2004), affecting mitochondrial homeostasis (Bezprozvanny and Hayden, 2004). This eventually leads to cell death. The number of CAG repeats is inversely proportional to the age on onset that the symptoms of the disease begin to manifest themselves (Andrew and Hayden, 1995). It has been suggested that the number of CAG repeats also correlates to psych iatric symptoms experienced by HD sufferers, however studies have failed to find any such correlation (Berrios, Wagle, Markova, Wagle, Ho, Rubinsztein, Whittaker, Ffench-Constant, Kershaw, Rosser, Bak and Hodges, 2001). Although the IT15 gene is found in many body tissues, the primary site of degeneration is the brain (Reddy at al, 1999), in particular the striatum. In the early stages of the disease, the dorsomedial striatum is affected, then as the disease progresses, there is more pronounced degeneration of striatal neurons, with damage spreading to the cerebral cortex. The localised pathological changes found in HD patients account for the symptoms it produces. The degeneration of the basal ganglia, in particular the striatum, affects all five of the frontal subcortical neural circuits, which have been summarised by Cummings (1993). These circuits begin in the frontal cortex, which then project to regions of the striatum, the globus pallidus and the thalamus (Tekin and Cummings, 2002). The disruption caused to the motor circuit accounts for the movement disorders seen in HD, the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit the executive function problems, the orbitofrontal circuit the depression, and the anterior cingulate circuit the apathy (Tekin and Cimmings, 2002). Cummings (1993) also reported HD patients with antisocial personality disorder, and suggested a link between HD and obsessive compulsive disorder, thought to be due to the degeneration of one of the frontal subcortical neural circuits. Previous work has highlighted the role of the prefrontal cortex in the capacity to attribute thoughts and feelings to others, therefor it is plausible that HD patients may have a problem in doing this. Ruby and Decety (2004) used a perspective taking task in their neuroimaging study to highlight the importance of the frontalpolar, the somatosensory cortex and inferior parietal lobe in distinguishing the self and the other. Furthermore, Ehlers and Bratt (1996) showed that patients with serious injury to the frontal lobes had a general lack of empathy and inability to see situations from a perspective other than their own. The ability to see the perspective of others and the reduction of stereotypes has long been discussed in social psychology. Dasgupta and Asgari (2004) cite the early writings of Allport in 1935 and his opinion that attitudes are ‘rigid’, and unlikely to be changed or modified unless ‘under the provocation of serious affective disorganisation’. However, recent theories have taken the view that attitudes are more fluid and subject to change (Dasgupta and Asgari, 2004). Being able to take the perspective of another (perspective taking) is essential for avoiding the over use of social stereotypes. Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000) investigated perspective taking in normal subjects. They found that perspective taking was an effective strategy for reducing bias against members of a social group outside of the participants’ own. Research using caregivers of cancer patients has also shown that perspective taking ‘helped to prompt adjustments down from a self orientated viewpoint’ (Lobchuk and Voruer, 2003). Davis, Conklin, Smith and Luce (1996) have also looked at perspective taking in normal participants. In their study, it was found that the use of perspective taking resulted in the participants attributing traits to novel targets that they had previously used to describe themselves. In the second part of their study, the participants were given a memory task as a distracter while completing the original perspective taking task. In this condition, it was found that there was a reduced overlap between traits assigned to self and the novel group. This would imply that persepctive taking is only effective if the perspective taking task is remembered clearly. Memory is an executive function. Using the assumption of executive function being controlled by the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit as proposed by Cummings and Tekin (2002), is it possible that damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit, such as that caused by HD, could cause some patients to also have a reduced overlap in t raits assigned to a novel group and the self? Galinsky (2002) suggests that bias between out-groups and the self may be due to internal psychological processes, in particular categorisation and egocentrism. Work conducted by Filoteo, Maddox and Dais (2001) has shown that patients with HD perform poorly on categorisation tasks, such as simple line stimuli categorisation into one of two groups, leading them to conclude that HD causes deficits in learning categorisation rules. Furthermore, a neuropsychological theory of categorisation published by Ashby, Alfonso-Reese, Turken and Waldron in 1998 highlights the role of caudate nucleus, anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortices in category learning. . A similar category learning deficit has also been found in patients with Parkinson’s disease (Ashby, Noble, Filoteo, Waldron and Ell, 2003), which has similar pathology to HD, affecting the brain areas involved in frontal subcortical circuits. The above evidence has illustrated a number of deficits and potential deficits in HD patients, linked to the degeneration of the striatum and frontal subcortical circuits. Given this evidence, the present study aims to investigate the potential deficits in ingroup bias and the effect of perspective taking to reduce in group bias in patients with HD. It is hypothesised that due to the degeneration of the striatum and associated prefrontal dysfunction caused by HD, and the loss of psychological functions associated with the damaged frontal subcortical circuits, HD sufferers will be unable to use a perspective taking exercise, similar to that used by Galinsky and Moskowitz (2000), to reduce their ingroup bias. This hypothesis will be tested using asylum seekers as an out group, as it is unlikely any of the participants will have had any direct contact with members of this group. Trait lists containing positive and negative items will be used to measure any bias. Method Participants Information packs about the study were sent to all patients attending the Huntington’s Disease clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, whom the Clinic Consultant deemed able to participate in the study (a copy of this pack can be found in Appendix A). All of these patients had a confirmed diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, via genetic testing. Of these, eleven patients volunteered to participate in the study. Two patients’ data was excluded from the data analysis due to failure to complete the experimental protocol. The remaining nine participants were four males and five females, with a mean age of 52.4. These participants were at various stages of the disease, however, due to time constraints, no formal measure of the severity of the disease could be taken. Control participants were recruited by opportunity sampling. A total of fifteen control participants were tested, of which one participants’ data was discarded due to a large number of outliers in their performance across all tasks in the experimental protocol. These participants had no diagnosis of Huntington’s disease, nor any family history of the disease. The fourteen control participants whose data was used were seven males and seven females, with a mean age of 59.4. Procedure Patients were tested either in their homes or at the Huntington’s Disease Clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, in accordance with their preference. Patients were permitted to bring one friend or relative into the testing room if they desired. The control patients were tested in their homes. At the beginning of each testing session, all participants were asked to sign a consent form, and complete a short questionnaire regarding demographic information, including age, gender and educational background (a copy of this questionnaire can be found in Appendix B). Participants were then asked to complete each task from the experimental protocol (a copy of the protocol can be found in Appendix B). The testing session was recorded using a Dictaphone recording device in all sessions. After analysis, these recordings were destroyed. If any participant was unable to complete the pen and paper elements of the protocol due to reading difficulties or difficulties associated to their movement disorder, these sections were read to the participant and recorded by the experimenter. At the end of the testing session, each participant was debriefed, and given a debriefing letter to take away with him or her (a copy of this debriefing letter can be found in Appendix A). Measures FAS The FAS Word Fluency Test was used as a general measure of prefrontal cortex functioning. In this test, participants were asked to generate as many words as they could in one minute which began with the letter F, then repeat the task with the letters A and S. This test was used to assess if there was any significant difference in prefrontal cortex functioning between the patient and control groups. Emotional Stroop The Emotional Stroop tests were used to evaluate prefrontal functioning, and to measure reduction of in-group bias. This task was repeated before and after the perspective taking task. Three conditions were used; an XXXX condition, in which rows of XXXX were presented to serve as a control for the word conditions, neutral words, and words seeded with words salient to the out-group (asylum seekers). The words salient with the out group were gained via a pilot study. Initially, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were interviewed and asked to generate words they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The words collected from this pilot study were then compiled into a questionnaire used in a second pilot study. Again, an opportunity sample of students from the University of Birmingham were used, and asked to tick the ten words from the list they felt were most frequently associated with asylum seekers. The ten highest scoring wo rds from this pilot study were then used in the stroop test. Words for the neutral and seeded conditions were matched for word frequency and word length. Perspective Taking Task A perspective taking task was used in order to try and reduce in-group bias. The participant was given a picture of a mythical asylum seeker, with a number of prompting words printed under the picture, and asked to ‘Adopt the perspective of an asylum seeker and imagine the day in their life as if you were that person, looking at the world through his/her eyes and walking in their shoes’, and describe a typical day in that persons’ life. The prompting words can be found in the experimental protocol, in Appendix B. Trait Lists Trait questionnaires were used to assess in-group bias before and after the perspective taking task. The trait list contained ten positive and ten negative traits, and the order of the words on the trait lists was randomised as such that the traits listed were not in the same order for the second presentation. Analysis Relative Positivity A measure of relative positivity was obtained. This was achieved by first subtracting the number of negative traits from the number of positive ones for each pair of trait lists (self on first presentation, out-group at first presentation, self at second presentation, outgroup at second presentation). This created a measure of positivity. The numbers generated from this exercise were then used in a second calculation. The positivity of the out-group before perspective taking was subtracted from the positivity of self before perspective taking. This was repeated for the after perspective taking results. Trait Overlap In order to gain the data for the trait overlap analysis, traits assigned to both the self and the out-group for each repetition of the task (before / after perspective taking) was measured. Where a trait was shared, a score of 1 was recorded, and where a trait was not shared, a score of 0 was allocated. Results FAS Word Fluency Test Table 1.1 Mean number of words generated in the FAS test. Group Mean number of words generated Standard deviation Patients 25.00 17.62 Controls 53.50 17.99 Participants in the patient condition generated fewer words (mean score = 25, SD = 17.62) than the control condition (mean score = 53, SD = 17.99). The 95% confidence interval for the estimated general population is between –12.64 and –44.36. An independent t-test showed that if there was no significant difference between the scores of patients and controls, this result would be highly unlikely (t = -3.737, DF =21, p