Public Relations in college Athletics Essay

Public relations play important role in linking college athletics with other colleges and news media. It represents college athletics related issues to media level. Public relation is responsible for handling all communication and information exchange between the college and athletics and media. It also promotes and develop relations with other colleges and universities.   Public relations will also keep news site updated to keep inform the community about the current issues, updates and goals.   Public relation program will handled all media related inquires, it regularly updates about recent research carried out in the faculty, promote inter-colleges sports and workshops, other promotional programs in the community and many other activities on the campuses.   Public relation facilitates inter-departmental, inter-community and social relations.   Assessment:   College athletic public relations goal is to develop such programs to maintain good public relations with the community and to promote student athletics sports, moral, physical, social and emotional growth. Such programs will keep individuals involve with creative activities and simultaneously promote their social relations with the community, a sense of responsibility and increase their morals.   Plan or board policy in relation to an existing public relations/marking plan or program One of the main purposes of the public relations is to let the students and community learn college rules and regulations and respect it in all circumstances in order to provide well-balanced education and creative skills.   Public relations board will responsible for making new guidelines and policies for people especially parents and guardians to keep them update of regulations and procedures.   Public relations board will develop such policies in order to keep details of all programs and guidelines for the community, guardians and students. The policies must define and update the student’s and communities needs. It must also prepare information regarding programs to give student and guardians full information. Evaluation: According to a recent research (Parry and Hayden, 1993) postgraduate students benefit from the program only when these students are paid attention separately, faculty and departmental staff clearly verify the assistance these students should receive. For recruiting more students in postgraduate program following strategies are needed to be implemented in the new curricula. These strategies are formed after careful analysis of the problems that were faced by the students, which were causing decline in students’ strength in the university. Creative ideas were generated to find out various possible number of solutions for the prevailing problems.   Recruitment and selection of students   There is a need to develop a unique workable policy for accommodating minimum or maximum number of students in the postgraduate program on the basis of preferred recruitment practices and on the university standards to recruit students per class.   There is also a need to start scholarships for students who are unable to pay their full fee.   Technical expertise and competencies in their language should be considered mandatory prior to admission.   Apart from quantitative analysis of students’ recruitment, university should also consider the qualitative approach to recruit students. Thus, admitting those students who are skillful and eligible for the program. And who will prove to be good in giving out results, thus, improving the standards of university in terms of qualitative education.   Audit of an existing safety or crisis prevention plan Staff and supervisors All staff and supervisors should be highly qualified and experienced. Per supervisor and staff, students allocated should be evaluated. Number of supervisor allocated per faculty should be evaluated New developmental strategies for students, supervisors and staff For every student there should be a clear statement for the academic mission of the university and department, research achievements, focus of teaching at the university, discipline rules that are to be followed. Every student should have a clear idea about departmental activities, social and intellectual prospects, facilities, resources, services, support, research facilities, and other procedures. In addition, there should be accommodation facilities, offices for mail typing, laboratory space, technical support, research equipment, computerized infrastructure, photocopying, library facilities, telephone, email and facsimile facilities, research grants and paid work. All above mentioned facilities should be publicized among undergraduate students, who might get interested in taking admission in postgraduate. Recent research showed that postgraduate students find various elements useful such as outline of the research they are taking, opportunity to meet other postgraduates, academics, administrative, technical staff and faculty. Selection of topics should be made easy and should be in consistent with the research facilities and financial resources available in the department. Each student should be guided individually that how they have to conduct research. Each student should be encouraged to acquire specialist assistance in writing thesis, computing, analysis of data, researching in library and archives in the management database. Using recommended assessment techniques,    There should be regular meetings and discussions between the supervisors, other research students for keep check on the progress of work and new innovative ideas that research students might learn from each other. Each student should keep a record of his or her work. Similarly, each supervisor should keep record of their supervision to avoid any misunderstanding between student and the supervisor. There should be brief records of meetings, discussions, deadlines set for the accomplishment of certain task or research work, notes on advice provided to each student, photocopies of other important notes, drafts and student diaries. Working relationship with other students should be kept in harmony. Students should have opportunities to mix socially with other departmental students. There should be network of students to get mixed with each other and learn each other problems, research and learning abilities. Progress of each student should be completely checked. There should be a definite policy to monitor the continuous progress of students. There should be new developmental policies to provide financial assistance for research and other postgraduate students. Each student should keep participating in conferences, seminars and colloquia for sharing their knowledge with other research scholars of the same fields. Create an assessment tool to evaluate a program,    The program’s success depends on individual outcomes, hence, it is important to judge whether these outcomes are worthwhile or just achieved. The desired outcomes of this program are listed below. It will improve motor skills of a student and he would improve his locomotive and perceptual motor skills The program will enhance their learning and memorizing capability. A student will be able to give more attention to his studies. The student will develop better social relations. He would be better off in school and at home. Student’s emotional and psychological development will improve. Emotional problems are usually correlated with his physical, social and cognitive development. But as his cognitive, social and physical development enhances, his emotional development will improve. The program will improve quality of education at school. The student after being trained will have better skills to interact with his environment and will yield better results. The program is cost effective and will safe cost of future problems that may arise due to lack of education and training at this age. The program will speed up student’s cognitive development. The program is not offered for a specific need but it will improve overall development and generalized needs of a student. Teachers and trainers will find it easier to train through this program rather than typical way of teaching. â€Å"Building and modeling caring relationships is crucial to the preservice teacher’s capacity to receive curricular content and their ability to teach that content to young student.† (Lake, Jones, & Dagli, 2004) The program would be able to preserve social and morel values through better education and training of a student. As student are major and most crucial beings in transmitting such values. The program protects student’s right to live and develop to their full potential while benefiting from the environment. References    Lake, Jones, & Dagli (2004) Handle With Care: Integrating Caring Content in Mathematics and Science Methods Classes. Journal of Research in Childhood Education Vol. 19, Nos. 1 & 2, Fall 2004 and Winter 2004 Parry, S. and M. Hayden. 1993. â€Å"Supervising Higher Degree Research Students.† Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.   

Knowledge For Social Work Essay

Social work education in Britain has undergone repeated and fundamental restructuring in the past decade. In the early 1990s the professional qualification, the Certificate in Qualifying Social Work (CQSW), was replaced by the Diploma in Social Work (DipSW), a shift which required significant curriculum changes. Now social work education is undergoing another major change, with the DipSW being replaced by an undergraduate degree. However, despite changes to practice and academic training requirements, there are some constants, some requirements which do not alter. One of these is the demand for social work students to demonstrate that they can ‘apply theory to practice’ as part of qualifying requirements. This requirement, presented casually alongside a long list of further requirements, characteristically fails to grasp that understanding the relationship between theory and practice has long been a source of debate within social science. In many respects, the recent debate in Britain (see Trevillion, 2000) continues, and draws upon, consistent themes in social theory over the relative merits or otherwise of positivist paradigms, with their underlying assumptions of a social world that can be revealed through the application of correct techniques. The early debates in social theory were structured by a widespread belief in the power of scientific and secular-philosophical knowledge to provide for the direction and improvement of natural and social life. The ‘age of reason’ provided a context of optimism in the possibilities for a collective life informed by justice and representing the march of progress. Though the optimism generally attributed to the Enlightenment was tempered by ambivalence on the part of some theorists, or rejected by others, the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were dominated by philosophical and theoretical interventions which, in general, supposed that knowledge could provide a foundation for political and social progress. This supposition could only be held by assuming that the world could be conceived of as an object, containing an underlying unity, progressing in a logical way, and peopled by subjects whose access to rational thought would liberate them collectively from the superstitions of pre-modern life. The underlying mechanisms of historical progress, the necessary regularities in social life, were held to be available to discovery by the sciences and philosophies, so that such knowledge attained a key role in the achievement of social progress (Penna, et al, 1999). Although the ‘age of reason’ was also characterized by profound ambivalence concerning the possibilities for rational progress, the social sciences displayed a deep belief in the possibilities of knowledge to understand the social world and therefore guide the development of rationally organized structures, institutions and interventions. Thus the objective of knowledge-generation has been the establishment of a foundational knowledge, derived from the exclusive truth-producing capacity of science, that can inform social action. Foundational principles have been based upon two important assumptions: that theory involved a distinction between mind and world, between the subject and object of knowledge, and that language functioned as a neutral medium for the mind to mirror or represent the world (Seidman 1994: 3). This historical intellectual legacy, together with a need for professional status dependent on a proper ‘knowledge-base’, drives demands that professional practice demonstrate the application of theory to practice. I want to suggest here that this demand betrays a lack of understanding of what theory is and what it can do and, at best, leaves students confused, whilst at worst it leads to cruel or ineffective practices in agencies. Here I outline the historical context that has led to a particular understanding of theory as a guide to action, point to some perils of its application in practice, and suggest a different method of dealing with theory on social work degree schemes. What is Theory? What we call ‘theory’ can be understood as a form of social action that gives direction and meaning to what we do. To be human is to search for meaning, and all of us hold theories about how and why particular things happen or do not happen. Some of these theories are little more than vague hypotheses about what will happen if we act in a certain way in a certain situation and what we might expect from others. But many of the theories we hold are more complex and express our understandings of, for example, how organizations work, of how people become offenders, or why the distribution of resources is as it is. In this sense theories are generalizations about what exists in the world and how the components of that world fit together into patterns. In this sense also theories are ‘abstractions’ in as much as they generalize across actual situations our expectations and suppositions about the reasons why certain patterns exist (O’Brien and Penna, 1998). In the same way that we use theory in our everyday lives, we also draw upon various theories as part of the ways we act in the world, so understandings of the ‘social’ dimension of social work are also built upon different theoretical foundations. As O’Brien and Penna (1998) point out, theories about the validity of data and research procedures, theories about what motivates individual behaviour, theories about what will happen if we intervene in particular situations in x way rather than y way, become embedded in social, economic and criminal justice policies developed, implemented and managed by different social groups. Theories about the proper relationship between the individual and the state, men and women, homosexual and heterosexual, inform policy and practice frameworks so that the frameworks that legally bound social work, as well as practice priorities and interventions, differ substantially from country to country. Theory about social life is either used or promoted in particular policy and welfare frameworks in order to make them more ‘effective’ or ‘appropriate’, and is invariably embedded in the social programs that ensue from them. In this way theories make up the premises and assumptions that guide the formulation of particular policies and practices in the first place, as well as their later implementation. Such premises are essentially theoretical: they are ‘imaginary’ in the sense that the conditions they describe, the logics of action and the structures of provision on which they focus are not proven, definite realities. This use of theory in the ways described above developed from the intellectual sea-change of the eighteenth century European Enlightenment. Prior to the Enlightenment, social organization was understood through theological worldviews, and government of the population justified largely according to divine right and religious edict: the Sovereign ruled over a subject population because he or she was divinely ordained to so. However, from the middle of the seventeenth century onwards a shift in intellectual thinking occurred which was to have major implications for the development of European societies. This historical period – The Enlightenment – marks a time when people start to be understood as self-creating, rather than as products of divine creation. A philosophical shift, questioning theological understandings of the human world and establishing the legitimacy of scientific explanations of the natural world, results eventually in a humanist understanding of social or ganization. The Enlightenment sees the establishment of new philosophical systems for understanding both the natural and human worlds and the development of rational responses to social problems. The Enlightenment promises progress and represents a faith in science as a progressive force which can understand, and hence solve, problems in the natural and social worlds. In this intellectual movement, new ways of thinking overlay those they were in the process of replacing, so that the cosmic transcendence of religious thought was replaced by the universalism of philosophy, and the methods and principles of the natural sciences. It was assumed that a theory could be developed that would substitute for the truth of religion. Eighteenth and nineteenth century social thought was focused, in the social sciences, on the search for one theory that could explain the social world and hence provide a guide to action – a theory that could be used in practice – famously captured by the term praxis. However, as the twentieth century developed, this conception of theory came under increasing attack, and this attack is one which has many implications for the use of theory in social work education and practice. Part 2 Some Problems With Theory Several events in Europe contributed to a questioning of the application of theory to practice. The establishment of a communist society based upon the premises of Marxist theory was one such event. As the mass exterminations, abuses of power and repressions of the communist state came to widespread notice, so did the rationales underlying them. The communist leadership, following particular strands of Marxist theory, imposed upon populations conditions which, in theory, were necessary for the development of a communist society. Those individuals who did not fit the predictions of theory, or questioned the premises upon which action was based, were considered ‘deviant’ and sent for ‘retraining’ in labour camps when they were not killed. The endless compulsory ‘self-criticism’ that members of various Marxist groups carried out was aimed at making individual behaviour conform to the tenets of theory. Yet when many thousands of individuals failed to conform, it was their behaviour that came under scrutiny, rather than the premises and assumptions of the theory, resulting in tragedy for thousands. The second tragedy was the application of theory to practice by Germany’s Nazi leadership. These two examples provide perhaps the most extreme illustrations of the application of theory to practice, but the history of social welfare is littered with more mundane examples that nevertheless cause great misery to those subject to theory application. We have seen the eugenics movement in the early twentieth century whose influence contributed to the institutionalisation (and worse) of people with learning difficulties, the widespread use in the mid-twentieth century of lobotomies in treating people with mental health problems and, to take two examples from this author’s practice career, the use of psychodynamic and behaviour modification theory in practice. I observed the use of psychodynamic theory in practice in the social work department of an acute unit in a psychiatric hospital. A senior social worker specialized in dealing with depressed female lone-parents. Reading through dozens of case-notes (meant to aid my practice) I was struck by the way that these women’s depression was attributed to various failures in their early psycho-sexual development, whilst their practical circumstances – victims of domestic violence, poor housing, lack of money – were completely ignored. Needless to say, these women failed to improve, but the point to note here is that this failure was not attributed to the faulty premises of the theory and the way in which it was being applied, but to the women’s innate psychopathology. My second example is taken from two years in a residential home for children with learning disabilities. Here a behaviour modification regime was implemented by management with no critical appreciation of debates in psychology about what it means to be human, what motivates behaviour and how behaviour should be understood. Those children who did not respond to ‘positive reinforcement’ (the majority) were labelled and punished, whilst the underlying problems of the theory itself left unexamined. In short, in both these cases, where service-users failed to fulfil predicted outcomes derived from particular theoretical paradigms, the response displayed a notably similar characteristic as in the examples from totalitarian societies – the users were pathologised, rather than theoretical premises examined.An objection could be made here that these examples merely demonstrate a-typical historical circumstances or incompetent practitioners. However, whether at the level of whole societies, whole social groups, or numerous disparate individuals, a backlash against the conjoining of knowledge and power has been manifest in many locations, including: the overthrow of communism in the Soviet Union, the critical interrogation of ‘totalising’ discourses, the decline in membership of organised, hierarchical political movements, the widespread development of ‘rights-based ’ and user movements, and a suspicion of ‘expert’ practice and bureaucraci es. In social theory, the last three decades or so has seen a particularly sustained interrogation of the status of Enlightenment theory. Under the impact of post-structuralism, particularly that associated with Foucault and Derrida , an unpackaging of the assumptions and premises of theory construction has severely undermined the ‘theory as truth and guide to practice’ position. This is not to say such challenges to Enlightenment theory did not exist before, for a long tradition of hermeneutic and phenomenological thought had posed alternative understandings of human and social action. Post-structuralism, however, has mounted a comprehensive and thorough critique of the epistemological basis of structuralism and realism. In the current examination of Enlightenment thought, Derrida ‘deconstructed’ major traditions in western social thought, showing how accounts of human knowledge depended on the use of key textual devices for obscuring problematic philosophical categories, or for revealing and endorsing particular interpretations and meanings of social and political progress. The construction of any text lends itself to several meanings and interpretations, such that it is impossible to arrive at any one fixed, ‘true’ account. Foucault, on the other hand, examined the epistemology underpinning the Enlightenment belief in the replacement of an institutionalised theological belief system with one which emphasised Reason and the limitless capacity of human knowledge. Enlightenment philosophy suggests that what occurs in the world is subject to entirely knowable and explainable laws that can be discovered and used in the progress of human society and human mastery over the natural and social world. Foucault’s contribution to the unpicking of this position was to show, through examinations of historical understandings of punishment and sexuality, that there are other ways of understanding this history which suggest a very different interpretation of the Enlightenment and its effects on social life, and demonstrate that many truths and experiences of social life co-exist that make it impossible to provide an overarching account that explains everything. At the same time, science constantly shifts its parameters, so that what may be ‘true’ at one historical moment is rendered false later. This brief outline cannot do justice to the sophistication and breadth of the critique of Enlightenment theory, critiques which have resulted in major debates over how we can know our world and what valid knowledge claims can be made (c.f., Lemert, 1999). Even where the foundations of poststructuralist epistemology are rejected there is a much greater appreciation of the problems associated with universalism and linear structures, two of the major props of Enlightenment theory. The permeation of these critiques is perhaps most evident in mainstream emphases on ‘difference’ and social constructivism, ‘difference’ and postmodernism, (c.f.,Briskman, 2001), and a general rejection in many disciplines of overarching, grand theory (Leonard, 1997). Here attention shifts to the assumptions embedded in theory and the way in which these assumptions become embedded in projects of nation-building, in legal and organisational structures, and in policy initiatives. Goldberg’s (1993, 2002) work on ‘race’ and racialization traces this process of embedding through an examination of the ways in which Enlightenment thought depended upon a racialized subject of social action and object of social theory. The pervasiveness of this discourse entrenches and normalizes symbolic representations and values both culturally and materially within the institutions of modern life (c.f., Goldberg, 1993: 8). The social sciences are ‘deeply implicated’ in the building of a racist culture and in the ‘hegemony of symbolic violence’ underpinning social systems (Goldberg, 1993: 12, 9). Roediger (1994) examines a similar process in American history and nation-building, pointing to a normalization of ‘Whiteness’ in the construction of conceptual and political subjects. This legacy enters social work in various ways (see Taylor, 1993), but appreciating the role of theory as cultural artefact, as a cultural product, produced in, and reproducing, social assumptions of normativity and relations of domination and subordination, can be similarly achieved in relation to gendered and sexualized categories, for example. This leads us to a situation in which theory itself can be understood as a key resource in forging a ‘modern’ consciousness, and socio-political spheres shot through with asymmetries of power (Penna and O’Brien, 1996/7), where exploitation and oppression operate through complex and unstable socio-economic mechanisms (O’Brien and Penna, 1996). Not only can the ‘social’ upon which we work not be known in its entirety, not be predicted, not be subject to fool-proof risk assessment, evaluation and so on, but theory production has arguably been a contributory mechanism in the creation of precisely many of those socially problematic circumstances that social work sets out to address. In short, Parton (2000:452) hits the nail on the head in claiming that we need to learn to live with ‘uncertainty, confusion and doubt’. Where then, does that leave theory in social work, if we accept this position? I want to turn briefly, and finally, to some suggestions of the use of theory in social work education. Using Theory At the beginning of this piece I suggested that we all use theory in our everyday lives. Given that this is so, and that theory permeates every aspect of academic work, policy implementation and practice initiatives, even when it is tacit and unacknowledged, I would propose that social work students and, ultimately, service-users, would be better served if students were taught how theory-construction takes place and how to unpackage and critically examine theoretical edifices, accounts and the components through which they are constructed. The task for social work students would be not the mechanistic injunction to ‘apply theory to practice’ but rather to consider how adequate the application of theory to practice might be in X or Y case. To do this, they would have to be taught not so much along ‘who-says-what’ lines, but rather in terms of how theorising as an activity works and how different theories are constructed. Theory building is an exercise in logic, moving from initial assumptions and premises to conclusions, through an argument linked by one or more claims. Taking these components apart can be taught as a skill (see, for example, Phelan and Reynolds, 1996; Thompson, 1996) rather than through the more philosophically based, social theory courses provided in many other disciplines. Tackling theory in a skills-based way has several advantages: it demystifies theory and enables students to see that, with practice, they can take a theory apart and reconstruct it in much the same way as a plumber or mechanic might tackle a job; it leads to a critical scrutiny of practice proposals derived from (often unstated) theoretical premises and to confidence in rejecting the inappropriate; and, when the theory fails to deliver, it leads to critical scrutiny of the theory rather than the person on the receiving end of it. This is not a plea for eclecticism, but for much more modest expectations of the theory-practice relationship than are currently formally embedded in many social work training programmes. I say ‘formally’ because many people have a suspicion of theory but, in my view, for the wrong reasons. Most theories offer insights into the ‘social’ sphere that is the ‘work’ of social workers but, ultimately, a theory is only as good as its critics. This paper considers the demand for social work students in Britain to demonstrate that they can ‘apply theory to practice’ as part of qualifying requirements. It suggests that this demand betrays a lack of understanding of what theory is and what it can do and, at best, leaves students confused, whilst at worst it leads to cruel or ineffective practices in agencies. Understanding the relationship between theory and practice has long been a source of debate and, in many respects, the recent debate continues, and draws upon, consistent themes in social theory over the relative merits or otherwise of positivist paradigms with their underlying assumptions of a social world that can be revealed through the application of correct techniques. The early debates in social theory were structured by a widespread belief in the power of scientific and secular-philosophical knowledge to provide for the direction and improvement of natural and social life. The ‘age of reason’ provided a context of optimism in the possibilities for a collective life informed by justice and representing the march of progress. This paper outlines the historical context that has led to a particular understanding of theory as a guide to action, points to some perils of its application in practice, and suggests a different method of dealing with theory on social work degree schemes. Evidence-based practice in teaching and teacher education What is it? What is the rationale? What is the criticism? Where to go now? Christer Brusling, Oslo University College, Centre for Study of the Professions. Invited paper to a workshop at the conference Professional Development of Teachers in a Lifelong Perspective: Teacher Education, Knowledge Production and Institutional Reform. Centre for Higher Education Greater Copenhagen in collaboration with OECD, Copenhagen, November, 17-18. 2005. What is it? Where does it come from? What is the rationale? This movement, if I may call it that, seems to have originated in the British educational context, and with a lecture given by David Hargreaves to the Teacher Training Agency in 1996. Unfortunately I have been unable to get a copy of it in Norway – there is none in Norwegian libraries1. Lacking this original source I will rely on what comes forward in second-hand sources, in published criticisms in mainly British journals, and in later articles by Hargreaves, where he answers his critics. Philip Davies (1999) from University of Oxford, â€Å"the other place† from Hargreaves’ That doesn’t mean that the movement hasn’t reached Norway. A recent NOK 100 million proposal for educational research in partnership with schools show that at least the former conservative government knew about it, mainly through Demos, a British â€Å"independent think tank† (demos.co.uk) Agora nr. 8 – tidsskrift for forskning, udvikling og idà ©udveksling i professioner www.cvustork.dk/agora 88 perspective, writes favourably about evidence-based education in an article named â€Å"What is evidence-based education?†. He says that it operates on two levels, the first being â€Å"to utilize existing evidence from worldwide research and literature on education and related subjects†, the second â€Å"to establish sound evidence where existing evidence is lacking or of a questionable, uncertain, or weak nature† (p.109). The first level is described thus: Educationalists at all levels need to be able to: †¢ pose an answerable question about education; †¢ know where and how to find evidence systematically and comprehensively using the electronic (computer-based) and non-electronic (print) media; †¢ retrieve and read such evidence competently and undertake critical appraisal and analysis of that evidence according to agreed professional and scientific standards; †¢ organise and grade the power of this evidence; and †¢ determine its relevance to their educational needs and environments2. (Davies 1999, p.109). Davies acknowledges the debt of the education sector to medicine and other health professions, which predated education with fi ve to ten years in the implementation of the idea of evidence-based practices. According to Davies, it is derived from the University of Oxford Master’s programme in Evidence Based Health Care. argreaves explicitly argues for evidence-based teaching by pointing to the success of the idea in medicine, and by the similarity of the work of doctors and teachers: Practicing doctors and teachers are applied professionals, practical people making interventions in the lives of their clients in order to promote worthwhile ends – health or learning. Doctors and teachers are similar in that they make 2 Note that evidence-based education in this defi nition curiously enough comes out as a pure intellectual exercise, lacking the fi nal application to practice. Agora nr. 8 – tidsskrift for forskning, udvikling og idà ©udveksling i professioner www.cvustork.dk/agora 89 decisions involving complex judgements. Many doctors draw upon research about the effects of their practice to inform and improve their decisions; most teachers do not, and this is a difference. (Hargreaves 1997, p. ) One reason to turn to evidence-based education is that doing so would make education less vulnerable to â€Å"political ideology, conventional wisdom, folklore, and wishful thinking†, not to mention â€Å"trendy teaching methods based on activity-based, student-centred, self-directed learning and problem solving† (Davies 1999, p. 109). But what constitutes evidence? For Hargreaves (1997) evidence is evidence about â€Å"what works†. The dictionary says that evidence is â€Å"something that furnishes proof† (m-w.com). To be able to provide proof of the â€Å"working† you need to measure the outcome of the teaching activity in question, and you need a procedure of relating the measured outcomes to the activity to make the relation an evidence3. Hargreaves doesn’t see much of a problem with how outcomes are constructed, but is adamant about what ought to be the preferred procedure, the RCT, the randomized control trial, often called â€Å"the golden standard†4. Davies (1999), on the other hand, is more permissive of a variety of procedures, thus voicing a broader conception of educational outcomes. In addition to RCT, he mentions survey and correlational methods, regression analysis and analysis of variance. He allows for inquiries that seek to describe the meanings different people attach to different teaching activities, and the broader and long-term consequences of them, e.g. on â€Å"students’ and parents’ sense of self and their sense of social worth and identity† (p. 115). Analyses of naturally occurring teaching interactions, conversation and discourse are In keeping with the parallel with medicine, I would say that not only expected and beneficial outcomes should be measured but also non-expected and possibly harmful ones. Hargreaves here echoes the standard text of research methodology from 1963, Campbell & Stanley, Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs for Research: â€Å"[We are] committed to the experiment: as the only means for settling disputes regarding educational practice, as the only way of verifying educational improvements, and as the only way of establishing a cumulative tradition†. Cited by Howe (2005), p.308. Agora nr. 8 – tidsskrift for forskning, udvikling og idà ©udveksling i professioner www.cvustork.dk/agora 90 also mentioned as worth-while in this context. He further wants to ask normative questions within the evidence-based teaching paradigm: â€Å"whether or not it is right or warrantable to undertake a particular educational activity or health care intervention† (p.115). Davies’ (1999) omission of the necessary last element in evidence-based practice, i.e. how the purported evidence is to be put to use in practice, avoids a difficult and much discussed problem. Hargreaves (1999b) is of course right in pointing out that this problem is different if practice refers to policy making, as in the phrase evidence-based policy, or to teaching in classrooms, as in the phrase evidence-based teaching. The use of evidence in policy making is about deciding on â€Å"large issues concerned with levels and types of resource allocation – decisions which are difficult to undo† while the use of evidence in teaching â€Å"refer to the relatively small-scale professional practices of teachers in schools and classrooms, which can usually be easily revised† (Hargreaves 1999b, p. 245). In both circumstances enter a lot of considerations apart from â€Å"evidence†. Answering critique from Hammersley (1997) Hargreaves (1999b) admits that context sensitive â€Å"’practical wisdom’ pervades (both) expert medical and educational practice. There is some hard science deep in the knowledge-base of doctors, but the closer a doctor gets to an individual patient, the stronger the elements of judgement or of practical wisdom that also enters into the decision. Teachers acquire ‘practical wisdom’ too; but, in comparison with doctors, they have little accepted scientifi c knowledge to insert into their decision-making.† He claims that the infra structure of knowledge available to teachers is far less developed than that available to doctors, and that teachers seem to be less effi cient than doctors in fi nding the scientifi c knowledge there is. He argues that one reason for this is that the knowledge base in medicine is cumulative while that in education is not, but ought to become. This leads to Davies (1999) second level of concerns about evidence-based teaching: â€Å"to establish sound evidence where existing evidence is lacking or of a questionable, uncertain, or weak nature†. Hargreaves’ lecture in 1996 to the Teacher Training Agency stated that teachers only to a small extent base their practice on (hard) scientific evidence, but he didn’t blame teachers but researchers for failing to produce such evidence, especially produced by RCT procedures. With the  £12,000,000 funding for developing evidence-based policy and practice by research he hoped researchers would be encouraged to respond appropriately (Hargreaves 1999a). In another journal article the same year, titled â€Å"The Knowledge Creating School†, he urges teachers themselves to produce the knowledge they need. To sum up: Evidence-based teaching is a concept borrowed from the health sciences and recommended for teachers (you might add: by new-public-management-governments and elite researchers). You may get the impression that it’s use implies a critique of teachers for not including research-based evidence in deliberations on how to teach, but mainly it is a critique of educational researchers for not providing the needed cumulative research-base, built on research of the randomized control trial (RCT) kind. The rationale is that once such research has taken off and its results have been efficiently disseminated, evidence-based, or evidence informed, teaching will become more frequent. Critique of the notion of evidence-based practice Hammersley (1999) challenges Hargreaves’ on three accounts: his description of educational research as non-cumulative, his prescription on how research could contribute to practice, and his argument that education should learn from medicine, which he considers a parallel to education. Hammersley shares the view that educational research could become more cumulative, but researching ‘what works’ has not proved successful in this respect, despite sustained attempts: â€Å"much educational research in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century was devoted to investigation of effective teaching; and one of the reasons for the changes in educational research over the past 20 years is precisely the failure of this work to produce conclusive, cumulative fi ndings† (p.144). But he also reminds us that there are different meanings of the concept â€Å"cumulative†. There are obvious â€Å"problems involved in identifying distinct and standardised ‘treatments’ in education†, Hammersley exemplifi es by the â€Å"problems faced by researchers seeking to distinguish teaching styles†. What about the problems in operationalising the concept of learning? What should be done about the disagreements about what students should learn? What about the problems of how to measure â€Å"the most important kinds of learning†? Hammersley asks if it is possible even in principle to do so. A preoccupation with what is easily measured may very well have profound effect on teaching, narrowing objectives accordingly. To establish fixed, universal causal patterns in teaching seems equally difficult, if not impossible. What might be aspired to is â€Å"local, context-sensitive patterns in which interpretation and decision on the part of teachers and students play an important role. Unlike in most areas of medicine, in education the ‘treatments’ consist of symbolic interaction, with all the scope for multiple interpretations and responses which that implies†. Hammersley thinks that â€Å"the production of information of high practical relevance usually depends on a great deal of knowledge that does not have such relevance†¦for science to be able to contribute knowledge that is relevant to practice, a division of labour is required: a great deal of coordinated work is necessary tackling smaller, more manageable problems that do not have immediate pay-off†. Hargreaves is described as having a â€Å"narrowly instrumental view of practical relevance†, promoting an ‘engineering model’ of the relationship between research and practice. An engineering model assumes that most teaching problems are technical, which is not likely. On the contrary they seem in most cases to be ‘practical’, that is involving making judgements in complex situations, exercising discretion, not following rules. The analogy with medicine is criticised for not taking into account that the practice of medicine is more towards the engineering side of a continuum which at the other side has the practical. Even within medicine the notion of evidence-based practice has been criticised for downplaying practical judgement in clinical situations, that â€Å"the focus of clinical practice is subtly shifted away from the care of individuals toward the care of populations, and the complex nature of sound clinical judgement is not fully appreciated† (Tonelli 2000). Hammersley cites a medical researcher who raises the same critique towards medical research as Hargreaves does to educational research: it is methodological weak, use inappropriate designs, unrepresentative and small samples, incorrect methods of analysis, and faulty interpretations. The blame is put on practitioners doing research without adequate research training, a fact that doesn’t actually support Hargreaves’ recommendation that more teacher research should lead to a stronger body of knowledge with practical relevance. Hammersley concludes his critique: â€Å"The diagnosis (of the current state of educational research) is mistaken and, taken as a whole: the prescription is likely to be lethal†. In the North American context an equally forceful critique of the arguments for research for evidence-based practice has been voiced by Howe (2005). His critique is organised under the headings â€Å"experimentism5 and scientifi c method†, and â€Å"experimentism and values†. The object of his analysis is a National Research Council report, Scientifi c Research in Education (2002), which he means represent a more moderate form of experimentism than other infl uential publications advocating research for evidence-based practice. In short he states that this report: †¢ unconvincingly characterizes the conduct of research as hierarchical, both temporally and logically (p. 309); †¢ offers little defense of its call for a renewed emphasis on randomised experiments against well-known criticisms regarding the issue of external validity (generalisability from research contexts to other contexts) (p.309); †¢ does not take into account Cronbach’s observation that generalizations decay, The word †experimentism† is used by Howe to refer to scientifi c research advocating the randomised control trial as the â€Å"best† research method. thus making the goal of a cumulative education science fundamentally unattainable; †¢ does not take into account that human intentionality signifi cantly complicates how to understand causal explanation in social research; †¢ places outcomes outside educational research, by focusing on means; †¢ places not-manipulable variables, like socio-economic stratifi cation, outside the limits of educational research by insisting on RCT as the method of choice, thus making educational research â€Å"a political innocent exercise†. Howe (2005) turns to Toulmin (2001) to fi nd an alternative to experimentism – an alternative that is without the short-comings described above: Activities for which social research is often seen as a tool for improvement – medicine and education, for instance – call for intentional behaviour on the part of practitioners in the form of craft-based practical judgement. Stephen Toulmin observes that when performed well, these judgements must respond in a â€Å"timely† manner to the unique and unanticipated actions of other persons, as well as to their different ways of seeing things. According to Toulmin, research informing such practices should exemplify a model that is â€Å"clinical† and â€Å"democratic† rather than â€Å"applied† and â€Å"elite† (Howe 2005, p. 317). Teachers’ relationship to research Do teachers experience a lack of research results when planning to teach? How do teachers relate to educational research? Do teachers fi nd some research genres more relevant and practically useful than others? Does teachers’ practice-based research contribute to a knowledge base of teaching? None of these questions are raised in the early discussions on evidence-based teaching, but specific answers to them seem to enter as premises to prescriptions. I would think that the answer to the first question is no. A common place view of teachers’ planning is that it is based on textbooks and concerned with amounts of â€Å"covering†, using standard methods of classroom instruction: a short introduction by the teacher, independent pupil work with textbook exercises, question-and-answer-patterns, summing up by the teacher in class. Twenty years ago research on teachers’ planning was frequent, today it seems to be an almost closed field of study. Perhaps the expectations of the paradigm of evidence-based teaching on teachers to include research results in their deliberations on how to teach may lead to its re-opening. Do teachers find some research genres more relevant and practically useful than others? Kennedy (1999) observes that: Many genre advocates refer to teachers to justify their arguments, claiming that teachers need more authoritative knowledge (so we should conduct experiments), more dynamic portraits that reveal multiple truths (so we should write narratives), or more richly detailed accounts (so we should do ethnographies). (Kennedy 1999, p.511) Case studies and ethnographies, she continues, have long been justified by: †¦contentions that educational events are governed not by universal laws of cause and effect but, instead, by human interactions and by multiple concurrent and interacting influences; that the meanings of these events can be understood only within their context; that detailed descriptions of the full range of these interactions and dynamics are the only way to accurately represent these events and their meanings; that the kind of complex dynamic knowledge represented in case studies and ethnographies is more like the kind of knowledge ordinary people use to store their experiences; and that such detailed and multifaceted descriptions enable audiences to see similarities and differences between the research setting and their own situations, thus enabling generalizations by analogy rather than by statistical extrapolation. (Kennedy 1999, p.54) She sets out to investigate if teachers find some research genres more persuasive, more relevant, and more influential on own practice, than others, and if so, what features of each genre contribute to these evaluations. 100 teachers were interviewed after having read five articles describing research of different genres. Results show that the three evaluative criteria were highly correlated, but also that reasons for valuing them varied across genres. Experiments appeared to be highly valued, but so were non-experimental comparisons and narratives. Case studies appeared more influential than surveys. Independent of genre research studies proved to be particularly useful if they â€Å"helped teachers understand the relationship between teaching and learning† (Kennedy 1999, p.528). Kennedy concludes that a majority of teachers found most of the articles persuasive and relevant, but for different reasons. The genre contentions with which she started were not empirically verified. The TTA itself designed a questionnaire on teachers’ perspectives on educational research, and distributed it as attachments to journals of two teacher organisations, one for primary teachers, the other for secondary teachers. Everton, Galton & Pell (2000) report on the findings. As an unknown number of subscribers were â€Å"corporate members for local education authorities and industrial companies† they were unable to specify teachers’ response percentages. It was however estimated that the first group only returned 15% of the questionnaires, the second possibly a little more. In the second group most, i.e. 84%, were filled out by school leaders. All in all: the manner this investigation was carried out does not justify its analysis in terms of â€Å"teachers’ perspectives†. Does teachers’ practice-based research contribute to a knowledge base of teaching? As a result of Hargreaves 1996 lecture to the Teacher Training Agency the British government allocated  £54000 to the funding of teacher research projects. In an evaluation of the resulting reports Foster (1999) found that â€Å"a significant minority of the projects appeared to be practical: concerned with the improvement of teaching, learning or educational achievement, rather than the production of knowledge† (p. 383). He found â€Å"that only in a minority of the reports are factual claims well established†¦ as a result, it is difficult to see these as much more than opinion based on pre-existing views of good practice† (p. 393). Foster concludes that critical scrutiny of findings from teacher research before dissemination is crucial, but is afraid that â€Å"the view of knowledge production and dissemination which underpins this TTA scheme sees little role for such scrutiny. The priorities are rapid production and immediate dissemination to practitioners† (p. 395). To sum up: There is research evidence that teachers see the RCT research genre as relevant and useful to practice, but no more so than many other research genres. There is research evidence that teachers’ practice-based research does not contribute substantially to a body of knowledge on teaching, not to mention a cumulative one. Concluding remarks In line with the observation that there is more to teachers’ decision making than following authoritative evidence-based rules for practice, the discourse have changed from talking dichotomously about evidence-based/not evidence-based teaching to talking about evidence-informed teaching (Hargreaves 1999b) or the extent to which teaching is evidence-based (Davies 1999). It is interesting to note that while waiting (?) for research-produced evidence on â€Å"what works†, in teaching and in teacher education, British teacher education has become teacher training, managed by the Training & Development Agency for Schools. Its publication â€Å"Qualifying to teach. Professional standards for qualified teacher status and requirements for initial teacher training† lists skills, competencies and understandings would-be teachers must acquire (TDA 2005). Hagger & McIntyre (2000) complains that â€Å"these lists have been accompanied neither by any rationale for the items listed nor by any explanation of the conception of teaching expertise which underlies the lists† (p. 485). Not surprisingly, I found that in this publication the word ‘training’ appears 51 times, the word ‘education’ 15 times (most of these in naming school subjects or institutions), the words ‘research’, and ‘theory’ did not appear at all. My conclusion is that there are serious problems, philosophical, historical, and political problems, with the notion of evidence-based practice transferred to teaching and teacher education, at least in its original interpretation. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). (1999). Omnibus Survey. Rockville, Maryland Hill, K., & Romich, B. (2002). AAC evidence-based clinical practice: A model for success. AAC Institute Press, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-6. McKibbon, K.A., Wilczynski, N., Hayward, R.S., Walker-Dilks, Cynthia, & Haynes, R.B. (1995). The medical literature as a resource for evidence based care. Working Paper from the Health Information Research Unit, Mc,Master University, Ontario, Canada. Sackett, D.L., Rosenberg, W.MC, Gray, J.M., Haynes, R.B., Richardson, W.S. (1996). Evidence-based medicine: What it is and what it isn’t. British Medical Journal. 321: 71-2 American Educational Research Association (2005). Research Points. http://www. aera.net/publications/?id=314 (downloaded 15.11.2005) British Medical Journals Publishing Group (2005). Clinical Evidence. http://www. clinicalevidence.com/ceweb/conditions/index.jsp (downloaded 15.11.2005). Campbell Collaboration (2005). The Education Coordinating Group. http://www. cahs.colostate.edu/r-dcenter/CCECG/home.asp (downloaded 15.11.2005). Davies, P. (1999). What is evidence-based education? British Journal of Educational Studies, 47, 2, 108-121. Everton, T., Galton, M. & Pell, T. (2000). Foster, P. (1999). ‘Never mind the quality, feel the impact’: a methodological assessment of teacher research sponsored by the Teacher Training Agency. British Journal of Educational Studies, 47, 4, 380-398. Hagger, h. & McIntyre, D. (2000). What can research tell us about teacher education? Oxford Review of Education, 26, 3-4, 483-494. Hammersley, M. (1997). Educational research and teaching: A response to David Hargreaves’ TTA lecture. British Educationl Research Journal, 23, 2, 141-162. Hargreaves, D. (1996). Teaching as a research-based profession: possibilities and prospects. London: Teacher Training Agency. Hargreaves, D. (1997). In defence of research for evidence-based teaching: A rejoinder to Martyn Hammersley. British Educational Research Journal, 23, 4, 405- 419. Hargreaves, D. (1999a). The knowledge-creating school. British Journal of Educational Studies, 47, 2, 122-144. Hargreaves, D. (1999b). Revitalizing educational research: lessons from the past and proposals for the future. Cambridge Journal of Education, 29, 2, 239-249. Howe, K.R. (2005). The education science question: A symposium. Educational Theory, 55, 3, 235-321. Kennedy, M. (1999). A test of some contentions about educational research. American Educational Research Journal, 36, 3, 511-541. Tonelli, M.R. (1998). The philosophical limits of evidence-based medicine. Academic Medicine, 73, 12, 1234-1240. Training & Development Agency for Schools (2005). Qualifying to teach. Professional standards for qualifi ed teacher status and requirements for initial teacher Agora nr. 8 – tidsskrift for forskning, udvikling og idà ©udveksling i professioner www.cvustork.dk/agora 100 training. Department for education and skills, London (downloaded 15 November, 2005, from www.tda.gov.uk). Briskman, L. (2001) ‘A Moral Crisis for Social Work: Critical Practice & Codes of Ethics’ in Critical Social Work, vol2, no1. pp1-9 Golberg, D.T. (2002) The Racial State. Blackwell. Oxford/Massachusetts Golberg, D.T. (1993) Racist Culture. Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning. Blackwell. Oxford/Massachusetts Lemert, C. (1999) ‘A World of Differences: What if it’s So? How will we know?’ in O’Brien, M., Penna, S. and Hay, C. (eds) Theorising Modernity. Reflexivity, Environment and Identity in Giddens’ Social Theory. Longman. London and New York. pp179-206 Leonard, P. (1997) Postmodern Welfare: Reconstructing an Emancipatory Project, Sage, London O’Brien, M and Penna, S. (1998) Theorising Welfare. Enlightenment and Modern Society. Sage, London O’Brien, M and Penna, S. (1996) ‘Postmodern Theory and Politics: Perspectives on Citizenship and Social Justice’ in Innovation, vol 9, no 2, pp185-203 Parton, N. (2000) ‘Some Thoughts on the Relationship between Theory and Practice in and for Social Work’, Brt. Jnl of Social Work, 30, 449-463 Penna, S., O’Brien, M. and Hay, C. (1999) ‘Introduction’ in O’Brien, M., Penna, S. and Hay, C. (eds) Theorising Modernity. Reflexivity, Environment and Identity in Giddens’ Social Theory. Longman. London and New York Penna, S. and O’Brien, M. (1996/7) ‘Inequality, transformation and Political Agency: reflections on Theresa Ebert’s red feminismn’ in Rethinking Marxism, vol 9, no 3, pp95-102 Phelan, P. and Reynolds, P. (1996) Argument and Evidence. Critical analysis for the social sciences. Routledge, London. Roedeger, D. (1994) Towards the Abolition of Whiteness. Verso, London, New York. Seidman, S. (1994) The Post-modern Turn. New Perspectives on Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Taylor, G. (1993) ‘Challenges from the Margins’ in Clarke, J. (ed) A Crisis in Care? Challenges to Social Work. Sage, London. Thomson, A. (1996) Critical Reasoning. A practical introduction. Routledge, London. Trevillion, S. (2000) ‘Social Work Research: What Kind of Knowledge/Knowledges? An Introduction to the Papers’, Brt. Jnl of Social Work, 30, 429-432 Sue Penna, Ph.D. can be contacted via e-mail at: S.Penna@lancaster.ac.uk

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Lighthouse international website review - Article Example Lighthouse International is a website for a non-profit organization dedicated to providing information and services on various types of vision related problems. It was founded in New York in 1905 and was one of the first institutions of its time that offered vision rehabilitation services. Throughout the century, it increased its functions and extended its services globally. It began with a goal to prevent blindness and evolved into a mission to assist those with a vision issues to function normally in mainstream society. Its facilities cover research, offer rehab services, and educate both those with vision impairments and professionals. Lighthouse International also is a leading advocate for vision healthcare on both the state and federal level.Information on the website is very easy to find as the site is user-friendly and well organized. The layout of the Home Page is uncluttered and welcoming yet it gives a summary direction to various services offered on the entire site. "Get t he Facts", "Get Help Today", "What's New". This means that a person just arriving on the page does not have to search long to find what interests him or her. The tabs at the top with self explanatory titles also easily direct a user to their destination - "Home, About, Vision Health, Vision Services, Our Schools, Research, and Donate". The Search field on the sidebar also helps a user find their topic of interest. Since this is a site about vision it makes sense that there will be a function that adjusts the size of the print for the comfort of the reader. The "Help Near You" widget addresses users that arrive at the site from around the world. After filling in the appropriate values, the site will give the address and contact information in the country indicated. These first three widgets remain the same on each (Last Name) 2 page that is viewed whereas, the information that follows varies according the content of the page. It is to be noted that most of the tabbed pages are introductions themselves to further information. For example, the tab "Vision Health", lists all the services available to all groups. Each service is a link that takes the reader to another page with the specific information requested. At the end of each page, is an email address that allows the reader to request even more information for their particular need. This design is very appealing as it keeps each page fairly short and manageable. For a website on vision, it is interesting there is not much color on many of the pages. The body of the text is a light color background with black font and deep blue links. The side bar is the inverse, with a deep blue background, and white font. This website itself provides the explanation for this lack of color via one of their links (Home > Accessibility > Effective Color Contrast). Contrasts are easier to read than colors of a similar hue. In other words, the website, although not visually stimulating, is designed for the reading ease for the majority of its readers. It is still neat and attractive with punches of color in either the photographs or the logos. The photographs themselves add interest and are appropriately related to the page content. The Lighthouse International website is specifically designed to cater to those with an interest in vision related matters. It is useful for those with problems looking for answers or assistance. This audience would be the general public, no matter what profession or age. It also offers a portal for those who want to donate and assist in the advancement of vision related research. One tab is dedicated to donations and events that raise funds for the continuation of Lighthouse International's work. The catchy heading "Be a Visionary PhilanthropistDonate Now", is a clever play on words: the funds will not only be for the advancement of research in the field of vision but to support the foresight and imagination of the two sisters who founded the company. In order to attract

Teaching English to new arrival immigrants is problematic Research Paper - 1

Teaching English to new arrival immigrants is problematic - Research Paper Example One of the mishaps is that the immigrants make the language as a second language. The instance, therefore, creates the need to understand the background of the students and the consequent effects that the background has on a new course. Moreover, a prior analysis of the various misconceptions that learners have towards learning a second language is crucial with the aim of establishing the best of course of action. Other factors that may be of help in teaching English to immigrants is the consideration of the processes that involve the knowledge of English and consequently comprehend the wider scope that represents the cultural and social issues. The issues that shape up the acquisition of the English language by the immigrants is thus are a constituent of the essay. The article also articulates on the different solutions that are relevant in the complex process of the language learning. A summary appears at the completion of the document in an instance of giving a preview of the whol e document. Misconceptions misrepresent the needs of immigrant students and present simplistic approaches to second language learning and complicate the process of teaching and learning English. If students communicate in English, they have competence to use language in mainstream courses. Educators sometimes assume that if immigrant students can communicate in everyday life, they can have the competence to use language in an every variety of settings, especially mainstream course of English. However, there are gaps between everyday communication and mainstream courses language use for the second language learners (Cacden, 1988). These gaps occur because there are differences between home based and course-based value system and knowledge. Such Differences between home and English courses lead to difficulties for English language learners to access to academic and mainstream course language (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). Based on this misconception, immigrant

Writer's choice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

Writer's choice - Term Paper Example (Independence, n.d.) His father, a candle and soap maker, wanted Benjamin to become a clergyman. Because his father did not have enough money, Benjamin only went to school for a year, apprenticed under his father, and eventually apprenticed for his half-brother, James, who owned a printing shop. Benjamin loved to write, but he never got a chance to publish his work. It was during this time that he wrote the fourteen famous letters from Silence Dogood, a secret character Franklin created for himself. The letters were sent to James’ printing house and published in The New-England Courant. When James found out Dogood was actually Benjamin, the siblings disagreed and the younger Franklin moved to Philadelphia. Benjamin consequently became the publisher for The Pennsylvania Gazette when he was about twenty-four years old (Hovde, 2002). He gained popularity for printing Poor Richard’s Almanac which contained weather forecasts, household tips, puzzles, etc. (Green & Stallybrass, 2006) There is a lot to tell about Benjamin Franklin since he dabbled in many industries when he was alive. Aside from being a renowned printer and writer, Benjamin Franklin was also a diplomat. He was the first United States Minister to France and served from 1778 – 1785. Scholar Leo Lemay referred to Franklin as â€Å"the most essential and successful American diplomat of all time.† (Green & Stallybrass, 2006) Not only was Benjamin Franklin adept in being a publisher and a diplomat. He was also a very brilliant inventor. During his lifetime, Franklin managed to create what is commonly known as bifocals, lightning rod, glass harmonica and Franklin stove. (Independence, n.d.) Three of these are still popular today. Bifocals are a type of eyeglasses which have upper and lower halves. The lower halves were usually used for reading or viewing things that are near, while the upper halves are used for looking at distant objects. As Franklin grew older,

Critique of the Ramayana Modern Prose Translation Essay Example for Free

Critique of the Ramayana Modern Prose Translation Essay In a just world, Mr. R. K. Narayan’s estate would be responsible for reimbursing seventeen-fifty, plus applicable taxes, to all those who purchased the Penguin Classics 2006 publication of his book, The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic. Stated clearly on the back of the cover is the promise that R. K. Narayan â€Å"recounts [The Ramayana] with the narrative flair of a master novelist’’. The back cover lied. Narayan’s re-telling condenses the epic poem so much to the point of nearly listing a series of events. No matter the inspiration, Narayan’s The Ramayana is still a story, and should therefore be able to stand on it’s own as a captivating tale—with further literary research or expansion being used to enhance it’s appeal, not explain it. Arguably, the ‘narrative flair’ of this re-telling is little more expressive than unsolicited summaries found on the Internet, and without further literary aide or instruction, does not stand as a solid piece of literature. What is worse, is that instead of allowing a greater breadth of readers to relate and experience tale of the Ramayana, new readers are alienated by it’s convoluted atmosphere. While the task is grand, Narayan’s translation is not listed as an aide to a larger, more in-depth version; it is still a novel and as such needs to be able to stand strong in its own right when evaluated alone. People who have no prior knowledge of the original Sanskrit story, and who have not been raised with the Hindu epic as a part of their life, should be able to pick up this book, read it, and—regardless of how far the tale may go in global history—be able to enjoy one hundred and fifty one pages of literature, without having any prior knowledge, or requiring further research. Having more knowledge, and doing more research on the original epic tale should increase what readers are able to receive from the book, but it should not be necessary in order to understand it. As it stands, without knowing the original tale, new readers are left with very little literary flow and a patchy depiction of what is supposed to be a lush world. At one point, while Bharatha and Rama argue as to who should be the rightful king, their entire episode is related with: â€Å" The argument went on at a highly academic and philosophical level, the entire assembly watching with respect. (Narayan 60) That assertion does not express a deep academic and philosophical argument, but rather states that one was occurring; the reader doesn’t get to experience what transpired between the brothers, or garner any emotion from it. It goes on to almost quite literally depict the event with a he-said/he-said monotony: So be it; if I have the authority—then I confer it on you as the ruler,† said Bharatha at one stage. â€Å"On my command as the ruler, if you desire to think so, you shall be the King. † It went on thus. Rama went on repeating that there could be no word higher than that of a father; no conduct other than obedience to it. Throughout he referred to Kaikeyi in the gentlest terms and always as â€Å"mother†. (Narayan 61) The listed manner in which the plot is unfolded by Narayan’s re-telling is barely more narrative as a piece of literature than an excerpt from that of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia: Bharatha refuses to profit from his mothers wicked scheming and visits Rama in the forest. He requests Rama to return and rule. But Rama, determined to carry out his fathers orders to the letter, refuses to return before the period of exile. However, Bharatha carries Ramas sandals, and keeps them on the throne, while he rules as Ramas regent. (Wikipedia Contributors) There is very little more efficiency or flair in Narayan’s telling, and in fact, Wikipedia depicts the stages of the long tale with better clarity; if the prose is not going to be linguistically lush and evocative, it may as well be clear (Wikipedia is not only clear, but free of charge as well). It is of course not a simple task to undertake translating an epic poem from a rhythmic language, into prose with a language devoid of the same musicality. However, to the novice reader of The Ramayana, they would not know the difficulty of the task, and thus—however harsh it may seem— should not be a factor in the reviewing of the story as it stands alone. Narayan was by no means an incapable writer, and as winner of numerous awards and accolades—not the least of which being multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature (Rajnish Wattas), he does not need defending that he has great ability as a writer, yet the bottom line remain that when it is stripped of further discussion, research, and introductions, The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic just does not stand on it’s own as captivating modern prose. With nearly each new episode of the tale, Narayan prefaces the action with even more listed information, take for example the introduction to the chapter of Vali: The characters in the drama that follows are Vali, Sugreeva, Hanuman, and Rama. The action takes place in the mountainous forest regions of Kiskinda, a kingdom ruled and inhabited by monkeys. In the Ramayana, the articipants are not only human beings, but many others from God’s creation, intelligent, cultured and with their own achievements of spirit as well as physique: Jambavan was a bear, Jatayu was an eagle, Lakshmana—Rama’s brother—was himself a human incarnation of the Great Serpent Adisesha in whose coils Vishnu rested. (Narayan 90) Again, the story is told by listing statements of what is going on. As with the landscape, and even the characters themselves, nothing is depicted in the story-writing of the prose, but stated, as if the entire epic was a news article being reported by Narayan, as opposed to a vivid history with grand escapades and extreme characters. By translating an epic tale from poetic verse into shortened modern prose, the objective is ultimately to enable a broader audience to relate to and appreciate a classic tale. Poetry is a secluded literary world that does not have the mass appeal that modern prose does; yet Narayan’s re-telling is too constrained and overwhelmed by the amount of story condensed into it. By trying to constrain the length of the story to allow for more readers to get through it, Narayan’s ‘master narrative flair’ seems lost, and the epic tale is a heavy list of events that merely occur on the page.

Dr Pepper Essay Example for Free

Dr Pepper Essay I. Factual Summary: Dr. Pepper is the main contender in the non-alcoholic beverage industry. Their wide range of products is the key to their continued success; by giving consumers variety. Dr. Pepper also remains profitable by maintaining a strong brand images and relationship with its consumers. Their main customers are large retails stores like Wal-Mart and Target; as well as convenient stores. II. Problem/ Opportunity: Dr. Pepper has the opportunity to branch out in the sports/energy drink market. The problem is the high level of competition. Red Bull and Monster already possess a great deal of the market and are well-known through branding and advertisement. III. Alternative Solutions: a.) Launch an energy drink and rely on the already existing relationships with vendors and consumers to make a profit. Use creative advertisements and slogans to compete against the competition. b.) Create an entirely new niche of product to stand out above the crowd. The product would need to be focused around the 18-25 age range; since that is where the market is seeing the most sales. Also, it will need to designed to fit into the â€Å"on-the go† lifestyle. c.) Focus on current products; and not venture into the sports drink genre. To avoid a potential loss of profit; Dr. Pepper could forgo launching a new line in an already competitive market. IV. Selection Solution: Dr. Pepper can launch a new drink that is protein filled. New to the shelves this product will attract the athletic consumer as well as those on the go lifestyles that are looking for a healthier drink choice. Dr. Pepper can still charge a higher price than Gatorade, and reach the same target market; since this is an entirely new concept. V. Conclusion The U.S. sports drink market posted total retail sales of $7.5 billion in 2006 and a year-over-year growth rate of about 13%. Dr. Pepper definitely needs to be part of this product category. By sticking out above the crowd with the protein filled drink, Dr. Pepper will not be directly competing against Red Bull or Monster, but will still have a presence in the health conscious market. Dr. Pepper can use in place relationships and strong brand image to its advantage while launching this new drink. It is important to target the right market with this product; which would be the 18 to 25 age range.

Psychological Criticism Of Blue Velvet Film Studies Essay

Psychological Criticism Of Blue Velvet Film Studies Essay Blue Velvet is an American movie which was made back in 1986.These Movie showcased elements of film noir and surrealism. The movies title, featuring Kyle Maclachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hoper and Laura Dern, was picked from the 1963 bobby Vinton song which has the same title. This Movie earned David lynch his second nomination to the academy awards in the category of best director. This paper presents a psychological criticism analysis of the movies as regards its screenplay, plot, direction and general presentation. The screenplay of Blue Velvet had been rejected by many studios in the late 1970s and early 80s due to its explicit sexual and violent content. It is a widely held perception by many modern critics today that Blue Velvet is a representative of modern film noir shot around the same time that similar movies started being shot and shown in local cinemas and this was around the 1980s to the mid 1990s. The film revolves around a college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Maclachlan) who when heading home from hospital where he had visited his father stumbles across a human ear in the field in his home town of Lumberton. His investigation finds great assistance from Sand Williams (who is a high school student) and comes in handy providing Jeffrey with information from his (Sands) father who is a local police officer. Jeffreys investigations led him to the underworld of his home town ad this is followed by falling in love with a singer and uncovering criminals. Blue Velvets operates on a number of thematical levels in spite its initial appearance as a mystery movie, it owe its specialism to 1950s film noir, encompassing and venturing into such conventions as femme fatele, seemingly unstoppable villain and questionable moral outlook of the hero and off course its unusual inclusion of shadowy cinematography. In this insight therefore, it is important that we review Jeffrey Beaumont (Maclachlan). He is the main character and he is portrayed to have a number of qualities. He is portrayed by the narrator as a very inquisitive person considering that he found an ear in the fields the as from there he begins to investigate the case without even a second thought. The character Jeffery is also portrayed as a character that doesnt have a high sexuality. This is proven when Dorothy makes sexual advancements towards him but he easily declines them. Dorothy is another character but this one uses sex as her comfort which sets precedence for the critical objection of the movie. This can be proven by the scene where Frank both abuses her sexually and after he is gone she wants sex from Jeffery. This fact can also be proven since she enjoys showing off her body in the club where she works and also after she tries to seduce Jeffrey and he hits her , she is turned on instead of being furious (Chion 85). Its amazing how the character of Jeffrey moves from not even thinking of sexual matter to having a sexual relationship Jeffrey as a character portrays the image of a curious citizen who has the aim of becoming a hero and saving the day. This is supported by his determination in solving the case on the ear and finally he emerges as a hero as he saves Dorothy. Another criticism for the movies regards the central theme of the movie depicted in it of apparent perversity. Blue Velvet speaks for liberalization and represents some of modern concepts which have since become its trade mark such as distorted character sexuality and a polarized world. The part of sexuality may come in due t an experience Lynch had as a kid where he and his brother stumbled across a woman walking naked and this adventure scared him to much that he even cried. That scenario may have traumatized Lynch too and this is shown where he expresses it as a trade mark in all his movies. Probably one of the most outstanding Lynchian trademark in this great movie is the depiction where there is unearthing of a dark underbelly in an apparently small idealized town (Chion 121). Blue Velvet inaugurates a metaphorical oedipal family that constitutes of the child Jeffrey Beaumont and frank and Dorothy through intentional citation of film noir and its underlying oedipal themes. The resulting violence can be deduced to portray domestic violence in our day to day life. Franks violence towards Dorothy stands in place for the many family abuses going on in the world. The control Frank has over Dorothy portrays mostly husbands violence against their wives and families in general in real life. Jeffrey may be used to portray the innocent youth who are scared by the violence in their streets and homes but still want to stand up and have whatever they want to themselves. Jefferys relationship with Dorothy may also be used to portray the way many married women are seeking love outside their homesteads. Taking a Freudian approach, Blue Velvet is considered to be an expression of a traumatized innocence which is the basis of Lynchs works. Dorothy represents the sexual moth er figure because she is confined to sexual activities only. Jeffrey portrays the aspect of a concerned citizen or a man in love and is ready to protect. Frank represents a few numbers of people who oppress others in the society. If this movie were to be shot today I would strongly advice David lynch to leave it just the way it is. In this regard therefore and in a word, Blue Velvet was and is still one of the greatest movies of all time. Works site. Chion, Michael. British Film Institute: Blue Velvet A Two-Part Search for the Films Deleted Scenes. New York, NY: London Press, 2007.

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El Salvador (The republic of The Savior) is known to be the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. San Salvador has been announced as the Capital City. It is considered to an important cultural and commercial center for the whole Central America. It borders with Guatemala, Honduras, The Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Fonseca. It’s the only country in this region not on the Caribbean Sea. El Salvador has a large presence of mountains and is also known as the Land of Volcanoes. Hence, most part of it is on a fertile volcanic plateau about 2,000 ft (607 m) high. 5,744,113 people composed predominantly of Mestizos. Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America to mean a person of combined European and Amerindian descent. Other include 12% white, 1% Indigenous. The colon was the official currency of El Salvador from 1892 to 2001, when it adopted the U.S. Dollar. Based on the research carried out in 2010, El Salvador ranked 12th among the Latin American countries in the category of Human Development Index and fourth in Central America and is increasing rapidly when it comes to the industrial sector. Government: †¢ President – Maruicio Funes †¢ Vice president – Salvador Ceren †¢ Speaker Of the Assembly – Sigfrido Morales †¢ Supreme Court President – Jose Balermino Jaime Legislature: †¢ Legislative Assembly - A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. Area: †¢ Total – 21,040 Sq Km (153rd in the world) †¢ Water – 1.4% Gross Domestic Product (GDP): †¢ According to an estimate from 2012, the GDP of El Salvador stands at 23.79 billion USD. †¢ Per Capita accordingly is 3,855$‎ Gross National Product (GNP): †¢ According to an estimate from... ...ed a lot of wars and revolutions against other Central American republics. †¢ In 1969, El Salvador went on a war with the Honduras as the Honduran’s were deporting several thousands of Salvadorans. The four day war was later named as the ‘Football War’ as it broke out during a football match between the two countries. †¢ The 12 year Civil War, which was fought between the Military-led government and the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). This War dated from 1979 – 1992. †¢ El Salvador also had its fair share in World War II, War on Terror and the United States Occupation of the Dominican Republic (1965- 66). Independence †¢ El Salvador achieved its independence on September 15th, 1821 from Spain and was recognized by Spain as a separate nation in 1865. Whereas, recognition from the Greater Republic of Central America was achieved in November 13, 1898.