Infant Toddler Curriculum Essay Example for Free

Infant Toddler Curriculum Essay Developmental domains are one way to describe and think about the different aspects of development in the areas of: motional; physical, social, cognitive; and language skills of young children. And while we use the domains as a way to organize our thinking and observations of children, in reality all domains are function together simultaneously, especially in the first three years of life. This holistic development is separated into the developmental domains for the purpose of observation, study, developmental assessment, and planning (Blackboard, 2013). Therefore, it is important to understand how the developmental domains relate to the three themes of infant development; in order to provide DAP care and activities for children in each stage of arly childhood development. For instance, an understanding of the young infant stage, babies develop a sense of security from their caregivers. It is this sense of security, that allows the baby to build an urge to explore, later motivating them to take risks and advance their current knowledge of their environment. This may require removing all sharp objects from the area and covering electrical outlets and ensuring. However, prepping the room for child safety is not the only concern. It is imperative to play close attention, and respond to the needs of young infants. Nery oung children need adults who listen, smile, and talk with them or babble when they babble; watch for when they need quiet and solitude; and notice and communicate pleasure over such newfound skills as creeping, climbing, holding, dropping, or adding new sounds and words (Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert, 2008, pg. 61). An understanding of the mobile stage of development will make one aware of the safety precautions needed to allow mobile toddlers to explore the environment. Mobile infants often explore by mouthing and must be protected from small parts and fragile toys. In addition a rich learning environment for mobile nfants should include safe structures to climb and explore. Moving around is essential to learning; it gives babies different perspective and vantage points, which they need in order to move from an entirely egocentric view of space toward a more sophisticated sense ot relationship between selt, space, and other people (Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert, 2008, pg. 53). An understanding of the toddler stage of development enables caring adults to guide and assist young childrens emotional development. The first two years of a persons life can set the foundation for the way hey create relationships, view others, and understand emotions and how to control them. A toddlers sense of self, of I and me, emerge in a group environment and a culture which private property and the acquisition of things are somewhat scared. This makes the learnin g of related concepts like mine particularly challenging (Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert, 2008, pg. 9). Toddlers learn about who they are in the world through relationships and experiences with adults who care for them. They learn to trust that their needs will be met, or that they will not. The motional domain includes the infants perception of herself and of herself in relation to others. (Blackboard, 2013). The most important thing a caregiver can do to help a toddlers emotional development is to create a safe and loving environment for the toddler to learn in. Caregivers should understand that each toddler is different and has different needs. Attending to each individual child in a well-organized and inviting learning environment is essential during his stage early childhood development. Infant Toddler Curriculum Because of the specific needs of infants and toddlers the term curriculum is during he early stages of development is complex. To summarize all of the ideas of curriculum, as defined by leaders in the field (Gonzalez-Mena, Eyer, Dodge, Greenman, Stonehouse, Schwikert, Swim, and Watson), you must think about curriculum as an organized framework. To make curriculum DAP for infant and toddlers, it must be based on sound and relevant knowledge such as infant/ toddler development and research; so that it guides early care professional practices in providing purposeful and responsive learning opportunities for each child through daily routines and experiences (Blackboard, 2013) Infant and toddler curriculum plans focus on how to best create a social, emotional, and intellectual climate that supports child-initiated and child-pursued learning. The interests of the child and the belief that each child has a curriculum are what drive practice (Blackboard, 2013). It is understood that very young children need to play a significant role in selecting their learning experiences, materials, and content. Curriculum plans, therefore, do not focus on games, tasks, or activities, but on how to best create a social, emotional, and intellectual climate that supports child-initiated and child- ursued learning and the building and sustaining of positive relationships among adults and children. Responsive curriculum planning focuses on finding strategies to help infant-toddler teachers search for, support, and keep alive childrens internal motivation to learn, and their spontaneous explorations of people and things of interest and importance to them (Blackboard, 2013). This should begin with study of the specific children in care. Detailed records of each childs interests and skills are kept to give guidance to the adults for the roles t hey will take in each childs learning Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert, 2008, pg. 30). It should also be realized from the start that plans should not be static. Adaptation and change are critical parts of the learning process and should be anticipated. Once an interaction with a child or small cluster of children begins, the teacher has to be ready to adapt his or ner plans and actions so they work tor all children, no matter what kind ot physical , mental or emotional challenges individual bring to the program (Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert, 2008, pg. 30). Another essential component of planning s attention to a responsive learning environment and specific attention to how environments should be changed. The planning of learning environments is more important to infant-toddler development than specific lessons or specific activities. The environment must be seen as part of the curriculum, creating interest and encouraging and supporting exploration (Blackboard, 2013). Research has shown that much of how infants and toddlers learn best comes not from specific adult- directed lessons but from teachers knowing how to maximize opportunities for each child to use natural learning inclinations. The philosophy of routine care as learning opportunities for infants and toddlers is based on the premise that, Relationships develop through all kinds of interactions, but especially during ones that happen while adults are carrying out those essential activities of daily living sometimes called caregiving routines (Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert, 2008, pg. 5), such as: feeding, diapering; toilet training/learning; washing; bathing and grooming; dressing; napping. For caregiving routines to become curriculum, they cant be done mechanically.

The Social Shaping Of Technology Sociology Essay

The Social Shaping Of Technology Sociology Essay The import of social and technological interaction has been a subject of controversies over the year with two sides having different view of it. Technological determinists believe that technology determines the trend in social changes and history (Chandler, 2000). But the view of Social constructivists is different in the sense that they believe the social norms dictate technology both in design and usage (Trevor, 2010). This paper will try to look into each believe using a personal experience with time technology in relation to user role. Section 2.0 will shed light into believes of technological determinist using media Technology Determinism and Techno-evolution while section 3.0 will dwell on the Social shaping of technology using the Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Social Construction of technology theory (SCOT). Also, section 4.0 will explain what methodology that was used in accessing both theories while section 5.0 will show the findings in relation to both theories. The last s ection, section 6.0 will draw conclusion on what this paper believed in respect of the two theories. 2.0 Technological Determinism The term Technological determinism was first used by an American called Thorstein Veblen in 1920s who believed that technology determines social change (Chandler, 2000). Technological determinism tends to believe that society is shaped by it most dominant technological innovation. Theories associated to Technological determinisms are Media technological determinism, Technological primacy, Technological imperative, Universalism and Techno-evolutionism (Chandler, 2000). This idea is based in two forms which are soft and hard determinism. The soft claims that technology determines social change but not absolute while the hard determinism claims that the force of technology is so big that it is autonomous (Joseph, 2004). Both ideas are based on cause which is technology and effect which is impact of it on the social norm. Also, this view tends to explain technology in linear developmental stages without taking into consideration other adjoining factors. Technological determinist views social change as a dependant of technology. For example many determinists believe that communication technology determines the direction in which the society behaviour moves towards. Marshall McLuhan (1976) believed media deprive people of their private identity. He further describes this when he was criticizing that the media has negatively affected the life of people worldwide. He gave an example of a research conducted in Germany and UK where some people were paid not to watch television for some time. He said the result the agency discovered was reduction in drug addicted people. Techno-evolutionism believes most world history is named after technological innovation. Examples of this are Machine age, age of automation, atomic age, industrial revolution, space age, communication age and so on (Chandler, 2000). This idea tends to focus on technological progress from generation to generation by the western world. Masse Bloomfield (1995) in his book Automated Society predicted that in the near future everybody will have what they want without physical effort. This he said would have serious impact on mans social system. Also Jeremy Rifkin (1995) in his book End of Work reiterated that men will be substituted by machine. All this ideas are based on human over reliance in getting everything done with technology without thinking of the consequence it will have on them. 3.0 Social Shaping of Technology The social constructivists believe that it is the society that shape technology. This theory based its own idea on different concept like the Empirical Programme of Relativism (EPOR), Actor Network Theory (ANT), Social Construction of technology (SCOT), Gender Studies (Consumption Junction) and many others. Also Social Constructivists believe users of technology determine the design and usability of it (Trevor, 2010). This paper will explain what is meant by two of the aforementioned concepts which are ANT and SCOT with examples. ANT is a concept derived by Latour and Calon and it sees technology as a kind of battle between the users and the Script embedded in technology (Trevor, 2010). The theory deals with technology inform of network of actors on it (Trevor, 2010). He further describes it as a kind of program that is done on the assumption of user behaviour but users overcome this by anti-program (Trevor, 2010). An example of this is sit belt where the programm is if it is not worn then beep but user group not convenient with it i.e. Pregnant woman will fight this back by selling a dummy to the program (Anti-program) thereby plugging the sit belt in its socket to stop the beep (Trevor, 2010). This way the user is controlling the technology. SCOT on the other part is an approach developed by both Trevor Pinch and Wiebe Bijker. It based its approach to research on Relevant Social Group, Interpretative Flexibility, Closure, influence of wider culture, Technological frame work and users as agents of technological change (Trevor, 2010). Bijeker (1997) argues using the evolution of Velocifere to Safety bicycle based on different user activity, that social group can change technology. Also Trevor (2010) argues that technology can be used for another purpose that is different from its original function. He gave an example of a car lifted up to power a washing machine. In another research work on Moog Synthesizer Trevor (2010) was able to proof that even invention is collaboration between inventor and the anticipated user. Social constructivist ideas points to Users as determinant of technology 4.0 Methodology The methodology used is based on Relevant Social Group approach by checking on users of time machine. The users include both male and female students in my class and watching of passerby students to see how they check time or whether they even have wrist watch at all. I also ask some questions from female students like what says your time to notice how it is been checked. Also the technological effect on landscape is also considered using the site sightseeing observation along Clyde River and industrial evolution society using the visit to New Lanark. The justification behind using the above approach is that it allows the researcher to use and relation with the current technology and society to bring out comparative analysis on the issue. Also the opinion will be neutral since deduction is from a different user without inclination into any of the theory of technology and society relationship. 5.0 Findings and implications In getting the real life picture of the two argument, this section will try to analyze its finding using the analysis gotten from the sight seen along Clyde bank, visit to New Lanark and engagement with the time technology. History will play a major tool of analysis in illustrating the aforementioned. 5.01 River Clyde Working along the Clyde River one will see a vivid notification of a once booming economic area of Scotland with traces of ship oil still floating on the river. The area has now been converted to recreational center due to the effect of world war two. In order to get the feel of this change this paper will start with a brief history of the River Clyde. Years ago river Clyde is an haven for port activities with ship engineers locating their presence due to ship activities going on in the area. Technology play role in transforming the port to a trade hub. This was done by development of technology on steam engine and dredging of river clyde to open avenue for large ship. The dredging allowed large vessel to sail into Broomielaw instead of stopping at port outside the city (Clyde water front heritage). However, this activity was affected after the Second World War due to intense bombing of the Clyde side. Based on the shift towards tourism the Clyde river area has been turned to a relaxation area with side attractions like the Titan crane, BBC Scotland, Digital media quarter etc. All this shows how technology can transform the landscape of a place which in turn changes the social way of doing things. Conversely, the changes are based on process in terms of the need by people. For example the idea behind the change is due to the need for improvement on sugar and tobacco trading by the people while technology also by dredging and construction of bridge change the landscape and ways of doing things. 5.0.2 Visit to New Lanark The New Lanark visit shows how the industrial revolution age (Technological Determinist way of depicting era) changes the non active environment to a busy one. This transforms the landscape and increase social presence in the area. History of New Lanark started with David Dale and his partner (Inventor), Richard Arkwright coming to the area. Both agreed in inventing in the area due to the availability of water fall to provide power for the proposed cotton mill. The idea is based on the feasibility of cotton production during the industrial revolution. Population of increased to 2,500 by the time the cotton industry started in 1786 (New Lanark Trust). Also the way the people uses power changed with the advent of transistor radio and pressing iron with villagers tapping power (ANT idea of Anti-programming). Although the power was supplied free to villager but it was later changed when the villagers were connected to the National grid due to increase in usage (Undiscovered Scotland). The clock tells the time to wake up and get prepared for work and also when the power is to be switched off and on. The whole story changed when the activities at the mill reduced and market declined. The population of villagers also decline with people moving out of New Lanark. New Lanark has now been rebuilt as a tourist center with influx of more than 50,000 tourists visiting the village per annum. The above history also shows the relationship between technology and society. Some of the workshop visit really shows how technology controls workers. An example of this is the spinning machine which moves up and down at the same workers move to work in resonance with the machine. The noise of the machine is also there, although workers may not like it but due to the power of their employer and their own aim of earning their sustenance they have no option. The emigration of people from New Lanark also shows how technology can change society. 5.0.3 Engagement with time technology Engagement with time technology through history of time measurement, and the struggle of getting accurate time in human endeavour shed more light into relationship between technology and society. Time measurement is one of fundamental to human existence. Barbara (2006) argues that our relation with time makes us human. This shows how important measuring of accurate time is important to human existence. This section will try to relate events with time and show how various usage has integrate technology as part of our ecosystem. The history of time dated back to our existence with needs for time as sensational night and day. Need to know time of birth and death also highlights an important phase in the history of time. Thompson (1967, p.58) stated that Cross River natives were reported as saying the man died in less than the time in which maize is not yet completely roasted (Cross River is a state in Nigeria) . It is noted in history of time that most nations in one way or the other use different means of measuring time. Most especially, they seems to concentrate more on use of celestial bodies like the sun, moon and different planet to measure months, season and years. Because of the variation in night and day, necessity to divide the day into hours emerged. This was solved by a mathematician Hipparchus using his shadow to do theoretical math, he proposed 24 hours (Anon, 2011). At the same time the Greek has invented the mechanical water clock to measure time. This was the era of mechanical transformation from Natural mode of measurement. Suddenly knowing the hour of the day prompted research by the Greeks into minutes by measuring the angle the sun in different city at the same hour and comparing data (Anon, 2011). This enables them to reason not only shape of the earth but the size of it as well (Anon, 2011). After solving the hour, finding time in different part of the world brings about the next problem of solving the mystery behind time. The scientists then were able to mark the latitude but longitude was a different ball game. In order to be able to measure accurate longitude you need to know the precise amount of time you wonder east or west and getting it was problematic (Anon, 2011). Problems that initiated research into longitude is the frequent lost of direction by ship on sea which most lead to it been perished (Anon, 2011). This prompted the British parliament in 1700 to offer cash reward to whoever can solve the problem (Anon, 2011). The problem was solved in 1730 by an English man named John Harrison who made the world first wine up clock power by spring (Anon, 2011). The emergence of information age led to crave for most accurate time. Other instances that led to request for better time includes the temperature problem of the old watch, time dilation effect, need for greasing of the mechanical watches, measurement of data throughput, time measurement in space etc. the first that emerged was quartz which has the ability to measure time accurately at 1 second error in 270 years (Anon, 2011). The second entrant was Atomic clock which so far is the most accurate in term of measuring time. The fuel-like component in the Atomic clock can either be Cesium or Hydrogen maser (Vickie, 2012). An example of atomic watch usage is the General Position System (GPS) where concurrently three different satellites communicate with one another using their time to synchronize one another. The time must be very accurate to transform the position of an object using it. Now it is very hard to see user like in the olden days using landmark to locate addresses, they rathe r use Google map or its equivalent to find their way around cities. Also my diary on usage of time machine shows that we use each machine in response to network effect of a dominant technology. The network effect theory talks about advantages user of technology gain from many network users of the same technology (Michael and Carl, 1985). Most people use wrist watch for show of status recently, while others like ladies uses it as ornament. For example, in my class we have six girls only two wears wrist watch consistently and when I ask for time from them they checked their phone not the wrist watch. I also ask the remaining girls they said why bordered when they are with their phone almost everywhere. The eight men in my class donà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢t wear wrist watch for the same reason but they accepted to wear it when going for party. Further engagement with this led me to watch most of the student passing by to see whether they wear wrist watch but discovered that most men are not wearing it but some ladies wear it. I also notice tha t most of the student are always looking down with their hand on their smart phones smiling intermittently and looking up slightly so as not to bump on other road users. Furthermore, some students have their hand in their side pocket with ear phone in their ear but this time they look up. This shows the extent to what extent technology can change the way we socialize. My view on this is that most people use their phone to check their time since they prefer to have every need in one place. They can use the phone to call, receive call, play mp3, chart, set alarm, check time, find their way etc. The usage depends on the user group view on what they want from the technology irrespective of the original function or design. 5.0.4 Implications The implication of allowing technology to do what is meant for human instead of enhancing how human do things will have negative impaction on the society. This was explained by Butler (1872) when he stated that Reflect upon the extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few hundred years, and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are advancing. This means that technology development while helping the manufacturers of it to generate more revenue reduces human professionalism and at the same time have effect on the environment in terms of environmental pollution. One wonders what will happen if technological machine like time stopped working without having any alternatives like natural way of calculating time. Virtually everything stops when time stops. So this kind of important necessity should not be left in the hand of technology. In manufacturing technology there is need for consideration to be taken into its effect on the society and how such change can be managed. Also, some technologies destroy the ones they met in market thereby making other users to be out of the system. Schumpeter explained this as destructive innovation (Tim, 2010, p.). Apart from user loosing the out-of-market technology, user might also have challenge in knowing how to use the new technology. 6.0 Conclusion In conclusion, drawing from the above sections, it can be deduced that flows go both ways with technology having impact on social change and society have impact on technology irrespective of the idea behind Technological determinism and Social Constructivism. Both depend on each other but measure should be taken in reducing the excess of technological innovation to conform to the social safety of the society. Managers of technology in organization need to take technology as a supplement to human effort not has a supplement to the human itself. Also involvement of the frontline staff in technological implementation is paramount to management of change.

Types of motivation

Types of motivation Five Types of Motivation: Have you ever wondered what drives you, to want to become a better person? That feeling you get when you want to accomplish something that seems out of reach, that feeling that makes you do dumb things that you know you should not do, but do it anyway so a certain someone would like you better. That feeling that made you want to work harder in class to get that gold star up by your name, or that fear of being punished if you did not work harder. Well each one of those feelings is a different type of motivation. What is motivation? â€Å"Motivation is internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested in and committed to a job, role, or subject, and to exert persistent effort in attaining a goal. Motivation is the energizer of behavior and mother of all action. It results from the interactions among conscious and unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need, (2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expect ations of the individual and of his or her significant others. (BusinessDictionary.com, 2009) There is many different types of motivation but the five main ones that I will cover in this paper are Achievement motivation, Socialization motivation, Incentive motivation, Fear motivation, and Change motivation. Achievement motivation is the motivation that a person gets when they want to attain a goal. It is that drive that makes you do what needs to be done to reach that goal no matter what the cost. This form of motivation can be related to a track and field athlete. That sprinter knows that his competitor is a few seconds faster than he is. So that athlete is going to feel that drive to practice harder and longer to become that few seconds faster to win. If there is a goal that needs to be reached Achievement motivation is most likely to be used. Most individuals with high Achievement motivation have distinctive characteristics witch separate them from their peers. First they like to put themselves in situations where they can take a personal responsibility for their finding solutions to problems. This gives them a personal satisfaction for their achievements. A second characteristic of Achievement motivation people is that they like to set moderately high goals. This will give that person more personal satisfaction for reaching them goals. Another distinctive characteristic of high achievers is that they love to get feedback on their performance. Socialization motivation is the motivation that drives people to act or do certain things to fit in. The dictionary definition of Social motivation is â€Å"An incentive or drive resulting from a sociocultural influence that initiates behavior toward a particular goal.† (Mosbys Medical Dictionary, 2009) This motivation is most evident when there is a lot of peer pressure. Some people use this motivation to gain feeling of acceptance or being equal to their peer group. Some examples of socialization motivation could be that young kid being passed that first drink, being told that he is not cool if he doesnt drink it. Incentive motivation is influenced by beliefs, that if they accomplish the task they will receive a reward. Incentive motivation is closely linked to achievement motivation. The only difference is that with incentive motivation, your drive is to attain that reward after you reached that goal. Whereas achievement, is more focused on just attaining the goal itself. Fear motivation is mostly used when incentives do not work. This motivation is the drive to do things because the fear of punishment or failure. Fear motivation is the fastest acting tactics to motivate someone to do something. An example of this motivation is the motivation you feel when you see that speed limit sign and want to go a little faster but are scared of that cop that could be up the road waiting for you. Or when someone shoots at you and you become motivated to run a lot faster. Another example of this is test anxiety or fear of failure. Having this fear will get you to study harder or concentrate little better to succeed. â€Å"Most of this research fails to distinguish among the components of test anxiety or to recognize it as only the negative side of motivation, that is, only half the story of the performance in evaluative situations. The positive side of motivation (e.g., need for achievement) is also aroused in evaluative situations and makes a contribution. (Har old F. Oneil, 1994) Fear motivation always points out consequences you will receive if you dont do or accomplish certain tasks. Change motivation is the push you feel when you want to bring change in your life or surroundings. Its that motivation you feel to get out in your front yard to cut that grass because you are sick of seeing it long every day. Its the motivation you get after you become tired of how things are and seek ways to improve it and make it better. These five theories of motivation are just a few types that drive you to be the person you have become today, and that will push you to become a better person and make you want to improve yourself every day. Now knowing each one of these five types of motivation, you know what gets you through each day. References BusinessDictionary.com. (2009). BusinessDictionary.com. Retrieved 11 19, 2009, from BusinessDictionary.com: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/motivation.html Harold F. Oneil, M. D. (1994). Motivation : theory and research. Hilsdale, New Jersey : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Mosbys Medical Dictionary. (2009). The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 11 25, 2009, from The Free Dictionary: social motivation

Arab Women and Their Spouses Essay -- Marriage Middle Eastern Culture

Arab Women and Their Spouses In many societies, the relationships between people differ and in some ways are all alike. None so obscure as the relationship between man and woman. It is especially intriguing to witness the compatibility of both especially in marriage. Using the three novels Pillars of Salt, by Fadia Faqir, A Woman of Five Seasons, by Leila Al-Atrash, and A Balcony over the Fakihani, by Liyana Badr one might begin to analyze the different relationships between men and women in Arab culture. While any relationship is uniquely different, these novels will aid in getting a better idea about Arab women and their husbands. The stories begin with the novel Pillars of Salt where Maha and Um Saad are roommates in a mental hospital. Born a Bedouin woman by the Red Sea, in Jordan, Maha was a young woman living with her father and callous brother, when she became familiar with Harb, another man of their tribe. One night, while Maha was telling a particular story to Harb, he dismissed the subject and asked if she could meet with him that night. To Maha?s astonishment she replied, "Are you mad? For a girl to be out at night is a crime of honor. They will shoot me between the eyes" (p10). This secret meeting would be forbidden by the tribe because a woman?s virginity was held sacred and if it were taken away there would be little to no chance of marriage or respect, as it was for Maha?s friend Nasra, who was raped by Maha?s brother. Later on, a wedding proposal occurred when the dignitaries of the tribe came and asked Maha?s father for the hand of Maha, in the name of Harb. After slight hesitation by Maha?s father, because he was giving away his only daughter, the deal was sealed and Harb gave five camels to his fut... ... answer is living without this respect. Unfortunately, Um Saad exemplifies this characteristic and therefore becomes insane. More commonly, the end appears with the unexpected death of the husband. Each dying in some sort of battle, Maha?s, Yusra?s, and Su?ad?s husbands were all kind men, who respected their wives and never hurt them irreverently. It is with this that the say goes "good men die young". While that has nothing to do with Arab culture specifically, it does seem to be a continuing theme in these novels, by Arab women. Where war and detachment in their world lead them on an emotional rollercoaster ride, these women are forced to form attachments with others, who are most likely their husbands. These relationships are all individual, and therefore not always the case, but very clearly point out logical and possible situations in Arab culture marriages.

The Character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter Essay -- Papers N

The Character of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne, a character within The Scarlet Letter, is a prime example of Hawthorne's common transformation of individuals within his books. These mutations involve the qualities and attributes of her physical appearance, feminine emotions, and reputation among the townspeople. Throughout the novel, the mentioned elements of Hester's character develop and change several times, providing the reader with better understanding of the influence that the scarlet letter and other characters have on her. In the beginning of the novel, the reader is presented with a physical appearance of Hester that is pleasing to the visual eye. It is Hawthorne describes his heroine of the book by writing that "She had dark and abundant hair†¦face†¦beautiful†¦features and richness of complexion†¦deep black eyes" (51). Over time, these attributes faded and the "attractiveness of her person had undergone†¦change†¦sad transformation†¦luxuriant hair†¦cut off†¦hidden†¦some attribute had departed from her, the permanence of which had been essential to keep her ...

My Writing is My Voice :: Teaching Writing Education Essays

My Writing is My Voice For the longest time, I really did not know who I was. Not that I was confused about who I saw in the mirror, but I had know idea why I thought the way I did about things. Science had always interested me. Animals have such a unique character created out of the need for survival. They are not influenced by outside pressures to conform. I made the decision to study them for the rest of my life. But I really did not know what separated me, as a human, from my cat. The school systems and church tried to give me explanations. They encompassed the fact that I think logically, have problem solving skills, emotions, and make decisions based on these emotions. Animals did not have these abilities and this separated them form us. But the education started to contradict itself. After being exposed to a vast majority of animals, I saw abilities that humans cannot posses. Some can fly, breath underwater, and exist in climates where humans cannot without artificial devices. Humans cannot survive winters without clothes or travel the oceans without boats. The system was lying to me. Animals could adapt and think quite well. We were not better, just different. This made me lose faith in the system and I began to take up independent thought. Because I thought I should be a truly independent thinker, I believed that everything I knew was a product of my own discovery. Within my own mind, everything was the way it was because I thought it. The rest of the information in my head was only a bunch of stuff set up by society for me to learn. When I left my small town of Big Lake after graduation, I was in search of a higher education. Where? A university of course! I rushed into the world of undergraduates with hopes and dreams of someday being able to explain a reason for everything. But I did not want to do it in the same fashion the system was requiring it. They made the rules and I was supposed to follow them. I did not like what they had to say. I questioned most everything. There were disciplines though that I did not question. Physics, biology, and chemistry existed long before humans. I have already seen them in nature. Nature itself was proof enough to believe in their validity.

Mechanical man: John Broadus Watson and the beginnings of behaviorism Essay

All through history, education and philosophy have come out as ever-evolving pieces of disciplines that are not only interlinked, but also drivers of each other. This is because; education involves the process of passing down information from one informant to another person who will receive it. The way the knowledge or piece of information by the recipient or learner and the informant or teacher, forms the underlying features of the process of education and its overall effect on the society. In addition, there is evidence of numerous factions of educational disciplines that exist in the field and each requires a particular way or method of doing things. Natural sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and many other areas of educational learning that split from the mainstream disciplines as well as those that are discovered on a day to day basis in the continued development of ways to not only make education much easier, but also make the underlying mental and behav ioral aspects. On the other hand, without philosophy, it is arguably deducible that education and learning would not be in existences today. Practically, education and learning is one of the most important aspects of human life whose absence is an imaginable. Apparently, it is the historical and the proceeding developments and transformations of the philosophical concepts that shape the kind of processes, developments as well as outcomes involved in education. The link between education, theories and philosophies It is in this light that the study of the concepts of structuralism, constructivism, functionalism and the modern behaviorism and cognitivism leads to the understanding that these philosophical as well as empirical studies on educational and learning concepts brings about the result that there has been a progressive development and logical sequence of events in the philosophies which in turn end up bringing about a difference in the understanding of the elements of learning in educations. As such, this paper seeks to look deep into the basic definitions, concepts and effects of the cognitivism, behaviorism and constructivism. The process of this in-depth analysis is based on the basic players involved and the experiments that have been conducted as well as the other ones, which have the potential to prove the association of the elements. From the historical arenas of education processes to the modern conduction of education of various disciplines including aviation, it is possible for a well-crafted idea, full of valid data and logical relations and linking can be presented to bring about the achievement of this objective. In the end, it will be a requirement to join the dots that link these three concepts in such a way that the timeline and concept of use be made evident. With a broad look at each of the issues, the paper seeks to delve into the development and thus, delve into the proof that all these philosophies come about as a way of filling a loophole found in a nother or as a complimentary form of mitigation (Buckley, 1989). Behaviorism Prior to delving into the aspect of behaviorism, it is important to get in touch with the events and concepts that were developed way before this concept and how they have had an influence on the speed as well as the stepping stones for the procession to the eventual use of behaviorism as a way of discerning what happens and goes on in the learning and development process in education. The concepts of structuralism and functionalism have come out as being the key movers and shakers in this process (Kitchener & O’Donohue, 1999). For instance, the schools of thought bring out issues that are different but complimentary to each other such that one phenomenon in one is explained or illustrated by a concept in another. Structuralism is based on the basic nature of all that is in existence and how the basic and smallest particles of material such as atoms act in order to create a particular effect. In psychology therefore, this concept is used as a way of finding and understanding t he internal processes of the mind as a way of knowing the human mental processes from the structural point of view. Functionalism, on the other hand, is a concept that seeks to come out with the principles of understanding the functional aspect of consciousness away from the structural perspective (Watson, 2008). It is from the foundations of the philosophers of the past who came up with experiments and concepts of structuralism and functionalism that the thinking process of creating behaviorism concepts. Having been first brought forth by the John Watson in the early 1900s, a plethora of written materials supported the idea that the study of behavior with a concentration on the extents to which the processes of actions and reaction come about are can be used to understand such concepts as those that influence human behavior (Kitchener & O’Donohue, 1999). Basically, this concept has its key focus on the two-way understanding of the multifaceted relation between a stimulus and a response to it. It is the endeavor of a good psychologist to understand how a stimulus, which is a specific action, event, or sensation that an organism is subjected to, the response on the individual. On the other hand, for the reaction or response of the subject, it should be possible to understand type, or be tter still, the specific stimulus that is responsible for the response (Buckley, 1989). As a consequence of this, other affiliates and sub-branches of the conditioning and classical conditioning have come up as a result of myriads of empirical experiments. Thus, as Watson puts it, in a particular environments, well placed conditioned training as well as the little regard to phylogeny or potential, any individual organism is capable of becoming what they are expected, trained or conditioned to be (Watson, 2008). Cognitionism Whereas the concepts and principles of behaviorism have been used for a long time to come up with an understanding of the underlying and deep-seated issues in learning processes, there was need to understand the process of learning with the point of view that emanates from the study of the thought process, information processing and manipulation as well as the effects on learning. As such, from the early times of scientific and philosophical propositions, it is noted that the search of the understanding of the learning process is spotted with a spectra of footprints of scientists and scholars (Jahnke & Nowaczyk, 1998). Though they use a mixture of various earlier concepts, Charles Darwin’s evolution theory states that from the onset of existence of life, organisms have gone through changes within and without their species in a bid to participate equivalently in the competitive world of the survival for the fittest as well as Dewey’s spiritual approach tend to agree on o ne thing; that organisms and human beings undergo gradual development and depending on the environment, there are possible modifications that come about in order for the organism to better live in their environments. It is for this reason that all eyes then focused into the exploring the key influencer of consciousness and thought as well as the varying effects that come from it (Shettleworth, 2010). Through a number of experiments, it was found that the though process and what affects it, play an important role in determining the learning ability, process and outcomes involved. Apparently, in as much as structuralism and functionalism come close to helping understand the internal process of learning; they are just basic foundations and stepping stones towards the understanding of behavioral, cognitive as well as constructivism. This means that even though Watson puts it across that through behavioral condition in a suitable environment, one can become whatever they are conditioned to be by learning, there are a few variations that can only be explained via the understanding of cognitive processes. Basically, it is a known fact that performance in assessment procedures and tests come out differently for different people. This is because there are a difference in the cognitive aspect of learning that is manifested in the motivation, age and level of intelligence, personality and other traits that influence an individual’s ability to learn. It is also of importance in the understanding of the processes that bring about the differences between the reflective and the impulsive persons as well as turning the stones covering the facts about crystallized and liquid intelligence. One of the most outstanding aspects of cognitivism is the fact that it is related to treatment and not stimuli as in behavioral models. As such, visual effects in learning process, signs, classroom structure, motivation and teaching methods are among the factors to consider when the su bject is under study for the cognitive aspect of learning (Jahnke & Nowaczyk, 1998). Constructivism Notably observed as one of the most dominant forms of education theories that the modern arena of education is based, is presents itself as the latest used form of model by many. Constructivism is defined as the ability of the student or the learner to perceive a new piece of information, store it in the memory and add it to the already existing information in the memory such that the end result is a learning process that is composed of a knowledge based on various building blocks acquired over time. The student, having gone through experiences, read or learnt about the information prior to the current information learnt, is able to add up or relate the piece of information, makes a connection and derives a meaning or conclusion from it. As such, this method is seen as being one that links both the processes of learning involving practical and theory. Through this, it is more possible to the learner than ever before, for the learner to fulfill the main role of education; to make a me aning of life and the thing that surround the human race (Shettleworth, 2010). Application in the aviation industry Logical reasoning and actions that come as a result are of great importance in every working or professional environment. It is important to note that, some more than others, workforce environments require great precision, stability of the mind as well as accuracy of thought in the bid to bring about excellent completion of tasks or assignment. The aviation industry is one of such fields of work, which need great and well-regarded ways of doing things that will come out as evidently efficient and effective. It is for this reason that all involved in this process from their time of training and learning need to be percolated in terms of ability and mental acuity (Reed, 2007). Once this is done, all should be subjected to the widely ranging learning processes that are based on the models mentioned above. Through studying of the learning process with regard to behavior, spatial skills, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, ability to link pieces of information and fix a problem in the shortest time possible, it is possible to come out with fully baked personnel for the field of work. Even though these methods of evaluating learning processes act as complimentary aspects of the others, it is important to note that many situations vary with what they demand from the person in charge. For this reason, subjection of the learning subject to each of them before evaluation of the ability to use all in combination is a vital idea for the potential personnel for the aviation industry. Moreover, it is through these educationally proven processes that one’s abilities, limitations can be determined, and recommendations made as to the kind of departments in which one is able to fit in. Generally, these educational theories and philosophies have logically evolved over time in a bid to bring about advancements in the field of education and learning process (Reed, 2007). References Buckley, K. W. (1989).  Mechanical man: John Broadus Watson and the beginnings of behaviorism. New York: Guilford Press. Jahnke, J. C., & Nowaczyk, R. H. (1998).  Cognition. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice-Hall. O’Donohue, W. T., & Kitchener, R. F. (1999).  Handbook of behaviorism. San Diego, Calif: Academic Press. Reed, S. K. (2007).  Cognition: Theory and applications. Australia: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Shettleworth, S. J. (2010).  Cognition, evolution, and behavior. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Watson, J. B. (2008).  Behaviorism. Tucson, Ariz: West Press.