MANAGING THE HUMAN RESOURCE Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

MANAGING THE HUMAN RESOURCE - Case Study Example However, entrepreneurial skills vary according the core nature of individual entrepreneurs. For example, Nelson Mandela and Bill Gates have different entrepreneurial skills as former more focuses on social entrepreneurial skills and later have entrepreneurial skills in terms for business and innovation business perspective. Many scholars and critics have presented their views and understating in explaining rationale behind the entrepreneurial skills among the people and at the same time, they have also categorized them in their core orientations. John B. Miner has identified four types of entrepreneurs i.e. â€Å"The Personal Achiever†, â€Å"The Supersalesperson†, â€Å"The Real Managers† and â€Å"The Expert Idea Generator† (Miner, 1996, p.4). On the other hand there are other groups of scholars who have their own perspectives in this regard. As per them, some of other types of entrepreneurs are like social entrepreneurs, lifestyle entrepreneurs, wealth creation entrepreneurs etc. However, there are certain common traits which are present in all types of entrepreneurs and these traits are responsible for shaping their entrepreneurial skills. ... The project describes the management styles used by Murdoch in running his corporations. An analysis has also been provided with regard to the leadership styles followed by him to exercise control over his employees. Rupert Murdoch has been responsible for growing the giant mammoth of the media company, News Corporation from a very small; newspaper in Australia. It became one of the largest and the most influential media groups of the world. Murdoch has been able to gain immense power with the rapid expansion of the global media company. His company includes television, cable network programming, filmed entertainment, book publishing, direct broadcasting, magazines and even newspapers in Australia, United States, UK and Europe. Question 1 Entrepreneurial style of Murdoch and its impact on business Corporate entrepreneurship has lately evoked significant interest among the management practitioners and the academicians in the world. It is referred to as entrepreneurship in the establis hed organisations and firms. It includes the set of activities characterized by proactiveness, risk taking and innovation which manifests themselves as acquisitions and mergers, licensing, franchising, research and development, contacting and divestment among other. Explorations of the theme of entrepreneurships have relevance in this regard as it seeks to identify how organisations are able to attain sustainable growth through this entrepreneurship. Analysis of the above issues provides an advantage for the other organisations for charting out a path (Jauhari, 2004, p.1). The project aims to put forward the conceptual framework of entrepreneurship of

The Impacts Of Cartoons On Child Literacy Essay Example for Free

The Impacts Of Cartoons On Child Literacy Essay Child literacy is one of the main priorities of both federal and private organizations around the world.   Literacy among children holistically involved the ability to use language for communication and interaction with other people.   Communication may be in the form of reading and/or writing.   Such capability in every individual is important for daily social living, since language is the prime tool for an understanding between two minds.   Studies have shown that literacy influence an individual’s future, because it plays a major role in an individual’s employment and opportunity for personal and professional development through basic and higher education. Literacy also influences the economic status of a country because citizens better understand the relationships between industry and commercialization.   The health condition of a country has also been observed to be positively correlated with literacy rates because individuals are generally taught of the principles of personal hygiene and healthy living through communication in schools through health and science subjects, and in communities through the use of health-related flyers, leaflets and brochures. Literacy among children is continuously being evaluated among children and in the recent years, cartoons have been identified as a possible tool that may be employed to promote child literacy.   Cartoons have been traditionally considered as a form of entertainment and have long been enjoyed by children.   Cartoons are diagrammatic portrayals of stories or issues that the cartoonist wants to express.   Currently, cartoons are considered as a tool for visual literacy or the learning through vision of actions, objects and symbols (Fransecky and Debes, 1972).   Cartoons serve as a means of communication that involve both language and drawings that were meant to convey a certain message to its readers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The possibility of using cartoons in promoting child literacy is currently being investigated around the world.   Cartoons may possibly serve as an alternative way to educate children because such type of drawings inherently includes some sense of humor, which is essential to a child’s learning and development.   It has been determined that teaching students using an extremely serious attitude generally results in students that are tense and intimidated (Flannery, 1993). Cartoons usually present stories and concepts in a happy tone, unless necessary that certain sections of a cartoon show some melancholy situations, and this setting lightens up and brightens almost any topic or concept that it presented to a student.   More importantly, the inherent feature of humor in cartoons facilitates child literacy by attracting students to have confidence in tackling difficult subjects such as science and math (Ulloth, 2002).   It has been determined that humor itself, presented singly or in combination with drawings such that in found in cartoons, abolishes the gap between the teacher and the student and promotes cooperation between the two parties (Flowers, 2001).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It has been observed that students enjoy learning almost any subject if presented through the use of cartoons (Rule and Auge, 2005).   The enjoyment among students is represented by their enthusiasm during class as well as their persistent inquiries on whether any cartoons strips will be used at any moment during class that day, or whether they would be given any chance to draw their own cartoons on any topic that has been in the outline of that day’s discussion.   Other students are much more active and alert in class when cartoons are frequently employed in the classroom, as evidenced by their coming to class early or even way before the first bell rings.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The use of cartoons in child literacy involves similar mental processes that are employed in creativity and problem-solving (Derks, 1987; O’Quinn and Derks, 1997).   Since humor is a usual component of cartoons, punchlines are a common part of cartoons, even if these were designed for educational purposes.   The combination of humor and problem-solving provides a sense of confidence in a student, wherein a positive reinforcement occurs during the student’s learning process (Berk, 2002). Cartoons are an efficient pedagogical technique that may be used to promote child literacy through increasing the students’ motivation to identify and enjoy humor.   Graphical sketches are effective in teaching students because these improvement memory through visual perception and acuity (Rule, 2003).   Cartoons also enhance a student’s thinking through analogy and also help determine concepts which are generally perceived by students as difficult or incomprehensible.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is also improvement that the perception of cartoons be understood in terms of analysis and self-motivation.   When students are driven to accept a concept based on the positive features they see during the initial presentation of the topic, students are highly motivated to understand, learn and remember the concept.   Cartoons provide a method of presenting a concept to a student in such an attractive way that only a negligible fraction of the student population would negatively react to the use of cartoons for teaching in the classroom.   Cartoons succeed in teaching students specialized concepts in school because such type of media facilitates the students to understand their environment, which thus facilitates learning.    The environment may be the classroom or school setting where the student is situated, together with the rest of the members of the class and the instructor.   Such familiar zone of using cartoons relaxes the students and makes them feel at home, which is usually connected with watching cartoons on television or reading comic books at their own leisure time in their bedrooms.   Such connection of cartoons and enjoyment also results when cartoons depicting school topics or concept will result in the full cooperation of the student, which in turn results in the positive psychological functioning of the student.   Once full cooperation and functioning commence, learning will consequently start.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is also possible that students be asked to draw their own cartoon strips, either alone or in small work groups.   Since cartoons symbolize enjoyment to the students, cooperating with classmates in the classroom will then be easier that to ask students to work together on some other activity such as research report writing or an analysis of a science problem using an experimental apparatus. Cartoon-making may also serve as a method which the instructor may use to determine how each student could express himself or show his understanding and appreciation of a class content.   It has been determined that students are more easily convinced to start cartoon-making next to drawing or sketching.   The advantage of cartoons is that both language and sketching is involved, that it will be easier for the instructor to directly understand what a student wants to convey.   It would seem more difficult to understand a sketch since no words are included here, and the interpretation of the instructor may be different from what the student wished to express. References Berk RA (2002):   Humor as an instructional defibrillator: Evidence-based techniques in teaching and assessment.   Sterling, VA: Stylus.   268 pages. Derks PL (1987):   Humor production: an examination of three models of creativity.   J. Creat. Behav.   21:326-326. Flannery M (1993):   Making science a laughing matter.   J. Coll. Sci. Teach. 22:239-241. Flowers J (2001):   The value of humor in technology education.   Technol. Teach. 60:10-13. Fransecky RB and Debes JL (1972):   Visual literacy: A Way to Learn- A way to teach. Association for Educational Communications and Technology: Washington, D.C. OQuin K and Derks PL (1997):   Humor and creativity: A review of the empirical literature.   In: Runco M, ed., Creativity research handbook. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, p. 223-252. Rule AC (2003):   The rhyming peg mnemonic device applied to learning the Mohs scale of hardness.   J. Geosci. Educ.   51:465-73. Rule AC and Auge J (2005):   Using humorous cartoons to teach mineral and rock concepts in sixth grade science class.   J. Geosci. Ed. 53(5):548-558. Ulloth J (2002):   The benefits of humor in nursing education.   J. Nurs. Educ.   41:476-481.

Impact of Globalisation on Land Use and Food Security

Impact of Globalisation on Land Use and Food Security Discuss the impact of globalisation on land use and food security in developed tropical areas. Globalisation over the past decades has impacted on major fields worldwide. It connects the world through trade, human migration, markets and capital flows and social and political institutions (Lambin Meyfroidt, 2011). With the projected population growth of 9 billion in 2030 (Grau Aide, 2008), the pressure on land use has become a major issue, the main reason being that land is a limited resource. There is no doubt that urbanization and technology breakthrough and population growth have a direct impact on the available land. This essay will argue that the impacts of globalisation have been rather negative, causing mass deforestation and pressure on the available fertile soils and yielding to an increase in abandoned lands which in turn have damaged the biomes of these forests. It will also include some possible solution to the problems caused by globalisation on land use. Globalisation has given rise to massive deforestation all over the planet. According to Lambin and Meyfroidt (2011), the land lost to degradation for the period 2000 to 2030 is predicted to be 30 to 87 Million per hectare, (Mha) and for the same period the total land demand predicted is 303 to 845 Mha. These authors further predict that the existing protected areas will continue to expand at a rate of 0.9 to 2.7 Mha per year while 1 to 2.9 Mha will become unsuitable for cultivation for the same period. Thus the available land for cultivation will be taken up rapidly and forests are bound to be cleared for cultivation in the near future. According to the same authors, deforestation is significantly affected by the spatial dynamics caused by displacement, rebound, cascade and remittance. The effect of these four factors are linked to migration of people, international growing trade and land conversion. Furthermore the change in diet and eating habits of the world growing population has contributed immensely to agricultural expansion (Grau Aide, 2008). A clear example of impact of globalization, deforestation and growing food demand can be seen in Brazil. For the past years, Brazil has been producing soy intensively for the South East Asia (soy boom). This phenomenon has a double effect on the world. The soy boom based partly on transgenic cultivars supplies the world with high quality food thus alleviating the increasing food demand and has a positive outcome for the Brazilian economy, but on the other hand this production has caused immense deforestation and damage of Biosystems in Brazil. The principal area of damage is the Amazon basin (Houghton et al. 1991; Laurance 1998; Lambin et al. 2003) cited by Grau Aide (2008)). Paragraph 2 One solution to cater for the diminishing fertile land would be modern agriculture. Modern agriculture can enhance food productivity and efficient use of fertile soils. Paragraph 3 The other factor contributing to depletion of the fertile soil around the world and to deforestation is the rapidly growing population, the constant increase in food demand and  new eating habits. There is evidence that land use has been highly affected by globalisation causing problems worldwide. This essay has discussed the various aspects of the problems. Both Lambin Meyfroidt (2011) and Grau Aide (2008) agree that efficient land management, technological advancement through new high yield crops and second generation biofuels as well as appropriate investments plans for the restoration of degraded lands are potential solutions to sustain food productivity and efficient land use. Furthermore, with modern agriculture, better policies and collaboration within countries, the available land can still produce enough food for the world while preserving biodiversity and our forests. The fertile lands could be used to cultivate high yield crops while the low productive lands could be used to grow crops for biofuels. Moreover technical knowhow in agriculture could contribute immensely towards research and innovation for the promotion of new plants adapted to grow in marginal and ab andoned lands. In this way, these lands could be restored and the plants cultivated would keep the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide as well as the biodiversity of the area. Reference List: Calum Brown, Dave Murray-Rust, Jasper van Vliet, Shah Jamal Alam,Peter H. Verburg, Mark D. Rounsevell, Experiments in Globalisation, Food Security and Land Use Decision Making, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XP, United Kingdom, Institute for Environmental Studies, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Eric F. Lambin Patrick Meyfroidt, 2011, Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity, School of Earth Sciences and Woods Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305; and Earth and Life Institute, Georges Lemaà ®tre Centre for Earth and Climate Research, University of Louvain, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Grau, HR M Aide 2008,Globalization and land-use transitions in Latin America Ecology and Society 13(2):16. http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art16/ Patrick Meyfroidt, Eric F. Lambin (UCL/Stanford) et al., Globalization of land use: Global land use trends, potentially available cropland and paths of commodity crop Expansion, F.R.S.-FNRS Università © catholique de Louvain (UCL), Earth and Life Institute, TECLIM research center, Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium Rachael D Garrett, Ximena Rueda Eric F Lambin2013, Globalizations unexpected impact on soybean production in South America: linkages between preferences for non-genetically modified crops, eco-certifications, and land use, Environmental Research Letters, Volume 8, Number 4 Schmitz, C , Biewald, A, Lotze-Campen, H, Popp, A, Dietrich, JP, Bodirsky, B, Krause, M, Weindl, I, 2012, Global Environmental Change-Human And Policy Dimensions, Vol.22(1), pp.189-209

Fostering Motivation by the Help of Neuroplasticity

Fostering Motivation by the Help of Neuroplasticity There are two types of mindset: fixed versus growth mindset. In fixed mindset, students (people) believe that their abilities is innate and they cannot change it, therefore a failure makes them start doubting in themselves and believing they are not smart/good enough to achieve their goals. On the other hand, those who have a growth mindset believe that they can improve their abilities by learning and practicing. They see failure as an opportunity to working on their mistakes and weaknesses; their perseverance and resilience makes them more motivated and work harder to improve their abilities. Moreover, one of the biggest difficulties that students face when they enter to a new stage of their academic life is lack of motivation. The main idea of this project is improving growth mindset as well as fostering intrinsic motivation among students by teaching them about the brain and neuroplasticity. For this purpose, a weekly workshop will be designed for five sessions. Below is the detai l of each session. Method This project is based on learning science approach with focus on embodiment and feedback which are explained in details. Participants In order to meet the goals of this project and having a sound base of interpretation of the results and eliminating some of the confound variables like method of learning and environmental differences, students from one class will be selected to participate in the workshop. Junior students are extremely vulnerable to fail to achieve an acceptable grade during their high school, because in general children in this age suffer from antisocial behavior, lack of self-esteem, school engagement and more importantly being motivated enough to continue their study. Having a positive or negative outcome in this age depends on students motivation and motivation is dependent on children core belief. In other words, the way students deal with their environment, indicate their future success and exactly here motivation comes to play an important role because if students are motivated enough to continue their study and like to challenge themselves, they can survive and even flourish during this peri od (Blackwell et al., 2007). For this reason, target group in this project will be high school students. Both male and female students with any ethnic background can participate in this study. It is ideal to have a balanced number of male and female participants in order to control for any potential gender differences in the study. Materials Prior to participating in the workshop, participants will be asked to answer to two questionnaires: one of them is a motivation questionnaire to examine students goal in the coming year and their view about the value of efforts and the other one is a mindset questionnaire. The mindset questionnaire will measure students core belief about their intelligence, goal orientation, belief about effort and attribution and strategies in response to failure. Teachers report on students level of engagement and motivation in classroom will be also collected. To investigate the impact of growth mindset on long term achievements (outcomes), the same questionnaire will be distributed at the end of semester, which will be two months after the workshop. The latest grade of students mathematic achievements (CAT) and students new math grade at the end of semester will be collected. Procedure Session 1: The Neurons: Structure and Function In this session, students will learn about concept of neuron and its structure and neurotransmitters by lecture and pictures (figure 1 and 2). The lesson plan for this session is as the following: Lesson Plan There are two types of cells in the brain: The first type is called glia, which comes from a word that means glue and they hold the brain together. Glia plays an important role in the processing and communication. The main brain cells are called neurons. They have a lipid bilayer as a cell membrane to keep everything inside. They have the fluidly cytosol, the liquid inside. Neurons have three main parts, the cell body, or the soma, is where we find the nucleus, the part that has DNA. And the other parts are the specialization that allows the neurons to communicate with other cells. Dendrites are branches around the soma. It integrates it in two ways, both spatially and temporally. Spatially means weve got all these inputs coming from different parts of the brain and temporally means that theres a time window over which the cell is looking at. Once the information has been summed up and the neuron decided how to process it, the neuron sends output down to the axon. Neurons shapes and sizes depend on their function within the neural circuit. The stereotypical one is called a multi-polar neuron which has more than one dendrites and only one axon. Bipolar neurons have one input and one output. Unipolar neurons have basically one long transmission wire with the cell body off to the side, so information just kind of flows down with, no real interference from the soma itself. Physiological properties of the neuron: The neuron is actually using electricity to send through the dendrites and then down the axon. Every cell has an electric membrane potential, or an electric resting potential, which is the difference between the electrical potential energy inside and outside the cell. By recording the electrical potential of cell membrane versus the electrical potential at an electrode outside the cell membrane we can have voltage difference. Most cells have a resting membrane potential of about -70 or -65 mV. The other property thats really important about the neurons is t hat they have Ion channels, which are like doorways in their cell membrane. When their membrane potential gets high and reaches the thresholds, these doors can open. Signal starts at this area at the juncture of the soma and the axon thats called the Axon Hillock. So, what happens is the membrane potential of the cell reaches a certain threshold, and that causes the door to open. When the door opens, positive ions start coming into the cell, which causes the membrane voltage to go up and opens more of these voltage sensitive doors. And eventually there would be a big influx of positive current, but the Ion Channels will be close very fast. That quick increase and decrease of the membrane potential, is called an action potential, which lasts for about one to two milliseconds. Action potential is an all-or-none event. As the positive ions are coming in from action potential that started at the Axon Hillock, its going to increase the memory voltage of the axon right next to it. Therefo re, more channels will be opened and more positive current flow in which will cause action potential to travel down the length of axon. What the neurons saying in the pattern of its spiking activity. In general, neuron does not directly talk to the next neuron via an electrical signal, instead when the electrical signal gets to the tip of the axon, the axon will release chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals messengers that travel over a small gap between the neurons sending the information and the dendrites of the neuron receiving the information. That gap is called a synapse. The neuron receiving the information by their dendrites on that post synaptic side of this gap have special receptors for receiving the released chemicals by the presynaptic neuron. When the chemical binds to those special receptors, that causes changes in the membrane potential of the second neuron and then that neuron can collect that information and send its signal to its neigh bors. After this lecture, students will have time to ask any questions and discuss their thoughts and understanding of the concept of neurons within small groups. By the end of this session, students will learn about basic properties of neurons and how neurons communicate with each other.                Session 2: Brain structure and Function In this session, after a brief recalling of last session which was about neurons, few fact cards about brain will be given to students. Next, a brief introduction of brain anatomy and main areas of brains will be given by the help of pictures (figure 3 to 5). For avoiding boredom in students, instead of lecture given by the instructor, they will watch short videos explaining brains function. Videos are from an online course offered by University of Toronto Facts that are given after figure 3: Weight: 3 lbs 2% of total body weight Consumes 25% of the bodys oxygen supply Consumes 70% of the bodys glucose supply Consumers 25% of the bodys nutrients 100 Billion Neurons Facts that are given after figure 4: With matter is inside the brain and Gray matter is outside the brain Cerebral cortex is wrinkled. The grooves that make these wrinkles are called sulci and the ridges between them are called gyri Two hemispheres are connected by Corpus Callosum Facts that are given after figure 5: Brain has two main parts: cortex which has 4 parts: frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobe. and the other part is cerebellum After watching the videos, students will discuss their questions, any misconception that they might have about the brain and gained knowledge in small groups. The session will end by given pictures of brains structure and areas that students are required to name them. Session 3: Neuroplasticity In this session, the topic of neuroplasticity which is about the electrical and neural changes in the brain during learning will be thought. The lesson plan will be a brief explanation of neuroplasticity by summarizing some researches about this concept: Plasticity is one of the most essential functions of the human brain. According to Munte et al (2002) Neuroplasticity allows the brain to adapt to environmental factors that cannot be anticipated by genetic programming There are a vast majority of researchers that are interested in this topic and have been examining plasticity via different experiments both on animals and human. One of these researchers named Dr Norman Doidge who is author of The Brain that Changes Itself. In his book he talked about the brain as a modifiable, changeable, adaptable and plastic organism that is able to change its function and even structure without chemical reaction in the body, just based on our interaction with the brain. The interesting thing about the power of the brain is, its ability to change structurally even with imagination. Another discovery related to plasticity is the fact that learning changes the number of connection between neurons; even with hours of training the number of connection between two neurons can increase from 1300 to 2700 as an example. The reason how plasticity happen in our brain is: through activities and thoughts that people do with their brain, there are certain genes in nerve cells that become on and others off, this change causes producing protein and protein finally makes change in brain structure. This discovery made a strong proof for the role of learning and training in changing our brain and as a result changing our mind and behavior (Bush et al., 2004). People are able to change their behavior as a result of functional changing in their brain, for example depression is a severe disorder that causes 25% loose of gray matter in hippocampus. This is due to fact that chronic stress release cortisol which gradually weakens the role of left prefrontal cortex, a region that is known as a controller of negative emotion, and the weak activity of PFC causes 25% loose of gray matter in hippocampus. An experiment done in UK showed that the size and amount of gray matter would be the same again after 5 weeks of treatment in depressed people. Similarly, in article written by Draganski et al., (2004) the same finding was reported. Subjects of their experiments were d ivided into two groups: learner and non-learner. They scanned their subjects brain at the beginning of experiment and find that there is no difference between two groups. Then they taught the learner group how to juggle and when their subjects were professional enough to juggle in 1 minute, they had another FMRI scan for both group. For learners the amount of gray matter in the mid-temporal area and in the left posterior intraparietal was increased by 25% compared to non-learner and compared to the first scan. Finally they had third scan after 3 months without training for both group and they found that the amount of gray matter decreased again in learner group. Their finding was consistent with the finding about depression. Mà ¼nte et al., (2002) examined neuroplasticity in musicians that had begun their training in early age. They found musicians who began before the age of seven had a larger anterior midsagittal corpus callosum compared to others that started later. Therefore, they were able to have a bidirectional movement. In order to be able to control bidirectional movement, an enhanced interaction between two hemispheres is needed and since number of axons that can be transmitted to other hemisphere depends on size of midsagittal corpus callosum, therefore musicians with larger AMCC were able to have bidirectional movements. Elbert et al., (1995) showed that string players had a larger cortical representation of the digits finger in the left hand compared to non-musicians. They argued that even neuroplasticity was different among musicians depending on their interaction with music and their professional usage of music; for example a conductor is better in understanding non-adjacent and separatin g adjacent sound sources. Accordingly, there is an automatic movement in musicians body (fingers of hand or even leg) when they just listening to music and vice versa. This is because of co-activation of motor-audio regions in their brain. After this lecture, students will ask their questions (in case of any) and form small groups to share their ideas about neuroplasticity. During these sessions, students learned how their brain can be manipulated by practicing By the end of this session, knowledge creation about the brain will be ended. Therefore, in order to test the output of the sessions, they will be required to articulate their learning. They can either create an artifact (brain, neuron), or write a short essay related to neuroplasticity. As Chinn and Sherin (2005) mentioned one of the problem of team work would be more knowledgeable students will do the load of works and some students might be quiet and their learning process might be overestimated if they work in a group. To avoid this problem, each student is required to do articulation alone. They need to complete this task before last session. Understanding Goal: By the end of this session, students will understand that brains function and even structure can be changed. Session 4: Mindset Change This session consists of two parts. First part is the activity part in which students will discover more about brain and brain plasticity. This part is designed based on embodiment approach. Embodiment in a broad sense could be defined as the study of the subjective role of the body in making sense of life experiences (Kiverstein, 2012). In other words how our bodies influence and shape the way we speak, think, and behave with regard to environmental challenges we face in our daily lives (Gibbs, 2005). Following such a definition the idea of embodied cognition points out to the inter-connection of mind and body and how they both influence each other. Such an idea was raised as a counter-intuitive argument against the mind-body dualism proposed by Rene Descartes in the 17th century which supported a separation between human body and the external world in which body is completely divisible and mind is completely abstract and indivisible. However, this view was challenged by philosophers like Merleau-Ponty (1962) who viewed body as a primordial existence prior to the existence of a reflected world, and understanding of the external world as a reflection of the humans body. Pointing to the inter-relationship between body, environment, and peoples perception of the environment (i.e. the external world) Merleau-Ponty (1962; 235) writes that body is the fabric into which all objects are woven, and it is, at least in relation to the perceived world, the general instrument of comprehension (cited in Gibbs, 2005; p. ). Drawing from the definition of the embodiment, it can be concluded that acquiring and comprehending knowledge and solving problem are not solely manipulated in the brain. Conversely, it is influenced by the interaction we have with the external world and how our bodies manage to perceive them. According to Lakeoff and Johnson (1980) this relationship is highly represented in numerous metaphorical expressions in the language we use. For example we may say the something is beyond us when we cannot understand what a specific expression refers to. In this case we make a connection between our understanding of physical distance and mental concept of uncertainty in order to show how we feel about it. Using Lakeoff and Johnsons metaphorical representations, Barsalou (2008, p. 618) through exemplifying the act of sitting on a chair argues that embodied learning can take place through activating a perception-action-introspection complex. According to Barsalou (2008) this whole process is an i ntegrated and multimodal representation of current and past sensory experiences which results in comprehending an object. According to Abrahamson and Lindgren (2014)in order to place the embodiment theory in education there is need to have an embodied design in order for learners approach a problem in a subject matter through their natural body instinct and movements (p. 363). However, embodied designs could be challenged from three aspects of the types of activities, materials and artifacts, and facilitation of conceptual development. Accordingly they proposed that each of those challenges could be appropriately met through using initial simple activities which fall within the experiential domain of learners and then gradually move toward more symbolic one. Moreover, the types of materials and artifacts used to promote learning in such kinds of designs should be similar to ones found outside these designs and in unmediated environments. Finally, the movement and body engagement should be facilitated through providing real-time feedback by tutors and teachers to help learners develop their own conceptua l insights. Given this brief explanation of embodiment, students will participate in an activity that will result in understanding how their brain can be manipulated by practicing and how their intelligence could be increased through learning. During activity part, they will go through a Neural Network Maze spelling out the word SMARTER and saw how this network change when they learn something new. This activity is based on BNlackwell et al., (2007). In the second part students will see some examples of disabled people who were able to manage their disability and succeed in their life. The aim of this activity is showing students that even people who are suffering from major problems and lost their critical abilities (like walking) did not give up and challenge themselves to achieve their goals. An example of disabled people is Nicholas James Vujicic who is an Australian motivational speaker. He was born with tetra-amelia syndrome and has neither arms nor legs, but could graduate college with a bachelor degree in financing and is a successful writer. Understanding Goal: Everyone can be smart, because intelligence is not statistic and unchangeable Efforts is the most important factor in improving ability The way they think about their ability, can affect their behavior Session 5: Improving motivation by the help of feedback In the last session of workshop, students will summarize their learning and will explain how their misconceptions have changed (if changed) and the instructor will give each student the appropriate feedback. Depending on the number of students participated in this workshop, each student will have time to show their artifact or read their essay that was asked to complete it by the end of session 3. Instructor (experimenter) will give feedback for each students work because as we already know feedback is one type of reward and it can motivate students and even change extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation. Below is a summary of researches that support the effect of reward in increasing students motivation and their performance Harackiewicz (1979) was concerned about relation between feedback, motivation and the outcome and examined this relation among high school students. He found positive feedback increase motivation and motivation increase performance. However he claimed that positive feedback on the performance has different effect compared to reward effect. Positive feedback which is assessed as verbal rewards is known as an unexpected, competence improvement reward and has a significant positive influence on intrinsic motivation. In two studies that used positive feedback as a motivational resource, they tested how a slightly change in wording can bring a fundamental change in the motivation. In the first study, Ryan (1982) used a controlling feedback by saying: Excellent, you should keep up the good work, whereas in the other study, Pittman et al. (1980) used an informational feedback: Compared to most of my subjects, you are doing really well. The result of these two studies was in line with the claim; in the first statement subjects had less intrinsic motivation after few trials compared to second informational feedback. In conclusion, positive feedback can bring interest for receivers and will increase intrinsic motivation. ODohetry (2004) wrote an excellent review about the underlying mechanism of reward seeking and punishment avoidance in human behaviors. He discussed recent neuroimaging findings which gives insight into the reward representations and reward-related learning process that take place in the human brain. The author highlighted the involvement of ventromedial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, striatum, and dopaminergic midbrain in the reward-related learning process. Providing evidence from human neuroimaging, the author argues that specific reward-induced behaviors are subject to the function of different parts of the aforementioned network. However, no matter which component guides which specific reward-related behavior, the persistence of behavior is dependent on the value assigned to the reward and perhaps the punishment within this network. The importance of the findings reported in this paper is connecting them with goal-directed behavior which requires complex cognitive resources and fu nctionalities. In other words, the complexities involved in choosing between various behaviors and actions are based on evaluation of their representation of the predicted future rewards with the selected action having the highest predicted reward which varies depending on the its quality, frequency and variance in specific situations. As stated in the article, there are three main parts of the brain that is responsible for guiding our action. Therefore, our behavior is formed controlled as a response to a value of reward or punishment. The author also made a distinction between these parts and the role of each part in seeking the reward, evaluating the value of reward or punishment, predicting the future reward/punishment and deciding about a proper action based on the prediction of value. As a result becoming motivated in doing an action depends on the value of reward or punishment as well as its amount that is aligned with that action even in future. Our brain and even animals br ain is able to learn how to guide our action to receive rewards. It means, our brain tracks and analyses the process of gaining a reward for future use just like the classical conditioning situation. Better reward causes more motivation (ODohetry, 2004). Understanding Goal: By putting enough efforts, students can increase their performance on school Reference: Abrahamson, D., Lindgren, R. (2014). Embodiment and embodied design. In R. K. Sawyer (ed.)The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences, pp. 358-376. Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617-645. Blackwell, L. S., Trzesniewski, K. H., Dweck, C. S. (2007). Implicit theories of intelligence predict achievement across an adolescent transition: A longitudinal study and an intervention. Child development, 78(1), 246-263. Busch, V., Schuierer, G., Bogdahn, U., May, A. (2004). Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature, 311-312. Doidge, N. (2007). The brain that changes itself: Stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science. Penguin. Draganski, B., Gaser, C., Busch, V., Schuierer, G., Bogdahn, U., May, A. (2004, January 22). Changes in grey matter induced by training. Nature, pp. 247: 311-312. Elbert, T., Pantev, C., Wienbruch, C., Rockstroh, B., Taub, E. (1995). Increased cortical representation of the fingers of the left hand in string players. Science, 270(5234), 305. Galvà ¡n, A. (2010). Neural plasticity of development and learning. Human Brain Mapping, 31(6), 879-90. doi:10.1002/hbm.21029 Gibbs Jr, R. W. (2005). Embodiment and cognitive science. Cambridge University Press. Harackiewicz, J. M. (1979). The effects of reward contingency and performance feedback on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,37(8), 1352. Kiverstein, J. (2012). The meaning of embodiment. Topics in cognitive science, 4(4), 740-758. Lakoff, G., Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routledge Kegan Paul. Mà ¼nte, T. F., Altenmà ¼ller, E., Jà ¤ncke, L. (2002). The musicians brain as a model of neuroplasticity. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 3(6), 473-8. doi:10.1038/nrn843 ODoherty, J. P. (2004). Reward representations and reward-related learning in the human brain: insights from neuroimaging. Current opinion in neurobiology,14(6), 769-776. Pittman, T. S., Davey, M. E., Alafat, K. A., Wetherill, K. V., Kramer, N. A. (1980). Informational versus controlling verbal rewards. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 6(2), 228-233. Ryan, R. M. (1982). Control and information in the intrapersonal sphere: An extension of cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of personality and social psychology, 43(3), 450. Sawyer, R. K. (Ed.). (2005). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. Cambridge University Press.

Much Ado About Nothing Essay: An Exploration of Conformity

Much Ado About Nothing as an Exploration of Conformity       In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice and Benedict rant about marriage for most of the beginning of the play, while Claudio raves about how wonderful it will be being married to Hero.   Yet in the end, Claudio exchanges his marriage to Hero for an opportunity to bash her in public, while Beatrice and Benedick marry despite that they were mortal enemies for most of the first three acts.   How did the situation swing around to this degree?   Beatrice and Benedick had been using the most extreme metaphors to demonstrate their scorn of each other and of marriage, and Claudio had been doing the same to demonstrate his love of Hero.   Not only did none of these three characters mean what they were saying, but meant the reverse, and the people that plotted to bring them together or pull them apart plotted because they understood on some level what each really wanted.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Beatrice and Benedick seem to have had some relationship before the beginning of the book that ended badly.   This suggests that the initial situation between Beatrice and Benedick was one of mutual attraction, not of the overt hate they seem to flaunt at the beginning of the play.   Scorn of this magnitude is rare among people who dislike each other from the start, and seems very unlikely in a broken up couple.   In addition, both Beatrice and Benedick turned out to be very willing to abandon their smear campaigns as soon as they are convinced the other is aching for them.   It is ridiculous that one would abandon one's own principals to bail out a hated enemy in trouble.   This makes clear that their attitude toward each other is an act.   If this is so, what is the purpose of the act... ...ther, and nearly kills an innocent woman.   In a broader perspective, conformity can leave people walking aimlessly down the beaten path with no real direction except conformity, doomed to live yet another meaningless life in a society based on archaic principles.    Works Cited and Consulted:    Barton, Anne.   Introduction.   Much Ado About Nothing.   The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed.   Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.   361-365.    Lewalski, B. K. "Love, Appearance and Reality: Much Ado About Something" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 8 (1968): 235-251.    Prouty, Charles A.   Conformity in Much Ado About Nothing. New York: Books for Libraries Press/Yale University Press, 1980.    Rossiter, A.P. "Much Ado About Nothing."   William Shakespeare Comedies & Romances. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Much Ado About Nothing Essay: An Exploration of Conformity Much Ado About Nothing as an Exploration of Conformity       In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice and Benedict rant about marriage for most of the beginning of the play, while Claudio raves about how wonderful it will be being married to Hero.   Yet in the end, Claudio exchanges his marriage to Hero for an opportunity to bash her in public, while Beatrice and Benedick marry despite that they were mortal enemies for most of the first three acts.   How did the situation swing around to this degree?   Beatrice and Benedick had been using the most extreme metaphors to demonstrate their scorn of each other and of marriage, and Claudio had been doing the same to demonstrate his love of Hero.   Not only did none of these three characters mean what they were saying, but meant the reverse, and the people that plotted to bring them together or pull them apart plotted because they understood on some level what each really wanted.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Beatrice and Benedick seem to have had some relationship before the beginning of the book that ended badly.   This suggests that the initial situation between Beatrice and Benedick was one of mutual attraction, not of the overt hate they seem to flaunt at the beginning of the play.   Scorn of this magnitude is rare among people who dislike each other from the start, and seems very unlikely in a broken up couple.   In addition, both Beatrice and Benedick turned out to be very willing to abandon their smear campaigns as soon as they are convinced the other is aching for them.   It is ridiculous that one would abandon one's own principals to bail out a hated enemy in trouble.   This makes clear that their attitude toward each other is an act.   If this is so, what is the purpose of the act... ...ther, and nearly kills an innocent woman.   In a broader perspective, conformity can leave people walking aimlessly down the beaten path with no real direction except conformity, doomed to live yet another meaningless life in a society based on archaic principles.    Works Cited and Consulted:    Barton, Anne.   Introduction.   Much Ado About Nothing.   The Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed.   Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.   361-365.    Lewalski, B. K. "Love, Appearance and Reality: Much Ado About Something" Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 8 (1968): 235-251.    Prouty, Charles A.   Conformity in Much Ado About Nothing. New York: Books for Libraries Press/Yale University Press, 1980.    Rossiter, A.P. "Much Ado About Nothing."   William Shakespeare Comedies & Romances. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.

Life without friendship? Is it Possible? Essay -- essays research pape

Life is more rewarding with friendship. Every day is a chance to meet someone new. It does not matter if you're at school, work, or just out running around, people are everywhere. Whether you get along with them or not is your choice. In my experiences, I have found there are three different types of friends that help your life run more smoothly. Many of us meet a good number of friends though work. These would be what we call your â€Å"work friends†. The more friends an individual has at work the better off that individual is. Often times, fellow employees will help when you're falling behind in the work schedule. With their plans permitting, they will cover or trade a shift for you if something comes up and you need the day off. When times get tough and your boss is riding your butt, fellow employees will often back you up. Friends at work, make the load a lot less troublesome and stressful. No one likes to go to a party by themselves. This is where your â€Å"social friends† step in. They are the best solution to having a great time in a strange place. There's no commitment involved; just call them up and go have a good time. Conversation is never a bore with a social friend, because they're only around occasionally so there's a lot to catch up on. Another good thing is that they are always willing to take the wheel when you are a little tipsy. Friends don't let friends drive drunk. For the most part, social friends are there when you need them and out of the way when you don't. ...

Diversity in America Essay

In an ideal world, humanity would understand that all mankind is created equally; that the underlying truth of each of us is goodness, and that through awareness, conscious choice and the willingness to create positive change, we could live in a world where diversity is celebrated. We would leave behind the substantial racist and oppressing patterns that exits in this world, specifically in the United States of America. It is said that the U. S. is a melting pot of cultures, and that we are a country of immigrants existing together as a new culture, living under the values of a democracy based on freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet this policy is completely disregarding the fact that as immigrants, we brutally committed genocide to the Native Americans. The dominant race in the U. S. A. is made up of white Euro-centric people, and looking at the patterns that exist in this culture is important to examine the history, the ways in which racism is alive and how and who is affected. We all must look at how, as an individual and within a community, we can work towards positive change, healing and understanding. As a society, we have committed and perpetuated the oppression of different cultures specifically the Native Americans, the Native Africans and the many immigrants from different countries. In the early history of the U. S. government, it is clear that there was a systematic method that aimed to remove the Native Americans from the land that was desired by the colonists, with the malicious intention to commit genocide. The first example of the patterns of racism that were established is seen in the fabrication of stereotypes onto the Native Americans. It was said that the Natives were â€Å"barbarians† and that they would rape and murder women and children and that they â€Å"served the devil† (Tataki, 1993, p. 41). The whites held the belief that the Natives were occupying land that the colonists felt entitled to. â€Å"White people also justified the genocide by saying that Native Americans died from diseases they were biologically unable to resist† (Kivel, 2002, p.126). It is a known fact that smallpox were given to the Natives as a way to kill them. Multiple examples exist throughout the history of the whites murdering, raping and unjustly exploiting almost every aspect of the Native’s culture. After committing such horrendous violations we are left with the inability to change all that has occurred and a great sadness that produces guilt, blame and anger that often stagnates a healing process and increases denial and avoidance. The Native American population has almost completely been destroyed. â€Å"At the time Columbus arrived in the West Indies there were approximately fifteen million indigenous people†¦ today†¦ the population of native Americans in the United States is around three million according to U. S. government census figures† (Kivel, 2002, p. 124) and the remaining Natives in America are mostly confined to reservations. This small fraction of designated land is no longer their original sacred land but it is being raped for natural resources. White settlers not only committed genocide but they also enslaved the Native Americans. This pattern of entitlement and abuse was continued with the legal capturing and enslavement of people of African decent with as much violence and oppression. The history of slavery in the United States that occurred through 1619 to 1865 began soon after the English colonists first settled in Virginia and lasted until the passage of the thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. â€Å"Over the next twenty five years Virginia passed a series of laws that legalized slavery, producing a radically subordinate and stigmatized class below that of all whites† (Kivel, 2002, p.130). Although technically slavery was abolished in1865, a linage of abuse and inhumane treatment was installed and has been carried into this day and age providing a challenge to accept and comprehend the past. In an attempt in understanding black oppression, there are aspects that demonstrate this injustice. They are institutional racism, racist knowledge and power relations that are played out in our culture and in no way have anything to do biology. Individuals and societies have created and used race as a means to oppress and overpower other groups of people. Racial oppression is when a group of people dominates another for their own benefit disregarding justice and respect through the use of violence and defining and discriminating racial differences. This dominant group receives various benefits although in the larger picture all sides loose for the continuation of a pattern of pain and injustice is insured through these actions. African-Americans are a case of this racial oppression. They were turned into slaves because of the color of their skin. It is shocking that it did not start this way and that through the power of the U. S.government slavery laws were passed that enabled the white masters to turn the blacks into slaves. This is an example of the institutional racism used to enslave the blacks. Because of this occurrence, we, as a society, must break down the residual stereotypes that have instilled fear, pain and disconnection between the races, and to change the model that exists even at this point in time. Another example of racism in the U. S. is seen in the treatment of immigrants. This subject is personal, for on my father’s side of my family I am part of the first generation born in American. My father’s parents immigrated to the U. S. , to escape the holocaust and I am sure shared the dreams of the majority of different immigrants who traveled to the â€Å"land of opportunity,† escaping places of war and economic devastation to begin and pursue a new and better life. Through the duration of attending a class studying the diversity in America I have gained painful yet poignant knowledge of the racism that is still perpetrated upon immigrants, specifically on Jewish people. I have recently learned that groups of neo-Nazis congregate and commit acts of violence against Jewish people and immigrating races. This is terrifying to me and feels unacceptable while we live under a constitution that allows personal expression but does not permit such distinct racist and violent behavior. I am grateful and saddened that because I was raised in a protected and privileged community I have rarely experienced oppression and hateful discrimination when it so readily exists in our culture. In the past few months I find myself cycling through heartbreak, anger and disbelief of the injustice that has and still occurs, and then to a yearning for healing and equality for all. I remain in a space of wonderment, questioning the fact that although laws have been installed to prevent the acts of racism, fear, ignorance and violence is bubbling hot under the surface of our society, and we are a long way from a complete shift in humanity that I crave. I do believe there is hope. I believe that in gaining the truth of the past and diminishing ignorance of the harm that was and still is being done we open a door that may aid in the battles that are still being fought. Although the brutality of racism is alive, the potential to fight for the rights of all the people who live upon this American soil is possible, but the truth of the history and the attainment of awareness must be brought to fruition. Reference List Kivel, Paul, (2002). Uprooting racism: How White People Can Work For Racial Justice. Gabriola Island, BC VOR 1X0, Canada: New Society Publishers. Takaki, Ronald, (1993). A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York, NY: Time Warner Book Group.