My Posse Dont Do Homework Essays - Critical Pedagogy,

My Posse Don't Do Homework Johnson's My Posse Don't Do Homework is an excellent book in the way that it describes the looked over and ignored kids of schools around the nation. My Posse Don't Do Homework shows us how important it is to nurture and care for students and tell each and everyone of those students how important they are and they, too, can make a difference. When Ms. Johnson had the class on the first day of school, the students were all prepared to "work" their way through yet another substitute or permanent teacher. According to the book My Posse Don't Do Homework, when Ms. Johnson had asked about Miss Shepard, the group of student's former teacher, one girl replied that she "had been ?psyched out'" (19). "Miss Shepard had thrown down her book and rushed out of the classroom in tears the previous Friday. The kids weren't surprised that she hadn't returned. They were obviously proud of their handiwork..." (19). Moments later a dictionary was flung at her head and she then proceeded to leave the classroom. After the dictionary incident she spoke with a colleague, Hal Gray. After a brief discussion with him, she went back to the class where she was inspired by her former drill instructor, Petty Officer Hawk's, presence and confronted the student who threw the dictionary at her. After getting in the boy's face, he gave into her demand of sitting down. After introducing herself and telling them about her Marine and Navy background, she gained the advantage and some of their respect from fear that she could kill them with her bare hands. The book is not suggesting that every teacher that has a difficult group of students should let them think that he or she, meaning the teacher, is going to violent if they do not cooperate in class. However, with this group of kids Ms. Johnson thought that it would be most effective to intimidate her new students. After gaining his or her respect, she started to care about each student. She went above and beyond what is to be expected from the average teacher. She truly cared about each of students and did her best to get to know each of them on a personal basis. She even proves in her book, My Posse Don't Do Homework, that this is an effective way of teaching these students who have been told that they are not important and that they would not achieve to be much. Most of the students in her classes were passing with average and above average grades. The same students were doing below average or failing other classes that were instructed by teachers who did not put much to any effort in showing these students any affection. James A. Banks states in his book An Introduction to Multicultural Education: "I think we have to create a caring community in the classroom. We have to create what psychologists call a superordinate group in the classroom" (93). He goes on later discusses and somewhat defines a super ordinate groups. Banks states, "Allport's theory of group contact suggests ways to create a sense of community. In order to create a sense of community, we first need to create a group within the group not cooperation. Second, we need to create equal-status situations for the groups" (94). It is imperative that we teach our students in a fair and caring way. Teachers have to be sure that he or she is doing everything in their power to help their students achieve their goals. Isn't that the purpose of teaching, to help assist the students and do almost anything within their power to see that their student is learning? One option to helping students better themselves and give more of the much-needed affection is to reduce class size. Johnson states in the introduction to her book, "When classes are small enough to allow individual student-teacher interaction, a minor miracle occurs: Teachers teach and students learn" (2). When teachers gain a positive rapport with their students because of smaller class sizes, fewer students have a chance to fall through the cracks. LouAnne Johnson stated, "The Junior Advanis and Attiba Macks break my heart, but for every student who slips through the cracks, a dozen--or two dozen--step over the cracks and walk out of high school with a diploma in one hand and a dream in another. It's these kids--the ones you don't read about in the newspapers because good news doesn't sell--who keep me coming back every year to

South African Racialism essays

South African Racialism essays Racialism Research Assignment ________________________________________ Hypothesis: that racialism began to develop in South Africa when the Dutch first arrived. It gradually worsened as the white population took advantage of the native Blacks, and the government system of Apartheid was introduced, despite attempts to alleviate it such as protests and rallies. Finally, in the latter part of the twentieth century outside pressure forced the Apartheid system to disappear and South Africas first black president emerged. Racialism began to develop in South Africa when the first white settlement was founded in 1652, which was established by the Dutch East India Company. However, shortage of labour quickly led to two decisions that were to have far-reaching consequences on South Africas history (Encarta Encyclopaedia, (2000): South Africa, Republic of). One of the decisions was the allowed use of slave labour, which originally involved imported workers from India and Indonesia, but as importation can be a costly business, and some labourers fall ill on the voyages, it wasnt long until some the local black populace was doing the Dutchs work. The other decision was former company servants were allowed to become free burghers (Encarta Encyclopaedia, (2000): South Africa, Republic of), which meant they were allowed to set up farms outside of the settlement. These farmers eventually became known as Boers. Many of the early Dutch settlers were devout Calvinists, who believe in predestination. Predestination is the eternal destiny of a person is predetermined by God's unchangeable decree (Encarta Encyclopaedia, (2000): Predestination). Unfortunately for the Negroes of South Africa, it was interpreted that the black mans destination was eternal damnation, and that they were less than the white man. We call predestination God...

Managing activities to achieve results Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Managing activities to achieve results - Essay Example A quality management system requires complete documentation and covers the customer’s and organizations’ requirements. It enables an organization to achieve its objectives stated in the policy by ensuring consistent satisfaction to customers and the organization. A QMS interacts with all organizational activities at all organizational levels to ensure customer satisfaction (Schlickman, 2003). A robust management system sets out directions to meet customer expectations, lowers production costs, involves all staff, and increases market share for the organization. Information is required to support the quality management system from the supplier to the customer. Micro memory bank, Inc is a company that manufactures memory modules for different computer manufacturers (Micro memory bank Inc, 2007). Management commitment- the top management provides the vision and strategies for the establishment of business objectives and processes. The management must continuously communica te the importance of customer satisfaction and conduct management reviews. It is the duty of the top management to ensure continuous availability of resources for production. Top management ensures the quality policy is available to all employees and training is conducted about QMS. It also ensures customer requirements are met by inspecting compliance with documented orders and communication procedures (Tari and Molina, 2010). Responsibility and communication- every employee takes responsibilities established in the organizational chart. Employees should have access to the organizational chart to help them understand their responsibilities and authorities of each position. Communication in the company shall occur through department meetings, management review, memos and reports on company notice boards, circulation of minutes of review meetings, and other established communication routes. Resource management- top management provides resources necessary for implementing the QMS for ensuring customer satisfaction. Job advertisements have necessary qualifications to ensure that only competent workers are hired. Qualifications such as education, experience, and skills should be met by all employees. Hired employees undergo training to provide them with the necessary job competence. Their contribution to quality is emphasized during these training sessions (Shaoshao et al, 2007). Infrastructure- buildings, workspace, process equipment, utilities, and support services shall be provided by the management. Existing infrastructure should be serviced and maintained to ensure product conformity. New requirements shall be documented before implementation and maintenance requirements documented in maintenance logs. The work environment should be suitable for quality production and evaluations conducted using data collected from environment evaluations. Product planning- quality planning is required before implementing new processes or products. The quality requirements, p rocesses, resources, validation, test requirements, and monitoring are determined during planning. The production team must review the customer request, delivery and post-delivery requirements and regulatory requirements before embarking on production. Product requirements are determined before accepting the order. Any changes in customer requirements are communicated to the relevant personnel and incorporated into the production process. Customer communication pro

Adult education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Adult education - Assignment Example The adult learner shall have developed a different perspective to learning and shall have garnered skills and experience from social and professional interactions. Based on the differences between adult and initial education, special challenges exist that face adult learners and formal policies towards learning strategies are necessary for efficient adult learning. This paper explores the scope of adult learning and its associated challenges and strategies with the aim of recommending a suitable strategy to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education for policy development. This aims at improving benefits of adult education to learners. Adult education: special needs Dynamism of adult learning over the past decades identifies the need for periodic changes in the scope of adult education that offers diversified utility to learners such achieved transformation through self-reflection and development of new knowledge base. The learning process however needs to consider special needs am ong learners. A rich knowledge base has been developed on adult learning mechanism to facilitate identification and management of the needs. Unlike young learners in initial learning frameworks, adult learners are slow in conceptualization and knowledge development. This means longer time in a learning process and possible needs for empowerment to aid the speed of learning. The adults are however able to compensate for this weakness through their vast experience and through effective time management. Differences in visual potentials across age also identify special needs among adult learners. While human development occurs with age, vision begins to decline after the age of 18 year. The decline is gradual until the age of 40 at which the rate of decline increases and means age is a factor to needs among adult learners. Hearing potential also decline among adult learners though this occurs at late ages and hearing aids may be used to facilitate learning processes. Adults also report memory problems during their learning but the problem is less significant in contextual learning (Florida State University, n.d.). Assumptions of adult learning Basic assumptions to adults learning are another set of important factors, to adult education, that educators and policy makers need to consider for successful learning processes. Learners’ self-concept that changes with age explains a transition from nature of learning among young people in initial learning environments. A level of maturity is evident among adult learners who prefer a more independent approach to learning. There is change from dependence on learning environment to a self-reliant approach in which an adult learner is an independent and active party to the learning process. Understanding the shift in self-concept is important among educators because implementing a learning strategy that fails to recognize a learner’s desired level of independence may communicate oppression and compromise effecti veness of the learning process. Transitions across cognitive development stages supports validity of the change in self-concept at adult learning stage because each developmental stage marks increased learning potential that identifies learners abilities to learn on their own. The cognitive development theory supports independence potential by early adulthood and while level of learners’ required independence may vary across age, it is significant among adult learners (Florida State University, n.d.). Adult learning also holds the assumption of significance of learners’ experience that plays to major roles in education. Having interacted with social and professional environments, adult learners

An Inferential Statistic of Housing Problems Assignment

An Inferential Statistic of Housing Problems - Assignment Example The null hypothesis of equal variances is rejected and it is concluded that there is a difference between the variances in the population.It is called heteroscedasticity. Some of the procedures typically assuming homoscedasticity are the ANOVA, t-tests.Levene's test is often used before a comparison of means. When Levene's test shows significance, one should switch to generalized tests, free from homoscedasticity assumptions. Since the p-value is less than 0.05 ( 0.000) in this case hence homoscedasticity or equal variances cannot be assumed. The computed t statistic is 6.95 which is more than the assumed or critical t statistic of 6.82 for assuming equal variance. The degree of freedom is hence retained as 957.51 and the p values as stated is

Discussing Web Use Especially for Educational Purposes :: Internet Cyberspace Education Essays

Discussing Web Use Especially for Educational Purposes Abstract The purpose of my paper is to define the web, discuss its educational value, and review some of the ongoing debate regarding its educational use. "And Robert L. Heath says ‘[It is a] means by which any organization - no matter how financially limited - can sustain its messages over time and reach people around the world’ " (as cited by Cooley, 1999, p.1). What is the Web? The Web or WWW or World Wide Web is an informational venue, as well as a communications medium that serves many purposes, namely, to advertise businesses, people, products, services; in other words, to facilitate marketing and public relations. "The World Wide Web’s accessibility and ease of use have encouraged a proliferation of Web resources on almost every imaginable topic. Due to the wealth of information available, the Web is becoming a widely used research tool" (Tate and Alexander, 1996, p.1). The Web is also an educational and news delivery system. The Web began with the birth of the internet. According to Sutherland and Stewart (1999), "[t]he Internet, developed in the 1960s to facilitate military research, had expanded to other research uses by the end of the 1970s." Starr (1997) states, that " [by 1981], the Internet had grown to comprise 213 host computers, linked in an unorganized collection of networks that included local area networks, dedicated computer lines, telephone lines and satellite links" (as cited by Sutherland and Stewart, p.1). "Barely a decade later, the Internet had come to include more than 2 million host computers, a growth largely driven by the popularity of the Web, which only became available in 1990" (Sutherland and Stewart, p.1). "Lehnert (1998) stated that this rapid growth of the Web stemmed from the increased availability of inexpensive, powerful computers, widespread access to the Internet, the combination of the easy to use HTML and graphics, readily available Web browsers, and significant a ttention given to the Web by the mass media" (as cited by Sutherland and Stewart, p.1). Starr said that "[T]he Web, with its innovations in the areas of hypertext, multimedia, and interactivity, has had a profound impact on higher education" (as cited by Sutherland and Stewart, p.1). According to Barnard (1997), "[U]niversity administrators, partially driven by market forces, value the Web as a vehicle to market their institution as well as to deliver distance learning" (as cited by Sutherland and Stewart, p.

What Are the Statistics on Cooperative Learning

WHAT ARE THE STATISTICS ON COOPERATIVE LEARNING ANYWAY? Cooperative learning has been debated by educators for a long time and continues to be questioned today. Many educators feel that cooperative learning strips students of the benefits of direct instruction. Proponents of homogeneous learning tend to stray from cooperative learning because it seems to deprive gifted students of learning with their gifted peers.Five studies will be summarized that look at different aspects of cooperative learning: effects with the learning disabled, the advantage of helping behaviors, math achievement, strategic reading in groups, social support, and heterogeneous vs. homogeneous grouping. A study was conducted to find out if students with learning difficulties interacted positively in cooperative learning groups. This study also looked at the importance of training students to work together as opposed to just putting them in groups to complete tasks (Gillies & Ashman, 2000). The study looked at 15 2 third grade students from Australia.Twenty-two of those students had learning difficulties (12 boys and 10 girls). The students were randomly placed in cooperative learning groups of five to six students consisting of one high-ability student, two medium-ability students, and one low-ability student. The Otis-Lennon School Ability Test measured learning ability and grade level readiness. An ANOVA test showed no significant difference between the structured groups (those trained to work cooperatively) and the unstructured groups (those not trained to work together) at the onset of the study.During the study period the structured group received the treatment of cooperative learning training before completing a social studies unit (independent variable). The unstructured group was encouraged to work together as a group and given the same time period to complete the social studies unit, but they never received training for such group work. The students were videotaped twice during the study to observe behaviors and interactions, and they were given comprehension and word reading pre- and posttests. The researchers focused their findings on the students with learning difficulties.There was no significant difference in the behaviors of students in the structured or unstructured groups. However, there were significant findings regarding group interactions. Those students in the structured groups interacted and benefited from interactions significantly more than students in the unstructured groups. Students in the structured group also reached greater achievement on the comprehension posttest than those from the unstructured groups. No significant findings resulted in the word reading posttest between the two groups.The authors did find that this study supported that students with learning difficulties do benefit from working in small, structured cooperative groups (Gillies & Ashman, 2000). Nattiv’s study of cooperative learning (1994) focused on four topics: Do helping behaviors found in cooperative groups have a link to achievement gains in third, fourth, and fifth grade math students? Did gender, grade, or ability level within cooperative groups affect achievement? Do all helping behaviors benefit academic achievement? Does gender, grade, or ability level have an effect on the helping behaviors exhibited? Nattiv, 1994)). The subjects included 36 third-grade students, 34 fourth-grade students, and 31 fifth-grade students. Fifty-four of those students were male and the remaining 47 were females. The children were ability grouped from the results of the California Test of Basic Skills and the Southwest Regional Lab (both math assessments). Males and females were separately grouped as high-, medium-, and low-ability. The author states that these pretest results could be seen as achievement rather than ability, but the teachers of the students were consulted about the placement of the students (Nattiv, 1994).All of the students received d irect instruction, modeling, and practice of helping behaviors in cooperative group learning. Teachers also received training in this area. The groups, then, participated in grade-level appropriate math units. Students were further encouraged to work cooperatively because individual improvement on assessments also earned team points. Data was collected by audio and video recordings. The research team hypothesized that helping behaviors would be related to achievement. Achievement gain would be used as the dependent variable and would be measured by an ANCOVA test.The team found that there was a significant relationship to students using helping behaviors in cooperative learning groups to academic achievement gain. The only behaviors that did not show significant growth were the giving and receiving of answers without explanation (Nattiv, 1994). Another study conducted in Southeastern United States focused on a different type of cooperative learning called Collaborative Strategic Rea ding. Klingner, Vaughn, and Schumm (1998) sought to discover if this program would be effective in a heterogeneous classroom.They further wanted to analyze reading comprehension, social studies content, and student interactions in conjunction with this technique (Klingner, Vaughn, & Schumm, 1998). The participants included 141 students. Eighty-five students were split into three classes to represent the treatment group (or intervention condition), and 56 students were split into two classes to represent the control condition. To ensure equal groupings the students were assessed with the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, then paired and randomly assigned to conditions.Both conditions received the same instruction, number of sessions, time periods per session, and homework activities. The intervention condition received instructions on how to use specific reading strategies to read strategically. The strategies were modeled, practiced, used in small groups, and then encouraged wh en students broke off into their cooperative groups of five to six students. The control condition received direct instruction for the same social studies material and participated in all lessons as a whole group.Sessions within the intervention condition were audiotaped to hear student interactions. The Gates-MacGinitie Standardized Reading test and a social studies unit test served as dependent variables to measure student achievement. The researchers of this study did find these strategies to be successful. The strategies caused the students of the intervention condition to participate more and discuss more academic content. The students also received higher achievement gains in reading comprehension, while also finding success on the social studies testing.LD students and LEP students did not show statistically significant growth, but did show some growth. Not all of the strategies proved to be successful for the intervention condition, but most did serve their purpose (Klingner , et al. , 1998). Johnson, Johnson, Buckman, and Richards (2001) were only interested in the social aspects of cooperative learning. â€Å"The purpose of the present study was to determine whether cooperative learning experiences are related to social support in the classroom,† (Johnson, Johnson, Buckman, & Richards, 2001).The researchers used The Classroom Life Instrument to measure their data. It included 59 Likert-type questions rating statements on a five point scale of truthfulness. The measure was taken in November and January of the same school year. The sample included five eighth-grade classes with 45 girls and 46 boys. They were divided by those who reported being in cooperative groups less than half of the time (35 students) and participating half of the time or more (56 students). The hypothesis was that students would feel more social support in classrooms experiencing cooperative learning more often.Between November and January, research found that students did indeed feel more support with more exposure to cooperative learning. Support was felt by teachers and other students. Students felt more comfortable with materials presented and felt less alienated in the classroom. Students felt more responsible for what they were doing and had a better relationship among classmates both academically and personally (Johnson, et al. , 2001). Grouping students heterogeneously is typically a cooperative learning â€Å"must. Watson and Marshall (1995) wanted to test that theory in a study comparing the effectiveness of heterogeneous grouping and homogeneous grouping in cooperative task structures (Watson & Marshall, 1995). Thirty-five undergraduate elementary education students in a life science class were chosen to participate in this study. In this 13 week treatment, the independent variable was in the grouping of students. Six of the groups were arranged heterogeneously and six groups were arranged homogeneously.All groups were exposed to cooperati ve task structures, cooperative incentive structures, and individual accountability. Control was measured by the National Association of Biology Teachers/ National Science Teachers Association test (form A) before the treatment began. The dependent variable was taken from the results of the NABT/NSTA (form B) posttest. A five-item, five-point Liken scale was used to measure student response to the cooperative learning experiences. The authors felt that greater achievement would be gained by students heterogeneously placed in cooperative learning groups. They were rejected.Findings indicated no significant difference in test results from the heterogeneous groups to the homogeneous groups. In fact, in measuring the students’ perceptions of their experiences the homogeneous groups rated their experiences higher than those of the heterogeneous groups. The authors concluded that further studies should be done to find out if heterogeneous grouping is the most beneficial in all coop erative learning tasks (Watson & Marshall, 1995). I am a strong supporter, and user, of cooperative learning. I feel that students best learn from the modeling of those they can relate to most: their peers.After reviewing these studies I have not only gained a better understanding of what might be needed to strengthen cooperative learning in the education of my students, but I also feel validated in my use of cooperative learning as an effective learning tool. While some of the researchers did reject initial hypotheses, all of them showed value in the practice of cooperative learning. It is important to teach students how to work cooperatively, model good helping behaviors, and help students to receive not only strong academic support but strong social support as well.Finally, heterogeneous grouping may not be best in every experience in the classroom. Different group experiences may be needed to enhance the benefits. References Gillies, R. M. & Ashman, A. F. (2000). The effects of cooperative learning on students with learning difficulties in the lower elementary school. Journal of Special Education, 34(1), 19-27. Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, R. T. , Buckman, L. A. , & Richards, P. S. (2001). The effect of prolonged implementation of cooperative learning on social support within the classroom. The Journal of Psychology, 119(5), 405-411.Klingner, J. K. , Vaughn, S. , & Schumm, J. S. (1998). Collaborative strategic reading during social studies in heterogeneous fourth-grade classrooms. The Elementary School Journal, 99(1), 3-22. Nattiv, A. (1994). Helping behaviors and math achievement gain of students using cooperative learning. The Elementary School Journal, 94(3), 285-297. Watson, S. B. & Marshall, J. E. (1995). Heterogeneous grouping as an element of cooperative learning in an elementary education science course. School Science & Mathematics, 95(8), 401-406.