Evil in the Environment Essay

John Locke is a philosopher known for introducing various significant concepts to different fields of studies. His work encompasses the fields of psychology, political science, and philosophy. One of his main contributions is his assertion that the human mind is completely empirical.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This principle would lead one to believe that every human being is born into this world having the same capacity. All human minds are empty slates (tabula rasa) when one is just born. (Hooker, 1999) Behavior is acquired through the various empirical experiences that a human being undergoes. Moral behavior stems from an individual’s empirical experiences. (Hooker, 1999) As such, it can be assumed that all immoral behavior or all â€Å"evil† is the product of the environment rather than individual. (Hooker, 1999) Such line of reasoning will lead us to assume that evil from the environment can be eradicated by a simple change in human thinking and behavior. This is known as the third â€Å"premise† of the enlightenment thinkers.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The said premise remains to be significant in today’s time and age. For one, it helps people today realize that the evil that pervades in society today can be erased by humans themselves. Moreover, it teaches society that there is still hope for a better world and the fulfillment of such dreams lies in the reformation of human beings and society itself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The primary effect of such premise on society is that it gives the responsibility for the evil in the world on the shoulders of people. Fingers cannot be pointed to the heavens or to other creatures to blame them for the evil that continues to exist in the world. Rather, the premise asserts that the evil in the world is the product of human misbehavior. Human wrong doing has created the immorality that exists in the world today. However, the most important lesson that Locke’s principle teaches us today is that just as the responsibility for the evil in the world lies in our hands, so does the responsibility to change and eradicate such evil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are many ways by which humans can reform and change their environment. Locke had asserted that education is the primary way by which the moral and intellectual character of the human being can be changed for the better. (Hooker, 1999) Such assertion remains to be significant in today’s society. What the premise tells us is that education is even more valuable today for it is the way by which the world can be made better. Education exists not simply for the betterment of the individual’s own life. It is not for the sole purpose of helping someone find a better job, a better way of life. Education’s primary purpose is to help every human being to determine how he can help make the world a better place. It is through education that society can reform its ways and help remove evil from the environment. Thus, the role of education is society is exemplified by the third â€Å"premise.† The role of education becomes ever more important and significant basing on what has been stated in the premise. The future of today’s society lies in the hands of human beings. The betterment of the world and the eradication of evil are the responsibilities of all human beings. Just as they can create evil, they can erase them. Reformation of one’s ways is the manner by which evil in our â€Å"faulty environment† can be obliterated. Works Cited: Hooker, Richard. Seventeenth Century Enlightenment Thought. 1999. World Civilizations. 12 Dec. 2006 from: http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ENLIGHT/PREPHIL.HTM.

Fruits and Seed Dispersal

Fruits and Seed Dispersal Nicole Saylor Meiko M. Thompson BIO 115 11/25/12 In this essay I will be answering questions about fruit and as to the reason why things are the way they are†¦ First up is some fruits are sweet and some are not is because, â€Å"Actually, the taste of a fruit depends on the compounds  present in it. Normally a fruit contains the  materials  like cellulose, proteins, starch, vitamins, certain acids,  fructose  or sugar. All these  materials  are found in mixed form inside the fruit and they have different proportions in different fruits.Fruits of  sweet taste have more  fructose  in them  whereas  the  fruits of  sour taste have more acids in them. † (Gemini Geek) so this means that the more or less acid a fruit has then more sweeter or more sour it will taste, and that all means something with no taste really to is to say to have no acid , or sugars that would give it a particular taste. The next in line is that the ri pening of a fruit and the seed dispersal go hand in hand in such a way that when a fruit ripens it is a signal from production mode of a seed to the dispersal of a mature seed that is ready to become another plant to create the dame cycle over again.To help explain this for example, â€Å"n dry fruits (cereals, nuts, dandelions) ripening consists of desiccation and is considered maturation. Ripening in fleshy fruits is designed to make the fruit appealing to animals that eat the fruit as a means for seed dispersal. Ripening involves the softening, increased juiciness and sweetness, and color changes of the fruit. Fleshy fruits are either climacteric or non-climacteric. Climacteric fruits produce a reparative burst with a concomitant burst in ethylene synthesis, as the fruits ripen. These include fruits with high degrees of flesh softening, like tomato, banana, avocado, peach etc. (Lecture 17)So we see that in this process of ripening and seed dispersal are that it is the plants way of making sure that the seeds that it produced to carry on and make more fruit plants or trees happens by making the fruit itself more appealing to animals which will at and then later disperse the seeds. The next question to address is how do we play a role in all of this and how do we effect it basically. Well we humans affect this natural process when we take over the land and granted that plants were here long before we were and before animals were.So plants have been able to grow without our aid if fertilizing the soil and etc†¦ For example, â€Å"Unlike colonist plants, the deep forests of our planet are largely independent from us. They don’t need us to prepare the ground or disperse their seeds. Plants, after all, colonized dry land well before animals did, and were doing quite well, on their own, before we arrived. Some kinds of trees need little help from animals of any sort. Because they don’t need our help, these trees have little to gain by feeding us. This is why we often find that there is relatively little food to be had in mature forests.You can’t eat wood. †(Kyle Chamberlain) So see plants were reproducing before animals and us but granted when animals came along it did make the seed dispersal process a lot easier. As far as I can see that a seed does not use sugar or starch for its metabolism unless it developing then yes. Because when a seed is developing it needs these to grow into a mature seed that can be dispersed, but since this seed has become mature and is dispersed then it start growing and producing its own sugars and starches from the light and dark process of photosynthesis.References The Gemini Geek (2012). Why Are Some Fruits Sweet While Others Are Sour? [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www. thegeminigeek. com/why-are-some-fruits-sweet-while-others-are-sour/ Iowa State University (2012). Lecture 17 [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www. public. iastate. edu/~bot. 512/lectures/seed&frui t. htm Chamberlin, K. (2012). Disturbance Ecology – The Human Habitat Project [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://sites. google. com/site/humanhabitatproject/home/disturbance-ecology

Sunshine center Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Sunshine center - Case Study Example Under the church’s control, the Sunshine is under the management of Barb who had no prior experience as a teacher, childcare provider or manager. The resignation of the first Sunshine Center committee led to the formation of a two person committee comprising of Olivia as the secretary and Sarah as the chair of the committee with the Rev. Andrew as an ex-officio member. The new committee has noticed some inconsistencies in the running of the center especially its finances. The Sunshine center need a radical overhaul inn terms of its financial management and its overall operating protocols and procedures. This paper aims to provide an outline of the organizational structure and specific internal control activities that must be in place for Sunshine Center Committee and the church to consider keeping the Sunshine Center open. The Sunshine Center lacks a clear organizational structure as Barb carrying out all the organizational duties all on her own exemplifies it. This puts her i n a position of stress because she handles every issue concerned with running the organization. Barb is responsible for both the human resource and financial management of the organization, which diminishes the effectiveness, and efficiency of the organization’s management. ... The development of a monetary or financial policy to govern how the organization’s funds will be managed is dependent on competent governance. Administration is another arm of an organization’s internal structure that is concerned with the execution of policy recommendations. Olivia who can coordinate staff duties in achieving the goals of the organization should handle this task. The primary program that is the concern of Sunshine Center is to deliver affordable childcare to the community served by the church. This endeavor should be handled like a program with its head being responsible for spearheading the goals and objectives of the center in delivering quality child care to the community. To achieve internal control according to Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission  (COSO), Sunshine Center Committee must institute changes at all levels of management and their standard operational procedures. Internal control is described as a process t hat is affected by an organization’s board of directors and management that is meant to provide reasonable assurance in the attainment of objectives and goals. Internal control ensures that there is effective and efficient operational management and reliable financial reporting. Internal controls will ensure that Sunshine center is compliant with applicable and necessary laws and regulations like the filing of tax returns with the IRS. The institution of appropriate internal controls will see Sarah and Olivia safeguard the Sunshine center’s assets. Financial reporting is the key weakness at Sunshine Center, which exposes the organization to risks of litigation from the IRS and their creditors. Instituting an internal control at the Sunshine center will ensure that the execution

Autism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words - 1

Autism - Essay Example This estimate have risen in recent years due to more awareness about Autism. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), also known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) along with the developmental disorders that fall under its umbrella are disorders are characterized by deficits in social and communication skills. The Autism Spectrum Disorders include: Asperger’s Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Autism Disorder, Child Disintegrative Disorder and Rett Syndrome. In recent years, diagnoses of Autism have increased both in breadth and in depth. The increase in the prevalence of this developmental disorder to 1 in 88 children has become so alarming that many parents and practitioners have been more diligent in knowing more about it. Zalla et al. (2006) has encapsulated the definition of Autism as follows: It is â€Å"a complex developmental disorder characterised by severe difficulties in communication, social interactions, and executive functions. Social and communication disturbances are generally explained in terms of a defective neurocognitive mechanism responsible for the attribution of thoughts and feelings to oneself and to others† (p. 527). The many symptoms presented by individuals with Autism have been inconsistent in pointing to just one disorder that is why it had to be spread out to various disorders within the Autism spectrum. Although there are overlaps of symptoms, there are also categorical clusters that belong to one disorder that can be differentiated from another disorder. Under the umbrella of the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) exists the highest functioning Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) subtype called Asperger’s Syndrome (Kurita, Koyama & Osada, 2005). This is characterized by several deficits in age-appropriate social interactions and restricted,

Professionalism and Time Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Professionalism and Time Management - Essay Example Professionalism is the practice of engaging an activity, business or an occupation with utmost competency required in the practice. Professionalism ensures that an individual provides quality and efficiency in the outcome of his or her job (Clark & Kasar, 2009). It exhibits the qualities or characteristics of a professional person. Without professionalism, one can never attend to his or her tasks with the required integrity and ethics. (Clark & Kasar, 2009). Various factors contribute to improper time management. Some could be genuinely inevitable while outright laziness and improper planning define other reasons. Because I am regularly late for my lab sessions, it is vital to come up with effective time management skills to curb this problem (Clark & Kasar, 2009). Having a personal or self-reflection about the problem, and seeking necessary knowledge of the nature of the problem and prospective solutions is a major step to undertake toward establishing a solution.My problem is often caused by work and long distance to the laboratories. In this case scenario, I will have to come up with a timetable that would administer all my daily undertakings. It must be obeyed unless of an inevitable emergency that is more indispensable. Having mentioned that, I would rationalize my schedule and start my daily tasks earlier that normally in order to account for the long distance that for a long time has hindered me from punctuality. (Clark & Kasar, 2009).

Operations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 9

Operations Management - Essay Example The manner of creating these goods and services is the purview of operations management. As a field of endeavour, operations management â€Å"deals with the design and management of products, processes, services, and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want.† (MIT Sloan School of Management, 2009) It may be said that the operations function is the heart and soul of business. It is that organizational activity which actually gives birth to the good or service which is the reason for the firm’s existence. The operations manager stands at the helm of the operations department, and plans, organizes, directs and controls its performance. He determines, in line with the organization’s overall goals, the strategic, tactical, and operational activities undertaken. Strategic issues involve the implementation of long-term goals of the corporation, and are usually decided upon by the corporation’s board of directors, or the owner or proprietor of the small firm. Issues decided by the operations manager that are within the scope of strategic management are those that yield decisions of a relatively permanent nature, and usually require substantial capital outlay. They include determining the size of the manufacturing plants or the capacity of the equipment, as well as their location, deciding which telecommunications networks to have installed, and designing technology supply chains. Should the operations manager make a mistake in planning and implementing strategic issues, it would profoundly compromise the company’s survival. The operations manager also deals with tactical issues the operations manager. These decisions involve the relatively medium-term prospects of the business, and while not as far-ranging as strategic issues, could also entail a substantial loss for the

The Enlightenment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The Enlightenment - Research Paper Example What best defines this age is the collection of philosophers and mathematicians that brought these new ideas into being. Some of the most famous of these philosophers were John Locke, David Hume, Adam Smith, Montesquieu and Voltaire. The Age of Enlightenment had thinkers from many of the major powers in Europe such as Germany, Spain, Russia, Poland, England and Scotland. These Enlightenment thinkers, though not Americans, had a profound influence on American history. It is through the writings of these philosophers of the Enlightenment that lead the Founding Fathers of the United States to place such emphasis on personal freedom, property rights, a balance of powers in government and republicanism. The very best way to see the influence the Age of Enlightenment has on American history is to examine some of the thoughts of the leading philosophers and then trace how they influenced the foundational documents of the United States. Of all the Enlightenment thinkers, John Locke was perha ps the most influential over the American revolutionaries. Locke was an Englishman, the son of a lawyer and well educated at some of the finest schools. He studies medicine because he grew tired of studying the classical philosophers. As many philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, he sought to apply reason and empiricism to a broad variety of topics. As a result, Locke wrote influential essays on government, religion, the nature of individuality, monetary policy and property. John Locke believed that individuals were important. This is a foundation belief of liberalism, so many view Locke as the Father of Liberalism. He said that people come into the world as a blank slate. He rejected notions that people were inherently sinful and should therefore be indebted to god and the Church their entire lives. He also rejected the idea that people were born knowing good from evil and right from wrong (Meyers, Cawelti and Kern, 1967). This belief in the impressionability of the individual led Locke to conclude that social institutions provided by governments were very important. Schools, libraries, and prisons all served their purpose in sustaining a civil society. Locke held that the natural state of humanity was one where the strongest could rule over the weak through brute force. A civil society was developed, nurtured and encouraged by just social institutions. This was the purpose of government. Any government that did not allow for the development of the individual self would never truly achieve the civil society, which was Locke’s ideal. He believed that certain conditions needed to be established by the government that would allow for the individual to develop a strong sense of self. Their sense of self would in turn, produce a citizenry that was responsive and active in the government. The relationship between citizens and the government were based upon something Locke referred to as the social contract. In essence, the social contract says that indiv iduals willingly give up some of their freedom in order to organize a government that places some restrictions on activities. The contract between government and citizens includes the understanding that government should only exist to serve the people in a manner that will help humanity move from a

Changing roles of women in japan Research Paper

Changing roles of women in japan - Research Paper Example Moreover, the Taisho era in the year 1912 perpetuated Japan’s journey to the corresponding modernity by embracing more Western cultures. The gender building of the women within Japanese society altered from the Tokugawa epoch to the corresponding World War I. Within the epochs of Tokugawa and Meiji, women were mainly assigned family responsibilities and duties and possessed restricted rights. Nevertheless, during the era of Taisho and subsequent to World War I, women commenced to foster for equality thereby rebuffing the underlying traditional gender ideologies. Numerous women did not subscribe to the traditional gender responsibilities by either becoming geishas or prostitutes. This resulted to numerous debates amongst both the female and corresponding male activists in regard to the issues of women’s responsibilities that were seen as means of eliminating prostitutions (Yu, 89-125). The role of women within Japan is extremely diverse as compared to the responsibility of the modern day women within the western civilization. Nevertheless, this the same to the responsibility women undertake within the American forty years ago. Presently women within Japan are required to devote their underlying energies in bringing up their offspring whilst men dedicate themselves to careers (Farris, 122-245). Nevertheless, there is an escalation within Japanese women in regard to expressing interest in the full time careers. Majority of the women are young and single without offspring. Moreover, they are extremely educated (Mo?hwald, 23-79). Literature review Since 1940’s women in japan have pursued to modify the old-fashioned responsibility of a working woman who turn into a mother and a housewife after marriage.... Since 1940’s women in japan have pursued to modify the old-fashioned responsibility of a working woman who turn into a mother and a housewife after marriage. This is clearly elaborated in their perception of Japanese family organization and matrimony. The present society demonstrates an upcoming group of young and educated women who pursue a career as a working woman while also still take part in their reproductive roles. The transformation mainly began after World War II when Japanese women developed rather a more personal approach to life. Initially, Women waited to become older in order to marry, most of them often lived at home longer, visiting to Hawaii, and contributing to the economic development with their little income. In general, the present Japanese society is characterized with the decline in arranged marriages; instead many women are taking responsibility to find themselves husbands. In comparison to the past, women continue to work even after marriage and giving birth. Nonetheless the adjustments in the society, married women who work are still considered a threat to the family. Inequality between women and men is still enormous regardless of the new reforms and different attitudes towards traditional family life. The notion can be justified with the popular traditional expression that states that â€Å"Good wife, wise mother. As it is a tradition in many countries and cultural practices of different communities of the world, women in Japan were oppressed and dominated by their male counterparts for a very long time.

The Planned Economy VS. The Free

The Planned Economy VS. The Free Market Economy Essay The Planned Economy which is the economy that the government organises is very different from the Free Market Economy where the private sector is in charge and owns firms etc The planned economy is better in the sense that people are less stressed due to not having to worry about their next meal or other, due to the government supplying their basic needs like housing, medical care, food, clothes, education, a job, so nobody is unemployed yet all get paid the same amount more or less. People are not paid very much, maybe 3 dollars per month, but it is all that is needed, countries like Cuba get most of their countries money from tourism, and still have fairly good public education, a good transport system and it is said that they have excellent medical care, and people in Cuba get all medical care needed for free including operations and medicine. Meanwhile in the free market economy their are very poor people in the lower classes that have absolutely no food and could starve to death, and the very rich that are to involved in themselves that they do not care about others. but it is also better because their is freedom of expression. You also get paid according to how hard you try and the effort you put into things. Their is a better allocation of resources because each business or firm tries to allocate resources in a better way due to competition, trying to produce either more at a better quality for a lower price or just trying to be better than somebody else, and selling your better quality goods. This is good because their is a variety of choices and better quality good than their would be in a planned economy because in a planned economy everything is the same for everybody. I believe that the better economy is the Free Market Economy is more challenging.

Different Cultures Learning Styles Essay Example for Free

Different Cultures Learning Styles Essay The word culture has been derived from the Latin word â€Å"cultura† which means to cultivate (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2009). Generally it refers to the manners, norms, values, knowledge, attitudes, art, habits and behavioral practices that are preferred and chosen as ideal by majority of the people of the society. With the encroachment and progress in the hi-tech world of today, different cultures across the globe have rapidly undergone the process of acculturation. Thus, learning of diverse cultures around the globe is not a big issue. There are various styles by which one can easily get versed with the multitude of cultures. Some of the styles are as follows. Worldly classroom set up If we have a look at different traditional classrooms of different countries, as well as different classrooms in various cities within one country; we will witness that a number of similarities and differences exist. There are some common factors like discipline, teaching atmosphere, syllabus, curriculum, learning, traditional teaching tools and classroom sitting style; that are common to all classrooms in any part of the world. The difference comes in the degree of effectiveness in teaching, learning, resource input, extra facilities like heating and cooling system, comfortable sitting arrangements and provision of latest technology etc. These factors definitely contribute to creating differences in the scale of learning among the students. Traditional Classrooms around the world Another very popular and effective style of learning culture is the traditional classrooms around the world. Traditional classroom tends to favor cultural learning to its fullest. It is one of the best places where students can interact for a long duration and learn different regional cultural aspects with the passage of time. Interaction of young students with their fellow age group students and teacher with the students definitely promotes broadening of cultural patterns. These written and unwritten rules, which we call culture, consciously or unconsciously, affect people around us. Students at an early young age being quick observers and imitators are swift in picking, absorbing and following various cultural traits and values. Thus, classroom either at primary, secondary or higher level plays a vital role in learning one’s own as well as other cultures prevailing around us. Today’s American culture verses others If we look into different cultures prevailing across the globe, we see impressions of American culture on rest of the world; reason being advanced technological development. America has played a vital role in diffusing its cultural traits to other cultures. Whether it is progressivism, technology, living patterns, habits, music, entertainment and even mind sets of the people; American influence is clearly visible. Nevertheless, many of the traditional and deeply embedded cultures like Islamic, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Greek cultures still are maintaining their identity, and have truly preserved their norms and values to a great extent. CUSTOMS AND COURTEOUS Taboo of learning in world cultures Every culture in every society observes certain taboos and manners. There are certain issues and topics that are considered forbidden in some cultures like restrictions on sexual activities and relationships, restriction on various diets, incest taboos, exposure of body parts, social-economic class, medical disorders and diseases, alcoholism, depression and divorce. Taboos vary from culture to culture; a taboo in one culture might not be a taboo in another. These taboos are learnt via culture and transmitted to generations. Adapting in different societies Adaptation level of culture and manners varies from society to society. There are various factors like education, technological advancements, public awareness, and values among the old generation that play their role in the adaptation of the culture. Researches have shown that technological advance societies have greater tendency to accept change and modifications as compared to the traditional backward societies (Whitehead, 2005). Learning styles in different communities Learning styles also vary from society to society. For example some societies are seen under great influence of electronic media like TV, radio, and internet. Where as some get inspiration from print material, poetry, literature, newspapers, and classrooms. In illiterate societies people have their leaders, teachers, religious scholars, parents and grandparents as a source of learning. TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASS ROOM The progress of classroom learning Importance of the traditional classroom learning can never be ignored in any society, thus with the advancement in technology, teaching as well as learning has now become a trouble-free chore. Gone are the days when teachers just used to use simple black board for communication. Progress in the classroom learning can easily witnessed with the use of tools like multimedia, overhead projector, computer, audio and video tapes etc (Integrated Publishing). Many Audio Visual aids are available to teachers so they can perform their job quite comfortably. Making use of virtual class rooms has facilitated the teachers in loads. It saves a lot resources and time when the instructor and learner communicate from their locations. It further promotes distant learning, and makes the learning process enjoyable and reasonably priced (Integrated Publishing). Degrees pertaining to technology A lot of degrees that are related to technology are being offered these days. Computer science, instructional technology degree, technology in distance education, diplomas in virtual education, teleconferencing courses etc are definitely rewarding degrees in today’s modern day. Well advanced students with technologies today The amalgamation of Internet with the latest technological aids has played a vital role in enhancing the learning process among the students. Utilization of technology has no doubt drastically brought several changes in the learning of the individuals. Teleconferencing, virtual universities, online degrees and distance learning have very well equipped the students with latest tools and techniques (Conner, 2006). Moreover it provided the students with an opportunity to interact with a number of qualified teachers and students from within their homes. Several chat rooms, discussion forums are available in order to facilitate the students in broadening their views and thinking. We can safely say that well advanced students are equipped with latest technology today (Conner, 2006). POST SECONDARY LEARNING AROUND THE GLOBE Education in America Generally it is believed that education in America provides chances and corridors to achievement. Post secondary educational learning in American society carries great value and importance, as it contributes to the social, economic, cultural, political, mental and visual development of the nation. It therefore focuses on the expansion of critical thinking, promotion of exploration and research, problem solving, developing insight, adopting skills and proficiency among the youth. So that nation could be gifted with highly professional, mobile, innovative and productive individuals at higher levels. Education in Japan If we look into the post secondary educational learning in Japan, we observe that the aims and objectives prevailing are not much different from those prevailing in America. Both being highly advanced and developed countries, more or less focus on similar learning methods. Impacts of European methods of learning are also visible. However, along with similarities, Japanese educational learning system does have some uniqueness as well, like the Special course schools are similar to non-university education in US. Education in Australia An influx of migrants from more than 100 countries, Australia is basically a British-European society. In earlier times post secondary education meant university education. Main aim behind the post secondary education is the development of mental power (intellect), university should be the center of professional training of students. Along with this, in order to cope with the latest trends it is indispensable to inculcate in students such abilities that will help them to become experts in a specific field of study, put out their best and add to the relevant work in their field. It too has influences of British and American educational learning on it. Conclusion In today’s society, there are a multitude of different cultures. In this paper you will learn about the different types of learning styles around the world. You will also be able to understand the different how technology has greatly improved learning and how different regions of the world have different technologies used for learning. References Conner, M. L. (2006). Introduction to a e-Learning Culture. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from Ageless Learner: http://agelesslearner. com/intros/elc. html Integrated Publishing. (n. d. ). THE SELECTION AND USE OF AUDIOVISUAL (AV) AIDS. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from Integrated Publishing: http://www. tpub. com/content/religion/14229/css/14229_324. htm National Governors Association. (2007). Innovation America. A compact for Postsecondary Education . National Governors Association. Online Etymology Dictionary. (2009). Retrieved July 22, 2009, from Online Etymology Dictionary: http://www. etymonline. com/index. php? search=culturesearchmode=none Whitehead, B. (2005, Oct 24). Educational technology allows for flexibility in learning and teaching. Retrieved July 22, 2009, from web-conferencing-zone. com: http://www. web-conferencing-zone. com/4030-educational-technology. htm

Social Work Evidence Based Practice Strengths and Weaknesses

Social Work Evidence Based Practice Strengths and Weaknesses Critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using an evidence based approach to a specific area of social work practice, referring to recent research findings in this area. Specific area: Older adults and mental health Outlined below is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of using an evidence based approach to a specific area of social work practice, referring to recent findings with regards to older people and mental health in particular. Social work practice is split into various areas in order, to effectively assist with the problems of different individuals as well as social groups such as older adults with, or affected by mental health conditions and problems such as depression and dementia. Older adults with mental health conditions do and have benefited from well-focused social work practices. The use of the evidence based approach alone or alongside other factors has the capacity to shape social work practices designed to help and protect older adults with mental health conditions. Of course to maintain relevance as well as professional effectiveness social work practices should reflect the needs of the people being cared for not to mention altering to better practices as empirically demonstrated by the most recent research findings.[1] As mentioned below evidence based approaches to assisting older people with mental health conditions or issues have led to suggested methods to improve the social work practices that form the basis of the services provided for those vulnerable people that need to use them being made.[2] Social workers that are tasked with assisting older people with, or affected by mental health problems ideally should use the social work practices that have been proven to assist vulnerable older people the most. Therefore evidence-based approaches can help social workers determine the best working practices to actually use. To begin with it can be reasonably argued that using an evidence-based approach to the specific social work practices offers social workers working with older people linked with mental health issues strengths. The need for reliable and accurate research into older people and mental health for social work practices is undoubtedly becoming more important as the British population in common with many Western societies is ageing as people are generally living for longer. [3] Past and recent medical research has frequently shown that there is a strong connection between an ageing population taken as a whole and mental health issues becoming more common for older people. An ageing population raises issues and concerns for the National Health Service (NHS), and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which includes the Pension Service as much as it does for social work practices.[4] Limited parts of medical research points to some mental health issues or conditions in older people as being preventable, and even in certain circumstances reversible. Social work practices ideally should be altered if it is possible to assist older people that can recover from temporary or reversible mental health problems to do so. However some mental health conditions and problems affecting older people such as vascular and senile dementia cannot be prevented and reversed, though medication can delay their full onset. In such circumstances NHS or private sector health care services not to mention social work practices have to be adjusted to cope with a higher demand for their use. When possible social work practices should be altered in order to prevent, tackle, or reverse the mental health conditions and that could possibly restore older people to full health. Social work practices should also help older people whose mental health conditions cannot be reversed.[5] When older adults are affected by mental health conditions whether upon a short – term basis or upon a long – term basis then social work practices arguably needs to be adaptable as well as practical enough to assist those older adults more effectively. Older adults with mental health  conditions may previously have been active normal people used to doing everything for them that suddenly find things much more difficult once their condition or illness becomes well established. Ongoing medical research is slowly finding new treatments that can in the right circumstances help older adults with mental health conditions and illnesses remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible. The basic assumption here is that when older adults with mental health conditions stay healthier for a longer period of time they could therefore be less reliant upon their carers, the NHS, social security benefits, as well as the social serves provided to them by social workers.[6] The reversing or the delaying of the worst or most debilitating of mental health conditions in older adults can help those people to lead normal and independent lives for as long as possible. Older adults that are able to resist or overcome the worst consequences of their mental health conditions will be more likely to retain their self-dignity as well as their independence. It is the leading of independent lives by the older adults affected to varying degrees by mental health conditions that can potentially receive the most beneficial assistance from their social workers as well as all relevant medical staff. Social work practice that enables older adults to remain in their homes and were possible within their own families gives such vulnerable people a sense of stability as well as helping to keep them in familiar surroundings. The strengths of using evidence based approach to guide and shape social work practices towards older adults with mental health conditions are therefore in many respects straightforward to understand. As in the majority of social work fields or areas, social workers make use of an evidence-based approach to increase the effectiveness of the social work services that they actually provide to the people who require their assistance the most. Using an evidence-based approach provides data or research that provided it is gathered efficiently and interpreted accurately provides information to social workers to point out the most effective social work practices. Using an evidence based approach has the strength of allowing the social workers who form social work practices to alter those practices to help larger numbers of older adults with mental health conditions to receive the social work services that should benefit them the most. It should also follow on logically that using an evidence-based approach would allow the resources and also the social services by the social work providers to be used most effectively. Older adults with mental health conditions can influence the type of social work provided to them by highlighting the best as well as the less effective social work practices.[7] At the end of the day social work practices are only there to help the most vulnerable older adults amongst other social groups and isolated individuals even though these social work practices might not always be popular with social workers themselves. The strength as well as the point of using the evidence-based approach is therefore that the best interests of the most vulnerable older adults with mental health conditions should always is taken into account.[8] Indeed the best interests of the most vulnerable older people as revealed via the use of the evidence-based approach are incorporated into both completely new as well as revised social work practices. In theory, and also to a very large extent in practice the use of the evidence based approach is that it has the strength of providing social workers with information and indications about, which older adults that need help due to their mental health conditions and issues.[9] The evidence based approach means social workers know where to concentrate help as well as guidance as to what kind of social work service would be most useful for these older adults.[10] There are actually as well as potentially sources of weakness when using the evidence based approach in forming and subsequently amending when necessary social work practices in relation to older adults with mental health conditions or issues. The evidence based approach to providing information with regard to older adults with mental health conditions is only useful in many respects when combined with other information or procedures that form the basis of social work practices.[11] To begin with social workers might have to make decisions with regard to the help or social services that individual older adults with mental health conditions or problems and whether or not to offer them help before the evidence based approach has provided enough information about these specific older adults.[12] It can and indeed does take time for the evidence based approach to be gathered and evaluated before it is strong enough to alter or perhaps even entirely replace all the relevant social work practices. Social workers need to have social work practices set in place all of the time in order for them to be always able to offer vulnerable older adults their help and advice with regard to mental health conditions. When or if existing social work practices are deemed to be highly effective in helping as well as protecting older adults with mental health conditions there would have to be convincing evidence. Without wide ranging proof that the findings and suggestions from the ev idence-based approach could offer profound improvements to the social work services they need not take place. It could improve the social services available for older adults that need or could eventually need to use them in the future.[13] One of the weaknesses of using the evidence based approach to assist in the formation and the subsequent shape of social work practices for older adults with mental health conditions is that such an approach does not take other factors or organisations into account.[14] An over reliance upon the use of the evidence based approach to drawing up social work practices to assist older adults with mental health conditions is that a narrowly focused concentration on such an approach could lead to an underestimation of other actors.[15] Social workers could underestimate the importance of other private sector and public sector bodies, groups, and organisations that offer services to older adults. Other private sector and also public sector bodies, groups, and organisations offer services to older adults with mental health problems either because the government tasks them with doing so, or because they can make money from doing so.[16] In reality this weakness of using the evidence based approach when drawing up social work practices is not really a problem. This weakness is not a profound or serious problem because social work departments are used to working with private sector as well as public sector bodies, companies, groups, and organisations when they set out to deliver social services to the general public taken as a whole.[17] Providing the appropriate services for older adults with mental health conditions really is an example of public services being delivered by a whole host of private sector as well as public services groups, organisations, and agencies.[18] Alongside social work departments, the DWP, the NHS, private sector care homes, local authorities, as well as charities for older adults and people with mental conditions provide services.[19] The weaknesses of using the evidence based approach for developing social work practices for assisting older adults is that the evidence might not be as complete as would be helpful to social workers. Research into the affects and consequences of mental health issues or problems for older adults has arguably proved insufficient until recently given the ageing populations within the majority of Western societies.[20] Older adults with dementia or similar mental health conditions frequently need a great deal of care and support as do their carers, and also their families in order to cope with the consequences of severe mental illnesses. Sometimes it is the spouses, the children, or indeed other relatives of the older adults with the more pronounced mental health conditions who can be most adversely affected by the worst consequences of their loved ones’ illness.[21] There are weaknesses that the evidence based approach towards setting social work practices for older adults with mental health conditions relating to the limited scope of that approach. Research into older adults with mental health problems and conditions has not always examined the ill affects that such conditions have upon the carers and the relatives of the people with the illnesses or health complaints. [22] On a practical level social work practices can be as much about supporting tired or distressed close relatives and carers as it is about assisting the older adults afflicted with or by poor and worsening mental health conditions.[23] When mental health conditions, issues, or problems adversely affect older adults then it can strain their relationships with their close relatives, especially their spouses or children, which in turn causes stress to all of them. Strained relationships between older adults with mental health conditions and the close relatives caring for them can lead to those older adults moving into care homes and hospitals rather than been cared for at home. Helping older adults with mental health conditions get better can have the benefit of allowing some of them to continue working or indeed to start working again.[24] To conclude it has been argued that the use of the evidence based approach to draw up and shape social work practices in relation to older adults with mental health conditions can offer strengths as well as weaknesses to social workers. The evidence based approach to drawing up or shaping social work practices for older adults with mental health conditions offers the strengths of providing social workers with relevant information and data to draw effective policies. The information and data from the evidence based approach research allows social work departments to increase the effectiveness of their social work practices towards older adults with mental health problems. The main weaknesses of using the evidence based approach towards forming and amending social work practices is that it can cause a delay in relevant information being used by social workers, and that it can underestimate the part that other organisations play in providing services to older adults. Bibliography Audit Commission / Better Government for Older People – Older People, independence and well-being: The challenge for public services, Public Sector Briefing Bowers H, Eastman M, Harris J, Macadam A (2005) Moving out of the Shadows – A report on mental health and wellbeing in later life, Health Care Development Ltd, London Brooke L and Taylor P, Older workers and employment: managing age relations, Ageing society 25, 2005, 415-429, Cambridge University Press Department of Health, A Sure Start to later life, Ending inequalities for older people, January 2006 Estes, C.L. Biggs, S. and Phillipson, C. (2003), Social Theory, Social Policy and Ageing A critical introduction, Open University Press, Maidenhead Maria Evandrou and Karen Glaser, Combining work and family life: the pension penalty of care, Ageing and Society 23, 2003, 583-601, Cambridge University Press House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, Improving Public Service for Older People, Twenty- Ninth Report of Session 2003-04 (May 2004) Riseborough M Jenkins C (April 2004), Now you see me†¦now you don’t How are older citizens being included in regeneration? Age Concern, London Vincent, J., Phillipson, C. Downs M., (eds) (2006) The Futures of Old Age, Sage 1 Footnotes [1] Vincent et al, 2006 [2] Brooke and Taylor, 2005 [3] Vincent et al, 2006 [4] Brooke and Taylor, 2005 [5] Vincent et al, 2006 [6] Brooke and Taylor, 2005 [7] Evandrou Glaser, 2003 [8] Brooke and Taylor, 2005 [9] House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, May 2004 p. 10 [10] Vincent et al, 2006 [11] Department of Health, 2006 [12] Audit Commission / Better Government for Older People, p.2 [13] Riseborough Jenkins, April 2004 p. 6 [14] Evandrou Glaser, 2003 [15] Department of Health, 2006 [16] Brooke and Taylor, 2005 [17] Riseborough Jenkins, April 2004 p. 6 [18] Audit Commission / Better Government for Older People, p.2 [19] Vincent et al, 2006 [20] Riseborough Jenkins, April 2004 p. 6 [21] Brooke and Taylor, 2005 [22] Riseborough Jenkins, April 2004 p. 6 [23] House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, May 2004 p. 10 [24] Department of Health, 2006

Muhammad Ali Essay -- Sports American History

Muhammad Ali1 Muhammad Ali is one of the most recognized faces on planet Earth; known not just for being one of the best fighters in the history of boxing, but for being one of the most knowledgeable persons of the twentieth century. Ali wasn't always known by that name though, he was born Cassius Marcellus Clay on January 17, 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, him and his younger brother Rudolph had many small conflicts like any brothers would have, but they were, and still are blessed with having a very close relationship (Hauser, 2). Twelve-year-old Cassius was turned on to boxing after his brand-new bike was stolen at an annual Black fair called The Louisville Home Show (Jet). Joe Martin, a policeman who taught young kids how to box, was in a basement by the fair and after Cassius complained to him that he was going to â€Å"whup the person who stole his prized red-and-white Schwinn†(Jet). Officer Martin decided to push the frustrated youngster towards boxing. Six weeks later Cassius would win a three-minute, three-round split decision in his very first match (Hauser 7). Clay became more committed to boxing, fighting 108 amateur bouts, winning six Kentucky Golden Gloves Championships, two National Golden Gloves tournaments, and two National AAU titles (Ebony). Then the 1960 Rome Olympics came; a hesitant Cassius was afraid to travel over there in an airplane, but he eventually gave in and went, returning to America as a gold medal winner. Clay then came out with his very first published poem. After winning the gold medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics, eighteen-year-old Cassius Clay was ready to turn pro. He still kept Fred Stoner, the man who trained him as an amateur as trainer, but after his first win against an overmatched pa... ...and his opponent was Trevor Berbick. Ali entered the ring for the final time on December 11, 1981 (Jet). The bout started two hours late, there were only two pairs of gloves for the entire under card, and a cowbell was used for the ring bell. From the start, the actual fight was a drag, with Ali looking sluggish while his mediocre opponent showed little skill. When it all was over, the judges scored the bout in Berbick's favor (Hauser,77). The next morning, Ali finally announced that he was leaving the boxing ring for good. Works Cited Hauser, Thomas. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. New York, NY, Bantam Books, 1991 Tyers, Kathy. Muhammad Ali: The Greatest. San Mateo, Ca, IDG Books World Inc.1995 Muhammad Ali Definition of a champ http://www.DefinitionofaChamp.com Jet Magazine http://ww.JetOnline.com Ebony Magazine http://www.Ebony.com

The significance of female characters in the progressof Homer’s novel E

The significance of female characters in the progressof Homer’s novel The Odyssey Women are very important figures in Homer's The Odyssey. Athena and Penelope are the two primary examples. They help Odysseus in his travels in many ways through the story. They keep the reader interested so that they keep reading to find out what will happen next. Throughout the novel, they appear in many different forms. In this epic, several female characters had a profound effect on the plot. They wielded their influence through typically feminine skills and attributes: seduction, supernatural powers, intelligence, and beauty. Some of the women of The Odyssey influenced the actions of men, playing key roles in the epics, such as Athena, Penelope, Calypso, the Sirens, Helen, or Circe; all have been true, and in actuality, may be an entertaining interpretation of an actual Trojan War. Since the Trojan War supposedly started because of a dispute between the gods and mortals, the Trojan War probably started because of a reason other than the reason Homer gives. If Homer were a woman, then he would have directed his audience into believing that women were at a higher level than men were by use of his epics. Ultimately, Homer would be utilizing his feminine characteristics when telling his stories with underlying messages of feminine superiority or equality. As goddess of wisdom and battle, Athena naturally has a soft spot for the brave and wily Odysseus. She helps him out of many tough situations, including his shipwreck in Book 5 and the mismatched battle of Book 22. She does not merely impart sense and safety to her passive charge, however. She takes an interest in Odysseus for the talents he already has and actively demonstrates. Although she reassures Odysseus during the battle with the suitors, she does not become fully involved, preferring instead to watch Odysseus fight and prevail on his own. She also often helps Telemachus as when she sends him off to Pylos and Sparta to earn a name for himself but she has the most affection for Odysseus. Athena is confident, practical, clever, a master of disguises, and a great warrior, characteristics she finds reflected in Telemachus. Her role as goddess of the womanly arts gets very little attention in the Odyssey. Penelope works at the loom all the time but rarely sees Athena, and then u... ...oes. These literature works gave many possibilities of definition of heroism. The Greeks illustrated heroism to obey the rules laid down by the gods and goddesses, and those who obey the rules would gain honor and fame. The Greeks regarded intelligence as one of the highest gifts that all heroes must posses. The Greeks required that all heroes must have courage and die a horrible death. We know him less from what he thought, which was seldom revealed, than by what he says and did, and his actions follow naturally from his characteristics. If the cunning of Odysseus is mentioned more than his courage, it was his courage that gets him into the scrapes from which his cunning had to deliver him. Odysseus had the all the qualities that the Greek tradition required of all heroes, which were obey the rules of gods, posses intelligence, and displayed courage. He was made a hero thanks to his own characteristics however, with out the guidance of Athena, his longing to be at home with his wife again and the intervention of women on his journey, he would only be a hero by myth not by what he has achieved through the trouble of getting home due to the women he has encountered.

Compares Adolf Hitler to Machiavelli’s “The Prince” Essay

Adolf Hitler, the self-proclaimed â€Å"savior† of the German people. He was an insecure, egotistical man, who ominously controlled the German people. Hitler thought that he could change things with force, which soon got him into trouble, and landed him in jail. During his time in jail, Hitler had turned over direction of the Nazi party to Alfred Rosenberg. Rosenberg edited the party’s newspaper, the Và ¶lkischer Beobacter (Popular Observer), but had no administrative ability. As a result, Hitler easily resumed complete control of the party upon his release in December 1924.In the years from 1925 to 1930; Hitler built up a network of local party organizations over most of Germany, and reorganized the SA. At the same time he organized the SS, to protect him, supervise and control the party, and perform police tasks. Hitler’s mass of followers began to grow, and soon those who didn’t follow him soon became the minority. Hitler gained political power soon af ter and his reign of terror began, ending with the deaths of over 6 million Jews that were persecuted by the Nazis, because they were supposedly the problem in Germany. Hitler indiscriminately followed some of Machiavelli’s principles as described in â€Å"The Prince†. Whereas he embraced Machiavelli’s ideas concerning human nature, and separation of politics and morality, he ignored Machiavelli’s concept of military power, which led to his ultimate downfall. As described in Niccolo Machiavelli’s â€Å"The Prince†, to be a successful ruler, you must incorporate the principles or guidelines he sets in this pamphlet, three of the most important being, his concepts of human nature, his ideas about separation of politics and morality, and the reality of military power In chapters XV, XVI, XVII Machiavelli devotes a long time describing aspects of human nature that a prince must understand. Machiavelli says it is human nature to praise certain qualities and blame others. According to human nature certain qualities are considered worth of praise, for example: generosity, courage, and mercy. Other qualities would be considered worthy of blame: miserly, cowardly, and treacherous. But according to Machiavelli: â€Å"†¦ And I know that everyone will admit, that it would be a very praise  worthy thing to find in a prince, the qualities mentioned above, those that are held to be good; but since it is neither possible to have them or to observe them all completely, because the human condition does not permit it, a prince must be prudent enough to know how to escape the bad reputation of those vices that would loose the state for him, and must protect himself from those that will not use it for him† (Machiavelli, 52). In other words Machiavelli says that human nature praises certain qualities and blame others, but he says there is no way that human can do all the good things and avoid, and that a prince must figure out how to not take so much blame when he does wrong, and try to do as many good things as he can. For example regarding generosity and miserliness, Machiavelli says to be truly generous, one must be miserly at times. â€Å"A prince, therefore, being unable to use his virtue of generosity in a manner which will not harm himself†¦ should, if he is wise, not worry about being called a miser; for with time, he will come to be considered more generous†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (53) In one finally contrast, according to Machiavelli in regards to courage and cowardice, mercy and treachery he says † That every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel; never the less, he must take care not to misuse this mercy†¦Therefore, a prince must not worry about the reproach of cruelty, when it is a matter of keeping his subjects united and loyal† (55). According to Machiavelli, there are times when you don’t worry about doing the right thing, if it leads to the end you are seeking. This kind of thinking is the basis for his ideas concerning the separation of politics and morality. In essence, Machiavelli’s philosophy concerning politics and morality is this: In order to achieve political prowess (i.e. power, glory, fame) you may need to break the rules, or be immoral. In chapter VIII and IX, Machiavelli describes the ways a man can become a prince. In addition to gaining a fortune, and political prowess, criminal acts and popularity contests can help a man’s rise to power. Machiavelli uses King Agathocles of Syracuse as an example of a man who rose to power through crime (30). King Agathocles rose to power through cruelty, and didn’t care about what was  right or wrong (morality). As described in Chapter IX, another means of achieving your political goals is † When a private citizen, not through wickedness or any other intolerable violence, but with the favour of his fellow citizens, becomes prince†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (33) He goes on to say † I maintain that one reaches this princedom either with the favour of he common people or with that of the nobility† (33). Machiavelli’s idea was that a prince needs to please both sides, the rich and the poor, by any means possible. Even if that means telling them what they want to hear, lying, doing whatever is necessary. Machiavelli suggests that it is acceptable to be immoral, if it gets someone what he or she wants. This appears on the surface to be very harsh and cruel, but he tempers his position by saying the one who gains power by treacherous means, may not gain as much glory as the one who gains power by virtuous means. Understanding human nature, and manipulating politics and morality are fine, but the true measure of a prince, is in his ability to wage war. Machiavelli measured the success of all principalities on their ability to gather an army. Machiavelli judged a prince on whether he could protect himself, or needed the protection of others. † I say that I judge those princes self-sufficient who, either through abundance of troops or of money, are able to gather together a suitable army and fight a good battle, against whoever should attack them† (37). A strong prince must build strong armies, and there are three types of armies. The princes own troops, mercenaries, and auxiliary troops. â€Å"Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous† (42). According to Machiavelli, these troops are undisciplined and disloyal. Machiavelli concludes that the only good army is one that is made up of your own countrymen (48). So important is the waging of war, and the building of a fearful army, Machiavelli suggests that this is the only thing a prince should think about. † A prince, therefore, must not have any other object nor any other thought, nor must he take anything as his profession, but war, its institutions, and its discipline†¦it is evident that when princes have given more thought to personal luxuries than to arms, they have lost their state.† (49) For Machiavelli a prince must devote a considerable amount of time in developing an army by use of any means possible, (once again playing on human nature) training in war time, and in peace time. The true measure of a successful prince as seen by Machiavelli, is in his ability to manipulate human nature, which involves a balance of contradiction and hypocrisy, achieving your political means morally or immorally, and securing your success by the establishment of a strong army. And if anything you must build a strong army first, in order to use the other two concepts to your advantage. Perhaps if Hitler had adhered to these principles in the correct measure, he too would be seen as a successful â€Å"prince.†

Black & Decker †Eastern Hemisphere and the ADP Initiative (A) Essay

1. What are Lancaster’s concerns for the future of the Eastern Hemisphere Organization? What problems does he hope to address with ADP? In 1995 when Bill Lancaster was appointed the President of Black and Decker Eastern Hemisphere his initial impression about the organization was depressing. There were some major concerns one of them is the management style that was followed. The current managers were using the Management by Objective (MBO) type plan which is believed to be outdated system that had been replaced in the US some time ago. There were some bad managers and some bad management styles. It was obvious to have lack of growth and development. These concerns led him to see a dark future. These problems require immediate attention and correction to save the organization from its negative impact. ADP means Appraisal Development Plan. Lancaster wants to use ADP to overcome above stated problems and move to the path of development. The expectations of Lancaster from ADP are that it would be able to address the problem of getting the ill informed MBO reviews, as in MBO the managers only see very few aspects of their employee’s job performance. In MBO managers meet with employees on an individual basis but it was not fruitful as managers would be ill informed and just make up a list of suggestions. It is expected that new ADP system would solve some if not all the management problems. 2. What concerns do Asian managers have about ADP? Asian managers such as Anita Lim who had been with Black & Decker for six years were opposed to the introduction of the U.S version of ADP in the Eastern Hemisphere. Her first concern was that Asians might not willingly open up the way Americans do. They might not give critical feedback about their bosses. She also challenges the confidentiality of the ADP system – No matter what a boss says about the feedback being anonymous an Asian might not believe it. Lastly she thinks that a change from MBO to ADP is quite radical and Asians would not support radical changes of this nature. There were some more concerns that came up such as linguistic barrier concerns and cultural barriers in relation to how Asians compete with each other and the relationship they had with their seniors. 3. What action should Lancaster take concerning the ADP initiative in the Eastern Hemisphere Organization? Lancaster has some challenging options in front of him on how to progress further. One is to wait, the other is to implement ADP fully and last is to go with Lim’s recommendation to apply partial ADP model. If he waits to implement ADP he is allowing the Eastern Hemisphere sink further into low productivity and hence low profitability. On the other hand, if Lancaster goes with the new ADP process he faces some cultural and other above mentioned challenges. So it is advised to go with the hybrid model of ADP which was advised by Lim. By following this path Lancaster will be taking a calculated risk. On one hand he is slowing the recovery process of Eastern Hemisphere but on the other hand he is taking initiative for the much needed recovery. By following Lim’s recommendation, Lancaster would be more culturally sensitive at the same time kick start the Eastern Hemisphere towards the path of recovery. Appendix 1) Appraisal and Development Plan Process. Retrieved from â€Å"http://www.missouristate.edu/human/training/ADPTraining.htm† 2) Management by Objectives. Retrieved from â€Å"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_by_objectives†

Altran Case

Altran ID Altran is a European consulting firm created in France in 1982, by Alexis Kniazeff and Hubert Martigny. Leader in high technologies consultancy, it operates primarily in technology & innovation consultancy (about 50% turnover), administrative & information consultancy (33%) and strategy & management consulting (17%). The Group's mission is to assist companies in their efforts to create and develop new products and services. Altran is a key player in different sectors as Aerospace, Automotive, Energy, Railway, Finance, Healthcare and Telecoms sectors. In 2011, Altran had reached a turnover of 1. billion â‚ ¬, employing more than 15 000 employees with 200 branches in 20 countries to serve 500 major clients worldwide. The Altran group governance is held by an  Executive Committee  and a  Board of Directors  since June 2008. Philippe Salle (Chairman and Chief Executive elected by the members of the Board of Directors). The  Management Committee is made of members f rom the Executive Committee. Executives from the Geographies, the Industries and the Solutions and several  Group Directors including Purchasing, Communications, Legal, Marketing and  IT. The shares of the company are divided as follow : * 18. % are owned by the two founders and some members from the Executive Committee * 7. 2 % are owned by the Altran Director Funds * 74. 3 % are traded on the public stock exchange (where the principal shareholder is Apax Partners) Concerning the stakeholders, Altran operating at an international level, we can find a numerous variety : governments, employees, customers, experts, owners, investors†¦ The Scandal In 2002, 3 staff members from Altran (Michel Friedlander, Frederic Bonan and Alain Rougagnou) were suspected of theft, breach of trust, active and passive corruption, attempts of blackmail and manipulation of stock exchange quotations.The COB filed a complaint against the board of directors for dissemination of false information and for manipulating quotations. As a result, the price share dropped from 65. 60 â‚ ¬ on March 28th to 2. 53 â‚ ¬ on October 10th. The three directors at the centre of the accusations were. On February 13th 2003 they were dismissed and sued by Altran. This incident reflected the lack of transparency and regulations of the company and the ease with which the employees involved in the scandal appeared to have falsified and manipulated the accounts.It also shows the poor corporate governance and a lack of communication with the business world as well as the shareholders and stakeholders. In consequence, the group had to concentrate more on dealing with the crisis and falling share prices than developing their activity and their portfolio of clients. As a result Altran’s financial results were very unconvincing from 2002 to 2004. The European office also suffered (although indirectly) from this scandal because of the group necessity to dedicate its main financial and human eff orts to redress the company.Today, the price share is still very low (around 5 â‚ ¬) which reflect a lack of confidence from the shareholders as well as the European institutions. Refocusing strategy After the 2005 scandal and in order to improve its corporate image, Altran decided to change the governance of the company with the appointment of a new CEO in the person of Christophe Aulnette, former CEO of Microsoft France, as well as a new board of directors. The group then refocused its strategy on a different timeline  : In the short term, the new objectives were to develop quality proposals and rojects to public institutions. The idea was to benefit of the competencies of European professionals and to push on ideas based on Altran’s field of expertise. In the short and medium term, the goal was to influence innovation and evolution of European technological trends. The goal for the short and medium term is to become a real partner of the EU especially in the field of high technologies consultancy. In order to do that, Altran took the decision to work with a European affairs company with expertise in EU public affairs.Finally, in the long term, the ideas were to develop new services and competencies. The main target of the long term timeline was the increase of the field of expertise where Altran operates in order to increase the partnerships with European programs. Why the need of refocusing its strategy ? On the first hand, after the scandal, the group was obliged to reorganised its management as well as its short and long term strategy, mostly in order to regain some credibility and some ethical identity in front of the EU institutions.On the second hand, Altran had a portfolio of sectors and projects too vast to be covered efficiently. The new plan of action was developed to remediate the situation and the new timeline was designed as the best way to anticipate the issues. Finally, after analysis of the factors of future key success, Altran d iscovered that they needed to obtain more efficiency in their actions. Furthermore, if Altran wanted in the future to be recognized as a viable entity, it would need to acquire more transparency as well as a deeper knowledge of European institutions in order to operate on an international level.Recommendations On the company itself, we recommend a change of the business model. On the first time, Altran needs to decrease the number of its subsidiaries. By going back to an in-house style of management and centralizing the growth and the financing strategy of its units, it would be able to reduce the workforce without losing in competitiveness and therefore, becoming more profitable. On the second time, in order to reassure the shareholders and stakeholders, an important work must be done on the level of public relations.Showing that the company is totally transparent would bring back some investing cash flow and ensure the viability as well as stability of the price share. Finally, we recommend that the European office model be reproduced on the Asian as well as on the American continent. Considering the financial crisis Europe is going through nowadays and the market opportunities of some emerging countries like India and Brazil, we think that launching new offices centralizing the work flow on those continents would be the next step toward Altran globalization strategy.

Public Speaking

Public Speaking Vocabulary Learning Strategies There are numerous different classification systems for vocabulary learning strategies. Several common used are listed at the following. Gu and Johnson (1996) developed a classification of vocabulary learning strategies that are beliefs about vocabulary learning, metacognitive regulation, guessing strategies, dictionary strategies, note-taking strategies, memory strategies (rehearsal), memory strategies (encoding) and activation strategies. Schmitt (1997) took advantage of Rebecca Oxford’s (1990, p. 4) classification of learning strategies containing memory strategies, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and social strategies, and the Discover/Consolidation distinctions suggested by Cook and Mayer to propose an extensive taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies. It can be divided into two classes. Five groups are included in these two classes. I. Strategies are used for the discovery of a new word’s meaning Determination stra tegies (DET): the strategies are used to discover a new word’s meaning without recourse to another’s expertise when learners don’t know a word.For instance, learners can use a dictionary, analyze any available pictures or gestures or guess meaning from textual context. Social strategies (SOC): the strategies are employed to ask someone who knows. Learners can ask teacher or classmates about information in a variety of ways, such as a synonym, paraphrase, or L1 translation of new word. II. Strategies are used for consolidating a word once it has been encountered Social strategies (SOC): they can also be employed to consolidate learned words by interacting with other people like studying and practicing meaning in a group.Memory strategies (MEM): the strategies (traditionally known as mnemonics) involve connecting the word to be retained with some previously learned knowledge, using some form of imagery, or grouping. A new word can be integrated into many kinds of existing knowledge (i. e. previous experiences or known words) or images can be custom-made for retrieval (i. e. images of the word’s form or meaning attributes). (1) Picture/imagery: Learners study new words with pictures of their meaning instead of definition. (2) Related words: New words can linked to L2 words that the student already knows.Usually this involves some type of sense relationship, such as coordination (blue – other kinds of color like red, purple or white), synonymy (beautiful-pretty), or antonym (dead-alive). (3) Unrelated words: Learners can also link words together that have no sense relationships. One way of doing this is with â€Å"peg† or â€Å"hook† words. One first memorizes a rhyme like â€Å"one is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree etc. † Then an image is created of the word to be remembered is chair, then an image is made of a bun (peg word) resting on a chair.Recitation of the rhyme draws up these images, which in t urn prompt the target words. (4) Grouping: It is an important way to aid recall, and people seem to organize words into groups naturally without prompting. (5) Word’s orthographical or phonological form: It involves focusing on the target word’s orthographical or phonological form to facilitate recall. One can explicitly study the spelling or pronunciation of a word. Other options are to visualize the orthographical form of a word in an attempt to remember it, or to make a mental representation of the sound of a word, perhaps making use of rhyming words.The Keyword Method entails a learner finding a L1 word which sounds like the target L2 word, i. e. the English word cat for the Japanese word katana (sword). Then an image combing the two concepts is created, such as a samurai cat waving a sword. When the L2 word is later heard, the sound similarity invokes the created image which prompts the L2 word’s meaning. (6) Other memory strategies: There are other useful ways of consolidating its meaning, such as analyzing a word’s affixes, root, and word class.One way of increasing one’s vocabulary is to analyze and learn the individual words of these chunks, and then use the whole chunk (if it is transparent enough) as a mnemonic device for remembering the individual word meanings. In addition, the use of physical action can also facilitate language recall. Cognitive strategies (COG): The strategies are similar to memory strategies, but are not focused so specifically on manipulative mental processing. They include repetition and using mechanical means to study vocabulary. Another kind of cognitive strategy is using study aids.Taking notes in class invites learners to create their own personal structure for newly learned words, and also offers the chance for additional exposure during review. Metacognitive strategies (MET): Students used the strategies to control and evaluate their learning, behaving an overview of the learning proce ss in general. Table 1 A Simple Taxonomy of Vocabulary Learning Strategies Vocabulary Learning Strategy (VLS)| 1. Strategies for the discovery of a new word’s meaning| 2. Strategies for consolidating a word once it has been encountered | Determination strategies (DET)| Social strategies (SOC)|Social strategies (SOC)| Memory strategies (MEM)| | Cognitive strategies (COG)| | Metacognitive strategies (MET)| Table 2 A Taxonomy of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (Schmitt, 1997, p. 207-8) Taxonomy of Schmitt’s Vocabulary Learning Strategies Strategy Group Strategies for discovering the meaning of a new word DET Analyze part of speech DET Analyze affixes and roots DET Check for L1 cognate DET Analyze any available pictures or gestures DET Guess from textual context DET Bilingual dictionary DET Monolingual dictionaries DET Word lists DET Flash cards SOC Ask teacher for L1 translationSOC Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word SOC Ask teacher for a sentence including t he new word SOC Ask classmates for meaning SOC Discover new meaning through group work activity Strategies for consolidating a word once it has been encountered SOC Study and practice meaning in a group SOC Teacher checks students’ flash cards word lists for accuracy SOC Interact with native-speakers MEM Study word with a pictorial representation of its meaning MEM Image word’s meaning MEM Connect word to a personal experience MEM Associate the word with its coordinatesMEM Connect the word to its synonyms and antonyms MEM Use semantic maps MEM Use ‘scales’ for gradable adjectives MEM Peg Method MEM Loci Method MEM Group words together to study them MEM Group words together spatially on a page MEM Use new word in sentences MEM Group words together within a storyline MEM Study the spelling of a word MEM Study the sound of a word Table 2 (continued) MEM Say new word aloud when studying MEM Image word form MEM Underline initial letter of the word MEM Configura tion MEM Use Key word Method MEM Affixes and roots MEM Part of speech MEM Paraphrase the word’s meaningMEM Use cognates in study MEM Learn the words of idiom together MEM Use physical action when learning a word MEM Use semantic feature grids COG Verbal repetition COG Written repetition COG Word lists COG Flash cards COG Take notes in class COG Use the vocabulary section in your textbook COG Listen to tape of word lists COG Put English labels on physical objects COG Keep a vocabulary note book MET Use English-language media (songs, movies, newscast, etc. ) MET Testing oneself with word tests MET Use spaced word practice MET Skip or pass new word MET Continue to study over time Public Speaking Public Speaking OUTLINE FOR SPEAKING TO INFORM (SPEECHES ABOUT CONCEPTS) NAME| 😠 ZULAIKHA BINTI AHMAD ABDULLAH| SUBJECT – SUBJECT CODE| 😠 PUBLIC SPEAKING – UBE 2023| SEMESTER| 😠 4. 0| SESSION| 😠 2012/2013(2)| KULLIYYAH| 😠 KULLIYYAH SYARIAH & UNDANG-UNDANG| TITLE| 😠 HEALTHY AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLE| PROGRAMME STRUCTURE / GROUP| 😠 ISMSY_SYA 7| OUTLINE FOR SPEAKING TO INFORM * Topic: Healthy and active lifestyle. * General purpose: To inform (speech about concepts). * Specific purpose: To inform my audient about healthy and active lifestyle. Central idea: There are three ways to be healthy and active lifestyle are take balance meal, sleep enough every day and importance of exercise to make human healthy and more active. Introduction I. The goal of my speech is to inform you about healthy and active lifestyle . Most of us hardly think healthy and active lifestyle is very importance but do we in healthy and active lifestyle. The definition of hea lthy and active lifestyle from oxford dictionaries healthy is in a good physical or mental condition, active meaning engaging or ready to engage in physically energetic pursuits and lifestyle is the way in which a person lives. II.A healthy lifestyle leaves you fit, energetic and reduced risk for disease, based on the choices you make about your daily habits. III. Developing a healthy lifestyle for children as early as possible is important, but it is never too late to make positive lifestyle changes. Good nutrition and plenty of physical activity can help prevent obesity and diabetes in children, as well provide a good foundation for muscle and bone development. Healthy children are more alert and have more energy. Healthy lifestyles for children start with the family, parents are role models and activities that families do together have a big impact on children.IV. Today I will introduce you to three ways to be healthy and active lifestyle are take balance meal, sleep enough every day and importance of exercise to make human healthy and more active. (Transition: Let’s start by looking at healthy and active lifestyle) Body I. Firstly, one big step to be healthy is taking a take balance meal. A. A healthy diet includes a variety of foods from the various food groups. A healthy diet includes at least 4. 5 cups of fruits and vegetables, 3 cups of dairy and 3 oz. of whole grains daily.Fish, poultry and vegetarian proteins should be eaten more often than red meat. Use unsaturated fats, such as olive or safflower oil, more than saturated fats for cooking, dressing and baking. A healthy diet also limits processed and fast foods high in added sugars, sodium and Tran’s fats. * ?†¦.. ? ? , ? )Al-Araf: 31) Translation from Al-Quran:   eat and drink but waste not by extravagance, certainly He (Allah) likes not  Al-Musrifun  (those who waste by extravagance). * We can refer the eating pyramided : B. A healthy diet can reduce risk for disea se. Following a healthy, balanced diet can help you to maintain a healthy weight, lower your cholesterol and reduce your risk for disease. Choose high fiber, lower fat foods and 5-10 servings of fruit and vegetables every day. Balance your daily meals with foods from the four food groups described in  Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating. * According to the latest study to investigate whether diet can reduce heart attack and  stroke  among those who are trying to avoid second or third events and are already taking medications to control blood pressure and  cholesterol.In the largest-ever of its kind, published in the journal  Circulation, a group of international researchers say  healthy eating  can have an added beneficial effect on the heart on top of the influence of heart-protecting medications. â€Å"We encourage everyone to eat healthy. But especially high-risk patients, we want them to know: Take your medication, but modify your diet as well,† says lead study author Mahshid Dehghan, a researcher at the Population Health Research Institute in Hamilton, ON, in  Canada, one of the centers involved in the study. Some people think that if medication lowers their blood pressure, healthy eating doesn’t matter. We want them to know that this is wrong,† she says C. Drink enough water is importance. Water is your body's principal chemical component and makes up about 60 percent of your body weight. Every system in your body depends on water. For example, water flushes toxins out of vital organs, carries nutrients to your cells and provides a moist environment for ear, nose and throat tissues. * Everyone has heard the advice, â€Å"Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. † That is about 1. liters, which isn't that different from the Institute of Medicine recommendations. Although the â€Å"8 by 8† rule isn't supported by hard evidence, it remains popular because it's easy to remember. Just keep in mind that th e rule should be reframed as: â€Å"Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day,† because all fluids count toward the daily total. * Every day you lose water through your breath, perspiration, urine and bowel movements. For your body to function properly, you must replenish its water supply by consuming beverages and foods that contain water. So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2. 2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day. (Transition: Let’s start by looking how much hours we need to sleep every night) II. Secondly, sleep enough every day. A. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that most adults get about seven to eight hours of sleep each night. B.A good night's sleep can actually leave you feeling positive and upbeat. * In fact people wh o suffer from regular sleep disturbances are three times more likely to experience low mood compared to people who sleep well, according to the Great British Sleep Survey, conducted by Sleepier, an organization dedicated to helping people sleep better. C. Sleep can make human more energy and fresh our body and mind. * Example: We face a lot of pressure and sleep can realize our tension and depression. (Transition: Lastly, let’s start by looking the importance of exercise to our healthy)III. Thirdly, importance of exercise to our healthy and more active. A. Exercise can reduce excess fats and toxics. * Examples: Jogging, playing badminton, running, walking is example of exercise. B. Regular daily exercise accelerates the body's natural detoxification mechanisms. * Physical activity increases blood circulation throughout the body allowing important nutrients to effectively reach our cells, tissue, organs, and muscles. Lymph fluid (part of the immune system) will also circulate more efficiently increasing the body's ability to kill pathogens and remove toxins.C. Exercise flushes metabolic waste and other harmful substances from our cells, and vital organs are cleansed. * Toxins can then be eliminated through the various bodily pathways. * Exercise can fit our body and can get ideal weight. Conclusion I. As we have seen, our responsible to take care our healthy. II. Most importance and valuable are healthy and active lifestyle. III. If we rich in property but we are not health , there are no use anymore. We can be healthy and active lifestyle ,say yes we can.

A Format for Case Conceptualisation

Many professional and personal challenges confront practicum students as they work with clients. For example, students must establish a counseling relationship, listen attentively, express themselves clearly, probe for information, and implement technical skills in an ethical manner. Those counseling performance skills (Borders Leddick, 1987) center on what counselors do during sessions. At a cognitive level, students must master factual knowledge, think integratively, generate and test clinical hypotheses, plan and apply interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Those conceptualizing skills, within the cognitive operations used to construct models that represent experience (Mahoney Lyddon, 1988), show how counselors think about clients and how they choose interventions. It is highly desirable for instructors of practica to have pedagogical methods to promote the development both of counseling performance skills and conceptualizing skills. Such methods should be diverse and flexible to accommodate students at different levels of professional development and with distinct styles of learning (Biggs, 1988; Borders Leddick, 1987; Ellis, 1988; Fuqua, Johnson, Anderson, Newman, 1984; Holloway, 1988; Ronnestad Skovholt, 1993; Stoltenberg Delworth, 1987). RATIONALE FOR THE FORMAT In this article, we present a format for case conceptualization that we developed to fill gaps in the literature on the preparation of counselors (Borders Leddick, 1987; Hoshmand, 1991). Although many existing methods promote counseling performance skills, there are few established methods for teaching students the conceptualizing skills needed to understand and treat clients (Biggs, 1988; Hulse Jennings, 1984; Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Loganbill Stoltenberg, 1983; Turk Salovey, 1988). We do not discount the importance of counseling performance skills, but we believe that they can be applied effectively only within a meaningful conceptual framework. That is, what counselors do depends on their evolving conceptualization of clients; training in that conceptualization matters. Given the large quantity of information that clients disclose, students have the task of selecting and processing relevant clinical data to arrive at a working model of their clients. Graduate programs need to assist students in understanding how to collect, organize, and integrate information; how to form and test clinical inferences; and how to plan, implement, and evaluate interventions (Dumont, 1993; Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Fuqua et al. , 1984; Hoshmand, 1991; Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Turk Salovey, 1988). Although systematic approaches to collecting and processing clinical information are not new, the case conceptualization format presented here, as follows, has several distinguishing features: 1. The format is comprehensive, serving both to organize clinical data (see Hulse Jennings, 1984; Loganbill Stoltenberg, 1983) and to make conceptual tasks operational (see Biggs, 1988). The components of the format integrate and expand on two useful approaches to presenting cases that are cited often and that are linked to related literature on supervision: (a) Loganbill and Stoltenbergs (1983) six content areas of clients functioning (i. . , identifying data, presenting problem, relevant history, interpersonal style, environmental factors, and personality dynamics), and (b) Biggss (1988) three tasks of case conceptualization (i. e. , identifying observable and inferential clinical evidence; articulating dimensions of the counseling relationship; and describing assumptions about presenting c oncerns, personality, and treatment). In addition, the format makes explicit the crucial distinction between observation and inference, by separating facts from hypotheses. It advances the notion that observations provide the basis for constructing and testing inferences. Thus, the format fosters development of critical thinking that is more deliberate and less automatic than the ordinary formation of impressions. The approach is compatible with recommendations that counselors receive training in rational hypothesis testing to reduce inferential errors (Dumont 1993; Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Hoshmand, 1991; Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Turk Salovey, 1988). 2. The format can be adapted to the developmental stage of students by its focus on stage-appropriate components and implementing those components in stage-appropriate ways (Ellis, 1988; Glickauf-Hughes Campbell, 1991; Ronnestad Skovholt, 1993; Stoltenberg Delworth, 1987). As an example, beginning students use the format to organize information and to learn the distinction between observation and inference, whereas more experienced students focus on using the format to generate and test hypotheses. 3. The format is atheoretical, thereby permitting students to ncorporate constructs from any paradigm into their case conceptualizations. In this sense, the format resembles the cognitive scaffolding described in the constructivist perspective (Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). Rather than being an explicit template through which observations are filtered to conform to an imposed representational model, the format provides an abstract set of cognitive schemas. With the schemas, the student actively fashions a conceptual framework from which to order and assign meaning to observations. Simply put, the format is a generic structure that the student uses to construct his or her reality of the case. COMPONENTS OF THE FORMAT The format has 14 components, sequenced from observational to inferential as follows: background data, presenting concerns, verbal content, verbal style, nonverbal behavior, clients emotional experience, counselors experience of the client, client-counselor interaction, test data and supporting materials, diagnosis, inferences and assumptions, goals of treatment, interventions, and evaluation of outcomes. Background data includes sex, age, race, ethnicity, physical appearance (e. . , attractiveness, dress, grooming, height, and weight), socioeconomic status, marital status, family constellation and background, educational and occupational status, medical and mental health history, use of prescribed or illicit substances, prior treatment, legal status, living arrangements, religious affiliation, sexual preference, social network, current functioning , and self-perceptions. Initially, students are overwhelmed by the data that they assume need to be collected. Guidance must be provided on how students are to differentiate meaningful from inconsequential information. In our program, for example, we ask students to evaluate the relevance of background data, for understanding clients presenting concerns and for developing treatment plans. We advise students to strive for relevance rather than comprehensiveness. Presenting concerns consist of a thorough account of each of the clients problems as viewed by that client. This task might begin with information contained on an intake form. We assist students in developing concrete and detailed definitions of clients concerns by showing them how to help clients identify specific affective, behavioral, cognitive, and interpersonal features of their problems. For example, the poor academic performance of a client who is a college student might involve maladaptive behavior (e. g. , procrastination), cognitive deficits (e. g. , difficulty in concentrating), negative moods (e. g. , anxiety), and interpersonal problems (e. g. , conflict with instructors). Counseling students should also explore the parameters of presenting concerns, including prior occurrence, onset, duration, frequency, severity, and relative importance. We further suggest that students explore how clients have attempted to cope with their concerns and that they examine what clients expect from treatment, in terms of assistance as well as their commitment to change. In addition, students should assess immediate or impending dangers and crises that their clients may face. Finally, we instruct students in identifying environmental stressors and supports that are linked to presenting concerns. Verbal content can be organized in two ways. A concise summary of each session is appropriate for cases of limited duration. Alternatively, verbal content can include summaries of identified themes that have emerged across sessions. Occasionally, those themes are interdependent or hierarchically arranged. For example, a client may enter treatment to deal with anger toward a supervisor who is perceived as unfair and, in later sessions, disclose having been chronically demeaned by an older sibling. We teach students to discriminate central data from peripheral data through feedback, modeling, and probing questions. Students need to focus their sessions on areas that are keyed to treatment. For instance, we point out that clients focal concerns, along with the goals of treatment, can serve as anchors, preventing the content of sessions from drifting. Verbal style refers to qualitative elements of clients verbal presentation (i. e. , how something is said rather than what is said) that students deem significant because they reflect clients personality characteristics, emotional states, or both. Those elements can include tone of voice and volume, changes in modulation at critical junctures, fluency, quantity and rate of verbalization, vividness, syntactic complexity, and vocal characterizations (e. g. , sighing). Nonverbal behavior includes clients eye contact, facial expression, body movements, idiosyncratic mannerisms (e. g. , hand gestures), posture, seating arrangements, and change in any of these behaviors over time and circumstances. Instructors can assist students in distinguishing relevant from unimportant information by modeling and providing feedback on how these data bear on the case. As an example, neglected hygiene and a listless expression are important nonverbal behaviors when they coincide with other data, such as self-reports of despair and hopelessness. Clients emotional experience includes data that are more inferential. On the basis of their observations, students attempt to infer what their clients feel during sessions and to relate those feelings to verbal content (e. g. , sadness linked to memories of loss). The observations provide insights into clients emotional lives outside of treatment. We caution students that clients self-reports are an important but not entirely reliable source of information about their emotional experience. At times clients deny, ignore, mislabel, or misrepresent their emotional experience. Students should note the duration, intensity, and range of emotion expressed over the course of treatment. Blunted or excessive affect as well as affect that is discrepant with verbal content also merit attention. To illustrate, a client may report, without any apparent anger, a history of physical abuse. Initially, students can be assisted in labeling their clients affect by using a checklist of emotional states. We have found it helpful to suggest possible affect and support our perceptions with observation and logic. Empathic role taking can also help students to gain access to clients experience. Instructors may need to sensitize students to emotional states outside of their own experience or that they avoid. Counselors experience of the client involves his or her personal reactions to the client (e. g. , attraction, boredom, confusion, frustration, and sympathy). We strive to establish a supportive learning environment in which students can disclose their genuine experiences, negative as well as positive. Students often struggle to accept that they might not like every client. But students should be helped to recognize that their experience of clients is a rich source of hypotheses about feelings that those clients may engender in others and, thus, about the interpersonal world that the clients partially create for themselves. The feel of clients often provides valuable diagnostic clues (e. g. , wanting to take care of a client may suggest features of dependent personality disorder). Sometimes students need assistance in determining whether their reactions to clients reflect countertransferential issues or involve normative responses. We draw on parallel process and use-of-self as an instrument to help clarify students feelings and to form accurate attributions about the origins of those feelings (Glickauf-Hughes Campbell, 1991; Ronnestad Skovholt, 1993). Client-counselor interaction summarizes patterns in the exchanges between client and counselor as well as significant interpersonal events that occur within sessions. Such events are, for example, how trust is tested, how resistance is overcome, how sensitive matters are explored, how the counseling relationship is processed, and how termination is handled. Thus, this component of the format involves a characterization of the counseling process. Students should attempt to characterize the structure of the typical sessionspecifically, what counselors and clients do in relation to one another during the therapy hour. They may do any of the following: answer questions, ask questions; cathart, support; learn, teach; seek advice, give advice; tell stories, listen; collude to avoid sensitive topics. Taxonomies of counselor (Elliott et al. , 1987) and client (Hill, 1992) modes of response are resources with which to characterize the structure of sessions. At a more abstract level, students should try to describe the evolving roles they and their clients play vis-a-vis one another. It is essential to assess the quality of the counseling relationship and the contributions of the student and the client to the relationship. We ask students to speculate on what they mean to a given client and to generate a metaphor for their relationship with that client (e. g. , doctor, friend, mentor, or parent). Client-counselor interactions yield clues about clients interpersonal style, revealing both assets and liabilities. Furthermore, the counseling relationship provides revealing data about clients self-perceptions. We encourage students to present segments of audiotaped or videotaped interviews that illustrate patterns of client-counselor interaction. Test data and supporting materials include educational, legal, medical, and psychological records; mental status exam results; behavioral assessment data, including self-monitoring; questionnaire data, the results of psychological testing, artwork, excerpts from diaries or journals, personal correspondence, poetry, and recordings. When students assess clients, a rationale for testing is warranted that links the method of testing to the purpose of assessment. We assist students in identifying significant test data and supporting materials by examining how such information converges with or departs from other clinical data e. g. , reports of family turmoil and an elevated score on Scale 4, Psychopathic Deviate, of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 [MMPI-2; Hathaway McKinley, 1989]). Assessment, as well as diagnosis and treatment, must be conducted with sensitivity toward issues that affect women, minorities, disadvantaged clients, and disabled clients, because those pe rsons are not necessarily understood by students, perhaps due to limited experience of students or the homogenized focus of their professional preparation. Diagnosis includes students impression of clients diagnoses on all five axes of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 1994). We guide students efforts to support their diagnostic thinking with clinical evidence and to consider competing diagnoses. Students can apply taxonomies other than those in the DSM-IV when appropriate (e. g. , DeNelsky and Boats [1986] coping skills model). Instructors demonstrate the function of diagnosis in organizing scattered and diverse clinical data and in generating tentative hypotheses about clients functioning. Inferences and assumptions involve configuring clinical hypotheses, derived from observations, into meaningful and useful working models of clients (Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). A working model consists of a clear definition of the clients problems and formulations of how hypothesized psychological mechanisms produce those problems. For instance, a clients primary complaints might be frequent bouts of depression, pervasive feelings of isolation, and unfulfilled longing for intimacy. An account of those problems might establish the cause as an alienation schema, early childhood loss, interpersonal rejection, negative self-schemas, or social skills deficits. We help students to elaborate on and refine incompletely formed inferences by identifying related clinical data and relevant theoretical constructs (Dumont, 1993; Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). We also assist students in integrating inferences and assumptions with formal patterns of understanding drawn from theories of personality, psychopathology, and counseling (Hoshmand, 1991). As with their instructors, students are not immune from making faulty inferences that can be traced to logical errors, such as single-cause etiologies, the representative heuristic, the availability heuristic, confirmatory bias, the fundamental attribution error, and illusory correlations; (Dumont, 1993; Dumont Lecomte, 1987). As an example, counselors tend to seek data that support their preexisting notions about clients, thus restricting the development of a more complete understanding of their clients. We alert students to the likelihood of bias in data gathering, particularly when they seek to confirm existing hypotheses. Furthermore, we demonstrate how to generate and evaluate competing hypotheses to counteract biased information ]processing (Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Kanfer Schefft, 1988). Instructors, therefore, must teach students to think logically, sensitizing them to indicators of faulty inferences and providing them with strategies for validating clinical hypotheses as well as disconfirming them (Dumont Lecomte, 1987; Hoshmand, 1991). The proposed format can accomplish this task because it separates inferences from the clinical data used to test inferences and thus deautomatizes cognitive operations by which inferences are formed (Kanfer Schefft, 1988; Mahoney Lyddon, 1988). We have found it beneficial to have students compare their impressions of clients with impressions that are independently revealed by test data (e. g. , MMPI-2); this exercise permits the correction of perceptual distortions and logical errors that lead to faulty inferences. Although students intuition is an invaluable source of hypotheses, instructors need to caution them that intuition must be evaluated by empirical testing and against grounded patterns of understanding (Hoshmand, 1991). We also model caution and support for competing formulations and continued observation. This approach fosters appreciation of the inexactitude and richness of case conceptualization and helps students to manage such uncertainty without fear of negative evaluation. With the development of their conceptualizing skills, students can appreciate the viability of alternative and hybrid inferences. Moreover, they become more aware of the occasional coexistence and interdependence of clinical and inferential contradictions (e. g. , the simultaneous experience of sorrow and joy and holistic concepts such as life and death). The increasingly elaborate conceptual fabric created from the sustained application of conceptualizing skills also enables students to predict the effect of interventions more accurately. Goals of treatment must be linked to clients problems as they come to be understood after presenting concerns have been explored. Goals include short-term objectives along with long-term outcomes of treatment that have been negotiated by the client and trainee. Typically, goals involve changing how clients feel, think, and act. Putting goals in order is important because their priorities will influence treatment decisions. Goals need to be integrated with students inferences or established theories and techniques of counseling. In their zeal, students often overestimate the probable long-term aims of treatment. To help students avoid disappointment, we remind them that certain factors influence the formulation of goals, including constraints of time and resources, students own competencies, and clients capacity for motivation for change. Interventions comprise techniques that students implement to achieve agreed-on goals of treatment. Techniques are ideally compatible with inferences and assumptions derived earlier; targets of treatment consist of hypothesized psychological structures, processes, and conditions that produce clients problems (e. g. , self-esteem, information processing, family environment). Difficulties in technical implementation should be discussed candidly. We provide opportunities for students to observe and rehearse pragmatic applications of all strategies. Techniques derived from any theory of counseling can be reframed in concepts and processes that are more congruent with students cognitive style. To illustrate, some students are able to understand how a learned fear response can be counterconditioned by the counseling relationship when this phenomenon is defined as a consequence of providing unconditional positive regard. In addition, we teach students to apply techniques with sensitivity as well as to fashion a personal style of counseling. Finally, legal and ethical issues pertaining to the conduct of specific interventions must be made explicit. Evaluation of outcomes requires that students establish criteria and methods toward evaluating the outcomes of treatment. Methods can include objective criteria (e. g. , grades), reports of others, self-reports (e. g. , behavioral logs), test data, and students own judgments. Instructors must assist students in developing efficient ways to evaluate progress over the course of treatment given the presenting concerns, clients motivation, and available resources. USES OF THE FORMAT We developed the :format for use in a year-long practicum in a masters degree program in counseling psychology. Instructors describe the format early in the first semester and demonstrate its use by presenting a erminated case; a discussion of the format and conceptualization follows. The first half of the format is particularly helpful when students struggle to organize clinical data into meaningful categories and to distinguish their observations from their inferences. The focus at that point should be on components of the format that incorporate descriptive data about the client. Later in their development, when students are prepared to confront issues that influence the counseling relationship, components involving personal and interpersonal aspects of treatment can be explored. As students mature further, components that incorporate descriptive data are abbreviated so that students can concentrate on the conceptualizing skills of diagnosis, inferences and assumptions, treatment planning and intervention, and evaluation. When conceptualizing skills have been established, the format need not be applied comprehensively to each case. Rather, it can be condensed without losing its capacity to organize clinical data and to derive interventions. The format can be used to present cases in practicum seminar as well as in individual supervision sessions. It can also be used by students to manage their caseloads. Also, the format can be used in oral and written forms to organize and integrate clinical data and to suggest options for treatment (cf. Biggs, 1988; Hulse Jennings, 1984; Loganbill Stoltenberg, 1983). For example, practicum seminar can feature presentations of cases organized according to the format. As a student presents the data of the case, participants can construct alternative working models. Moreover, the format compels participants to test their models by referencing clinical data. Written details that accompany a presentation are also fashioned by a student presenter according to the format. The student presenter can distribute such material before the presentation so that members of the class have time to prepare. During the presentation, participants assume responsibility for sustaining the process of case conceptualization in a manner that suits the class (e. g. , discussion, interpersonal process recall, media aids, or role play). Supervision and case notes can also be structured more flexibly with the use of the case conceptualization format to give students opportunities to relate observation to inference, inference to treatment, and treatment to outcome (Presser Pfost, 1985). In fact, supervision is an ideal setting to tailor the format to the cognitive and personal attributes of the students. In supervision, there are also more opportunities to observe students sessions directly, which permits instruction of what clinical information to seek, how to seek it, how to extract inferences from it, and to evaluate the veracity of students inferences by direct observation (Holloway, 1988). FUTURE APPLICATIONS AND RESEARCH The format is a potentially valuable resource for counselors to make the collection and integration of data systematic when they intervene with populations other than individual clients. Application of the format to counseling with couples and families might seem to make an already conceptually demanding task more complex. Yet counselors can shift the focus from individuals to a couple or a family unit, and apply components of the format to that entity. By targeting relationships and systems in this way, the format can also be used to enhance understanding of and improve interventions in supervision and with distressed units or organizations.