Essay --

The Life of Mother Teresa India is a country of great poverty. The poor of India wanted help but no one seemed to listen to their cries. About 29.8% of the people of India live below the national poverty line in 2010. One person has changed the way people act today. Even now people still strive to do what she did. Mother Teresa is one of the people who shaped the world. Mother Teresa was brought into the the world on August 26, 1910. Mother Teresa was baptized the day after she was born which is August 27 1910. Her nickname was gonkha which means little bud or flower bud. Agnes Gonxha bojaxhiyIs was Mother Teresa’s real name. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje Macedonia. Skopje is the capital of the republic of Macedonia. Skopje is also the largest city in the republic of Macedonia. Skopje is a humid subtropical climate.In Skopje 10% of the population is Catholic Mother Teresa attended a public school as well as a private school. Later in life she attended a medical mission sisters school. Mother Teresa played mandolin as a young child and she also song with her sister in her church’s choir. Mother Teresa’s biggest hobby was to carry out the will of God. Mother Teresa grew up in a generous family and the family was extremely involved in the church. When mother Teresa was a child she would bring food and medicine to people who needed it. She saw that as a religious duty. When she was eight her father passed away and mother Teresa became close to her mother. When she was on a trip to the chapel of the Madonna of Lentince on a black mountain was when she felt her first calling from God. â€Å"I want Indian Nuns, Missionaries of charity, who would be my fire of love amongst the poor, the sick, the dying, and the little children† sh... ...st mother Teresa. They thought they weren’t sanitary and didn’t have good medical training to care for the poor people. Also people said the only reson people thought she helped people was because she was converting people to christianity. In 1989 she had a herat attack which was followed by surgery and then she was hooked up to a machine to regulate her heartbeat. After a couple years of heart lung and kidney problems she died at age 87 on september 5 1997. Mother teresa is the Saint of Gutters Mother teresa has helped so many poor,unhealthy,homeless,healthy,wealthy, people. She has helped people by curing there sickness, telling us that we can change the world, and that if we just help one person it will make a difference. This paper talked about the life of mother teresa. Mother teresa had a unforgettable life. She had a life that we all would want to have.

What Are Some Issues Managers Face When Leading a Diverse Workforce

What are some issues managers face when leading a diverse workforce? How can he/she overcome these issues? Most people, when they think of diversity they will automatically gravitate to the common four, which are race, creed, color and religion. However diversity takes on many different forms such as married or single, parents or single parent, educated or not, or even veteran or never served. So to go beyond the common four one would have to think we are always encountering diversity when we are out in the public.Everyone has the stereotyped stories about walking into 7-11 and finding the persons from India or some form of Muslim background Believe it or not, we face diversity as soon as we go into the public. We run into people from different countries, religions, beliefs and color. So to put that as a topic of a problem, in my opinion, is way over stated. Only ignorance can cause problems when dealing with diversities.I have to believe that we as a country have swung the pendulum too far in the sensitive direction that we make it almost impossible to function. I have to believe that if everyone treats everyone with respect then it’s really not a problem. On that same note; if someone is offended by someone then it’s absolutely up to that person to say something in private to that person and give them the chance to learn that what they have said or done has offended someone else.So managers need to be aware of diversity and also provide some guidance for the ignorant employees that may simply not know any better. So the bottom line, educating your people to be aware that not everyone grows from the same tree or has the same beliefs and I have to believe that it will work itself out. ? University of California, San Fransisco. Guide to Managing Human Resources; Chapter 12: Managing Diversity in the Workplace. http://ucsfhr. ucsf. edu/index. php/pubs/hrguidearticle/chapter-12-managing-diversity-in-the-workplace/

A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENT Topics Page Numbers 1 A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities in Improving Literacy Skills of EAL Pupils Introduction This evaluative essay focuses on reviewing teacher professional development strategies in using assessment for learning (AfL) to improve English as an additional language (EAL) for primary pupils in England.Teaching is a difficult job. Improvement and constant development are therefore necessary to ease the burden of hardworking teachers. As a result, teacher professional development is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions (Wiliam, 2011). Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development is a typical concern in industrialized countries because it is the key to improving teaching. However, William (2011) mentioned that teachers feel inundated as they are continuously ‘bombarded’ with innovative strategies to increase their working efficiency.Keeping teacher professional development in mind, the focus he re also relates to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Globalisation plays a major role in stressing equal opportunities and social equity for all learners. Due to the long tradition of migration trends across the globe, the international concerns also encompass of contextualise social justice for multi-lingual learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). To highlight this matter, a statistic from the Department for Education in 2011 shows an increased in the number of ethnic minority pupils in English state funded primary schools (DfE, 2011).This reflects the circumstance of England primary schools where pupils whose first language is other than English has increased in number. The urgency of this matter is supported by Ofsted (2012) by stating that English has a momentous position in the school curriculum. Thus, teachers’ 2 strategies to tackle this situation become the centre of attention. Where the English language has served as a lingua franca for ethni c minority pupils in England, literacy skills play an important role in their academic and everyday routines as well.By putting forward the two important aspects of this essay; teacher professional development and EAL in primary schools, it is only necessary to mention the relevance of combining both of these aspects in a topic for discussion. With all due respect to other core subjects in the curriculum, the reality of teaching as a difficult job and a statement made by National Association for Language Development in Curriculum (NALDIC, 2009:1) on EAL that it is a ‘very complex phenomenon’, seem to have formidable implications for teacher professional development.Educational reforms such as curriculum reform, does not guarantee necessary changes in classroom practices. It is well known that how a subject is taught wins over what is taught, hence ‘pedagogy trumps curriculum’ (Wiliam, 2011:13). Therefore, when curriculum frameworks only work as far as guidi ng teachers in dealing with EAL, thus assessment for learning (AfL) is then best integrated in pedagogy to further develop the practice of serving teachers and raise pupils’ achievements. 3English as an Additional Language Classrooms in England According to a brief description by NALDIC (2011), there are over a million bilingual pupils participating in teaching and learning contexts in United Kingdom. According to statistics from Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2006a:8), there has been an increased of ethnic minority pupils in primary schools from 18. 3% in 2004 to 19. 3% in 2005 and then reaching 20. 6% in 2006. Each of these pupils enters school communities with minority language that is not English as their mother tongue language.It is stated by Hughes (2002) that teachers need to consider pupils’ diverse culture to establish learning environments that are meaningful. It is important that teachers attend to their learning needs in order to achieve teachin g goals. The diversity in culture that may cause challenges in pupils’ learning according to Hughes (2002) includes the kind of spoken language use by them outside of school context such as at home. English as an Additional Language (EAL) according to Davison (2007) refers to ethnic minority pupils who are perceived as to needing support with their English development.These pupils possess language other than English (LOTE) as their mother tongue language. The terminology of English as a Second Language (ESL) is also commonly used by many researchers and teachers to identify these LOTE pupils. However, there has been a rise of issues about the usage of ESL as a term in pedagogy hence, the term EAL is said to be a more appropriate term to be used as it suits the context where the English language abilities of bilingual or multi-lingual pupils are multi-leveled (Davison, 2007).These issues revolve around the fact that LOTE pupils should not all be assumed to take English languag e as their second language. These pupils can be 4 fluent in speaking and writing in their mother tongue language but not in English language, or it can be vice versa (NALDIC, 2009). On the other hand, these pupils can be more fluent and able to socialise with their schoolmates in English language informally, but not be able to engage in academic writing and meet the requirement of the national standards.Cummins’ (1979) distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as cited in DfES training toolkit programme (DfES, 2006b) shows that communicative or conversational skills (BICS) of pupils usually develop first in verbal exchanges context before they develop their cognitive (thinking and learning skills) and academic languages (CALP). In general, it takes two to three years for upils to be fluent in English as an additional language and an average of five to seven and even ten years for bilingual pupils to be competent in cognitive and academic domains. Essentially, EAL teachers need to know that only by pupils achieving development in both of their cognitive and academic language can they contribute to their academic success (DfES, 2006b). In an actual fact, how successful is the teaching and learning of English language subject in England primary schools?According to inspections done by Ofsted from April 2008 until March 2011 in over 133 primary schools, the report highlights the finding that primary schools have less improvements in English attainments in comparison to secondary schools (Ofsted, 2012). The problems listed are encompassed of having fewer pupils achieving national expectations in reading, and quality in teaching writing is varied such that less efforts were given in spelling and handwriting. Slower improvements in primary schools are then linked to the fact that there is a lack of specialists present in the teaching and learning context.Although, due to 5 inspect ions done by Ofsted consist of individuals, there might be biased element involve in the evaluation. Nonetheless, Therefore, I do believe there should be more researches focusing on the competences of teachers through teacher training programmes and continuing professional development. Relevance of Formative Assessment in EAL â€Å"Sensitive formative assessment of pupils’ classroom performance demands a high level of teacher awareness of pupil needs†¦teachers need to take account†¦the even more complex and less ‘visible’ aspects of language use. (NALDIC, 2003: 1) I can relate to the above quoted statement by NALDIC (2003) where teachers are required to carefully plan formative assessment for pupils’ learning by considering the complexity of language education especially EAL. According to Wiliam (2011), there has been a lack of researches done for teacher professional development. Learning styles, educational neuroscience and content area knowle dge are the common areas included in teacher professional development. Thus, why focus on formative assessment in this context?Getting into the basic details of understanding assessment, Green and Johnson (2010:14) define assessment as more than just tests and quizzes for the purpose of grading. Furthermore, assessment is viewed as a mix of methods to implement before, during and after lessons by taking advantage and making good use of pupils’ former or current knowledge to enhance learning. From the definition itself, they feasibly elaborated three main purposes of assessment 6 based on occurrence of the instructions.Diagnostic assessment happens before teaching, formative assessment (assessment for learning) happen during teaching and summative assessment (assessment of learning) happens after teaching (Green and Johnson, 2010). Thus, the terms diagnostic, formative and summative can be seen as defining the functions or purposes of the wide range of assessments. Black, Harr ison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam (2003:31) mentioned that there are four ways of assessing pupils; questioning or classroom dialogue, feedback or feed-forward, self and peer-assessment, and formative use of summative tests.The relevance of focusing on formative assessment is due to its compatibility alongside many other aspects that contribute to pupils’ achievements (such as age, abilities and multileveled language). NALDIC (2003) agrees on the insufficiency of only using National Curriculum English and thus resulted in Assessment for learning (AfL) which is synonymous to formative assessment, to be used on a daily instructional basis (NALDIC, 2009). According to Stiggins (2005) as cited in Wiliam (2011), Assessment for learning exists throughout the process of pupils’ learning.AfL provides pupils with information of their learning progress through feedback as evidence and at the same time, assist pupils on how to improve and meet achievement standards. NALDIC Formative descriptors consist of assessment framework to assist teachers on day-to-day methods or provide stages for diagnosing pupils’ progress, and also to help teachers plan and integrate AfL into EAL teaching approaches (NALDIC, 2009). Issues in Assessing English as an Additional Language 7 We have only looked at the complexity of language in terms of its terminology.Davison (2007) mentioned that knowing what to be taught and learnt in classrooms must precede the action of assessing EAL pupils’ development. Other than that, teachers must also take notes on pupils’ knowledge prior to lessons to provide them with better learning opportunities. Shepard (2000) talked about two different problems in relation to teacher practices and pupils’ prior knowledge to learning. She stated that quite a number of teachers only documented results from pre-test and post-test assessment tasks however failed to subsume pupils’ pre-test results for enhancing pupils’ learning.In another case, a sizeable amount of teachers involved in reading and language subject had the tendency of using activities that acknowledge pupils’ background knowledge but failed to comprehensively integrate them with assessment. In practice, EAL pupils would have more predicaments in learning English as their additional language in comparison to native speakers of English pupils learning English. Hence, teachers are required to be more sensitive towards the cultural background and prior knowledge of these EAL pupils to help fulfill their learning needs.Language as a second language contains facets such as grammatical, socio-cultural and strategic abilities taken from models that can be referred for assessing. However, Widdowson (2001) as cited by Davison and Leung (2009) stated that the complexity of language is mainly due to the absence of comprehensive views and researches on the relations of these components, thus resulting in theoretical issues arising such a s on the ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ on assessing criteria of language.For an example, in assessing writing, there may be a question on the validity of perhaps teachers putting more emphasise on grammar proficiency in comparison to creative writing. 8 Thus, theoretically, with the nature of language being multifaceted and the different abilities of LOTE speaking pupils in mind, one has to wonder how teachers deal with and monitor their development and progress. Of course there are NALDIC Formative descriptors which provide framework and guidance to teachers; however, there is the persistent question of whether or not this is enough.An experiment was done by Davison in 1998 (Davison, 2007) involving ten Hong Kong immigrant students in Australian secondary schools. The result of the research indicates that teachers of these immigrant students had the tendency of creating a ‘community of dialogic exchanges’ (Davison, 2007:542). Referring to forma tive assessment, classroom dialogue is one of the areas used to assess students to enhance learning, nonetheless, it is the way that teachers use this method that really determines the outcomes to be positive or negative for their learning.Here, the teachers seemed to acknowledge the background of the EAL students but omitted their learning needs. The teachers developed negative judgments towards these students such as perceiving them as depending too much on their mother-tongue language and having no motivation to learn and speak in English. Thus, this poor discernment by teachers as assessors should be a major professional concern. Furthermore, in reflection to Davison’s research, I would like to include some issues raised by Cumming (2009) in the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly.Briefly, Cumming put forward problems that relate teachers and assessment. Firstly, the problem is on teachers’ lack of knowledge on assessment, and also questioning their professional abili ties since there are still a lack of studies done to help answer how language teachers build up their competences 9 throughout their career. Secondly, teachers having a hard time in choosing assessment approaches that would work better in helping pupils meet the curriculum standards. Lastly, there are issues involved to how teachers relate assessment with pupils’ development and learning needs.As a result, the judgment skills, knowledge and abilities of teachers as assessors, are some of the many factors that should be considered in improving within teacher professional development. Teacher Professional Development: Novice to Expert? The demands put on teachers’ shoulders can be quite a jargon to others who are not involved directly in the related profession. There is even a saying that I was once told and here it is; the works of a teacher to others as they see it is only a tip of an iceberg.Throughout my teaching experiences, I slowly grasped the meaning of it as the reality of the profession manifested itself through the extra hours of marking, lesson planning and researching. During my earlier periods in the teaching diploma programmes, I believed teachers with years of school experience ought to master the techniques of teaching. It was my assumption that veteran teachers should outperform novice teachers. Nonetheless, with the passing of time, I have learned to believe that experience would only give positive impacts on pupils’ outcomes when the serving teachers bring with them developments in their practices.Of course the time factor contributes to teacher professional development, such as to give ample opportunities to teachers to experience and develop their skills. However, for judging on how good a teacher is, it does not entirely matter on the length of time the teacher has taught, but what the teacher does within this time that is really a concern. 10 Such as, how teachers develop teaching approaches on bringing in greater lea rning experience for pupils in EAL classrooms or setting.Referring to my old belief, a trite assumption that I’d probably make would be that teachers should just be left in schools for a period of time to eventually learn to teach better. Surprisingly, this assumption is proven to have a little bit of truth. Wiliam (2011) has put forward research done by Leigh (2010) on 90,000 Australian elementary school students. The research shows a small gap of differences on the impacts of students’ progress as a result from the teaching between veteran and novice teachers (see Appendix A).Hence, a couple of years advance by veteran teachers in the career put them at a slightly better teaching result, yet Leigh stated the majority agree that the case is not always the same. The attention of even on the tiniest bit of truth on the assumption that veteran teachers teach better than novices, is better turned to how they teach and develop their practices. That is, by improving their i nner developments; wisdom, knowledge, experience and polishing their critical judgment skills (Dadds, 2001).On the other hand, it is vital to realise that the whole process of developing teacher practices does not evolve entirely on teachers simply catching up with the latest educational trends (Wiliam, 2011). Metaphorically, it is not as easy as reading ingredients off a recipe book and lacking of involvement in the process of cooking itself. Putnam and Borko (1997) as cited in Shepard (2000) agreed that constant experimentation and reflection on pedagogical models in real classrooms context by teachers precede beneficial changes to their teaching practices, beliefs and attitudes. 1 Teacher Professional Development Strategies in EAL Looking from an international view, Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development in every countries differ from one another in terms of its strategies. In Japan, the strategies of professional development encourage peer-development, mea nwhile in America; the strategies are focused on following paradigms for self-development. Higgins and Leat (2001) talked about effective teacher development by linking its models in a mapping diagram (see Appendix B).They attempted on linking models such as those that seek on transitional stages of novice to expert teachers, teachers’ professional reflection, pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, socialisation and personal explanatory. This goes back to relate on the previous research on 90,000 elementary students in Australia on the differences of performance between novice and veteran teachers (Wiliam 2011). It would not be enough to prepare individual teachers with only a specific skill in teaching development such as on pedagogical approaches alone.This is because teacher professional development is multi-faceted and the components are interrelated. Although there are imperfections on trying to map out the complex relationships of models within teacher development du e to many different meanings of the concepts in literature, however, they agreed on stressing the importance of teachers in having explicit work purposes (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Due to the major focus on mainstreamed classrooms in English schools, Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) therefore aims in providing all pre-service teachers 12 ith the experiences of EAL integration across all curriculum subjects (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). In my home country, the curriculum has a vast of English Language medium subjects listed for the majority local and non-native English speaking pupils. Thus, in the previous years, preservice and post-service teachers in Brunei had the opportunity to choose upon entering the teaching training programmes such as to specialise in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).However, it is acknowledged by Cajkler and Hall (2009) that despite the urgency to meet the demand of increasing EAL pupils in England, the inclusion of EAL specialisatio n in pre-service teachers training programmes is out of the question due to the already ‘very crowded programme’ (Cajkler and Hall, 2009:154). In the initial training, the confidence level of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was low especially in the fields of assessing English and teaching of literacy.The study also noted that the training provided pre-service teachers with less involvement with the national guidelines for assessment of EAL pupils; Language in Common. As a result, 45% from one hundred and fifteen respondents prioritised teaching skills for EAL as the most essential further training category for continuing professional development (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). Thus, assessment and language developments are suggested to be centralised in the teacher training programmes.Therefore, in 2006, the introduction of training toolkit for EAL Excellence and enjoyment: teaching and learning for bilingual pupils in the primary years (DfES, 2006b) to schools aims to raise understanding on EAL pedagogy and provide guidance on teaching approaches for bilingual learners. Then, White et al (2006) in their evaluation of the pilot programme of the DfES toolkit (DfES, 2006b) mentioned that there has been a positive improvement in teachers’ confidence and better comprehensive view of EAL pedagogy by teachers. 3 If I insisted on my previous assumption on letting novice teachers evolve to experts, Higgins and Leat (2001) pointed out that there are again stages involve in the transition to increase expertise. These transitional stages are not shown in the mapping diagram (see Appendix B). Nonetheless, it triggers such questions as to what extend do we measure achievements of teachers to confirm their expertise in teaching, hence, what makes one a teaching expert?Does defining one’s expertise help others to improve, such as through demonstrations of teaching to pre-service and post-service teachers? Changes can only occur and produce results when teachers are willing to first, change from within. Perhaps I can look at it from this point of view where education reformers provide new teaching models to schools, but instead, all these innovative strategies are making teachers feel inundated by them and as a result, changes intended never take place in classrooms (Wiliam, 2011).Let’s also reflect on the situation of the ten Hong Kong students where teachers assess them through classroom dialogue activity but misinterpreted in using that assessment to make judgments that did not contribute in helping them to learn better. As a result, Dadds (2001:51) emphasise teachers to cultivate their inner ‘voice’ and judgment or the ‘expert’ within them before accepting and using instructions from the ‘expert’ outside. Teachers are learners themselves. They need to learn on how to look at their rooted values on the profession first before thinking on improving and catering the learning needs of p upils.Suggestions to Overcome Issues in EAL 14 Other than participating actively in the schools or the nation’s teacher professional development programmes, there are also many other individualistic ways for serving teachers to successfully implement AfL in EAL pedagogical approaches. In the context of teacher professional development, it really depends on teachers to improve their knowledge and professional abilities; to trust their instincts, experience and wisdom in order to help pupils attain better in their learning.Also, it is essential for teachers to be explicit on the learning intentions before assessing pupils for learning. For lesson preparations, teachers in England are opened to a wide range of resources for EAL and assessment tasks such as from EAL publications, DfES toolkit (2006b) and NALDIC official website which provide great research platforms for teachers and tutors. Teachers can use information on pupils’ background and prior knowledge to adapt sui table assessment tasks in classrooms.According to Shepard (2000), teachers may even evaluate their own practices through classroom assessments by becoming liberal and open into discussing matters related to improving instructions with pupils. Another way of helping teachers to develop their assessment practices is by using video or audio recorder while assessing pupils as media to allow teachers to reflect and improve their approaches, as well as, to enable teachers to better understand the learning needs of their pupils.For peer-development, EAL teachers may make informal meetings with their EAL teaching colleagues to discuss and make amendments on certain assessments criteria (Davison, 2007; Davison and Leung, 2009). In addition to the issue of assessment ‘validity and reliability’, the matter can be partially put at ease if the assessing of pupils is done by teachers who know them very well. In addition, 15 teachers should be given great autonomy to plan and help the learning of their own pupils (Davison and Leung, 2009).However, if the case of ‘validity and reliability’ is over-emphasised, therefore, I believe that the status of teachers as assessors may be perceived as weak and the whole focus of AfL would be none other than a replacement of standardised traditional ways of assessing. As cited by Shepard (2000), Assessment Reform Group (1999) which consists of researchers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, put forward their discourse to the government policies on three important aspects. Firstly, to amend inspectorate policies to help guarantee teachers as qualified assessors for pupils’ learning.Secondly, increase the funding on professional development opportunities for teachers. Finally, relieve teachers from the apprehensive pressure of standard examinations when planning instructions for pupils’ learning. Conclusion The impetus of this essay derived from the fact whereby is supported by NALDIC (2009) that English as an Additional Language (EAL) development is a rather difficult situation that gives impact to teachers’ professional experience. There has been a great emphasise on EAL in England due to its long tradition of migration and mainstream classrooms in primary schools.In relation to the urgency, teacher professional development in England becomes the foreground in dealing with the increasing number of language other than the English (LOTE) speaking pupils in state funded schools (DfE, 2011). On the other hand, the integration of AfL in the teaching of EAL is seen to be the best way to assist teachers in increasing pupils’ literacy competences. NALDIC Formative descriptors, established in 2009, serve as assessment framework that provides teachers with 16 approaches to diagnose the progress of pupils in EAL and provide them with feedback evidence to improve learning (NALDIC, 2003).Language education is very complex. The nature of language involves stage s of competencies and encompasses of many interrelated components (Davison and Leung, 2009). Thus, trying to figure out the abilities of bilingual or multilingual pupils in English language and which aspect or components of the language to use to judge their competences, is quite the phenomenon. Therefore, there are issues involving teachers’ critical judgments and wisdom whilst assessing EAL pupils that highlights the necessity of teacher professional development.According to Higgings and Leat (2001) by referring to Teacher Training Agency (1997), primary teacher training in United Kingdom provided a course where pre-service teachers are to obtain all the needs of professional learning by attending ample of lectures on subject knowledge, teaching approaches and a number of demonstrations on teaching. However, from a study done by Cajkler and Hall (2009), the result shows that there is inconsistency in the focus of EAL in the teacher training programme provided by TDA in Engl and.Time is an essential element in development but it is also relevant to look at teachers as individuals with different abilities. From my experience, some teachers could be talented and creative than the others, and some teachers could be more motivated. Therefore, arguing on which aspect contributes more in improving teacher practices is impossible due to the fact that it is beyond my capability for discussion and the limitation of this essay. In a nutshell, I agree that that teacher professional development is complex.Education reformers should not merely focus on one area of teaching practices but also to acknowledge other teaching related factors. 17 Nonetheless, Wiliam (2011) paraphrased Doug Lenov (2010) and stated that teachers have no maximum limitation of success and should think that striving for continuous development throughout their career is necessary. After all, teachers are not just essentially required to help develop EAL pupils into becoming capable learners in their classrooms but, they also help them to become capable members of the schools and cultural societies (Davison, 2007).Therefore, teachers’ skeptical attitude towards innovative strategies that would help improve their teaching has to be countered with other strategies that would prepare them with the changes they need from within. Iteratively, professional development for teachers needs to be guided with intentions that are relevant and supportive to their continuous professional development in order to face the continuous challenges of the evolving society nowadays. 18 REFERENCES Black, P. , Harrison, C. , Lee, C. , Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. 2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. England: Open University Press. Cumming, A. (2009) What Needs to Be Developed to Facilitate Classroom-Based Assessment? In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 515 – 519. Dadds, M. (2001) Continuing Professional Development: Nurturing the Expert Within. In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 50 – 56. London: The Open University. Davison, C. (2007) Different Definitions of Language and Language Learning: Implications for Assessment. In Cummin, H. nd Davison C. (Eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1, 533 – 548. Norwell, MA: Springer. Davison, C. and Leung, C. (2009) Current Issues in English Language Teacher-Based Assessment. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 393 – 416. DfE (2011) DfE: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics – January 2011. http://www. education. gov. uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196810/schools-pupils-and-theircharacteristics-january-2, accessed November 20, 2012. 19 DfES (2006a) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5 – 16.London: DfES. DfES (2006b) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Bilingual Children in the Primary Years, Unit 1, Planning and Assessment for Languag e and Learning. London: DfES. Green, S. K. and Johnson, R. L. (2010) Assessment is Essential. New York: McGraw-Hill. Higgins, S. and Leat, D. (2001) Horses for Courses or Courses for Horses: What is Effective Teacher Development? In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 57 – 58. London: The Open University. Hughes, P. 2002) Principles of Primary Education Study Guide: 2nd Edition. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. NALDIC (2003) NALDIC Position Statement on Assessment of English as an Additional Language. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-advocacy/naldic-reports-and-responses/naldic-briefingsand-letters, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2009) EAL Assessment Frameworks, Models and Useful Documents for Classroom Teacher. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-teaching-and-learning/eal-resources/eal-assessment, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2011) Bilingual and Dual Language Resources. ttp://www. naldic. org. uk/ealteaching -and-learning/eal-resources/bilingual, accessed November 20, 2012. 20 Ofsted (2012) Moving English Forward: Action to Raise Standards in English. http://www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/moving-english-forward, accessed November 27, 2012. Shepard, L. A. (2000) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 29(7), 4 – 14. USA: American Educational Research Association. Shimahara, N. K. (1998) The Japanese Model of Professional Development: Teaching as Craft.In Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14(5), 451 – 462. Great Britain: Elsevier Science Ltd. White, K. , Lewis, K. , and Fletcher-Campbell, F. (2006) Raising the Achievement of Bilingual Learners in Primary Schools: Evaluation of the Pilot/Programme, Research Report RR758 (National Foundation for Educational Research). London: DfES. Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. USA: Solution Tree Press. 21 APPENDIX A A graph that shows the rate of teacher productivity in relation to t heir years of working experience (Leigh, 2010) cited in Wiliam (2011:28)

General management assignment Essay

INTRODUCTION (kfc ) Micro environment factors which the organisation controls . eg employees product ,price ,place and promotion, it can be considered to be the local environment where business operates and owners are aware of the impacts that they are faced with. Macro environment factors are the ones which the organisation does not control and may affect the business . eg political , economic, social, legal and technological factors. the environment are always changing so the companies must always adapt. Market environtment the act outside marketing management ability to build and maintain a succefull relationship with customers ,the environment always change and both customers and marketers wonder what the future will bring MAIN BODY THE EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ORGANISATION MICRO ENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL FACTORS CUSTOMERS All businesses need customers ,they should be well balanced around customers .The company`s marketing plan should aim to attract customers through products that meets their needs and wants and good customers service EMPLOYEE Employing staff with good skills and experience is essential. Employees bring an influence on your business via ongoing training and promotion opportunities ,this process begins at recruitment stage .Training and development play a critical role in achieving a competitive edge MEDIA Media can be printed ,televised or inline ,positive media can make the organisation or its product and negative media can break the organisation . an organisation needs to manage the media so that the media can help promote positive things about them and reduce negative event on their reputation. SUPPLIER Supplier provides the business with the goods they need to carry out their business activities. A suppliers behaviour will impact the business it suppliers If a supplier provides poor service this could increase timescales and product quality,and increase in raw material THE FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COMPETITIVE POSITION OF THE ORGANISATION MACRO ENVIRONMENT FACTORS POLITIC This deals with the government policies and procedures which is worked out through legislation and consist of all legal factors such as Governmemt view on culture and religion. Taxation policy on tax rates and incentives. Political factor cans can create advantages and opportunities for organisation. ECONOMIC KFC organisation is affected with national and global economic factors like cost of labour, interest and inflation rates ,economic growth rates business cycle rates and unemployment rates. due to recession the income of the kfc has dropped down and most of the employees were jobless and the rest employees were employees few hours also the company had to cut down their costs SOCIAL It is the cultural and demographic aspects of the external macro environment. the pontential of the employees who come from different back grounds and work together in the kfc , and customer trends and aspects which the kfc has to consider as per their needs and wants of the customer such as changes in lifestyles and change in customers needs and wants. TECHNOLOGY This is driven internationally which reduce s the minimum of production levels and some of the technological factors are recent technological developments. Communication technology has now become the most important aspect in kfc as when the customers are mostly delighted and satisfied with the service including the latest technology that is available in the Kfc.  the latest technological method that are used to serve customers faster are such as digital screens ,wireless head phone for the staff cooking utensils. LEGAL The kfc has to maintain rule and regulations related to the hygiene factors such as employee training regarding the food and safety, personal hygiene ,Clean work environment and proper use of the utensils .this also deals with the legal environment in which the company operates. ASPECTS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING Strength ,Weaknesses. Opportunities and threats .Managers will have to start analyzing the internal environment by looking into ineffciencies inside the organisation and will also look outside to the external environment and things taking place independent of the organisation. environmental scans allow managers to use the knowledge gained during the scanning process to decide what strategic steps the organisation needs to take to create a competitive advantage. CONCLUTION Training and development ,managers help with day to day running of the organisation.the must be responsible in creating an energetic and valuable work environment and customer service .Ensuraing quality products and cleanliness is delivered to all customers at good speed and with a smile . QUESTION 2 2.1 READ THE CASE study one from chapter three of your prescribed textbook 2.1.1 Answer question 1to 3 from the case study 1. Do you think there is a business opportunity for a cigar bar in Mamelodi ? There is no business opportunity in Mamelodi because there are three cigar bars in opened and the target market is so young. 2. Is the window of opportunity still open for cigar bars ? Window of opportunities is not opened ,because already they have three cigar Bars which their their target market is young. 3. How must Sanyana go about exploiting this opportunity to get started ? Sanyana must go to an area that is has no cigar bars and busy market 2.2 You have been appointed as a functional manager .You are in charge of marketing department .You need to revise the current marketing strategy. Answer the following questions in light of your new appointment and job task: How can you apply planning, organising , leading and control to manage this department? Managing a department is skill that requires good planning and development and enables the manager to devise strategies, make decisions and implement action. Planning is the process of determining in advance what cost regardless of whether it is a long term priorities. Selecting, Motivating, training and appraising staff. Establishing Strustures and systems through which activities are arranged. Making decisions embodying decisions in instructions an serving as the leader of the department interrelating the various parts of the work . What skills you need to use and develop in order to manage this department? People skill – people tend to work with those whom they like or find pleasant to be around ,or atleast have good personalities when dealing with clients. . Technological skill – In the world that we are living in marketing professionals must have the technological skills to take advantage of these mediums .Marketing through social networking allows the communication of media campaigns and marketing promotions in realtimeto consumers . Project management skill – Marketing must display the skill set to conduct agile project management where marketing campaigns take advantage of the micro opportunities. . Marketing Research skill – This can help determine how previous products in the market have been presented to consumers and how a new productcan best be attack the market . Is decision making essential for future planning ?explain why Decision need  to made wisely under modifying circumstances with different amount of knowledge about alternatives and consequences.  In extention the decision making is often a group process. Consequently the manager must apply principles of democratic decision making since those involved in the decision making process will feel an interest in the result of the process. You need to evaluate employees in the department. how can â€Å"control† assist you with performance appraisal Employees are going to be appraised on all areas that they are responsible for by means of scoring system on how they are doing with their present duties fair , good or very good .that appraisal can be a great tool to monitor and control performance on their duties.

Journey to Self-Awareness

Tiffany Rayside September 27, 2012 Dr. Lynne DeCicco, Eng. 112 Journey to Self-Awareness The term, â€Å"coming of age† signifies a growth in a person’s identity. It is a confusing phase in which one is on the cusp of adulthood and will experience pivotal moments that will shape character and lead to some sort of self-realization. Such moments may result in a loss of innocence, the destruction of hopes and dreams, the sense of imprisonment, and perhaps lessons learned. Two literary works that illustrate such concepts are Amy Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† and James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby. Both pieces are narrated by the main characters, as adults, reflecting upon and portraying a better understanding of their childhood experiences. Although the affairs and outcomes recounted in each differ greatly, â€Å"Two Kinds† and â€Å"Araby† embody the foolishness commonly displayed during adolescence, as well the maturity and insight the characters gain as the stories evolve. In Joyce’s â€Å"Araby,† the un-named main character is a thirteen year old boy living in a depressed society, worn-down and devoured by â€Å"†¦drunken men and bargaining women†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Joyce 92).The boy brightens his days marveling over his best friend Mangan’s sister. The boy’s obsession becomes eerily clear as his daily ritual is revealed: When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran into the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point in which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood. Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance (92). Rayside More often than not, the first step of the coming of age process is the loss of innocence, which is most co mmonly a result of disappointment. As the first true interaction occurs between the boy and Mangan’s sister, the preface for disappointment is shaped. The boy finds himself in the position to impress his fantasy girl when she asks if he will be attending the bazaar at Araby. Upon conveying her longing to attend the splendid event, the young lad seizes the moment and offers to bring her a present from the bazaar, a silent gesture of his love for her.The following days proved tedious as he is consumed with his trip to Araby. Finally, the sacred day arrives and, although he felt he took every precaution to ensure his success, his trip is delayed due to his uncle’s late return home. The narrator realizes that his uncle has forgotten his plans due to intoxication, â€Å"I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could interpret these signs† (Joyce, P93). The reader is immediately presented with th e boy’s awareness of the harsh realities in his world and the discouragement that follows.The boy is of the age where one begins to acknowledge, but not quite understand, adult behavior. Likewise, Amy Tan explores the loss of innocence as an aftermath of childhood disappointment in â€Å"Two Kinds. † Tan portrays herself as a young, first-generation AmericanChinese girl, struggling with the seemingly unrealistic expectations of her mother. Amy, who, in the story is referred to by her Chinese name, Ni-Kan, is on a quest, imposed upon her by her mother, to discover her talent so she may become a child prodigy, comparable to Shirley Temple.After countless ‘talent tests’ given to her by her mother, Ni-Kan begins to accept the notion that she may not have a distinct talent, that she may never be a prodigy: â€Å"But sometimes the prodigy in me became impatient† (Tan 384). With this revelation came a sense of failure and 2 Rayside disappointment in hersel f, in contrast to the narration of â€Å"Araby. † Ni-Kan confesses: â€Å"And after seeing my mother’s disappointed face once again, something inside of me began to die† (Tan 384). This admission results in a change in outlook that marks the beginning of Ni-Kan’s transition into adulthood, a self-realization.Her innocent belief in her mother’s prodigy theories and eagerness to achieve such perfection has come to a halt. In this moment, Ni-Kan decides to be the person she now believes she was meant to be, and not the obedient prodigy her mother and everyone else expected her to be, however it is clear to the reader that she has not yet attained the maturity to make such resolutions. The journey through the character’s development continues as Joyce and Tan introduce the destruction of childhood dreams. As a child, one tends to believe that anything is possible because he or she is blind to possible hindrances.When obstacles present themselves , a person may suffer a disheartening loss of faith or hope, which ultimately chips away at the belief that one’s dreams will come true. Joyce delivered an unspoiled example of this evolution through the narration of â€Å"Araby,† which is consumed with daydreams about â€Å"a romantic quest to purchase the gift for Mangan’s sister† (Fargnoli and Gillespie 2). Disenchantment struck upon the boy’s late arrival to the Bazaar, finding the exhibit nearly empty and the attendants not interested in his patronage.In that instance, the boy appreciates that his romantic fantasy was not worth all of his troubles, which indicates a significant emotional growth of the character. Fargnoli and Gillespie also note: â€Å"†¦and Araby’s tawdry wares unacceptable for the portentous mission that he has undertaken† (2), further conceding to the discontent the boy felt as he identifies the items available for purchase substandard and unsuitable for h is purpose. 3 Rayside Disparate to the boy in â€Å"Araby,† the character in Tan’s â€Å"Two Kinds† served as the catalyst that led to the ruin of her dreams through her resistance to learning how to play the piano.When the time came for her to perform at the recital, she began to believe that she was going to play well, despite her lack of practicing. She childishly imagined the reaction of her family and audience, â€Å"It was as if I knew, without a doubt, that the prodigy side of me really did exist† (Tan 388). Tan went on to describe how she, â€Å"envisioned people jumping to their feet and Ed Sullivan rushing up to introduce me to everyone on TV† (388). Ni-Kan was admittedly surprised when she heard herself playing all of the wrong notes, and shamed of the embarrassment her parents must have felt as she played so poorly.While the boy in â€Å"Araby† was disillusioned by forces beyond his control, Ni-Kan’s experience could have been avoided had she taken her lessons seriously. Also dissimilar to â€Å"Araby,† Tan explores the issues on a deeper level by relating NiKan’s reaction to her recital to that of her mother. Ni-Kan ‘s childhood dream of pleasing her mother by finding her inner prodigy would not come to fruition on that day, but the true destruction was that of her mother’s dream for her daughter to be a success: â€Å"But my mother’s expression was what devastated me: a quiet, blank look that said she had lost everything.I felt the same way, and it seemed as if everybody were now coming up, like gawkers at the scene of an accident, to see what parts were actually missing† (Tan 389). It is clear that Ni-Kan’s mother was terribly embarrassed and frustrated by the ordeal, especially since she boasted about her gifted daughter to the other parents regularly, posing the idea that the mother learned a valuable lesson on that day. 4 Rayside Moreover, a sense of imprisonment, bitterness, and resentment is felt by the characters in â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Two Kinds. The presence of captivity is tremendous in Joyce’s depiction of the world surrounding the boy as he speaks of the mood in the house and the unpleasantness in the air which, in itself, spawns a feeling of hopelessness. However, these feelings are not internalized until later in the story, when the reader is presented with the groundwork for disaster: â€Å"As he was in the hall I could not go into the front parlour and lie at the window. I left the house in bad humour and walked slowly towards the school.The air was pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me† (Joyce 93). The boy already senses his upcoming failure, and that sense is only heightened by a feeling of entrapment once he returns home that evening to find his uncle has not yet arrived, â€Å"I sat staring at the clock for some time and, when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the room † (93). The growing torture the boy is experiencing is clearly indicated as he recalls having to endure unbearable gossip which only seems to make the wait even longer, â€Å"I had to endure the gossip at the tea-table.The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come† (93). Once the uncle does arrive home, the boy barely greets him and immediately asks for money to go to the Bazaar, refusing to smile when the uncle refers to how late in the evening it was, which points out his antipathy towards the delay in his plans. The boy’s showing of resentment is mild, yet resounding. Alternatively, Ni-Kan’s caging and animosity in â€Å"Two Kinds† are exhibited as bold outcries.While her surroundings appear to have more pleasantries than the boy’s in â€Å"Araby,† Ni-Kan is held captive by the traditions and expectations of her mother and heritage, and her torment is evident throughout: â€Å"I hated the tests, the raised h opes and failed expectations† (Tan 384). It is at this point when Ni-Kan makes the decision to be her own type of prodigy, one that 5 Rayside was â€Å"angry and powerful† (384), with thoughts filled with lots of won’ts. â€Å"I won’t let her change me, I promised myself. I won’t be what I’m not† (384).Clearly, Ni-Kan was going to do everything in her power to end her mother’s quest for perfection, to â€Å"put a stop to her foolish pride† (387), but soon finds that her mother’s determination was stronger than she imagined and her bitterness and resentment turns to pure anger and vengefulness: â€Å"Then I wish I weren’t your daughter. I wish you weren’t my mother! † (389). Ni-Kan, encouraged, by her mother’s growing anger, only becomes more verbal and cruel: â€Å"And that’s when I remembered the babies she had lost in China, the ones we never talked about. Then I wish I’ d never been born! I wish I were dead like them† (390).Ni-Kan’s animosity towards becoming a prodigy blinded her from the reality of the pain she caused her mother: â€Å"It was as if I said the magic words, Alakazam† (390). In Ni-Kan’s child eyes, she won the battle of wills, but has yet to recognize all that was lost due to her harsh testimonials. Undoubtedly, the characters â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Two Kinds† learned important life lessons, however varied in acceptance. It appears that the boy in â€Å"Araby† learned his lessons immediately after his trials. He quickly understands that he, alone, idealized his world, and reality could be cruel and hard to bear if unprepared.It is palpable that from this day forth, he will see things from a much more pragmatic perspective and will be better prepared to manage the pitfalls. While Joyce implies that the boy instantly surrenders and accepts this lesson as a part of life, Tan’s char acter does not acknowledge her life lessons until much later, as an adult. Ni-Kan continues her stubborn rebellion throughout her adolescent years and it isn’t until the passing of her mother that she finally realizes the underlying truth of her mother’s constant pursuit of 6 Rayside perfection.It took Ni-Kan more than half of her life to concede that her mother truly saw a prodigy, and she alone stood in the way of her own success. In a nutshell, â€Å"Araby† and â€Å"Two Kinds† highlight how important the seemingly insignificant events that occur during adolescence are to the development of oneself. James Joyce and Amy Tan explore the changes in perspective gained as each protagonist matures into a more enlightened adult. Innocence is lost and displeasures of reality become evident early in life. It is the time when one comprehends that he or she faces substantial pain and emptiness in the future.The irony is that the coming of age never ends; people c ontinue to â€Å"grow up† far beyond the stage of adulthood. 7 Rayside Works Cited Joyce, James, â€Å"Araby† (91-95). Abacarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Eds. Liturature: The Human Experience. Shorter 9th ed. Boston: Bedford. 2007. Print. Tan, Amy, â€Å"Two Kinds† (383 – 391) Abacarian, Richard and Marvin Klotz. Eds. Liturature: The Human Experience. Shorter 9th ed. Boston: Bedford. 2007. Print. Fargnoli, A. Nicholas and Michael Patrick Gillespie â€Å"Araby. † Critical Companion to James Joyce: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc. , 2006. 8

System enginnering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

System enginnering - Essay Example While artistic concepts have been retained from pre enlightenment period, analytical concepts of engineering are modern. One of the systems engineering principles that Griffin applies in his paper is maintenance of â€Å"integrity of the system† to ensure purpose (Leffingwell and Widrig, p. 69). This is expressed in his argument that failure is inevitable in processes and cannot be controlled by â€Å"additional processes, safety measures and alerts† (Griffins, p. 5). Consequently, high level of integrity, both in a system’s development process and in the system’s components is essential in successful systems engineering (Griffins, p. 5, 7). This further identifies the principle of identification and management of systems’ needs, instead of establishing control measures to protect and sustain a system (Griffins, p. 5). Griffins’ definition of system’s engineering (p. 6) also identifies the system’s principles of identifying the problem to be solved and client’s needs from the system. He achieves this by identifying the engineering scope that involves satisfying specifications under constraints. He also addresses principles such as developments of, and adherence to plans, exploration of alternatives, and validation of processes through the scientific approach of process analysis (Griffins, p. 5-7; Leffingwell and

KFC Marketing Plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words - 1

KFC Marketing Plan - Research Paper Example There are various economic forces that have a significant impact on the business operations of KFC (KFC, 2014a). This organization is greatly affected by global and national economic factors such as inflation and interest rates, cost of labor, stages of business cycle, unemployment rates and growth rates of economy (KFC, 2014a; Pride & Ferrell, 2012). The recession factor has affected the overall income of KFC and this has resulted into making some employees jobless and others hired for fewer hours (Ohme, Birinyi and Gupta, 2010). This was in major part due to the cutting down of the budget by the company. Economic forces restrict customers to spend lavishly in such fast food outlets (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Government procedures and policies to a certain extent provide the required guidelines for smooth functioning of business operations of an organization (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). There are certain political forces that affect operations of KFC and these forces encompass some legal factors. Notably, the actions taken in political fields leads to guidelines that affect a restaurant’s customer satisfaction, menu, payroll and profits (Jurevicious, 2013). The stability of the political environment, position of government in relation to market ethics, government view on religion and culture, policies of government with respect to economy, and taxation policy on incentives and tax rates are the major forces that outlines the political environment (Ohme, Birinyi and Gupta, 2010). For instance, the intense rivalry of national election season can generate problems for KFC by creating an environment of negativity among the patrons (Jurevicious, 2013). In this case, the ambiguity about the economic conditions hinders spending. Therefore, patrons concerned about the national budget are probable to reduce their spending, which implies less eat outs.