Reflective Writing Study Skills Essay Example for Free

Reflective Writing Study Skills Essay At the beginning of the task no one took the initiative of introducing themselves. Our initial concern was getting started on the jacket. This seemed to be of more importance to everyone. This could be viewed as unsociable, but on reflection, previous to this task we all took part in an ice-breaker session, whereby we had to introduce our selves by name, followed by a descriptive word, this meant we were already acquainted with one another, so concentrating on the task in hand seemed most appropriate. I believe we were all very wary of taking over as we were always asking one another do you think this is a good idea? and shall we do this?, rather than just doing it without the opinion of other team mates. Although this was the case it is possible we were being very agreeable to any idea put forward in order to keep peace, and put over a likable persona. Upon reflection the organisation of our group to begin with was very inefficient, we did not consult one another about how we would make the jacket, before getting on with the task, this meant the sleeves were being made by myself, whilst the body of the jacket by another, with no idea how they would fit together. I believe this is because we all wanted to have a share in making the jacket and help as much as possible, but no one wanted to adopt the role of task leader. On the other hand our team displayed great efficiency in the way we worked together, at one point we had a production line, where one would pass the Sellotape, then one would hold the piece in place, while the other stuck them together. We became a more efficient team the more we worked together on the task. Communication between us became more important. On the whole and on the basis of the finished product, it is evident that our team did work together efficiently, as we finished the task in good time and all of us had an input in the overall finished product. I believe I took on many different roles within the team. Initially I took on the role of energiser. This was evident by my enthusiasm, I was eager to get started and began listing many different ideas I had about how to put the jacket together, Jake was also an energiser as he had many different ideas he wanted to express and was fully involved in the task. Ricky initially  took on the role of relaxer as he was contemplating how things would work out and managed to condense our ideas to form a jacket. In these kind of situations I would usually put forward a good argument as to why my idea should be used above someone elses. I did not adopt this attitude in this instance because my team mates were new acquaintances so I wanted to leave a good impression, I was more conscious of their thoughts and ideas and accommodating them was important to me. With this in mind I would conclude that we worked as a collective rather than a hierarchy. Further into the task I took on the role of nurturer. I wanted to make sure that everyone had an input on the finished product and that all of our ideas had been listened to fairly, and put in place if all agreed. This was evident in that I was asking my team members what other ideas they had, and finding ways of accommodating them. I did not want anyone to feel left out or less involved. Rickys mathematical mind meant that it was easier for us to measure out the different parts of the jacket equally and in proportion. As Jake is used to working as a team when he plays football, this quality was evident in this task, as he was an up building and upbeat member of the team, trying to include everyone in the activities. Jake was soon nominated by myself and Ricky to be the model for the jacket, therefore it was up to me and Ricky to actually make the jacket. We both had an equal share in the labour, cutting, sticking and measuring different parts of the jacket at the same time, then finding a way to fix them together. This was important because if somebody was uninterested or just giving out orders the whole team could be affected and not want to take part. We all helped each other when needed and were happy in our individual tasks. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate the importance of achieving the task 6/10. This is because I did view the task as a competition, even though we were never told it was such. On reflection this would show I am a competitive person and I like a challenge. When a task is viewed competitively one will be more inclined and motivated to try their best and ultimately reach their potential. Initially the task seemed menial and pointless hence why I only  scored 6/10. I was aware the jacket itself had little importance and that rather the emphasis was on team work. Even though I was aware of this my competitiveness made me want to create an excellent jacket. With the prospect of becoming a teacher one day, this teamwork exercise has taught me that there are many different roles people can take on under a team building exercise. Everyone within my team had different skills and abilities. This exercise has taught me, not only how to identify these skills and abilities but also how they can be used in a beneficial way to complete a task. As a teacher I will have to cater for the needs of each student identifying their strengths and weaknesses and using them in a positive and up building way, so they can reach their potential. I have also seen how important these exercises are in terms of the class getting to know one another, for the student this can help by taking the emphasis of social fear and more onto learning. This is evident by more members of the class being involved in group discussions after the task. This could have the same effect on my future students.

Stalin Early Life Essay Example for Free

Stalin Early Life Essay * Born in 1879 in Georgia. Lived in a very hostile environment and was deeply influenced by this in his later years. * His father abused him and his mother. He wanted Stalin to become a shoemaker like himself. * His real fathers identity is highly disputed and may have been one of the various men around the town. * Stalin was a very bright boy and worked hard in his studies. He was also teased by others and bullied others too. He showed early signs of being a gangster and was respected and fear by many in his town. Becomes a Revolutionary * Lived under czarist domination and was introduced to forbidden Marxists books * Preached revolution to the workers and ran crimes in order to fund his communist operations. * Was sent to Siberia and prison many times but always managed to escaped. * In 1903 he joined with other activists to plan an overthrow of the Czarist government. Lenin saw Stalin as a man who could get the job done. * His involvement in the 1917 revolution was limited though. * During the Civil War he became the enforcer of the party and fought for the communists Family Life * His first wife Ekaterina Svanidze died in 1907. Stalin loved her very much and was crushed by her death. * They had a son named Yakov Dzhugashvili who Stalin did not care for. Later in WWII Yakov was captured by the Germans and commited suicide with an electrocuted fence. * Had a second wife named Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Had two children with her, Vasily and Svetlana. His wife and him did not seem to get along very well and one evening she committed suicide. Stalin Emerges * Stalin having been disappointed by his minor role in the Russian revolution, wanted to gain more power and make a name of himself. He wanted to be seen with the great communist leaders such as Lenin, Marx and Engels. To do his he had a plan to take control of the Communist party. * The other communists party members looked down upon Stalin because they believed he was a worthless bum who just did the grunt work of Lenin. * Assumed the position of General Secretary in the 1920s a job no one else wanted. He built up power on this position by spreading good propaganda about himself and negative propaganda about his rivals particularly Leon Trotsky. * When Lenin died in 1924, Stalin immediately began creating propaganda showing that he was Lenins most suitable successor. He spreaded negative rumors about the ideas of Leon Trotsky (Trotskyism) and told the Russian people that his ideas were the best. * In 1928 Stalin had Trotsky arrested and exile where he would eventually end up in Mexico and dieing from an assassin sent by Stalin. Stalins Second Revolution; Modernizing Agriculture and Industry * Early in 1928 Stalin launched his program for collectivization. All privately held agricultural land was seized by the State and so food production could be done so more efficiently. The food was given to the workers who were needed for the industrialization process. * Stalin also started the industrialization process analogous to the collectivization. This brought Russia into an expansion of many types of industries. * Stalin had anyone who opposed his laws branded as traitors to the state and were sent to Siberia where they would have been either shot or killed as examples of anyone opposing him. Stalin and Providence * Believed he had an important role in saving Russia from Czar domination and hostile nations. * Saw himself as a victim of persecution and conspiracy and would attack others before they could attack him. He was very suspicious, paranoid and resentful. * Avoided contact with ordinary people and praised himself with endless propaganda showing him as their great leader. Terror and Purges * By the mid 1930s Stalin would make sure he would have had absolute power in the party. The first step to this would be dealing with the surviving party members in the revolutionary days. * He held trials and made sure that the suspect confessed to his crime through torture and threat of death. He made many party members admit that they were traitors to Russia and had them shot. * Even his secret police the NKVD werent safe from him and many were killed in order to cover up any traces towards him.

What makes an effective teacher?

What makes an effective teacher? David Camerons Conservative Party recently stated that the Tories will be brazenly elitist about candidates entering the teaching profession as they believe that qualifications make a good teacher. [REF]. However, research shows that a teachers personal characteristics and teaching styles can also be attributed to effective teaching. In 1992, Professor Caroline Gipps, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wolverhampton and leading expert in educational assessment and learning, published What We Know About effective Primary Teaching. The document suggests that a successful primary teacher: Focuses on the whole class rather than individuals Teaches the whole class while offering help to individuals, or co-operative work where children help each other Teach one subject at a time Praise children as much as possible Have high expectations Encourage challenging talk rather than quiet busy work Use a variety of teaching styles Allow children some independence and be democratic rather than autocratic about work and discipline Matches work to a childs ability Effective teaching is a subject that is repeatedly researched and studied. More recent research shows that good teachers demonstrate a number of characteristics, but there are certain characteristics that underlie the effectiveness of teachers such as empathy and a willingness to work hard. Some people are described as being born to teach, but the personal and moral characteristics needed to be an effective teacher can be developed through practice, watching other effective teachers and learning from their technique. A study carried out by Santrock [2001] identified the main characteristics of effective teachers: CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE TEACHERS Characteristic Total % 1. Has a sense of humour 79 2. Makes the class interesting 73 3. Has knowledge of their subject 70 4. Explains things clearly 66 5. Spends time to help students 65 6. Are fair to their students 61 7. Treats students like adults 54 8. Relates well to students 54 9. Are considerate of students feelings 51 10. Dont show favouritism towards students 46 Santrock, J. (2001) An Introduction to Educational Psychology, London: McGraw Hill, (p.10) Although subject knowledge is ranked third, the study overall shows that personal characteristics are key to effective teaching rather than qualifications. Classroom management is also an important factor as an average school week only provides 25 hours of teaching time with students. An effective teacher organises their students, time, environment and resources in a way that maximises learning opportunities. Effective teachers also motivate and encourage their students to work hard. Through regular assessment and looking closely as what a student is learning and what has been learnt, lessons can be planned accordingly. Teachers need to cater for the skills, abilities and interests of each student by matching work to the needs of the individual. This avoids giving tasks that are impossible to complete and to avoid giving tasks so easy that students learn nothing. Pedagogy: shared working atmosphere; awareness of the needs of each pupil; purposeful well organised classroom; celebration of successes. Need to know the needs of individuals and groups as well as how children learn. Most teachers teach facts, good teachers teach ideas, great teachers teach how to think. (Jonathon Pool). Teachers have to be facilitators: they cannot do the learning for the student. (Carl Rogers). A teacher who likes to explore a subject by using lots of activities can achieve the same success as one who prefers one activityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ There is one aspect of personality that no teacher can do without: a willingness to learn and to reflect on teaching. (The Effective Teacher, p.10). Failing teachers often lack self awareness and do not quite know what they are doing or if what they are doing is right or wrong. They are defensive about their teaching methods and cannot take criticism, however constructive it is. [Ref] Define learning 250 Learning can be defined as The process of accumulation and change that marks our growing sense of knowledge. (p.14 The Effective Teacher). Different factors can affect learning and these include the child, the family, society, economy and social structure. Brofenbrenner looked at how children grow up and how that affects the learning process, then linked all of these factors together into his Ecological Systems Theory [1979]. His theory suggests that a childs development is influenced by the social contexts in which they live, with the three main contexts being a childs family, peers and school. The parent and child are placed at the centre of learning. 2. 1.Who the child spends most of their time with is identified and what positive and negative factors that has. 3. The general external factors that influence the learning environment are looked at. Constructivist approach to learning Recall; ability to remember information Understand the information Use or apply knowledge in new situations Break down and interpret information Putting things together; developing new ideas Assess effectiveness of whole concepts; critical thinkingBlooms Taxonomy is a classification of the levels of learning. The cognitive process identifies 6 levels of thought. Based on this theory, the learner has to reach one level before moving on to the next. When used correctly, Blooms Taxonomy can accelerate learning and elevate student interest and achievement, especially for slower learners. [Sousa, D. 2001] How the brain learns What makes an effective learner? 500 Understanding and thinking about how a person learns can enhance motivation and increase achievement. [REF ] A persons learning style is the way he or she concentrates on, processes, internalises and remembers new and difficult academic information or skills. Styles often vary with age, achievement level, culture, global versus analytic processing preference, and gender. [Shaughnessy, 1998]. It is often looked at in terms of a learners preference for visual, auditory and kinaesthetic ways of working. [Burton, 2007]. Encourages a learner to think about how he or she learns. Novice learner: Do not evaluate their comprehension Do not examine their comprehension Do not examine the quality of their work Do not make connections Expert learner: What is the relationship between teaching and learning? 500 Consider which is more important. Actual learning or actual teaching? Support argument with literature and wider reading. 500 There have been many arguments as to which side of the teaching and learning processes are more important. Child centred education the teacher gives the child opportunities to learn. Teacher centred stand and present what they know. Teacher centred education is a traditional approach to teaching where the teacher presents facts to the student by direct instruction. The teacher is at the centre and in charge. Student centred education is a more modern approach where the learner is at the centre of learning and the teacher acts as a facilitator, guiding the student and giving opportunities to learn. Bennett, 1976 Clinical Reasoning Case Study: Knee Osteoarthritis Clinical Reasoning Case Study: Knee Osteoarthritis Abstract Clinical reasoning is the thinking process that escorts clinical practice, it is a multifaceted skill. The aim of this report is to use clinical reasoning to comment on a case of medial compartment one-sided knee osteoarthritis. Using clinical reasoning, an outline of management and manual therapy are designed. Introduction Mendez and Neufeld (2003) defined clinical reasoning as a cognitive process aiming to understand the implications of patient data. It also aims to recognize and diagnose present concrete or latent patient problems, to make clinical well-judged choices to help in problem solving, and to result in encouraging patient outcomes. Factors affecting the outcomes of clinical reasoning can be internal factors linked to health professionals (knowledge, acquaintance with a particular case and their reasoning skills). Patient factors need skills to transfer facts, and explanation of disease condition and treatment alternatives. External factors include health institution potentials, profession-specific structure of treatment, and intricacy of the case (Mendez and Neufeld, 2003). Edwards and others (2004) suggested the following practices of clinical reasoning for a physiotherapist. Diagnostic reasoning, developing a diagnosis based on disability and its impact considering accompanying pain, pathological changes, and contributing factors to the disease. Descriptive reasoning is to understand the patients description and experiences about the disease. Procedural reasoning involves treatment decision making, while communication collaborative reasoning involves setting up a patient-therapist relationship and setting goals for treatment based on interpretation of investigations results. Predictive reasoning is foreseeing the treatment results, and ethical reasoning which needs understanding of the ethical questions about the conduct and goals of treatment. Possible causes and processes of the patients recent complaint: Based on the patients occupation, and history, knee Joint injury herald osteoarthritis in individuals who are in their 30s or 40s, osteoarthritis becomes obvious nearly in every other subject with a previous history of knee injury. A proper interpretation of the existing data infers that at 10 years after suffering an injury to the knee, an average of one third of patients display joint space narrowing on x-ray examination. Twenty years post injury, about half the individuals with history of injury shows similar changes (Roos, 2005). Arthroscopic procedures may cause postoperative knee pain and swelling enough to delay rehabilitative physiotherapy. This should not persist more than two weeks otherwise the patient will be at risk of complications mainly prolonged knee stiffness. (Reuben and Sklar, 2000). Many believe that changes in the knee joint in osteoarthritis reproduce the collective effects of mechanical stress rather than senile degeneration alone. Therefore, it is an occupational disease (Radin, 2004). Patients occupation activities are aggravating factors to develop knee osteoarthritis (Loomis, 2008). Based on the patients symptoms and physical examination findings, the patient may have had a cruciate ligament rupture or added meniscal injury. Because of negative ligament tests, tenderness over medial TFJ joint line, no tenderness of patella tendon, quads tendon, hams tendons insertions, MCL attachments or LCL attachments, and data suggesting positive McMurray manoeuvre. Besides the presence of mild effusion, it is most likely the patient suffers a meniscal injury (Dascola, 2005). Roos (2005) provided a model for the processes responsible for pain and development of osteoarthritis. He assumed the disease needs, being mechanically determined, increased or altered joint load as a precondition to its development. Therefore, joint injury, occupation and aging lead to development and progression of osteoarthritis in one of two possible pathways. First, deconditioning of the musculoskeletal, increased joint loads occur with pain and progression of osteoarthritis. Alternatively, joint instability, misalignment and defective proprioception result joint related changes leading to increased joint loads with pain and disease progression. The patients irritability: At this point, the patient anxiety is because of worsening of pain and movement limitation and worry that he will not be able to continue working or doing everyday activities without significant discomfort. Jinks and others (2007) suggested that a therapist should look at the first onset of joint pain as sign to try preventing future disability. Reasoned identification of need for caution and need for adjustments: Three cardinal patients findings call for caution and adjustment of assessment as they may need change in the plan of manual therapy. These are persistent pain for four months, reduced right knee extension in standing with slight varus deformity. Besides pain limiting knee movement in active and passive flexion and extension with pain and stiffness limiting lateral rotation and stiffness without pain limiting medial rotation. Plain radiography was done following Ottawa knee rules (Jackson and others, 2003) and showed the same findings as the one done two years earlier. The use of MRI in addition provides better prediction of the need for added treatment. Indication of MRI, in this case, is to evaluate pain as it persisted for more than 3-6 weeks (Oel and others 2005). In case MRI is not available, or not covered by insurance, knee ultrasonography can be helpful to assess knee effusion, integrity of tendon and MCL injuries and to rule out minimally displaced patellar cracks (Lin and o thers, 2000). Arthroscopy can be diagnostic and therapeutic for meniscal or ligaments injuries, removal of loose pieces of cartilage or bone. Besides intra-articular steroid injection can be given to manage pain, viscous supplementation, and arthroscopic debridement and washout can ease the mechanical symptoms (Gidwani and Fairbank, 2004). Factors that may be contributing to the patients presenting problems: The slowly developing knee swelling is matching with meniscal injury however, the therapist must consider associated mild ligament sprain. The absence of locking is against meniscal injury, but the giving way points to possible ligament injury or patellar sublaxation. The presence of anterior crepitus may point to ligament injury or patellar problems, however, the active and passive limited range of movement suggest an intra-articular problem (Smith, 2004). This calls to consider the possibility of having combined lesions on top of osteoarthritis. Three more points need communication with the patient, adjusting occupational activities (Loomis, 2008), return to swimming sport practice or perform water exercise being a low knee load exercise (Grainger and Cicuttini, 2004). Also, tell the patient with the potential side effects of NSAID and advice to use topical preparations with safer analgesics as paracetamol (Derbyshire County NHS, 2008). Developing a working hypothesis: According to the patients current situation, expectations, worries and good general health, and knowing the case is most likely to be knee medial compartment osteoarthritis the objectives of manual therapy should be (Technical Committee Physiotherapy Profession, 2003): Minimize pain Decrease disability and enhance functional ability, muscle strength, joint flexibility. Patient education to encourage better work activities, and regain interest in swimming sport. When to start manual treatment and what is the plane: Manual therapy portrays the physical therapist applying passive movements aiming to enhance joint motion and minimize stiffness. It includes passive range of movements, and muscle stretching techniques (Fitzgerald and Oatis, 2004).As this particular case needs a multidisciplinary approach that may involve surgery, manual therapy should start once the process of diagnosis and possible surgical interference finish. It may start in conjunction with pain relief physical therapies as thermotherapy, cryotherapy and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. The general rules of static stretching range of motion manual therapy are (Technical Committee Physiotherapy Profession, 2003): Twice weekly when pain and stiffness are least in 20-30 minutes sessions (Hoeksma and others, 2005). Better to be preceded by warm compresses. To be performed slowly and the range of motion extended to the limit of least subjective pain and resistance. Advice the patient to breath slowly during passive exercise. Hold the terminal stretch for 10-30 seconds. Passive exercises are continuously adjusted according to pain and the duration of holding the static position. Measuring the outcome: The Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) test is a self-report specific measure to assess pain and physical function. Validity of the test was investigated in many studies and showed high levels of consistency and test-retest reliability consistent with clinical practice (Stratford and Kennedy, 2004). The 6-minutes walk test is primarily endurance test originally developed to measure exercise capacity in cardiac and pulmonary patients. Test-retest reliability and responsiveness index (measures improvement after therapy) have been examined and found highly reliable (King and others, 2000). Patients perform these tests at baseline, on the 5th week, and later every 12 weeks of therapy (Hoeksma and others, 2005). Prognosis and expected improvement rate: Jinks and others (2007) stated the outcomes of osteoarthritis are poor quality of life, limited daily activities and disability. However, we know little about the primary influence of joint pain on disability in the older population; also we know little about if such influence is reversible if the pain improves. According to their results, Jinks and others (2007) inferred that decreased physical functions among knee osteoarthritis patients with pain shows how important this symptom is as a possible launching cause to decline of physical activities. Even those whose pain improves are occasionally able to regain their experienced levels of physical activities. The Ottawa Panel (2005) advised the combination of manual therapy and therapeutic exercises especially muscle strengthening exercises to achieve better improvement of pain and function in patients with osteoarthritis knee. Conclusion Clinical reasoning is on of the methods of applying evidence based practice in physiotherapy. A case of medial compartment right knee osteoarthritis presented with pain after minor exercise is subjected to clinical reasoning critical thinking. The case turned to be a multidisciplinary case that needs further investigation and possibly orthopaedic surgeon interference before manual physiotherapy begins. Using clinical reasoning skills and principles, the patients history and clinical findings were analysed, designing principles of a plane of manual therapy, measuring the outcome, and foreseeing prognosis and improvement rate were explained. References Dascola J S, 2005. Injury-related causes of acute knee pain. JAAPA, 18(7), 34-40. Derbyshire County NHS Primary Care Trust, Medicine Management Update, February 2008. Reviewing Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug (NSAID) Prescribing-an update on current issues [Online]. No 3. Available from: http://www.derbyshirecountypct.nhs.uk/content/files/key%20messages/NSAID%20UPDATE%20Feb%2008.pdf, [cited 11/07/2008] Edwards I, Jones MA, Carr J, et al, 2004. Clinical reasoning strategies in physical therapy. Physical Therapy, (84), 312-335. Fitzgerald G K and Oatis C, 2004. Role of physical therapy in management of knee osteoarthritis. Curr Opin Rheumatol, (16), 143-147. Gidwani, S and Fairbank, A. 2004. Clinical review: The orthopaedic approach to managing osteoarthritis of the knee. BMJ 329: 1220-1224. Grainger R and Cicuttini F, 2004. Medical management of osteoarthritis of the knee and hip joints. MJA, (180), 232-236. Hoeksma H, Dekker J, Ronday H at al, 2005. Manual therapy is more efficient than exercise therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip. Arthritis Care and Research, (51), 722-729. Jackson J L, OMalley, P G and Kroenke, K, 2003. Evaluation of Acute Knee Pain in Primary Care. Ann Intern Med, (139), 575-588. Jinks C, Jordan K and Croft, P, 2007. Osteoarthritis as a public health problem: the impact of developing knee pain on physical function in adults living in the community: (KNEST 3). Rheumatology, (46), 877-881. King M B, Judge J O, Whipple R and Wolfson L, 2000. Reliability and Responsiveness of Two Physical Performance Measure Examined in the Context of a Functional Training Intervention. Phys Ther, (80), 8-16. Lin, J, Fessell, D P, Jacobson, J A et al, 2000. An Illustrated Tutorial of Musculoskeletal Sonography: Part 3, Lower Extremity. AJR, (175), 1313-1321. Loomis D, 2008. Work in brief: Combining new tools with training may enhance ergonomic interventions. Occup. Environ Med., (65), 1. Mendez L and Neufeld J, 2003. Clinical Reasoning: What is it and why should I care? Ottawa, ON, Canada: CAOT Publications ACE. Oel, E H G, Nikken, J J, Ginal A Z, et al, 2005. Acute Knee Trauma: Value of a Short Dedicated Extremity MR Imaging Examination for prediction of Subsequent Treatment. Radiology, (234), 125-133. Ottawa Panel, 2005. Ottawa Panel Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines for Therapeutic Exercises and Manual Therapy in the Management of Osteoarthritis. Phys Ther, (85), 907-971. Radin E L., 2004. Who Gets Osteoarthritis and Why? The Journal of Rheumatology, (31)), (Supplement 70), 10-15. Reuben S S and Sklar J, 2000. Pain Management in Patients Who Undergo Outpatient Arthroscopic Surgery of the Knee. J Bone Joint Surg Am, (82), 1754-1765. Roos E M, 2005. Joint Injury Causes Knee Osteoarthritis in Young Adults. Curr Opin Rheumatol, 17(2), 195-200. Smith, C.C, 2004. Evaluating the Painful Knee: A Hands-on Approach to Acute Ligamentous and Mechanical Injuries. Adv Stud Med, (4(7)), 362-370. Stratford P W and Kennedy D M, 2004. Does parallel item content on WOMACs Pain and Function Subscales limit its ability to detect change in functional status. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, (5), 17-25. Technical Committee Physiotherapy Profession, 2003. Physiotherapy Care Protocol-OA Knee [Online]. Available from: http://www.mpa.net.my, Malaysian Physiotherapy Association.

Coming into Language by Jimmy Santiago Baca :: Coming into Language

Is it possible to make vital life changes to become a better person at heart? Who’s the one that can help you? The only person that will get you up on your feet is yourself, and you have to believe deeply to make those changes. In this essay there are many main points that are being brought across to explain the problems and wisdom that arose from Baca’s life as an inmate. It talks about how he was grown up into an adult and the tragedies that he had to face in order to become one. Later I fallow steps that lead to the purpose and rhetorical appeals of Baca’s essay. The purpose dealt with the cause and effect piece and problem/ solution structure. For this specific essay that I read it is based on the effects of language and its values. I happened to read the essay called, â€Å"Coming into Language,† by a convict named Jimmy Santiago Baca. He was born in 1952 as an Apache Indian with a Chicano relation. Ever since Jim was a young individual he has been in and out of jail and roamed the streets before knowing the basics of right and wrong. From an early age he didn’t ever get a chance to read or understand writings. Because of his poor upbringing he wasn’t able to gain access to knowledge, and did not know that dropping out of the 9th grade could hurt the rest of his life. In the essay, Baca mainly focused on writing the essay to explain his values and beliefs. I believe that Baca wanted to bring his thoughts across to the Chicano decent and to other jail inmates who didn’t understand their upbringings as well. There is clear reasoning for this, stated in the essay it mentions when Baca started sh owing the Chicano’s and other prisoners, they too were building an interest. The main purpose of this essay is to show that people can change and make a difference. From a person who was given nothing, and dealt with misery for his first half of his life was able to learn to read and write (then later on learned to write poems.) In Baca’s writing style for this piece was a cause/effect and problem/solution. Throughout his writing he mentions how he wasn’t the smartest person, and didn’t even learn the importance of schooling.

SHELTER FROM THE STORM Essay -- Essays Papers

SHELTER FROM THE STORM Domestic Violence is a prevalent issue facing men and women in the United States. The only way to put an end to domestic violence is to acknowledge it and report it. With the help of the government, local charities and the concern of Tucson community members, many different resources have been created to help and support victims of domestic violence as well as rape. Every year in the United States hundreds of thousands of domestic violence crimes are committed, many of which go unreported. According to a National Crime Victimization survey, "over two-thirds of violent victimization against women were by someone known to them"(Bachman, pg.1). Approximately 5% were relatives other than husbands, 35% were aquantences, and nearly 28% were intimates such as husbands or boyfriends. Females experienced more than 10 times as many incidences of violence by their companion than males. Women experience 572,032 violent victimizations by their significant other, while the number of incidents for men has been 48,983 on average, each year. In an article to Health Care Providers, it has been reported that medical expenses associated with domestic violence have accelerated to $3-5 billion dollars annually and continues to rise. "Almost 6 times as many women victimized by intimates (18%) as those victimized by strangers (3%) did not report their violent victi mization to police because they feared reprisal from the offender"(Bachman, p.1). In the Greater Tucson area approximately 16,000 charges are filed each year, at least half of which result in in-custody arrests. A statistics report from the Tucson Police Department for the twelve month period of March 1998 to February 1999 shows that only 384 phone cal... ...ordinator for ACADV/DVC Legislative Concerns. Bodfield, Rhonda. Hull helps to keep open Douglas shelter for abused. www.azstarnet.com/plsub-cgi/fastw, Oct. 29, 1998. Burnett, Dave. Tucson Centers for Women and Children. www.azstarnet.com/~tcwc/. Cook, Kristen. Forum focuses on domestic violence. www.azstarnet.com/plsub-cgi/fastw, Oct. 25,1998. "Domestic Violence for Health Care Providers," 3rd Edition, Colorado Domestic Violence Coalition, 1991. Hart, Barbara. "Remarks to the Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect," April 1992. Moore, Roberta. Oasis Center. w3.arizona.edu/~oasis/home.htm. Pacific Coast Publishing Regional Telephone Directory, 1999-2000. Sandal, Inger. Domestic Violence Center, city’s 1st, opens in January. www.azstarnet.com/plsub-cgi/fastw, Dec. 12, 1996. Violence Against Women. www.usdoj.gov/vawo/toc.htm.

The Soaring Juvenile Crime Rate :: juvenile delinquency crime

The Soaring Juvenile Crime Rate   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is comforting to know that, according to recent crime statistics, crime rates are dropping among adults. However, for teens the crime rate is soaring. Between 2000 and 2004, the rate at which adults age 25 and older committed homicides declined 22%; yet the rate jumped 16% for youths between 14 and 17. This age group surpassed the 18 - 24-year-old group in the early 2000's as the most crime-prone. (Between 1966 and 2001, 18 - 24 showed a 62% increase in homicides; 14 - 17 showed a 124% increase in murders.) It is this age group that will be booming in the next decade (currently 39 million under 10).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, the American Civil Liberties Union, in a fact sheet on juvenile crime published in mid May of this year, stated that contrary to public perception, the percentage of violent crimes committed by juveniles is low. According to one estimate, only 13% of violent crimes are committed by young people (Gallup Poll Monthly, Sept. 2004). The ACLU further suggests that the public also holds greatly inflated perceptions about the violence of today's juveniles, claiming only about 0.5% of young people commit violent crimes. ( ³ Crime Time Bomb, ² U.S. News & World Report, March 25, 2006)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Current social trends do little to contradict the dire predictions made about youth crime rates. Nearly all the factors that contribute to youth crime -- single-parent households, child abuse, deteriorating inner-city schools -- are getting worse. At the same time, government is doing less (spending less) to help break the cycle of poverty and crime.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Predicting a generation ¹s future crime pattern is, of course, risky. Especially when outside factors remain unpredictable (Will drug use be up or down? Will gun laws be tightened?). Also, from year to year, crime rates can fluctuate much like the stock market. What goes up generally comes down, and what goes down generally comes back up.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  It is probably no surprise to hear that crime rates among juveniles vary across race (structural limitations/discrimination, self-fulfilling prophecy, etc.). Minorities, especially Blacks, have a higher arrest rate for violent

Interaction Between Cognition and Physiology Essay

Discuss the interaction between cognition and physiology in terms of behavior †¢Introduction: cognition, physiology, relation †¢Amnesia: retrograde, anterograde †¢Memory: multi-store, division, *amnesic patients, ways of distinguishing types of memory (KC, spiers maguire and burgess, vargha and khadem) †¢HM †¢Clive Wearing †¢Conclusion: cognition, physiology Cognition, as defined by Neisser, is all the processes by which the brain transforms, reduces, elaborates, stores, retrieves, and uses information. Physiology refers to the structures of the human body and brain. The relationship between cognition and physiology is bi-directional, meaning that cognition can effect physiology and vice versa. Every cognitive aspect can be localized to a specific structure in the brain. This close interaction can have an effect on behavior. This essay will study ‘memory’ as the cognition, and ‘amnesia’ as the behavior. Amnesia, simply put, is a loss of memory. There are two types of amnesia: retrograde, where information acquired before the onset of amnesia is forgotten, but new memories can be made, and anterograde, where information acquired after the onset of amnesia is forgotten, making the patient unable to form new memories. Memory is defined by ‘Baddeley’ as an active system which receives information from the senses, organizes and alters it, and stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage. A model called the ‘multi-store model’ by Atkinson and Shiffrin states that there are 2 stores of memory: short term (STM), and long term (LTM). Information is received by the sensory unit, and then sent to the STM. after this information is rehearsed, it is sent to the LTM. The researchers describe these 2 stores as ‘unitary stores’, which differ in terms of capacity, duration, and encoding. The fact that the stores are ‘unitary’ was refuted by later studies. Later studies of memory prove that the LTM can be divided into 2: explicit, and implicit. Explicit refers to the memories that one can declare, and implicit refers to the memories that are more underlying, like the memories of how to ride a bike. These two stores and further divided. Explicit memory contains episodic (events) and semantic (facts). implicit contains procedural (skills) and emotional (emotions). For amnesic patients, the problem lies mostly with explicit memory. There are three main ways to study the differences between the types of memories. The first is the study of anterograde amnesic patients. For example, the study done by Spiers, Maguire and Burgess. They studied 147 cases of anterograde amnesia with damage to the hippocampus. psychological testing proved that all cases had impaired episodic memory and limitedly impaired semantic. This shows that the hippocampus is responsible for episodic memory. To make the conclusion more reliable, another study was done by Vargha and Khadem, with 3 anterograde amnesic patients, and found the same results, except that the semantic memory was completely intact. They found that semantic memory was localized to the cortices underlying the hippocampus. Another way of studying the differences between the two is by studying retrograde amnesic patients. a retrograde amnesic patient known as KC was studied to find that the damage to his hippocampus impaired his episodic memory, but his semantic memory was still intact. The study of amnesic patients is done in psychology to study the relations between the physiology and cognition, because the damage to the brain can be seen easily, and it’s effects on cognition can also be studied. The third way of distinguishing would be the use of neuro-imaging. Studies using neuro-imaging have concluded that emotional memory relates to the amygdala in the brain, and procedural locates at the striatum and cerebellum. Moving on to a specific study, one was done on a man known as HM. At the age of 9, HM started having uncontrollable epileptic seizures that couldn’t be  controlled by medication at the time. At the age of 27, the doctors removed his medial temporal lobe, to control his seizures. The surgery was successful, but after the surgery, HM suffered anterograde and partial retrograde amnesia. He had a loss of episodic memory, and a limited impairment with semantic and emotional. The medial temporal lobe contained the hippocampus, and some of the cortices underlying it, as well as part of the amygdala. The doctor, John Harlow concluded that the specific types of memory located to the specific structures in the brain that were removed. This method of research, the case study, was ethical because they kept his identity from the media and referred to him as HM. One of the worst recorded cases of amnesia was that of Clive Wearing. He was a pianist and a conductor, and he developed ‘herpes encephalitis’, a brain infection that affected his temporal lobe. He was left with both retrograde and anterograde amnesia. His episodic memory was impaired as well as part of him emotional memory. His procedural memory stayed intact, he could still remember how to play the piano. His name was released into the media only because his wife allowed the researchers to do so, which abides by the ethical consideration of taking consent from one’s caretaker in case of not being able to take consent from the participant himself. The studies showed both the causes and effects of the behavior: amnesia. Since the studies were case studies, they were unique in nature, which gave the researchers a way of understanding the distinction between the types of memories. A disadvantage is that case studies cannot be replicated. The studies, being completely of reality, had high ecological validity. To conclude, in terms of amnesia, it is evident that damage to a specific brain structure can have an effect of the cognitive aspects, which overall has an effect on behavior.