Sunday, September 15, 2019

E-Learning Questionnaire

This proposal focuses on only e-learning in one developing country, Malaysia. For this study, e-learning is used at tertiary level. The overall purpose of the research is to investigate, analyse and discuss the effectiveness of technology in the education system – theoretically and pedagogically. Since there are not many empirical researches in developing countries about the effectiveness of using technology in the education system, perhaps this paper may be able to contribute some ideas and new insights into the field. Many assumptions have been made nation wide about the fact that technology helps in the process of teaching and learning. However, they are not proven and as such the need to have more independent study on the effectiveness of e-learning is high. Another research concludes that the performance of e-learning students is at least the same as face-to-face (FTF) learning students. This comes with the same consideration for pedagogical designs, delivery and also the right amount of sources. Thus, the governments and education stakeholders have to look again at the investments on e-learning; if e-learning gives the same results as FTF, then perhaps educators can just choose to explore new FTF strategies. -Learning: Concept and practice in Malaysia To be more specific on the practice of e-learning, there is not yet a 100% e-learning. It is always a blended e-learning; a mixed mode e-learning whereby a combination of e-learning and FTF learning are used together. The e-learning concept allows for more working people to further their studies as distance and time are no longer the barriers to education. There are four objectives of this tertiary e-learning in Malaysia. The first is to introduce new concept of learning at a higher level of education. Secondly, it introduces interactive and productive method of learning. The third objective is to ensure students study independently and lastly to allow for balanced education in Malaysia. Learning model in e-learning includes independent study, on-line interaction, self-evaluation and graded assignments sent on-line. This proposal intends to use pre/post tests, examination results, questionnaires and interview as the basis of data collection and measurement for the effectiveness of e-learning. These designs are chosen because they can give an indicator for the effectiveness of e-learning. Pre/post test results can give a surface value on the effectiveness of e-learning itself. Meanwhile, questionnaires and interviews can gauge students’ awareness and belief on e-learning as a new tool of learning. Research questions This proposal has four research questions. They are, 1. 2. 3. 4. How does e-learning help in the process of teaching and learning? What are the relations between students’ academic achievement and e-learning? What are the differences in students’ academic achievement before and after e-learning treatment? What are the relations between gender, socio-economic background, academic ability and e-learning? Conclusion As this is a proposal on the topic of effectiveness of e-learning, collecting and analysing secondary data are still in progress. Students or subjects for the research have been identified and preliminary preparation is being made to organise groups, classes and materials for the students. At the same time, questionnaires are being prepared and will soon be pilot tested. The pre/post tests are being finalised. It is hoped that this research can be completed within its time frame as the findings may be crucial to the education system in Malaysia.

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Vygotsky Learning Theory

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky developed a learning theory for education based on one’s culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Even without a psychology background, he became fascinated by the subject. During his short life, he was influenced by the great social and political upheaval of the Marxist Revolution. After his death in 1934, his ideas were rejected by the U. S. S. R. and only resurfaced after the Cold War ended in 1991. Vygotsky’s theory has exceedingly influenced education in Russia and in other countries. Lev Vygotsky was born in Orsha, Western Russia, which is now Belarus in 1896.Vygotsky was born into a typical middle-class Jewish family and grew up in a predominantly Jewish town of Gomel, roughly four hundred miles from Moscow (Kouzlin, 1990). He studied and graduated law from the University of Moscow on a Jewish scholarship. After graduation, he prepared his first research project in the psychology field in 1925 with The Psychology of Art, which was not published un til the 1960s. Some time later, he became a psychologist working with Alexandar Luria and Alexei Leontiev (Gallagher, 1999). Lev Vygotsky’s socioculture theory begs to answer the question: What is culture and why is it important to a child’s learning.Dr. Diane Bukatko, psychology professor, says culture is â€Å"the many facets of the environment that humans have created and continue to produce. . . But even more importantly, culture includes language and the practices, values, and beliefs accumulated and communicated from one generation to the next† (Bukatko, 2004). Vygotsky’s theory places an emphasis on the learner’s culture. Vygotsky believed that the â€Å"child’s cognitive growth must be understood in the content of the culture in which he or she lives† (Bukatko, 2004).That is to say, he believed that a child is shaped by his or her own culture. Vygotsky believed that the social activity with â€Å"children, caregivers, peers, and tutors cultivate in them the particular skills and abilities their cultural group values† (Bukatko, 2004). This social activity is the backbone to his theory. Vygotsky had two main theories of cognitive development: the More Knowledgeable Other and the Zone of Proximal Development. The More Knowledgeable Other simply means that this is a person that has a higher understanding that the learner.This may be teacher to student or it can be student to student. Vygotsky’s other major theory, Zone of Proximal Development is the â€Å"span or disparity between what children are able to do without the assistance of others and what they are often able to accomplish by having someone more expect assist them at key points† (Bukatko, 2004). Vygotsky believed that the most effective instruction took place just slightly above the learner’s current ability. There was a study done in which children were asked which items of wooden furniture when into a doll house.Some children were allowed to play with their mother, the More Knowledgable Other, before they attempted it alone, while others were only allowed to do it by themselves. It was found that those who had previously worked with a More Knowledgable Other showed greatest improvement with their attempt than those who did not (McLeod, 2007). The most important of Vygotsky’s theories in regards to education is his Zone of Proximal Development. It gives the educator a scale defining what the learner is able to achieve with or without assistance and exactly at what level he or she can attain.Based on his ZPD, Vygotsky believed that play is a â€Å"vehicle for a child behaving more maturely than at other times† and in play â€Å"children can work at the top of their Zone of Proximal Development† (Vygotsky, 1978). Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development shows what a child can learn with assistance. This can be a great tool in the teacher’s proverbial toolbox. His t heories also gives a great understanding in children learning from each other and from the teacher based on the More Knowledgeable Other and sociocultural understanding.Language and thought is sometimes believed to develop together. A child knows what a cat is before he can actually say the word. If the parent asks the child where the cat is, the child is able to point and correctly label the cat (assuming they have a cat as a pet, of course). This is directly in opposition to his idea that the child must know the spoken word â€Å"cat† before the child learns the concept. Vygotsky also believed that one’s culture is the defining growth characteristic in language and development. However, his theory states little on biological factors.

Friday, September 13, 2019

An Operational Analysis of Subway Restaurants

Each team member was charged with the task of visiting a Subway location near their residence. This way each member was given the opportunity to observe the concrete steps required for Subway to complete a service from beginning to end. When you hear the words â€Å"fast food,† you imagine being offered a service in which you are quickly in and out with your order, and nothing else to it. In this instance that is not the case; Subway did not become one of the largest sandwich chains overnight. It has taken years of productiveness from the owners, top managers, employees and each customer of Subway. Throughout this paper we will analyze Subway’s operations by identifying the type of process used and the basic layout of their facilities. We will also provide a detailed service blueprint that will help to get a better understanding of the service process from the beginning, when the customer places an order, to the end, when that paying customer walks out the door with their subway sandwich. After visiting our Subway locations, we will also be able to explain the strengths and weaknesses that we observed from the interaction between employees and customers and the overall Subway experience. One of the locations visited and observed during hours of operations was the Subway restaurant located at 19214 Clay Road, Suite A, Katy TX 77449. This restaurant has been serving the Katy community for approximately ten years. This particular location was observed in order to help create the service blueprint. The service blueprint lists all of the service functions that are performed and the average time expected to achieve the completion of each function. It begins with the customer’s action; the customer walks into the store and places an order, the employee then acknowledges the customer’s request. This is followed by the customer deciding on the size and type of sandwich they would like made. The Subway employee then begins to prepare the customer’s sandwich with their size and type specifications in mind. At this point, the employee asks the customer to decide on their type of meat and cheese, once the customer communicates this decision, the employee adds the requested meat and cheese. He/she gives the customer the choice of having their sandwich toasted or not. If the customer decides to toast the sandwich the employee then proceeds to put it in the toaster for a minute then moves on to adding the dressings and sauces. If the customer does not want their sandwich toasted, the employee continues along with the process. The interaction continues with the choosing of any vegetables and final touches which may include adding oil and vinegar or salt and pepper at the customer’s request. Finally, as we approach the end of the service process, the employees wraps the sandwich and offers the customer the option of adding a cookie or the option of making their sandwich purchase as a meal, which would then include chips or a drink for a set additional price. Once the customer has chosen, the employee then collects payment to complete the transaction, and hands the order over to the customer, thus concluding the service process. This entire process happens in between the line of interaction. A line of visibility does exist in all Subway locations, on one side you have the components that are visible to the customer, which include the bread baking and all of the products and produce used to make a Subway sandwich. On the other side of the line of visibility, you have those items not visible to the customers’ eyes, which include the preparation of the bread before baking it, the extra vegetables, meat, and cheeses to be cut and prepped, the chips and drinks used to stock the storefront, as well as the storage of all the other products necessary to perations such as paper products, bags and any office supplies. All of this is required in order to ensure the success of the service process. Even though the customer does not realize what exactly occurs behind the line of visibility, it does not mean they don’t care. Every paying customer hopes and expects that their food is being handled and prepared in the safest and best way possible. This means that employees must be equipped to complete all tasks required in the minimal time possible, while maintaining the utmost standards of sanitary handling and preparation. Please refer to blue print 1 for a visual representation of how the actual process explained above works. After getting a closer look at how the service process works by completing the blue print you can see that the employees work diligently to complete the process in less than five minutes. From this you can learn that during peak hours which include lunch and dinner rush, employees work faster than normal to meet the 5 minute process standard. This way may cause a customer to feel rushed. For instance if the employee sees that the customer line has exceeded more than five it begins to rush the process; this causes the customer to make abrupt decisions on what they want in their sandwich. At the same time this can easily cause the employees to make mistakes during the process. For instance they can accidently add the wrong vegetables or sauces simple because they are trying to rush through the process in order to get the customer in and out. This urgency of completing the process faster than usual can turn a customer away. Many paying customers like to have the undivided attention of the employees since they do feel like they should get their money’s worth through the service. To help both the employees and customers during this circumstances the manager should ensure the employees that yes you might have to pick up the speed to meet the lunch rush demand; but they will have to be courteous without making the customer feel rushed. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Subway location 19214 Clay Road, Suite A, Katy TX 77449

Personal case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Personal - Case Study Example Most human being are unique in many ways hence psychology tends to explains the similarities through understanding of their respective societal ethics. In understanding different human traits, personality psychology explains how human differ from others. This school of psychology also explains why some of aspects contradict or complement on human life. According to research, this field of discussion came later after all other schools had been discussed by psychologists. Stages of Development According to Freud’s explanation on the theory of psychodynamic, personality is structured in three major categories namely; Id, Ego and Superego and psychosexual stages of development. Whereby Id explains the basic instincts of all human beings, Ego refers to the stage which connects an individual’s Id and superego. Superego depicts human morals acceptable behaviors while psychosexual stage is the last stage in this theory which paves way for behavioral stage. The first stage of de velopment starts immediately after birth to 1 year of age. This is the stage where infants tend to acquire pleasure from sucking. At this stage, the infant may be at a position of chewing pencils, rubbers, thumbs, finer nails biting as an affixation. The next stage is the anal stage (1-3years). At this stage, young children enjoy releasing urine and other waste products from the body. Parent have difficult work in training their children how to use toilets because if they are not well trained they will end up becoming anal retentive. Cleanliness is the major affixation at this stage or messiness. In that a child may hold urine for quite sometime and release it at his or her own will. The enjoyment at this stage is crucial to parents for the development of their children. Between the years of 3 to 6 refers to as the phallic stage. At this stage, the Id of an individual focuses on the genital impulse which explains why children find pleasure from their genital stimulation. Parentsâ₠¬â„¢ major worry is the Electra conflict and oedipal conflict for both girls and boys respectively. The child tries to explore his or her body needs with the opposite sex hence may result to wrong sex forcing the parent to have anger towards them. Parents tend to take much time with their children so as to teach them on the various life outcomes but not in depth since they fear they are not grown enough to follow their parents’ restrictions. At the latency stage, the child’s superego develops. At this stage it is believed that there is no much change as of developmental happenings. Lastly is the genital stage of development. It also takes place at the adolescent stage where the child tries to find pleasure through sex or they may have the need for sex. Parents have enormous task of advising their children intensively so as not to indulge in unwanted pregnancies and unhealthy relationships which may affect their later lifestyles. Bandura explains cognitive theory as a s chool of thought which gives an individual the right to socialize free within the given environment which helps in the developmental learning due to the immediate environment. The psychologist believed this theory is the connector between the environment and the human behavior. The theory focuses most on the observations or imitation of others behavior thus triggers an individual to behave the same. For example

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Exploring Your Family's or a Friend's History of Immigration and how Essay

Exploring Your Family's or a Friend's History of Immigration and how it connects to some of the stories in The life stories - Essay Example When the opportunity came for Filipinos to be in America as Navy recruit or contracted worker, grandfather Protacio’s parents seized the opportunity and enlisted him to join the latter. As the oldest child in the family, grandfather Protacio was forced to accept the opportunity to help his family and build a better future for himself in the United States. Grandfather Protacio left the Philippines to be one of the â€Å"1946 boys† who arrived in U.S. territory as a contracted worker in farmlands. Much like the Syrian immigrants who were awed with the grandeur of New York (Holt 249), grandfather Protacio was equally awed by the richness of American farms compared to the ailing farms in his province and spent so much time at the farm during the day and exploring the city at night that he forgot his responsibilities in the Philippines for a while. Grandfather Protacio has heard a lot of America and its greatness as â€Å"the land of freedom and civilization† (Holt 25 7) thus, he was caught off guard to the racial discrimination when he arrived the same with the Japanese who felt humiliated because of discrimination and abused in his domestic job (Holt 260). At the time grandfather Protacio arrived in the U.S., the Congress has passed a law that permits Filipinos to qualify as American citizens. Despite of this, racial discrimination to Filipinos was very high. According to Melendy in his article â€Å"Filipino Americans†, Filipinos were discriminated due to their skin color and inability to speak English like the white Americans. Like the story of the Chitkara family and the Indian Ab-nen-la-de-ni who experienced the language barrier, grandfather Protacio had difficulty expressing his thoughts and feelings at work due to his limited English. He must â€Å"speak English or remain silent† (Holt 210) not only as a requirement but because the other employees were also immigrants of different nationalities and the only language they can communicate to each other is in English. Although farm works were not new to grandfather Protacio since he came from a family of farmers, the intense labor requiring more hours in the field, irregular meal provision, and unfit clothing for different seasons has taken its toll on his health. Striving to get off in his current situation, grandfather Protacio bargained with his employer to allow him to be a working student. Like Ab-nen-la-de-ni, grandfather Protacio â€Å"went to school in the morning and work in the afternoon† (Holt 211) and did his home works at night in a dimly lit room shared with the other farm workers. The bargain though has been difficult because the wife of his employer did not agree to allow non-American workers to attend school. If the Indian suffered from the attack and mismanagement of the Head Directress in the Institute (Holt 216), grandfather Protacio suffered from mistreatment of his employer’s wife by working unpaid overtime and was accu sed of stealing and selling boxes of fruits in the city. Worst of all, his employment visa was not renewed forcing him to resign and looked for another job that could ensure his stay in the country since he cannot afford to go back empty handed in the Philippines. Grandfather Protacio was desperate but his desire to succeed and help his family fueled him to continue despite the meager amount of money left in his wallet. Fortunately, he found a job in the

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Great Gatsby Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Great Gatsby - Research Paper Example The American dream of earning money for a decent life was violated by Gatsby as he used his money casually to throw extravagant parties to impress Daisy. He refused to come out of his past and believed that Daisy has always loved only him and not her husband. This novel depicts the violation of American dream in the 1920s through the character of Gatsby. He grew up in poverty and reached a life of opulence with a huge house, car and servants. With his self acquired wealth and social status he could develop in himself a completely different personality from his unprivileged past. The wealthy Americans of 1920s are signified by Gatsby who flaunts his money extravagantly as was depicted by his lavish parties. In the beginning of his life, Gatsby could represent American dream because like any other American he took nurtured the dream of earning money. Later in life, he differs from the other newly rich Americans in a way that he earned his money in dishonorable ways. The main idea of Am erican dream is to earn money through hard work and Gatsby failed to do so. In order to earn the love of Daisy, he obtained big house, car and other material possessions. American dream is an idea of pursuing happiness and this was violated by Gatsby as he pursued mere wealth. Gatsby depicts a character who used to harbor mythicised dreams of achievement and success that can be gained with money. He had the endless desire of going back to the past by craving for Daisy whom he almost married in the past. America’s multiple identities are shown in the character Gatsby. American culture believes in recreating by setting alongside any doubts about the... This novel depicts the violation of American dream in the 1920s through the character of Gatsby. He grew up in poverty and reached a life of opulence with a huge house, car and servants. With his self-acquired wealth and social status, he could develop in himself a completely different personality from his unprivileged past. The wealthy Americans of the 1920s are signified by Gatsby who flaunts his money extravagantly as was depicted by his lavish parties. In the beginning of his life, Gatsby could represent American dream because like any other American he took nurtured the dream of earning money. Later in life, he differs from the other newly rich Americans in a way that he earned his money in dishonorable ways. The main idea of the American dream is to earn money through hard work and Gatsby failed to do so. In order to earn the love of Daisy, he obtained big house, car, and other material possessions. The American dream is an idea of pursuing happiness and this was violated by Ga tsby as he pursued mere wealth. Gatsby depicts a character who used to harbor mythicised dreams of achievement and success that can be gained with money. He had the endless desire of going back to the past by craving for Daisy whom he almost married in the past. America’s multiple identities are shown in the character Gatsby. American culture believes in recreating by setting alongside any doubts about the reality of such a concept.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Personal masters learning and development Essay - 1

Personal masters learning and development - Essay Example Nevertheless, I did log on to the website on my friend’s recommendation and browsed through the different pages. I was particularly keen to know how the course would help me further my goals in life. I was amazed to see my friend mature into a balanced individual with his own thoughts and perceptions. Academically he had achieved certain heights and he had developed social skills as well. I too am a good communicator and perhaps this University would help me develop my skills further. I browed through the different courses and modules on offer, and well it did frighten me a little initially. I was not too sure whether I could handle it but then, being an optimist, I decided to take up the challenge. To do something in life one has to take certain amount of risks. Moreover, higher the risk, higher the returns, is what we have heard. Besides, the economic downturn has impact all nations and one has to invest in education. This is the right time to do so, I felt. I browsed through some other University sites also but since I had very strong recommendations for this University, I decided to enroll myself here. What particularly impressed me about the University was that it had stude nts from a wide range of backgrounds. This meant that I could interact with people from different backgrounds and cultures, so essential for global management and international management today. Studying a Masters Degree is the only route to an established career. I too realized this and since I had set high goals for myself in the field of management, I knew a Masters Degree was essential. My objective in pursuing a Master’s Degree is to obtain a full time position in the field of accounting that uses my technical, analytical and interpersonal skills, with an employer that provides a challenging work environment and opportunities for advancement. I have done my undergraduate studies in the field of accounting and have practical experience working with several contracting