Monday, September 30, 2019

Han China and Mauryan & Gupta India Essay

Han dynasty and Mauryan/Gupta empires developed in roughly the same time frame and overlapped in the years 320 B. C. E. – 220 C. E. developing in different parts of the globes with their own unique geographies. Both the Han and Mauryan/Gupta empires developed bureaucratic governments that were ruled by kings, but due to the different geographical regions, India’s government was fragmented into local governments. The Han Dynasty of China was structured off of a social philosophy while Mauryan/Gupta India followed a religion which united the subcontinent. The Han and Mauryan/Gupta empires also both developed agrarian economies although their view on the merchant class were nearly opposite. The Han and Mauryan/Gupta empires both created hierarchical, bureaucratic governments. The hierarchy in China’s government was more flexible and was set up in the 5 relationships (ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, oldest son and younger brothers, and friend and friend) whereas India’s hierarchy was rigid and created through the Caste System (Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Sudras, and finally the Pariah). Ultimately, both hierarchical bureaucracies were led by a king. In China, the Han dynasty was able to create a strong centralized government led by kings who claimed the divine right to rule China, or in the case of the Chinese Dynasties, they claimed the Mandate of Heaven. However, because of the geography of India, such as the Deccan Plateau and the Hindu-Kush Mountains, the government of India was broken up into local governments. Whereas China needed a strong centralized government in order to unite its people, India could get away with having a weak central government because Hinduism would ultimately unite the people of the Mauryan/Gupta empires. Hinduism, the major religion of India which also kept the people of India united when the regional governments could not, was based on the principle of a cycle of rebirth known as samsara. Under this religion, the main focus of the people was to achieve moksha – uniting with Brahman – and escaping samsara. And where the Mauryan/Gupta empires focused on otherworldly ideas, the Han Empire focused on life on earth following the teachings of Confucius. Even though the Mauryan/Gupta empires followed a religion and the Han empire followed a philosophy, both the Mauryan/Gupta and Han empires believed in respecting their superiors. Finally, Han China and Mauryan/Gupta India both created prosperous, agrarian economies. However the Han Empire relied on the production of wheat, rice, and silk and the Mauryan/Gupta Empire relied on the production of cotton. Both empires also relied on the use of conscripted labor but in Han China it was drafted labor and in Mauryan/Gupta India it was through the use of the pariah (â€Å"untouchables†) class from the Caste System of Hinduism. Even though their economies, in principle, are identical, they had vastly differing views of the merchant class. In Han China, they were viewed as the â€Å"mean people† and scum of the Earth whereas in India, they made up the Vaisyas caste which was their middle class.

Huck Finn Comparison Essay Essay

The great American novel â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† by Mark Twain is about a white southern raised child named Huck Finn and a runaway slave, Jim, running away together. This novel is similar in ways to that of the novel â€Å"The Great Gatsby† by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which is about â€Å"the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love Daisy Buchanan. †(Book Cover) The character Huckleberry Finn is similar to characters of â€Å"The Great Gatsby. † Huck Finn is similar to Jay Gatsby because of their lies about their families, their reasons for lying, and their frames of reference of what not to do. Huck Finn is also similar to Myrtle Wilson. This is due to the fact that both try to create and live their â€Å"adventurous fantasy† lives and also because while trying to make their fantasy a reality they quickly forget about important people and belongings. The character Huck Finn is similar to Jay Gatsby in two ways. The first way in which these characters are alike is between the lies they tell about their family. Huck Finn’s lies are about having a family and how â€Å"pap and me and all the family was living on a little farm down at the bottom of Arkansaw,† (Twain 75). While Gatsby’s lies are about how he has no family and how is the son of â€Å"some wealthy people in the Middle West — all dead now. †(Fitzgerald 65). The major similarity of this is that they create these fantasy families because they are ashamed of their real family in a way which leads them to create their view of a good family. Besides Huck Finn’s and Gatsby’s similarity in lies and their reasoning behind lying, these characters are also similar because they use the same type of person as a frame of reference of what not to do or become. Jay Gatsby uses his deceased friend, Dan Cody, as his frame of reference. Dan Cody, when drunk, would commit acts of â€Å"savage violence of the frontier brothel and saloon. †(Fitzgerald 100) and would have Gatsby jail him on the yacht because he knew what would happen once he became drunk enough. Gatsby barely drank anything because he saw firsthand what alcohol could turn you Prev Page into if you had enough of it in your system. Huck Finn uses his pap as his frame of reference of what not to do or become. Pap, while drunk, is exceptionally violent. Pap would chase Huck around the hut â€Å"with a clasp-knife, calling me the Angel of Death†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Twain 22) and he would get â€Å"too handy with his hickory† (Twain 18) which left Huck â€Å"all over welts† (Twain 18). These frames of references of what not to become have helped the characters develop a more stable moral code. Other than Jay Gatsby, Huck Finn is also comparable to Myrtle Wilson in two ways. One characteristic these two characters have in common is that they dislike their real lives that they try to create and live these fantasy lives. Huck Finn never returns to reality and live his real life unless him and Jim are by themselves on the river. While he is on shore Huck always creates all these aliases with different backgrounds every time he meets new people or a new family. When Myrtle Wilson is with Tom Buchanan and her â€Å"friends† in the apartment-homes in the West Hundreds she creates the fabulous fantasy life where she is just so care free and rich. While she lives this fantasy life she lets Tom make fun of her husband by imagining a picture entitled â€Å"George B. Wilson at the Gas Pump. †(Fitzgerald 33). She pretends that she has money when Mrs. McKee compliments her on the dress she is wearing and Myrtle is just shrugging off because this is something she wears when she â€Å"don’t care what I look like† (Fitzgerald 31). In addition to their likeness in trying to live a fantasy life, Huck Finn and Myrtle share their ability to promptly forget about important people and belongings. This is evident with Myrtle when she buys the dog on her way to the apartment with Tom and Nick. As quickly as she buys the dog she forgets about it before the end of the party which is sitting on a table â€Å"looking with blind eyes through the smoke, and from time to time groaning faintly. †( Fitzgerald 37 ) and not once has she gone to check to see if it is out of water, food, or even tries to take it out of that type of environment. For Huck the person he forgets about is his loyal and caring friend Jim. Whenever Huck is living one of his adventurous fantasy lives he never takes a pause to think about what Jim is doing, feeling, what type of danger he might be in, or what he could be going through right now while he’s having Prev Page the time of his life or getting himself in deep trouble on the shore. Conclusively the great American novel â€Å"The Great Gatsby† by F. Scott Fitzgerald has characters that share characteristics with that of Huck Finn from the novel, â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† by Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn is like Jay Gatsby because they both lie about their family because they’re ashamed of their real on and want what they feel would be a better family for them. They’re also alike in the way that they use the same type of person as a frame of reference of what not to do, which helps them build a more durable moral code. Myrtle Wilson is also comparable to Huck Finn on account of that they try to create and live fantasy lives, and then they get so caught up in their fake lives that they forget about the important people and belongings in their lives.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Case Study: Bruce /Brenda

Case Study Reflection: Bruce/Brenda Gabriel R. Boynton Abnormal Psychology Professor Wolfson September 24, 2012 Diagnostic Overview: Gender Identity Disorder (GID) is defined as: â€Å"strong and persistent cross gender identification† and â€Å"persistent discomfort with his or her sex or sense of inappropriateness in the gender of that sex (DSM-IV)†. Put simply: it is a painful inner conflict between a person’s physical gender, and the gender he or she identifies as. For example, a person who identifies as a boy may actually feel that he is, and act like a girl.In response to those feelings, people with GID may act and/or present themselves as members of the opposite sex. The disorder may affect things such as their choice of sexual partners, mannerisms, behavior, dress, as well as their own self-concept. Males with GID are often characterized by feminine behaviors such as: â€Å"wearing his mother’s clothing, displaying a great interest in girlsâ€℠¢ toys, playing with girls, and showing distress over having male genitalia (Gooran)†. Associated essay: Nature or Nurture: The Case of the Boy Who Became a GirlIn contrast biological females with GID will most likely exhibit typical masculine behaviors such as: â€Å"rough (masculine) games, refusing to wear dresses, becoming very athletic and strong, and identifying more with her father (Gooren)†. â€Å"True cases of GID are fairly rare and occur in only 3 to 5 percent of the U. S. population (Meyer)†. The exact cause of GID is unclear, however â€Å"hormones in the womb, genes, and social and environmental factors (such as parenting) may be involved (NLM)†. Observable symptoms almost always present in early childhood. Case History:David Reimer was born as a twin on August 22, 1969 to Ron and Janet Reimer. His given birth name was Bruce; his twin brother was named Brian. Both babies were born as healthy males. When the twins were about 7 months old, their mother noticed that â€Å"the skin on the tip of her sons’ penises was sealing over, making the act of urination particularly painful and difficult. On the advice of their doctor, Janet took the twins to the local hospital to be circumcised to correct the problem (Meyer)†. On April 27, 1966 a urologist performed the circumcision operation using the unconventional method of cauterization. The procedure did not go as doctors had planned, and Bruce’s penis was burned beyond surgical repair. The doctors chose not to operate on Brian, who’s phimosis soon cleared without surgical intervention (CBS)†. So botched was the surgical procedure that the sex organ resembled a burned piece of flesh, rendering it useless as well as lifeless. â€Å"Eventually Bruce’s penis dried up and flaked away until there was no sign that he had ever had any sort of genital appendage (Meyer)†. The original plan by doctors was to construct an artificial penis for Bruce-a procedure called a â€Å"phallic reconstruction† or â€Å"phalloplasty†. This reconstructed organ would only serve as a urine conductor, and never be capable of sexual function. Concerned about their sons prospects for future happiness and sexual function without with a penis, Ron and Janet agreed to meet with John Money M. D. , at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to discuss any and all options. Dr. Money suggested that Bruce be raised as though he had been born a female. â€Å"Won over by Dr. Money’s reputation, confidence, and charm the Reimers decided to follow his advice and raise their biological son Bruce- as their daughter, Brenda (Meyer)†.At the age of 22 months old, an orchiectomy was performed to remove Bruce’s’ testis. From that point on the main focus of the Reimer’s life was to try to raise Brenda as a girl. â€Å" She was clothed in dresses, given dolls and other feminine toys to play with, grew her hair long, and was encouraged to spend time and bond with her mother and play with other little girls at school (Meyer)†. This situation, however tragic†¦ seemed to make for a perfect case study. â€Å"What does gender mean if one male twin can be raised as a boy, while the other male twin becomes a girl (NOVA)†?However, it quickly became evident to everyone that Brenda was going to fight the forced femininity, desiring instead to â€Å"play with trucks and solders, getting into fights at school, and rejecting the dresses and ladylike attire. She even insisted un urinating in the standing position (Meyer)†. Years later Dr. Money published an article asserting that the experiment carried out with Brenda had been a resounding success. He wrote, â€Å"the child’s behavior is so distinctly feminine like that of a little girl her age, which differs completely from the behavior of her twin brother Brian (Money)†.The case became widely known in medical circles worldwide as: The John/Joan case†. At the age of 12, Brenda began a strict female hormone regimen. She began to develop breasts, hips, and an overall feminine shape. Eventually, her behavior began to conform to her physical appearance. However, this transformation did not help improve her psychological state. â€Å"Feelings persisted of being trapped in her own body, eventually she becoming socially isolated and depressed (Meyer)†. Brenda began seeing a psychologist named Dr.Mary McKenty who was successful in helping her face her anxiety, depression, and confusion. After seeing Dr. McKenty for a few months- at the age of 14, Brenda made the decision to stop living as a female, even though she was still unaware of the circumstances surrounding her gender identity issues. It was at this point that her parents â€Å"realized that Brenda was never going to embrace her surgically reassigned sexual identity, the finally decided the time had come for a troubling, yet inevitable confession (Meyer)†. After processing this revelation, Brenda’s decision to liv e as a male became concrete. She opted for testosterone treatments to masculinize her figure, and to undergo surgery to construct an artificial penis. She also changed her name from Brenda to David (Meyer)†. In no way did this mean David’s lifelong struggles were over. Multiple surgeries were needed to try and created a functioning penis. Psychological issues continued to plague him as well. During this time period, â€Å"he attempted suicide three times. The third- an overdose of pill- left him in a coma. He recovered and began the long climb towards living a normal life-as a man (CBS)†. David eventually met a woman, and the two fell in love. Due to the success of his surgery, he was able to have sex with her, and for the first time have a fulfilling sexual relationship. He married her in September 1990. Tragically, this happiness was short lived for David. He continued to suffer from severe depression, â€Å"which deepened markedly when his identical twin Bria n, killed himself in the spring of 2002 by an overdose of anti-depressants. David later became unemployed and was conned out of $65,000 by a scam artist. All of this contributed to marital problems, and on May 2, 2004, his wife suggested they separate (Meyer)†.David Reimer committed suicide on May 4, 2004. He was 38 years old. Analysis: The case of Bruce/Brenda is unique among GID cases in that its cause is not a mystery. David Reimer was born a male, in every sense of the word. â€Å"The origin of his disorder was in the environmental efforts to raise him as a female and not his true biological sex (Meyer)†. The damage done to him physically, mentally, and emotionally is almost uncomprehend able. Although his parents seemed to have had his best interest at heart, it is clear that the decisions made in his behalf were at times misguided, and certainly not the right ones for him.Stressors in his later life such as the suicide of his twin, the loss off income and money, a s well as the deterioration of his marriage, likely may have been enough to push many to their breaking point. It is tragic that David proved to be one of those many. From the Biological perspective- behavior, personality, and presumably gender are seen as products of genes and other biological processes. From this theory, a person is not born as a blank slate†¦ready to be molded by their parents, doctors, or surroundings.David Reimer seems to prove the validity to this perspective. The desire to live as a man was so strong, that he came to the conclusion he needed to as early on as age 14. I can only imagine the feelings he experienced when he learned the truth of his past. The validation must have been equal parts: relief and frustrating. Treatments: One might assume the preferred treatment for an â€Å"average† person with GID is psychological treatment. However, many transgender people as well as researchers support the declassification of GID as a mental disorder.Th ere are many reasons for this: â€Å"recent medical research on the brain structures of transgender individuals has shown that some have the physical brain structures that resemble their desired sex even before hormone treatment (Hamzelou)†. â€Å"Therefore, the most widely prescribed treatment option for the disorder is sex reassignment surgery (SRS) (Meyer)†. These are the surgical procedure s used to change a person’s physical appearance ,as well as the function of their existing sexual characteristics to resemble that of the other sex.Once a diagnosis of GID has been made, recommendation for SRS should be based on the following strict criteria: 1. The patient should show evidence of stable transsexual orientation 2. The patient should show insight into his/her condition and should not suffer from any serious psychiatric disorder 3. The patient should be able to pass successfully as a member of the opposite sex, and there should be clear evidence of cross gen der functioning 4. Improvement in personal and social functioning should be predicted for the individual prior to and after surgery (Benjamin, H) Personal Reflection:After reading about this man’s life, I am ashamed that I choose his case study because it, â€Å"sounded interesting†. Tragic- doesn’t begin to describe this poor man’s circumstances. Handled correctly by his doctors and parents, he may have had a fighting chance. I have come to appreciate that this disorder, like many others, should not be taken at face value. Be it because you had a bad urologist, or because you were born with this disorder†¦ more compassion for these people needs to be developed in our, as well as many other cultures. Bibliography 1. Meyer, R.G. , Weaver, C. M. : Case Studies in Abnormal Behavior 9th edition 2. DSM-IV-TR 3. Cohen-Kettenis &Gooran: Transexualism: A review of etiology, diagnosis, and treatment 1999 4. The U. S. Natinal Library of Medicine (NLM) 5. CBS N ews: David Reimer: The boy Who Lived as a Girl July 2002 6. Cohen, A. , Sweigart, S. : Sex Unknown; NOVA, PBS Airdate: October 30, 2001 7. John Money: Man Woman, Boy Girl: 1972 8. Hamzelou, J: Transexual differences caught on brain scan- January 26, 1011 9. The Harry Benjamin Internatinal gender Dysmorphia association- 1985

Friday, September 27, 2019

Earned Interest on My Savings Account Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Earned Interest on My Savings Account - Essay Example Although the interest earned with certificate of deposit is higher than for a savings accounts, my decision for choosing the saving instrument would also be driven by some other factors. In a certificate of deposit, the money will remain locked for 5 years whereas in a savings account, I can withdraw and use the money whenever I need. Secondly, if at a certain time, the inflation starts increasing, the real value of the investment in the CD would become significantly lower than the money at hand in the savings account. For example, if after 2 years, the inflation reaches say more than 5% and remains there for the next 3 years, then the real value of the final amount I would receive from the CD would be much less than the actual balance at the end of 2 years in the savings account that I may have used already. On the other hand, if I expect the inflation to drop in the coming years, CD would be a more attractive option.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

You will see with the attachment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

You will see with the attachment - Essay Example A professional person is able to perform a high quality work with honesty and dignity. Nursing requires impressive emotional contribution in the process of work’s completion, constant advancement and perfection of knowledge, attentive attitude to the patients and an overall control in the process of medical treatment. It is interesting to have an option of on-line education. It is very convenient, but it requires special knowledge and skills. Thus, for example, a very important role plays online communication and it is necessary to know peculiarities of email composing and be aware of e-mail etiquette. During my study I got acquainted with different peculiarities of e-mail etiquette. For example, it is relevant to fill in the subject line of email, be concise and exact in one’s messages et cetera. Online communication provides a lot of new opportunities and makes the process more interesting. Moreover, in the process of study communication online is more effective that traditional form of communication, because there is an option of online conferences with people from all over the world, sending attachments, correcting and adding necessary information instantaneously and so on. This form of communication is of high relevance in my profession, because it is possible to get informed once a p atient has some news or wants to get some information. It is evident that the effect of medical treatment is higher in case both traditional and online types of communication are combined. Patient can ask relevant questions at any time and get answer at once thus much time can be economized. For example, a nurse can receive email from the patient with the latest information about his health and help him the way she can as soon as it is possible. Another option is to find some files or information about the patient and send it to

Optical Fiber and WLAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Optical Fiber and WLAN - Essay Example However, working on an efficient frequency use, one point must be addressed i.e. GSM mobile and wireless network users will use the same medium i.e. air and that may result in in an interference or obstruction of frequencies, if design is not adequate (Al-Hunaity 2011). Wireless LAN utilizes radio frequencies or electromagnetic waves for carrying signals to the source or destination similar to Amplitude Modulation AM, frequency modulation FM or Frequency Division Multiple Access FDMA. FDMA allocates the available frequency range in to small ranges that are also called sub-frequencies. After dividing the sub frequencies, each sub frequency is utilized as a stand-alone frequency and is called as a channel. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has defined Wireless LAN standards by IEEE 802.11. The IEEE 802.11 standard is defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Incorporated. Likewise, overviews of wireless LAN standards are demonstrated below (Al-Hunaity 2 011): IEEE 802.11 (legacy mode) standard was defined in 1997, as it talks about two bandwidth rates i.e. 1 Megabits per second (Mbps) and 2 Megabits per second (Mbps) operational in a 2.4 GHz frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) and in the direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). IEEE 802.11a is operational on a 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum and utilize frequency band Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) that offers a maximum data transfer rates of 54 Mbps. Moreover, it also offers 12 channels that are non-interference along with 4 outdoor channels and 8 indoor channels. IEEE 802.11b standard is operational on a 2.4 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum that offers... Moreover, bandwidth access for end users may reach 1 GB per day by 2015 and 10 GB per day by the end of 2020 (Parker, Walker et al. 2010). Likewise, research and studies associated with NGA incorporates convergence with different technologies and the wireless convergence is addressed by Radio over Fiber (Parker, Walker et al. 2010). A fiber radio network consists of two different domains, one is optical and the other one is wireless. The wavelength division multiplexing (WDM), in the optical domain is used to combine a number of wavelengths together in order to send them through a network known as fiber-optic network. Hence the growing use of available fiber bandwidth and maximizing total data throughput, a single CO supply each remote radio BS and has access to divide optical wavelength, therefore to accomplish the requirements of future bandwidth wireless. From CO to BS a separate optical wavelength is allocated in the downlink. However, it can be used in the uplink route as BS to CO. On the contrary, a channel offset method can be used or downlink and uplink channels can be interleaved because, by using the identical wavelength in both the directions is not necessary. The main aspect that determines the type of that optical network and the tools used in CO and BS is that whether the data designed for the BS i s sent at the baseband or at intermediate-or radio-frequency(IF and RF).

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Applied Research Technologies Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Applied Research Technologies - Case Study Example The company is also known for its entrepreneurial spirit and the same can be gauged from the fact that the company currently owns 60 different business units, many of which are acquired in last 2-3 decades. Decentralized decision making is their strength to bring solution to the issues and speed up jobs across all business units. The company’s innovative strength can be assumed from the fact that almost 30% of the company’s revenue from each business division comes from the products that has been developed in the last 4 years. The company constantly strives to find new business opportunities and inspires business units heads and others to come up with fresh business ideas and proposals that can maintain its leading position and competitive edge in the market. To continue with the spirit of innovation, the company taps talent globally without any restriction or regional bias and accordingly, the company opens India Technical Center (ITC) under the auspices of the corpora te R&D group of the company. While working as a general manager at the Filtration Unit of the company, Vyas is in the process of developing a prototype mini water-oxidation product with an aim to exploit the product commercially that can purify waste water. Previously, over the past three years, two such attempts have been unsuccessful in developing the product. So far, the Filtration unit has only one profitable line of business and it has failed to bring new products in market in keeping with the company’s image of innovativeness. In a way, the Filtration Unit is quite vulnerable and so is the position of Vyas, if he fails to launch a new product successfully in the market third time. Vyas is quick to realize this and that is why he has formed a team full of entrepreneur-minded individuals. Though ITC technologists develop a promising product that is approved by Wagner, its first generation version is rejected for its foul odor and the second version of the product is rejec ted for its high power consumption. Without getting perturbed from these failures, Vyas harps on the true entrepreneurial spirit of the company taking clue from the CEO David Hall’s entrepreneurial concept that states: â€Å"I expect all our managers, and particularly those on the front line, to create, promote, and back promising ideas. But we understand that when you go for the big leap, you won't always clear the bar. So there is no shame in failure when you are stretching for big objectives. Around here we routinely celebrate what we call "worthy attempts"—even when they are unsuccessful† (Bartlett & Beckham, 2010). Though Vyas has been managing the global challenges quite well yet it appears that Vyas has missed something in the beginning – on deciding about some essential minimum requirement pertaining to the features of the product under development while giving a brief to the ITC technologists. Had the required features of the product been streaml ined earlier then the valuable time spent on developing two versions of the product would have been conserved. Any new product needs to be made available at not only affordable cost but also it should have minimal operating and maintenance cost (minimal fuel consumption, power etc.) maintaining ease of operation for the users. It is true that all this will depend upon what kind of customers or which segment of the market is going to be catered; however, the fact remains that clear guidelines were not given by Vyas to the technologists on required features of the product that eventually resulted into the failure of two products and loss of resources. As front-line manager, Vyas has been effective in managing people as he forms a team full of en

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

International finance Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

International finance - Research Paper Example Additionally, the company was ranked number two in manufacture of quality skincare products and was awarded Quality System Certification in 2002 by the Saudi Arabia government, making it one of the most renowned cosmetic companies in Middle East. Thus, this paper will delve into a marketing plan of Saudis Cosmetic Company as it tries to enter London, United Kingdom. Southwest Airlines is a service industry in Tunisia that aims at offering its customers with distinctive air transport services. The company started in 1969 in Tunis Tunisia, with an aim of providing its customers with air transport at a lower cost and an effective one for that matter. Eventually, the company adopted a strategy that seeks to provide its diverse customers with added value by making sure that the services exceed the price paid by the customer as well as what the customer expects to pay for the services. The company believes that creating value is one of the crucial activities the firm would take to attain a competitive edge. Even though the company started with purchasing products that were diesel powered, it has managed to replace its components and equipments with modern equipment, which are environmentally friendly, at a reduced cost. More so, it has managed to come up with more innovative products in the new airport lounges and the business class products. The company has also managed to come up with a number of trained personnel who take care of the children while their parents are in the â€Å"business class.† This new experience within the industry creates an added value for the customers. Mode of market entry. According to Li & Fung Research centre (2007), the emergence of foreign cosmetic firms in Saudi Arabia has led to a decrease of Saudis Cosmetic Company’s market share from 18.99% in 2001 to 9% in 2003. And even though the company targets middle and low-income earners, living in rural and lower-tier cities in 2006, its sales revenue dropped significantly to $ 43.7 million. As a result, Guangzhou Wuyi, a Chinese cosmetic company, purchased it in 2006, hoping that Saudis Cosmetic Company stands a good position in providing viable means for local market penetration through various distribution channels, as well as through brand equity. The Saudi cosmetic retail sales have been on an upward trend from 2006 to 2007, as evidenced by last year’s unprecedented sales reaching 1 million Dollars and growth of 16.0%. As a result, Saudi Arabia is considered as the fastest growing cosmetic market in the globe, eliciting foreign cosmetic investors in the market. The success of this company has been attributable to a number of factors, which include an increase in social-economic status, presence of women in cosmetic workforce, influence from western culture, and government’s promotion to local consumption in a bid to enhance the economy of the nation (Alon, 2003, p. 164). In today’s market, the Saudis Cosmetic Company faces stiff competition from a number of foreign companies investing in Saudi Arabia, which include Beijing Dabao Cosmetic Company, Estee Lauder, and Shiseido, among others. The Estee Lauder is on record for having made a sales growth of 40% in 2009, the same year that Saudis Cosmetic Company recorded a decrease in sales growth. It is, therefore, evident that Saudis Cosme

Monday, September 23, 2019

Case Analysis Assignment Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analysis Assignment - Case Study Example ts producing multinational company was severely criticized by the international human rights activist groups as well as the other activists in the global communities due to the large scale exploitation of the cheap labor sources in the country. The problems faced by the company were one of the most cited examples of the global sweatshop issues prevailing in the international scenarios at that time. The Foxconn workers’ suicide cases were investigated by a number of domestic and international authorities including the fair Labor Association (FLA) which identified severe malpractices in the human resource management systems implemented in the manufacturing houses of the company (Fair Labor Association, 2012). A number of core human resource management issues were identified in the company which included the exploitation of labors, the use of unfair labor practices, the provision of biased and unjust work environment, a non-caring attitude of the company towards the safety and he alth of the worker groups, low payment of wages and extremely long working hours. Along with these practices, the authoritative treatment of the managers of the company towards the labor groups also deteriorated the working condition of the labors in the Foxconn factories, thereby creating an exemplary sweatshop practice case for the company. The cultural aspect of the company further aggravated the human resource issues and malpractices in the factories of the Foxconn Technology Group. The company was accused of exploiting the labor resources in the then developing state of China after the repeated suicide cases of the workers drew high levels of media attention and were discussed on the global platforms. The fair stand taken by Apple Inc. which was the biggest client of Foxconn Technology Group was another main factor which further alleviated the criticisms made towards the company. Apple Inc. clearly stated that it would severe all types of business relations with the supplier if it does

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Good and Evil Essay Example for Free

Good and Evil Essay My report examines the connection of the coexistence of good and evil across texts and how these aspects effect human nature and society. The texts I used were ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, ‘The Help’ by Tate Taylor, ‘Noughts Crosses’ by Malorie Blackman and ‘Harawira drops N-bomb in water hui debate† by Danya Levy. I believe these texts explore the moral nature of society and human beings as essentially being good and evil through social drifts of racial prejudice, discrimination and illustrates the effect of these on human nature and society through the characters responses to these societal niches. The primary form of evil across the texts is the social drifts that exist in the texts such as racial prejudice and discrimination. These are prevalent dilemmas in all texts. If we take for instances in â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† prejudice is often committed against the Negroes of the community of Maycomb by the whites. The community often regards Negroes as liars and criminals simply because they are black. â€Å"You gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption- the evil assumption that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Without actually considering the black peoples perspective the community immediately gain the preconception that this is how the blacks are. This is the whole nature and attitude of most of the people in Maycomb( where TKMB is set) throughout the story. Likewise with ‘Noughts Crosses’ the Crosses believe that Noughts are inferior to them in every way and are nothing but trouble. Crosses put forward these prejudice ideas about Noughts in order to keep the two races from living alongside each other as both races despise each other and keeping themselves in power with no influence of Noughts running the country. The article ‘Harawira drops N-bomb in water hui debate† is slightly different in a way as it deals more with discrimination against Maori but nevertheless discrimination has the same effect of injustice towards a race or class as prejudice. In this article it is suggested by Hone that Maori are under the harsh dictatorship of John Key and have no control over their actions. â€Å"Maybe they should go back to John Key and tell him to stop treating his Maori MPs like he’s a plantation owner from Alabama in the 1950’s. † Hone throughout the article points out that John Key is not being lenient on his Maori MP’s on attending a debate about ‘Water Rights’ concerning the Maori, Hone expresses the fact that John Key should leave it up to the Maori MPs to decide what they want to do rather than follow orders by John Key like â€Å"little house niggers. † â€Å"The Help† tackles discrimination quite differently. Not only are the black maids in â€Å"The Help† treated unfavorably on the basis of their skin but â€Å"Miss Hilly† who is regarded as the main antagonist of the film is wrapped up in this idea that blacks carry a harmful disease that threatens the community of Jackson, Mississippi(Where The Help is set). The discrimination in â€Å"The Help† is the obvious white and black scene but the fact that the blacks are also treated unfavorably based on what diseases they carry and made to use separate bathrooms go beyond discrimination. This sort of conduct is how animals are treated because animals are made to stay outside just as blacks are made to use separate bathrooms. The one thing I noticed across these texts is that these social drifts left a certain race or class victimized by the turmoil these social drifts inflicted on them. Naturally from this consequence of victimization the audience of these texts is likely to gain a negative impression of prejudice and discrimination and make an informed decision that these conducts are â€Å"evil† which is exactly the way I regarded these social drifts. What prejudice and discrimination does is it makes somebody to believe that they are less human than everybody else whereas in actual fact we are all equal as anybody is as human as everybody around them and when prejudice or discrimination is committed it goes contrary to this therefore making them evil attributes and inhumane. In Alabama 1950’s racism did in fact pose an effect on human nature as people reacted in irrational ways towards blacks and rather than have a society that operated together it was segregated and balanced precariously on the razors edge of hostility and violence. The effect racism in general has on human nature and society further supports the evil that embodies prejudice and discrimination. The effect on human nature or the characters in these texts is apparent as characters across the texts are seen to react to them in irrational ways. The characters react to prejudice and discrimination in anger, hatred, violence and even suicidal ways. In â€Å"Noughts Crosses† Lynette is a Nought who is a victim to the prejudice and violence in her society. Unable to cope with the struggles she faces in everyday life she takes the easy way out my committing suicide and walking out into an oncoming bus. Also in â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† Boo Radley is forced into confinement in his house because the prejudice in Maycomb marks him as a maniac and therefore outcasts him from society. The idea that these cases pose is that social drifts such as prejudice is a big threat to people and thus making them again evil attributes. Lynette and Boo Radley encountered these evils and consequently were victimized or affected by these evils (social drifts). In regards to society as a whole prejudice and discrimination effect society because if there is a sufficient amount of these attributes around individuals than society itself is influenced by prejudice or discrimination and if society operates this way than people tend to believe that’s how society is meant to operate. This is most clearly seen in â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† by characters like Bob Ewell who is a drunken, abusive father who despises the blacks without reconsidering his attitudes towards blacks simply because prejudice is the status quo in Maycomb and this is what Bob Ewell has no doubt been brought up to believe that blacks are vile creatures. The effect of racism swings both ways though as seen in â€Å"Harawira drops N-bomb in water hui debate. † Hone is fueld with hostility towards John Key and forces Hone into a state of abuse and uncivil behavior. The point I am getting at is that racism effects the nature of humans as seen in Lynnete and Boo Radley or the countless examples across the texts. The effect is that it robs people of their innocence and effects society by disrupting the order because if you look at the definition of society. â€Å"The aggregate of people living together in an ordered community. † Bob Ewell by being racist towards blacks disrupts the peace between the races therefore disrupting the order and Maori are likely to be influenced by Hone who is a prominent Maori therefore he causes hostility between Maori and Pakeha due to his disagreements with the discrimination of the Maori MPs in turn this will disrupt the order and when there is no order there is no society which is the ultimate effect on society. I might have only used single people as examples but like I said there are countless examples across texts in terms of the effect racism has on human nature and society. When you think of ‘good’ across the texts people almost immediately regard the race or individuals being oppressed as the ‘good guys’ which brought me to the conclusion that the manifestation of ‘good’ comes from the oppressed. Across the texts the exploration of oppression is evident. In â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† the black community is the oppressed as Maycomb frown on their very essence and they are subject to racial prejudice. A prime example is Tom Robinson. A black man falsely accused of the rape of a white woman. He is innocent as proven by Atticus but society accuse him on the basis of his skin colour making him oppressed for his racial standings in the community. Similarly in â€Å"Noughts and Crosses† the Noughts are viewed as the scum of the world and everything bad that happens people point the finger at the Noughts. Like Tom Robinson, Callum( who is one of the main characters) is hanged for the rape of Sephy(another main character) despite her supplying the fact that he did not rape her to Kamal Hadley who is her father and orders for Callum to be hanged. Kamal knew Callum was innocent but wanted to see him hanged and this act saw that Callum was oppressed because of his race. â€Å"The Help† though more or less deals with a specific sub group of the Negroes. The obvious oppression against the blacks stand in â€Å"The Help† but the oppression is more specific in the texts. Rather than the blacks as a whole being oppressed â€Å"The Help† is primarily dealing with the oppression against the black maids of Jackson, Mississippi. The black maids work clearly isn’t valued in Jackson. The Maids are only paid minimal amount for their strenuous jobs and are always on edge and full of fear in the homes they work in. If the maids were being paid well or being provided better working conditions than the ones they were working in, things would be different but since this is not the case oppression is the means of explaining the hardship that the maids suffer. Like The Help, â€Å"Harawira drops N-bomb in water hui debate† deals with oppression against a specific group rather than a race as a whole. In the article it explores how the Maori MP’s of National are subject to the dictatorship of John Key and are unable to make a decision without John Keys approval. On a personal opinion I see this as oppression as it restricts the Maori from acting on free will which is within their rights in accordance to New Zealand being a ‘free country. ’ John Key by not allowing the Maori MPs to make their own decisions is oppressing the Maori of their rights consequently leaving the Maori oppressed in terms of their rights. A connecting aspect between the oppressed across the texts is that they are generally innocent people. This connection is paramount to the reason why I perceive the oppressed as being ‘good’ because when you look at the word innocent, the word itself associates with being good. Futhermore I think this quote in â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† expresses why innocence is a characteristic of a good person. â€Å"Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up peoples gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a Mockingbird. † Mockingbirds are innocent birds that do no harm but just sing. In the instances of the texts the oppressed are the Mockingbirds as they do nothing but go about their work. If I use the maids in â€Å"The Help† as an example they do nothing but go about their work as a maid and are treated like dirt. The oppressed are innocent making them good. Having oppressed races or individuals in the texts effects human nature and society. The effect is that it causes people to act for the common good and yearn for a society that does not discriminate based on race or class. Across the texts we can see that characters that recognize the injustices that occur towards the oppressed approach these situations with empathy and understanding and a need to incorporate change. The obvious examples of this would be people like Atticus in â€Å"To kill a Mockingbird† and Skeeter in â€Å"The Help† but this also occurs in minor characters along the plot of these stories that serve as a reminder that there are people who care about the oppressed and see them at eye level. In â€Å"Noughts Crosses† Miss Paxton who is a Cross teacher notices that the Noughts that attend Heathcroft which is a prestigious school are incessantly picked on and bullied by the Crosses. She makes it her cause to implement change and make life easier for Noughts at Heathcroft by consulting with the principle and working out a strategic plan to substantially improve the relationships of Noughts and Crosses. Unfortunately the principle is of the majority who are racist so this plan does not work out as well as Miss Paxton envisioned. Also in â€Å"To Kill a Mockingbird† Scout Finch applies Atticus’s principal of considering others perspective before judging them and approaching others with empathy and understanding. Although she understands that being a child it is beyond her ability to create a significant change in society but she understands that the simple conduct of considering others perspective will go a long way in terms of change because this simple conduct leaves oppressed less victimized and leaves them with their dignity. If human nature is affected for the common good then the people who are affected and are acting for the common good hold a marginal influence on society. This affects society because having people act for the common good would influence people to believe that the injustices that the oppressed are facing are immoral. This would ensure that society works on counteracting these injustices in order to create a more stable society that holds the peace of the people living in it so that they may live together in harmony. Much like Hone Harawira although he has a great capacity for violence he also has a greater capacity and yearning for the common good. He brings to light the hardship the Maori MPs are facing under John Keys dictatorship and exposes them in an unthinkable way but nevertheless in the hopes that people become aware of the injustices taking place against the Maori in order to influence people to make a stand against these injustices for a better social structure in society. This in fact is exactly the way Martin Luther King made an impact on the development of Negroes social standings in society. Through his many speeches and public appearances one would notice that he ‘dreamed’ of a world where people were not discriminated by race or class and he always acted for the best intentions or for the common good and many in ‘society’ were influenced by his actions in terms of acting for the common good. Through Martin Luther King he was the first stepping stone to society in America excepting Negroes into society itself. From this analogy we can see that living in a world with oppression, this influences people to act for the common good and society becomes influenced by these people so therefore society begins to operate more efficiently and in unity. This is a positive effect and further supports the capacity for good oppression poses for people. â€Å"We all have good and evil inside of us. It’s what side we choose to follow that defines who we really are. †(J. K.Rowling) This quote about good and evil suggests that rather than being simply creatures of good or creatures of evil human nature has a capacity for good and evil( which means we have both good and bad qualities) but its which part we choose to act on that marks who we are. From studying the texts I have come to an agreement that this is true. The characters that abide by prejudice and discrimination (The oppressors) have good and bad qualities but since they pursue these social drifts that are interpreted as evil rather than their good qualities the audience of the texts concludes that they are evil characters; Kamal is seen as the antagonist of ‘Noughts Crosses’ because he uses his social status to punish and discriminate the Noughts. In the perspective of the audience Kamal is the antagonist because discrimination is associated with ‘evil’ and he resorts to discrimination therefore he is seen as an evil character. Likewise with the oppressed. The oppressed remain oppressed in order to keep the peace rather than acting out in violence and hostility towards the oppressors; In ‘The Help’ Aibileen, a black maid, does not antagonize the white society and goes about her work without any hassle despite suffering from incessant discrimination from the white society. She is just an innocent person who goes through life coping with racism. Aibileen is perceived as ‘good’ because innocence is associated with ‘good’ and she is innocent so therefore the audience interpret her as a ‘good’ character. In terms of both having good and evil characteristics Hone Harawira is an excellent example. Hone stresses the fact that Maori are being exploited of their rights but he uses violent approaches such as name calling and abuse to emphasize his point. He has good intentions of promoting equality amongst Maori and Pakeha which is his ‘good’ quality but social drifts cause him to act out in irrational and hostile ways which are his ‘evil’ qualities. He has the capacity for good and evil as they both affect his human nature. There is an old story that illustrates the fact that human nature has the manifestation of both evil and good but we are marked as being either good or evil by which qualities we follow. â€Å"A native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, the one I feed the most. † The affect of good and evil on human nature and society is simple. Good associates with peace, love, innocence etc. which are likely to leave a positive affect on human nature simply by the nature of these attributes. Having a positive affect on human nature means a positive affect on society as humanity holds influence on how society operates. Whereas with evil. Evil leads to war, violence hate which definitely leave negative affects on human nature because the pain these attributes cause. Having a negative affect on human nature means a negative affect on society as humanity under the influence of evil cause society to work backwards and away from unity and order. Going back to Alabama 1950’s the racist society were affected by the evils of social drifts like prejudice and discrimination so society was forced into a state of hostility and deplore. Afro-Americans like Martin Luther King were effected by the goods of oppression leading to his fight for equality, due to Martin Luther King society became more aware of the injustices that were taking place so society substantially changed to a society that did not discriminate based on race but upheld the peace and equality.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Human Resource Management System for Resume Processing

Human Resource Management System for Resume Processing Introduction 1.1 Purpose of the System The main aim of is HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM is automating the resume processing for organization that is applied by the candidates. With this project organization can add the resume to the database and track the resumed to various rounds and it provides reports on jobs. The objective is to develop customize software package for organization. The Human Resource Management System is developed using ORACLE as back-end and HTML, JSP as front-end. The operating system being used is the Windows 2000 prof. The automation of the above mentioned system reduces human dependences and avoids errors in data storage, analysis and retrieval. The time taken for searching candidate details is also drastically reduced due to the automation process, thus reducing the whole cycle time. This project performs three major roles: Registration Junior level management Senior level management 1.2 Scope Of The System Human Resource Management System is accessible to the HR Department of the organization â€Å"GIT Solutions †. The functional scope of the system is to provide the user friendly environment in the process of recruitment and it provides search based on particular search criteria to update resume and so scheduled and up to interview rounds. It provides reports based on job positions search. 1.3 Objectives and Success Criteria Objective: The main objectives of the Human Resource Management System are as follows: To automate selection process. To facilitate high graphical user interface to the user. To provide better functioning and accurate information in time. To provide data maintenance features. To improve the efficiency and to reduce the overload of work. To generate appropriate and concerned information to the user using dynamic queries. To generate appropriate reports. To provide security. Success Criteria: It provides security to the application through login check of the user of this system through this web-based application maintenance of the recruitment process is being done in less time and add efficient manner. The module will be built using Oracle and html and jsp to allow for future enhancement and additions. 1.4 Definitions And Abbreviations Definitions: Applicant: An Individuals that is looking for career GIT Solutions Interview: A meeting between any Executive of GIT Solutions and applicants, where GIT Solutions determines if the employees skill set matches the job that they are trying to fill. Resume: A document containing the applicants Personal details, job details Education, Skills, Past Employment, Reference information. Test: An exercise to measure quantitatively the aptitude for specified job requirements. Posting: Feeding of information of applicant into Application or storing of application into the database. Abbreviations: HRMS: Human Resource Management System JSP: Java Server Page JDBC: Java Data Base Connectivity ODBC: Oracle Data Base Connectivity. HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language HTTP: Hyper Text Transper URL: 1.5 Overview: The main aim of is HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM is automating the resume processing for organization that is applied by the candidates. With this project organization can add the resume to the database and track the resumed to various rounds and it provides reports on jobs. The objective is to develop customize software package for organization. 2. CURRENT SYSTEM No proper dynamic search method is available to immediately access a particular record. Fast retrieval of required data is not possible thus causing delay and unnecessary search of the entire list. FoxPro under Novel NetWare version is not a graphical user interface based application. User interaction with the system is minimized because of the DOS environment, unlike the windows environment where the user interaction with the system is high. PROBLEM DEFINITION: Handling of large databases effectively is not possible with the above software. Creating dynamic queries is difficult in FoxPro, So dynamic report generation is not possible. Security feature, which is very important aspect of NFCL, already exists but needs to be enhanced and need to be foolproof. Online reports and graphical representation of reports do not exist. 3. PROPOSED SYSTEM Keeping in view of growth that has been envisaged, it may not be practical and economical to continue with the current system. To facilitate a more efficient Recruitment System and to increase the responsiveness, it is necessary to have better Recruitment System integrated with the enterprises Information System. Proposed system is Computerized Recruitment Processing System. A Computer based system is usually needed for the following purposes: Greater processing speed: Using computers inherent ability to calculate, sort, retrieve data with greater speed than that of the human doing we can get results in less time. Better Accuracy and Improved Consistency: The computer carries out computing steps including arithmetic accurately and consistently from which really human is escaped which yields more fatigue and boredom. Cost Reduction: Using computerization we can do the required operations with lower cost than manual process. Hence by computerization we can reduce the cost drastically. System Objectives: To automate selection process. To facilitate high graphical user interface to the user. To provide better functioning and accurate information in time. To provide data maintenance features. To improve the efficiency and to reduce the overload of work. To generate appropriate and concerned information to the user using dynamic queries. To generate appropriate reports. To provide security. 3.1 Overview: Proposed HRMS is Computerized System. HRMS mainly deals with the activities taking place in an organization to process the resume details forwarded by the candidates. There are three main modules in this system, they are REGISTRATION JUNIOR LEVEL MANAGEMENT SENIOR LEVEL MANAGEMENT Registration Module: In this module, HR Manager can give access rights to some of the employee of the organization by giving UserId and password. Generally in the organization there are five interview rounds. Namely: Preliminary Interview Written Test Group Discussion Listening Comprehension Final Interview The persons who have access rights to this system, they can define the interview rounds form the above five rounds and their order for recruiting of particular job. They can Add new Positions for recruiting, Add Departments, Add Marital Status, Add Skill Type, Add Source, Add Languages Add Certifications, Add Rounds, Add Role of the employee who can access this application. They will send the intimation letter for the written test to the selected applicants. Junior Level Management Module: In Junior Level Management the candidates who were called for written test will be conducted the different tests like written, technical, psychological organizational awareness and so on In this module they generate reports depending on the applicants performance related to test results. Junior Level Management allows the applicant for the next level depending on their performance. After conducting all tests we will mail the intimation letter for the interview to the candidates who were selected in the module. Finally they will assign the applications to the interviewers for interview. Senior Level Management: In this module senior level management interacts with the database for getting the details of selected applicants in the previous module. They will go through the applicant details and their Skill-sets reports. Again this management deals with the selected applicants in Jr level management selection process. Here senior level management conducts interview for these selected candidates. With these two modules details they will prepare the final candidates list for appointment and they will send the appointment letters to the selected applicants. 3.2 Functional Requirements: Functional requirements describe the high level functionality of thee system. It describes the interaction between the system and its environment independent of its implementation. Environment includes the user and any other external system with which the system interacts. The following are the functional requirements of the HRMS: The hr manger with the userid and password will create the normal user. The user authentication can be created checked based on userid and password. The user can define the job interview rounds. The user can add new list items to database. The application shall support unlimited profile details to be fed. The user can add new resume to the database and can update resumes based on search criteria. The application shall support integrity and check of redundancy of data posting of a profile. The application shall allow for the modification of resumes. The application shall allow intimation to the aspirant about the status of selection. The application shall allow the user to view the details of employee resume from the search results. Resumes can be tracked among the defined job rounds in the interview process and scheduling, updating the interview round for particular applicant. Generating summery report based on the position of the job and changeable to Excel form. Generating the snap short report based on the Name of the applicant from summery Report and changeable to Excel form. 3.3 Non-Functional Requirements: Non-Functional requirements describe user -visible aspects of the system that are not directly related with the functional behavior of the system. The following are the Nonfunctional requirements of the HRMS: 3.3.1 User Interface and Human Factors: On the portion of the Application Assessment screen, you have the main menu, where various tabs are shown that form apart of each of the modules. Application Assessment Maintenance of resumes Test Reports Maintains Performance of the applicant in various test and interview levels. Reports Generates reports depending on their performance in various test and interview levels Click the Application Assessment tab. It shows the following links Personal information Details Screen In this screen User enter the Personal details of the applicants. Educational Details In this screen User enter the Education details of the applicants. Address Details In this screen User enter the Address details of the applicants. Experience Details In this screen User enter the Skills and Experience details of the applicants. Click the Test Assessment tab. It shows the following links Interview Assessment Junior Level Management Interview Assessment Senior Level Management Click the Interview Assessment Junior Level Management tab. It shows the following links Interview Assessment Junior Level Management Screen In this screen User enter the marks of the applicants who wrote the tests in the second module. Interview Assessment Senior Level Management Screen In this screen User enter the marks of the applicants who attended for the interview in the third module. Click the Reports tab in the main menu. It shows the following links Selection list report It contains the following tab links Selection list for Written Test In this Report we will get the applicants list who were selected for the written test. Selection list for Interview In this Report we will get the applicants list who were selected for the Interview. Overall Performance list report In this report we will get the Overall performance in all the test and interview rounds. Intimation list report In this report applicants will be got their status in each round in which they participated. It will shows the following links Call letter for written test In this call letters will be send to the applicants who selected for the written test. Call letter for Interview In this call letters will be send to applicants who selected for the Interview. Call letter for Intimation In this call letters will be send to applicants who selected for the Job. 3.3.2 Documentation In the HRMS the following documentation are provided: Requirement Document System Design Document Database Design Document 3.3.3 Software and Hardware Requirements: Software requirements Operating system ::::: Windows 2000/NT, MS-DOS. Backend ::::: ORACLE 8i Front end ::::: HTML Language ::::: Java, JDBC Web Technologies ::::: Servlets, JSP Web Server ::::: Tomcat 4.1 Application Server ::::: Weblogic 7.1 Driver ::::: ODBC for oracle. Documentation Tool ::::: Microsoft word 2000 Hardware requirements CPU ::::: Pentium IV. Speed ::::: 800 MHz Ram ::::: 1 GB. Hard disk ::::: 20 GB. Monitor ::::: SVGA color monitor. Keyboard ::::: 105 Standard Mouse. Mouse ::::: Logitech 3.3.4 FEASIBILITY STUDY: All projects are feasible, given unlimited resources and infinite time. But the development of software is plagued by the scarcity of resources and difficult delivery rates. It is both necessary and prudent to evaluate the feasibility of a project at the earliest possible time. Three key considerations are involved in the feasibility analysis. Economic Feasibility: This procedure is to determine the benefits and savings that are expected from a candidate system and compare them with costs. If benefits outweigh costs, then the decision is made to design and implement the system. Otherwise, further justification or alterations in proposed system will have to be made if it is to have a chance of being approved. This is an ongoing effort that improves in accuracy at each phase of the system life cycle. Technical Feasibility: Technical feasibility centers on the existing computer system (hardware, software, etc.,) and to what extent it can support the proposed addition. If the budget is a serious constraint, then the project is judged not feasible. Operational Feasibility: People are inherently resistant to change, and computers have been known to facilitate change. It is understandable that the introduction of a candidate system requires special effort to educate, sell, and train the staff on new ways of conducting business. FEASIBILITY STUDY IN THIS PROJECT Technical Feasibility Human Resource Management System is the project that is designed mainly on Java. The main reason behind choosing the Java environment is that, keeping in mind the needs of the users. The activities that go on in this particular phase are acceptance of applicants profiles with the help of well designed web based forms and storing the information in the database and retrieving for future use. The usage of JSP facilitates the dynamic page generation. This is the main reason behind the usage of JAVA for the development of this project. Since it is multi platform environment that supports web Browser where as other languages lack these features. In order to maintain continuously communicate between client and server he/she needs a reliable protocol i.e., is TCP/IP protocol. This protocol frequently transfers messages between client and server. Communication Standards such as HTTP is used .An HTTP is a client/server interaction consists of a single request/reply interchange, it user-friendly environment. Economic Feasibility The Human Resource Management System is a system that maintains the information regarding the various applicant details. The entire system is designed to maintain information regarding the applied candidates and those candidates who are recruited. It also maintains information regarding the various tests conducted and the short listed candidates. Once candidates have been selected the left over candidates information is deleted from the database. Operational Feasibility The Human Resource Management System efficiently manages the information coming into the database sends the list of eligible candidates that need to appear for scrutiny very fastly. Also it enables results to be processed in a very time saving and effective manner and short lists the names of all candidates selected and present details about their performance in a well organized, easily understandable manner. Various reports regarding the selected candidates performance and pay scale are also generated to provide minute details regarding the entire system. 3.3.5 Performance Characteristics HRMS was developed as a IAVA web application. It works efficiently; less time it generates web page when it works on Pentium IV Processor with RAM 1 GB. It works up to ten concurrent users. 3.3.6 Security Issues Initially HR Manager assign authentication rights to employee of the organization by giving usreid, password. The authentication of the user is should verify by checking userid, password when ‘Login. Only authenticated users of the organization can access the system. DESCRIPTION OF THE SOFTWARE USED: HISTORY OF JAVA Java language was developed by James Gosling and his team at sun Micro systems and released formally in 1995. Its former name is oak. Java Development Kit 1.0 was released in 1996. to popularize java and is freely available on Internet. Overview of Java Java is loosely based on C++ syntax, and is meant to be Object-Oriented Structure of java is midway between an interpreted and a compiled language java programs are compiled by the java compiler into Byte Codes which are secure and portable across different platforms. These byte codes are essentially instructions encapsulated in single type, to what is known as a java virtual machine (JVM) which resides in standard browser. JVM verifies these byte codes when downloaded by the browser for integrity. JVM is available for almost all OS. JVM converts these byte Codes into machine specific instructions at runtime. FEATURES OF JAVA Java is object-oriented language and supports encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism and dynamic binding, but does not support multiple inheritances. Every thing in java is an object except some primitive data types. Java is portable architecture neutral that is java programs once compiled can be executed on any machine that is enabled. JAVA is distributed in its approach and used for internet programming. Java is robust, secured, high performing and dynamic in nature. Java supports multithreading. There for different parts of the program can be executed at the same time JAVA AND INTERNET Java is strongly associated with internet and known as internet programming language. Internet users can use java to create applet programs and run them locally using java enabled browser search as hot java. Applets can be downloaded from remote machine via internet and run it on local machine. JAVA AND WORLD WIDE WEB World Wide Web is an open ended information retrieval system designed to be used in the distributed environment. This system contains web pages that provide both information and controls. We can navigate to a new web page in any direction. This is made possible worth HTML java was meant to be used in distributed environment such as internet. So java could be easily incorporated into the web system and is capable of supporting animation graphics, games and other special effect. The web has become more dynamic and interactive with support of java. We can run a java program on remote machine over internet with the support of web JAVA ENVIRONMENT Java environment includes a large no. of tools which are part of the system known as java development kit (JDK) and hundreds of classes, methods, and interfaces grouped into packages forms part of java standard library (JSL). JAVA ARCHITECTURE Java architecture provides a portable, robust, high performing environment for development. Java provides portability by compiling the byte codes for the java virtual machine which are then interpreted on each platform by the runtime environment java also provides stringent compile and runtime checking and automatic memory management in order to ensure solid code. JAVA VIRTUAL MACHINE When we compile the code, java compiler creates machine code (byte code) for a hypothetical machine called java virtual machine (JVM). The JVM will execute the byte code and overcomes the issue of portability. The code is written and compile for one machine and interpreted all other machines. This machine is called java virtual machine. PARADIGM OF JAVA Dynamic down loading applets(small application programs); Elimination of flatware phenomenon that is providing those features of a product that user needs at a time. The remaining features of a product can remain in the server. Changing economic model of the software Up-to-date software availability Supports network entire computing Supports CORBA DCOM ABOUT HTML HTML (hyper text markup language) is a language used to create hyper text documents that have hyper links embedded in them . it consists of tags embedded in the text of a document with HTML. We can build web pages or web document s. it is basically a formatting language and not a programming language. The browser reading the document interprets mark up tags to help format the document for subsequent display to a reader. HTML is a language for describing structured documents. HTML is a platform independent. WWW (World Wide Web) pages are written using HTML. HTML tags control in part the representation of the WWW page when view with web browser. The browser interprets HTML tags in the web document and displays it. Different browsers show data differently. Examples of browsers used to be web pages include: Netscape Internet Explorer JAVA SCRIPT Java script is a general purpose, prototype based, object oriented scripting language developed jointly by sun and Netscape and is meant for the WWW. It is designed to be embedded in diverse applications and systems, with out consuming much memory. Java script borrows most of its syntax from java but also inherits from awk and perl, with some indirect influence from self in its object prototype system. Java scripts dynamically typed that is programs dont declare variable types, and the type of variable is unrestricted and can change at runtime. Source can be generated at run time and evaluated against an arbitrary scope. Typical implementations compile by translating source into a specified byte code format, to check syntax and source consistency. Note that the availability to generate and interpret programs at runtime implies the presence of a compiler at runtime. Java script is a high level scripting language that does not depend on or expose particular machine representations or operating system services. It provides automatic storage management, typically using a garbage collector. FEATURES: Java script is embedded into HTML documents and is executed with in them. Java script is browser dependent JavaScript is an interpreted language that can be interpreted by the browser at run time . Java script is loosely typed language Java script is an object based language. Java script is an Event-Driven language and supports event handlers to specify the functionality of a button. ADVANTAGES Java script can be used for client side application Java script provides means to contain multiform windows for presentation of the web. Java script provides basic data validation before it is sent to the server. Eg : login and password checking or whether the values entered are correct or whether all fields in a from are filled and reduced network traffic It creates interactive forms and client side lookup tables. JavaDataBaseConnectivity (JDBC) It is a java data base connectivity having database as a back-end of java as front end. Database is a collectivity of related data. A data base management system (DBMS) controls the storage or retrieval of data in the database. The main use of this JDBC is the database connectivity. Using drivers we can get connection to the back-end: Which drive we are going to connect back-end. Create a data source name (dsn). Create a statement for connection. The package we use here is java. Sql. Interfaces of jdbc include Driver, Connection, Statement, Prepare Statement, CallableStatement, ResultSet, and ResultSetMetaData. Classes of JDBC are DriverManages, DriverPropertyInformation, Date, Time, Timestamp, and Type. The driver defined by the class JdbcOdbcDriver in package sun.jdbc.odbc. Class sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver represents the jdbc to odbc bridge driver. Overview of New Features Result set enhancements The JDBC 1.0 API provided result sets that had the ability to scroll in a forward directionally. Scrollable result sets allow for more flexibility in the processing of results by providing both forward and backward movement through their contents. In addition, scrollable result sets allow for relative and absolute positioning. For example, its pos-sable to move to the fourth row in a scrollable result set directly, or to move directly to the third row following the current row, provided the row exists. The JDBC API allows result sets to be directly updatable, as well. Batch updates The batch update feature allows an application to submit multiple update statements (insert/update/delete) in a single request to the database. This can provide a dramatic increase in performance when a large number of update statements need to be executed. Advanced data types Increased support for storing persistent Java programming language objects (Java objects) and a mapping for SQL99 data types such as binary large objects, and structured types, has been added to the JDBC API. An application may also customize the map-ping of SQL99 structured types into Java programming language classes. RowSets As its name implies, a rowset encapsulates a set of rows. A rowset may or may not maintain an open database connection. When a rowset is ‘disconnected from its data source, updates performed on the rowset are propagated to the underlying database using an optimistic concurrency control algorithm. RowSets add support to the JDBC API for the JavaBeans component model. A RowSet object is a bean. A RowSet implementation may be Serializable. Rowsets can be created at design time and used in conjunction with other JavaBeans components in a visual builder tool to construct an application. JNDI for naming databases The Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) API can be used in addition to a JDBC technology-based driver manager (JDBC driver manager) to obtain a connection to a database. When an application uses the JNDI API, it specifies a logical name that identifies a particular database instance and JDBC driver for accessing that database. This has the advantage of making the application code independent of a particular JDBC driver and JDBC technology URL. Connection Pooling The JDBC API contains ‘hooks that allow connection pooling to be implemented on top of the JDBC driver layer. This allows for a single connection cache that spans the different JDBC drivers that may be in use. Since creating and destroying database connections is expensive, connection pooling is important for achieving good performance, especially for server applications. Result Set Enhancements This chapter discusses the new functionality that has been added to result sets. The goal of the enhancements is to add two new basic capabilities to result sets: scrolling and updatability. Several methods have also been added to enable a JDBC driver to deliver improved performance when processing results. A variety of examples are included to illustrate the new features. Scrolling A result set created by executing a statement may support the ability to move backward (last-to-first) through its contents, as well as forward (first-to-last). Result sets that support this capability are called scrollable result sets. Result sets that are scrollable also support relative and absolute positioning. Absolute positioning is the ability to move directly to a row by specifying its absolute position in the result set, while relative positioning gives the ability to move to a row by specifying a position that is relative to the current row. The definition of absolute and relative positioning in the JDBC API is modeled on the X/Open SQL CLI specification. Result Set types The JDBC 1.0 API provided one result set type—forward-only. The JDBC 2.1 core API provides three result set types: forward-only, scroll-insensitive, and scroll-sensitive. As their names suggest, the new result set types support scrolling, but they differ in their ability to make changes visible while they are open.A scroll-insensitive result set is generally not sensitive to changes that are made while it is open. A scroll-insensitive result set provides a static view of the underlying data it contains. The membership, order, and column values of rows in a scroll-insensitive resultset are typically fixed when the result set is created. On the other hand, a scroll-sensitive result set is sensitive to changes that are made while it is open, and provides a ‘dynamic view of the underlying data. For example, when using a scroll-sensitive result set, changes in the underlying column values of rows are visible. The membership and ordering of rows in the result set may be fixedà ¢â‚¬â€this is implementation defined. Concurrency types An application may choose from two different concurrency types for a result set: read-only and updatable. A result set that uses read-only concurrency does not allow updates of its contents. This can increase the overall level of concurrency between transactions, since any number of read-only locks may be held o

Friday, September 20, 2019

Theorists Impact on Teaching and Learning

Theorists Impact on Teaching and Learning The government aims to support and develop childrens learning; these include the Plowden Report (1967), The National Curriculum (1999), a more recent review known as the Rose Review (2009) and The Primary Cambridge Review (2009). These reviews were heavily influenced by both Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. This assignment will compare two learning theorists and the impact they have on teaching and learning. My main focus will be on Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky however Jerome Bruner will also be mentioned. Firstly, the assignment will describe and critically analyse Jean Piagets theory of cognitive development. Secondly, I will describe and critically analyse the strengths and weaknesses of Lev Vygotskys theory of socio cognitive development. Both learning theorists will be examined and compared along with the implications they have on effective teaching practice. I will then move on to evaluate the impact it has on an individual child in terms of teaching and learning, taking their development needs into account as well as talking about maturation of the child. The school will also be mentioned throughout this assignment. The name of both the child and the school will not be disclosed due to privacy. I will also discover the factors that influence teaching and learning in the four main subjects, these include: Literacy, Numeracy/Mathematics, Science and ICT. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a biologist who moved into studying developments of childrens understanding by the age of 21, this was done through observation, speaking and listening to the children on a task that he had set. Piagets work on childrens intellectual development owed much to his early studies of water snails (Satterly, 1987, p. 622) Piaget was a well known French speaking Swiss theorist who believed that children learn by active knowledge through hands on experience. To do this the adult should provide the right materials to allow the child to interact and construct effectively. His views on how a childs mind functions and develops had a great influence especially in education theory. He mainly focused on child maturation to increase the understanding of their world; children cannot carry out certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so (Child-Development-Guide, 2010). Piaget believed that childrens thinking does not develop smoothly throughout childhood as there are certain points in which it expands and progresses into new aims and capabilities. The transitions took place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11/12 years of age; this meant that before these ages, no matter how bright a child is he/she is not capable of understanding things in certain ways. Piaget used Socratic questioning to get the children to think more about what exactly they are asking or thinking about, the aim of this was to get children to see contradictions in their explanations. Piagets theory of cognitive development was the central structure to his theory. The acquisition of knowledge in childhood which included processes such as understanding, reasoning, thinking, problem solving, learning, conceptualising and remembering, as a whole understanding all the aspects of human intelligence that are used to make sense of the world. Cognitive development is purely concerned with intellectual functions that can be studied individually from socio-economical functions (Atherton, J. 2010) Cognitive structures are patterns of physical or mental action which correspond to the stages of child development. Both Piaget and Vygotsky believe that childrens cognitive development takes place in stages. However Piaget was the first to show that children go through different stages of cognitive development. According to Piaget there are four primary development stages, these include: sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations and formal operations. The sensorimotor stage ranges from 0 to 2 years; this is where intelligence takes the form of motor actions. By the actions they perform in their environment through sucking, watching, biting and a number of other responses they may perform. According to a test undertaken by Piaget the child will look for an object that s/he has seen being hidden, this occurs when a child is around 8 months old. Intelligence in the pre-operation period consists of 2 to 7 year olds. At this age the children are capable of using symbols such as words and images to make sense of the world, imaginative play is used and they can tell the difference between fantasy and reality. The child can see a situation from another persons point of view, this is known as egocentrism. According to Piaget, the egocentric child thinks that others see, hear and feel exactly the same as s/he does. REF! bbc article The cognitive structure during the concrete operational stage consists of 7 to 11 year olds. Children need a number of mental operations such as classification and conservation so they can mentally manipulate symbols in different ways. Conversion is when the child has to ability to understand that redistributing material does not affect its mass, number or volume. By the age of 7, the child should understand that when a liquid is poured into a glass of different shape or size the quantity of liquid remains the same, only the appearance changes REF. The final stage is the formal operations which consist of 11 to 15 year olds. At this age children are capable of mental operations including abstractions and logical reasoning (Schaffer 2004, p.168). The mind of a child who is 11 years or older can carry out mathematical calculations, be creative, have accurate reasoning and imagine the outcome of specific actions REF. After analysing Piagets theory, I believe that his four stages of development and the structure of teaching is closely linked. The sensorimotor stage fits in to the early years foundation stage (EYFS) where children mainly learn by playing and exploring the facilities around them. In the nursery and reception classes of the school, the children have a variety of continuous provisions areas within the classroom that relate to the real world such as shops, post office and kitchens. This allows the children to explore role play and discover real life situations. Tasks are set up to allow the children to explore freely whilst the teacher observes the childrens involvement in the activity (EYFS, 2010, online). This relates to the principle of enabling environments in the EYFS themes: The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending childrens development and learning (EYFS, 2010, online). The second stage links to children who are in key stage 1 (KS1). The children develop words that support play with ideas. The school has a shop corner which contains a till, plastic shopping basket with play foods and plastic money, this allows the children to play within the shop and explore the money. I believe this allows the children to learn as well as play as its leveled at their ability. It is important to give the children real life situations and problem solving as the skills can be applied throughout their learning and help them develop into mature adults. Providing the children with hands on experience in certain areas of the curriculum such as EYFS, mathematics and literacy has been taken from Piagets theory. The child is observed during a practical activity and his/her engagement and communication skills are recorded (Briggs et al, 2005, p.27). I feel it is important that EYFS, key stage one and key stage two should be closely linked and flexible so the child has the correct skills and knowledge throughout the stages to build their confidence and succeed in the future. As part of a Literacy topic the children had to act out Goldilocks and the three bears. They were put in groups and were given a script. The children had to read the script and act it out. This provided the teacher with information on each childs cognitive ability and allowed her to assess and set targets for each child. The concrete operational stage ties in with KS2. However, after observing a key stage two there is a change in terms of teaching style and the activities undertaken in EYFS and KS1 The aim of KS2 is to develop the logical process in the learning. Every week the children carry out guided reading, this differentiates from fiction to nonfiction depending on the ability of the child. The children have to read and make sense of the book in order to answer related questions. Finally, the formal operations stage links to KS3 and consists of children working independently and building on existing knowledge. Piagets theory allows the child to learn actively and gain knowledge from any mistakes that they make. However, I feel that Piagets methods are underestimated and may have a huge impact on learning. When learning the core subjects mainly Literacy and Mathematics, Piagets theory ignored the social aspects of the child which unvalued the importance knowledge and culture which led to underestimating the ability of the children. His is widely used in a number of schools, however I strongly feel that the teaching should cover a wider range including the external factors and the environment especially the social and emotional aspects of learning (Isaacs, 1929). On the other hand Vygotsky believed that a childs learning cannot be separated from its social context. An example of the importance social context has is Piagets three mountain experiment. Piaget concluded that children are unable to see things from another persons perspective (Schaffer, 2004, p.174). In the experiment he used 3 mountains of different sizes and children aged from four to twelve years old. The children sat on one side of the mountain and a doll was placed on the other side. The children were then shown photographs of the mountains from different positions and were asked to choose a photograph the doll can see from her position. Piaget found that children under seven years of age could not see things from another persons perspective therefore were egocentric (Wood, 1998, p. 66). However the appropriateness of the three mountain experiment was questioned. Borke states that children performed poorly due to unfamiliarity and not motivating enough for the children to complete successfully (Smith et al. 1998). When the experiment was repeated by Hughes (Donaldson, 1987, p.137) using a policeman and a doll. The children were asked where the doll should hide so the policeman does not find her; he found that nearly ninety nice percent of children aged five were correct. He concluded that if the child is given a familiar situation he/she will think objectively. Cognitive structures change through the following processes: adaptation, assimilation and accommodation. Adaptation is found in all biological organisms to adjust to the demands of the environment, assimilation involves the individual to incorporate new experiences into existing schemas and accommodation is where the individual modifies existing schemas to fit the new experiences (Schaffer, 2004, p.165). This relates to other learning theorists in terms of constructivist perspectives of learning including Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky. However researchers have found it difficult to measure developmental processes: assimilation, accommodation and equilibration. They found it difficult to identify processes that are central to Piagets theory (Meadows 1993, p.19). Piaget claims that his stages are universal regardless of culture, this has also been questioned as a number of studies show that children are able to reach stages earlier that Piaget has stated (Bower, 1974). A three month old baby was shown a toy that was covered by a screen, when the screen was moved the toy had vanished and in another condition the toy was still there. The babies heart rate was measured both when the toy was there and when the toy disappeared. The results showed that there was greater change in heart rate when the toy disappeared. The toy was replaced with different objects and Bower (1971) found that babies show more surprise. Schaffer (2004, p. 184) felt that Piaget under estimated the abilities of children. Applying Piagets theory requires specific recommendations for a certain stage in the cognitive development. For children who are at the sensorimotor stage, adults should provide them with a rich and motivating environment and a number of objects to play with. However a child who is at the concrete operational stage should be provided with activities in which they can classify problems, order and location of concrete objects. This allows the adult to see the different explanations the children at different stages of cognitive development will come up with. The activities or situations given should engage the learners and requires adaptation such as assimilation and accommodation. The learning materials given to the children should be relevant and should involve the right level of motor or mental operations for a child depending on his/her age (McLeod, S.A. 2007). Another critic of Piaget is that he used his own three children for many of his experiments and observations not thinking about the culture they came from (Smith, et al 2003, p. 412). Due to this he failed to take children from different backgrounds into account. A larger sample with children from various backgrounds should have been used to get a more accurate and generalised result. Piagets theory received a number of critics however his work had a major influence in the education sector. He disliked the idea of children being taught sat at desks, listening and transmitting information the teacher gives. Piaget believed that children learn through discovery, the task should be set by the teacher and children should be left to discover, any mistakes the children make should provide useful information on the childs cognitive development. Also for the correct answers, the process of how the child worked out the correct answer should be investigated (Smith et al, 2003, p.388). The curriculum is set out in a sequence, particularly in the core subjects such as mathematics and science. This is influenced by Piagets theory. The choice of learning objectives, curriculum sequencing, grade placements of topics, the assessment of childrens intellectual functioning and teaching methodology (Murray, 1985, p.291) It is important that the class teacher knows at what stage of cognitive development each child is at as it is an important aspect in Piagets theory. This also has an impact on pedagogy as teachers have to change their teaching style to enhance the childs development. The second theorist i will be critically analysing is Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934). He was born in Russia in the same year as Piaget. He studied law and graduated at Moscow University. He then went on the study a Ph.D in Literature and Linguistics. Vygotskys began to work in psychology after the Russian revolution where the Marxism replaced the rule of the czar. The new Marxist philosophy emphasised socialism and collectivism. Individuals were expected to give up their personal goals and achievements to improve the society as a whole by sharing and co operation. The success of an individual was seen as reflecting the success of the culture. Heavy emphasis was placed on history, believing that any culture can only be understood through the ideas and events that have made it occur. (Vasta, R., Haith, M.M., Miller, S.A., 1995). Vygotsky used these elements in his model of human development; this is known as a sociocultural approach. The development of an individual is a result of culture. The theory primarily applies to mental development such as the thought and reasoning process which were believed to develop through social interaction with others mainly parents. He states: Every function in the childs cultural development appears twice: first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of ideas. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals (Vygotsky, 1978, p.57). Vygotsky looked at mental abilities and processes in historical terms using the events that led to them whereas Piaget believed that the childs development process follows a similar pattern of stages. Vygotsky saw intellectual abilities as being much more specific to the culture in which the child was reared (Vasta, R., Haith, M.M., Miller, S.A., 1995). Culture contributes to a childs intellectual development in two ways: firstly children obtain knowledge from it and secondly they obtain the tools of intellectual adaptation from the surrounding culture. Therefore culture provides children with the means to what they think and how they think it. Vygotsky viewed cognitive developments as a shared problem solving experience with another adult, such as the parent, teacher or sibling, this is also known as the dialectical process. Initially, the person working with the child takes the majority of responsibility for guiding the child through problem solving and steadily hands full responsibility over to the child. Every child is different and will react and learn in different ways however Vygotsky stresses language dialogue as adults will use it as a primary resource to transmit knowledge within their culture. The childs own language is of great help as it is a primary tool of intellectual transformation. Eventually children can use their own speech to direct behaviour usually in the same way as the parents speech once directed. This change relates to Vygotskys theme of development as a process of internalisation. Knowledge and thought exist outside the child at first in the culture of the environment. Development consists of gra dual internalization, primarily through language, to form cultural adaptation (Rogoff, 1990). The second aspect of Vygotskys theory is cognitive development which is limited to a time span that is known as zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD is the gap between what a child can solely achieve, their potential development which depends on the independent problem solving and what the child can achieve though problem solving with help and guidance of an adult or more capable peers. (Wood, D., Wood, H., 1966). What children can do independently is known as level of actual development and is a standard IQ test measure. However this measure is important but incomplete as two children may have the same level of actual development as it gets the same number of answers right on a test. With help of an adult, again one child may solve a number of problems whereas the other child may only solve two or three. What the child can do with help of an adult is referred to as level of potential development. (Vasta, R., Haith, M.M., Miller, S.A., 1995). Maximum development of ZPD depends on full social interaction of an adult with a child. The more the child takes advantage of the assistance the broader their knowledge of ZPD will be. Scaffolding was invented in 1976 to describe tutorial interaction between an adult and a child. It was used to explore the help and resources an adult provides so a child can carry out a complex task efficiently. This links to Burners ideas of the spiral curriculum. A parallel has been drawn between the notion of scaffolding and ZPD theories of Vygotsky (Hobsbaum, A., Peters, S., Sylva, K., 1996). Before an adult can provide learning opportunities they much evaluate the childs development level at present along with the length of the ZPD. It is important that the child values and makes use of the help that is offered. The child needs to be capable to benefit from the give-and-take conversations with others (Bruner, 1983). In Vygotskys theory language plays a major part in the learning and development process. A child is encouraged to think in new ways and gain a new cognitive tool to make sense of the world. Language is used to solve problems, overcome impulsive action and plan a solution before trying it to control behaviour (Jones, 1995). It is also used for a social purpose, so children can obtain help of peers and solve problems. In this process of development the child starts to practice the same forms of behaviour that other formerly practices with respect to the child however this behaviour is only understood in a social context. Vygotsky has had a great influence on Bruners theory with the introduction of scaffolding and spiral curriculum. Scaffolding is an effective strategy that accesses the ZPD. Scaffolding involved the teacher providing the children the opportunity to build on their current skills and knowledge. This involves the teacher engaging the children and simplifying instructions so they are easily understood. Scaffolding has been used in every subject to support learning especially when introducing new topics. In Literacy the children had to write a story ending. Work was set according to their ability, through the spiral curriculum. The child expressed his ideas and the teaching assistant wrote them on a dry white board ready for the child to copy onto paper. The child was assisted by questions directing her to revisit the story and think about the ending. However this can be a problem as the teacher may offer too much help which may lead to the child expecting help every time and not thinking on their own. Also when observing an ICT lesson, the teacher guided the child through the stages of what needs to be done. The children were then left to complete the task independently. The guidance given relates to Vygotskys approach and the creativity and constructivism is enhanced by Piaget. I observed a year two class in mathematics; they were starting a new topic on difference. The objective of the lesson was to work out the missing number in a sum. To explain this, cubes were used to visually represent numbers so they are easily understood. Both the addition and subtraction methods were shown. Many examples were given until the child fully understood and could work on their own initiative. The activity was then extended to using two digit numbers. The teacher adopted Vygotskys method of ZPD and found that most children had understood the word difference and how to work it out after a number of examples were shown. Unlike Piaget, who concentrated more on individual learning rather than providing adults with a role to help children learn, whereas Vygotsky believed that both other adults and culture play a major part in the development of a childs cognitive ability (Schaffer, 2004, p.90). However Vygotsky constantly mentions how children develop with guidance and help from other adults but does not state how they individually develop (Schaffer 2004, p.215). He failed to recognise how children are motivated to learn individually. Vygotsky focussed more on co-operative learning and little attention was given to individual learning. Vygotsky never took development changes of a child into account. He viewed the child in the same way at the age of two and at the age of twelve. Also the ZPD has been critically analysed by researchers. They have found that teachers have control over a childs thinking as they can ask questions that require certain answer which limits their learning. This kind of questioning is only suitable for children who are achieving below average. A teacher has to be extremely talented to successfully apply the ZPD and guide the children through a task instead of telling them what to do. However the ZPD cannot be applied to every child within a class as the teacher does not have sufficient amount of time to do so (Schaffer 2004, p.217). A final criticism is that Vygotsky failed to take the emotional aspects of a child into account. He did not recognise what happens when a child cannot complete a task or gets something wrong. If a child continuously gets something wrong, does the child lose motivation or continue with the task and hope to succeed? A child goes through many forms of emotion when they are unsuccessful in a task or get something wrong however this has not been mentioned anywhere within Vygotskys theory. Likewise Piaget also failed to take the emotions of a child into account (Schaffer, 2004, p.218). Vygotskys behaviour is particularly relevant to those who are concerned with the use of language as it can be crucial and interrelated with the action. Both Vygotsky and Piaget looked at preschool children in problem solving situations. Piaget believed that the self directed behaviour is egocentric and has a minimum relevance to a childs cognitive growth however Vygotsky referred to it as private speech. Vygotsky believed that private speech grows through interactions with adults; they begin to use parents instructions to direct their own behaviour (Sà ³lrà ºn B. Kristinsdà ³ttir, 2008). Both Piaget and Vygotsky had a conflict when explaining that development theories should not be taught until the children are at the right development stage. Piaget believed that the children are the most important aspect of cognitive development which conflicted with Vygotskys zone of proximal development. However Vygotsky argued that the social environment can be of great help when it comes to cognitive development of the child. The social environment can help children adapt to new situations with ease. Both theorists had the same aim of finding out children think of ideas and translate them into speech. Piaget discovered that children like to explore for themselves the way the world works and what it has to offer however Vygotsky wrote in Thought and Language that human mental activity is the result of learning. This led to Vygotsky believing that acquisition of language has the biggest influence on a childs life. Piaget had a huge emphasis on universal cognitive change and Vygotskys theory expected to have variable development depending on the cultural experiences a child has had. Piagets theory had an emphasis on the natural line whereas Vygotsky preferred the cultural line of development (Gallagher, 1999).