Motivation and Unionization

Political philosophers, sociologists, economists and psychologists have been formulating theories to account for social organization. Man is a social being, one if his basic needs is to belong, and so it is but natural to him to organize institutions, organizations and groups. Motivation is a general term referring to the regulation of need-satisfying and goal-seeking behavior (Atkinson et al., 1993). Economists and political philosophers have studied social organization motivations basically to understand their role in commerce and industry, particularly labor organization. Unionization is act of forming labor unions, which are groups or organizations that are organized to represent the labor work force as a collective, whose objectives are to protect workers from unjust labor practices, to improve working conditions, and to look after the general welfare. Unionization is often viewed as negative from the perspective of management. Managing unions can only be done if there is through understanding of the motivations behind it. It is the objective of this paper to understand the concepts of motivation and unionization and to deduce an appropriate proposition to the management of labor unions. Understanding Unionization Industrialization fathered labor unions. Unions were to begin with organized to monitor pay levels and increase and working conditions and through it safety regulations were developed, and standardized, child labor was abolished, and work day and work week were shortened, and started non-wage benefits like pensions and health insurance (Feinman, 2006). Basically, unions gave workers bargaining power against unfair labor practices, safety measures in the lack of protective labor laws and allowed a venue to voice concerns of workers. Unions are not oppositions to management but a safeguard when workers become unheard, ignored or disregarded. The statement that â€Å"A company that deserves a union gets one† is not absolute but it is undeniable that it can greatly influence workers to organize unions. Unions may be organized even if there are optimum working conditions but the original motives for forming unions in the 19th century can be very become the motives for forming them today. It has to be recognized that unionization has significantly suffered a decline in the last 30 years (Clemens et al., 2003). Feinman (2006) reasons that the decline in unionization is the development of automation in factories, thus lessening those engaged in the industry, but there are still sectors that are in need of unions, particularly the service sector, to represent worker needs and concerns. Understanding Leadership and Motivation Leadership is a powerful motivator. Bad leadership can trigger unwanted responses in the workforce causing them to form defensive groups that may be having an attitude range of indifference to hostility. Confidence in management allows for open communication channels facilitating the discussion and resolution of concerns or disputes. Sound directives from management lead to responsiveness to company culture and inspire loyalty to the company. When workers feel secure, properly represented and involved in the company, the desire for collective action is not as significant (Dong-One and Voos, 1997). Sound leadership and motivation is able to guide the members of the organization towards the accomplishment of the major goal which is profits, efficiency and effectivity of the company. To achieve these, one has to be able to manage labor relations well. So, if workers turn to union organization as a means of communication and solving their concerns, considering the decline in unionization by workers, it may very well mean indeed that leadership and motivation strategies that are being implemented is not effective or enough to develop optimum labor relations. Deserving a Union What kind of companies has labor unions? Labor unions are present in all industries. The popular notion is that unionization is that it is only common blue collar workers but the reality is that even white collar workers need the protection against unfair labor practices, lack of labor legislation and oppressive conditions. The presence of unions does not increase labor liabilities, it only unifies the individual responsibility or management to workers. Surprisingly, there are even situations where the organization of a union should be encouraged by a company. Labor organizations have two faces according to Dong-One and Voos (1997) that â€Å"unions possess both a collective voice face and a monopoly face†. In the event that there are several groups in the workforce who have various concerns, it is to the benefit of management for workers to unionize into one group instead of the company having to deal with several groups instead (Flanagan, 1999). It can also make easier the assessment of workers’ dispositions and moods. In one way it can also contribute to labor stability, workers and management are bound by the collective bargaining agreements that are established thus providing specifics for operations, alleviation of concerns and improvement of the company as a whole. Conclusion The suggestion that if proper leadership and motivation techniques are employed and desirable policies devised, workers will not want to unionize is not absolutely conclusive. Workers may still not unionize even if their working conditions are less than desirable when there are legal impediments to do so or there is too much risk associated with the act of unionization. Conversely, workers of companies with good management may still opt to unionize in the vent that they desire an organized representation of themselves, unionize as a means if creating other institutions like cooperatives or lobby groups, or are required by the company or the state to unionize. The statement that â€Å"a company that deserves a union gets one† implies that the organization of labor unions a consequence is also misleading. It suggests that unionization is purely a deterrent to a company. Unionization can improve communication between workers and management, allow management greater access to workforce conditions, and promote the company as a preferred employer thus enhancing public image. There exists a duality in the existence of labor unions in their benefit and burden to an organization. It is important to understand that since individual motivations drive the organization of labor unions, there is no real straightforward judgment on its worth or price. Equally as influential in the organization of labor unions are macroeconomic factors that stem from national labor policies, service and product demands and national productivity. It is therefore the conclusion of this paper inefficient leadership and motivation is a significant factor in the formation of unions but it is not a conclusive reason for it is important to consider other contributing factors that can either encourage or inhibit unionization. Reference Atkinson, Rita L., Atkinson, Richard C., Smith, Edward E., Bem, Daryl J. (1993). Introduction to Psychology, 11th edition. Orlado, FA: Harcourt and Brace Publishers Bertola, Giuseppe (1999). Microeconomic Perspectives on Aggregate Labor Markets, in Handbook of Labor Economics vol.3B, Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp.2985-3028. Blau, F.D. and L.M. Kahn (1999). Institutions and Laws in the Labor Market, in Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 3C, Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1399-1461. Clemens, Jason, Karabegovià ¦, Amela and Veldhuis, Niels (2003). Unionization: The Facts Please. Dong-One,   Kim and Voos (1997). Unionization, Union Involvement and the Performance of Gain Sharing Programs. Feinman, Robert D. (2006). Does Unionization Matter?. Retrieved on August 18, 2006 from http://robertdfeinman.com/society/unionization.html. Flanagan, R.J. (1999), Macroeconomic Performance and Collective Bargaining: An International Perspective, Journal of Economic Literature 37, 1150-1175.      

Questions and Answers: The Catcher in the Rye Essay

1.What happened at the beginning, middle, and end? 2.Who are the characters in the story, and what are they like? Holden Caulfield – The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just been expelled for academic failure from a school called Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive, Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and superficiality as anyone else in the book. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised on the cliff separating childhood from adulthood. His inability to successfully negotiate the chasm leaves him on the verge of emotional collapse. Ackley – Holden’s next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy with terrible dental hygiene. He often barges into Holden’s room and acts completely oblivious to Holden’s hints that he should leave. Holden believes that Ackley makes up elaborate lies about his sexual experience. Stradlater – Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but Holden calls him a â€Å"secret slob,† because he appears well groomed, but his toiletries, such as his razor, are disgustingly unclean. Stradlater is sexually active and quite experienced for a prep school student, which is why Holden also calls him a â€Å"sexy bastard.† Jane Gallagher – A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in neighboring summer houses in Maine. Jane never actually appears in The Catcher in the Rye, but she is extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive. Phoebe Caulfield – Phoebe is Holden’s ten-year-old sister, whom he loves dearly. Although she is six years younger than Holden, she listens to what he says and understands him more than most other people do. Phoebe is intelligent, neat, and a wonderful dancer, and her childish innocence is one of Holden’s only consistent sources of happiness throughout the novel. At times, she exhibits great maturity and even chastises Holden for his immaturity. Like Mr. Antolini, Phoebe seems to recognize that Holden is his own worst enemy. Read an in-depth analysis of Phoebe Caulfield. Allie Caulfield – Holden’s younger brother. Allie dies of leukemia three years before the start of the novel. Allie was a brilliant, friendly, red-headed boy—according to Holden, he was the smartest of the Caulfields. Holden is tormented by Allie’s death and carries around a baseball glove on which Allie used to write poems in green ink. Sally Hayes – A very attractive girl whom Holden has known and dated for a long time. Though Sally is well read, Holden claims that she is â€Å"stupid,† although it is difficult to tell whether this judgment is based in reality or merely in Holden’s ambivalence about being sexually attracted to her. She is certainly more conventional than Holden in her tastes and manners. Mr. Spencer – Holden’s history teacher at Pencey Prep, who unsuccessfully tries to shake Holden out of his academic apathy. Carl Luce – A student at Columbia who was Holden’s student advisor at the Whooton School. Luce is three years older than Holden and has a great deal of sexual experience. At Whooton, he was a source of knowledge about sex for the younger boys, and Holden tries to get him to talk about sex at their meeting. Mr. Antolini – Holden’s former English teacher at the Elkton Hills School. Mr. Antolini now teaches at New York University. He is young, clever, sympathetic, and likable, and Holden respects him. Holden sometimes finds him a bit too clever, but he looks to him for guidance. Like many characters in the novel, he drinks heavily. Read an in-depth analysis of Mr. Antolini. Maurice – The elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel, who procures a prostitute for Holden. Sunny – The prostitute whom Holden hires through Maurice. She is one of a number of women in the book with whom Holden clumsily attempts to connect. D. B. Caulfield – Holden’s older brother. D. B. wrote a volume of short stories that Holden admires very much, but Holden feels that D. B. prostitutes his talents by writing for Hollywood movies. 3.Which ones changed? Explain how the characters that changed. 4.Which ones stayed the same?  5.What is the setting of the story? Does it remain constant? If not, list all settings. 6.What effect does the setting have on the story? (If you changed the setting, how would the story change?)  · Holden begins his story in Pennsylvania, at his former school, Pencey Prep. He then recounts his adventures in New York City 7.If you wanted to give this story a different a title, what would it be and why? 8.Find one place in the text where the author uses language in an interesting way. Explain why it is interesting.

Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Government - Essay Example Hence, balance of power is imperatively obligatory in order to let all the institutions exercise their abilities and powers according to the provisions of the prevailing constitution. But if an institution is delegated the extraordinary authority to do anything out of its own will for running its business, it may put the powers of other institutions of the state in grave jeopardy. Similarly, that institution may interfere and intermeddle in the matters of other departments, without their free consent, by reducing and confining the sphere of their action. On the contrary, diminution of the magnitude of authority related to the executive through check and balance and separation of power as well may confine and limit the power of the government in respect of taking necessary actions on urgent basis according to the political situation of the country. It is not only against the benefit of the nation at large, but also can delay the action supposed to be taken swiftly. Renowned political philosopher and ex- President of the USA James Madison, in his article under-analysis, throws light on the significance of the separation of power and the system of check and balance for the best interests of the country on the one hand, and for the welfare of the masses on the other. In addition, he argues how such restriction affects the business of governmental affairs because of the implementation of check and balance system. Madison looks for a strong and comprehensive system of check and balance for the adequate and proper working of all departments and organizations within a socio-political establishment. He is of the opinion that since political institutions consists of humans, not angels, which can commit mistakes and blunders while exercising their duties and obligations, and can take such measures that come under the definition of excesses. Thus,

Consumer Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Consumer Behavior - Essay Example Kollner (2008) states that motivation is a function of two things: a) drive or arousal and b) goal-object. The drive is the motivation that results in behavior directed towards the goal. Kollner says that automatic arousal causes behavior without much thought, which is a likely result of learning. For small-ticket products, this type of motivation comes into play: at the supermarket, the decision to purchase a particular brand of diapers for baby is very easy and does not require much thought, except perhaps the very first time when the diapers choice was made. Conversely, for high end, expensive products, the needs are different and solutions also require detailed analyses and information search, which is also called extended problem solving. In a marketing context, motivation plays a very important role in understanding the consumer. When there is a want or need, the consumer feels conflict and unrest; to appease that feeling he or she looks at various solutions. The marketer must be able to satisfy that feeling by making available the right solution (product or service), at the right time and through an accessible channel. Once the marketer understands what drives the customer to act in a certain way, a lot of insights can be added into the marketing process which will assist in making it more targeted and satisfactory to the consumer. For the diaper example discussed previously, a marketer must know that he need not provide additional information to the customer at the supermarket but make him buy the product by making it easily accessible (eye level rack) and offer him deals and savings (e.g. 10% extra). The process of learning involves assessing and acquiring new knowledge and information about things and utilizing that information for future decisions and behaviors. Learning happens as a result of study as well as experience. This process does not have to be consciously done. Kardes, Cronley and Cline explain

Dubai ECONOMIC SECURITY Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Dubai ECONOMIC SECURITY - Research Paper Example Over the last three years, Dubai has shown an upward growth in the economy owing to the increase in the international oil prices and the growth of the tourism industry. However, the government still wails in debt and there are signs that the city has not yet achieved economic independence. This is a big threat and promises an economic crisis in future unless the government takes control of its spending and focuses on economic generation rather than spending, which will pose danger on its economic security. Dubai experiences one of the most tremendous population expansions in the world. Between 2005 and 2013, the population of the Dubai Emirate grew from 1.2 million to 2.1 million, which is close to double within a period of only 8 years. The population density of the emirate is about 409 per square kilometer, which is more than 8 times that of the entire country. Just like many other countries in the world, the population of females in Dubai is slightly higher than that of the males. Dubai has a poverty rate of about 10% which is much lower than 19.5% poverty rate in the United Arab Emirates. The crude death rate in Dubai is at 1.4 while the infant mortality rate ranges at about 7 deaths per one thousand infants (Middle East Monitor, 2014). These low figures indicate that Dubai is one of the rapidly developing economies in the world, and much better than other countries in the United Arab Emirates. Economic indicators are important points of evaluating the economic development within a region. The low poverty level in Dubai is another indicator of the fact that the city’s population majorly lies within the middle class (Alajoutsijà ¤rvi, Juusola, & Lamberg, 2014). On this note, Dubai enjoys a good economic status and has a challenge to maintain this by finding ways which they can guarantee economic wellbeing in the long term. The Dubai’s economy is dependent majorly on the oil industry. Economic

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

Transsexual - Research Paper Example Negative, unoptimistic views towards transsexualism and prejudice normally accompany a number of cultural values or religious beliefs. There are traditions, which have no obscurity accepting individuals who switch gender. In fact, they hold them with high standards such as promoting them to leaders of the Two-Spirit individuals found amongst a number of Native American tribal groups (Ekins & King, 2006). The National Center for Transgender Equality estimates that one percent of the United States population is a transsexual population (Garcia & Swaab, 2008). It can be extremely wearisome and scary knowing that someone’s is different, but does not know why. Comprehending the nature of these distinctions can feel both frightening and empowering at the same time. Many transsexuals live in a â€Å"closeted† world hiding from who they are and convincing themselves that their thoughts are provoked by an over-active imagination. Even though, not everyone might support transsexu als, it is vital that they acknowledge and respect who they are, regardless of what others think. Diagnosis Transsexualism can be seen in the two main diagnostic manuals utilized by mental health experts globally, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). ICD defines transsexualism as an urge to live as a member of the opposite gender and still be acknowledged as a member of that sex, normally accompanied by a feeling of uneasiness with one’s God-given sex. APA does not differentiate between transsexualism and sex identity disorder, and explains transvestic fetishism as a distinct fact, which might co-occur with transsexualism. The APA diagnosis needs four components: An insistence or desire that someone is of the opposite biological sex. Proof of constant discomfort with the person’s biological sex The individual is not intersex Proof of clinically important impairment or distress in social or work life. Process of Diagnosis The recent diagnosis of for transsexuals who offer themselves for mental treatment is gender identity disorder (APA, 2000). This diagnostic label is normally vital to acquire sex reassignment psychotherapy with health insurance coverage. The labeling of gender identity disorders as psychological illness is not an authorization for discrimination such people. It does not also permit for the deprivation of transsexuals’ civil rights. Nevertheless, some individuals diagnosed with the disorder do not wish for sex reassignment therapy at all (Green, 2004). Whereas some consider that formal diagnosis assist in stopping discrimination, others consider that it simply adds stigma, feeling that the diagnosis is equal to claiming something is wrong with transsexuals (Green, 2004). The management of "gender identity disorder" is perceived as an insulting and inappropriate endeavor to some transsexuals, and might be regarded a causal matter in cases of harm occurring to tran ssexuals due to discrimination and prejudice when they are deprived of their own civil rights. A lot of transsexuals have requested the APA to eliminate Gender Identity Disorder from their guide (APA, 2000). These transsexuals feel that some

PESTEL analysis for Embraer Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PESTEL analysis for Embraer - Case Study Example PESTEL is an acronym for the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Environmental and Legal factors that contribute to the growth or decline of an organization. Embraer is the quintessential example of the success of neoliberal privatization of a government company. The political and social factors, to some extent, contributed to the growth of this company. The political environment of Brazil, despite being poor, has had little to no effect to Embraer. The privatization in 1994 excluded the government from the running of the company (Rothaermel, 2012). Similarly, the socio-cultural factors have had minimal contribution because this company does not focus on people. The company focuses on the building and selling of aircraft, which are bought by corporations and not bought by ordinary people. On the other hand, the economical and technological factors have contributed significantly to the prosperity of Embraer. Being based in Brazil, the company was at a unique position to benefit from the economic growth of the country (Rothaermel, 2012). Brazil is a world economic giant, ranked seventh, and is considered as the fastest growing economy in the world. Furthermore, the country is the largest economy in Latin America. This growth in Brazil’s economy has led to fertile economic environment for Embraer’s growth. There is availability of development capital in the country that led to the growth of the company. The government is a significant shareholder in the company giving it vast economic resources for gain. The Brazilian government was very instrumental in the present success of Embraer. After its inception, the Brazilian government gave the company license production contracts for the production of local aircraft. This contract was the catalyst for future growth because the company already had an available market (Rothaermel, 2012). The economical factors have had significant

Capstone PROJECT Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Capstone PROJECT - Article Example Martin Luther King was one of the major champions of great principle, laboring and sacrificed his life to advance the cause the equal rights for all individuals within United States of America (Bloom & Blake Web). Various people have discussed about the American dream but so far it has never been achieved Short documentary film to be created by own cinematic masterpiece in a showcase (Crosby et al Web). My opinion and belief on the American dream is that it will one day be achieved (Gibson &Mark Web). The impact of achieving the American dream will provides the people of American the first chance to job opportunities. The objectives should reflect the past and present beliefs, values and experiences. Further, the objectives try to demonstrate the thoughtful consideration of rhetorical choices to achieve the purpose (Kopple Web). To admire the political rights to all including the Republic and Democrats, the leaders elected are supposed to be committed. However, it helps in gaining a proper critical distance while considering the King’s advice (Mailer Web). The King suggested people to love their enemies in order to foster the development and continuity of the people within the United States. The project will have a professional quality workmanship. This can be achieved through proper working skills in collecting the necessary information’s (Newlin Web). Further, the parameter should contain a meaningful and purposeful chosen text track that can provides understandable and content of the American Dream (Ramsay Web). While using the while using visuals and audios, both should have an open meaning to allow quick understanding to the people of the United States. The process of projects varies with the choice of the researcher. However, the process used should have maximum provision of evidence and facts to all individuals (Obama Web). Use of the photographs is always preferred since it always tries to provide facts and is durable.

The study of Market Entry Strategies of SGP to expand into China Literature review

The study of Market Entry Strategies of SGP to expand into China - Literature review Example During its expansion programs SGP already had bought a stake in China’s Liquid Petroleum Gas market and is looking forward to become the market leader for the product. (Forbes.com, 2010). Literature Review One of the largest Liquid Petroleum Gas distributors, SGP based in Thailand as studied focuses on its strategic move on gaining entry into the Chinese soil. To this end, Levi (2006) states that the strategy devised by a company to make its entrance into a totally new or sub-divided market is better known as the ‘market entry strategy’ for the company. These firms further adopt another strategy to support its expansion to newer markets. This strategy helps the firm to make reasonable allocation of its resources to gain the potential of effectively operating in the newer markets. Levi (2006) further states that through the employment of the ‘market entry strategy’ the firm successfully draws out a plan to tap the newer markets. The plan incorporates a n outlook through which the newer market is properly segmented and effective plan of actions are chosen to meet the demands of the target group through acquisition and expansion operations. The central component of the strategy taken by the company to enter into newer markets is constituted by ascertaining the ‘mode of entry’ by the company into the foreign market. Research made along several firms on a global scale confirms that there are mainly five modes through which a firm plans to make a foray into foreign markets. (Levi, 2006, p.34). Levi (2006) states in this regard that entry models like ‘exporting’, ‘licensing’, ‘financing’, ‘building up a joint venture with the foreign firms and establishment of subsidiaries in the foreign land are considered feasible by a firm willing to enter into foreign markets. Each of the several modes of entry has significant advantages and disadvantages which can be underlined as follows. T he company through the export mode targets to push the products produced in its own country to the foreign market. Thus the company is not required to set up a new factory in the foreign market. The company through the export mode endeavours to build huge amount of revenues by exporting a large number of products to the foreign nations. Export strategy used by the firm to enter into foreign markets however faces some distinct disadvantages. The company using such strategy may have to face the stringent regulations and market policies of the foreign market which can prove detrimental to its expansion. The cost of transferring products along the borders also tends to impose huge costs to the production firm. Again the foreign market may happen to be non-demanding to the products produced by the exporting firm. The level of obstruction can also result out from the barriers relating to difference of culture between the exporting and the receiving nation. Thus the above reasons may happe n to make the export mode unsuccessful for the exporting firm. Levi (2006) further observes that the company can also take help of transferring the license to produce a stated amount of the products and thereby to market the same in the foreign market. In that the company renders a sum to the firm in the foreign nation taking such task. The company operating through the licensing mode gains the advantage of cost for not

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay - 1

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies - Essay Example Apple had started a program in 2011 that would track whether their suppliers are abiding by the rules set. The suppliers are supposed to inform the authorities in advance when they would need extra working hours in order to meet the production requirements (Apple, 2014). Then again, there have been instances where Apple’s claim of 95% compliance with the 60 hour work week has been found to be false. There are suppliers who still exploit the workers by requiring them to sign overtime work documents on the first day of their training program as part of the contract. Such behavior forces them to comply with the clause of voluntary overtime. The concept of â€Å"Unusual circumstance† is a major loophole in the policy structure as it does not specify nature of the circumstance and leaves the same to the discretion of suppliers. Moreover, the Chinese Labor Law mandates a 48 hours’ work week. Thus, Apple is clearly not complying with the Chinese regulation while conducting business therein (Klein, 2011). Apple has also stated in its policies that the company believes in providing students with quality internship opportunities, but often the vocational schools fail to offer the students their appropriate internship programs. In order to correct the same, Apple had partnered with Stanford University’s Rural Education Action Program (REAP) and Dell Inc for encouraging suppliers to match interns with appropriate work. This process will help the students receive quality education as well as facilitate proper accountability for the vocational schools, thereby leading to proper evaluation of the internship and education program. 2. Some of Apple’s major suppliers have previously been found to violate rules, which had subsequently led to the tarnishing of Apple’s reputation. Two of Apple’s major suppliers, namely Foxconn Technology and Pegatron, are perfect examples related to such a

Hinduism Paper Essay Example for Free

Hinduism Paper Essay Hinduism began in India and is one of the oldest religions known to man and as such does not have a prominent founder that anyone can remember. In India, the land lying on the southern side of the Hindu-Kush Mountains was considered the land of the Hindus or Hindustan and the religion followed by the people there was known as Hinduism. It is a religion that is based upon Aryan settlers. The Hindu people believe that their religion has no beginning and no end. It consists of thousands of different religious groups that have evolved in India since 1500 BCE. Because of the wide variety of Hindu traditions, freedom of belief and practice are notable features of Hinduism. In Hinduism, Buddha is the last avatar of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu. The word Buddha was not used to describe the last avatar of Vishnu, the description, time and place of his arrival is well chronicled in scriptures prior to the advent of the Buddha. Buddhism and Jainism are outside the Hindu tradition but are regarded as related religions. Hinduism is different than Christianity and other monotheistic religions in that it doesn’t have a single holy text that the people follow or a single system of morality and or a central religious authority. This individual freedom to meditate and act according to one’s own conscious seems to give the followers more personal responsibility in their own actions. By this I mean they are not consciously breaking rules set down by doctrine; when they feel they have done wrong, it is because their conscious is telling them they have done wrong. Hinduism has grown to become the worlds third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam. It claims about 950 million followers about 14% of the worlds population. It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and among the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Hinduism provides a freedom of belief system based in meditation and peaceful resolution to one’s problems. This belief of and by itself is an extremely beneficial factor in aiding the people of India and other densely populated areas maintain an ordered and peaceful society. In many areas of India, resources such clean water and food are limited and sometimes scarce and in the struggle for such limited commodities, tensions may run high. The precepts of Hinduism help the people share and take what they need without hoarding. With the spread of Hinduism throughout the countries of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka there has been a positive impact on the people not only in the accepting the scarcity of basic needs but in the tolerance of others not of the Hindu faith. Hindus, unlike Catholics or most other religions do not believe in judging others but instead are focused on self-perfection; this focus, done correctly would make judgment of others counterproductive to their underlying goal. It is meditation that helps them find there center to calm and relax, resulting in a more holistic perspecti ve to their problems. These attributes of Hinduism help the culture to be more relaxed and tolerant providing a greater chance for success in their democracy. A significant negative aspect in the society which is not entirely caused by the religion, but is also not helped by the religion is the apparent denigration of women including high levels of domestic violence. The desire for liberation from earthly existence is a basic premise of Hinduism and involves the perfection of oneself while being true to one’s individualism. The freedom to express themselves this is one reason people practice Hinduism. The primary teaching of Hindu is self-realization in that the people don’t follow a certain book or person to tell them what to do. True liberation means liberation of the individual soul from the constant cycle of births and deaths. Hindus understand that perfection might involve multiple lives and reincarnations to get it right and become a perfected being. Liberation is known in Hinduism as mukti, kaivalya, moksha or nirvana. When your soul becomes aware of the true nature of understanding and transcends into the sky to gain freedom and become one with the divine. As one of the oldest of all religions Hinduism has stood the test of time; partly perhaps due to the lack of a founding father or the lack of a dogmatic scripture which often becomes dated and irrelevant over time. Hinduism puts the responsibility for correct behavior on the follower personally, we all know when we have done wrong, and Hindus must be shamed by themselves alone. The religion helps followers deal with incredible hardships when it comes to meeting the basic needs of their families and avoid wasting time on jealousy of others who have more. They are more tolerant of others while focusing on self-perfection to achieve their ultimate goal of Nirvana; while Hinduism may not be for everyone, all of us could benefit from accepting some of these precepts. Reference Page 1.http://www.religioustolerance.org/hinduism.htm 2.http://www.answers.com/topic/hinduism

Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management Agile project management has been in use in software projects over the last number of years, but lately it has been incorporated into many different types of projects such as the military, telecommunications and retail. (Scrum Alliance). This paper focuses on using agile project management techniques in the telecoms industry. Jim Highsmith and Gary Chin are two advocates of agile project management, Highsmith (2004) claimed that the agile project management framework which consists of five phases, each with supporting practices. The five phases are Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close. Each of these phases has to be implemented in order otherwise the project will not strictly follow the agile process. Agile proposes to deal with a project in small development cycles; self managed teams, customer collaboration and iterations. It also proposes to have an end product for testing at the end of each iteration, so the customer or end user can see what direction the project is goi ng. Scrum is a project management framework and is ideally suited for projects with high uncertainty. It is used on some of the worlds largest telecommunications development projects such as British Telecom and Siemens because of its high productivity with distributed and outsourced development teams. 2 What is agile project management? Agile project management has been defined as short cycles of product development that deliver incremental updates of the product rapidly based on the changing needs of the customer. This methodology is the opposite of waterfall project management, which values extensive planning and pre-production. (Labine, 2010) The agile approach consists of a number of stages including rapid iterative planning and development cycles allowing a project team to constantly evaluate the project and obtain immediate feedback from users or stakeholders allowing the team to learn from their experiences after each cycle. After the streamlined planning requirements, definition and solution design phase is completed to get the project underway iterations or more detailed planning requirements are created. This allows for immediate modifications of the product as customer views change. Agile project management requires a dedicated full time team including a customer or end users. (Haas, 2007). Agile project management differs to traditional project management in the approach; agile promotes self managed teams with the project manager taking more of a leaders role rather than a managers role. The main priorities of an agile project manager are to gather all the information from stakeholders and integrate a plan, advise the team of estimates, make decisions, build and sustain a teams culture and ensure teams stick to the process, customer relationship, check progress and plans and to communicate the teams progress. (Thomas, 2008) With agile project management both the project team and the stakeholders actively work together to understand and prioritise functionality. The agile project management life cycle can be seen in figure 1. This identifies how the plan, develop, learn and evaluate phases all fit together. Agile management uses an approach with short iterative cycles, they are based on the theory of plan, do, check and act. These cycles happen at different levels, each day, each time box, each release and each project. Agile demands team look at how fast they are progressing and adjust accordingly. Agile management methods are used when the project value is clear and the customer actively participates throughout project. (Thomas, 2008) Figure 1. Agile project management life cycle model Agile management concepts Haas (2007) identified the key elements that provide the basis for agile project management as visual control, co located high performing teams, test driven development, adaptive control, collaborative development, feature driven development, leadership and collaboration, a move from cost to revenue focus and lessons learned. Vision control assists teams in organising work in projects. Publishing time plans and progress charts allow the team to view the projects the same way and to clearly see where the project is at. Co located high performing teams greatly increases the quality of coordination and communication. Project managers need to have everyone working together in a collaborative manner. Agile teams develop test plans and at the same time they define requirements. If a requirement isnt testable then it is not fully developed. Adaptive Control tries to have everyone on the team adapting to different situations. The project manager acts a leader not a task manager, they work with the team establishing working relations and setting the team ground rules. Agile team members have to be able to continuously adapt to improve their methods as lessons learned from previous cycles are incorporated into the next iteration. Collaboration is needed among all team members to get the best results from the team, they also need to document feedback and implement learnings on the next iteration. Feature driven development greatly reduces complexity and allows teams to focus on one feature at a time. Leadership and collaboration rather than command and control facilitate leadership in a team rather than traditional management. The project manager aims to remove and resolve any problems the agile team encounters. The business analysts manage the business benefits of the project and continuously focus the agile team on the business needs. The move from cost to revenue focus features prioritise based on value such as increased revenue to market share. The lessons learned program is completed after each cycle here the teams hold a lessons learned session to determine where improvements can be made for the next iteration. The team adapts to how members work together to improve the team performance. (Haas, 2007) 2.2 Five stages of agile project management With agile project management the focus is on continuous innovation to deliver project requirements. The product should also be adaptable to facilitate future customer requirements. Agile also strives to have both people and process adaptability to respond rapidly to product and business change. It focuses more on revenue than cost so that that the project supports business growth and profitability. Highsmith (2009) one of the founders of the agile alliance published, Agile project management: creating innovative products, in this he identified five stages of agile project management. Highsmith defined the five stages of agile project management as: 1. Envision: How to determine the product vision, the project objectives and constraints, the project community and how the team work together. 2. Speculate: Developing a capability and or feature based release plan to deliver on all aspects of the vision 3. Explore: To plan and deliver project running tested stories in a short iteration, constantly seek to reduce the risk and uncertainty of the project. 4. Adapt: Review the delivered results, the situation and the teams performance and adapt as necessary. 5. Close: Conclude the project, pass on the key learnings and celebrate. Envision: This phase creates a vision for the project team that covers what, who and how. If theres no vision phase, this means that the rest of the properties of agile project management are a wasted effort. The envision phase is a critical success factor early in any project. Team members need a vision to determine who will be involved, customers, members, management, stake holders and envision how to work together as a group. The purpose of the envisioning phase is to clearly identify what is to be done and how work is to be accomplished. The envision stage has four practices, product vision, project objectives and constraints, project community and approach. Product vision allows member of the team to fully understand their project. Teams should have a clear product vision and the product vision should be revisited regularly. Project objectives include a project data sheet, this is a single-page summary of key business and quality objectives, product capabilities, and project management in formation. A project data sheet contains clients, customers, project leader, product manager, executive sponsor and the project objective statement. The project objective statement includes the capabilities, quality objectives and risks that can impact on the project. The project community includes getting the right people for the job. In Agile project management the team members need to have an appropriate technical ability, be team players and be self disciplined. The final step in the product vision stage is how the team will deliver the product, between working as a team with developers and major stakeholders in the project. For large projects a meeting is usually needed to discuss the product vision. After the envision phase the team has reviews to ensure they fully understand the vision. (Highsmith, 2009) Speculate: The speculate phase consists of gathering initial based requirements for a product and defining a workload as a backlog of product features. In the speculative phase, the team design their iterations. Iterations are the planned stages of work in the project and each iteration has a timeline and a plan. The agile plan is to have a product at the end of each iteration. This would involve the stories, tests, and documentation being packaged to be deployed. Iterations are used to concentrate on small pieces of work that depend on the type of project being completed. Estimating project costs and generating administrative and financial information are also done in this phase. Within the speculate phase plans have to be able to adapt to change as customers understanding of their requirements change, work efforts vary and people can leave or join teams. This phase establishes a target and a direction for the team. During this phase the team should have an understanding of the prod uct structure, and the release plan. Agile project speculating helps the project team to answer some of the following questions. Determine how the product and its features will evolve in the current release Balance anticipation with adaptation as the project unfolds Focus on the highest-value features early in the project Think about the business goals, project objectives, and customer expectations Provide necessary cost and schedule information to management Coordinate interrelated activities and features across teams Consider alternatives and adaptive actions Provide a baseline for analyzing events that occur during the project Explore: Agile project management focuses on agile leaders tasks of creating self organising, self disciplined teams that deliver products. Iteration management covers planning and management during iteration cycles. The main explore activities are iteration planning and monitoring, technical practices and project community. Iteration planning and monitoring consists of three main activities: iteration planning, workload management, and monitoring iteration progress. The primary responsibility for managing this work lies with the iteration manager. The iteration manager may also facilitate meetings such as retrospectives held at the end of each iteration, several practices can be applied generically to many types of products-both hardware and software. These generic technical practices are driven by the desire to keep quality high and the cost of change low. The four most common technical practices are simple design, continuous integration, ruthless automated testing, and refactoring . (Highsmith, 2009) Adapt: In the adapt phase the results are reviewed from customer, technical, people and process performance, and project status perspectives. The analysis looks at the actual versus planned project. The results of adaptation are fed into a re-planning effort to begin the next iteration. After the envision phase, the loop will be speculate, explore and adapt with each iteration successively refining the product. Control and correction are common terms applied to this phase. Plans are made, results are monitored and corrections are made implying what plans were right and the actual results. Adapt implies modification or change rather than success or failure. In agile project management responding to change is more important than following a plan. (Highsmith, 2009) Close: Projects are partially defined by the presence of both a beginning and an end. The key purpose of the close phase is the learning and the incorporation that learning into the work of the next iteration or passing it on to the next project team. This phase is the final step in the project, and is often overlooked. Finalising documentation, support material release notes and financial material all have to be tidied up before a project can close. In software projects the project is usually archived for safe keeping. In agile project management when closing a project it is important to have a project retrospective. This helps the team learn about its dynamics and intra team learning activities. It also allows the team to talk about what went well in the project and where it hit obstacles. (Highsmith, 2009) 3 Scrum project management Scrum project management approach embraces the agile iterative and incremental practices. Scrum can be used on projects of any size. It can manage XP projects, where XP projects uses customer on site with this the project team can be sure they are creating what the customer wants. SCRUM is revolved around simplicity, resulting in the delivery of a product that moves the project forward. It works on small pieces of the project at a time, these are known as iterations. Each iteration consists of some requirements gathering, analysis, design, development and testing combining to create an iterative release cycle. (Murphy, 2004) Scrum has three defined roles, the product owner, scrum master and the project team. The product owner is generally the product manager. The scrum master is the project manager or team leader. They enact scrum values and practices. They are responsible for issues that may hold up the project. The project team should consist of between 5-10 members. The team should include cross-functional team members, involving individuals from a multitude of disciplines including designers and developers. The scrum product backlog records the project requirements that are defined by the product owner. The project team creates a sprint backlog that comprises of product backlog items that they believe can be completed in a thirty day period. After thirty days the team should have a shippable product. (Murphy, 2004) The product owner, scrum master and the project team make rough estimates of how long each item will take. This SCRUM process can be seen in figure 2. Figure 2 The Scrum Process Scrum daily meetings are time limited, the daily Scrum meeting is typically confined to 15 minutes. Only extraordinary projects should require more than 15 minutes. The purpose of the Daily Scrum meeting is to answer Scrums three questions: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? What obstacles are in your way? At the end of each sprint, a sprint review meeting is held. Again this meeting is time boxed. The team presents what they have developed during the sprint to the product owner. after the sprint review and prior to the next sprint planning meeting the scrum master holds a sprint retrospective meeting with the team. The scrum master encourages the team to revise within the scrum process framework and practices, its development process to make it more effective for the next sprint. (Murphy, 2004) 4 Agile project management in the telecommunications industry Agile methods like Scrum can be applied to any project to help deliver improved results. (Mac Iver, 2009). Many telecommunications companies utilise scrum techniques. This can be seen in the case study at TechCore. (Schwaber, 2004). Previous to the implementation of scrum the company could not see its priorities. By creating a product backlog this allowed the company to see that revenue could be made by focusing attention on product development. Within four months of implementing Scrum, the company had achieved its goals and the company prospects had improved. Before the implementation of scrum, TechCore had day log review meetings where the manager would impart his knowledge and direction to the development engineers. These meeting often went off track taking up the full teams day. With scrum the manager got involved in daily scrum meetings, with this they identified that teams werent taking and individual problems were holding up the project. As each engineer reported his or her st atus, Michel the project manager saw that if he focused his attention on product development, he could expedite design decisions, ensure that the correct path was taken, and actually get involved in the critical business of his company. He focused his efforts on helping the team with its short-term problems, which were all related to preparing the subsystem for the show. The daily scrum meetings also highlighted supply chain problems where engineers were waiting for component deliveries. Once this problem was identified the project manager employed two junior engineers to work with supply chain to identify and source components as quick as possible so there was no delay to the project and it freed up senior engineers time from dealing with these smaller matters. (Schwaber, 2004). The scrum project management technique has also been used in a nationwide WAN upgrade project as seen in Appendix 1, this project involved upgrading up to four hundred sites all over Ireland, each site need ed new network equipment installed including routers and switches and all sites had to be visited individually. All network equipment had to be configured before the site visit. This was one of the biggest projects undertaken by the project manager interviewed in Appendix A. By implementing Scrum the team of six people, the scrum master and the project manager all had a clear and concise understanding of what was happening at any given time. The teams were split up into three groups of two pairs. With this the project manager hoped that the pairs would work together in both configuring and installing the network equipment. The map of Ireland was divided into geographical sections, these sections were each going to represent a sprint, which would take approximately five weeks to complete. Each area was then assigned to a team. The first week of the sprint all staff were office based, configuring network equipment, for the remaining four weeks of the sprint the three teams were on sit e. Daily sprint meetings were held in the office which was ideal, as all members shared an office, these meeting were quick, clear and concise, covering what has been done today, what the plan for the rest of the day was and if there were any problems holding up the project. Once the teams were on site, a quick conference call between the teams and the scrum master covered the daily sprint meeting. With this the teams were always in contact and could share problems, solutions and new ideas. The main problem the teams ran into was if a team member was off work due to holidays or sick leave, where this happened, the scrum master could easily fit into any of the three teams, and carry out the work of the scrum master and the technician on the ground so that the project could stay on target for the specific dates that were outlined in the scrum backlog at the beginning. He identified that this may not be ideal in other SCRUM projects, but it works in this situation. At the end of the five week cycle the team and mangers would have a sprint review meeting, in this they identified where they were seeing recurring problems, what extra equipment or tools were required and how the process could run more smoothly. After the first sprint review meeting all three teams had small problems but improvised to complete what they had planned to do. During the sprint retrospective each team had different problems including faulty network equipment, lack of tools and no access to the communications room in buildings, once these were identified the scrum master found solutions to them and the same problems didnt reoccur. 5 Conclusion After researching this topic, there is not a lot of documentation of agile project management in the telecoms industry. Companies such as BT and Siemens have successfully implemented agile techniques into their software development teams, but they have not documented using agile in implementing their telecoms projects. One case study completed at Techcore an American telecommunications company (Schwaber, 2004) that has successfully implemented agile project management; from this case study before the implementation of agile the CEO of the company was trying to run all aspects of the company but was failing miserably. Once agile methodologies were implemented it became evident where and why their projects were failing as the CEO was trying to run all aspects of the company at the same time, and no are was given priority over any other. The development of the product backlog and the implementation of daily SCRUM meetings proved to be beneficial from day one. SCRUM also identified where time was being lost in the procurement of components as engineers were often left waiting for equipment resulting in the project being held up. The interview with the project manager from Appendix A also identifies how implementing SCRUM in a telecoms project was a success and the results were obvious very early on in the project. In this WAN upgrade project, the project managers implemented SCRUM, split the team of six into pairs, designed a product backlog, separated the project into sprints, held daily meetings as well as sprint review and sprint retrospective meetings. The project is still ongoing but as of this moment both project managers and senior managers have identified this project as a success. If agile is implemented in stages covering the envision, speculate, explore, adapt and close phases identified by Highsmith, the project proves to be successful, but if any of the five processes are missed the project may not prove to be as successful.

Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies And Critical Reading

Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies And Critical Reading Researchers believe that awareness and monitoring of ones comprehension processes are critically important for skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring processes are often referred to as metacognition. Recent researches show that metacognitive strategies differentiate between effective and ineffective learners i.e. the more a student knows about how he learns, the better he will learn. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. To this end, 113 third/forth year Iranian college students majoring in English translation/literature, aged around 21-36 were selected to participate in this study. They took part in a Nelson test of proficiency, and a critical reading comprehension test. They also completed a questionnaire, namely Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Data analysis through Pearson Correlation Coefficient formula showed that there is a significant relationship between the students metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their critical reading ability. The findings can have implications for EFL learners and teachers in developing an authentic, interactive and learner- centered environment in their reading classes. Key words: Learning strategies, Metacognition, Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, Critical reading 1. Introduction The recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in developing critical thinking skills of students in order to improve their thinking and learning abilities and help them to succeed in their educational goals. Improving students critical thinking skills will help students: a) improve their thinking about their course work b) use sound thinking on tests, assignments, and projects in their courses c) have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they are at college d) have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they move to the workplace. The term critical thinking when used by educators has varied meanings in different contexts-whether in formal logic courses, where it has a precise meaning; when applied to arguments or in casual discussions in a faculty lounge about students struggles to grasp the course content, where the term is used more loosely to simply mean good thinking (Pierce, 2005). Before proceeding any further, an account will be provided as how critical thinking has been defined in literature: As stated by Thomson (1996), the critical thinking tradition, which derives from both philosophy and education, originates in the USA. Some of its foremost American proponents were John Dewey, Edward Glaser, and Steven Norris; in Britain, the name most closely associated with critical thinking is that of Alec Fisher. In Learning to Think: Disciplinary Perspectives (2002), Janet Donald (quoted in Keller 2008) presents a variety of approaches to thinking based on the work of different academic disciplines. She provides a working model of thinking processes in higher education in which she describes a perspective on different methods of inquiry. The working model offers a set of procedures followed by most disciplines, including: description, selection, representation, inference, synthesis, and verification. Under each topic on this inventory, then, she lists subtopics indicating their relation to the diverse inquiry methods she previously connected to academic areas. In a later summary of the most important thinking processes used generally across disciplines, she lists separately Identify the context and State assumptions, then reduces her previous set of common procedures to those of selection, representation, and synthesis. In Maclellan and Soden (2001, quoted in Keller 2008), we see the following set of critical thinking skills: a) unpacking concepts-ability to unpack or break down ideas, concepts or theories; b) recognizing contradictions-differentiating between viewpoints and counterarguments; c) development-explaining a phenomenon, joining ideas together to form lines of arguments; d) providing evidence-supporting or justifying assertions; e) examining implications of evidence-generating hypotheses about consequences or examining the relationships between key factors; f) alternative interpretation-questioning or challenging an interpretation of the evidence and offering an alternative. After the above review on what critical thinking is, now we turn to critical reading. A major issue in education today is the concern about students ability to read critically and to evaluate the material. Critical reading is taught as a sub-skill of comprehension with appropriate exercises. Critical reading enjoys several features which make it appear rooted in critical thinking. Among the features we can mention the followings listed by students counseling service of Salisbury University: a. previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it. b. contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts. c. questioning to understand and remember: Asking questions about the content. d. reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses. e. outlining and summarizing: Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words. f. evaluating an argument: Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact. g. comparing and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better. Furthermore, Burmeister (1986, qtd in Cherney 1986) defines critical-creative reading and thinking as requiring the skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. He adds that such cognitive abilities require readers or thinkers to reason using techniques of formal logic or at least to be consciously aware of the thought processes they are using. Analysis, according to Burmeister, requires the examination of parts of the whole; synthesis is the act of combining or unifying elements into a coherent whole and evaluation requires the establishment of standards and also a judgment as to the goodness of fit of the idea. Burmeister considers evaluation to be the highest level of the cognitive domain. (p.256) The researchers assume that metacognitive strategies are among the strategies which can foster critical thinking and hence reading. However, it sounds reasonable to ask why such a relationship is felt. To answer this question an attempt will be made to clarify metacognitive strategies. Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) state that many studies recognize the role of meta-cognitive awareness in reading comprehension, whether one is reading in the native language or a second language. Indeed, the consensus view is that strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as meta-cognition, which can be thought of as the knowledge of the readers cognition relative to the reading process and the self-control mechanisms they use to monitor and enhance comprehension. Auerbach and Paxton (1997) and Carrell et al. (1989), for example, consider meta-cognitive awareness-planning and consciously executing appropriate actions to achieve a particular goal-to be a critical element of proficient, strategic reading. Such meta-cognition, according to Auerbach and Paxton (1997), entails knowledge of strategies for processing texts, the ability to monitor compr ehension, and the ability to adjust strategies as needed (pp. 240-41). Furthermore, Taylor (1999) defines meta-cognition as an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the ability to make correct inferences about how to apply ones strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably. (p.126) To increase their metacognitive abilities, students need to possess and be aware of three kinds of content knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional. Declarative knowledge is the factual information that one knows; it can be declared-spoken or written. An example is to know the formula for calculating momentum in a physics class (momentum = mass times velocity). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something, of how to perform the steps in a process; for example, knowing the mass of an object and its rate of speed and how to do the calculation. Conditional knowledge is knowledge about when to use a procedure, skill, or strategy and when not to use it; why a procedure works and under what conditions; and why one procedure is better than another. For example, students need to recognize that an exam word problem requires the calculation of momentum as part of its solution. (Paris, Cross and Lipson, 1984. qtd. in Pressley 2002). This notion of three kinds of knowledge applies to learning strategies as well as course content. When they study, students need the declarative knowledge that (1) all reading assignments are not alike; for example, that a history textbook chapter deals with factual information differs from a primary historical document, which is different from an article interpreting or analyzing that document. They need to know that stories and novels differ from arguments. Furthermore, they need to know that there are different kinds of note taking strategies useful for annotating these different types of texts. And (2) students need to know how to actually write different kinds of notes (procedural knowledge), and (3) they need to know when to apply these kinds of notes when they study (conditional knowledge). Knowledge of study strategies is among the kinds of meta-cognitive knowledge, and it too requires awareness of all three kinds of knowledge (Pierce, 2003). Many of the current studies recognize the role of awareness in reading comprehension. Reading strategies are of interest for the way readers use them to manage their interaction with the written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension (Rigney, 1978). Reading in second language reading suggests that strategies improve reading comprehension. Reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task, how they make sense of what they read and what they do when reading comprehension is difficult (Singhal, 2001). Indeed researchers agree that strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as metacognition, which is used to monitor and enhance reading comprehension (Pressley and Afflerbach, 1995; Alexander and Jetton, 2000; Pressley, 2000). Recent researchers (Cohen, 1998, Anderson, 2002, Santana, 2003) show that the strategies that mark the true differences between effective and ineffective learners are the metacognitive strategies. In spite of the fact that many of the previous studies have obtained information about learners strategies and reading process, few of them have examined readers metacognitive awareness of reading strategies ( Singhal, 2001). Considering the important role of metacognitive reading strategies in reading comprehension with suspicious eye, this study is designed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness reading strategies and critical reading ability and to view the notions of meta-cognitive awareness strategies and critical reading in the same horizon. For this purpose, we also need to have references to critical thinking because, as was mentioned above, critical reading roots in critical thinking. 1. 1. Statement of the problem For the improvement of critical reading, instructors should teach a variety of strategies that research has shown to be effective, like: generating questions and answering them, writing summaries, writing elaborations and using organizing strategies. The preceding strategies already seem to have been taken into account by Iranian teachers and learners. However, a potential problem in applying the mentioned strategies in reading comprehension can be the absence of meta-cognitive awareness about them. Hence, the researcher assumes that a set of meta-cognitive strategies can strengthen the above line of activity and foster the progress of critical reading. 1. 2. Research Question Is there any significant relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability? 3. Statement of the hypothesis The null hypothesis underlying this proposal is that there is not any significant relationship between meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability. 2. Method 2. 1. Participants A community sample of 130 male and female participated in this study in the second semester of 2010 majoring in English language literature and translation in Qom Islamic Azad University. They were all in their third and forth year. These students were asked if they would volunteer to participate in the study. Out of 130 participants who completed the questionnaires and tests, about 113 participants were accepted to participate in the study. 2. 2. Measure and Procedure The researchers visited the classes to administer one questionnaire and two tests. A total of 130 students were instructed to answer the proficiency test in one session and to the critical reading test and MARSI questionnaire at a later session. Students rated the items of MARSI, using a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (I never do this) to 5 (I always do this). From this population, some students were eliminated because they had not properly completed their questionnaires. The general proficiency test (Nelson test, 300 B) comprised 50 multiple-choice and vocabulary items. The total score of the test was 50 and one point was assigned to each correct answer. The critical reading comprehension test consisted of four passages with 4 or 5 multiple-choice items for each passage. So the 20 items were scored by one point for each correct answer. Then the score for all items were added and an ultimate score was calculated. The range of scores for this test was between 9 to 18. For scoring the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, the procedure proposed by Mokhtari Richad (2002) was used. A score was assigned to each answer which ranged from 1 to 5: never or almost never=1, occasionally=2, sometimes=3, usually=4, always=5. Then the scores for all items were added up and an ultimate score was calculated. The range of scores for this scale was between 46 to 146. 3. Data analysis To carry out the statistical analysis of the study, several statistical techniques were utilized: to calculate the reliability of the Nelson test, the Cronbach alpha (a) formula was utilized. In order to estimate the reliability of the critical reading comprehension test, the Cronbach alpha (a) formula was utilized. Considering the point that the participants will be assigned interval scores both for their meta-cognitive awareness and critical reading ability, the statistical analysis was Pearsons product Moment Coefficient of Correlation. Also, the reliability index of the translated version of MARSI was assessed by applying Cronbach alpha (a) formula. After administrating the instruments with the main subjects of the study and correcting the papers, the ultimate scores on critical reading comprehension test and MARSI were calculated and entered into SPSS. 3. Results In order to be certain of the homogeneity of the participants of the study in terms of language proficiency, a general language proficiency test (Nelson test) was utilized. The test was extracted from Nelson English language tests by W.S. Flower and Norman Goe (1976). It composed of 50 multiple choice grammar and vocabulary items. Through the pilot study, the reliability of the Nelson test was estimated and the following result was achieved: Table of reliability statisticsof the Language Proficiency Test (Nelson) Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .899 50 As it is noticed, the reliability of the Nelson test was estimated as .89 through the pilot study among 42 students, so the test enjoyed the acceptable reliability. The present study, also used a new self report measure, the Meta cognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari Richard, 2002), which is designed to assess adolescent and adult readers awareness and perceived use of reading strategies while reading materials. According to the author of MARSI, the major purposes of developing of this inventory were to devise an instrument that would permit one to assess the degree to which a student is or is not aware of the various processes involved in reading and to make it possible to learn about the goals and intentions he or she holds with coping with reading tasks. As a result of employing this inventory, the second statistical procedure was to estimate the reliability of the translated version of Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) administered to the subjects in the pilot study. Table of reliability statistics of the translated version of MARSI Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .799 30 According to table 4. 2., the reliability index of the students answers to the MARSI, assessed by applying the Cronbach alpha (a) formula, was 0.79. In order to assess the participants ability in reading critically, a test of reading comprehension, extracted from a model TOEFL, was applied. The reliability of this test administered to the subjects in the pilot study was estimated to be: Table of reliability statistics of critical reading comprehension test Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .748 18 It is necessary to add that in order to validate the critical reading comprehension test, basically four steps were taken such as checking the content validity, face validity, criterion related validity, and construct validity. The procedure for each step can be found in the following in details. The test was compiled according to the recommendation of Alderson and Urquhart (1984). Four different texts were selected. The texts were found from among the materials suggested for preparation of language learners for TOEFL test. Of course it was evident that not any passage could qualify: the passages had to be of an independent entity and understandable without a larger context. However, the main principle in text selection was to find text types that Iranian students of English were likely to read critically. I also consulted my supervisor to ensure the content validity of the passages and also to get confident that the questions could not be answered without reading the passages critically. The texts found were also sent to my advisor to make sure if there were any specific issues to be reconsidered. At the end of each passage, four or five questions were asked. Answering to the questions would be almost impossible without reading the test critically. The text chosen represente d the following text types: a scientific text from a field relevant to Chemistry; a text containing materials about body language and communication; a passage about the sinking of the luxurious ship, Titanic ; a biographical passage about an influential citizen of the United States, John Muir. In addition to improving the test items through item analysis (item facility, item discrimination and choice distribution), the face validity of the test was examined in qualitative terms. The students in the pilot study were asked to state their reasons for estimating the reading test as being critical or not. The comments (40 students) were rather divided. Some disliked the test but many of them liked it. Those who liked it wrote that it required imagination, and cleverness and a few compared taking the reading test with doing philosophical reasoning. Those who disliked the test mostly argued that it required to test other abilities besides language proficiency (e. g. imagination). Some complained that the test was too difficult and that they could mainly perceive the structure of the sentences. For criterion related validity, the researcher followed the same procedure as Assar (2008). With the help of the Nelson language proficiency test and by running correlation between these sc ores and those obtained from the improved reading test, among 32 students who participated in the pilot study, the concurrent validity of the test was established with an index of 0.71. Finally the critical reading test was construct-validated. To this end, the researcher took a process oriented approach following the picture depicted by Hirano (2008) and devised a questionnaire based on the discussed issues found in the literature on critical thinking and reading. The questionnaire was piloted among 40 students. First, they took the critical reading comprehension test, and immediately after they were asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire. Through a frequency count, it was discovered that the test had led to a critical reading successfully. The following table shows the result of the students answers to the fifteen questions in the devised questionnaire by the researcher based on the discussed issues found in the literature on critical thinking and reading. The results in the Mean column show the average score for each of the fifteen questions calculated based on a liker scale for each question ranging from 0 to 3. Table of reliability statistics for the reliability of critical reading questionnaire Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .624 15 It is necessary to mention that after the reliability of the questionnaire for process validation of the reading comprehension test was calculated, the researcher tried to revise some of the questions. It is, therefore, hoped that further studies through the revised questionnaire will provide more reliable results. Finally we come to the research question, which was concerned with relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. To investigate this question, the Pearson product correlation coefficient was run. The result of statistics is presented in the following table: According to the above table, correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. By using Pearson product correlation coefficient formula, the correlation between the two variables was estimated as .70. That is, there is a significant relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI) and critical reading ability. The results have been illustrated in the following scatter plot graph: Graph/Scatter plot for Correlation coefficient between critical reading ability and meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies The above scatter plot illustrates the correlation coefficient between critical reading ability and meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies including 113 subjects. Variable 1 (Y axis) is related to meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies in an interval scale up to 130; variable 2 (X axis) is related to critical reading ability in an interval scale from zero up to 20. 4. Discussion This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI) and critical reading ability of Iranian students majoring in fields of English translation and literature. The statistical results proved that there is a significant relationship between the two variables of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability. So the present study has found evidence that good and poor students are significantly different in their awareness and perceived use of metacognitive strategies. That is, the more a student knows about how he learns, the better learner he will be. Therefore, helping students to be more aware of their metacognitive reading strategies plays an important role in not only developing their critical reading ability but also in their general reading comprehension ability. The results of this study can be compared and contrasted with those of other researchers. For instance, findings of the present study are in congruity with the study conducted by Parson (2002) whose major purpose of his study was to investigate the strength of the relationship between the use of metacognitive strategies and critical reading ability of the students. It was conducted, specifically, to test the effectiveness of a teaching procedure designed to improve critical reading ability by training students in metacognintive strategies. He discovered that the students who were instructed with this metacognitive training package (questioning, summarizing, predicting and speculating on the authors intended tone and purpose) should become more aware of their own mental processes and will demonstrate not only increased critical reading ability, but also increased general comprehension ability. Also, qualitative improvement noted in subjects strategy use provided sufficient evidence fo r further study into the effectiveness of this training procedure. Furthermore, the findings could indirectly support Icmezs (2009) findings who suggests that in a critical reading course, developing a competence in critical reading skills evokes curiosity and the novelty essential for students with high levels of proficiency. Finally, we can conclude that our findings here is in line with what Ajideh (2009) suggests, that poor readers in general lack effective metacognitive strategies and have little awareness on how to approach to reading. They also have deficiencies in the use of metacognitive strategies to monitor for their understanding of texts. In contrast, successful L2 readers know how to use appropriate strategies to enhance text comprehension. 5. Conclusion As mentioned previously, among the tools that students use to learn a second language, learning strategies have been given a crucial role in all academic studies. Language learning strategies have been known as a factor that differentiates successful language learning from unsuccessful language learning. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the necessity to examine human personality in order to find solutions to the perplexing problems in language learning. It is evident that a student uses language learning strategies while he is under the influence of many linguistic, cognitive, and affective factors. Thus, such an intertwined network can provide an answer to the wide individual differences within the classroom. Also, the ability to critically analyze written materials has long been recognized as being crucial to the educational process. In this study, it has been tried to explore the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. With respect to the research question, it was found that when the students show more metacognitive awareness of strategies, they can read more critically and therefore it is more probable that they score higher on reading comprehension test. Based on the results, it can be concluded that there is a meaningful relationship between the students metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their performance on critical reading comprehension test. Therefore, metacognitive strategies could provide the missing link between cognitive processes and critical reading ability. Metacognition refers to ones awareness of and control over his/her own mental processes (Brown, 2007). Consequently, it is worth mentioning that the relationship demonstrated here is only part of a complex picture, which reveals just some of the factors operating in mind of our students that warrant investigation. It should be mentioned that language learners strategies and their effect in the process of learning is a highly complex issue. Therefore, metacognitive strategy awareness may not be just the only aspect of this achievement in learning; rather, we need to investigate other types of language learning strategies and look at what helps the students to increase their ability in achieving the best results. 6. Implications The present study has found evidence which supports previous research findings that demonstrated that good and poor students are significantly different in their awareness and perceived use of metacognitive strategies. That is, the more a student knows about how he learns, the better learner he will be. Therefore, helping students to be more aware of their metacognitive reading strategies plays an important role in not only developing their critical reading ability but also in their general reading comprehension ability. So based on the above results, the finding of the study can have implications for teachers in reading classes. To be more specific, training good readers means more than just improving their knowledge about language structure and general study skills, and it needs raising their awareness of metacognitive strategies for critical reading. Also the results in this study may have implications for reading comprehension assessment. As mentioned before, critical reading skills are essential for the students with high level of proficiency. That is the higher the level of proficiency, the higher the ability for critical reading. Therefore, one of the factors to be included in the assessment of language proficiency can be the ability to read critically especially at higher level of proficiency.

Illegal war in Kosovo :: essays papers

Illegal war in Kosovo President Clinton addressed the people of the United States on June 10, 1999 over the United States’ mission in Kosovo. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, which makes this war a civil war. Highlights of his speech outline the goals that he wanted to obtain in this Humanitarian intervention, as he called it. The mission had flaws innate to it from the beginning. The three-tiered goal of the President was clearly stated. The first is to allow the Kosovar people back into their homes. The second is to require Serbian forces to leave Kosovo. The last thing was to deploy an international security force, with NATO at its core, to protect all the people that troubled the land, Serbians and Albanians alike. The message was clear, but was not followed in regards to international law, and NATO’s Charter, and even the three clearly stated missions. The involvement in Kosovo’s war is illegal, and the President of the United States has pushed NATO into committing wartime cri mes and has used the Powers-of-Office in an unconstitutional manner, which resulted in the illegal intervention of a sovereign state. On March 24, 1999, the united countries of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, under pressure from the United States, launched an illegal assault upon a sovereign nation. The evidence is overwhelming that leaders within the United State government sponsored this decision with the extreme perseverance from President of the United States. NATO should have dismissed the request for assault and involvement for it was clearly illegal. It’s perpetrators showed total disregard for Article One of the NATO Charter, which incorporates by reference the United Nations Charter, Chapter One, Article Two, Sections Three, Four and Seven. These sections make it clear that NATO’s role is to be purely defensive. The aggression that NATO has undertaken did not come from or with approval of the UN Security Council, which NATO’s Charter clearly states numerous times that the UN Security Council will convene and approve of any such matter or action. It is a brutal violation of NA TO’s Charter and of all principles of international law. NATO used military weapons and tactics that run counter to the demands of decency and the nature of a moral people. Cluster bombs are outright illegal. Geneva Convention has concluded the use of cluster bombs and anti-tank and anti-personnel mines as illegal munitions.

Hopelessness of the Irish in Nineteenth Century England Essay -- Europ

Hopelessness of the Irish in Nineteenth Century England Throughout my research into the subject of the Irish in England's industrial north during the early nineteenth century, one fact became quite clear; contemporary writers' treatment of the Irish was both minimal and negative. I consulted many sources, Friedrich Engels, Leon Faucher, James Kay-Shuttleworth to name but a few and the reoccurring theme as pertaining to the Irish in all these works was mainly consistent; the Irish were a lazy, vulgar people prone to drinking and brawling. It was not until 1841 that Great Britain's government made its first attempt to count the number of Irish migrants in the Census of 1841. Data compiled from the actual census and other parliamentary sources at the time illuminate the fact that in 1841 and in the preceding years of this century, most migrants from Ireland were of the seasonal type. Typically, they would plant their potatoes in their mostly minuscule plots of land in May, travel to Great Britain for the summer months to partake of seasonal harvesting work and return in time for their own harvest. During this same time there were Irish who settled in Great Britain on a more permanent basis but they were outnumbered by their fellow countrymen who were strictly seasonal migrants. This latter group seemed quite successful in finding work in the agricultural districts of the industrial north, those parts of the country surrounding Manchester, Liverpool and the other great towns. After the Irish potato famine of 1822, the in flux of Irish into England grew and a large majority of these were seasonal migrants. These Irish were in great demand in the agricultural districts of England and in Labour Migration in England 1800-1850, Ar... ...ion of the Working Class in England Oxford University Press,1993. Faucher, Leon. Manchester in 1844. Frank Cass and Company Limited,1969. Gaskell, Elizabeth. Mary Barton. Penguin Group 1970,1985. Gaskell, Peter. The Manufacturing Population of England: Its Moral, Social. and Physical Condition and the Changes which have Arisen from the Use of Steam Machinery, with an Examination of Infant Labour. Baldwin & Cradock, 1833. Harris, Ruth-Ann M. The Nearest Place That Wasn't Ireland. Iowa University Press,1994. Jackson, John Archer. The Irish in Britain. Richard Clay and Company,1963. Kay-Shuttleworth, James. The Moral and Physical Condition of the Working Classes Employed in the Cotton Manufacture of Manchester. Frank Cass and Company Limited, 2nd ed. 1970. Redford, Arthur. Labour Migration in England 1800-1850. Manchester,1926 reprint,1964.

Hitlers Rise To Power :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As most people on this planet know, World War II has been over for more than 50 years. The ideals of Hitler, a man wanting to eliminate all Jews and minorities, are views that can be questioned. Most people have difficulties accepting failure, and when failure arises people look elsewhere to blame someone else for their shortcomings. In society these people are called scapegoats. The question that comes to mind is Who was Hitler and what were his thoughts?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most prominent leaders that can be thought of as great dictators were extremely forceful. Julius Caesar and Napoleon both rose up during troubling times of their country. They did this by going to war and winning, they would take over a country, set up a government, and then move on. Hitler was the exact opposite, he was a barbarian who ruled by striking fear into people. â€Å"They regard me as an uneducated barbarian. Yes, we are barbarians! We want to be barbarians! It is an honorable title.† (Rauschning, Hermann. The Voice of Destruction New York, 1940, p.80) The government that Hitler proposed had no real law. The people were to follow what they were told by those who were ranked above them, thus always leading back to Hitler. Hitler taught children to spy on their parents, and then report their wrong doings. He wanted people to hate their neighbors. He wanted those people of different, and for that matter â€Å"wrong† religions, political party, and/or race to be eliminated. A lot of the time when people look at history books and see a leader such as Hitler they might think that it was a long time ago, or that people were not that smart. Hitler rose to power in a time when people were literate, a majority of people were fairly smart, and none the less it was a mere 50 years ago.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As most people across the globe will agree Hitler had unsightly political views. He preached that before a government can reach a victory or a happy state it must first undergo a change. This is why the nazi movement was necessary. Hitler preached propaganda, the information that today would be found in The National Enquire. What he preached was what people wanted to hear, it was an easy route out of all of their troubles. He was able to relay his message across the people in Germany and draw more than a third of a vote in a free contested election.

Challenges of Raising a Disabled Child Essay

Caring for a child with a disability can be challenging due to parenting responsibilities and the difficulties they encounter when interacting with an often unreceptive environment. Consequently, parents can be at increased risk for excessive levels of personal distress which in turn can adversely affect the well being of the child and the entire family unit (Plant & Sanders, 2007). Parents of children with disabilities can be at an increased risk for psychosocial distress (Parish, Rose, Grinstein-Weiss, Richman & Andrews, 2008; Plant & Sanders, 2007). The parenting responsibilities for parents of children with disabilities often require a significant amount of time to complete, can be physically demanding, can disrupt family and social relationships, and can adversely affect caregiver employment (Brannen & Heflinger, 2006; Seller & Heller, 1997). Perhaps as a consequence of these additional impacts, family caregivers of children with disabilities can be at increased risk to experience depression, physical health problems, and decreased quality of life (Feldman, et al. , 2007; Ones, Yilmaz, Cetinkaya, & Calgar, 2002). The added challenges of caring for a child with a disability may lead to more stress and greater physical and emotional health risks for parents and their families (e. g. , increased conflict with spouse; Murphy, Christian, Caplin & Young, 2006) compared to families without a child with a disability (Feldman et al. , 2007). This topic is particularly personal for me because I know first hand the psychological affects and challenges that a handicap child could have on parents, family members, and friends. My son was two months when I notice that something just wasn’t right with him. I noticed him favoring one side instead of looking straight ahead. I mentioned my concerns to our family doctor. His doctor didn’t see it as a problem. She said to just continue to watch him. Two months passed and still no change, so at his next appointment I expressed my concern again. I insisted that she run tests on my son immediately. I knew something seemed different; I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I had already had two other boys so something just didn’t sit right with me. The doctor sent my son to be tested at University of Maryland Hospital and my son was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus Dandywalker Malformation with Palsy. He had to have surgery at six months to have a shunt placement to drain the water from his brain. I was devastated. My husband and I went through several defense mechanisms. The first I believe was denial. We didn’t want to face the fact that something was wrong with our child, our baby. He seemed so perfect when he was born just a few months ago. We went through repression, rationalization and intellectualization. We couldn’t wrap our minds around the fact that our child would be different from other children. Nobody wants to believe that something is wrong with their child. I felt a little embarrassed for fear of what people might think about our child or what someone would say. So many things raced around my mind. We wanted to blame the doctors; maybe they did something wrong in my prenatal care. I went over in my mind again and again of every little thing I did when pregnant to ensure that I had did everything I was supposed to do. I didn’t drink, smoke or do drugs. What happened? We tried to search our family history genetics. We just came up empty. My husband and I became depressed, frustrated, and angry. I felt helpless about my son’s condition. I wasn’t sure what to do. Finally, I began to investigate my son’s condition. I read all I could get my hands on. I searched for schools and other medical resources to help me address my son’s needs. In the back of my mind I was still trying to make sense of the fact that my son had a developmental and neurological problem that would affect him for the rest of his life. I wondered what restrictions we would face now and in the future. I still wasn’t sure if I could cope with his lack of development neurologically, physically, mentally or emotionally. I began to question God. I wondered why me. I wasn’t sure if I would have to stop working. I wondered how we as a family would work together to stay a family. I had so many questions, but no answers. I prayed asking God for help and guidance. Later, I began to realize that I had to be strong. I had to accept what the reality was with my son and his disability. It hasn’t been easy. We faced many financial problems, medical issues, several hospitalizations for my son, divorce; daycare issues especially since my son needed twenty four hour daycare. Day care is very expensive as well as diapers and wipes for disabled children. Insurance covers some things but not enough. A person has to be making next to nothing in order to get any assistance from the government; we needed assistance regardless of what we made monetary. I would have never known what disabled families went through to get their voice heard and children’s needs assisted unless I had to face these great challenges myself. So much goes into raising a child with disabilities. There are many variables that factor into taking care of a disabled child. Financial hardships are another important factor that influences parents’ wellbeing. In general families with children with disabilities experience much higher expenditures than other families (Newacheck and Kim, 2005) found that, on average, the total annual health care expenditures for children with disabilities were more than three times as much compared to children without disabilities. The financial strain incurred by families of children with disabilities is likely due to increased expenses related to the child’s needs as well as loss of employment or inability to work because of parenting responsibilities (Murphy et al. , 2006; Parish et al. 2008; Worcester et al. , 2008). Inability to engage in employment can also lead to feelings of isolation, a lack of fulfillment and low self-esteem (Shearn & Todd, 2000). Families of children with disabilities often report feeling isolated from the community (Freedman& Boyer, 2000; Worcester et al. , 2008). What I’ve learned from researching the challenges of raising a child with disabilities; as well as bein g a parent of a disabled child is that there is still so much more to be done. There is still research that hasn’t been touched regarding parents and their disable children. We the parents have to be the voices for our disable children. We have to be better informed about what our disabled children rights are. We have to be willing and ready to fight on behalf of our disable children. Parents and state officials have to work to get better laws passed to accommodate disabled children. Disabled children need better health care programs, better schools; a place for them to be themselves. Parents need a place to relax and not have to worry about dirty looks that people who don’t have disabled children give them. Parents shouldn’t have to feel ashamed that they have disabled children. We shouldn’t be looked down upon because our children are different. Our children shouldn’t be bullied or treated like they are worthless. Our children are special. They deserve the best that we can help them to achieve in life. They deserve a chance like the rest of us. We’ve got to come together and help each other to provide a better life for all! The questions we should ask researchers to study are many. One could be what’s being done to assist parents with disabled children? Are there programs to assist parents in child care for disabled children? Normal daycare centers are for infants through 12 years of age. As of today my disabled son is 16 years old and there’s really no day care for children his age. Another question is why do they go according to parents’ income in order to assist with social security disability? A parent shouldn’t have to be jobless in order to obtain assistance from social security disability. Yet a person who walks into social security disability and say my back hurt or that they have a condition can obtain money; work the system while the truly disabled suffer. There are so many people working the disability system and really aren’t disabled. We have to help the programs we have for our disabled children actually help the disabled children. In conclusion caring for a child with a disability can be challenging, but many of these challenges are likely due to a lack of necessary environmental supports. Future research should expand on these findings and policy makers, scientists and providers should give particular attention to the environmental support needs of parents in order to create policies and interventions that are more family centered.