Marvel

Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group Chen Ziqiang Wu Libin Lin Yingshuai Deng Linli Lim Yihao 2011/11/29 1. Why did Marvel file for Chapter 11? Were the proble ms caused by bad luck, bad strategy, or bad execution? We think that Marvel filed for Chapter 11 mainly due to its bad business strategy. Three o f its six b usiness lines, Trading cards, Stickers and Comic Books started facing the decline in sales after year 1993. There were two main reasons for this decline: F irst, these businesses increasingly had to compete with a lternative forms of child entertainment (mainly video games).Second, the decline in sales was driven by disappointed collectors who had viewed comic books as a form of investment and stopped buying them as company stopped increasing the prices. We believe that the company should have foreseen these events while performing a market research and forming a long- term business and financial strategy. The three unpromising business lines account ed to 61% of total revenues of a company in year 1995. At the same time, the company's financial strategy was based on highly optimistic business expectations and was not suitable for unfavorable turn of demand for entertainment products towards video games.Due to its high leverage (52%), the company was not able to serve all the debt in case of sharply declining revenues. It is obvious that the company did not anticipate the cha nge in customers' preferences and was wrong in prediction of market trends, focusing on cards, stickers and publishing business lines and leveraging itself. Moreover, in 1995 Marvin continued its leveraged expansion into entertainment cards b usiness – acquiring Skybox. This decision was extremely imprudent, as the company was already on the threshold of financial distress and should have sought for high growth pportunities to expand in order to boost its revenues instead of adding debt to buy business whic h produces non- demanded products. Operatin g ratios Marvel Entertainment Group 1991 1992 1993 Sales 115. 1 223. 8 415. 2 Cost of Sales 58. 2 112. 6 215. 3 Cost of sales/ Sales 50. 6% 50. 3% 51. 9% SG&A 21. 4 43. 4 85. 3 SG&A/Sales 18. 6% 19. 4% 20. 5% Net Income 16. 1 32. 6 56 Net Income/Sales 14. 0% 14. 6% 13. 5% 1994 514. 8 275. 3 53. 5% 119. 7 23. 3% 61. 8 12. 0% 1995 823. 9 383. 3 46. 2% 231. 3 27. 9% – 48. 4 – 5. 8% 1996 581. 2 372. 4 61. 4% 168 28. 9% – 27. 9 – 4. 8%As can be seen in the table above, Marvels operating ratios dropped dramatically. The cost of Sales/Sales rose from 51% in 1991 to 62% in 1996, together with the SG&A expenses/Sales rising from 19% to 29%. Additionally Marvels Net Income/Sales dropped from 14% to – 5%. Leverage ratios Marvel Entertainment Group 1991 1992 1993 Total Debt 355,3 324,7 Shares outstanding 97,7 98,6 102,6 Share price 5 12 26 Market value of equity 488,5 1183,2 2667,6 Debt/ D+E 23,1% 10,9% EBITDA 35,5 67,8 114,6 EBITDA/SALES 30,8% 30,3% 27,6% Int erest expenses 3,50 6,50 14,60 EBITDA/Interest 10,1 10,4 7,8 1994 585,7 103,7 16 1659,2 6,1% 119,8 23,3% 16,50 7,3 1995 934,8 101,3 12 1215,6 43,5% 214,7 25,9% 43,20 5,0 1996 977 101,8 4 407,2 70,6% 40,8 7,0% 42,70 1,0 Compare the management policy and the leverage ratios from that time together with its operating ratios, we believe Marvel made an extremely impudent move to acquire Skybox in 1995. While their operating margins where deteriorating and their leverage coverage ratio (EBITDA/Interest) where falling, they should have acquired a different policy. For all above stated reasons, we believe that the company's financial problems were caused mainly by bad strategy and poor management. . Evaluate the proposed restructuring plan. Will it solve the proble ms that caused Marvel to file Chapter 11? As Carl Icahn, the largest unsecured debt holder, would you vote for the proposed restructuring plan? Why or why not? A. ) We believe that the restructuring plan can only solve part of th e problems that Marvel is facing. We also believe that the proposed restructuring plan will not solve the actual problems that Marvel is facing but only provide temporary relief to the company that is not sustainable.The proposed restructuring plan aims at providing liquidity to Marvel, lifting its debt burden and expanding its existing toy business. This is to be achieved by means of a recapitalization of the company through an emission of 427mn additional shares of common equity fo r a total value of USD 365mn. Additionally, the outstanding public debt of the company shall be retired with debt holders being paid in the shares that acted as collateral for their loans. With the proceeds of the emission and the lowered debt burden, Marvel is then supposed to acquire the remaining stake in ToyBiz, its toy manufacturer subsidiary.The recapitalization through the issue of 427mn new shares would solve the acute liquidity problems of the firm and the retirement of the firm’s public d ebt would lower the debt burden of the firm significantly. However, we believe that Marvel, under the proposed plan, would use its newly gained liquidity and flexibility to the wrong end. The acquisition of the remaining shares of ToyBiz would mean the continuation of an already ill- fated strategy that led to the current crisis.We therefore believe that the restructuring plan can only solve part of the problems that Marvel is facing. More precisely, the plan offers a solution for the symptoms of the underlying problems only. It solves the liquidity problem that caused Marvel to violate some of its debt covenants and it also lowers the company’s debt burden. The core problem in our view, the business strategy of Marvel, is not abandoned but even pursued further. B. ) I would not you vote for the proposed restructuring plan.The shares being p ledged to their bonds as collateral are valued largely lower now than they were when the bonds were first issued , which result in t hey can only recover a fraction of the face value of their bonds in the form of equity now and a breaking even again seems questionable. This argument does not necessarily hold for the investors who bought the deeply discounted bonds but given the valuat ion of Bear Stearns it is questionable whether they will recover their investment either. 3. How much is Marvel’s equity worth per share under the proposed restructuring plan assuming it acquires Toy Biz as planned?What is your assessment of the pro forma Financial projections and liquidation assumptions? Marvel’s current market price that is 2 dollars before restricting plan assuming it acquires Toy Biz as planned. Table 1: Debt/Equity Ratio With the aim to calculate Marvel’s equity with the proposed a cquisition of Toy Biz we used DCF model. As Debt/Equity ratios are stable (table 1), FCFE is used to calculate the cash flow with the following assumptions. Table 2: Assumptions Assume: Discount Rate is equal to average Annual Return on Investments in Stocks from 1997 to 2001. *Annual Returns data is from histretSP. xls (http://pages. tern. nyu. edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/Inv2ed. htm) Table 3: FCFE 401. 7million/528. 8 million = 0. 76 Dollars per share. It shows that Mr. Perelman pays 13. 3% premium for new shares (he pays 0. 85 dollars per share). M arvel’s liquidation value Table 4: Marvel’s liquidation value The liquidation value is 424. 7million via Chapter 7. 4. Will it be difficult for Marvel or other companies in the MacAndrews and Forbes holding company to issue debt in the future? The outstanding debt of Marvel has been downgraded by two rating agencies. In 1995 S and Moody’s downgraded the holding companies’ debt from B to B- .In 1996 Moody’s downgraded Marvel’s public debt. After that, Marvel had announced that it would violate specific bank loan covenants due to decreasing revenues and profits. Downgrading of debt increases the change o f default. After downgrading of debt, the process of probability to default increased substantially. The low credit rating indicates a high risk of defaulting on a loan and, hence leads to high interest rates or the refusal of a loan by the creditor. Investors realize this risk and therefore would demand a higher default premium. The increased default pre miums raised the cost of capital for the holding company.Given the increased risk premium and default possibilities, Marvel and other companies in the MacAndrews and Forbes holding group would having more difficulties issuing new debt in the future. Debt holders and creditors where raising questions about the integrity on the judgment decisions from Perelman. Judge Balick approved Marvel did not discriminate unfairly against non- affecting creditor classes and provided it was fair and equitable to all classes. In reaction, a lawyer challenged the Bearn Stern’s conclusions and insinuated Bearn Sterns had multiple levels of co nflicts due to the contingency fee provided by Perelman.In the end even the Vice – Chairman of the Andrew group had to come with a statement to overcome all the negative sounds in the market. Anyhow it looks like Perelman’s reputation was damaged already. 5. Why did the price of Marvel’s zero-coupon bonds drop on Tuesday, Nov 12, 1996? Why did portfolio managers at Fidelity and Putnam sell their bonds on Friday, Nov 8,1996? On Nov 12, 1996, Marvel’s zero- coupon bonds fell by more than 50% when the spokesman for the Andrews Group announced the details of the proposed restructuring plan.According to the announcement, Perelman was to purchase, through Perelman- related entities, 410 million shares of newly- issued Marvel common for $0. 85 per share, 81% discount to the then prevailing market price of $4. 625. The newly- issued stock would not be subject to the pledge of Perelman- owned Marvel stock that otherwise secured the bonds. The announcement of this self- dealing transaction was in no way foreshadowed by Marvels' prior public statements and conflicted with the covenants in the indentures to the bonds.Therefore, the market prices of the bonds to decline suddenly as the collateral t hat supported the bonds. Perelman's Marvel common stock holdings pre- proposed transaction was diluted from 80% of the equity in Marvel to less than 16%. The terms of the prospective transaction required Marvel to increase the number of its outstanding shares to approximately 511. 6 million shares from 101. 8 million, diluting Marvel common stockholders and greatly reducing the value of the shares that were pledged as collateral for the bonds. So it greatly impaired and reduced the value of the bonds.In fac t, Marvel bondholders were divested of virtually the whole of their collateral while Perelman would maintain 80% ownership of the firm, purchasing the newly- issued shares at grossly sub- market prices while preserving the ability to write off Marv el's losse s against the reported income in his other consolidated enterprises due to the maintenance of his 80% ownership of the firm. The price of Marvel’s zero- coupon bonds dropped also due to it did not meet the expectation of the debt holders, who analyzed the b ond by fair value or future growth of the firm.In addition, the public would predict that the restructuring plan could not be settled down so that the firm would have a very uncertain future, even bankrupt. Thus, the price declined because a lot of debt holders could not bear the risk for getting nothing and sold out their debts. On Nov 8, 1996, Howard Gittis, vice chairman of Andrews Group, called Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments, two of the largest institutional holders of Marvel’s public debt, and asked them what they would like to see in a restructuring plan.Portfolio managers at Fidelity and Putnam decided to sell more that $70 million of Marvel bonds at a price of $0. 37 per dollar of fac e value on the next day. The main reason for selling by the managers is the conversation between Howard Gittis and them, which caused the managers considering the result of restructuring plan. They believed the plan would disappoint the public depending on their professional judgment. Perhaps, during this conversation, they got some detail information of the plan which proved the present value of Marvel’s bonds was overvalued.It gave the chance for them to avoid tens of millions of additional losses in diminished value that would have followed and suffer t he time they continued to hold the bonds already existing facts were revealed. On the other hand, the managers may worried about the downgrade of the bonds because the requirement of their portfolio allocation which constrained the percentage of the lower graded bonds or prohibited buying such bonds. Therefore, the bonds have to be sold to meet the requirement. Marvel Bankruptcy and Restructuring at Marvel Entertainment Group Chen Ziqiang Wu Libin Lin Yingshuai Deng Linli Lim Yihao 2011/11/29 1. Why did Marvel file for Chapter 11? Were the proble ms caused by bad luck, bad strategy, or bad execution? We think that Marvel filed for Chapter 11 mainly due to its bad business strategy. Three o f its six b usiness lines, Trading cards, Stickers and Comic Books started facing the decline in sales after year 1993. There were two main reasons for this decline: F irst, these businesses increasingly had to compete with a lternative forms of child entertainment (mainly video games).Second, the decline in sales was driven by disappointed collectors who had viewed comic books as a form of investment and stopped buying them as company stopped increasing the prices. We believe that the company should have foreseen these events while performing a market research and forming a long- term business and financial strategy. The three unpromising business lines account ed to 61% of total revenues of a company in year 1995. At the same time, the company's financial strategy was based on highly optimistic business expectations and was not suitable for unfavorable turn of demand for entertainment products towards video games.Due to its high leverage (52%), the company was not able to serve all the debt in case of sharply declining revenues. It is obvious that the company did not anticipate the cha nge in customers' preferences and was wrong in prediction of market trends, focusing on cards, stickers and publishing business lines and leveraging itself. Moreover, in 1995 Marvin continued its leveraged expansion into entertainment cards b usiness – acquiring Skybox. This decision was extremely imprudent, as the company was already on the threshold of financial distress and should have sought for high growth pportunities to expand in order to boost its revenues instead of adding debt to buy business whic h produces non- demanded products. Operatin g ratios Marvel Entertainment Group 1991 1992 1993 Sales 115. 1 223. 8 415. 2 Cost of Sales 58. 2 112. 6 215. 3 Cost of sales/ Sales 50. 6% 50. 3% 51. 9% SG&A 21. 4 43. 4 85. 3 SG&A/Sales 18. 6% 19. 4% 20. 5% Net Income 16. 1 32. 6 56 Net Income/Sales 14. 0% 14. 6% 13. 5% 1994 514. 8 275. 3 53. 5% 119. 7 23. 3% 61. 8 12. 0% 1995 823. 9 383. 3 46. 2% 231. 3 27. 9% – 48. 4 – 5. 8% 1996 581. 2 372. 4 61. 4% 168 28. 9% – 27. 9 – 4. 8%As can be seen in the table above, Marvels operating ratios dropped dramatically. The cost of Sales/Sales rose from 51% in 1991 to 62% in 1996, together with the SG&A expenses/Sales rising from 19% to 29%. Additionally Marvels Net Income/Sales dropped from 14% to – 5%. Leverage ratios Marvel Entertainment Group 1991 1992 1993 Total Debt 355,3 324,7 Shares outstanding 97,7 98,6 102,6 Share price 5 12 26 Market value of equity 488,5 1183,2 2667,6 Debt/ D+E 23,1% 10,9% EBITDA 35,5 67,8 114,6 EBITDA/SALES 30,8% 30,3% 27,6% Int erest expenses 3,50 6,50 14,60 EBITDA/Interest 10,1 10,4 7,8 1994 585,7 103,7 16 1659,2 6,1% 119,8 23,3% 16,50 7,3 1995 934,8 101,3 12 1215,6 43,5% 214,7 25,9% 43,20 5,0 1996 977 101,8 4 407,2 70,6% 40,8 7,0% 42,70 1,0 Compare the management policy and the leverage ratios from that time together with its operating ratios, we believe Marvel made an extremely impudent move to acquire Skybox in 1995. While their operating margins where deteriorating and their leverage coverage ratio (EBITDA/Interest) where falling, they should have acquired a different policy. For all above stated reasons, we believe that the company's financial problems were caused mainly by bad strategy and poor management. . Evaluate the proposed restructuring plan. Will it solve the proble ms that caused Marvel to file Chapter 11? As Carl Icahn, the largest unsecured debt holder, would you vote for the proposed restructuring plan? Why or why not? A. ) We believe that the restructuring plan can only solve part of th e problems that Marvel is facing. We also believe that the proposed restructuring plan will not solve the actual problems that Marvel is facing but only provide temporary relief to the company that is not sustainable.The proposed restructuring plan aims at providing liquidity to Marvel, lifting its debt burden and expanding its existing toy business. This is to be achieved by means of a recapitalization of the company through an emission of 427mn additional shares of common equity fo r a total value of USD 365mn. Additionally, the outstanding public debt of the company shall be retired with debt holders being paid in the shares that acted as collateral for their loans. With the proceeds of the emission and the lowered debt burden, Marvel is then supposed to acquire the remaining stake in ToyBiz, its toy manufacturer subsidiary.The recapitalization through the issue of 427mn new shares would solve the acute liquidity problems of the firm and the retirement of the firm’s public d ebt would lower the debt burden of the firm significantly. However, we believe that Marvel, under the proposed plan, would use its newly gained liquidity and flexibility to the wrong end. The acquisition of the remaining shares of ToyBiz would mean the continuation of an already ill- fated strategy that led to the current crisis.We therefore believe that the restructuring plan can only solve part of the problems that Marvel is facing. More precisely, the plan offers a solution for the symptoms of the underlying problems only. It solves the liquidity problem that caused Marvel to violate some of its debt covenants and it also lowers the company’s debt burden. The core problem in our view, the business strategy of Marvel, is not abandoned but even pursued further. B. ) I would not you vote for the proposed restructuring plan.The shares being p ledged to their bonds as collateral are valued largely lower now than they were when the bonds were first issued , which result in t hey can only recover a fraction of the face value of their bonds in the form of equity now and a breaking even again seems questionable. This argument does not necessarily hold for the investors who bought the deeply discounted bonds but given the valuat ion of Bear Stearns it is questionable whether they will recover their investment either. 3. How much is Marvel’s equity worth per share under the proposed restructuring plan assuming it acquires Toy Biz as planned?What is your assessment of the pro forma Financial projections and liquidation assumptions? Marvel’s current market price that is 2 dollars before restricting plan assuming it acquires Toy Biz as planned. Table 1: Debt/Equity Ratio With the aim to calculate Marvel’s equity with the proposed a cquisition of Toy Biz we used DCF model. As Debt/Equity ratios are stable (table 1), FCFE is used to calculate the cash flow with the following assumptions. Table 2: Assumptions Assume: Discount Rate is equal to average Annual Return on Investments in Stocks from 1997 to 2001. *Annual Returns data is from histretSP. xls (http://pages. tern. nyu. edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/Inv2ed. htm) Table 3: FCFE 401. 7million/528. 8 million = 0. 76 Dollars per share. It shows that Mr. Perelman pays 13. 3% premium for new shares (he pays 0. 85 dollars per share). M arvel’s liquidation value Table 4: Marvel’s liquidation value The liquidation value is 424. 7million via Chapter 7. 4. Will it be difficult for Marvel or other companies in the MacAndrews and Forbes holding company to issue debt in the future? The outstanding debt of Marvel has been downgraded by two rating agencies. In 1995 S and Moody’s downgraded the holding companies’ debt from B to B- .In 1996 Moody’s downgraded Marvel’s public debt. After that, Marvel had announced that it would violate specific bank loan covenants due to decreasing revenues and profits. Downgrading of debt increases the change o f default. After downgrading of debt, the process of probability to default increased substantially. The low credit rating indicates a high risk of defaulting on a loan and, hence leads to high interest rates or the refusal of a loan by the creditor. Investors realize this risk and therefore would demand a higher default premium. The increased default pre miums raised the cost of capital for the holding company.Given the increased risk premium and default possibilities, Marvel and other companies in the MacAndrews and Forbes holding group would having more difficulties issuing new debt in the future. Debt holders and creditors where raising questions about the integrity on the judgment decisions from Perelman. Judge Balick approved Marvel did not discriminate unfairly against non- affecting creditor classes and provided it was fair and equitable to all classes. In reaction, a lawyer challenged the Bearn Stern’s conclusions and insinuated Bearn Sterns had multiple levels of co nflicts due to the contingency fee provided by Perelman.In the end even the Vice – Chairman of the Andrew group had to come with a statement to overcome all the negative sounds in the market. Anyhow it looks like Perelman’s reputation was damaged already. 5. Why did the price of Marvel’s zero-coupon bonds drop on Tuesday, Nov 12, 1996? Why did portfolio managers at Fidelity and Putnam sell their bonds on Friday, Nov 8,1996? On Nov 12, 1996, Marvel’s zero- coupon bonds fell by more than 50% when the spokesman for the Andrews Group announced the details of the proposed restructuring plan.According to the announcement, Perelman was to purchase, through Perelman- related entities, 410 million shares of newly- issued Marvel common for $0. 85 per share, 81% discount to the then prevailing market price of $4. 625. The newly- issued stock would not be subject to the pledge of Perelman- owned Marvel stock that otherwise secured the bonds. The announcement of this self- dealing transaction was in no way foreshadowed by Marvels' prior public statements and conflicted with the covenants in the indentures to the bonds.Therefore, the market prices of the bonds to decline suddenly as the collateral t hat supported the bonds. Perelman's Marvel common stock holdings pre- proposed transaction was diluted from 80% of the equity in Marvel to less than 16%. The terms of the prospective transaction required Marvel to increase the number of its outstanding shares to approximately 511. 6 million shares from 101. 8 million, diluting Marvel common stockholders and greatly reducing the value of the shares that were pledged as collateral for the bonds. So it greatly impaired and reduced the value of the bonds.In fac t, Marvel bondholders were divested of virtually the whole of their collateral while Perelman would maintain 80% ownership of the firm, purchasing the newly- issued shares at grossly sub- market prices while preserving the ability to write off Marv el's losse s against the reported income in his other consolidated enterprises due to the maintenance of his 80% ownership of the firm. The price of Marvel’s zero- coupon bonds dropped also due to it did not meet the expectation of the debt holders, who analyzed the b ond by fair value or future growth of the firm.In addition, the public would predict that the restructuring plan could not be settled down so that the firm would have a very uncertain future, even bankrupt. Thus, the price declined because a lot of debt holders could not bear the risk for getting nothing and sold out their debts. On Nov 8, 1996, Howard Gittis, vice chairman of Andrews Group, called Fidelity Investments and Putnam Investments, two of the largest institutional holders of Marvel’s public debt, and asked them what they would like to see in a restructuring plan.Portfolio managers at Fidelity and Putnam decided to sell more that $70 million of Marvel bonds at a price of $0. 37 per dollar of fac e value on the next day. The main reason for selling by the managers is the conversation between Howard Gittis and them, which caused the managers considering the result of restructuring plan. They believed the plan would disappoint the public depending on their professional judgment. Perhaps, during this conversation, they got some detail information of the plan which proved the present value of Marvel’s bonds was overvalued.It gave the chance for them to avoid tens of millions of additional losses in diminished value that would have followed and suffer t he time they continued to hold the bonds already existing facts were revealed. On the other hand, the managers may worried about the downgrade of the bonds because the requirement of their portfolio allocation which constrained the percentage of the lower graded bonds or prohibited buying such bonds. Therefore, the bonds have to be sold to meet the requirement.

Iranian Protest Music

There are a few reasons that I would like to point out as the â€Å"goals† of the presentation. After studying about Iranian Protest Music I feel that it is a good topic to educate yourself on, or more like protest music in general is a good topic to know a little about. One of the goals was to educate our peers on what exactly Iranian Protest Music is, why it happens, and how it is done. We want them to know the history behind it such as how it dates back to the revolution back in 1979.This played a role in the publicity of the protests. We also wanted them to know about the most recent uproar† with the protests in Iran. It is crucial in this topic to know about the protests during the election that happened in 2009, and the reasoning behind it. The Iranians didn't like the fact that Maidenhead was supported by the U. S. So they were protesting the fact that his name was on the ballot. We also wanted them to know that it happens day and night, and what exactly the sligh t differences are between the two.The daytime is for the ones who don't mind being in the limelight, whereas the nighttime chants are more for the ones who don't necessarily want to be associated with the protests. Another topic that we wanted to touch and talk about was the movie Yard-e- Debating-e-Man. This was a very meaningful video that kind of shows the soft side and the â€Å"heart warming† side of the protests. It shows the fact that two people were best friends as children, but life took them on two completely different paths.One went down the path of law enforcement, and the other went down the path of the protesters, two different sides of the fence. Once the masks are taken off though, and they recognize each other, they rekindle those memories, which in my mind kind of wows how everyone is a person, no matter which side of the fence you are on, we all bleed the same. One other point that I believe was crucial, yet a tad graphic, was showing the video with the son g â€Å"Need† from the popular singer Shania Nasal in the background.I don't believe that many people; Americans in the majority realize how serious and violent these protests are. They don't realize that being associated with it can get you killed, and taking part in the protests can do the same. These arena a Joke, and I think that it is a big point to realize. Now on to how it went. Overall I think that it went well, and the information was taken well. I think that they truly understood the history behind the protests, and how they work, day and night. The Powering went over well but in hindsight I think that we should have utilized the Powering more than what we did.We believed that the more information that we had was better, which was true, but I think that if we would have had more slides it may have all been easier to understand and comprehend what we are trying to explain. One thing that I regret the most about the Powering is that we didn't use a map, which was a hu ge mistake in my opinion. It was simple to explain in our eyes because we had studied it for awhile, but I know that I am a visual learner, and without the map to show the exact place that we were talking about I believe that it was tougher to understand.With the video that I talked about earlier in the â€Å"goals† section I believe that it was a hit. We were under the mindset that the video at the end was crucial to the presentation, but we had no idea that it would be the main focal point. We spent more time on the video than we expected but it was good to be able to show our peers a video that was and is a big part of the protests. It is a cartoon that is very simple to follow along with and understand what the message is that's being portrayed.One of the biggest things that I would change if I could is showing the graphic scene that went along with the video. The intent behind it was purely educational, but in hindsight it may have been a tad graphic for the classroom. T hat being said though I believe that it came across in a very serious manner, and it was taken the way we wanted it to be, to help them realize how truly horrible the scene of a protest can become. It is not Just a disagreement but it is people that are very seriously outing their life on the line for the cause, and are willing to do whatever it takes to have their views seen.Overall I think that the presentation was very effective. I think that they took the information that we had to offer well, and can understand more about Iranian Protest Music as a whole. Though there are things that I wish we could change for sure, the biggest would be to dive more into the history. We defiantly had it in there, but I wish we would have emphasized it more than we did. We focused more on the present issue with the election, but I believe that the history is crucial as well.

Contract Law. Questions and Answers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Contract Law. Questions and Answers - Essay Example In such case the contract is void whether it is the non-existent subject matter of the agreement ( Res Extincta) or it is regarding the contract of purchase of own property(Res Sua) . The case of unilateral mistake is where only one party is mistaken. This can be by mistake as to the terms of the contract and also by the mistake as to the identity in which the first party thinks of the third party as the second party. Where the parties are inter prae sentes (face to face) there is a presumption that the mistaken party intends to deal with the other person who is physically present and identifiable by sight and sound, irrespective of the identity which one or other may assume. In the case of mutual mistakes where the parties misunderstand each other's intentions and are at cross purposes and if the transaction is totally ambiguous so that it can be assumed that there will be no consensus ad idem (agreement as to the same thing) and the contract will be void: Moreover mistake related to documents also leads the contract voidable. If writing contracts were costless, the parties would specify which of their beliefs were crucial to the agreement and condition performance of those beliefs, just as they would avoid all ambiguity in defining performance by including all details that might be relevant (1) Since reSince reading and writing contracts is costly, courts sometimes fill gaps in incomplete contracts by supplying the omitted terms, asking what the parties would have specified ex ante had the contract writing been costless. When beliefs are mistaken, the court might follow a similar rule, not by adding omitted terms (since the contract is unambiguous), but by modifying the contract to express the true intentions of the parties. or, the court could reform the contractual obligations by voiding the contract, leaving the reconstructing to the parties involved. Reforming or voiding contracts, however, goes beyond the gap-filling function in which courts customarily engage; it is an almost paternalistic change in the contract's express terms.In the same manner, the Court always tries to make distinction between incorrect belief and mistake to empty the concept of the mistake from its original meaning. In the opinion of the Court mutual mistake will be used to announce a decision not to enforce the promis

Chaos Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems Essay

Chaos Complexity and Complex Adaptive Systems - Essay Example It was founded by I Ansoff, Their discipline had some links to urban planning, system theory & cybernetics. This school was administered and spread by professional managers, people with MBA's staff experts (especially in finance and management) consultants & government controllers. Their intended message was to formalize. The message received by their intended listeners was to make a program and administer one. They belonged to the Prescriptive school category. Their theory states that a stitch in time saves time. Their failure was caused by their not supporting real-time strategy making nor encourages creative accidents. c) Positioning school - This was founded by Sun Tzu in his literary work The Art of War. This school concentrated on economics or the industrial organization and the military history. This school was championed by consulting boutiques type of business and United States writers. They espouse the theory of analyzing things. The message that was received by their liste ners was that they should calculate their every move and not concentrate on creating or committing. This theory belonged also to the Prescriptive management school of thought. Their theory was to consider only the facts of in management decision making. Their shortfall was due to their strategy being reduced to generic positions that were selected thru formalized analysis of industry. d) The Entrepreneurial school was established by J A Schump and A H Cole with collaboration from other economics faculty. Their writings were based on economics. Their intended message was to envision the future but the listeners interpreted their teachings as to centralize and hope for the best. They belonged to the second type of school called the descriptive. Their theory was to take themselves to the leader. Their failure was due to the unclear vision and they depended too much on the leader to for decision making purpose. e) The Cognitive school was established by H A Simon and J March. Their base discipline was Psychology (cognitive). This school was preached by pessimists who are psychologically bent. Their intended message was to cope with any situation or create a solution. The message that got thru to the listeners was that worry was evident in all their actions. This school was described as Descriptive. Its saying goes I will see if when I believe it. Their failure was due to the too subjective approach to strategy formulation. f) The learning school was established by LIndbio, Cyert, March, Weick, Quinn, Prahlad & Hamel. There seems to be no base discipline in this school. Chaos theory in mathematics had started here. The movers of this school were people who loved to experiment, ambiguous and adaptable to many situations like in Japan and Scandinavia They are espousing that the prefer learning but the message that reaches the listeners seems to be the movers just want a play atmosphere to abound. Their school falls under Descriptive type. Their very famous line goes if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Their failure seems to be that their strategic management process seems to be chaotic or in trouble. Their teachings seem chaotic.g) The power school was established by Alison, Pfeffer, Salancik & Astley.  

Enhancing the Marketing Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Enhancing the Marketing Plan - Assignment Example It is important that the marketing plan should consider the opportunities, strengths weakness and threats of the product in the market. Moreover, competitor analysis will help the marketers to implement strategies to counter the stiff competition. Virtual sex software may not have much competition in the market since it is a quiet new business concept. At the same time there are many other sex related products in the market. Such products may raise some resistance to the entry of the new product; virtual sex software. Such resistances can be overcome using carefully formulated marketing strategies. This chapter analyses the marketing plan for the introduction of the new product; virtual sex software. Even though virtual sex pleasure is a quiet new business concept, there are plenty of other sex related products in the market for a long period. For example, live sex shows in televisions and internet, webcam related sex activities, sex movies, sex CD’s etc are already in the market. These items are already familiar to the people for a long time. But all such items provide only the visual effects and it is impossible for the users of such product to change anything in the content of it. On the other hand, virtual sex software helps the users to engage in virtual sex activities with any of the persons they like. There are no barriers or restrictions for such virtual sex activities. Only requirement virtual sex software users needed is the ability and skills in using computers and software. The major weakness of this product is that as in the case of other sex related products, virtual sex software also offers virtual sex rather than real sex. Moreover, the users of this product need good computer knowledge and ability to handle multiple tasks using the software in order to derive maximum pleasure out of the software. As mentioned earlier, the closest competitor for the virtual sex software might be the sex movies and live shows. All such shows and movies

Women's Role In Christianity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Women's Role In Christianity - Research Paper Example In the early Christianity, there was no separation in the description of roles of men and women. But as the time passed by and the rights of religion started changing, there started arising negative aspects of Christianity, which said men and women are not equal and that women are inferior to men (Witherington & Witherington, pp.19-22). In the ancient Greece and Rome in Christian societies, men considered women as inferior to them and they treated them as some property possessed by them. In those days, women teachers used to preach about the second coming of Christ and that this world will end very soon. At that time, Christian churches started enjoying the cuff, which lead to patriarchal thought in Christianity emphasizing on unequal treatment of men and women. This cuff remained for next two thousand years and proved to be very brutal for women. People slaughtered women pitilessly giving them the names of witches. This atrocity continued until twentieth century, only after that the re was a change in this activity (Laporte, pp.15-16). This change was only possible because of initial protest of women for women rights in 1960s. This movement brought an intense change in the role of women in Christianity and women’s rights highlighted (Kung, pp.12-13). A feminist theology emerged containing prose on women’s role in Christianity and expressed God through a feminine image. Women started experiencing social, political, and cultural freedom and equality after 1960s but the patriarchal thought did not disappear completely. Its shadows still prevailed in the form of sexual dualism. This idea suggested that men and women are not only biologically different but men are more religious and stronger than women are. Whereas women were more poignant and instructive than men were. This concept was prevailing since the Greek times and only first women protest of 1960 had courage to challenge these thoughts. There aroused another concept called Marian Devotion rega rding women and it proved to be controversial because Catholics appreciated this phenomenon where as protestants were in strong opposition. Many people assumed that this was strengthening the feminine view of God while others said that it was in fact damaging the feminine movement because it was destructing womanhood of women. The sexual and civilizing rebellion of the 1970s and 80s specifically desired to get rid of elevated pedestals of probity emotionally involved in womanhood (Kung, pp. 16-20). There appeared two parallel movements one as a religious and other as societal. These two movements were modern and conventional in nature. The goddess reverence, â€Å"Jesus’ movement, and Marian devotion influenced the liberal feminist theological movement† (Kung, pp. 16-20). Whereas the religious rights in Christianity works on the key of sexual dualism. The religious right strives to discover morals only within customary tradition and they refuse to accept the amendment of any kind to a customary manner. The religious right resists the liberal reproductive rights of women particularly the right of abortion and homosexuality. It also does not accept the cloning technology look for reinstatement of traditional family principles standing on the patriarchal system. In the beginning, the religious rights were only supporting the faith but then they augmented their presence in important matters of the society, such as culture and politics so they that they affect the society with their opinions. It is very likely that religious rights have abhorrence for women because they doubt that women will

Synthesis Essay on Rear Window Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Synthesis on Rear Window - Essay Example Jeff telephones Thorwald and asks him to meet him at a bar, providing Lisa and Stella with the opportunity to dig up the flower patch, but they find nothing. Lisa then climbs through the fire escape into Thorwald’s apartment, but unfortunately, he returns and catches her. Jeff witnesses this through the window and calls the police to save Lisa, who signals to him across the courtyard with Mrs. Thorwald’s ring. Thorwald notices Lisa signaling to Jeff through the window and realizes that Jeff is behind the whole scheme to uncover him as the murderer of his wife. Â  In the scuffle that follows Thorwald throws a yelling Jeffries through the window, but the police arrive in time to catch him before he hits the ground, and only suffers another broken leg. The police arrest Thorwald, who confesses to murdering his wife. In the final scene of the movie, Jeff has broken his other leg too as a result of the fall and is shown resting at peace in his wheelchair. Across the courtya rd, the lonely woman has a new-found friendship with the songwriter, the lover of the dancer returns home from the military, the elderly couple has acquired a new dog, and the young couple is constantly arguing. Rear Window provides an insightful view of the social and psychological factors that give rise to difficulties experienced in relationships between men and women. Jeff’s relationship with Lisa and the relationships of the other tenants across the courtyard combines throughout the film to bring out this central theme.... In the scuffle that follows Thorwald throws a yelling Jeffries through the window, but the police arrive in time to catch him before he hits the ground, and only suffers another broken leg. The police arrest Thorwald, who confesses to murdering his wife. In the final scene of the movie, Jeff has broken his other leg too as a result of the fall and is shown resting at peace in his wheelchair. Across the courtyard, the lonely woman has a new-found friendship with the songwriter, the lover of the dancer returns home from the military, the elderly couple has acquired a new dog, and the young couple is constantly arguing. Rear Window provides an insightful view of the social and psychological factors that give rise to difficulties experienced in relationships between men and women. Jeff’s relationship with Lisa, and the relationships of the other tenants across the courtyard, combines throughout the film to bring out this central theme. In The Women Who Knew Too Much, Tania Modlesk i interprets The Rear Window by using it as the basis for an analysis of the male and female spectators. Modleski asserts that the film stresses both male and female points of view, with both Jeff and Lisa being portrayed in the reverse shots observing the neighbors through the rear window. She stresses that the male character is not domineering over the female character, and that spectators get the opportunity to identify themselves with both Jeff and Lisa on different occasions. Lisa related to the characters through empathy and identification, whereas Jeff was more interested in spying on them and adopting a controlling relation to the happenings in their lives. Through these two perspectives, Modleski brings out the instances in the film that provided spectators with the

Planning Report for the Computer Forensics Lab Essay

Planning Report for the Computer Forensics Lab - Essay Example On the other hand, the second administrative employee would assist the first administrative employee and would also serve as a ready hand replacement when the first administrative employee is absent. In addition to the above, these administrative employees would also be responsible for the safety and privacy of the computer data being investigated (Anderson et al., 2003). The technicians hired to do computer forensics work would be trained and qualified computer personnel geared to deal with forensics work. However, not all technicians hired to deal with computer forensics work would have the same amount of experience. Two of the technicians would possess at least five years or more of computer forensics experience while another technician would possess at least three years of computer forensics experience. The last two technicians would be recently qualified and lightly trained computer forensics experts that would train under the more senior technicians. This distribution of employ ee structure on the technical side would ensure that senior technicians are available to deal with the more complex work while new technicians are being trained to deal with future work. In case that the senior technicians leave at a later stage, there would always be backup in the form of more junior technicians. 2. Lab budget planning (what kind of facilities you want to acquire?) The lab’s budget would be split into two major heads namely being set up expenses and running expenses. The set up expenses would cover one time installation costs such as buying hardware, acquiring a place for the lab, electrical fittings etc. On the other hand, running expenses would comprise of regular expenses that could be expected to occur at the month’s end such as paying the utility bills, paying employee salaries, buying new hardware and software etc. As far as the set up costs are concerned, the major part of the expense would be the acquisition of fitting hardware for forensic pu rposes. In order to mitigate the expenses, a mix of new hardware and customizations would be introduced. The senior technicians would assemble certain pieces of hardware such as read write blockers in order to lower the amount of overall expense (Prosise & Mandia, 2003). Work stations would be acquired from branded companies such as Dell or HP. However, one work station for heavy duty purposes would be assembled in house from market acquired hardware in order to lower costs (Dominguez, 2007). The other major setting up expense would be acquiring a place to set up the lab as well as acquiring the furniture and electrical fittings such as cables and extension cords etc. The typical running expenses of a forensics lab would include the salaries of employees, any new hardware or software purchases, utility bills and the rent of the acquired lab. When the lab is being set up, the running expense would be covered by having at least six months worth of running expenses in hand in order to deal with slow business at start up. 3. Certificate / training plan Previously there was little trend for proper certification and training for computer forensics work. However, the need for training and qualification in the computer forensics field has gone up significantly. At this point in time there are a number of

(economics) assignment has two parts and both two parts have to be Essay

(economics) assignment has two parts and both two parts have to be explained in assignment - Essay Example Mars is challenged by biggies like Nestle, Ferrero, Cadbury etc. in the bars market. Sugar happens to be the one of the key ingredient as far as production of Mars Bars is concerned. In these competitive times profit margins have shown a shrinking trend. Now if the sugar supply falls short as a result of unfavorable weather conditions, the obvious fallout will be severe constraint in the procurement chain to maintain the levels of production. Sugar prices are bound to increase, resulting in an increase in production costs. Had there been no competition, Mars Inc would have resorted to a hike in prices of its bars. But the moment the company increases prices, competitors will grab the opportunity to further widen their market base, even if that meant subsidizing the product. Rival companies would resort to such a step, hoping that once the weather conditions improve, the supply will normalize and then they can fill the revenue gap by using the increased market base. As the adverse con dition is a temporary occurrence, therefore, even under these conditions, Mars bars will continue to be made available with the same price tag. There could be somewhat less number of products in the market. Some amount of cost could be recovered by way of cutting advertisement and market communication costs, as the company would be content with effectively serving its existing market only. The shortage is worldwide therefore almost all companies in the business will be equally affected. If the shortage stays for longer then only the company will start thinking about a step like price increase. The direct fallout of increased wages will of course be on the cost of production, which is bound to go up. As a result the profit margins will be under pressure and the company will have to try really hard to maintain the previous levels. But at the same time, increased wages will act as a motivational force for the workers who will now work with more zeal

Teaching in clinical practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Teaching in clinical practice - Essay Example As far as nursing practice is concerned, reflection is a process by which one focuses on the interaction between oneself and the environment, including colleagues, in a particular situation, with intentions to examine and evaluate the interactions. â€Å"Reflection gives scope for better understanding of oneself so that existing strengths can be used to build-up for future actions" (Somerville and Keeling, 2004). While reflection is the key to successful learning process, current literature plays a major role in these developments. Through updated journals and texts, present studies by critics and writers, we are able to meet the goals for the improvement of analytical thinking skills such as being able to identify problems that might arise, being aware to new or different ideas, and anticipating the consequences of one’s actions. According to Brandon and All (2010), many nurse educators continue teaching the way they have been doing, despite the need for reforms. However, pe dogogical research has indicated the need for change in nursing curricula. The emphasis is to shift from traditional courses to concept-based courses which com across across clinical settings. In order to accomplish such a useful change, it is very important for the nurse teacher to understand the role of "the rapidly advancing profession" (Hamner and Wilder, 2001; cited in (Brandon and All, 2010). In using reflection as a tool for the development of the professional nursing practice, a plan can be designed to meet the goals of the reflective activity by recording thoughts, observations, feelings, activities and questions (Burns and Grove, 1997). Through this, the effective practitioner can be challenged to think in new ways, raise new questions and explore new ways of problem-solving. Thus reflection is key for successful learning outcomes and literature plays a major role in such developments. In this essay, reflection on the methods, strategies and outcomes of teaching students a bout drug administration will be done with reference to current literature. Reflection and critical analysis Gibbs Model of Reflection will be used for evaluation and examination of the teaching methods and outcomes because the framework is straight forward and includes a cycle of clear description of the clinical situation, analysis of the feelings of the practitioner, evaluation of the actions during the situation, analysis of the various activities and experiences during the situation and a conclusion for lessons in future (Online learning, 2006). Description of the teaching process Student nurses were taught about administration of drugs in nursing practice. The aims of the teaching session was to enhance the knowledge of the student about the safe drug administration. The objectives and learning outcomes of the teaching session were: 1. To know the common causes of medication errors 2. To know the right method of administration of medication 3. To know the different routes of a dministration of medication and nursing considerations pertaining to those routes. 4. To know the importance of understanding the reason prior to dispensing the medication. 5. To know strategies to assure proper, clear, concise and easily understood methods of documentation of drug administration. 6. To be aware of patient safety goals. Procedural instruction in the teaching sess

Leadership Skills Ingredient in Decision-Making Essay Example for Free

Leadership Skills Ingredient in Decision-Making Essay In correlation to the given test as an ethical decision maker, my scores revealed that I am not a judgmental person. I do not usually give judgments neither decide which is wrong or right. Therefore, I cannot easily offend other’s personal beliefs and principles. I also believe that moral right must be respected often. It should be protected. I basically make decisions that conform to unified standards of the majority so that I cannot humiliate them. I also believe that the human spirit can only flower in an atmosphere of freedom. Where people can freely express and decide for their own. However, I have difficulties in handling justice. Sometimes I have inequalities in dealing with other people. I easily make good deals with people close to my heart. Thus, it reflects my biases. The Individual Ethics Profile (IEP) revealed specific traits about oneself. I was able to discover my positive attributes like giving importance with other people’s moral rights. That quality is very essential in making ethical decisions in the future. From that, I can base some of my decisions which conform to the principles of proper conduct as established by the society. Since every decision can affect our future, I can also rely from that result some of my weaknesses particularly in the concept of justice. I must be in balance and minimize unhealthy biases with the people surround me. I can also find ways to strengthen and enrich them. Learning more of ourselves can be every beneficial so we can choose good decisions and productively utilize the freedom to decide in the real world. It can also be a source of improvement by comparing my first result to the second one as I take the same questions again. It can also serve as a guide to me in becoming a better leader and decision maker.

Race and Ethnicity Essay Example for Free

Race and Ethnicity Essay Race and racial issues are all around us. Nobody can sneak behind a curtain, or tuck themselves away in a dark room to avoid this; there isn’t a way to escape racism. Our day to day lives are filled with stereotypes and overgeneralizations that make us think and judge the wrong way. We weren’t born into a race or into a category, but rather into a large melting pot. As Tim Wise said, majority of cops when asked â€Å"What would you assume about a Black or Latino male who lives in a shady neighborhood and has a nice, new car? † would respond â€Å"those men are more than likely drug dealers† just because of their race, when in fact, when compared to Black and Latino males, White males are four times more likely to be in possession of drugs at the time of an arrest. Our founders did not want this to be the case. Abraham Lincoln fought to end slavery and abolish the inequality between Human Beings, not guide us in to thinking the color of our skin shapes us and the opinions we create for others based on their â€Å"race†. Can you believe that ninety-four percent of White Americans believe that racial problems are a small issue like not being able to find the match to your shoe, whereas the other six percent are fully aware that this is a huge controversial issue? Those people who believe racism has dwindled down that much need to have an eye opener. Majority of â€Å"White Americans† are the ones who stereotype and categorize those of a different skin color. It is us â€Å"White Americans† who benefit from being the main race, and having the â€Å"White privilege†. More people need to go to a Black neighborhood and talk to those who see racism every day because in the area that about half of us live, racism is small compared to a large city. White privilege might have begun around the same time slavery had. White people, being the majority, saw the â€Å"new race† as an opportunity to become supreme ruler over something, to have large groups of people work for them. The African American community thought differently, and tried running away. Infuriated, the Whites began on a whole new level believing anyone who ran away from the plantation was sick. Slavery in general, helped create white privilege and stereotype all African Americans into the working type, and now the druggies. All these past experiences have made it harder for African Americans to strive in our society. In previous decades, they deliberately separated White and Black neighborhoods, and when a Black moved into a White neighborhood, the houses value and the neighborhoods value decreased just because the people who moved there were of a different color. It is absolutely ridiculous that racism is still around about just as much as it was seven years ago. Anybody with logical thinking would believe that it would have dwindled down to something less severe. Unfortunately, several towns are still divided and segregated because of race and skin color. I hope I get to see every race and skin color come together and work together fully, across the nation before I’m fifty, that’s thirty three years from now.

Exploring Students Attitudes Towards English Homework

Exploring Students Attitudes Towards English Homework Abstract This research aims at exploring students attitudes towards English homework. There is abundant literature regarding homework, but the voice of the students is absent from most of the literature. In this study, qualitative case study approach is used to look into the perspectives of one junior form class (F.1) and one senior form class (F.4). The literature review includes four major trends in the latest homework research: 1) relationship between homework and achievement, 2) relationship between time and achievement, 3) parental involvement and 4) homework design. I conducted 45 questionnaires and 6 in-depth interviews by purposive extreme sampling. After synthesizing all the data, I analyzed them by using constant comparison method and transcript based analysis. The results of the reserach showed that most students think homework is important to their learning. But the poor design and lack of teachers constructive feedbacks discourage them to complete their English homework. In addition, it is shown that different ages and genders require different kinds of homework to meet the learning diversity. This study contributes to the current literature in terms of its latest and un iqueness. Introduction When talking about homework, it seems that everyone has an opinion concerning its worth and purpose. Interestingly enough, in discussions of homework, it quickly becomes a debate. People either with adamantly favour or strongly oppose the practice. For myself, I struggled with the English homework when I was a secondary student. I thought it was just a burden for me without any meaningful purpose. On the other hand, when I was a student teacher, I liked assigning homework to my students because I assumed homework could improve both teaching and learning. Most importantly, homework was the communication channel between student and me. Some students who seldom handed-in their homework, but they still got a good grade in the exams, vice versa. This situation perplexed me. I have ideas and doubts about homework, but never really studied the issue. Therefore, I wanted to conduct an action research study in my honour project, in the hope that I could modify it so as to fit the needs of the students. After reviewing the literature, I decided to examine the attitudes students hold towards their English homework. My general intention was to obtain evidence indicating whether I neglected some factors when blaming on students who do not complete their English homework. I perceive the homework issue is faced among many teachers. No matter which schools and what kinds of students are the teachers working with, they must face the homework completion problem. Hopefully, this research can help teachers to handle the homework issue easily in the coming future. Part 1: Literature Review: The literature review consists of articles and books from 1980 to 2007 on the history of the homework debate. The majority of the scholarly articles are from EBSCO Databases (e.g.: A+ Education, Eric and Education Research Complete). The themes discussed in the literature are relationship between doing homework and achievement, time spent on doing homework, parental involvement and homework design. 1.1 The History of Homework Debate According to Copper (2007), homework is described as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during non-school hours (p.5). Copper explains that the use of word-intended because students may do the homework during recess, lunch time or even during subsequent classes. Homework is not new. It has a long and controversial history (Gordon 1980; Cooper 1989a-2007; Bonyun 1992; Earle 1992; Foyle 1992; Hallam 2004; Jha 2007 and so on). Among these studies, there are both pro and anti- homework groups respectively. Gill and Schlossman (2000) analyzed the views of different stakeholders: educators, teachers and parents. Different parties hold very distinct views towards the issue of homework. Up till now, there is a lack of consensus among researchers which they only agreed that homework is a complicated issue. Apart from different stakeholders views, there are many variables related in the topic of homework: environment, students ability, time and re searchers own biases. Some of the critical views are discussed in the following part. 1.2The relationship between homework and achievement When the researchers analyzed whether there is a relationship between the amount of time spent on doing homework and achievement, they mostly used one of two research designs. The first one is experimental. They typically compared two groups of students who were assigned homework and who did not receive any homework. And then, these two groups of students were given the same test to check whether homework can carry a positive influence on students academic achievement. Copper (2007) showed that students doing homework had higher unit test scores than 73 percentage of students not doing homework 1.3The relationship between the amount of time spend doing homework and achievement The second type of research examines the relationship between time spent on homework and achievement. Kohn (2006) mirrored the work of Copper (2007), they found a positive relationship between time spent doing homework and achievement. That means time spent on homework increases, achievement increases. However, Kralovec (2000) examines that the relationship between achievement and time spent on homework is negative for younger students. He suggested that homework appears to be more effective for older students than younger students. All in all, homework appears to be positively correlated with achievement, but the effect varies dramatically with grade level. According to the research conducted by Vatterott (2009), in grades 3 to 5, the correlation was zero, in grades 6 to 9, the correlation was .07; and in grades 10-12, the correlation was.25. However, 1.00 is a perfect correlation between two measures and zero means there is no correlation between the measures. 1.4Parental Involvement In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on encouraging parents to become involved in the education of their children. Most parents think the setting of homework as necessary and important (Vatterott, 2007). There are two reasons for parents wanting children in doing homework. The first reason is because homework works as the schools commitment to educational achievement and also that it gives them a platform to apply what they have learnt in the lesson. The second reason is parents who view homework as a criterion for assessing schools. Since communication between home and school is often difficult, homework takes up the role of providing a bridge between home and school. Parents can easily check what the teacher is teaching and the progress of their children based on the homework. However, we cannot interpret parents wanting their children to do well in school to mean that they want their children to have homework if the homework is not going to improve academic achievement (Jha, 2006). Some research has suggested that parental help with homework improves achievement (Hallam 2007; Chen and Stevenson 1989). Other research suggests that the findings are not conclusive or that effects are trifling (Levin el al. 1997; Vatterott 2007). This contradictory result implies that parents may provide more help for the students than they actually need with their school work. The worst situation is that tension may develop between parents and their children over their homework. Later on, it can cause frustration and disappointment and may be counter-productive to the students performance in school. 1.5 Homework Design Among most findings, there is a considerable agreement among teachers that homework is worthwhile. There are two major reasons for teachers to give students homework: instructional and non- instructional (Xu, 2005). For the instructional objective of homework, teachers use homework as a means of ensuring that students have went over and learned the curriculum in preparation for tests. The non-instructional purpose of homework is to develop student responsibility, social skills and communication between parents and teachers. Despite this, homework was seen to have a negative influence on family involvement (Van Voorhis 2003). There has been considerable interest in the feedback given to students when homework has been completed. There is general consensus that homework must be collected and marked (Van Voorhis, 2003). However, there is much less agreement about the most effective marking procedures. Marking homework is time-consuming. Most teachers assign, collect and mark the homework regularly. However, there is variation in the kind of feedback the teachers give. Feedback can vary from teachers providing students with a mark, grade, a written comment, e.g. Very good, good or seen. Giving grades seems to be effective (Xu, 2005) but the type of grading given seems to make little difference to learning outcomes. 1.6 Summary of the literature review With the support of the literature review, the definition of homework is clear to all readers in this report: tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during non-school hours (Copper 2007). The major issue surrounding the homework controversy is whether it can improve students achievement, the views of different stakeholders and the weakness of the existing research. We can see that there is a lack of students voices among the research. Part 2 Research Questions What kinds of homework do the students prefer? Do students attitudes to homework vary according to characteristics such as age-group and gender? Does homework help to instill positive attitudes and study habits? Nowadays, almost all research regarding homework is from the adults point of view. Very few of them try to put themselves into the shoes of students to look into the homework issue. Student is the core of our education; therefore, the research regarding homework is always incomplete without the voice of students. This study aims at finding students attitude on their English homework and the reasons why students do not hand in English homework. Part 3 Methodology 3.1 Design This research is an explorative qualitative case study, but also with some quantitative features. Multiple methods are used because they will provide the data I require to produce a complete piece of research. It is unwisely to solely depend on one method because it is labeled as qualitative study. The aim of this study is to explore the students attitudes to homework in order to encourage students to complete their English homework. Finally, educators and teachers may design more effective homework to help students learning better in the future. I collected data from both teachers and students by 6 in-depth interviews (Appendix E F) and 45 questionnaires (Appendix C D). The reason for using in-depth interviews is due to its adaptability and credibility of the study. On the other hand, the use of questionnaire is due to its convenience and time effectiveness (Patten, 1998). This research explored the Form 1 and Form 4 students attitude towards English homework. 3.2 Participants The setting of this research is a secondary school in Tuen Mun. Participants were one Form 1 class and one Form 4 class students and 5 English teachers. The study required exploring the attitude towards homework on two groups of students taking the English course at school. 3.2.1 Sampling For the questionnaire, all students and their English teachers in those classes were asked to participate in the questionnaire research. For the interviews, I only picked up some samples from the participants. I had in-depth interviews with 4 students and 2 teachers using purposive extreme sampling. Patton (1990) defined extreme sampling should be used when the case are rich in information because they are unusual or special in some way. (p.109) 3.3 Instrument 3.3.1 Interviews One major advantage of the interview is its adaptability. With interviews, I could follow up ideas, probe responses and explore the feelings of the respondents, which the questionnaire cannot do. I could ask follow up questions based on the response of the interviewees, such as, the tone, the facial expression and even the hesitation. According to Bell (2005), questionnaire responses have to be taken at face value, but a response in an interview can be developed and clarified (p.157) However, since interviews are time-consuming, I used group interviews instead of one to one interviews in the beginning. But I discovered that the disadvantages of group interviews overrode the advantage of one-to-one interviews. The first disadvantage is that some strong personalitys interviewees influenced and in some extent they took over the group and made it difficult for the less assertive interviewees to speak (Refers to Extract 2). In addition, one to one interview can maintain higher privacy than group interviews. After considering all the factors, I decided to redesign my interviews to individual interviews instead it is more time-consuming. Extract 2. The transcript of the interview Interviewer: Why do you not hand in the homework on time? Student A: Well, I do want to do it. But as you know, the English homework is really boring. It doesnt matter we do not do it as I can still can good results from the exam. Interviewer: We? How about students B? Do you agree with student A? Student B: amà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦yesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.probably. (Feel embarrassed) Student A: Let me tell you more. And we are very busy all the time. It is common that different subject teachers assign the homework on the same dayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.Its impossible for us to finish themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Besidesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. 3.3.2 Questionnaire Since there are only twenty students in each class, it is feasible to give out all questionnaires to the whole classes. With questionnaires, all respondents are presented with the same questions. Therefore, I could compare the responses among different groups easily. As long as, there is no interviewer coming between the respondent and the question, it is essential to design the effective question wording. Before I sent out the questionnaires, I discovered the wordings in my questionnaires were very ambiguous. Bell (2005) suggested that words which have a common meaning to you may mean something different to other people (p.138). For example, I wanted to find out how often students are able to hand in their English homework on-time. Originally, I used some very ambiguous wordings, such as, always, often, sometimes and etc (Refers to Example 3A). But after the pilot testing, I changed the options to a specific period of time. (Refers to Example 3B). Precision in wording is important s ince it enables me to compare the data later. Example 3A. BEFORE the pilot test :Question 3 in the students questionnaire Example 3B. AFTER: the pilot test: Question 3 in the students questionnaire 3.4 Procedure First of all, I obtained permission from Hong Kong Institute of Education, the school principal, the participating teachers and students to collect the data. This study lasted for 8 weeks, from 14th March 2011 to 20th May 2011. At the beginning of the study, I collected archival data in the form of their first uniform test scores and some of their English homework from the participating students, so that I can get a general picture of students completion of English homework. Since I have decided my research questions, I used the problem oriented approach to limit the amount of documents. The sources included both primary and secondary sources. According to Bell (2005), primary sources are those which came into existence in the period under research, such as, the English homework, the scores of the uniform test. Apart from the primary sources, I also collected some secondary resources. Secondary sources are interpretation of events based on primary sources (Munn, 2004), for example th e report card given by the teachers. All these documents gave me the background of the participants and reinforced the core of my research. In the second week, I gave my cousin, who is a secondary school student, to do the questionnaire as piloting the questionnaire. With the trial, I understood how long it takes recipients to complete them, to check that all questions and instructions are clear and to enable me to remove any items which do not yield usable data. There are two reasons why I chose my cousin to pilot the questionnaire. The first reason is that her background is similar to those that would form the population of my study. Therefore, her perception and understanding are similar to my respondents. The second reason is sincerity. Since she is an outsider of this research, she is willing to tell me her true feeling towards the questionnaire. I distributed the questionnaires in the lesson and asked the students to do them during the lesson at once. It makes sure that the return rate is one hundred percentage and students could ask questions when they were doing the questionnaires. After glancing through all responses from the questionnaires, I carefully picked up some extreme case from the respondents to the questionnaire. Since these respondents are rich in information and they possess the common characteristics of the groups. For example, I picked up two students: 1) one hands in ALL English homework and 2) one never hands in any English homework respectively. Therefore, I could compare the similarity and differences among these distinct groups easily. 3.5 Data Analysis First of all, all data got from document, questionnaires and interviews are only raw data. They have to be categorized and interpreted; otherwise, they are useless. After synthesizing all the data, they were analyzed by constant comparison, comparing the emerging themes from all the participants in all categories (Hatch, 2002). Next, I compared the categories yield by each of the subgroups: gender and age, to check the differences and similarities among their responses. Based on students preference, I synthesized the results by using the summary sheet. Lastly, I used the transcript-based analysis to evaluate the information from the in-depth interviews. Based on Krueger (1994), Transcript-Based analysis includes the below steps: 1) Make backup copies of the recordings 2) Transfer the recordings to transcript 3) Category the data 4) Go through the research questions 6) Develop coding categories and code the data 7) Classify the data into coding categories 8) Diagram the analysis 9) Revise data to check is there any important information missing. (p.157) 4. Findings 4.1 Background Diagram 5 shows that over 80% of students think homework is important. They agree that in ideal situation, homework can help them learn better and practice what they have learnt in the lessons. However, less than 35% of them can hand-in the English homework more than 3 times a week (Refers to diagram 6). Due to this contradictory result, the following research questions will look into the attitudes of students towards English homework deeply. Diagram 5: Is English homework important to your learning? (from the Questionnaire) Diagram 6: How often do you hand-in the English homework on-time? (From the Questionnaire) 4.2 Students preferences for different kinds of homework The findings show that students disliked homework which was about copying, boring and tedious. Students also complained that sometimes the English homework sometimes has little relationship to the work in hand, is poorly set, marked late and poor feedback from teachers. In students own words: I do not return the English homework because I dont like doing those kinds of homework, such as, newspaper cutting and writing journal. They are not related to what we are learning. It is very boring to do the same type of English homework every weekend. (From a Form 4 student) I wanted to hand-in the homework, but sometimes I just cant. Once I go back home, I cant control myself to play the computer games. In the beginning of the semester, I was still able to hand in their English on time, or at least able to hand them in one day. But later on, I discovered that my English teacher did not scold me, even I did not hand in the homework. So, Im just used to not hand in the English homework now. (From a Form 1 student) From the findings, I found out that there is a range of factors affected pupils attitudes towards doing their English homework including motivation, mood, teachers response and quality and quantity of homework. Surprisingly, more than 80% students said that they would hand in their English homework if the teachers carry out some actions if the students do not hand in the homework (Refers to Diagram 7). Diagram 7: Teachers will take some negative consequences to students who cannot hand in the English homework. Do you think it is useful to encourage you to hand in the English homework on-time? In teachers own words: Im just very busy. Its impossible for me to check whether every student has handed in their English homework. (From a male English teacher) What actions I can take? If I ask them to attend the detention class, I have to go too. And somehow, I think students should take up their own learning responsibility. (From a female teacher) Students said that they enjoyed and valued homework when it was: well-explained; had adequate deadlines; interesting and at their level. Similarly, the findings show that students dislike doing homework that neither consolidated nor contributed to their learning. However, the reality is teachers are under heavy workload. They do not have extra time to care for the homework issue. 4.3 Relationships between students characteristics and altitudes to homework Students attitudes to homework seem to vary according to background factors, such as gender and age. For example, apart from spending more time on homework, female students seems to have a better attitudes towards it than the male students 4.3.1 Gender and Age Diagram 8: Relationship between gender and time spent on English homework a week From the above table, we can conclude that female students tend to spend longer time doing their English homework than the male students. Apart from the longer time, the English teachers expressed that female students are more conscientious with regard to homework and their homework are tidy, well planned and showed evidence of effort. On the other hand, male students seem spending very few amount of time on it. They are easily distracted by other things, such as, extra-curricular activities, computer games and some gang activities. Both boys and girls believe that homework is important in helping them to do well in school, although this tendency is stronger in girls especially in the senior forms. Based on the findings from the questionnaires, male students tended to spend more time in larger groups after school, whereas girls like spending time with a single close friend, which may be working on homework together. 4.4 Homeworks influence on attitudes to study Instilling a positive attitude towards study is always claimed the major reason of assigning homework to students. Diagram 9A 9B show that older students seem to give internal reasons for doing their homework, such as, revision and keep themselves on the track to the lessons. On the other hand, junior students tended to give more external reasons for doing English homework: obeying the teachers and parents. Diagram9A Diagram 9B This is probably an indication that students are developing more self-regulated and responsible attitudes when they are grown-up. Some students, especially junior students, are forced to do homework, so it is difficult to prove whether doing homework can facilitate the acquisition of self-regulatory skills. Therefore, this is another area that could clearly benefit from further research. 4.5 Summary of the responses The result reveals that most students think that homework is important to learning. Students prefer homework that is interesting and let them feel successful. Homework like journal and newspaper cutting make students feel bored because they are tedious and they only do a lot of copying instead. (Extract from the student interview). In addition, the relationship between students characteristics and attitudes towards homework is directly related. Male students like playing outside and hanging out with friends after schools, especially for junior students. Some students indicated that they learnt better through researches, projects and other learning activities. The key point in the data shows that students change their attitudes towards when they are grown up. 5. Discussion In the following parts, future directions are given based on previous literature reviews and my research findings. And then, I will suggest some future studies so as to make the homework issue clear to everybody. 5.1 Explanation of the findings 5.1.1 Students preferences for different kinds of homework Both the literature reviews and findings show that homework is mainly for scrutiny. It is routinely given to satisfy school requirements or meet the curriculum needs. It is high time that careful consideration to its purpose and the need to align tasks with aims. The role of teachers to the students completion of English homework cannot be underestimated. Both the amount the teachers set and the types of feedback given have an impact on the motivation of the students to complete it. It is rare that schools will reward students for completing homework. They always assume that students should take up their own responsibility to finish the homework. If teachers do not give constructive feedbacks or even worse they do not mark it, then the students will have no motivation to do the homework. The data from the study suggests that 80% of the participating teachers have not received any training related to designing homework. It is essential to provide professional development for designing homework. And government should help to balance the workload of teachers, so that teachers can put more time to design high quality homework. 5.1.2 Relationships between students characteristics and attitudes to homework Almost all students agree that homework is important; however, they think the nature of homework hinder them to hand in their English homework on-time. Teachers like assigning homework, like, writing journal and newspaper cutting. All these assignment are easily set by the teachers; however, students do not see the points of learning from these authentic materials. It is suggested that homework should be tailored to be aligned to the learning aims. For example, if the aim is to promote independent learning, then the teachers should try to devise some interesting tasks. Ideally, homework can even have a bigger function if teachers can skillfully set the homework. For example, homework can even help to improve examination performance. Combinations of aims can be met over time through providing variety in homework. 5.1.3 Homeworks influence on attitudes to study Students value homework because they think it can improve their learning and future prospects. At the same time, some regard homework as an encroachment on their leisure time, especially male students. They expect that teachers can give different types of homework to different students and which have to be related to their ongoing classroom work. For example, boys should be given more group work rather than individual work. Although different students hold various attitudes towards homework, all of them hope the same attitude: we need someone to listen to our concerns. There is no doubt that students are the ones who bear the consequences of not completing homework. But, as an educator, we have the responsibility to explore the students attitude towards homework and design appropriate homework to them. 5.2 Recommendations for further study The weaknesses of this study prompt three major recommendations for further study. Firstly, this study is a small scale qualitative study due to the time and resources constraints. A larger qualitative study is needed to increase the validity. It is suggested that we set up a forum for discussion, so that students can leave the comments freely in anonymous. Secondly, I tried to relate attitude to time spend on English homework in the third research question. However, students may do the homework because their parents force them to so, rather than they sincerely want to do the English homework by themselves. Moreover, it is difficult to define when the effect of classroom teaching ends and the effect of homework begins. Besides, it is not easy to check how the prior learning influences the achievement. Homework research is especially complicated because we are checking the effect of something than happens out of our sight and out of our control (Vatterott, 2009). Therefore, the settin g of the research should extend to the home, rather than simply classroom. The third recommendation is to add socio economic factors to the study. This study mainly reveals students attitude from their own individual factors, another factors should be included to strengthen the findings.

I, Too, Am America :: essays research papers

I, Too, Am America by kooshla America, the melting pot of the world, and yet its different races have so much trouble melding together. According to statistics, in all probability, I have a higher chance than any other race teenager of not graduating from high school. By stereotype, all I do is eat fried chicken, sell drugs, and play basketball. In society, I might work twice as hard as the next man and not get the promotion. I am a part of the percentage who chooses to defy the probability, break the stereotype, and change society. I, Too, Am America. Unfortunately, in my experience through junior and senior high, the common black attitude towards education has been one of neglect. Not caring about one "F," or the other, careening through high school with a gpa of 1.5. However, there are those who really care about their grades, earning the respect of their peers and friends. I strive to be in the latter group, so that I can better myself. For every black student who makes that extra effort, that better grade, there will be another person who becomes more enlightened to the facts and not the fiction of black life in America. In the act of improving my mind, I am not only helping myself but furthering the cause for complete equality throughout the nation. As part of America's black youth, I must grow up in a world of racism, no matter what supposed "huge steps" have been made. It is up to me not to use this as an excuse but as an obstacle to surmount. In my lifetime I will be faced with prejudice which may hinder my progress. This opposition must not be met with excuses for substandard work, or inadequate job qualification. It must be met with a serious work ethic, justly qualified applicants, and intelligence so not to be denied for any reason. Through this procedure black people will gain equality and vanquish the racist mentality. I will be one of those people to meet the adversary with full force of mind. I am a black teenager who plays soccer and tennis. Sometimes I am ridiculed for playing these sports by other blacks. I also face ridicule when I make good grades and care about my school work. There will be times when I will have to fight against my own race to get where I want to be in life. My high school career is one of those times. I am and will continue to be myself. I will not stray from my path.

Rebuttal to Killing Them Softly Essay -- Jacob Sullum Tobacco Essays

Rebuttal to â€Å"Killing Them Softly† â€Å"Killing Them Softly,† an essay by Jacob Sullum, addresses the issue of Senator Judd Gregg’s bill to give the Food and Drug Administration control over tobacco products. This bill would allow the FDA to make such decisions as halting tobacco companies’ marketing of safer tobacco products and reducing the nicotine content in cigarettes. Sullum argues that by giving the FDA the power to make such decisions, individual consumers would be disadvantaged and lives could possibly be lost instead of saved. If given control of such decisions, the FDA would not allow the introduction of safer tobacco products as they feel this will increase the number of smokers. They feel more people will begin using these products that are advertised as less harmful substances, whereas Sullum feels it would be better for people to change their habits to these â€Å"safer alternatives.† Sullum fails to consider benefits of relinquishing control to the FDA, however. By c onsidering some of the positive results, Sullum might develop a different opinion and support the bill as he should. One major point that Sullum tries to emphasize is how people’s health will be disadvantaged once the FDA is given control. When making the decision about marketing safer tobacco products, the FDA is concerned about how the introduction of smokeless tobacco will be interpreted by the â€Å"population as a whole.† Sullum, on the other hand, believes the concern should be with individual consumers. He believes smokers could be doing something healthier for themselves if the FDA promoted smokeless tobacco. However, the FDA believes advertising smokeless tobacco as a less harmful substitute for cigarette smoking misleads people and encourage... ...rth thinking about, it is in the best interest of the â€Å"population as a whole† that the Food and Drug Administration be given the rights to control the image that tobacco receives and exploit its negative aspects. Works Cited 1Up Health. Tobacco Use - Smoking and Smokeless Tobacco. 2003. 9 Oct. 2003. . Just Eliminate Lies. A Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control. 9 Dec. 2003. . Kick Butts Day. Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids. 9 Dec. 2003. . Sullum, Jacob. â€Å"Killing Them Softly.† Reason Online. 19 Sept. 2003. 2 Oct. 2003. . Teens Against Tobacco Use. American Lung Association. 9 Dec. 2003. .

The First Crusade Essay -- essays research papers

The First Crusade As the year 1000A.D. was approaching the strength of Christianity in Western Europe was growing along with its population. The newly reformed and organized Church began to gain great power. A new Europe was being born with the Catholic Church as a force in every area of life. In Christian beliefs, the savior, Jesus Christ was to return to earth and bring judgment on its people. Many clergy members along with lay people believed this would take place in the year 1000A.D. . Knowing this, the people of Europe awaited the return of Christ and feared the Wrath of God. Religious people wanted to make up for their sins and avoid the horrors of eternal damnation. Clergy members were often consulted to figure out what would be a suitable penance. " The Church itself still frequently imposed pilgrimages as a penance" (Campbell p.14). A pilgrimage to the Holy Land was not an easy task to say the least. The road to Jerusalem was jagged. On the way to Jerusalem, pilgrims were often murdered by thieves. They were defenseless and often did not return. Some pilgrims did return from the Holy Land. They came back with tales that planted the seeds for a Crusade. "The pilgrims that returned from the Holy City of Jerusalem recounted tales, often grossly exaggerated, of the horrible pollution of the sacred places at the hands of the Turks" (Campbell p23). Other stories of the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the burial place of Jesus, by the Turks surfaced in the early eleventh century. The news of the destruction of the Sepulcher was mourned in every Christian country. The nations looked to Rome for a solution to this most serious of Problems. The Byzantine emperor asked for the aid of the Pope to help him with his Turk problem. To the Pope, it would be a strategic move to aid the Byzantine emperor. The Pope realized that this offered the opportunity to re-establish the universal Church and establish the supremacy of Rome. In 1095, at the Council of Clermont in southern France, "Urban II challenged Christians to take up their weapons against the infidels and participate in a holy war and recapture the Holy Land" (Spielvogel,p344). Pope Urban II addressed the French telling them of the horrors im... ...m the clutches of non-Christian rulers. They successfully carried out the wishes of the Pope and , more importantly, what they believed to be the " Will of God ." The crusading knights gained new powers through the conquest along with salvation. Economically, the First Crusade was a success for Western Europe. New ports on the Mediterranean were in the hands of Western lords, opening new gates for trade. On the other hand, the First Crusade could be seen to be a failure in many ways. Relations with the Byzantine Empire grew far more distant. The Pope's dream of unifying the eastern and western churches could not be achieved. The gruesome display of barbarism on behalf of the Crusaders could also be seen as a failure in morals. It seemed that the Crusaders, for the most part, lost their way. Their goals switched from religious to materialistic. The First Crusade was the first installment in a series that lose their " holiness" and become less successful. Militarily, the First Crusade was an utter success. It started a hatred for the West by the Near and Middle Eastern peoples that still is strong today.

Discuss the Significance of Studying Different Philosophical World Views of Teacher Education?

Education provides a foundation for a child to base the rest of his or her life on. Without a solid education, it becomes impossible for an individual to provide for themselves and their family. Also, well-educated people can make decisions that benefit both their own interests and the interests of society as a whole. In this paper, the author will address the different opinions of philosophy about education. The nature of the student will then be addressed followed by the nature of knowledge and finally the purpose of education.In conclusion, the author will compare and contrast the two main theories; that of realism and idealism. No two students are exactly alike. Nevertheless, they do share one fundamental character†¦ the character of an inquisitiveness to learn. Educational philosophy is no doubt a matter that has changed over the decades, and still today not everyone is in total agreement on the subject. However, one thing is certain- philosophy is the foundation of educati onal styles.Today, four basic educational philosophies exist including idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism. All four philosophies are very different, but all strive for the same goal, to better our education system. Although every teacher has a different style of teaching that can be considered their own, they all adhere to one of the four basic philosophies. However, it may take a teacher many years to master, and recognize their style as one of the philosophies.The child centred educational approach holds that the teacher is a facilitator, a guide, an advisor and fellow traveller and therefore, the teacher must provide warmth and nurture emotions whilst continuing to function as a resource centre. Creating an appropriate learning environment where all students feel that they have the ability to learn and succeed is an essential responsibility of the teacher. As a child’s education is the most important tool that they will ever acquire throughout their lifetime , it is imperative for the teacher to find a way to relate to each and every student under their direct responsibility.The domain of education is vast, the issues it raises are almost overwhelmingly numerous and are of great complexity, and the social significance of the field is second to none. These features make the phenomena and problems of education of great interest to a wide range of socially-concerned intellectuals, who bring with them their own favoured conceptual frameworks—concepts, theories and ideologies, methods of analysis and argumentation, metaphysical and other assumptions, criteria for selecting evidence that has relevance for the problems that they consider central, and the like.It is no surprise, then, to find that the significant intellectual and social trends of the past few centuries, together with the significant developments in philosophy, all have had an impact on the content and methods of argument in philosophy of education—Marxism, psycho- analysis, existentialism, phenomenology, positivism, post-modernism, pragmatism, neo-liberalism, the several waves of feminism, analytic philosophy in both its ordinary language and more formal guises, are merely the tip of the iceberg.It is revealing to note some of the names that were heavily-cited in the field (in alphabetical order): Adorno, Aristotle, Derrida, Descartes, Dewey, Habermas, Hegel, Horkheimer, Kant, Locke, Lyotard, Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Plato, Rawls, Richard Rorty, Rousseau, and Wittgenstein (Curren 2003; Blake, Smeyers, Smith, and Standish 2003). Although this list conveys something of the diversity of the field, it fails to do it complete justice, for the influence of feminist philosophers is not adequately represented.Regardless of the size of the iceberg, authoritative scholars relate and argue that most educational philosophies today are developed from the idealistic and realistic view points. Idealism and realism in education are often considered together in educational philosophy under the name essentialism. This is in part because, although they are of the universe differ radically, their view concerning the nature of truth are similar. Both of these positions, as we shall see, view truth as immutable, permanent, and unchanging.The main tenant of idealism is that ideas and knowledge are the truest reality. Many things in the world change, but ideas and knowledge are enduring. Idealism was often referred to as â€Å"idea-ism†. Idealists believe that ideas can change lives. The most important part of a person is the mind. It is to be nourished and developed. Idealism is a product of ancient Greece and Rome, mainly Socrates. Although Socrates’ ideals are the basis for the idealist philosophy, it was his student Plato, who is considered the founder of idealism.The Platonic theory that ultimate reality lies in a realm beyond the real world that the real world is a by-product of mental or supernatural states; art that rejects realism for the world of imagination. Park, Joe. (1968: 23). The philosophy â€Å"focuses on the spiritual and intellectual development of the individual†(ibid: 27). According to Chambliss, idealist attempt to describe ideas, mind, consciousness, form, thought, energy, and other non-material concepts† Chambliss, (J. J. 1996: 33). The educational approach of this philosophy is of a holistic nature.In which self-realization and character development is strongly supported. The idealist feels that with the growth of a fine moral character as well as personal reflection, wisdom is gained. The holistic approach is supported instead of a specialized concentration on a specific targeted area (ibid: 52). By combining experiences gained through critical thinking and dealing with broader topics, the idealist creates an environment in which a learner can rationalize information across curriculum. Idealism as a philosophy had its greatest impact during the nineteenth century Kamins ky, James S. 1993: 14). Kaminsky further states that ‘its influence in today’s world is less important than it has been in the past’ (1993: 18). Idealism is the conclusion that the universe is expression of intelligence and will, that the enduring substance of the world is the nature of the mind, that the material is explained by the mental. Idealism as a philosophy stands in contrast with all those systems of thought that centre in nature (naturalism) or in man (humanism). According to idealism to be means to be experienced by a person.Idealism holds that the order of the world is due to the manifestation in space and time of an eternal and spiritual reality. As to knowledge, idealism holds that knowledge is man thinking the thoughts and purposes of this eternal and spiritual reality as they are embodied in our world of fact. As to ethics, idealism holds that the goodness of man's individual and social life is the conformity of the human will with the moral admi nistration of the universe. In idealism, the aim of education is to discover and develop each individual's abilities and full moral excellence in order to better serve society.The curricular emphasis is subject matter of mind: literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Teaching methods focus on handling ideas through lecture, discussion, and Socratic dialogue (a method of teaching that uses questioning to help students discover and clarify knowledge). Introspection, intuition, insight, and whole-part logic are used to bring to consciousness the forms or concepts which are latent in the mind. Character is developed through imitating examples and heroes. Idealism has been influential in education for a considerable amount of time.It is considered a conservative philosophy because of its emphasis in preserving cultural traditions. The strengths of idealism include encouraging thinking and cognition, promoting cultural learning, and providing for character development of students. T eachers are considered valuable parts of the educational process who should strive to provide a comprehensive, systematic and holistic approach to learning that stress self realisation. Scholars today have challenged idealism and brought about challenges and maybe changes to the idealistic approach. Blake, Nigel; Smeyers et al: (248).Aristotle, a student of Plato, developed the basis for the philosophy known as realism. Realism â€Å"holds that objects and happenings exist regardless of how we perceive them† Archambault, Reginald D. , ed. (1965: 103). Thomas Jefferson is one of the more known realists. Teachers who are realists â€Å"focus on reason and thinking† (ibid: 111). The philosophical perspective possessed by a teacher has on affects the ability and effectiveness of their teaching methods. Therefore a teacher must be one who appreciates and respects education and formalized schooling.In this metaphysical view, the aim is to understand objective reality through â€Å"the diligent and unsparing scrutiny of all observable data†. (ibid: 119). Aristotle believed that to understand an object, its ultimate form had to be understood, which does not change. For example, a rose exists whether or not a person is aware of it. A rose can exist in the mind without being physically present, but ultimately, the rose shares properties with all other roses and flowers (its form), although one rose may be red and another peach coloured.Aristotle also was the first to teach logic as a formal discipline in order to be able to reason about physical events and aspects Jarret, James L. , ed. (1969: 78). The exercise of rational thought is viewed as the ultimate purpose for humankind. The Realist curriculum emphasizes the subject matter of the physical world, particularly science and mathematics. The teacher organizes and presents content systematically within a discipline, demonstrating use of criteria in making decisions.Teaching methods focus on master y of facts and basic skills through demonstration and recitation. Students must also demonstrate the ability to think critically and scientifically, using observation and experimentation. Curriculum should be scientifically approached, standardized, and distinct-discipline based. Character is developed through training in the rules of conduct. The educational principles developed by Plato, Aristotle and et al, and numerous educational theorists and philosophers in the interregnum, are alive and well in the twenty-first century.Of particular contemporary interest is the evolution that has occurred of the progressive idea that each student is an active learner who is pursuing his or her own individual educational path. By incorporating elements of the classical empiricist epistemology of John Locke, this progressive principle has become transformed into the extremely popular position known as constructivism, according to which each student in a classroom constructs his or her own indi vidual body of understandings even when all in the group are given what appears to be the same stimulus or educational experience. A consequence of this is that a classroom of thirty students will have thirty individually-constructed, and possibly different, bodies of â€Å"knowledge†, in addition to that of the teacher! ). There is also a solipsistic element here, for constructivists also believe that none of us—teachers included—can directly access the bodies of understandings of anyone else; each of us is imprisoned in a world of our own making. It is an understatement to say that this poses great difficulties for the teacher.The education journals of the past two decades contain many thousands of references to discussions of this position, which elsewhere the author claimed has become a type of educational â€Å"secular religion†; for reasons that are hard to discern it is particularly influential in mathematics and science education. The teacher shou ld therefore be able to ‘mix and juggle’ through the different viewpoints to be able to relate to the disparate intellectual capacity of the students.