Maritime Students Perception on School Related activities Essay

School activities are very important for the students and for the school. For the students, because they gain new skills and motivation. It’s a real chance for them to enjoy school and choose to do something they are really interested and passionate about, and therefore their motivation for learning and their motivation for their teachers and the school increase. It makes them relate academic knowledge to the practical experience, which leads to a better understanding of their own abilities, talents, and career goals and for the school because as studies shows that such participation provides marginal students an opportunity to create a positive and voluntary connection to their school also. Involvement in extracurricular activities may support the at-risk student by maintaining, enhancing, and strengthening the student-school connection therefore decreases dropout School activities at St. Therese MTC – Colleges are often held when there is a celebration it’s either a school celebration (like foundation day), national or international. These were held most especially for the enjoyment of the students and for them to fulfill their potentials. But these activities often cancels classes. We cannot hide the fact some students are not participating in the school activities thus, they take the cancellation of classes as an opportunity for them to go out and do whatever they want that commonly results into bad things like drinking alcohols, taking drugs and other vices. While some considers it as a burden for it adds to there payment. Some consider it mainly as a disruption of classes and a delay to their learning. While some consider it very important and take the opportunity to express and discover themselves, enjoy and boost their potentials. Every person have varying perception on things especially on things that they really do not know about. And everytime there is an activity students make a different perception about it. Either good or bad. These perceptions are very important in the part of the organizers and to the facilitators for it makes them know if the activity was successful or not and what will they do to make it more successful so that they could apply it the next time they conduct the same activity. Maritime Courses here in the Philippines are at high cost. Though many are still taking it because of high demand in the market and higher salary rate especially on international voyages where one earns dollar, many of the maritime students are coming from families having low Socio Economic Status (SES). Still they pursue even though they get through loans and depts hoping that when their children graduate and get onboard ships they can easily pay all their depts and raise their life’s situation. Every centavo and Peso is important. It is a product of blood and sweat of those who earned it. That’s why in every centavo and a peso increase in the accounts of the student adds to the burden of their family. Rumors were heard every time there is an activity and everytime the statement of account were released. Some say that another payment is added to the school fee. While some say that the payment was worth it. For these reasons that triggered the researchers to conduct this study to further find out and discuss the real perception of maritime students on school related activities and create a guidelines on what and how to conduct the activities the maritime students want. Statement of the Problem This research aims to find out what are the perceptions of maritime students towards school related activities. Consequently, this research study seeks answers to the following questions: 1. What are the school related activities of ST-MTCC engaged by Maritime students when classified as to course and year level? 2. What are the perceptions of Maritime students on school related activities when classified as to course and year level? 3. How to conduct the activities that the students want? 4. Is there a significant difference on the perception of the maritime students to school related activities when classified as to course and year level? Objectives of the study This research main objectives is to determine and discuss the main perception of Maritime students about the school related activities. Furthermore it aims to: 1. Determine the school related activities of ST-MTCC students when classified as to course and year level. 2. Determine the perception of Maritime students on school related activities when classified as to course and year level. 3. Determine how to conduct the activities that the students want. 3. Find out the significant difference of the students on school related activities when classifies as to course and year level. Hypotheses Based on the foregoing statements, the hypotheses are advanced: H0 There is no significant difference on the perception of the Maritime students on school related activities when classifies as to course and year level. H1 There is a significant difference the perception of the Maritime students on school related activities when classifies as to course and year level. Definition of Terms Activities – things being done for leisure, fun or learning (Meriam Websters Dictionary) In this study activities refers to the school related activities participated by the ST-MTCC Maritime students. BSMar E – (Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering) In this study BSMar E refers to the Maritime course that focuses on studying the works and obligations of the Engine Department onboard ship. BSMT – (Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation) In this study BSMT refers to the Maritime course that focuses on studying the works and obligations of the Deck Department onboard ship. Maritime Students– in this study maritime students refers to students taking up Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) and Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering (BSMar E) courses. Perception – the act or faculty of perceiving , or apprehending by means or of the mind; understanding. In this study perception refers to the understanding of the students about the school related activities. School – an institution for the teaching of children (Meriam Websters Dictionary) In this study school refers to St. Therese MTC- Colleges (ST-MTCC), Tigbauan Site. Year level – in this study, year level refers to the level achieved in school by which the respondents are enrolled in. Significance of the study The conduct and result of this study will bring benefits to the following: School Administration – the significant result Made from this study will serve as guide to the Student Affairs Office, Office of the Students Services, Student Executive Council, and other activity implementing departments and bodies of the school. Students – The significant result of this study would help the students enjoy the activities and satisfy their expectations as the result of this research were applied. Future Researches – this study was highly recommended to have a further study on the same topic. Scope and Limitations of the Study The descriptive study will be conducted to find out the perception of the maritime students on school related activities. This study will involve 310 students who are taking Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) and Bachelor of Science Marine Engineering (BSMarE) SY 2012-2013. The participants will be selected randomly and will be classified according to course and year level. The data to be used in this study will be gathered by the researchers. The Antecedent Variable will be the respondents’ course and year level and the School Related activities classified into in and out campus activities The dependent variable to be treated in this study will be the perception of the maritime students on school related activities. This study will be conducted at St. Therese MTC-Colleges in Tigbauan, Iloilo on June-October 2013. The descriptive statistics to be used in this study will be the mean and mean standard deviation. The inferential statistics to be used will be the Mann Whitney U test for independent samples, Kruskal Wallis H Test, and Spearman Rho to determine the perception of the students in school related activities. All levels of significance will be set at 0.05 alpha. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Software (SPSS) version 16.0 will be used to process the data. Chapter II Review of Related Literature Key Concepts on Benefits of Co-curricular Activities Activities Support the Academic Mission of Schools School Activities are not a diversion but rather an extension of a good educational program. Students who participate in activity programs tend to have higher grade-point averages, better attendance records, lower dropout rates and fewer discipline problems than students generally. Activities are inherently Educational Activity programs provide valuable lessons for practical situations – teamwork, sportsmanship, winning and losing, and hard work. Through participation in activity programs, students learn self-discipline, build self-confidence and develop skills to handle competitive situations. These are qualities the public expects schools to produce in students so that they become responsible adults and productive citizens. Activities Are Privileges, Attendance Is Required School districts typically define extracurricular activities as privileges; students earn the right to participate by complying with school rules and regulations. These typically include rules on school and class attendance. Annandale High School in Virginia, for example, has an extracurricular activities participation policy that requires students to attend all scheduled classes on the day of a competition or activity to be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities on that day Outreach Activities Outreach activities are designed to strengthen the relationship between a school system and the surrounding town groups or businesses. Outreach activities invite students to become more active members of their community as well as encourage community members to become part of the school community. Activities Foster Success in Later Life Participation in school activities is often a predictor of later success – in a career and becoming a contributing member of society. Students who spend no time in extracurricular activities are 49% more likely to use drugs and 37% more likely to become teen parents than those who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities. Extracurricular school activities are often important to adolescent students, and they have many benefits. Students learn how to lead through student government or how to play a musical instrument, or take on the responsibility of teamwork in sports, while maintaining their academics. The challenge of balancing these competing responsibilities is an opportunity for students to grow and mature. Educators have studied the relationship between class attendance and extracurricular activities, and many schools set policy in these areas. Foreign Studies A 2010 study of a western Nebraska school district found a correlation between a student’s extracurricular activities and her attendance record. The study concluded that students who participated in extracurricular activities had a higher rate of school attendance than students who did not participate. It used data from 2007-08 and 2008-09 pertaining to 275 of the district’s high school graduates. A University of Massachusetts educator studied middle and high school students and how certain school-related factors — including extracurricular activities and school attendance — affected their eventual completion of a college degree. The study concluded that a student’s good attendance — not skipping classes or school — had a positive correlation to college degree completion. Additionally, the study concluded that the more a student participated in school-sponsored extracurricular activities, the more likely he was to complete a bachelor’s degree. The study also tested these results across racial lines and found that attendance was equally important to future completion of the bachelor’s degree regardless of the student’s race or ethnicity. A Harvard Educational Review article in 2002 found that participation in extracurricular activities in high school appears to be one of the few interventions that benefit low-status, disadvantaged students – those less well served by traditional educational programs – as much or more than their more advantaged peers. In telephone interviews of a national sample of teens in 2001, more than half (54%) said they wouldn’t watch so much TV or play video games if they had other things to do after school. The same survey found that more than half of teens wish there were more community or neighborhood-based programs available after school, and two- thirds of those surveyed said they would participate in such programs if they were available. Bonnie Barber and her colleagues, contributors to the 2005 book, Organized Activities as Developmental Contexts for Children and Adolescents, concluded that making diverse clubs and activities available to a wide range of students is important. The opportunity to embed one’s identity in multiple extracurricular contexts and to experience multiple competencies facilitates attachment to school and adjustment. Activity participation is also linked to affiliation with peers who are academically focused. Adolescents can benefit from this synergistic system when they have opportunities to participate in diverse activities. A Minnesota State High  School League survey of 300 Minnesota high schools showed that the average GPA of a student-athlete was 2.84, compared with 2.68 for the average student, and that student-athletes missed an average of only 7.4 days of school each year, compared with 8.8 for the average student. (Trevor Born. High Standard for GPA, in Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 14, 2007.) Participation in extra-curricular activities provides all students – including students from disadvantaged backgrounds, minorities and those with otherwise less than distinguished academic achievements in high school – a measurable and meaningful gain in their college admissions test scores according to researchers Howard T.Everson and Roger E. Millsap, writing for the College Entrance Examination Board in 2005. In a 2006 research project published by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE), it was found that 18-25 years old who participate in sports activities while in high school were more likely than nonparticipants to be engaged in volunteering, regular volunteering, registering to vote, voting in the 2000 election, feeling comfortable speaking in a public setting, and watching news (especially sport news) more closely than non-participants. An extensive study commissioned by the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association found, in that Canadian province in 2006, an average of 78.3% of Alberta’s top corporate CEOs and Members of the Legislative Assembly had participated in interschool sports. Nearly 80% indicated that being involved in school sports significantly, extensively or moderately complemented their career development and/or academic 5 pursuits. This same study pointed out that normal participation rate of students in high school sports is around 30 to 35%. The corporate and political leaders surveyed in Alberta (see above) cited the following benefits associated with their involvement in high school athletics: teamwork, discipline, goal setting, leadership, independence, self confidence, stress relief, character development and personal growth, fair play, and acceptance of others. From a cost standpoint, activity programs are an exceptional bargain when matched against the overall school district’s education budget. Researcher Richard Learner, writing in Promoting Positive Youth Development through Community After-School Programs, found that informal educational and developmentally supportive experiences offered to young people in the context of after-school or community-based programs are a potent source of resources  increasing the probability of positive development among youth. In 2003, the Journal of Adolescent Research reported that extracurricular activity participation is linked to lower rates of dropping out of school, greater civic involvement and higher levels of academic achievement. Moreover, research tracking participation from eighth through twelfth grades and examining outcomes in the postsecondary years concluded that consistent participation has positive effects that last over a moderate length of time. Extracurricular activities stand out from other aspects of adolescents’ lives at school because, according to the Winter 2005 issue of the Journal of Leisure Research, they provide opportunities to develop initiative and allow youth to learn emotional competencies and develop new social skills. A study conducted by Boston University, and published in Adolescence, Winter 2001, reported on a survey of 1,115 Massachusetts high school students. Survey results indicated that athletes were significantly less likely to use cocaine and psychedelics, and less likely to smoke cigarettes. Researchers writing in 2004 in the American Journal of Health Behavior conducted an examination of cross-sectional data from a nationally representative sample of high school students enrolled in public high schools in the U.S. They showed that students participating in organized sports were 25 percent less likely to be current cigarette smokers Stephanie Gerstenblith and her fellow researchers, writing in the 2005 book, Organized Activities as Developmental Contexts for Children and Adolescents state, â€Å"Just as schools with efficient procedures and structure have been found to have positive outcomes, our findings indicate that participants in after school programs with these qualities experience reductions in rebellious behavior and increases in intentions not to use drugs.† In 1985, the NFHS sponsored a national survey of high school principals and nearly 7,000 high school students in all 50 states. The survey, funded by a grant from the Lilly Endowment in Indianapolis, was conducted by Indiana University in cooperation with the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Following are the results of that survey. 10 95 percent believed that participation in activities teaches valuable lessons to students that cannot be learned in a regular class routine. 99 percent agreed that participation in activities promotes citizenship 95 percent agreed that activity programs contribute to the development of â€Å"school  spirit† among the student body. 76 percent said they believe the demand made on students’ time by activities is not excessive. 72 percent said there is strong support for school activity programs from parents and the community at large. Students who compete in high school activity programs make higher grades and have better attendance. A study of nearly 22,000 students conducted by a University of Colorado professor for the Colorado High School Activities Association which was released in the fall of 1999 indicates students who participate in some form of interscholastic activities have â€Å"significantly higher† grade-point averages than students who do not. Data obtained from the spring 1997 study by Dr. Kevin J. McCarthy revealed student participants in Jefferson County high schools had an overall grade-point average of 3.093 on a 4.0 scale, while the GPA for non-participants was 2.444. Jefferson County School District, the state’s largest school district, has matched the academic success of its students with success on the playing field. The 16 district schools have won a combined 39 state championships in the 1990s in sports, while its music programs consistently bring home â€Å"superior† ratings. Nancy Darling, et al., writing in the 2005 Journal of Leisure Research notes that extracurricular activities allow youth to form new connections with peers and acquire social capital. They are one of the few contexts, outside of the classroom, where adolescents regularly come in contact with adults to whom they are not related. Students who spend no time in extracurricular activities are 49% more likely to use drugs and 37% more likely to become teen parents than those who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities (United States Department of Education. No Child Left Behind: The facts about 21st Century Learning. Washington, DC: 2002.) On June 23, 2000, then President Bill Clinton issued an Executive Memorandum directing the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Education to work together to identify and report within 90 days on â€Å"strategies to promote better health for our nation’s youth through physical activity and fitness.† The resulting report entitled â€Å"Promoting Better Health for Young People through Physical Activity and Sports was released in November 2000 and stated that â€Å"enhancing 7 efforts to promote participation in physical activity and sports among young people is a critical national priority.† Of the 60 students listed in the May 14, 1998, USA Today’s All-USA High School Academic First, Second and Third Teams and the 51 who earned honorable mention, 75 percent were involved in sports, speech, music or debate. The 29th annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes toward the Public Schools of September 1997 reflects an increase in perceptions about the value of co curricular activities. In 1978, 45 percent of the public, judged extracurricular activities to be very important. That figure fell to 31 percent in 1984. In 1985, the figure was 39 percent and jumped to 63 percent in the 1997 poll. The 1997 poll also asked about the emphasis placed on such sports as football and basketball. Fifty-three percent of the respondents believed the current emphasis was about right. In a survey of 4,800 high school students in March 1995, the Minnesota State High School League found that 91 percent of them said students who participate in school activities tend to be school leaders and role models; 92 percent said that participation in school activities provides an opportunity not found in a regular classroom setting to develop self-discipline. Adolescent Time Use, Risky Behavior, and Outcomes: An Analysis of National Data, issued in September 1995, by the Department of Health and Human Services found that students who spend no time in extracurricular activities are 57 percent more likely to have dropped out of school by the time they would have been seniors; 49 percent more likely to have used drugs; 37 percent more likely to have become teen parents; 35 percent more likely to have smoked cigarettes; and 27 percent more likely to have been arrested than those who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities. A study by Search Institute in 1995 indicates that co curricular activities play a central role in students’ healthy development. Yet too many schools are finding it necessary to cut these programs for budgetary reasons. With asset building as a focus, these programs are not peripheral to the school’s mission, but important components of a comprehensive strategy. In the March 1997 issue of School Counselor, 123 students involved in interscholastic soccer are analyzed. Results indicate that activity participation does not harm and may enhance academic performance. Male athletes showed in-season improvements in academic performance. Ralph McNeal (1995) showed that different kinds of  activities have varying abilities to control school dropout rates. He concluded that students who participate in athletics, fine-arts activities, and academic organizations were an estimated 1.7, 1.2, and 1.15 times, respectively, less likely to drop out than those who did not participate. Athletic participation reduces the probability of school dropouts by approximately 40 percent. For example, the probability that the typical person in the sample would drop out of school is .0487, but if this same person participated in athletics, the estimated probability would be .0299. The impact of fine-arts participation for the typical person’s estimated probability is reduced from .0487 to .0415, or 15 percent. Silliker and Quirk (1997) investigated the academic improvement of students who participated in extracurricular activities. In this case, they looked at male and female high school students who participated in interscholastic soccer and who did not engage in another sport or major activity at the conclusion of the soccer season. They discovered that female participants in season maintained a GPA of 87.7 mean (M) with a 5.6 standard deviation (SD). Out of season these statistics dropped to 87.5 M with a 6.4 SD. The male participants in season maintained a GPA of 84.7 M with a 7.5 SD, and out of season their GPAs dropped to 83.8 M with an 8.7 SD. These data show that participants had significantly higher GPAs in season than out of season. The girls earned higher GPAs than did the boys, but the boys’ GPAs rose significantly in season versus out of season. The study supports the belief that involvement in athletics for high school students does not endanger, and may enhance, academic performance. Susan Gerber (1996) also found that extracurricular participation is not detrimental to student performance and that participation in these types of activities promotes greater academic achievement. In addition, she discovered that participation in school-related activities was more strongly associated with achievement than was participation in activities outside of school. Herbert Marsh (1992) compared predicted outcomes for students who did not participate in extracurricular activities with those of students who were moderately active. He found that this difference in participation level is associated with outcome differences of .582 SD in social self-concept and .390 SD in academic self-concept. He concluded that the effects of participation on social and academic self-concepts are significant. Evidently, participation  in extracurricular activities, even those not obviously associated with academic achievement, leads to increased commitment to school and school values, which leads indirectly to increased academic success. William Camp (1990) studied the effects of participation in activities on overall student success in school, as measured by grades, while controlling for the effects of other variables that could reasonably affect those grades. He used the symbol b* to represent standardized regression coefficients calculated in his structural analysis. He found that students’ activity levels produced a positive, significant effect on academic achievement (b* = .122). Particularly interesting in his study was the fact that this effect was more than twice as great as that of study habits (b* = .055), which are generally regarded as an important causal variable of academic achievement. John Mahoney and Robert Cairns (1997) indicated that engagement in school extracurricular activities is linked to decreasing rates of early school dropouts in both boys and girls. They discovered that such participation provides marginal students an opportunity to create a positive and voluntary connection to their school. Conversely, other strategies typically used to address the needs of at-risk students, such as school dropout prevention programs and remedial education, focus on the deficits of students and serve as a catalyst in the formation of deviant groups. The researchers strongly believe that involvement in extracurricular activities may support the at-risk student by maintaining, enhancing, and strengthening the student-school connection. Theoretical Framework This study is anchored to the Theory of Involvement that has been proposed by Astin (1984). According to the theory, students learn more the more they are involved in both the academic and social aspects of the collegiate experience. An involved student is one who devotes considerable energy to academics, spends much time on campus, participates actively in student organizations and activities, and interacts often with faculty. Based on the 1984 report, Involvement in Learning, student involvement takes the form of participation in academically related activities, out of class activities, and interactions with faculty, staff, and peers. Activities related to academics could include: attending class prepared for discussion and the day’s lesson; participating in study groups; and/or membership in academic  honor programs or societies, career-related organizations, and performance groups in the arts. Involvement in outside-of-class, or co-curricular activities, could include campus based student organizations, college athletic or intramural sports, employment on-campus, and volunteer service experiences. Involvement with peers and faculty/staff include those relationships where learning takes place beyond classroom settings: serving as a teaching or research assistant, talking with faculty during office hours, assisting in a laboratory or a fine arts production. Different from the role of the student in Astin’s earlier â€Å"input-process-output† model (Pascarella, 1991, P.50), where the student is passively developed by the faculty and by university programs, this theory posits that the student plays an integral role in determining his or her own degree of involvement in college classes, extracurricular activities and social activities. Of course, the more quality resources available, the more likely those students who are involved will grow or develop. Therefore, faculty interaction both inside and outside the classroom and high quality university programs and polices reflective of institutional commitment to student learning are necessary for student growth. Astin states that the quality and quantity of the student’s involvement will influence the amount of student learning and development (Astin, 1984, p.297). True involvement requires the investment of energy in academic, relationships and activities related to the campus and the amount of energy invested will vary greatly depending on the student’s interests and goals, as well as the student’s other commitments. The most important institutional resource, therefore, is student time: the extent to which students can be involved in the educational development is tempered by how involved they are with family friends, jobs, and other outside activities (p.301). There are several practical applications resulting from this theory, but Astin states that the most important to teaching is that instructors are encouraged to take the focus off the course content and their own technique and put it on their students. Astin states that the intended end of institutional and pedagogical practices is to achieve maximum student involvement and learning; to do that instructors cannot focus solely on technique but must also be aware of how motivated students are and how much time and energy they are devoting to the learning process (p.305). According to Astin, his theory of involvement has an advantage over traditional pedagogical approaches because it focuses on the motivation and behavior of the student. Therefore all institutional policies and practices can be judged by the degree of involvement they foster in student. Also, all faculty, from instructors to counselors, can work with the same goal in mind, unifying their energies into making the students more involved in the college environment and therefore better learners (p.307). Astin also discusses the benefits to students of staying connected to the campus environment by living in campus-related housing, attending college full-time rather than part-time, studying with other students on campus, and working at jobs on campus. Based on the stated theories, the study is conducted and has the following variables as shown in Figure 1.( The research paradigm ) The research paradigm of the study is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1.Research Paradigm. The paradigm shows the relationships of the antecedent variable, Course and year level and the in and out campus activities to the dependent variable, Perception of the maritime students on school related activities. Chapter 3 Research Design and Methodology Research Design This study will use descriptive method of research consisting of qualitative research as it seeks to determine the perception of the maritime students on school related activities Respondents/Sample This study will involve 310 students who are taking up Bachelor of Science in Marine Transportation (BSMT) and Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering (BSMar E), S.Y. 2013-2014. The sampling method to be used for this study will be the simple random sampling because students from each course with varying year levels will be included as respondents of the study. Table 1. Profile of Respondents Course and year level Total population Number of respondents Percentage BSMT 1 195 44 23% BSMT 2 192 43 23% BSMT 3 184 42 23% BSMar E 1 299 68 23% BSMarE 2 255 58 23% BSMar E 3 243 55 23% 1368 310 2.3% Table 1 shows the number of respondents as classified as to course and year Instrument This study will use the researcher-made questionnaire based on the paradigm of this study that the researcher has gathered and subject for validation by the experts. There will be two parts of the instrument: Part One will be the personal information of the respondents such as course and year level. Part Two is the questionnaire which will gather data relative to the perception of the maritime students on school related activities. Data-Gathering Procedure Permission to conduct the study will be secured from the Dean of Maritime Studies of St. Therese MTC – Colleges Tigbauan. The researchers will personally distribute the questionnaires which will be filled out by the respondents in their respective classrooms. After which, these will be retrieved and reviewed fro completeness of data. The data obtained will be culled, encoded, analyzed, and interpreted. Data Analyses Procedure All data gathered will be computer-processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS).The descriptive statistics to be used will be the mean and standard deviation to determine the perception of the students on school related activities. The inferential analytical tools to be utilized will be the t- test for independent samples to determine differences that would exist in course and year level with the outreach activities; analysis of variance (AnoVa) for antecedent samples to determine differences that would exist in course and year level with the school activities; Spearman Rho the perception of the maritime students on school related activities Finally, the level of significance for the analysis was set at 0.05 alpha. The bases for interpretation of the trainings (SSO/SSA), company support, self-preparedness, onboard preparation and measures and national/international coordinationand measures will be as follows: Mean ScaleQualitative Description 3.25 – 4.00Highly effective 2.50 – 3.24effective 1.75 – 2.49moderately effective 1.00 – 1.74less effective

Essay about citizenship †Citizenship in Sao Paulo’s Favelas

Introduction Sao Paulo is not only the biggest city in Brazil, but is the biggest proper in the Americas and in the southern hemisphere and not to mention, ranking seventh in terms of population in the whole world. Its metropolis is the second most populated in the Americas and ranks in the top ten largest in the world. This city is the capital of the state of Sao Paulo and a significant center in commerce, finance, arts and entertainment in Brazil. Sao Paulo has recorded a significant growth compared to other cities in Brazil in terms of population and with urbanization at 81 percent; it is witnessing an increase in slum housing. This problem started in the beginning of 20th Century with the segregation that existed between the affluent, who lived in the central districts, and the poor, who lived in the low lying floodplains. This pattern of urban settlement has changed with poor migrants moving into all city spaces. The rapid spread of slums began in the 1980s with the development of favelas in the urban peripheries and the cortices. Currently, the favelas are the dominant form of settlement and have broken its confinement into all parts of Sao Paulo, the insurgent citizens of the city. There has been an ongoing conflict between the residents of favelas and the public authorities because of the encroachment into the areas valued by the property market. In addition, the favelas are slowly being driven into the poorest, most peripheral and dangerous areas devoid of basic urban services, such as water, power, education. This paper intends to reveal that this insurgency is a conflict of citizenship and not just instrumental outcry and violence. Citizenship in this case refers to recognition of residents’ legal presence in the city and their rights to basic urban services. Insurgency in Sao Paulo Sao Paulo, like many other cities in the developing countries, is not planned. According to UN Habitat (2012), planning for social integration is important as it addresses policies that could or affect the poor. It is also recommended that these plans be done well in advance so as to tackle the issues before they occur rather than as they occur. Urban planning plays a key role in mitigating insurgent citizenship. As aforementioned, the peripheries of Sao Paulo were inhabited by worker back in the 1960s who constructed their homes through autoconstruction. They did this without any infrastructure; this process is still used today as a primary means of settling the urban poor in the city. Nonetheless, as evident, this process has done little to solve the problem of housing in the city. The city of Sao Paulo has experienced rapid economic growth, this growth, however, has been unevenly distributed among the population, and this has resulted in wide social and economic disparities. The f avelas of Sao Paulo is a marked representation of these issues, with inadequate infrastructure and urban services, lack of the rule of law and adequate policing, as well as violence emerging from institutionalized poverty. The city has lost its appeal of a neutral entity; it has become a political and economic space, where the meaning of citizenship and urban life is regularly on trial, here power relations are forcefully maneuvered and sustained. There are notable examples where the residents of the favelas have taken action to claim ownership of the slums. Holston (2007) explains that, in 1972, the residents of Jardim das Camelias roughed up court officials, an incident that led to massive arrests by the police and for a week what seemed to be a conflict between the law and the residents ensued supported by politicians and lawyers. This was triggered by eviction notices that were to be delivered to the residents and which they ignored and used violence to evade, at least one perso n died. In 2003, an official went to Lar Nacional, to cancel one of the residents title that had been recently issued. This saw the beginning of long legal battle between the residents of the favelas and the court system. They had learnt to organize themselves as a unit, neighborhood association. The court official’s intention was to demand the cancellation of the title as a result of an anomaly in measurements. The title was issued through adverse possession a legal way of acquiring an original title by proving possession over an uninterrupted period. The residents spent more than a decade petitioning the judiciary for such validation, and it was a historical case as the first to return favorably decided, the resident was issued a new title, site plan, as well as tax number. Moreover, this insurgent citizenship came out of the peripheries and the favelas into the civic square, with the elections of 2002, the country witnessed one of the residents of the favelas rises to the highest office of the land. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, of the Workers’ Party (PT) grew up poor in the urban peripheries of Sao Paulo, and this seemed as a victory for those who lived in these areas as they filled the central spaces of Sao Paulo with the red banners calling for citizenship. Citizenship It is critical to understand the condition of working class citizenship in Sao Paulo to examine the emergence of the citizenship in the favelas. Wolfe (2014) points at the fact that the establishment of a working class in Sao Paulo revolves around the long-time relationship between land, labor, and law that exist in land policies. These were meant to bring forth a particular kind of work force in addition to illegalities that result in settlements as well as legalization of property claims. Such illegalities resemble the current ones in the peripheries. The only difference is that this happens with an unexpected result that in the end generates a distinct formulation of citizenship. According to Holston (2007), the elites in the 19th Century introduced a regime of citizenship to strengthen their hold of power in the new formed nation state. In this process, they used social differences, such as education, race, gender to induce different treatment to different segment of citizenship. This was the beginning gradation of rights among the citizens, and here rights were based on segregation, there were certain sections treated better than others. It is this system that created the citizenship of inclusive membership, but largely inegalitarian in distribution. For the elite to maintain the differentiated treatment to citizens after the country’s independence and the abolition of the slave trade, they came up with a dual pronged solution. They ensured direct suffrage and made it voluntary, but at the same time limited it to those who could read and write. This restriction made the electorate much smaller, furthermore in the constitution; there was an elimination of the citizens rights to basic education that provided them with some limited education. This restriction denied the citizens of their political citizenship for a long time until 1985 when it was repealed. According to Holston (2007), after the repeal, the elites still longed to control civil and econ omic matters. They established a real estate industry that facilitated legitimate the ownership of private property and one that supported free labor immigration. In addition, they created high price for the land and made wages low to restrict the many workers legal access to land forcing them to basically be source of cheap labor. The two citizenships developed in tandem and became restrictive as the country changed from a slave based nation to a republic based on wage labor. The regimes that followed in the 20th century followed this paradigm establishing an inclusively inegalitarian citizenship and adopting it to a modern situation. It incorporated the emerging labor force in the urban areas into a new arena of labor law devoid of equality. According to , inclusively inegalitarian citizenship was the cause of the insurgency. Inegalitarian citizenship representative of inequality in his theory can be disapproved more so in the context of it use. If the residents of the favelas are unequal, that has not stopped them from moving up the economic and political ladder. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is a good example of this scenario; he was raised in the favelas and emerged as the head of state. Therefore, the insurgence is not in demand for autonomy, but for residence and more so for the poor. The cause for the insurgency was lack of planning that takes into consideration the workers and the poor of the city. In addition, as much as Holston (2007) argues that favelas claimed their citizenship, this is far from the truth. They might have stopped evictions and initiated a new process of issuance of titles, but this calls for a redefinition of citizenship. Citizenship calls for recognition of the rights of each and every resident, as part of the urban populace; they have equal democratic right to environmental health as well as basic living conditions. The rights herein refer to basic urban services including but not limited to water, sanitation, power, and education. The favelas inhibit provision of these basic services, first of all it is not easy to gauge the population in these areas for planning purposes; they are not only congested, but also risky as a result of high crime rates. In addition, the houses constructed in favelas are not planned and are informal hence it is difficult to access them for the provision of certain services such as good roads, drainage, water supply and even power. These conditions render the favelas by default inaccessible to basic urban services. Furthermore, Holston’s (2007) approach explores cultural phenomena, and he makes a persuasive case. There seems to be another problem in the favelas that have a direct bearing on the limited citizenship of the favela residents. There is a need for a clear ethnographic analysis of the key players in these areas, and Holston (2007) fails do provide this. The favelas have been invaded by cartels that would rather have them remain the way they are for business purposes . First, the drug cartels, they have a system of criminal leadership. These criminal gangs have control over most areas of the favelas making it difficult for the residents to receive much needed services due to fear. The middle class and the upper classes are of the opinion that favelas are loci of violence and the epicenter of criminality. This view is further perpetuated by the state officials as well as the law enforcement that result to a repressive approach, from regular police raids to forceful eviction of large populations and razing the structures. These actions are usually justified by the mere fact that the favelas are crime hotspots. Criminal gangs and activities play a significant role in preventing accessibility into the favelas, this leads to the government shortsightedness, police unaccountability, and most important lack of opportunities and services for the residents relegating them to a state of inegalitarian citizenship. Rights in Sao Paulo Favelas The emergence of citizenship in Sao Paulo’s public spheres forced the authorities to relook into these new urban conditions by allowing new kinds and sources of rights. These brought to the forefront issues of substance and scope that were previously ignored by the state’s current laws and institutions. The new citizenship rights developed at the edge of the manifested assumptions of governance: they resolved the new common and personal spaces of everyday life among the economically challenged in the favelas; the rights concerned men, women as well as the children and established work to give state services. The most notable fact of the rights is that they introduced reconceptualization, what Holston (2007) refers to as the greatest historical innovation of these rights. The proponents of these rights had initially thought of them as entitlements of general citizenship, as opposed to a differentiated category of citizens. In this regard, the emergence of participatory p ublics in the favelas introduced and established new understanding and exercise of citizenship rights as well as expanding substantive citizenship to new social frontier. The foundation of rights, therefore, is a combination of new and old formulations. In addition, these rights are subjected to change in concepts. Nonetheless, there is a presentation of a mixture of rights that include treatment rights, contributor rights, as well as constitutional rights. It is evident that few people refer to constitutions and laws and if they do; it was to complain and that, with the exception of labor rights, most were not applicable. The concept of rights as a privileged few is grounded in several incarnations, entrenched in the system of differentiated citizenship. In other words, citizenship remains a means for the distribution and legitimizing inequality. This concept was prevalent in the post constitution favelas being used more than the insurgent one of generalized text-based rights. The generalized text, based rights, proposes that the residents of favelas have unconditional rights and that their rights are not based on personal, social or moral status. This sets the stage for the establishment of and the achievement of a more equalitarian citizenship. However, as the residents of favelas are organized in groups, propagates the concept of contributor rights one that adopts both systems of citizenship. This is because the autoconstruction in the favelas was not all inclusive; it excluded some residents. Despite this fact, it was recognized as the builder of the peripheries and emphasized the self-determination and accomplishment of the people in the favelas both at the individual and group level. In addition, autoconstruction promoted a universal citizenship distinct from the differentiated pattern. In the current peripheries, all the three concepts were significant in the development of citizenship. Conclusion This paper has highlighted the concept of citizenship, applying it to the city of Sao Paulo. The paper reveals that the insurgency witnessed in most of the informal settlements in the city are not mere instrumental outcry and violence, but a conflict of citizenship. As the city developed, there was no proper planning that took into consideration the low income earners or even the settlements that were earlier created by the workers. Therefore, there has been the emergence of new citizenship in Sao Paulo’s public spheres forced the authorities to look into these new urban conditions by allowing new kinds and sources of rights. The insurgency introduced new ways of accessing the situation; these brought to the forefront issues of substance and scope that were previously ignored by the state’s current laws and institutions. The new citizenship rights developed at the edge of the manifested assumptions of governance. Citizenship as examined in the paper calls for recognitio n of the rights of each and every resident of the city, as part of the urban populace; they have equal democratic right to environmental health as well as basic living conditions. Bibliography Avritzer, A., 2004. A Participacao em Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo: Editora Unesp. Conceicao, A., 2010. RMSP supera 20 milhoes de habitantes, calcula Seade. [Online] Available at: http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/economia,rmsp-supera-20-milhoes-de-habitantes-calcula-seade,503095,0.htm [Accessed 14 March 2014]. Diken, B. & Laustsen, C.B., 2007. Sociology Through the Projector. New York: Routledge. Geo Cases, 2003. Sao Paulo: Population and Slum Housing. [Online] Available at: http://www.geocases2.co.uk/printable/Housing%20in%20Sao%20Paulo.htm [Accessed 14 March 2014]. Holston, J., 2007. Insurgent citizenship in an era of global urban peripheries. [Online] Available at: http://www.publicspace.org/es/texto-biblioteca/eng/b001-insurgent-citizenship-in-an-era-of-global-urban-peripheries [Accessed 15 March 2014]. Holston, J., 2007. Insurgent Citizenship: Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Human Rights Watch, 2009. Lethal Force: Police Violen ce and Public Security in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. New York: Human Rights Watch. McCann, B., 2006. The Political Evolution of Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas: Recent Works. Latin American Re, pp.149-63. Santos, B.d.S., 1995. Toward a New Common Sense: Law, Science and Politics in the Paradigmatic Transition. New York: Routledge: Routledge. The Guardian, 2002. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Guardian, 27 October. UN Habitat, 2012. The Role of Urban Planning in Preventing Slums and Addressing the Existing Slums. [Online] Available at: http://www.mhu.gov.ma/Documents/TOP%2020/Pr%C3%A9sentations%2027%20nov/The%20role%20of%20urban%20planning%20in%20preventing%20slums%20and%20addressing%20existing%20slums.pdf [Accessed 15 March 2014]. Wakefield, E.G., 1968. A letter from Sydney. In The collected works of Edward Gibbon Wakefield. Glasgow : Collins. Wolfe, J., 2014. Working Women, Working Men: Sao Paulo & the Rise of Brazil’s Industrial Working Class, 1900–1955. Duke Unive rsity Press.

Four Business Types – Pros and Cons

In my opinion, Corporation is the best form suited to venture as intended by Victoria & Quentin because it is separate legal entity distinct from its owners & have well defined registered by laws. These organizations are highly regulated & attract capital even from outside source very easily & existed infinitely. The main issues concerning the Intellectual property rights in providing licensing Marvel's intellectual property to Universal studios are Copyright and Trademark protections to the theme parks which Disney proposed to develop by using Thor, The Hulk, Iron man etc. Law related to copy rights gives the author or creator of work the exclusive rights for limited time span in order to promote creativity & allow control over use of artistic creations. Authors have been given powers to manage the characters (like The Hulk, Iron Man etc) as created by them & any one copying it definitely attract legal provisions (Chapter 17 of the United States Code). However there is the right of public to benefit from the authors work but that too exist on supposition that once copyrightable work enters public domain, others should be allowed to benefit from it and can make make it better for the excellence of all. Where Copyright law protect original writings of an author & dealt with character development and individualization protection trademark laws actually take care trademarks commercial value & designed to safeguard endures against confusion as to source or authorization of an item. Therefore trademark owner has given control over use of the sign or mark in association with those goods and services for which mark symbolizes. The Securities Act of 1933 which originally introduced on account of economic crisis of 1929 and mainly focus on two main objectives: First, to ensure more transparency in financial statements so as to facilitate investors to take informed decisions and second, to establish stringent laws to curb fraudulent activities/misrepresentation in securities markets. Whereas the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 derived to provide for governance of securities transactions in secondary market & to regulate stock exchanges and intermediaries (broker-dealers) to protect public investments. The main purpose of Securities Act of 1933 was to maximize the disclosure of financial through the detailed process of registration of securities. In case investor suffers losses on account of misleading information, they have recovery rights on proving that losses arises due to incomplete or inaccurate information. Whereas by means of Securities Act of 1933, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created which has broad powers & authority over all aspects of the securities market inclusive of brokerage firms, transfer agents, and clearing agencies and even nation's securities self regulatory organizations (like New York Stock Exchange, the NASDAQ Stock Market, Chicago Board of Options, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority etc). This act also provides the Commission with disciplinary powers over various regulated entities and persons associated with them & include provisions for periodic reporting of certain information by companies whose shares are publicly traded. A company planning for an IPO must appoint a lead manager (book runner) who helps to determine appropriate price of shares to be issued, which can be done by either of the two methods i. e. ither through lead managers or through analysis of confidential investor demand data, which is to be compiled by the book runner known as book building process. IPO requires effective planning comprising of development of an impressive management and professional team, significant growth of company's business so have known public marketplace, available audited financial statements following Internationally accepted accounting principles, compliance's of various act, good corporate governance practices etc. Victoria & Quentin fund raise not amount to IPO but a private placement/funding in which funds can be raised not directly from public but through private investors/ merchant bankers or private equity firms on which minimum regulations are applicable & statutory provisions of an IPO are not applicable. Patent: Patent protects an invention which is novel, useful, and non-obvious. Whereas invention refers to any new article, new machine, or any process or combination thereof or any new use developed by human being but that invention must not form part of public domain nd not previously known in the public before invented. It must be new. Also that invention must be non obvious to person skilled in art. Copyright: Copyrights usually protect the works of an author like writings, music, artistic work or art work which can be expressed in tangible form. It generally gives protection to software, web, course materials, publications, electronically or non electronically, printed or non printed. Trade Mark: Trademarks gives protection to the words, names, marks, symbols, or colors etc. hich differentiate between the goods and services and direct to the source of those goods or services. Trademarks can be renewed forever to the extent they can be Trade Secret: A trade secret is an information which the organizations generally keep secret or undisclosed so as to give them advantage on their opponents/competitors. In the given instances, there is an infringement claim of patent which is design with respect to chip clip for multiple bags of potato chips & another is an infringement of Copyright & trademark when to use the words â€Å"Astroclaw†Ã¢â‚¬  similar to â€Å"Atomic Claw†. In order to make case their effective Victoria & Quentin must prove that, there is no infringement of Intellectual Property rights. They can give evidence to prove that the designs & music has already been created by them as new without copying and their claims & application filed by Gunnar & Alexander fails to serve the test of patentability. Shareholders defined as individuals or artificial legal person who issued stock/shares in a company with a view to get benefit with the hope of earning of profits by company. It is a sort of investment in ownership of company and get rights to the extent of their investment. Whereas stakeholders are the persons who impacted by the policies, rule, regulations & working of an organization. This is the broad term comprises of whom an organization directly or indirectly associated with. It referred to as somebody who has stake or interest in actions of the company at large or even small scale. This term in connection with a corporation consists of its staff, employees, customers, supplier, vendors, dealers & society in wider context. This is the term generated out of need of suitable corporate governance as well as part of corporate social responsibility. Shareholder owes fiduciary duties to minority shareholders as well as to other stakeholders comprising of society at large, means they must act in their self interest so as to maximize their profits by following corporate governance principles. I support Mr. Garfield as he is the supporter of new ideas of capitalism & believes in restructuring & revival mechanism of capitalism. He believes that instead of running a failing or loss making business, shareholders should accept beneficial proposal so as to evade compulsory winding up which impacted other business. He appears to be an ethical person when denied to take money from a widow. On the other hand, Mr. Andrew seems to be sympathetic towards employees, workers but actually he not grown up as manger & not taken any action to replace discard technology & owing to above reasons I vote in favor of Mr. Garfield as the organization runs to make profits & if an organization not works well, it must be restructured in a manner so as to maximize wealth of shareholders.

Understanding how market equilibrium is maintained is essential for Research Proposal

Understanding how market equilibrium is maintained is essential for business managers - Research Proposal Example et equilibrium in a free market environment refers to the time when the quantity of goods supplied in the market balances the demand level in the market. An equilibrium market does not encounter the challenges of excess supply as well as excess demand. In an equilibrium market, buyers and sellers have expounded understanding of the prevailing prices of goods and services as well as the quality of goods and services on offer. Clear knowledge of the prevailing market trends expels any attempts by particular sellers to increase their prices above the market value. A good knowledge of how to maintain market equilibrium is essential for most managers when making decision on the quantity of goods top supply to the market. Insight understanding of market equilibrium also assists in decision making on the methods of production to be employed. Business managers ought to have deep understanding of the laws of demand and the determinants of demand. The law of demand states that demand of a particular commodity increases with increase in quality and decrease in price. Since the sole purpose of every business organization is to increase sales volume and make more profits, business managers have no option a part from operating as per the guidelines of the law of demand. In this regard, business managers need to set their operation to ensure production of high quality products that will pose a good competitive advantage in the market (Rothbard, 2006). Improving quality of goods produced by a business organization, promises good sales volume thereby lifting the profit margins of an organization. Similarly, reducing costs of goods on sale by a business organization attracts more demand for that particular product. When demand for a product increases, it is automatic that the particular product will record high and fast sales thus improving the profits due to that product. Demand also increases with increase in the household income. Tastes of particular products also affect the

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The Evolution of Juvenile Justice - Essay Example Progressive era reforms had major contributions in the framing of the modern juvenile justice system. In the period from 1900- 1920s the nation witnessed various campaigns including suffrage movement, and campaign against child labor. Laborers fought for their rights and demanded eight-hour workday. Before the progressive era, children who commit crime were also imprisoned like adults. Child offenders were punished like adults. However, the voice of social and political reformers demanded a change in the society’s views about minor offenders. The psychologists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who came up with new psychological theories cried against the hard punishment given for minor offenders. Reformers wanted a change in society’s views on juvenile delinquents. They put the idea of rehabilitating children offenders rather than punishing them like adults. In 1824 reformers set up the New York House of Refuge. Juveniles who commit crime were placed in the juv enile homes instead of adult jails. By 1899, individual states began considering the problem of youth incarceration and setting up youth reform homes. These reforms initiated the notion of juvenile justice system. These early changes were because of the conviction that society should not abandon young offenders, but should recover their lives by redirecting them in a different way. Keeping offenders in reform houses helped them severe their relationship with the world of crime. The juvenile justice system is rooted in this very concept of rehabilitation of young criminals. The juvenile justice system began acquiring the authority of a parent. The state takes the responsibility as a parent and keeps the children with them until they show some positive changes or grow up as adults. Youth were not treated as adults. The cases involving youths were considered in a special informal court meant for juveniles. The procedure did not include the assistance of attorneys. Extenuating evidence, beyond the legal elements related to the crime was considered by the judge. These initiatives paved the way for the current juvenile justice system. In the year 1967 a decision by the Supreme Court confirmed the need of juvenile courts to consider the law rights of minors in the court proceedings. The decision was caused by a case that involves a juvenile. The court’s decision was to confine Gerald Gault, the juvenile who was accused of making an obscene call, when being under probation. According to the Arizona juvenile court, the minor should be placed in the State Industrial School till he turns 21. He should otherwise be discharged by law. However, the Supreme Court decision came up with the rights of minors. According to the Supreme Court, the minor has the right to get notice of charges and receive proper legal counsel. The minor holds the right for confrontation and cross-examination. Furthermore, he has the privilege against self-incrimination. The minor can rightful ly get a transcript of the court proceedings and take an appellate review. The dissenting party however came up with the idea that the courts decision would only take the case to a criminal prosecution. According to them, the minor’s case should be done as per the original goal of the juvenile justice system. The juvenile justice system is not intended to prosecute and punish minors who commit crimes. The system rather recommends correcting them. This is the society’

A paper on the best practice for information systems consultancy Essay

A paper on the best practice for information systems consultancy projects - Essay Example In accordance with the above, consultants need to have the ability to understand the current needs of the firm and propose the most appropriate solution taking into account the current trends of the market and the ability of the firm to follow the project proposed regarding a specific issue. Current paper will discuss the intervention of consultancy in the area of information technology. At the same time particular aspects of consultancy are going to be examined taking into account that firms tend to differentiate their behaviour within a specific market in order to keep their performance at a standard level – wherever such a strategy is applicable. As already stated above one of the most important elements of consultancy is knowledge. This knowledge refers not only to the knowledge of consultant regarding a particular problem of the firm but mainly to the knowledge available to the company on a constantly basis. Indeed, the study of Bollinger et al. (2001, 8) showed that ‘knowledge is a resource valuable to an organizations ability to innovate and compete’. On the other hand, it is noticed by Anand et al. (2003, 15) that ‘the knowledge possessed by an organization and its members can be classified as explicit or tacit; explicit knowledge can be codified and communicated without much difficulty while tacit knowledge--such as the manner of operating sensitive equipment or interpersonal skills--is not so easily articulated’. Consultants should be able to process effectively all types of knowledge ensuring the viability of the firm in the long term. Consultancy was precisely described by Wood (2002). In his book, he stated that consultancy can refer to the following activities: 1 Management and administration: including management consultancy, legal, accounting, financial strategy and fiscal advice, mergers, and takeovers and

Analyzing Falculty Characteristics in Adult Learning Essay

Analyzing Falculty Characteristics in Adult Learning - Essay Example This paper is an examination of the various characteristics in which a faculty member responsible for teaching adults must have, in order to be an effective teacher. This is for both an online and on-ground teaching and learning environment. This paper will specifically identify these characteristics, and use examples in supporting the various facts identified. Palis and Quiros (2014) denotes that a variety of models and theories are developed for purposes of explaining this concept of adult learning. One such theory is andragogy, and this theory was developed by Malcolm Knowles in the year 1973 (Fraser and Hyland-Russell, 2011). In meeting the objectives of this paper, the researcher will have to identify the characteristic of an online learner, as well as identify a desirable characteristic of a faculty member aimed at satisfying the needs of the adult learner, based on his or her identified characteristic. Andragogy is a theory designed for purposes of addressing the learning needs of adults, and it bases its assumptions that there is a considerable difference in the learning characteristics depicted between adults, and children (Palis and Quiros, 2014). To understand the various characteristics needed for adult teachers, it is first important to understand the needs of adult learners, and their characteristics. Knowles, Holton and Swanson (2011) in his theory of andragogy identifies five major assumptions and characteristics of adult learners. One characteristic of an adult learner is that they have the ability of independently directing his own learning. Knowles, Holton and Swanson (2011) denote that adult learners are always self-reliant, autonomous, and independent. On this basis, they always have a self-directed goal that they aim to achieve. Based on this characteristic of adults, Fraser and Hyland-Russell (2011) denotes that an online teacher has to act as a facilitator, and th eir responsibility should be to guide the adult

Leadership in Quality Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leadership in Quality - Case Study Example J.M. Jurian noted that the quality of leadership is attainable, and the success factors are available, but companies are not doing enough to utilize such concepts (Keim 1). Quality and customers satisfaction has since been forgotten because companies have resorted to expansion other than improving service provision. Besides, there is an emphasis to increase profit gains compared to future sustainability. The situation has since grown to an extent where managers who are concerned about quality management seek alternative impacts of business success because valuable lesson learnt concerning cooperate ethics diminishes along with the generation. The most-important activity of any quality strategy is to do away with the wastes of all forms through a cover up of corporate malfeasance and accounting tricks. However, with effective leadership, there should be the focus because it is both the right and the smart thing to do. Ultimately, the current requirement of ethics is education for organizations and individuals. With respect to the above, the quality of service and ethics should not only be based on products and services, but also mutual expectation on th e right thing as it will enhance the smooth operation of economic systems (Keim 1). The hostess action was not in any way consistent with a customer focus on quality philosophy because she did not take much of her time to ascertain the truth about Mark’s reservation even after Mark had confirmed to have carried out the reservation three weeks earlier. Notably, errors do occur in any organization, and this might have led to the missing of Mark’s details in the reservation booklet. Unfortunately, she turned down Mark’s request to see the manager who could have otherwise looked into a proper solution of the above mess if at all she was to engage too much. The hostess also responded with much arrogance, which is against the customer focused quality philosophy when she

Understanding of literature and poetry based on the war Essay Example for Free

Understanding of literature and poetry based on the war Essay I will look at war in my improvisation and to help me gain an understanding of literature and poetry based on the war I will be looking at two poems and one piece of script writing. Both poems were written and set during the First World War. The Soldier was written shortly before the war and therefore its purpose was to be a piece of propaganda to make the war seem like a good thing to do for your country. Dulce EST Decorum EST is actually written by someone who was in the war and therefore its purpose is to show the atrocities of war and a true insight into the war. Blackadder was written in 1988 and set in 1918. The script has a laugh about the war and doesnt really give a serious impression of what the war was. Blackadder is also written in a very bitterly ironic sense. In this paragraph I will explore the themes and ideas behind the poems and script. The soldier is an idealistic poem that represents a sense of pride and the glamour of fighting for your country. The soldier also shows the glory to be had from serving in the British armed forces and what a hero you would be after youve served. Dulce shows the horrific side of the war and I think it shows what the war would have been like very accurately. Dulce is quite a shocking poem with its emotive choice of language. Blackadder shows the fear the soldiers had in World War 1 and the realistic side of it. Dulce and Blackadder both make a strong political comment about the war. Blackadder makes the war look like it run by mad people and that senior officers just sit miles from the front line nice and comfy. Dulce makes a comment also on the lies that children are told about the war to hide them from its brutality. Blackadder is a scripted piece of writing and has characters init that you can look at. Dulce is about a group soldiers. The soldier is one persons viewpoint. The characters in Blackadder have very different roles and personalities. Blackadder himself is a very sarcastic man; he uses dry humour and makes the most personal comment about the war. Baldrick is working class; he is worried and isnt really sure what to do in his situation; the war bemuses him and this is a scary thing for Baldrick. George is the sort of person who would write The Soldier. He is a patriotic, upper classed twit. Although he is patriotic he is very scared. Melchett just sits in his office commanding the men on the front line even though he has no great knowledge of the front line conditions. The Soldier gives a personal viewpoint on the war and has a sentimental message. Dulce uses shock to gets its point across and Blackadder uses humour and irony to present its view on war. At the end of Blackadder when they go over the top it has music and uses slow motion which gives it a depressing and sad feel and men went over the top all the time in the war so it shows what a depressing place it would have been. Studying Blackadder has interested me and I think my group will use humour in our performance to give the war a more laid back feel even though it wasnt like that at all. I think humour would be easier for people to understand.

Love and a Roller Coaster Essay Example for Free

Love and a Roller Coaster Essay Being in love is a lot like being on a roller coaster, it is scary, thrilling, and can sometimes be painful. It’s the feeling of excitement going up the first hill; learning things about each other. Learning what makes them smile, their fears, or what keeps them awake at night. It’s the pain of your first fight, not knowing if you’ll make it through. The same kind of pain you get being whipped around a sharp turn, or the lap bar digging into your gut as you roll down a hill. There’s a distinct difference between the two though, on a roller coaster you can always see what’s ahead. Love is between two people, two brain waves, and two completely separate people. There is no telling where you are going to end, or if the ride will come to a complete stop before you jump. With love there is no set value, no admission, or any right or wrong turns. There is both fear and risk, you may get hurt, and you may not enjoy it but you put yourself on the line for someone else. You chose to put your heart in the hands of something, someone else. In the end the ride was still worth it, you learned something along the way. Whether you feel joy, or pain you learned something. Riding a roller coaster over and over loses its excitement, but with being in love there is always a new hill on the way. There is always something to be excited over, from just seeing them again, to meeting their family and learning where they grew up. When you love somebody you experience a full range of feelings such as anger, calmness and annoyance, jealousy or happiness. You have difficulties of controlling these feelings, because you understand that you are depending on the person you love. You understand that you are not just one person, you are two as a whole.

Social Media and Employment Issues

Social Media and Employment Issues SOCIAL MEDIA TRANSPARENCY AND EMPLOYMENT Introduction One can apply the old saying, never judge a book by its cover to many applications in life, but today’s environment of instant social media updates provides personal transparency never experienced before. Social medias arrival on the scene has completely changed the way we interact as a society and technologies such as portable devices and wireless connectivity allows us to communicate faster and to a more massive crowd than we ever thought possible. Social media is the most significant difference in personal or business transparency and has merged into an indistinguishable haze of likes, links, and posts, making transparency an everyday issue. Complete strangers can now view someone’s daily activities without the context of knowing them personally. These strangers can easily be potential employers seeking employees to fill vacant positions. That is precisely what is occurring today; employers are examining beyond applicants resumes to make the best hiring decision by r eviewing prospective employees social media sites to learn more about their applicants and employees.  Alternatively, employers are experiencing legal issues with their new social media tool, and the courts are just beginning to unravel them. Correctly used, social media can be a powerful means of candidate identification, selection, and retention. However, employers must have comprehensive and compliant social media policies that are not overly broad, and which address privacy, lawful access, accuracy, equal protection, and conduct of employment practices. An analysis of the social media transparency regarding employment reveals an employers review of applicants and employees social media sites can be a valuable tool but must do such in a manner consistent with legal hiring and separation practices. This article is designed to review essential aspects employers should consider when using social media to make hiring or termination decisions for their company. Argument There has been an explosive growth in the use of social media over the past decade and has allowed a vast part of the worlds population instant, quick, and convenient communication to a broad network of people. According to Statista.com, known as the portal for statistics, Facebook had 100 million monthly active users in 2008, and that number has skyrocketed to 2.07 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2017. LinkedIn has over 467 million members worldwide, and it is one of the most popular social networks regarding active users (Statista.com, 2017). These top growing websites allow their users to share lots of information about themselves and can give potential employers data in just a few clicks that would be impossible to know about someone decades ago. Social media has forged a path into our culture that has brought us all closer, but it has also opened many questions about the issues of modern expression and privacy. Getting at the center of this network involves untangling multiple layers of complex statutes, case law, and agency guidance in a way that balances the pillars of freedom of speech and the at-will employment doctrine. For edification, the employment-at-will doctrine states employees without a written employment contract and an indefinite term of employment, the employer can terminate the employee for good cause, bad cause, or no cause at all (Ballam, 2000). Although a perfect application of the law on societys new technologies like social media is complicated, there are many considerations employers must make based on privacy, accuracy, and lawful access during the hiring, employment, and termination periods. Moreover, employers need to understand there is a potential negative impact with the use of social media when recruiting employees, and conversely, the termination of employees based on decisions issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Last, employers must relate legal guidelines to their company’s use of social media policies. The First Amendment to the Bill of Rights explains our rights as Americans very clearly: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.† The Bill of Rights, 2017 Strict libertarians or constitutionalists may notice, the words right to privacy are absent from the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Under the First Amendment, there is no right to privacy, but there are certain privacy protections afforded to every citizen. Pawel Laidler, author of Basic Cases in U.S. Constitutional Law: Rights and Liberties, references Griswold v. Connecticut and suggests, Specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights have penumbras of privacy extending to specific areas and situations (Laidler, 2009, p. 102). The courts have started to make their decision on what is the reasonable expectation of privacy for applicants or employees, but employers and the public at large are still making their own conclusions. Most social media websites include privacy settings and controls to allow users to reduce exposure to those whom they wish to exclude from seeing their social media information. However, specific information such as their name, profile picture, and networks is typically always publicly available, and social media sites often provide notice to users that they do not guarantee the privacy of the information (Facebook, 2016). LinkedIns privacy policy includes wording for users about their inability to ultimately secure any information submitted to their website, nor can they guarantee users information will not be accessed or disclosed by physical or electronic methods (LinkedIn, 2017). Despite these numerous warnings about privacy disclosure, users should expect a certain level of privacy when they correctly use the privacy controls. When social media was still in its infancy, employers would ask applicants or employees for their social media login information to allow the employer direct access. This practice quickly died as social media websites, legislators, and privacy rights activists alike actively discouraged the practice (Dame, 2014). Today, most states have passed laws preventing employers from requesting social media login credentials. For example, Vermont State Law (H.B. 462) prohibits an employer from requiring or requesting that an employee or applicant disclose personal social media account information (NCLS.org, 2018, para. 26). Overall, the only reasonable access employers should have to an applicant or employees social media is what they allow them to access via privacy controls. A social media user who selects open public access to their accounts or invites or accepts potential employers to friend or connect allow an additional level of access and substantially reduces the expectation of privacy with an employer or organization. Naturally, employers can take criminal actions such as hacking or using anothers authorized login credentials to gain access to personal social media pages fraudulently, but the courts would not view these tactics favorably if it were a part of a more significant case. Beyond the concern of personal privacy, employers must also ensure the information found on a private social networking site is accurate, and it is the correct person who applied for the position or the employee who works for the company. Employers must ensure the James Smith Facebook profile they find is the same James Smith who applied for the job and not one of the other 38,312 James Smiths in the United States (Chen, 2015). Employers must also consider whether the person portrayed on the social media site established the account himself or herself or if someone else created the page without their knowledge or permission. Employers can outsource an applicant or employees social media information review to a third party Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) to help overcome some of the challenges listed above. The Consumer Fair Trade Commission (FTC) outlines particular information regarding the search of a persons character or reputation on a social media site. The FTCs stance is that when companies use a CRA to conduct a background check on an applicant or employees social media sites, that it complies with applicable provisions of the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection (FTC.gov, 2016). Additionally, Tony Rodriguez and Jessica Lyon from the FTC explain companies must be vigilant because a CRA may comply with all expressed provisions of the bureau and still violate other laws, such as equal employment opportunity violations (Rodriguez & Lyon, 2013). With the understanding of privacy and accuracy, employers have two significant concerns when deciding to use social media for recruitment. The first concern is the influence social media has on candidate sourcing and statistics and the second is the limitations of viewing candidate or employee information on a social media site. It is essential to understand that for the first time in the Pew Research Centers surveys history, the results in 2017 showed 55% of Americans ages 50 or older use social media sites for everyday tasks such as getting news updates. This increase in usage is a 10% spike over 2016 allows employers to see and contact a more substantial part of the population, but there is still a disconnect between race and between gender demographics use of social media (Shearer & Gottfried, 2017). The Pew Research Center shows employment social media websites such as LinkedIn have equal shares of whites (29%) and blacks (28%), but only 18% of Hispanics use the network. Gender has improved over the years, but there is still a gap of almost 10%. A staggering 72% of women in the United States use some sort social media contrasted with 66% of men. The most dramatic difference between demographics is in education. Only 59% of people with a high school education or less use social media, but 78% of college graduates use at least one social media website (Pew, 2017). Recognizing the disparities with using social media to decide employment is critical because the gaps could potentially fuel cases of discrimination even when the employers had no subjective intent to discriminate.  In addition to traditional avenues of attracting and finding diverse applicant pools, employers should use a variety of sourcing strategies across multiple social media outlets to avoid the potential statistical traps and pitfalls. The limitations of viewing candidate information on social media sites is also essential to consider when deciding hiring or during employment.  A social recruiting survey by Jobvite, a recruiting platform for the social web, reports from their survey of recruiters that 92% of U.S. companies are using social networking sites for hiring purposes (Jobvite 2012).  Employers should be forewarned and take reasonable steps to ascertain accurate information and to be aware a picture can be worth a thousand words, but it can paint an inaccurate picture. An employer using social media as a primary tool may be left with skewed data and a false narrative.  Knowing this and the above information, employers must understand that making decisions from viewing social media posts can unintentionally make those decisions appear demographic based rather than merit-based.  Unfortunately, these perceptions, true or false, may be enough to flag a particular hiring practice that could end in a cost ly course of litigation. Knowing the two primary concerns of using social media for employment decisions is essential, but so are the possible legal implications of using these methods.  Communication at work and home has transformed dramatically over the years, but the legal theories behind established employment policies have not changed.  Todays challenge is to apply traditional laws to todays instant, casual, broadcast style of social media communication and activities.  For many years, courts were not concerned with how many likes an employees Facebook work-related comment received.  Moreover, the courts did not have to consider the average employee might have the ability to convey their opinions to an average of 634 people with one click of a button on Twitter (Leonardi, 2017).  Social media transparency can easily create situations where employers terminate employees because of posts or comments employers find on their social media pages. Employers must look carefully to both an employees conduct as well as their company policies in determining whether circumstances legally warrant termination.  The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a long-standing government agency that is inexplicably involved ensuring the correct implementation of the law to social media caused terminations (NLRB.gov, n.d.). Employers need to be aware of protected activity on social media before taking any adverse action against employees who post on a social media website.  For example, the federal whistleblower protection law provides legal remedies for employees or job applicants who face retaliation for making protected disclosures of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, or substantial and specific danger to public safety or health (OPM.gov, n.d. para. 2).  Outside of protected reporting, using social media for collective dialog and shared concerns about essential terms and conditions of employment are also protected activities (NLRB.gov, n.d.). An employee, however, otherwise engaged in a protected activity, can lose that protection by abusive conduct (Stewart, 2017).  Michael Greens journal article titled, Protecting Unhappy Worker Outbursts from Discriminatory Treatment, does a great job of explaining the method used for determining if the employees conduct is enough to cause them to lose protection.  Green (2017) explains, the NLRBs Atlantic Steel doctrine to assess the inappropriateness of an employees angry outburst by first analyzing four factors before deciding the employees actions warrant discipline (para. 5).  The four factors include where the discussion occurred, the subject matter of the discussion, the nature of the employees outburst, and whether the outburst was, in any way, provoked by the employers unfair labor practice.  Green does caveat the Atlantic Steel doctrine does have its limits.  Employees who engage in threatening behavior or conduct acts exceeding what a reasonable employer should tol erate can lose their protections under the law (Green, 2017).  Social media compounds these issues because its reach has far more impact than the typical breakroom outbursts and is immediately heard by everyone on ones feed. Recommendations A business’ decision to use social media as a tool among many when choosing employees is a good idea.  The best way to properly use social media for hiring, employment, and termination is to set clear company policy and guidance.  A companys social media policies will not protect employers if they are overly broad or restricts employees constitutional rights.  When limiting an employees right to communicate on social media (or otherwise), the terms and conditions regulating their comments to being professional or appropriate need to be clearly defined in the policy. Employers should specify in their policies about what constitutes appropriate manners in which employees are allowed to discuss subjects to include criticism of labor policies, treatment of employees, and terms and conditions of employment.  (SHRM.org, 2016).  Employers should specifically articulate their definition of actions that constitute insubordinate actions, inappropriate conversation, or other disrespectful conduct.  Additionally, the policy should include their plan of disciplinary action when employees engage in such actions.  Companies should carefully draft their social media policies to avoid broad or ambiguous terms.  A court can easily deem policies unlawful if employees reasonably believe the policy prohibits constitution freedoms. Conclusion All employers should take their time when deciding to terminate current employees employment due to their conduct or comments in general, but especially when considering social media websites.  This article reviewed relevant aspects employers should consider when using social media as part of the hiring or termination process.  Protected activity and overly broad social media policies can create liabilities for employers and employers who recruit and select employees through social media sites should carefully monitor their processes and outcomes for disparate impacts. Employers should take care when using information gained from social media and establish a process by which applicants, candidates, and employee have an opportunity to dispute potentially inaccurate information published online.  Adhering to statutory, regulatory, and agency guidance allows employers to use social media anywhere along the employment timeline to maximize information about applicants and current em ployees while protecting them from the potential social media use pitfalls. References Ballam, D. A. (2000). Employment-At-Will: The Impending Death of a Doctrine. American Business Law Journal, 37(4), 653-687. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1714.2000.tb00281.x Background Checks. (2016, November). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0157-background-checks Boyd, D. M., & Ellison, N. B. (2007, December 17). Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Retrieved January 21, 2018, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x/full Chen, S. A. (2015, February 07). Calling James Smith! 10 Most Common First and Surname Combinations. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/calling-james-smith-10-most-common-first-and-surname-combinations/ Dame, J. (2014, January 10). Will employers still ask for Facebook passwords in 2014? Retrieved January 15, 2018, from https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/01/10/facebook-passwords-employers/4327739/ Facebook Data Policy. (2016, September 29). Retrieved January 15, 2018, from https://www.facebook.com/full_data_use_policy Green, M. Z. (2017, February 13). Protecting Unhappy Worker Outbursts from Discriminatory Treatment. Retrieved January 25, 2018, from https://worklaw.jotwell.com/protecting-unhappy-worker-outbursts-from-discriminatory-treatment/ Jobvite. (2014). Social Recruiting Survey.  Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.jobvite.com/wp-content/ uploads/ 2014/10/Jobvite_SocialRecruiting_Survey2014.pdf Laidler, P. (2009). Basic Cases in U.S. Constitutional Law: Rights and Liberties. Krakà ³w: Jagiellonian University Press. Leonardi, P. M. (2017). The Social Media Revolution: Sharing and Learning in the Age of Leaky Knowledge. Information and Organization, 27(1), 47-59. doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2017.01.004 LinkedIn Privacy Policy. (2017, June 7). Retrieved January 15, 2018, from https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy Managing and Leveraging Workplace Use of Social Media. (2016, January 19). Retrieved January 26, 2018, from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/managingsocialmedia.aspx National Conference of State Legislatures. (2018, January 2). Access to Social Media Usernames and Passwords. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/employer-access-to-social-media-passwords-2013.aspx NLRB.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved January 21, 2018, from https://www.nlrb.gov/ Our Inspector General Whistleblower Protection Information. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2018, from https://www.opm.gov/our-inspector-general/whistleblower-protection-information/ Pew Research Center. Social Media Fact Sheet. (2017, January 12). Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/ Rodriguez, T., & Lyon, J. (2013, January 10). Background Screening Reports and the FCRA: Just Saying Youre Not a Consumer Reporting Agency Isnt Enough. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2013/01/background-screening-reports-fcra-just-saying-youre-not Shearer, E., & Gottfried, J. (2017, September 07). News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017. Retrieved January 20, 2018, from http://www.journalism.org/2017/09/07/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2017/ Statista.com. Number of Facebook Users Worldwide 2008-2017. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ Stewart, D. R. (2017). Social Media and the Law: A Guidebook for Communication Students and Professionals. New York, NY: Routledge. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription. (2017, June 26). Retrieved January 15, 2018, from https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript#toc-amendment-i