Multiple Intelligences Theory and Sternbergs Triarchic Theory

Multiple Intelligences Theory and Sternbergs Triarchic Theory I will write the corrections between two theories Gardner`s Multiple Intelligences Theory and Sternbergs Triarchic Theory .I will discuss what are the aspects of similarities and differences between the theories. This assignment attempts to show how Gardner and Sternberg drew similar conclusion regarding human capacity and potential, examine Gardners eight intelligences and Sternbergs three kinds of intelligences (Vardin, 2003). I choose these theories because they are alike to some extent as well as that they are very famous and comprehensive these days. Some countries have made in the application of the schools and succeeded in doing so as USA (infed.org/thinkers/et-schon-htm-49k.). I choose Gardner`s theory in a particular because it supports that each person has a unique profile of intelligences but to varying degrees from others. Gardner said that intelligences are not only hereditary, but they also become acquired, so that we can strengthen the strong points and do not lose hop e of the weakness points but work to raise them (Gardner ,1997 ). What Gardner says raises our morale. Therefore I choose Gardner`s theory to compare with Sternberg theory in addition to similarities between of them. I will evaluate each theory in my teaching practice in primary school which of these theories I will agree or more strong than another. I will arrange my assignment first I will mention every aspect of both theories and discuss each one separately and provide differences and similarities in this capacity of this attribute and then I will apply each aspect in my context which is primary schools in Libya. The key aspects which I will compare are: both theories are critical of the unitary of intelligence, what these intelligences are in their opinions, both of them are holistic view and more inclusive notion, both of them generate ideas and provide feedback as the curriculum is developed, what both of them said for teaching approaches and assessment approaches, both theori sts view that culture contexts are important in relation to intelligences. Both of these theories are about intelligences and against the traditional concept of intelligence. Gardner multiple intelligences theory and Sternberg triarchic theory are about intelligences and both of them opposed intelligence is a general which asserts that intelligence is ability logical and linguistic. They are proposing that intelligences are thought of as a wide range of abilities. Sternberg`s and Gardner`s (1982) summarized the general intelligence theory by stating general intelligence can be understood componentially as deriving in part from the execution of general components information processing behaviour (http://www.personality research.org/papers/paik.html) .The traditional view of intelligence is defined success in problem solving ability to learn, capacity for producing nodegenetic solutions, understanding of complex instructions or simply all round cognitive ability. (Eysenck, 1982, p.8). However, Sternberg and Gardner defined intelligences in another way. According to Sternberg intelligence is mental activity directed toward purposive adaptation to, selection and shaping of, real-world environments relevant to one`s life (Sternberg 1985 p .45). Intelligences in this view mean that how an individual treats the environment change through his/her life and adapts with it. (Ibid, 1985). However, the definition of intelligences according to Gardner are ability to solve problem or fashion products that are of consequence in a particular culture setting or community (Gardner 1993: p, 15) and he also defined it in 1999 as a bio psychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture (Gardner 1999 p.34). Each of those theories has merits and evidences to support its claims (http://www.personality research.org/papers/paik.html).The traditional view of intelligence was measured by Stanford Binet intelligence scale for children IQ, Wechsler intelligence scale for children WISCIV, Woodcock Johnson test of cognitive ability and Scholastic Aptitude Tes t. However, in contrast, multiple intelligences theories opposed that. They say that short answer test cannot measure deep understanding but it indicates memorization skills. Furthermore, the traditional view of intelligence mentioned that people are born with intelligence and this intelligence cannot change over the life whereas the writer of multiple intelligences believes that intelligences are both genetic and acquired, and human being can improve intelligences through life. In teaching practice teachers in the traditional view taught students in the same way whereas in multiple intelligences theories teachers use a variety of ways to teach and assess students. Sternberg and Gardner agree that people have different types of intelligences (http://web.Cortland. Edu/and ersmd/ learning/traditional%20intelligence.htm). In my experience, I agree with Sternberg and Gardner that intelligence is multiple while I oppose the intelligence with the traditional view that intelligence is unitary. For example, in my educational context in primary school, it is not fair to describe a student as is not intelligent because he or she has not done well in the traditional test(paper and pencil) which is focused only on logical and linguistic intelligences and do not take account of other types of intelligences . This student maybe successful in other life skills, but he could not to be completed in the traditional exam. In addition, from my learning experience and what I hear from my fellow teachers, some students are giving new creative solutions to mathematical problems have not been studied before while they do not achieve in examinations measured by conventional paper and pen. Sometimes, I and my colleagues notice that some students are not smart in a particular area for example writing and reading while they a re smart in other areas therefore I support Gardner and Sternberg that human being has multi intelligences not just one. How Sternberg and Gardner consider the intelligences. Both of them agree that a human has different intelligences, which are independent of each other. In their views that individual differences intelligences, begin from the earliest years of life and when someone has strength in one area of ability, this is not ensuring strengths or weaknesses in other areas (Vardin, 2003).They state, in fact, that everyone has a unique profile (ibid, 2003). Both of them see individual development as a result between genetic and environmental factors (ibid 2003). However, the theorists did not agree on the number of intelligences. Gardner (1983) believes that there are seven types of intelligences linguistic, logical, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, spatial, interpersonal, and intrapersonal (Campbell, Dickinson, Campbell, 2004). Whereas Sternberg believes that there are three kinds of intelligences creative, analytical and practical (Sternberg, 1985). According to Gardner he asserts eight evidences for MI theory as follows, isolated two abilities from ea ch other by brain damage, exceptional individual such as prodigies and idiots savants, some core information processing operations, experiment psychology and cognitive psychology, symbol system, evolutionary biology (Gardner, Kornhaber, Wake, 1996) and psychometric findings (Gardner 1983:62). He describes two kinds of traditional intelligence which can easily practice in schools and next three kinds he classified them in art and the last two kinds they are more personal (Gardner 1999). The eight Kinds of intelligences according to Gardner as follow. Linguistic verbal intelligence. It contains sensitivity to the sound, rhythm, spoken and written language, and the capacity to learn usage language to express the meaning and to explain concepts and remember information as formal system such as writers, lawyers, speakers. Some forms in this intelligence include telling jokes, discussion and writing poems (Campbell, Campbell, and Dickinson: 2004). Logical -mathematical intelligence. We use our logical /mathematical intelligence to analyze problem logically, determining relation such as cause and effect and achieve mathematical operation. Some forms in this intelligence involve creating thinking, analyzing problems and discovering and using logical sequences (Kagan, Kagan, 1998). Bodily -kinaesthetic intelligence. Ability to use whole body or parts of the body such as movement gestures , facial, and hand gestures and enjoy in physical activities .( Kagan Kagan ,1998).This intelligence may see different from traditional views of intelligence.Bodily kinaesthetic intelligence involves the use of all or part of one`s body to solve problems of fashion products. And core operations associated with this intelligence are control over fine and gross motor action and the ability to manipulate external objects. (Gardner, Kornhaber, Wake 1996 p.209). Such as found in athletes, dancers and surgeons. Musical intelligence. In this intelligence Sternberg and Gardner agree on it and Sternberg call it creative intelligence .According to Gardner musical intelligence gives chance to people to creative, communicate, and understand meaning made out of sound .It is different from linguistic intelligence (Gardner kornhaber, wake 1996). People can gain a high degree in musical skills. Gardner himself has high degree in this intelligence and states I believe that I think musically I need music to work. I also hear music all the time in my head I think that my major activities to think and to read and to write occur in a very musical way. My literary work reflects the sorts of organization that I observed in composition I studied and played i.e. the development of themes ,the effects that something introduced at one point has much later back and forth(Gardner 1997,p 10). Spatial intelligence. We express this intelligence through pictures, sculpture, and arranging objects. Those strong in this intelligence enjoy designing, doodling, and drawing. Some forms this intelligence takes include map interpreting and making decorating, page, layout , design and make collages .(Kaga ,kagan 1998). It concerns the ability to perceived spatial information to transform this information, and to create visual images even without original references. Blind people also can use it because it is not dependent on visual sensation for example to build mental image of their homes or figurers out routes to work. Core abilities in this intelligence are ability to build images in three dimensions (Gardner, Kornhaber, Wake 1996). The last two intelligences are the personal intelligence. Interpersonal intelligence. It is ability to interact successfully with others. Some forms of this intelligence are leadership skills, friendship skills and ability to understand strength and weaknesses points for others (Kagan, Kagan, 1998).Interpersonal intelligence makes use of core capacities to recognize and make distinctions among others feelings, belief and intention In early development of this intelligence will be ability young people to distinguish from other individuals in their environments and enable them to carry out their work (Gardner, Kornhaber, Wake 1996 p.211). Intrapersonal Intelligence. It concerns ability to understand our own feeling images, dreams, moods and states. Gardner defined the intrapersonal intelligence over the years. After frames of mind(1983), Gardner focused on the feeling life in his original conception of intrapersonal intelligence, but that he had come to stress instead, the importance of having a viable model of oneself and of being able to draw effectively upon that model in making decisions about ones life (Gardner, 1993, p.xviii). This statement reflects cognitive learning. Defining intelligence in this view ways of thinking associated with different types of information. Gardner argues that intrapersonal intelligence is human only. (Kagan, Kagan 1998). According to him, each of these seven can be observed and measured. Moreover, everyone has seven kinds of intelligences in different levels; someone might be strong in musical intelligence and poor in logical intelligence so individuals are distinguished by their particular profile of intelligences (1999, 1983). More recently, Gardner opens the door to additional candidate intelligences (naturalist, spiritual, existential and moral intelligences). Naturalist intelligence. It is ability to classify and recognize natural patterns through encounters with natural world that involve appreciation for and understand flora and fauna (Lazear.2004). It enables people to recognize certain feature of the environment. It combines a description of the core ability with a characterization of the role that many cultures value (Gardner 1999, p.48). Inclusion of naturalist intelligence appears straight forward. He has added a naturalist intelligence in his list. Spiritual intelligence. Is more complex and seem more responsible (ibid 1999). Existential intelligence. Although existential intelligence might be attractive and concern with ultimate issue, Gardner is not arranging to add it in his list .Gardner state I find the phenomenon perplexing enough and the distance from the other intelligences are vast enough to dictate prudence at least for now(ibid :66). Moral intelligence:it is a concern with those rules, behaviours and attitudes that govern the sanctity of life in particular, the sanctity of human life and in many cases, the sanctity of any other living creatures and the world they inhabit (ibid p.70). In the other hand, Sternberg`s theory comprises three parts: componential, experiential, and practical. Sternberg labelled three components the met components, performance components, and knowledge -acquisition component (Sternberg 1985). Sternberg explains that different contexts and different tasks require different kinds of intelligences. He divided his theory the three parts as follow (Sternberg, 1985). Componential/Analytical sub theory. This is the sort of thinking which involve critical and problem solving, and is usually measured by traditional tests. Unfortunately, individuals with only this type of thinking are not necessarily able to creating unique ideas of their own because analytical giftedness often is tested without other. It is involved when human being responses such as compare and contrast evaluate, Critique, explain (Sternberg 1997). Experiential/creative sub theory. This is a second kind of thinking to generate new ideas and he divided it two parts novelty and automation. A novel situation. It is ability to solve problems in different and unfamiliar ways never experienced before (Sternberg 1997). Automated .It is familiar. It has been performed multiple times with the same or other processes. Practical thinking. Deals with the mental activity involved in attaining fit to contrast . (Sternberg, 1985 p.45), and it occurs when learners apply what they know to everyday life (Howie, 2009b). This thinking is dependent on three processes. Adaptation. It occurs when someone adapt to changes around him/her (Sternberg 1985). Shaping .It occurs when someone makes changes to adapt to the real world (Sternberg 1985). Selection. It concerns when a completely new alternative environment replaced the previous one, to meet the individual`s goals (Sternberg, 1985). Most people who are successfully intelligent are not equal in these three abilities, but they find ways of making the three abilities work harmoniously together (Sternberg, 2008). Sternberg agrees with Gardner in creative or musical intelligence but in other six abilities he classified practical and analytical intelligences. In my teaching practice, I agree with Gardner and Sternberg that each student has different intelligences from others. For example, in my class I have smart student in conservation while another student is smart in writing. The intelligent student in the conservation is not needed for intelligence or stupidity in other skills because each of these intelligences is independent of other intelligences. I also agree with them that intelligences are influenced by environmental aspects for example, if person has been done a particular work in a certain country, he/she may consider smart while if he/she does the same work in other country may classify him/her as not intelligent and vice versa. From my teaching experience I have two twin girls in my class; they have lived in different environments and circumstances. I have found these girls have different intelligences from each other. This may be some evidence that environment has a big role to refigure our intelligences into development or foil. On the other hand, I agree with Gardner that intelligences divide into eight intelligences, and it is possible to add others whereas I dispute with Sternberg those intelligences are just three. In my experience, I have noticed that intelligences of the students are not only creative or practical or analytical. For example, some students do not own those three intelligences so they cannot learn practical, analytical and creative ways. Does this mean they are not smart? However, these students may have other types of intelligences as Gardner said because when I explain the lesson in other ways by signals or move my body, they understand better. This means that they have Bodily -kinaesthetic intelligence, or when I read the lesson in a melodic way, student who has musical intelligence understand better than any other ways. Therefore, I have tendency with Gardner Multiple intelligences that students have eight kinds of intelligences as I mentioned them above. Inclusion view or holistic view. Both of psychologists put tendency forwards theories with multiple abilities or intelligences, which are a much more holistic view of abilities, learning to a much more inclusive notion of how individual can be able. When Gardner`s original listing of the intelligences in frame of mind (1983).There are discussions to other possible for inclusion. After many researches Gardner reached to three possibilities: A naturalist intelligence, a spiritual intelligence and existential intelligence (Gardner 1999:52). The final one for inclusion is moral intelligence; if people accept moral intelligence then it is possible to add it. It is inclusive to add intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences. Although he emphasises intrapersonal intelligence as near to met cognition, the non hierarchical nature of this list, he wishes to see executive function as an entity which emerge from other intelligences (ibid, 1999). Gardner points out that two people have not exactly the same profile of strengths and weakness and we can enhance any intelligence by concerted effort (Montessori, 2003). On the other hand, According to Sternberg when he did some studies in the diversity of students in different cultures, findings in these studies that students who achieve high analytical groups were mostly white and middle class, the high in creative and practical groups were not. He said when you expand the range of abilities considered, the range of student identified as gifted increase as well.(Sternberg, 2008 p.60). I agree with both theories that ability of human being is a more holistic view. Through my experience I have found that students capabilities are multiple, and they have abilities to do a lot of things. I have found some students who have natural abilities where they could learn by exploration a nature as an animals or plants around them. There are some students who have moral intelligence. This is very important to have in my religion and culture. We cannot avoid it, and I hope that Gardner add it to his list officially. There are a lot of intelligences which indicate the universality of human ability such as culinary, industrial intelligences and others. In addition the way in which intelligences present in different cultures is not limited to a certain category for example students from Europe or the Middle East or from Africa, all exhibit different kinds of intelligences. In my experience, it is possible to find creative ability in Europeans students and analytical ability in Afr ican students and vice versa. Both of them said about developing curriculum and teaching. Both of theories Gardner (1983) theory of multiple intelligences and Sternberg (1985, 1988) triarchic theory of human intelligences generate ideas and to provide feedback as the curriculums are developed. Schools have moved to organize their curriculum according to MI theory. They start to use videotapes and net works to explore abilities in students and to teach them away adapt to their potentials. MI is encouraged by the educational community in three reasons first, MI emphasizes that children have many intelligences, not just one, and these abilities are defined shaped, and combined by the environment. Second, MI focused on children. Finally, MI emphasis intelligences are different from culture to another. Many of schools focused on MI to arrange their curriculum and MI help teacher how to create ways to teach lessons to students. (Torff: 1997, 1998). Gardner`s urges that teachers must pay attention to unique intelligences profiles and individual differences when they teach their students. He believes that there are one way to teach for individual differences in intelligences profiles, teacher can teach students through taking a topic or domain and explains it in different intelligences approaches, or by using entry points to helping them grasp new material according to their intelligences ( Howie, 2009a). In addition, he argues that practical intelligence curriculum which includes two parts: The Yale portion of the curriculum, designed to teach skills used across content areas. This is taught by content teachers for two or three period per week separately. (Sternberg, Okagaki, Jackson 1990, p. 36). The Harvard portion of the curriculum, which emphasizes individual subject -matter infusion of the skills within the content class.(ibid, 1990, p. 36). According to Sternberg, teachers need to teach their students with three abilities for increasing achievements. In his view, teaching involves helping students to capitalize their strength and to correct their weaknesses. This means that teachers must use a variety of ways to teaching students some of the time, they encourage students to analyze, critical, evaluate, compare and contrast and in other times to create, imagine, invent, and other times to apply, implement and practice. Sternberg and his colleagues have carried out a study in the United States. In this study, they used the Sternberg triarchic abilities test. The children were divided into four groups : High analytical ,high creative, high practical, high in all abilities or low in all abilities, all students listened to the same introductory psychology lecture in the morning but different among them were the type of lesson in afternoon section with one approach critical, analysis, compare and contrast, second approach , i magine, discover, invent and explore, the third approach practical, apply and implement, and the fourth approach in the memory condition. They might ask to memorize the main aspects of a major theory. Their results suggest that students who were placed in afternoon sections that matched their abilities performed better than did student who attended afternoon sections mismatched (Sternberg .2008).In the other words when students learn in ways matched their abilities , they can perform better at least some of times. So a good teacher uses a variety of teaching methods which adapt with abilities of their students. Sternberg (1985) has found practical intelligence for schools PIFS curriculum is based on the four kinds of knowledge to adaptation to any environment: managing oneself, managing tasks, and working with (managing) others. Self management, the teacher and student discuss styles of thinking of student multiple intelligences (Sternberg 1988, 1990) and each student chooses own individual style which adapt with him/her. Managing tasks, which deals with topics such as put strategies to solve problems, to correct bad habits, understanding questions and taking tests. Cooperating with others (practical discussion in class, shift places with others, and solving communication problems. I agree with psychologists that the development of the curriculum must be commensurate with the needs and students capabilities. The teachers should use a variety of ways to teach students such as video, participation, collaborative groups, advanced technology and others to adapting with learners themselves. While I disagree with Sternberg that teachers use three ways to teach and assess students practical, analysis and creative because there are some students cannot understand in these three ways, does this mean they are not smart so I strongly agree with Gardner that teachers must teach students in eight ways or more. .This view is fitting with my plans in my future teaching practice and to give me a great help to understanding the capacities of the students and to help them to understand the lesson through unique profile of abilities. Each student has the right to discuss with the teacher the pedagogical approaches which best fit with him/her. This will be benefit the learning and teaching process in both the teacher and the student. In the future I will apply this theory in my teaching practice. For example, if I have class which it contains group of students, I will identify their abilities according to their responses or understandings in the class then I will teach them and assess them in ways that fit their abilities. For example, with linguistic intelligence group I may ask them to write story or to read text with correct pronunciation, mathematical intelligence group for example, I will give the numerical activities, computer programming, and solving mathematical problem, Intrapersonal intelligence group I will leave them to work by concentrating the subject themselves because they tend to work alone. I will explain the lesson by bodily movement to facilitate understanding the lesson for Bodily Kinaesthetic group. Students who have interpersonal intelligences I will learn them by putting them collaborative groups. Visual Spatial groups I will show the m visual images. Musical groups, I will read the lesson as song or may play musical instrument although this intelligence is difficult to apply in my religion because we do not have music in our schools. Nature intelligence group I will learn them outside the school in the nature environment although this intelligence also difficult as other one because we have limited time in class and we have a big number of students in the same class. Both of them consider intelligences in teaching and assessment approaches. Both of these theorists agree that teaching and assessment approaches consider in their theories but in different ways. Both of them agree that intelligence can be improved at any age the more we practice the more we become. According to Sternberg, he suggests that tests of intelligence are not complete in both sides either in applying or in design; they are not adequate in design, because they heavily depend on analytical ability and do not pay attention in practical and creative abilities. As well they are not adequate in implementation because they are predicted that ways are fixed rather than flexible (Sternberg, 2008). Sternberg and his colleagues designed studies which are the Rainbow project and SAT Reasoning test which measures practical, creative analytical skills. They tested 1,013 high schools and colleges; they gave them analytical questions as available in conventional test but also gave them crea tive and practical questions. The creative questions required from students to imagine for example, they may ask them to write new story or may show them pictures and ask them to create a story orally. The practical test required asking students to solve problems in real life as consequence their studies, there were critical findings. First, they discovered three factors on their tests one was creative thinking, a second factor was practical thinking, the third factor was multiple-choice problem solving (Sternberg, 2008). Second, they discovered that using broader tests for college admissions can enhance academic excellence. Third, they discover that they could substantially reduce ethnic-group differences on the tests. There are a lot of students from the majority group who learn in ways that are different from those who assessed from standardized tests. These children may have abilities to success in real life, but these abilities may not appear in conventional tests. There are al so other projects called Kaleidoscope project (ibid, 2008). He also adds that assessment approaches must match to each type of intelligences (Sternberg: 2000). However, in contrast, according to Gardner, he refers to the weak performance of standardised test two reasons first, test is too narrow, and it just measures linguistic and logical abilities and does not take account spatial, bodily, kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and musical abilities. Second, pencil and paper testing are far away from real life. The MI has driven a critique of standardized testing; it suggests alternative assessment that captures the wide range of intelligences. He opposed assessment by pencil and paper type. He points out that rather advocates building up profile by teacher observation and project. We can use contextualised assessment such as the Project Spectrum Approach which contain from variety of settings in pre schools and primary schools assessments including teacher observation and telling stories, activities and games to determine strength and weaknesses for children. As well there are other projects used as alternative teaching, learning and assessment for schools by Gardner and his colleagues such as Mather and ATLAS projects and Project Zero (Troff, 1997,1998). He suggests s that we can possess eight types of intelligence. Moreover, he believes there are probably others that we have not yet been able to test. Each of us is unique and unrepeatable. We are complex than any standard testing instrument can reveal. We must stop labelling children because labelling is an unfair practice (Lazear, 2004, 12, 16). In multiple intelligences :Howard Gardner (1993) says Now a huge body of experimental evidence exists to indicate that assessment materials designed for one target audience cannot be transported directly to another cultural setting ,there are no purely culture fair or culture build materials . Every instrument reflects its origins. There is also an accumulation of findings about the cognitive abilities of various kinds of experts. It has been shown that experts often fail on formal measures of their calculating or re asoning capacities but can be shown to exhibit precisely those some skills in the course of their ordinary work in such cases, it is instruments which purported to document the person level of competence (Gardner 1993 p.172). Gardner is concerned to help students creating unique intelligences profiles and he suggests that creating should be the main goal of intelligence testing. Furthermore, he believes that teach students in the same way and assess them only by using one kind of assessment written or standard tests are simply unfair. Students are different from each other and we must take these differences into account when we are looking to structure our schools and when we assess our students. For example, when student does not perform well on a writte

Portrayal Of African Americans In Film

Portrayal Of African Americans In Film In the assignment, I investigated the portrayal of black female in Hollywood films. Which I started off by watching an old time romantic classic film Gone with the Wind, which at first I thought it was a non racial film as slaves were portrayed as normal employees, and were rewarded with presents like the masters pocket watch if theyve been appropriately loyal. Black women involvement in changing African American culture in all black setting was from their outsider experience in White family home. Black women saw white women elites, both actual and aspiring. Black women didnt only perform domestic duties; they also performed a close relationship with the children they nurtured. Moreover, black women noticed that the myth of the domestic worker was becoming an increasing racial ideology. Nancy White, a black inner-city-resident, explores the connection between experience and beliefs: Now, I understand all these things from living. But you cant lay up on these flowery beds of ease and think that you are running your life, too. Some women, white women, can run their husbands lives for a while, but most of them have to..see what he tells them there is to see. If he tells them that they aint seeing what they know they are seeing, then they have to just go like it wasnt there! (In Gwaltney 1980, 148). (Name the Book). This passage illustrates that being an outsider; black women will foster a new angle of vision on domination. It suggests that Black female worker could never be a White middle class women lying on a Flowery bed of ease. But her duties leading for caring her White women allowed her an insiders view of some of contradiction that is being played between White women thinking that they are running their lives and the patriarchal power and authority in their households. To an extent, I did some research on what stereotypical views American people had for African Americans; as a result I found that the slaves contained a little truth surrounded by a large lie for example the mummy at GWTW played by Hattie McDaniel, portrayed as an obese, coarse, maternal figure. The lie that is behind this according to Professor of African American and African studies Patricia Turner is that she claimed that one of the many brutal aspects of slavery was that slave owners sexually exploited their slaves especially light skinned ones which are the mainstream definition of female sexual attractiveness. Therefore mummy was then deliberately constructed to suggest ugliness. The white women felt threaten by this assumption; so therefore the attempt were to desexualise mammy and by extension, the white family could feel safe. The actor Hattie McDaniel who played the well known mummy portrayal has won herself an Oscar for the best supporting actress. The actor who she played Scarlett OHaras sassy but loyal servant in Gone with the Wind, was the first Black to win an Academy Award. Hattie McDaniel not only did she starred in Gone with the wind as a mummy but did lot more in her previous films for example The Story of Temple Drake (1933) and The Gold West (1932) as she played an unobtrusive, weak mummies. Furthermore she was criticized by Blacks by allowing herself portray as a mummy caricature. She responded that Why should I complain about making seven thousand dollars a week playing a maid? If I didnt, Id be making seven dollars a week actually being one. This statement tells us how black women were given choice whether to endure the stereotype ridicule from both her African American to receive an Oscar, people still argue until today whether she sold out or did she succeed in her life. However she stated in her appearance at the Oscar and quotes that I sincerely hope that I will be a credit to my race suggesting that she has come far in life as Black American to achieve such an award which then would have been impossible, she claims that anyone could succeed if they work hard for it. The Cosby shows is a comedy about a middle class black family. the main character Bill Cosbyis played by Cliff Huxtable. He is gynaecologist and obstetrician, and his wife Claire is a lawyer. The show has become popular over the years as they were the first black people to have a leading role on a TV show. However there are speculation whether the show is constructed or reflective in This is part of the white fantasy: blacks should stop complaining and work hard. Hence the reference to The Cosby Show, which I have only just remembered You now need to conclude this introduction. Is the Hattie McDaniel character a racist image? Yes because it conforms to the stereotype. No because the actor playing the part is doing well in white society and might be called a role model. Yes because the stereotype limits the ways in which she can be successful. You have to make the point that different readings are possible, hence The Cosby Show study. Methodology- In the 21st century the portrayal of black female in Hollywood still continues, therefore I want to find out how teenagers in todays society handle the stereotype that the media with holds and what affects has it caused in how black female view themselves. In my investigation I got a group of black teenagers to discuss the issue of the portrayal of black women in films. In addition, I have chosen four film trailers for the teenagers to watch; which where two modern and two classic films the reason I have chosen classic and modern is because I want to prove the point of how Hollywood still continues these portrayal of black women, whether its a black comedy or black drama it still de-humanizes black women and creates humour from this. The film trailers that I showed to the teenagers were the following: Norbit Precious Gone With the Wind Birth of the Nation The group discussions were vital as it provided me crucial information about the teenagers view point of the media portrayal. However its not only films that are constantly shown portraying black women negatively its also in the media; these stereotypes been presented in the music videos. As these black women are shown dancing all over these men while half naked, allowing champagne to be poured on to them, all for just money. However, to young teenagers it looks like these women are living the best life. Research suggests that when negative images are repeatedly exposed over a long period of time, we use these images and measure ourselves and others against them. Therefore, when young teenagers are being exposed to the media that portrayal people of colour are less likely to succeed, less beautiful and less worthwhile than white people, they tend to believe those ideas. In the group meeting I have asked the students an open question of what they have thought of the film trailers, and successfully I got a useful responds which I will utilise in my investigation. The following are the questions that I asked the students: From watching these trailers what were your thought? Which one in particular did you find disturbing to watch? Which one of these trailers did you find racist? Which film do you think portrays black female in a negative way What elements did they use to stereotype black women? As a young black female teenager how did these trailers make you feel? Did you think GWTW is a racist film? If yes why? Do you think this negative stereotype still carries into the 21st century? The film Gone with the Wind (1939) was one of the most controversial films that depicts of race relations. Through freed from the novels positives portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan, Gone with the Wind depiction of slavery still remains particularly naive. The writer of the film Birth of the Nation Thomas F. Dixon Jr has written a letter to praise Margaret Mitchell about how great Gone with the Wind was: the greatest story of the South ever put down on paper, you have given the world The Great American Novel. Margaret replied back with the great praise for Dixons extremist Klan-praising books and quotes In truth, the film Gone with the wind is Birth of Nation without the bed sheets and hoods of the Klan suggesting that the truth of Gone with the wind hides the important elements that happened to Blacks. The extremely dehumanizing, exploitative, and bloody reality of slavery, with its great violence against (including much rape of black women) enslaved African Americans, is missing from th e novel and the movie. In the film blacks appear mostly as slaves: loyal servants like Prissy . . . , or clownish servants. Whites are seen as worthy of the subservience, loyalty, and love of faithful servants. This is because the genre of the film is romantic Happiness and wholeness and one with antiseptic slavery without whips, chains, or rape is shown to create the mood. To an extent, the sense of the collective identity produced by laughing at others, those who are perceived as different and possibly a treat. For example when blacks appear alongside whites in comedies, racial issues become a main focus for the humour. Hattie McDaniel in her mummy role in Gone with the Wind, black women has been stereotyped since then. She had a very aggressive personality and was overly possessive even when she is preserving the female master. Her powerful aggressive is where the portrayal of African American tradition started off, as people often stereotype women as being overly aggressive and disrespectful. The mummy represented the black mother figures in white homes; the matriarch symbolized the mother figure in Black homes. Which therefore the representation that is been stereotyped is that the mummy symbolizes the good black mother, whereas the black matriarch symbolizes the bad black mothers. This has been introduced widely through a government reported titled The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, the black matriarchy thesis argued that African -American women who failed to fulfil their traditional Womanly duties at home contributed to social problems in Black civil society (Moynihan 1965). The mummy of the house is seen being strong and her dignity is largely intact but her grammar is chopped down into broken English with an extremely simplistic level. However they deliberately constructed this type of character to suggest that all black people are sexually unattractive. They portrayed them as being dark skinned, often pitch black which in the society they regarded black people being ugly. GWTW uses black over weight maid that looks old. The reason they used this is because that no reasonable white man would choose a fat, elderly black women instead of the idealized white women. The white family would feel safe, by de-eroticism of all black mummy by portraying them of lacking all sexual and sensual qualities. Historically, it is the African American women, has been the rock of the family, who is strong both in emotion and in honour, she has kept the family together through hardship and poverty, preserving in the most difficult of times. The African American women has protected and raised her family for generation in the worst of circumstance. Butterfly McQueen plays the character Prissy, the stupid, loud and annoying house girl. The character Prissy is a squeamish, a liar and becomes hysterical over the smallest things. As the Jim Crow minstrel entertainment era this portrayal was being used to entertain the white audience. The minstrel stereotyped black people of being a clown, something funny to watch so therefore watching this character makes the humour of the film to the white audience as it was successful in the early minstrel time, including it on a movie would be greater success on their believes. I watched this The film Precious stars by Gabourey Sidibe who plays an obese black girl Claireece Jones, known as Precious. The film is set in 1986 Harlem, Precious daydreams of having glamorous life, with a light skinned boyfriend and the paparazzi in love with her. In reality Precious experiences and suffers constant sexual abuse by her father, the father of daughter who suffers from Down s syndrome, and Precious is now carrying her second child by him. The film is also narrated by Gabourey Sidibe, she takes us through her day dreams and the things she hungers for. As in her day dreams she says she wants to be on a BET videos this shows videos that degrades women. The parent television council claimed that BET rap programming, which they believed contained gratuitously sexual, violent, and profane content, was targeting teenagers. Furthermore scholars within the African American community maintain that BET perpetuates and justifies racism by affecting the interpersonal beliefs others may generali ze about African American and also the young teenagers viewers through its negative image of African American. The image of the welfare mothers that is being portrayed in the film provides ideological justifications for intersecting oppressions of race, gender and class. African American can be racially stereotyped as being lazy by blaming black welfare mother for falling to pass on the work ethic. She is portrayed as being content to sit around and collect welfare mother the image of the welfare mother represents another failed mummy, one who is unwilling to become de mule uh de world which this links back to Precious of instead of her mother encourage to stay in school, she forces to go to the welfare. Welfare queen is a phrase that describes the economic dependency- the lack of a job and/ income (which equal degeneracy in the Calvinist United States); the presence of a child or children with no father and/or husband (moral deviance); and finally, a charge on the collective U.S. treasury- a human debit. The cumulative totality, circulation, and effect of these meanings in a time of scarce resources among the working class and the lower middle class are devastatingly intense. The welfare queen represents moral aberration and an economic drain, but the figures problematic status becomes all the more threatening once responsibility for the destruction of the American way of life is attributed to it. (Lubiano 1992, 337-38), (Patricia Hill Collins, Black feminist thought). Book The welfare queen held a portrayal of being selfish, money-oriented women, who are manless, working class people. The image of the welfare queen portrayal represents black welfare queen happy taking money from hard earned money of taxpaying Americans and remains married to the state. The welfare queen image signals efforts to use the situation of working class black women as a sign of the deterioration of the state. Reference the book Political scientist Martin Gilens did a study of the way in which poverty was being represented in USAs leading news magazines (Times, Newsweek and US News and World Report). Following key figures were produced by Gilens: Gilens found 182 stories concerning poverty in these magazines during the period under analysis. 635 people were pictured as Poor in these stories, in 214 pictures (photographs and drawings). Gilens interest was primarily in the representation of poverty in terms of race and ethnicity. He excluded 75 people in eight stories whose race could not be identified; 637 minus 75 left 560 people pictured. Gilens found that of those 560 people pictured in news stories as poor, 62 per cent were African- American. He claims that African American make up only 25% on government statistics of the US poor. Gilens suggests that A reader of these news magazines is likely to develop the impression that Americans poor are predominantly black. This distorted portrait of the America poor cannot help but reinforce negative stereotype of blacks as mired in poverty and contribute to the belief that poverty is primarily a Blacks problem (THE books name) the politician Gilens examines the survey that he took, and he found out that the media over exaggerate the percentage of African American being poor, he suggests that the negative stereotype leads to a situation which many white people do not support government welfare provision because they perceive poverty and/or unemployment as a black problem. The film precious has been shown primarily black people being Poor as to therefore suggesting that majority of the black people in America is poor. However, going back to the newspaper, the portrayal of black people could have been escalated by one media featuring more black people than usual, which then could have exaggerated the results. In addition, I watched Norbit. The film is about a young man named Norbit. Eddie Murphy co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in the film. I found this film humorous to watch, of the repetitive hate humour that it represents. I found myself to be expected to laugh at the portrayals of verbal and physical abuse that it creates through the film. The film starts off with the character Norbit; he is skinny, insidiously shy, irreproachably geeky and a painfully awkward guy. His childhood was not very kind to him, as he was given away at birth to an orphanage home. He then meets Rasputia. She helps Norbit from the bullies which she manhandles two older teenagers. Rasputia (Eddy Murphy), introduces herself to Norbit at a playground. She is enormous for a 10 year old, and when she finds out that his single, she makes a decision right then and there that Norbit will be her new boyfriend whether he wants to or not. The film tells us that black skinned women are unattractive and lighter women are. This creates an enormous affect on teenagers who are watching this, as portrayal that it tells through the film is that light skinned are beautiful than darker skinned. Rasputia later becomes Norbits new wife. She is shown as a bigger, bossy, sassy, mean spirited, and unfaithful, holding Norbit emotionally captive. The film Norbit stereotypes black women into the following three categories. They are: Mummy Jezebel Sapphire Moreover, while I was researching I came across by statement which states that Aggressive, assertive women are penalized-they are abandoned by their men, end up impoverished, and are stigmatized as being unfeminine. Book Therefore suggesting that the stereotype has been used penalize black understands of black masculinity. The image of the matriarch also supports racial oppression. Much social science research implicitly uses gender relation in African American communities as one seeing measure of black cultural disadvantage. For example the Maynihan report (1965) contends the slavery destroyed black families by creating deviant because they challenge the patriarchal assumptions underpinning the traditional family idea. The image Rasputia portrays is unattractive and weight black women. She shows off her tiny bathing suit; when the attendant asks her if she is wearing bottoms because her belly obscures it. However, Rasputia beyond large breasts hitting the steering wheel, and claiming that Norbit adjusted the seats, as she slaps him across the face when he denies it. This shows that she is violently abusive and stupid as to think she is right when she is clearly not. Rasputia is loud, bossy, and dishonest, but these are seen as the sure fire in the society, this is identifiable traits of the modern of black women. Rasputias type is historically been portrayed of them driving all good men away, leaving only emasculated Norbits and feminized girlie men (like the exercise guru forced to sleep with her in order to get ahead), who are the inevitable byproducts of a matriarchal culture run amok. Jasmyne A. Cannick is a well known and respected public policy and communications professional with a successful track record in the areas of public policy, issue and campaign strategies. She has recently written a review of the film Norbit of its negative stereotype of obese black women (Why Norbit Sent Me Intro Orbit). She states that the trailer for Norbit encouraged a strange ambivalence of laughing at something that in reality shouldnt be funny, because the comedy relates to the social and historic tragedies about body image/obesity and skin colour preference, respectively Tim Cogshell, in a review of Norbit, comments about this: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦there is a great deal of mockery of the obese in Norbit, but therein lies a bit of truth, too: We do mock the obese, dont we? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦The lithe Kate (who seems to transform into a white girl post her childhood persona) juxtaposed with the big, fat, mean Rasputia may simply look like more of the same fat-bashing humour weve come to expect in movies such as this, and it is, but thats not all it is. There is a mirror in this movie, reflecting a lot of things, not the least of which is that we are a mean, fat country that ironically doesnt like mean fat people. Rasputia is shown on as a sexualized freak show; her short hair is did. Her flawless make-up does not mask a teethy, hideous smile. Her fingernails are manicured and claw-like. This Black womens sexuality lie at the heart of black womens oppression, historical jezebels and contemporary Hoochies represent a deviant black female sexuality. The image of jezebel originated under slavery when black women were portrayed as being, to use Jewelle Gomezs words, sexually aggressive we nurses (Clarke et al. 1983, 99). Jezebels function was to relegate all black women to the category of sexually aggressive women, thus providing a powerful rationale for the widespread sexual assaults by White men typically reported by Black slave women (Davies 1981; D. White 1985). Jezebel served yet another function. If black slave women could be portrayed as having excessive sexual appetites, then increased fertility should be the expected outcome. Rasputia is shown singing to the Pussy Cat Dolls Dont Cha, this creates the humour of the film. In the scene she is shown washing the car while PCD Dont Cha is being played. It also shows her in a low angle shot and slow motion while she washes the car. This overall suggests while its portraying black women extreme, Raspuita is shown, of her being proud of who she is, almost creating a positive view. However it also could be argued that excessive portrayal of the stereotypes might affect young teenagers on their behavior of what they see in films such as Norbit. These constructed stereotype images represents by Black Director, writer and Actor to entertain the audience of allowing the image to escalate into the black community. Moreover, I started to watch Birth of the nation is Directed by David Llewelyn Wark Griffith. The film was made in 1915 and caused extream controversy with individulas and orgaisation across the country. The film had expilicit rasism, as one scenes portrays black men as savages possessed by animalistic lust, sexually assaulting white women. in the film black roles were mainly white actors, as they painted their face with burnt cork. American films has popularized the stereotype that are held by the soicety. Griffith exploited as many of the stereotype in his film Birth of the Nation. For example, Mulattos were represented as being evil , while those who has full black in them have the choice to be either Good (i.e. faithful to whites or bad (i.e. interested in self-preservation and equality). The black actors that worked in the film were given roles for them to create humor and humanity in their characters. the historical and contemporary challenege of race relation, was the begining of cultural identity in American cinema.

Educationally Driven Assimilation Essay -- Education, Politics

The United States educational system has existed nearly unchanged for hundreds of years. As the system itself remains the same, the content in courses has not. The discussion of what courses should and should not be required or even offered has shifted into a question of politics. As the movement towards becoming more politically correct has expanded, so has its influence upon the educational system. Education on racial issues, which was once deemed as necessary, are now being removed out. A university that feeds on fear-driven proposals offered by the politically correct movement ultimately decides to remove courses that may be falsely perceived as discriminatory. There is a single question that must be asked due to this new trend. Is political correctness being used to target and remove racial issues from the classroom in an attempt to assimilate all cultures? Using three arguments, this paper will seek to support the idea that forcing political correctness into a classroom removes racial issues, and attempts to assimilate minorities. First, political correctness demands modification of both the educational structure, and of the student. Second, political correctness assimilates both the language and actions of individuals. Third, a discussion of white dominance is required to stop a forced assimilation and create a mutual respect of differences instead. Although being politically correct appears to be good on face, the concept can be weaponized in an attempt to halt unwanted discussion. A highly regarded professor from Harvard was ultimately forced to stop offering his class â€Å"Peopling of America† due to its focus on racial issues. (Taylor, 198). Although the Harvard professor was teaching the same course that ... ...the ideals of political correctness target and assimilate cultural differences. The ideals of being PC require followers to think alike, act alike, discuss things alike, and avoid all of the same questions. Uniformity is not the answer to solving cultural differences. When uniformity is preferred it creates a binary that allows individuals to be considered part of the group or different. It is this categorization of individuals that allows the elite to manipulate and oppress against individuals in the United States. The elites can target a group and the majority will find it justified as that group is not part of the unified. The alternative, however, is to allow discussions of difference to occur. If our society can grow to respect differences instead of try to assimilate them, then we will ultimately have a whole group that can include any form of minority.

The U.s School System :: essays research papers

When one is a student, it is ever so simple to criticize the way that schools are conducted. The ideas of students towards their schools may be somewhat misguided by their varied emotions and attitudes for their school. However I believe that my thought out reforms for the American school system, are not only objective, but valid.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For many students, going to school is more than just part of the daily routine. A lot of students see their role in school as a stepping stone not only to their future life, but to their future success. Some people in the school however do not even feel the slightest bit of pressure to do well in school. These people are satisfied with mediocrity. Possibly even worse, some are careless towards not only their on education, but neglectful towards the schooling of others. I think that such students who are not only disruptive, but destructive, should not be dealt with such a severity, that they will either realize the error of their ways or that they do not belong in a public school. Through my few years in high school, I have noticed some students who are always breaking rules. And for some of these students, they are so regularly in trouble that the standards for their behavior is lessened , being permitted to break small rules because the standard for their behavi or is lessened. This is a excellent example, why I believe in not only stern punishment, but set disciplinary action. A student should not be allowed the chance to break rules simply because that is just the way they are. Their bad habits will never be corrected, when they are not expected to act properly   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I haven't really had a great relationship with teachers, in the sense that I felt that they were able to give me good one on one assistance if needed. This however is not the fault of the teacher. Cities have a problem of expanding without planning. Oviedo for example, is possibly going to be a prominent city in the state of Florida. Even now, we are starting to see a major boom in not only population but development. I am not sure however, that I can say that the city is correctly planning for this development, if at all. Roads will need to be widened. Irrigation, and sanitation will need to be carefully managed.

The No child Left Behind Statute

The â€Å"No child Left Behind† statute introduced by President Bush and passed by the congress has created a number of problems for the educational programs intended for adolescents in elementary and secondary schools. The financial situation of the elementary and secondary schools is extremely poor because the states governments have been eliminating vital elementary educational programs. The school administrations have been reluctant to provide extended courses to the students. Furthermore, the textbooks are not being printed consistently, making not only the students but also the teachers extremely vulnerable and helpless. The funding disparity has also created huge gaps between the education being provided to the children belonging to the rich families and those belonging to the poor ones. The shortcomings and the rhetoric behind â€Å"No child left behind† act needs to be exposed so that effective measures can be taken to curtail the damage (Susan, 2003). The consistent lack of attention being given to elementary and secondary education, particularly to adolescent literacy is posing a grave threat to the future of the American education system. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the shortcomings of â€Å"No child left behind† law by first understanding the basic details of the act related to adolescent literacy programs and then persuasively assessing the loopholes in it. Lastly, the thesis gives carefully crafted recommendations aimed at not only the federal and state governments but also the school districts, parents and the educators. The aim is to create an understanding of the present and future needs for those educational programs that are aimed at adolescents and identifying the present gaps in the federal educational law. The American value of education emphasizes that all children, regardless of their gender, religion ethnicity should be able to acquire the basic skills of education and then carry those basic skills through to the elementary, secondary and high level education. Unfortunately, research has shown that the reality of the present education system is on the contrary. In a recent study, conducted by â€Å"National Assessment of Educational Progress† (NAEP, 2002), it has been noted that as much as 26% of the students are unable to read their textbooks fluently and almost half cannot comprehend the meaning of the text (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). It is worth noting that the legislators and government officials realize the gravity of the situation but have been unable to cope with it. If nearly half of the students in the elementary schools are unable to effectively read their course books, then, these students will find higher education very difficult. The â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act has made things even more difficult because the focus has been on a long-term solution, whereas, it is imperative that the needs of the present generations are addressed immediately. This is because millions of students will be unable to cope with the demands of the future workplace needs if their basic educative skills are not enhanced at the right time (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). The challenge for the present legislators, teachers, parents and school administrations is to counter the threat of adolescent illiteracy by introducing effective programs, backed by appropriate amount of government funds. The difficultly lies in the ineffectiveness of the present educational law to cater the needs of adolescents as the most problematical educational dilemma to deal with has been the deficiency in the reading, writing and speaking skills of adolescents. The present educational and political leadership need to create and implement productive adolescent educational programs, which are feasible in the present schooling environment (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). Dough Mesecar, who is currently a senior policy adviser to the secretary of Education, while giving his comments on the present status of the NCLB act asserts in an interview, â€Å"The achievement scores are up, and we're very pleased to see both the achievement gap starting to close, kids are learning more, a very positive report in the sense that the Center for Education Policy report is a self-survey, so these are states and districts reporting on their own to the center that their scores are up, achievement gaps are closing. So we feel very positive that this is yet another report showing the trends are definitely heading in a positive direction. † Contrary to the above statement, many experts believe that the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act presents a grave threat to the American values. But, before revealing the shortcomings of the â€Å"No Child Left Behind† law, it is imperative that the basic features of the law that are related to elementary education are clearly understood. It is important to note that at least four areas of the act have been considered to have severe repercussions on the adolescent literacy. These four features are as follows: The â€Å"No child left behind† (NCLB) act encourages superior standards. The law makes it imperative that those schools, which are being supported by the government through funds, align their endeavors with the standards set by the local state. Furthermore, the law makes it imperative for these schools to employ only skilled and qualified workforce and only work on evidence-founded programs that are time-oriented and result-oriented. It is believed that these measures will enhance the level of education because it will not only minimize the inadequacy of unqualified teachers but also enhance learning as only scientifically verified teaching initiatives will be offered to the adolescents (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The law asserts that the annual progress of all the schools will be noted in relation to the competence achieved by the students in subjects such as mathematics and science, and in skills such as reading, writing and speaking. Standardized procedures and methods will be drafted to evaluate the progress of each district, school, as well as every group within each school. It is important to note that these â€Å"assessments† have put a great deal of added stress on all elementary schools because they have to align their educational endeavors within the parameters of elementary education set by the state (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The NCLB act has set very high standards for elementary schools all over America. If a particular school fails to meet the standards of the state for 2 successive years then that particular school will have to craft counteractive programs. Should the school fail to meet the State†s requirements for the 3RD consecutive year, tougher measures will be introduced, which may include replacements in the school workforce, complete modification of the school syllabus and maybe even state takeover (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The law allows parents to send their children to a school located in another district should their present school fail to meet the standards set by the State. The cost for this transfer of school along with the daily cost of transportation will be met by the local government. Furthermore, if the students attending these low-performing schools need home-tutoring or any other measure to augment their children†s achievements, then the local government will provide funds for those measures as well. The primary objective of the NCLB law is to enhance the possibility of success in elementary education for all Americans. This is being done by placing specific standards and then taking effective measures to make sure that these requirements are being met (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The most severe negative outcome for the elementary schools will be that they will loose their freedom to experiment with the instructional methods. While scientifically proven methods offer a great deal of benefits to the students, the creativity and progress in discovering newer and more effective instructional methods will be lost. Furthermore, while numerous research studies about effective reading methods have been conducted, very little research exists on other educative areas, such as speaking, writing and learning. Therefore, elementary teachers and schools will be finding it very difficult to meet the standards of the State (Jim Donlevy, 2002). Another major loophole in the NCLB act is that the â€Å"counteractive measures† for schools will be extremely costly. It is important to note that the measures set forth for under-performing schools are unfeasible to implement. If the number of schools that fail to comply with the standards set by the State for 2 successive years increases substantially, then the funds required to bring the necessary changes in the workforce, syllabus and structures of the schools or a complete State takeover will be extremely difficult to manage as the funds for education are being slashed every year by the Bush Administration (Jim Donlevy, 2002). The condition laid out by the NCLP to only employ specialized, qualified and licensed teachers is posing severe problems for struggling schools. It is vital to note that those schools that have either failed to or are struggling to comply with the standards set by the local government consistently employ replacement-teachers from far-off areas and are bound to face shortages of licensed teachers. Furthermore, many experts believe that this tendency will increase in the coming years and the struggling schools will face tougher challenges to meet this condition, while those schools that have been meeting the State†s standards of initiatives have been consistently employing certified teachers. Therefore, the persistence of the NCLB act to employ only licensed and specialized teachers has made it unrealistic for low-performing schools to meet this condition (Jim Donlevy, 2002). Additional troubling features of the NCLB Act The funds allocated for the successful implementation of NCLB are not only limited but also very poorly directed. While the NCLP act lays clear emphasis and provides adequate funds for crafting accountability structures and carrying out transformations for schools that fail to comply with the Standards of the State, it fails to provide adequate funds for conducting research on equally important academic areas for adolescents† literacy, namely, educator training and constant learning, the needs and interests of adolescents and framework for educating and learning in subject areas. This misdirection of funds will further hamper the progress of low-performing schools (Mark W. Conley and Kathleen A. Hinchman, 2004). Furthermore, NCLB gives very little consideration to the framework of literacy strategies. The three areas cited in the NCLB act are alphabetic acquaintance, fluency, and comprehension strategies. While the adolescents have been able to develop the first two categories (alphabetic knowledge and fluency), they have found the last category (comprehension strategies) to be extremely difficult. This is mainly due to the fact that new frameworks for subject-contents are being developed, which create the need for the development of newer comprehension strategies. Nevertheless, several studies have asserted that NCLB mirrors very limited research on this issue and sets a very restricted standard on strategies related to the development of newer comprehension strategies (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998; Alexander & Jetton, 2000). It is important to note that adolescents do not come prepared for the challenges they will face in their elementary and secondary education. One cannot wait for newer laws to be enacted or school reforms to be initiated. Immediate strategies have to be developed so that the present threats emerging from the NCLB act can be turned into an opportunity for all schools. The federal and local State governments should reflect on the following strategies for immediate and quick-fix actions: Firstly, recognizing those strategies that have been successfully implemented by high-performing schools and then enforcing the low-performing schools to adopt those strategies (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). In order to present those successful strategies to low-performing schools and ensuring that they have comprehensively understood all the aspects of the strategies, the government ought to set up presentation-places to illustrate those plans and achievements (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). Encourage programs that educate teachers on scientifically verified instructional methods. Despite the fact that confusion about the proper definition of adolescent literacy still prevails, modern research has been able to give some direction to the dilemma. These directions should be used as a framework to allocate funds for teacher training programs that have been clinically verified to be productive (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). Increased consideration should be given to literacy instruction because no current teacher training programs inform the teachers about the difficulties they will face while dealing with the literacy instructions in their teaching careers (Michael F. Hock and Donald D. Deshler, 2003). These recommendations should be implemented with immediate affect because we are all aware that schools are very multifaceted and therefore manifold characteristics and strategies have got to be adopted (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Marzano, 2003). It is important for the government officials to note that neither the adolescents nor the teachers can be ignored because they both are the pillars for growth and development of any society (e. g. , Pressley, 2001; Strickland & Morrow, 2000; Stronge, 2002) (Margaret Taylor, 2004) The â€Å"No Child Left Behind† act can be considered to be more idealistic than realistic because while the aims are very noble, the funds required to achieve these noble aims are very limited and a number of vital issues have been ignored. The State governments have been busy in establishing high standards of achievements for all schools without making efforts to really understand the complexities of the present system and the repercussions of their policies on the schools, parents, teachers and the students. Therefore, a proper reaction to the present threats being posed by the NCLB act should be thorough, carefully directed, and all-inclusive if across-the-board transformations are desired. Lastly, endeavors to bridge the differences amid the objectives and the present capabilities have got to be the most important concern if the aim is for adolescents to productively challenge the needs of the business and the society.

Employment and Total Rewards

Introduction The aim of this paper seeks to examine the concept of total rewards in the process of increasing prominence in organisations. Total Rewards is best described as a business strategy that â€Å"includes financial and non-financial complementary elements designed to recruit, develop, retain and motivate employees†(OSP 2003). â€Å"Employees working for a total rewards employer tend to be more motivated, productive, and happy†. (eHow 1999) As a result is â€Å"the business thrives†(eHow 1999) and prominence. In this paper, I will following this concept to explore more detailed of effectiveness total reward in the organisation prominence.The concept of rewards has developed over the time to represent more than just to pay cheque an employee at the end of the month. The concept of total rewards was emerged in the 1990s as a new way of thinking about the deployment of compensation and benefits, combined with other tangible and intangibles ways that company seek to attract best people. (Richard val del Walt 2010) As defined by Manus and Graham (2003), total reward ‘includes all types of rewards-indirect as well as direct, and intrinsic as well as extrinsic’. Michael Armstrong 2006) The direct reward is what an employee receives from the employer in bank account such as base wage, bonuses, commission. Indirect rewards, often called â€Å"benefits† refers to that part of the total reward package in addition to direct pay, such as health & life insurance cover, retirement & pension plans, health care, company car and mobile phone (Koala Consulting and Training 2008). â€Å"There are extrinsic rewards, which cover the basic needs of income to survive (to pay bills), a feeling of stability and consistency (the job is secure), and recognition (my workplace values my skills).On the other hand, there are intrinsic rewards, the most important of which is probably job satisfaction, a feeling of completing challenges competen tly, enjoyment, and even perhaps the social interactions which arise from the workplace†. (Koala Consulting and Training 2008) The ability link and balance all aspects of rewards together helps organisations achieve the motivation, commitment, engagement and development of employees. The consequence is profitability, efficiency and prominence in organisation.The most companies who use the total reward strategy simply mean to provide â€Å"benefits and a positive place to work† (Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster 2002), but â€Å"this makes a company attractive to the workforce in general but perhaps not to those who will make enterprise prosper. The companies need to fashion workplace to be attractive to people who are wanted to adding value to the business†. (Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster 2002) To increase prominence and efficiency in organisations is responsible equally as an employer, as employees.The employer responsible to creates an atmosph ere in which the best people will want to work in company. â€Å"It is true that the best people will work more than pay†. (Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster 2002). The total rewards scheme concept is simply about the creating an atmosphere by financial and non-financial benefits given to employees in trade for their service, time, abilities and their efforts to support the company. The â€Å"top talent† (Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R. Schuster 2000) wants to work for the company provide better workforce deal that involves the four total rewards components.The compiling future is important for the employees, because they want to â€Å"be able to draw self-esteem and satisfaction from working in the organisation. Employees want to feel that the organisation has optimistic and positive vision, direction and growth of the future and a set of values that they can support†. (Employement studies [n d]) The company that focuses on individual growth gives opport unity an employee for training, coaching and personal development. (Patricia K. Zingheim and Jay R.Schuster 2002) Also, the employee wants to work in organisation where workplace is positive. This means best leadership, team working and open communication. Roles and working environment â€Å"should be designed around employees† (Employement studies [n d]), with a focus on their future development. â€Å"Employees need to feel that what they do is important and to understand how their role relates to the organisation’s goals†. (Employement studies [n d]). The last component is total pay. Total pay involves basic pay, performance-related pay, benefits, and feedback or recognition.All the elements that involve total pay are good way â€Å"to address individual need and preference†. (Employement studies [n d]) For example, â€Å"performance-related pay to emphasise results; benefits to provide protection from life and health hazards, in addition to holidays, recognition and feedback†. (Employement studies [n d]) Some companies can balance the four components or choose the only one, for example some companies may have very strong total pay, but the poor work environment. Other companies may have weaker total pay but develop people, provide a positive workplace.Also, there are five elements of total rewards model, WorldatWork (2011) presented the each of which helps to make the strategy to attract, motivate and retain employees. These elements are: compensation, benefits, work-life balance, performance & recognition and development and career opportunities. The compensation includes four basic components, such as â€Å"fixed pay – Also known as â€Å"basic pay†, fixed pay is nondiscretionary compensation that does not vary according to performance or results achieved. It usually is determined by the organization’s pay philosophy and structure.Variable pay – Also known as â€Å"pay at risk†, varia ble pay changes directly with the level of performance or results achieved. It is a one-time payment and must be re-established and re-earned each performance period. Short-term incentive pay – a form of variable pay, short-term incentive pay is designed to focus and reward performance over a period of one year or less. Long-term incentive pay – a form of variable pay, long-term incentive pay is designed to focus and reward performance over a period longer than one year. Typical forms include stock options, restricted stock, performance shares, performance units and cash†. SARA 2010) Hroot ( 2007) said while one of the most traditional elements of total rewards, it remains a essential for business success. Benefits area constantly challenged and expanding during the last time from just , holiday, health-care benefits to benefits programs which protect employees and their families from financial risks and can categorized such as retirement and medical and dental i nsurance, as well as non-traditional programs, such as identity theft and pet insurance. Life-balance area focused to help employees do their job effectively, such as flexible scheduling, telecommuting, child-care programs, etc.In talent management, performance involves the association of organizational and individual goals toward business success. Recognition is a way for employers to pay special attention to workers for their accomplishments, behaviours and successes. Recognition is necessary to support the value of performance improvement and promote positive communication and feedback. â€Å"Development a set of learning experiences designed to improve employees’ practical skills and competencies. Development engages employees to perform better and engages leaders to advance their organization’s people strategies. Career pportunities area focuses on the planning for employees to go forward their career goals, and a more responsible position in an organization. The development and career opportunities involve the learning opportunities and coaching, such as new technology training, attendance at outside seminars, conferences, virtual education, leadership training and formal or informal mentoring programs†. (SARA 2010) Full understanding of total rewards concept, key components and elements give opportunity to implement the total reward strategy to attract best people, talent, keep them and have them perform well.After all, effective reward systems help an organization not just retain key employees, but also be more competitive and reduce turnover. The ability to understand the purpose of total rewards helps recognise and identify the main powerful types of total rewards to be more competitive and avoid the staff turnover. Staff turnover is the most serious problem for the company. The reasons to leave the organisations are: â€Å"I'm not sure there's a future here for me. â€Å", â€Å"I just don't feel like this is the right place for me. â€Å", â€Å"I'm not sure I want to be doing this for the rest of my life. † and â€Å"I think I can make more money elsewhere. (The Vision Link Advisory Group [n d]) With an understanding of the reasons people leave an organization, the organisations can easily to improve these areas of an organization's by using the total rewards strategy to creating and sustaining a culture that is not copy able – which is essential to maintaining a competitive advantage in the market place(The Vision Link Advisory Group [n d]), but if the company will ignore the reasons why people leave the company, there are affecting them in many ways, such as high staff turnover, conflict, stress, low productivity, bad company image and lose of the business.The main issue to implement the total rewards strategy is turnover. There are many consequences such as lost of best employees, time and cost of selection and recruitment process, poor performance, conflict, stress and poor company image. The turnover is split on two categories voluntary turnover where employee chooses to leave. The key reasons include better career opportunities ; development, increased compensation and better work environment.Involuntary turnover is when employer is asked to leave for reasons including poor performance or development, an inappropriate behaviour and attendance of employee. To replaces an employee the HR Management department, which is responsible for the recruitment and selection process should prepared all relevant procedures to recruit new worker. Recruitment and selection process are very expensive and also considers the costs and consequences of employee turnover.There are financial, community and workforce impact. â€Å"Every time an employee leaves and has to be replaced, an operation incurs a number of direct financial costs, including administration costs associated with processing resignations and dismissal, time taken up in conducting exit interviews, productivity losses associated with impending departure. Lost productivity and additional costs such as overtime or contractor payments to cover for vacancies created by this departures.Recruitment costs such as advertising, employment of job search agencies, time and resources spent in processing applications, staff time involved in selection interviews. Also the training and start-up costs, because the time of trainers and staff and of new employees taken up in inductions and on the job training, loss of productivity until the new employee reaches full production potential†. (David Brereton, Mining David, Ruth Beach. 2003) â€Å"In fact, last year it was estimated that filling each staff vacancy in a business costs the employer between ? 4333 and ? 7750. †(J. A.J Aaronson 2010) In addition to financial costs, high turnover is very negatively affects operational efficiency, such as a close teamwork, because instability in the workforce, consequences can include increased stress an d tension amongst those remaining employees who have to fill the gaps left by departing employees, declining employee morale, and decreased productivity. (Pinkovitz, Moskal et al 1997)The companies which have staff turnover can’t to invest in training and career development for staff, which is so important for the employees, because have big looses in recruitment and selection process.The ability to implement and develop the total rewards system will give many benefits to achieve organisational goals, make company efficient and prominent. The benefits of total rewards approach are: â€Å"greater impact- the combined effect of the different types of rewards will make a deeper and long lasting impact on the motivation and commitment of people†. (Michael Armstrong 2006) The total rewards and â€Å"Maslow’s need hierarchy theory (1954) is very considered.Maslow proposed the motivation is a function of five basic needs-physiological, safeties, love, esteem and self- actualization and explained that a person’s physiological needs must be firstly met followed by safety needs, and so on up the need hierarchy. When designing total reward strategy, employees’ multifarious needs must be well considered, Maslow’s points will help the organization reach its expectation†. (Zhou Jiang 2009)† Employee will give their maximum when they motivated and have a feeling or trust that their efforts will be rewarded by the management.There are many factors that affect employee performance like working conditions, worker and employer relationship, training and development opportunities, job security, and companies overall policies and procedures for rewarding employees. Among all those factors which affect employee performance, motivation that comes with rewards is of utmost importance†. (Nadia Sajjad Hafiza, Syed Sohaib Shah, Humera Jamsheed, Khalid Zaman 2011) A satisfied and motivated employee and work force by tangible and intangible rewards can definitely help sustain productivity.Job satisfaction plays an important role in employee commitment and in reducing employee absenteeism and boredom at work. Smith (1992) believed that job satisfaction could lead to cost reduction by reducing absences, errors and turnovers which leads to greater productivity and economic and industrial growth which is a major drive of most organisations. The result of total reward strategy is happy motivated employees and their â€Å"appreciation, meeting the new challenges, positive and caring attitude from employer, and job rotation after attaining the goal†. Nadia Sajjad Hafiza, Syed Sohaib Shah, Humera Jamsheed, Khalid Zaman 2011) The second benefit of total rewards is increased flexibility in the total rewards approach â€Å"allows awards to be mixed to fit the various needs of the employee. Flexibility has become an important factor in work-life balance. Organizations are recognizing the constraints many worker s are facing and providing them with alternatives to ensure the motivational and emotional needs of the employees are met.Some flexibility rewards that have been implemented in many organizations are instilling various scheduling options and providing telecommuting options. More companies are instituting new work schedules which include longer days but shorter weeks, i. e. 4 days @ 10 hours as well as allowing employees to work from home. With technology becoming more advanced, employers can meet with employees via the web and documents can be faxed or emailed. Increased flexibility is both beneficial to the employer and the employee†. (Cyberessays, Divaqueen. 011) The other benefit of total rewards Michael Armstrong (2006) said is talent management- relational rewards (learning, development and work environment) help to deliver a positive psychological contract and this can serve as a differentiator in the recruitment market that is much more difficult to replicate than indiv idual pay practices. The organisation can become an ‘employer of choice’ and ‘a great place to work’; the result is attracting and retaining the talent people it needs. There are many advantages from managing talent, such as makes company more competitive in competition.The company that try developing and producing super-talented people is â€Å"always best to compare products or services to competitors. This important process of the company increased sales effectively and efficiently. With the position more competitive than the competition, a company can automatically effective market penetration and gain greater market share. Gain market share means more sales of the company increases significantly†. (Business 2011) The ability correctly implements the total rewards strategy give organisations opportunity to become efficient and competitive over competitors.Mary Mosqueda, (2008) said developing the correct mix for the total rewards strategy is the key to employing and keeping the best talent. The first step is identifying the culture, employee climate, and employee demographics. This can be determined through an employee appraisal system, focus groups or key employee interviews. After identifying what drives employee motivation, commitment, and loyalty for organization, also the importance to determine how much organisation are willing to spend. The second step involves creating a road map or a total rewards philosophy/strategy.The importance of discussion on relevant question related to the total rewards strategy. The question such as: â€Å"What transactional and relational rewards company already offer? †, â€Å"What compensation, benefits and work/life programs should the company offer to remain competitive in industry? †, â€Å"What is overall commitment to company’s financials and employees? †, â€Å"Who is the company’s competitors and peers rewards programs? † These entire que stions give opportunity to think of development general total rewards strategy.Mary Mosqueda, (2008) said the third step is development of policies and procedures regarding the use of new benefits, learning environment, development and compensation systems. These policies establish the flow of the process and secure the integrity of both the company and employee. Management can easily include these polices into an employee manual or handbook. It is very important that senior management is on board with any changes or new policies with regard to employee total rewards programs, then, the fourth step in this process involves including top management from the beginning.Educating management on how to successfully implement these strategies with their employees is critical. Managers and employees need to understand the process and learn how total rewards can help them in achieving objectives and further company’s financial goals. This can be achieved through different methods of c ommunication. Communication is next step of the implementation, which is vital to the successful result of total rewards strategy. If this is not communicated properly, it is all for naught.The communication of rewards strategy can be by emails, meetings, newsletters, representatives; etc, â€Å"Communication should support development strategy and achieve a win-win situation for both the organisation and employees. As employees contribute to the organisation in achieving its goals, those same employees need to share in its success. To encourage this win-win situation, senior management needs to ensure that employees have a clear direction and that they feel valued by receiving appropriate rewards. † (Michael Silverman, Peter Reilly. N d]) Also, the total rewards strategy has a poor result, if development and implementation process is incorrect, because† applying too much motivation or offering too many rewards can also have a negative effect. Employees can become over- confident. They may feel that they are the bosses' favourite workers, even if they start to slack off on their work and responsibilities or test the limits of their working relationship with their supervisors†. (Amelia Jenkins, Demand Media [n d]) Anyway using total rewards strategy the organisation motivate, build a good atmosphere and relationship with employee that fosters a sense of trust.In a good relationship, employees may feel respected and comfortable in their working environment. Providing rewards, both tangible and intangible make employees happier. Happier employees often perform better at work and proud of their company. Conclusion This essay examined the concept of total rewards and the reasons for its increasing prominence in organisation. The components, elements and benefits of total rewards make the clear understanding how it is important for the organisation on the whole.The total rewards have a positive influence on the employee base and the company, becaus e the ability to give the right rewards to the right employee makes the win-win result. Employees who know they will be rewarded for their efforts, talent and development will continue to perform well and maintains employee satisfaction. When, employees talk about organisation with good reward system and their development, opportunities, good payments and environment, its make organisation more attractive. Over the time a reputation and company image go up.In addition, an organization's reputation makes an impression on current and future clients, which can significantly improve the company's worth and profitability. There are more consequences of reward strategy such as happy and satisfy employees, good atmosphere, reduce the staff turnover, good reputation and profitability. It is make the organisation very prominent. References Michael Armstrong (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited. p629 Michael Armstrong (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 10th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited. 632. 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