Obama and the Environment Essay Example for Free

Obama and the Environment Essay This paper would seek to evaluate the Environmental policy of one of the most important figures in this regard; the President of the United States of America Barack Obama. The United States is currently facing criticism and is caught in a controversy as a result of the fact that it has not signed the Kyoto Protocol as yet. Since the USA is one of the largest producers of carbon emissions, that decision has made the other participants quite reluctant about signing the agreement beyond 2012 when the current agreement expires. The Bush administration was heavily criticized for its decision to not sign the Protocol but the current administration has come up with its own environmental policy in order to deal more aptly with the issue of environment and specially the carbon emissions. The environmental policy of the Obama administration is two pronged as it not only deals with the long term environmental solutions but also analyses the intermediate or short term solutions. The policy outlined by the current administration criticized its predecessors ‘â€Å"gimmicks† instead of actual solutions to an issue which is one of the biggest concerns in terms of its economic and environmental detrimental effects. The plan looks at some of the most pressing needs of the American nation such as the â€Å"dependence on foreign oil, addressing the moral, economic and environmental challenge of the global climate change, and building a clean, energy future that would benefit all Americans. â€Å"http://www. barackobama. com/pdf/issues/EnvironmentFactSheet. pdf The plan is comprehensive as it not analyses the effects on the locals but also looks at the global impact of the USA’s economic activities. The short term solutions are a way of countering the immediate effects that the activities of the US economy have in terms of the environment. This includes the emergency rebate for energy purposes, crackdown on excessive energy speculation, exchange light and heavy crude, and lastly, release oil from the strategic petroleum reserves in order to cut the oil prices. If these short term effects were to be looked at in detail and what in effect they entail, it would mean relief for millions of middle class Americans as their energy costs would be partially borne by the energy rebate particularly at times of rocketing oil and gas prices. As for the rest, it entails a reversal of all previous environmental policies as it would mean releasing the strategic petroleum reserves as according to the current regime, the current situation is serious for these reserves to be touched upon. Hence, the current administration is taking the short term measures to a level which has never been touched upon earlier having understood the gravity of the case in terms of the lasting detrimental effects on the local population. The strategic plan of providing five million jobs through a five year steady investment of 150 billion USD means a revamping of the federal budget as this time instead of merely taxing the taxpayers, they are being provided some form of relief in order to initiate a cleaner future. However, the fact still remains that much more needs to be done in order to prove the USA’s commitment to the international goals of reducing the carbon emissions levels and adhering to the principles of the Kyoto protocol. In a landmark address to the American nation, the President made clear his stance on the Kyoto protocol by reviving the agreement in a solid attempt to bring the USA back on the global platform for the purposes of global climate change. In the words of Barack Obama himself: â€Å"We cannot afford more of the same timid politics when the future of our planet is at stake. Global warming is not asomeday problem, it is now. We are already breaking records with the intensity of our storms, the number of forest fires,the periods of drought. By 2050 famine could force more than 250 million from their homes . . . . The polar ice caps are now melting faster than science had ever predicted. . . . This is not the future I want for my daughters. Its not the future any of us want for our children. And if we act now and we act boldly, it doesnt have to be. † [Barack Obama, Portsmouth, NH, 10/8/07] Source: http://www. barackobama. com/pdf/issues/EnvironmentFactSheet. pdf The plan to reduce carbon emissions by eight percent by 2050 does seem a formidable task indeed but according to the strategy outlined by Obama; this would be carried out through a market cap buy and sell system in which caps would be kept on the carbon emissions. And the companies would be allowed to buy and sell the allowances amongst themselves depending on the supply and demand levels of each. Hence, in a way creating a competitive market for the amount of total carbon emissions created which would have been limited by the government. The 150 billion dollars investment programme outlined above would allow entail the research and development facilities created for the purposes of having advanced energy technologies. Such research would allow the USA to gain a competitive edge in the economic markets by being environmentally safe and having efficient production processes at the same time. The policy of having energy efficient infrastructure along with the more usage of renewable source s of energy would go a long way in safeguarding the interests of the environmentalists. If one was to look at the above proposals in greater detail what would come across would be the fact that the Obama administration has shown true commitment to the environmental causes by having a clearly defined environmental policy. In this regard, there are several areas which have been covered especially the biggest concern being that of the Kyoto protocol and America’s commitment to ensuring that the global climate change process does show true effect. The queries of the rest of the Protocol committee have been handled quite aptly by Obama who from the day one has ensured that environmental policy would remain an important part and parcel of his political policies. Added to that is the fact that Al Gore, one of the true environmental leaders that the US has seen, has been a prominent figure in the Obama entourage highlighting the interest that the current regime truly has in the environmental concerns and policies. The idea of providing incentives for energy utilized and provision of greater federal granst along with grants for early adopters is in themselves ideas which portray true business acumen and sense as they would act as persuasive tactics for the profit-keen businessmen. Hence, what this paper has shown and highlighted has been that the current administration is an aware and environmentally conscious government which realizes the potential gains and losses from endorsing environmental practices. References G-20. ` Home G20. 01 Apr. 2009 http://www. g20. org/. `The Kyoto Protocol: AN Update. ` U. S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. 11 July 2007. 01 Apr. 2009 http://www. internationalrelations. house. gov/110/36724. pdf. Jones, Van. â€Å"â€Å"Green collar economy. 1st Ed. New York: Haper Collins, 2008. Friedman, Thomas L. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. New York: Farrar, 2008. http://www. independent. co. uk/environment/climate-change/obama-brings-us-in-from-the-cold-1026303. html http://www. barackobama. com/pdf/issues/EnvironmentFactSheet

The Study Of Female Deviance Criminology Essay

The Study Of Female Deviance Criminology Essay Living in a period which had totally ignored women and the study of female deviance (prior to 1960s), Professor Frances Heidensohn saw, as other criminologists, the immediate need for research and study on the deviant woman. As a pioneer of feminist perspectives in criminology, Heidensohns work provided the too much mans land of criminology and how women have been unfairly treated and neglected in previous studies. Heidensohn is considered to be a revolutionist in this field of criminology due to her pre-feminist work (Heidensohn 1968 and 1970) on the invisibleness and silence surrounding the female offender  [ii]  .Throughout her work and extensive research on a variety of different writers and criminologists, she stressed the lack of attention on gender dimensions and the tendency to over-sexualise women crimes. Clearly upset of this status quo, she pointed out also the necessity of taking into account autobiographical experiences of female offenders, who are the actual objects of this study. Frances Heidensohn; a professor in the Department of Sociology at London School of Economics, by her investigation on the study of gender in the context of crime, could be said to have set the foundations for next generations studies on feminist perspectives in criminology. Her biggest question mark was why the chapter of women and crime has been buried for such a long time and why there has been a failure to examine such an important issue. Most of her books and articles try to provide adequate aetiologies to all these question marks. Fortunately, things changed since the 1960s and feminism criminology was developed. As Heidensohn suggested in a metaphorical way, Like a wardrobe of new exciting clothes, a whole treasure generated in criminology. It offers us a great deal more to enrich our knowledge of women and crime. But there is much more on offer too.  [iii]  In other words, Professor Heidensohn held that even thought feminist criminology has been developed there are still many gaps and much more to be done. Thus, Heidensohn illuminated the path towards the understanding of female criminology. In the field of criminological study and most sociological research and writing, analyses of criminal women cannot be found before the 1960s. But even where they are considered, they are subject to marginalising and distorting treatment as Oakley noted in 1982  [iv]  or similarly as Klein suggested female criminality has often ended up as footnote to works on men that purport to be works on criminality in general  [v]  . This lack of interest was really surprising in Heidensohns eyes.  [vi]  As Frances Heidensohn noted in an important early article on deviance, virtually no serious scholarship has been undertaken to explain the dramatic difference between male and female lawbreaking.  [vii]  Hence, this status quo, which was much more due to male dominance, impelled her to start an extensive research on the subject to provide sufficient answers to all these questions raised. What was central to her work was the amnesia and neglect of women in previous studies in crimi nology and the fact that even where women were recognised, they were depicted in terms of stereotypes and based on their supposed biological and psychological nature  [viii]  . Her major argument which she highlights in all of her books, articles is the necessity of exploring gender in terms of understanding crime. Her discussion was concerned with personal experiences and autobiographies of women offenders in relation to the courts, the law and the police. She strongly stressed that at all levels women have been treated differently than men and in some cases harsher. Under the provisions of criminal law, women are theoretically equal to men. Conversely, she underlined that in many cases the laws on prostitution, for instance, prejudice against women and in general there is tendency to over-sexualise female crime. Frances Heidensohn objected this attitude towards female crime. Prostitution was seen only as sexual deviance and not as the rational choice for some women who need the financial support for themselves and their children (Heidensohn, 1968, p.168)  [ix]  . Klein also shared this opinion. Furthermore, criminal laws and lawyers tended to apply stereotype notions of what a proper woman is and does and dual assumptions such as virgin and whore were made when dealing with female offende rs. Yet, Heidensohn did not criticise that and she recognised that one cannot divorce the law and lawyer from the society in which they operate with its enormous cultural heritage and traditions  [x]  .Although she did argue about the too much mens world that existed, truly annoyed by the domination of men in administration as well as in the draft of legislation because of the implications that had on female offenders. Further, the courts even though women committed fewer and less serious crimes than men, were often harsher with women. According to Frances Heidensohn, there were several reasons that explained this stance by the courts. One of the strongest arguments that she made was that female criminals were considered to be doubly-deviant. Women criminals were very rare phenomena, a fact that biased the behaviour of the courts towards them. As Heidensohn had pointed out in one of her earliest presumptions, Women defendants therefore seem stranger and thus less comprehensible than men: they offend both against societys behavioural rules about property, drinking, or violence and also against the most fundamental norms which govern sex-role behaviour  [xi]  (Heidensohn, 1970, p.134). In other words, if they had been morally wrong, then they will be punished more; Courts and other agencies treat women as deviant twice over: they have broken criminal law and social expectations of proper female behaviour.  [xii]  In addition, the whole court procedure is something particularly bewildering, alien and unfair to female offenders.  [xiii]   While doing her research, Frances Heidensohn gave a great emphasis on the stereotype notions and the social standards that the society held for criminal women. In patriarchal societies, women were perceived as a source of disorder. Moral values and accepted social standards, especially in previous periods of time, rendered women subject to stricter rules. Moreover, the witch image as well as that of the whore seemed to be the key portrayals of the deviant women. The stereotype of witchcraft, which has always been linked to women, gave the idea of deviant women as especially evil, depraved and monstrous  [xiv]  . On the other hand, the tendency to sexualise the female offences portrayed them as whores. Professor Heidensohn argued that no such notions exist, equivalent to male deviants. On the contrary, male deviants either receive public approval-boys will be boys,- or are at least more positively portrayed  [xv]  . She continued her argument and she strongly criticized the ro le the media had overplayed in forming these ideas; male offenders in novels, films were presented as heroes, something that affected the public reaction and opinion. In reviewing traditional criminology and classical criminological writers, Heidensohn observed that female criminality was determined by their biology and psychology. Lombroso; the father of criminology, and Ferreros research, which focused on the meditation of the skulls, bones and appearance of female criminals, came to the conclusion that women deviants could be recognised by their physical appearance and they had very similar characteristics to male deviants. Women criminals like their masculine counterparts, had certain allegedly atavistic features, notably unfeminine features and built and dark masculine hair.  [xvi]  Additionally, they claimed that criminal women are abnormal. Following these lines, Professor Heidensohn found herself contrary to this presumption. She argued that his analysis of photographs of fallen women is as objective as adjudication in a beauty contest.  [xvii]  Furthermore, Lombroso and Ferreros theories did not provide us an adequate and precise understanding of female crime.What they did show us was the attempt to rationalise and justify the status quo, the existing position of women and the double standard of morals of their day.  [xviii]  Thus they did not draw away from the stereotype notions and the dual assumptions about women (good or bad, normal or abnormal). Deviant Womens experiences was a central method used by Frances Heidensohn and feminist writers towards the understanding of female delinquency; concentration on the researched and their experiences. Even though this methodology received much criticism (Ramazanoglu and Holland 2002)  [xix]  , Heidensohn and Gelsthorpe argued that close reading of feminist discussions ultimately reveal no fixed absolutes beyond the need for sensitivity in the research task, for personal reflexivity and commitment to make the research relevant to women.  [xx]  This methodology vested women the right to speak for themselves, their experiences, their feelings and thoughts. The technique of viewing the world through womens eyes was successful in making women visible in criminology and additionally created awomens world too. The concentration on womens experiences led to some crucial developments in female criminology and feminist contributions to criminology. Feminism standpoitism as Harding puts it (1987)  [xxi]  reflected the concept of viewing the world through womens eyes and encouraged both theoretical and personal reflexivity in relation to knowledge and the process of knowledge production through research.  [xxii]  However, the key aspect of focusing on the experiences of female criminals was that it rendered gender as the basis of understanding and interpreting crime and social conduct rather than simply as a statistical variable. As a synopsis of her study, Frances Heidensohn argued that what seems to be needed in the study of female deviance is a crash programme of research which telescopes decades of comparable studies of males.  [xxiii]  Also, she was consistent with what Mannheim recommended, who held that an objective and scientific approach should try to treat female crime as a topic in its own right.  [xxiv]  She therefore concluded in her book on Women and Crime that in order to gain understanding on women and crime other analyses such as family life, position and social control of women, male dominance should be taken into account. Arguably, she supported that this could not be achieved through feminist criminology or sociology of deviance.  [xxv]   Frances Heidensohns observations have not been subject to too much criticism as Lombrosos or other criminologists theories. However, some points that she did make were subject to debate and disapproval. Allison Morris was one of those who contravened with some of her presumptions. Her enantiosis was basically on the fact that the criminal justice system is a peculiarly alien an unfamiliar world  [xxvi]  only for women. Morrison focused on the belief that criminal law is sexist in the treatment of deviant girls and women and she went on to say that such factors as race, family circumstances and commitments, types of offence and previous record all clearly mediate the treatment of both female and male defendants and may be that some of those factors are as important as gender, if not more so.  [xxvii]  Indeed, Heidensohn relied on this assumption; that sex is the most crucial aspect and that it is not only women who are being deprived in the criminal justice system. However, wh at Morrison strongly argued was Heidensohns failure to identify other groups of people who could be treated unfairly under the criminal system or the court could be biased against them and to whom the whole process might be unfamiliar and alien. Such groups of people, as Morris suggests could be for young black and working -class men or minorities.  [xxviii]  Finally, she pointed out that it is wrong to present womens experiences in the criminal justice system as a unitary experience. We know that black women are over-represented in our prisons. We need to be able to account for this.  [xxix]  In my personal opinion Morrison made a full disclosure of the reality; that minorities or black people or people of different social standards, could also be treated unfairly in court or could be subject to discriminatory wrongs. She made a very strong argument which did take into account and tried to defend other social and powerless groups and not only women, something that Heidensoh n failed to do. Moreover, that could be the basis for other perceptions that Heidensohn provided. This is the one of economic rationality or that of stigma. Consequently it is not only women who can be motivated by the economic needs to commit a crime; people of a lower class can commit crimes as a result of poverty; or it is not only women who fear the idea of being stigmatised by their offences. Carlen Pat also argued at this part that this stance could cause race or class conflicts. Finally, in general Carlen suggested that no feminism theory could offer aetiologies to three major issues concerning female delinquency; that womens crimes are in the main, the crimes of the powerless; that women in prison are disproportionately from ethic minority groups; and that a majority of women in prison have been in poverty for the greater part of their lives.  [xxx]   Synoptically, Frances Heidensohns contribution to criminology was enormous in relation to female offenders. It could be said as having two sides of a coin. Her research in conjunction with that of other feminist criminologists illuminated the path towards the understanding of the female deviance. However, even though they shed some light on it there are still some dark aspects. As Frances Heidensohn pointed out, the study of female deviance has still a long way to go. The most crucial drawback that I can identify in her work was the lack of consideration of other factors that could play a valid role in the field of understanding crime such as race, class, nationality, age and other social characteristics rather than only focusing on gender dimensions and giving privileges only to women.

Laura Searing :: essays research papers

Laura Searing was one of only a few women of the 19th century who was a respected journalist. She was on the staff of several publications and acted as a war correspondent during the American Civil War. She conducted interviews with soldiers and Union Army Commander Ulysses S. Grant on battlefields along with interviewing President Abraham Lincoln for a story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Laura’s poetry was published extensively and praised by literary greats like John Greenleaf Whittier and William Cullen Bryant. She was the first woman during her lifetime to have a town named after her. All of this is great but it becomes amazing when you consider that from the age of 11 Laura Searing was deaf.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  She was born on February 9, 1840 in Somerset County, Maryland. Her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1851 and that is when she contracted cerebrospinal meningitis. This left Laura deaf and with a speech impediment that left her only able to speak in sepulchral tones. Throughout her life, Laura depended on written communication until she was 15 and attended the Missouri School for the Deaf. This is where she learned sign language.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While attending the institution Laura composed essays and poetry on subjects such as religion, politics, nature and her own deafness. For her class graduation Laura wrote a farewell poem and gave a speech at commencement which was both published in the American Annals of the Deaf. Her first professional work was done for a church in St. Louis. Her work impressed the editors at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch so much that they hired her. When the Civil War began the newspaper sent her to Washington D.C as its war correspondent. To avoid offending other readers who thought that journalism was â€Å"man’s work,† all of her writing was published under the name Howard Glyndon. But it was not very effective. It was largely known that Howard Glyndon was a woman and it was accepted.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Laura’s first two books were published during the wartime period. â€Å"Notable Men in the House† was a series of informal mini-biographies that were each based on a different congressman. â€Å"Idyles of Battle and Poems of the Republic† was a group of war poems. Laura went to Europe in 1865 where she continued to write stories for the St. Louis Republican and the New York Times and the New York Sun. She returned to the U.

Autism in the Media Essay -- Media Argumentative Persuasive Argument

Autism in the Media      Ã‚   "Weepinbell, w-e-e-p-i-n-b-e-l-l; Tentacool, t-e-n-t-a-c-o-o-l ; Geodude . . . ," yelled Connor. We were playing his favorite game - identify and spell the names of all 156 Pokà ªmon characters. Connor is a three-year-old boy I worked with as part of the SonRise therapy that his mother organized after he was diagnosed with autism. During my thrice-weekly Connor-directed playtime visits, I entered his world instead of making him enter mine and encouraged eye contact to strengthen Connor's connection with others.    I begin this critique of autism depiction in mass media relating my relationship with Connor because he informs my understanding of autism and colors my critique of media representations. For people who do not know autistic individuals personally, however, perceptions of autism have been shaped, by and large, by character depictions in a series of feature films over the last fifteen years, most notably Rain Man (1988), House of Cards (1993), and Molly (1999). I here examine these three films, each with an autistic main character, to evaluate the image of autism presented to the public and to discuss how that image has changed in the last fifteen years. However, before an analysis of the films, I will briefly overview autism as it is currently diagnosed and treated.    Autism is the label given to a set of behaviors summarized by the International Classification of Disease ICD-10 Handbook as1: 1. Impairment in reciprocal social interaction. 2. Impairment in verbal and non-verbal communication and in imaginative activity. 3. Markedly restricted variety in activities and interests.    Generally, autistic children are first identified by ... ...ons of autism over the last fifteen years reflect popular notions and hopes for cures to psychological disorders. Because mass media representations of autism reach a thousand fold the number of individuals who ready Psychology Review Today and other academic journals, films are an important source of information and a possible forum for advocacy and should be used as such.    Bibliography 1. Frith, U. 1989. Autism; Explaining the Enigma. Cambridge: Basil Blackwell. 2. Hobson, P. 1993. Autism and the Development of Mind. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 3. Mesibov, G., Lynn, A. and Klinger, L. 1997. Autism; Understanding the Disorder. New York: Plenum Press 4. Grandin, T. 1995. "An Inside View of Autism." http://www.autism.org/temple/inside.html Feature Films: Rain Man (1989) Molly (1999) House of Cards (1993)

Face Recognition Essay

Forhumans, faces are the most significant for visual stimuli, a fact that becomes apparent insocial settings—as a species we are constantly, almost obsessively, monitoring each other’s faces, paying close attention to subtle details that can give some insight into the emotional state, level of engagement, or object of attention of our associates. Fluency with faces offers great social advantages, allowing one to glean aspects of another’s internal thought processes and to predict their behavior. (Leopold, 2010). Explain the processes associated with face recognition, identification, and classification Conceptgenerallyrefer to theabstract notion of what that category represents in one’s mind. ((Robinson-Riegler, 2008). The recognition of individual faces is in some ways the pinnacle of human visual performance. Because all faces have the same basic configural appearance (for example: two eyes above a nose and mouth, sometimes called the first-order configuration), individuals must be identified by subtle deviations from this prototypic pattern, sometimes referred to as second-order relational information or configuration . To process facial identification an individual depend on the process offirst-order relational information, theinformation about the parts of an object and how those parts relate to one another. For face recognition, this would involve an analysis of the person’s facial features and the relationship among those features. However, first-order relational information is not enough to recognize faces; simply noticing that two eyes are above the nose, which is above the mouth, may be enough for recognition that something is a face but doesn’t allow for recognition of who the face is. To recognize faces, we need second-order relational information. Second-order relational information involves comparing the first-order analysis to facial features of a â€Å"typical,† or â€Å"average,† face. This typical face is built up through experience and serves as an implicit standard against which we compare the faces we see. Inverting a face disrupts the encoding of second-order relational information When we deal with information, we do so in steps. One way to think of this is to picture the process of acquiring, retaining, and using information as an activity called information processing Information comes from the outside world into the sensory registers in the human brain. This input consists of things perceived by our senses. We are not consciously aware of most of the things we perceive; we become aware of them only if we consciously direct our attention to them. When we do focus our attention on them, they are placed in our working memory. (Education, 2011) Even when perceivers are presented with stimuli in suboptimal conditions, the face-processing system is still capable of extracting categorical knowledge in a rapid and accurate manner. Third, category activation is sensitive to the typicality of group members. Incategorical thinking people identify with groups who they are familiar with. Analyze the role of encoding and retrieval processes involved with long-term memory and how this affects face recognition. Early perceptual processes (and their associated products) also appear to play an important contributory role to the generation of categorical thinking. Categorization is a fundamental property of the brain. Categorical thinking streamlines most aspects of person perception, including decision making, memorial functioning, and attention processing(Cloutier, 2005). People are skilled with various levels of understanding along with other social agents. From only a few visual cues, a person isable to processdetailed impressions of others, identify the sex, emotional status, and identity of conspecifics ; and infer the hidden internal states (example. goals, intentions) that create their plan of purpose. In social cognition, the two basic processes that serves or promotes aperson perception are categorization and individuation . Individuation, in contrast to categorization, the individualisticview other people not as members of distinct social groups but rather as unique entities. Individuals areguided by two distinct cognitive processes. These two processes operate at the early stages of a person’s perception, relevant with the process of object recognition. The individual is capable ofmaking individual judgments about stimuli corresponding to prior perceptual experience. As part of the face recognition process, a face must activate a face recognition unit a stored representation of that face in memory. If activated, the person is recognized asfamiliar. Next, the face recognition unitmust activate the person identity node which stores biographical information about the person. If activated, this biographical information becomes available (Robinson-Riegler, 2008). Prior to the retrieval of information from long-term memory, however, a great deal of social-cognitive processing has already taken place. perceivers have resolved the perceptual puzzle of identifying social agents from available visual cues. This includes, but is not restricted to faces. (Cloutier, Discuss at least two possible errors that can occur with face recognition, such as misidentification and self-recognition. Our knowledge of our own face seems inseparable from our general knowledge of self andwho we are as individuals, our likes and dislikes, our personal history. Unconscious transference, occurs when a witness fail to identify or distinguish between a target person,for example, falselyidentifying aneyewitnessmay result to imprisonment of an innocent person Robinson-Riegler, 2008). As individuals we confront the world with our faces, from the time of birth to the time of death. The age and gender of a personare printed on their faces. Emotions are expressed in a person’s facial expressions. The open and instinctive emotions that Darwin wrote about, as well as the hidden or repressed ones that Freud wrote about, are displayed on our faces, along with our thoughts and intentions. People have physical attr actions toward each other, a person may admire the physical attributes such as arms, and legs. In spite of what draws one attention, the face is the first and last that is judged, whether it is beautifulin an aesthetic sense, â€Å"fine† or â€Å"distinguished† in a moral or intellectual sense. The face of an individual definesa person character and experience. Face recognition is crucially important for humans, and the vast majority of us are able to identify thousands of faces individually, or to easily pick out familiar faces in a crowdProsopagnosia or topographical amnesia are lifelong conditions that does not decrease as one grows older.

Dpe Paper

DPE and Goal Instruction If teaching were as simple as using the one best way to teach everything, it would be considered a science. However, there isn’t just one correct method to teach everything. That is the reason teaching is an art. If teaching meant to follow a text book and a â€Å"one size fits all† approach, then anyone would be a master teacher. That is why teachers and especially special educators unique and special.That is why teachers know that individual needs, strengths and weaknesses must be considered to make the instructional process successful and geared to equip the student to achieve his optimum skills and abilities to meet the challenges of daily living. Students come with their own individual packages and no two of them are alike. Even though the curriculum is the same, no two students learn the same way. Teachers are challenged to meet the students’ â€Å"package† and to create an approach at instruction that take into consideration the students’ differing abilities, strengths and needs are satisfied.To compound the challenges of instruction, the intellectually disabled (ID) student presents additional dynamics that impact the art of teaching. This paper presents the diagnostic/prescriptive/evaluation (DPE) strategy of instruction for ID students. The DPE is not a concept. Educators have been using it for decades (Mann and Phillips, 1967). During the past 40 years it has been improved and refined (Ewing & Brecht). The paper examines each of the components of DPE: diagnosis, prescription, and evaluation (Thomas, 1996). In conclusion it presents two applications of implementing the DPE with two students diagnosed with ID.The diagnostic process requires great skill and effort from the teacher. Alone the special educator cannot perform all the necessary functions of diagnosis. With the assistance of the other members of the Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) and other service personnel, they are able to determine the needs of individual learners and to specify instructional objectives that will help the student satisfy his educational needs (Eisele, 1967). During this phase the teacher is to determine the most demanding needs of the student. The entire diagnostic process depends upon the ccurate identification of these needs. The specialists on the MDT provide the teacher with the data, or means of acquiring the data, about the student that are necessary for determining the student’s needs. This takes the form of providing formal and informal testing services for testing students, supplying the data that has been acquired from the testing, and providing the testing batteries that could be used for this purpose (Eisele, 1967). This becomes the Present Levels of Performance (PLOP) of the Individualized Education Program (IEP).When the MDT has collected all of the significant data and determined the demanding needs of the student, then the teacher and the specialists develop the instruc tional goals and objectives appropriate for specific needs. These goals are selected from curriculum domains and the objectives can be selected from curriculum guides and resource units. Also the teacher and specialist can generate their own objectives. When talking to the teacher and specialists, I asked what type of instructional activities and materials they use for students with ID?The teacher and specialists stated that they prescribe instructional activities and materials suitable for the student to master his objectives. This constitutes the second step in the DPE process. Prescribed learning is based on short- and long-term goals that are established for the individual student and are based on the skills needed to be mastered. Within these goals are markers to establish where there are gaps in the learning process. Instruction that follows will teach only to what the student still needs to master to be successful. It capitalizes on the strength of the student to fill in the learning gaps.The prescriptive process can be applied to almost any subject area, academic and behavioral (Deschel, Susan, 2012). Three important teaching strategies for students diagnosed with ID: 1) tasks should be broken down into small component steps and learned in sequence, 2) teaching techniques should be experiential, concrete, visual and hands-on rather than cognitive, abstract and verbally delivered in lecture form, and 3) feedback should be immediate for the student to make a connection between his answer, behavior, or question and the teacher’s response.The third phase is the evaluation process. This is a two-pronged process for the teacher. First, evaluation is necessary to assess needs and, second, to evaluate the student’s progress toward achieving his objectives. Through the evaluation process teacher monitors the understanding and performance of students before teaching the lesson, while teaching, and after teaching the lesson. The evaluation process c an inform the teacher of the effectiveness of his lessons with individuals, small groups of students, or whole classes, depending on the instruments used (Guskey, 2003).Instruction and evaluation are interactive. The teacher may evaluate student learning on the spot, or collect data at different points in time and compare progress over units of instruction. Moment-by-moment assessments allow the teacher to tap into student’s developing understandings about the objective and to enable the teacher to correct misconceptions immediately. Observations recorded over time allow the teacher to identify patterns of development and document learning gains (Guskey, 2003). This can be accomplished in many ways.Devices appropriate for the evaluating progress are data keeping, checklists, logs, standardized tests, and paper and pencil tests. Now we consider the practical applications of DPE in a classroom. Antoine is a 12 year old, sixth grader, who is diagnosed with ID and is in a special education classroom. His MDT has completed their assessments and has developed his IEP. One of his goals includes math readiness. His objective is to be able to match manipulatives to numbers expressed on cards with verbal prompting.The teacher has developed prescriptive lesson plans to enable Antoine develop the needed skills to match the manipulatives to the numbers. His first lesson is to match manipulatives to the number expressed on a picture communication symbol (PCS). He encounters difficulty in matching the manipulatives to the number on the PCS. His teacher notes the difficulty evaluating Antoine’s learning skill gap. She introduces PCS with a number of manipulatives on it equal to a number on the top of the PCS. Antoine begins to associate the manipulative with the number on the card.As he experiences success in matching the manipulatives to the number, the teacher replaces the PCS with two cards, one with the number and the other with the manipulatives. After coll ecting data indicating Antoine’s progress, the teacher removes the manipulative card. Antoine now begins to match the manipulatives to the number on the PCS. For the second example we meet John. John is a 15 year old with a diagnosis of ID and behavioral issues. He has recently developed the habit, when he becomes frustrated, of head butting objects and individuals.His MTD has met and analyzed the situation and has developed a plan to extinguish this behavior and have John express his frustration in positive behaviors. They have listed the times when John has become frustrated, the antecedent(s), and indicators that precede his head butting. The prescriptive element is to develop initially plans for John to identify his feeling of frustration and to express his emotion to the teacher. As the staff observes John during class times, they begin to note those antecedents that indicate John is becoming frustrated. They plan interventions with John to alleviate his build up of frus tration.There is the constant interplay of the diagnostic, prescriptive and evaluation processes until John is able to identify the cause of his frustration and release it with positive behaviors. There are many specific techniques that can assist in teaching students with ID. They can be summarized into three, more, general strategies. First is to allow more time and practice for the students to successfully master the objective. Second is to embed the activities into daily living or functioning as much as possible. Third is to include the student both in the social and academic activities.Diagnostic/prescriptive/evaluation strategies have been employed in the classroom as an educational strategy to remedy learning deficits (Ewing & Brecht, 1977). After speaking with a teacher about the roles and procedures that plays in the daily class, she shared with me that the diagnostic process helps the educational team define the student’s abilities and deficits. The prescriptive pro cess provides a means to plan and teach the skills and concepts a student needs most. The evaluation process measures the learning increments of any magnitude. It enables the team to redefine the diagnostic and prescriptive as needed.The DPE strategy emphasizes and identifies a prioritized life goal curriculum planning approach to identify functional skills and concepts need by a student with ID to become as successful as possible in adult life. The DPE approach assesses each student’s abilities and progress toward those individual life goals (Thomas, 1996). References Dreschel, Susan. (2012). Prescriptive Learning. http://www. ehow. com. Eisele, James E. (1967). Diagnostic Teaching: Can the Curriculum Specialist Help? Educational Leadership, January 1967. Washington, DC. Ewing, Norma & Brecht, Richard. (1977).Diagnostic/Prescriptive Instruction: A Reconsideration of Some Issues. Journal of Special Education, vol. 11. Los Angeles CA: Sage Publications. Guskey, T. R. (2003). U sing Data to Improve Student Achievement. Educational Leadership. Kauffman, James M. & Hung, Li-Yu. (2009). Special Education for Intellectual Disability: Current Trends and Perspectives. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Inc. Thomas, Glen E. (1996) Teaching Students with Mental Retardation: A Life Goal Curriculum Planning Approach. Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Nursess Promotion Of Health Literacy Using Theories

Nurses Role in Promotion of Health Literacy Using Theories Health literacy has been a problem with our patients. The most vulnerable populations are the elderly, people with low-income levels, those with limited education, non-native speakers of English, those with chronic mental and physical health conditions, minority, and immigrant populations. Nurses have a great role in helping our patients succeed in understanding their health conditions. Nurses can be of great help in promoting health literacy. Sykes, Wills, Rowlands and Popple (2013) defined health literacy as the ability of individuals to access, understand, appraise, and apply health information. The three domains of health literacy, according to Bennett and Perkins (2012) as adapted from the (WHO) (1998) are functional health literacy, interactive literacy, and critical health literacy. Functional health literacy is basic reading and writing skills to be able to function effectively in a health context. Interactive health literacy is the used of more advanced cognitive and literacy skills to participate in health care. Critical health literacy is the ability to analyze critically and to use information to participate in action, to overcome structural barriers to health (p. 14). The U.S. Department of Education published the findings of the National Assessment of Adult Literacy conducted in 2003. The result showed that 36 % of adults have basic or below-basic skills for dealing with health material, 52 %

Analysis Of Disney Company s Recreation Of Public Domain...

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