Design, conduct and report on interviews with parents. (Pedagogy and Essay

Design, conduct and report on interviews with parents. (Pedagogy and play) - Essay Example The early years of children, the period of immaturity, is an important time to develop behaviors (Bateson, 2005). And through play many key skills and desired behaviors can be developed. With the effective utilization of play, many social skills and problem-solving strategies can be nurture(Smith, 1986).However, in past, the influence of the play and its role in child development and growth was not understood (Bruner et al, 1976). In the following I will present my findings about the perceptions of parents regarding play and its pedagogical value. I interviewed two ladies. First is Mrs, Hubert , a housewife and mother of Nany a 5 year old girl. Second lady is Ms.Tina mother of Ted –a 4 year old boy. 2. Overall views about play Both of the parents viewed play as a ‘natural’ need of the children. Their views matched that play helps in better growth and development of the body and mind. One parent, Nany’s mother, said that play involves such a diversified proc esses which help in naturally acquiring many key skills including ‘imagination, creativity, better expression and interpersonal skills’. Their views about play are well developed. Many researchers like Moyles( 1994), Glickman( 1981) similar kind of expression about play. In their opinion play is an informal way of developing children’s skills and behavior. . 3. The value of play in child growth and development Ms. Tina , mother of 5 year old Ted, said that there must be a balance between study and play. Her point of view is that, if child get more involved in play, her studies would suffer. As she emphasized ‘balance’ is the key word On the other hand, Nany’s mother, Mrs Hubert , is of the view that play till the age of 5 or 6 year is more important than studying at school. She said that play will teach them a lot in a natural environment. For instance , she said that playing in teams or pairs teach them tolerance and teamwork. There is a slig ht difference in the point of view of Mrs. Hubert and Ms.Tina. The former values play more that study. This difference is rooted in the difference of life style. Ms. Tina is a working lady where as Mrs. Hubert is a house wife. However, both the ladies agree to the following points about the value of the play. 3.1. Develop Mutual Respect Both the parents pointed out that games help in treat each other with respect and understanding others view point. An Innate demand of play is co-existence. Bateson (2005) has said that play samples whole life and children learn and practice behaviors adaptive to that environment. 3.2. Principled Life Both the parents agree that children learn to follow the rules and principles in playing games. This makes them more principled and disciplined. â€Å"Perhaps socially responsible†, Ms Tina said, â€Å"you don’t have force them to follow your opinions, likes or dislikes, just offer them ‘rules of game ’ and life will be easyà ¢â‚¬ . This concept of play as preparation for life was presented by Groos in 1898(Play Theories, 2008). Thus play will teach them the thing that will make them more law abiding and more responsible citizen. 3.3. Fostering Freedom and Responsibility Ladies are agree that play fosters sense of responsibility in children. As they learn to respect each other and follow the ‘rules of game’, they become more responsible. Mrs. Hubert put it in this way: you

How employable individuals turn their focus to start-ups?

How employable individuals turn their focus to start-ups? How employable individuals turn their focus to start-ups? An Empirical Study on Factors Motivating Business Students to Move to the Entrepreneurial Sector Abstract. This exploratory study is attempts to examine how employable individuals turn their focus to start-ups. Today, majority of employees still practise a more or less self-protective strategy. In this paper the researcher has reported on the results of an empirical study of factors motivating degreed potential employees to move to self enterprising. The deciding factors to become an entrepreneur and of sustainable employment-oriented factors to be analyzed in order to discover how they differ. Participants consisted of 200 students from Malaysia entered final year of business undergraduate and postgraduate programs. Self-administered questionnaires were used to gather data on factors and types of relationships influencing career choice and entrepreneurial intention. The results will serve as a basis for improvement of employment practices and promising entrepreneurial curriculum in universities to support start-ups in creating sustainable businesses. 1. Introduction Today, employees still act in accordance with employers official contracts and not making efforts to attract prioritize attention from local independent business owners. This papers main aim is to take a fresh look into graduates expectation on the factors motivating employees when considering switching jobs if employed and to identify the level of interest as they commence and develop entrepreneurial ventures. The study principally examined why students decide to become entrepreneurs, therefore, seven main issues associated with graduates motivation as they established, driving and developing their businesses, these being chosen following a process of pilot studying of graduating students. 2. Review of Literature 2.1. Overview A number of researchers have attempted to consider factors such as gender, grade point average, duration and field of study and entrepreneurial family background as important factors affecting students perception and attitudes towards the prospect of new own business formation, and some of these factors clearly enhance or inhabit such tendency (Oakey, Mukhtar and Kipling, 2002). 2.2.Motivation Generation of start up ideas have been explored by a number of researchers. Opportunity recognition is dependent on whether the entrepreneur was extrinsically stimulated. A leading entrepreneurship text has recognised the â€Å"important implications for entrepreneurs who need to be creative in their thinking† and of the concept that creativity can be learned or enhanced (Timmons Spinelli, 2008). The three types of opportunities identification to the field of entrepreneurship as established by Sarasvathy, Dew, Velamuri, and Venkataraman (2003) are recognized, discovered and created. There are various motives to start a new venture. According to Amit, McCrimmon, Zietsma and Oesch (2001), money is important but not necessarily most important. They argue that some of the key non-monetary motives for starting up a business include the wish to be independent and the combination of work and household responsibilities. These start-up motives may have important consequences for the d egree of (over)optimism that characterizes (promising) entrepreneurs. For example, if an entrepreneur is mainly driven by wealth creation, it may be expected that (s)he is more likely to be disappointed if the turnover in the first year is relatively low. If the entrepreneur is driven by the wish to be independent, (s)he may be unpleasantly surprised by the strong reliance upon a limited number of clients or the bank. If the primary start-up motive is exploiting a perceived opportunity, the entrepreneur may be faced with other people who came up with the same idea or possibly an overestimated market demand for the (new) product. Gilad and Levine (1986), agreed in their analysis on intrinsic and extrinsic that there are discrimination between start-up motives. Intrinsic motives include the desire for independence and combining work with care for family members. Entrepreneurs who are driven by such motives will probably be less inclined to set unrealistically high pecuniary goals. Extrinsic motives include two categories: pull and push factors. An opportunity of perceived profit is an important pull factor of entrepreneurship, while (the threat of) unemployment is a well-known push factor. Regarding the exploitation of opportunities, As Hayward, Shepherd and Griffin (2006) argued, initiators of new ventures with overconfident will execute too much capital to the opportunities. If entrepreneurs are ‘blinded by their own ideas and fail to adequately assess the competition and the (potential) problems to transform the opportunity into a profitable venture, over optimism is around the corner. Those who under employment or unemployment, belief that creating new businesses promising more expected utility (Douglas Shepherd, 2000; Van Praag Cramer, 2001). 3. Methodology Gartner (1989) proposed that a common limitation of studies into the predictors of entrepreneurial intentions is the failure of investigators to choose samples that are (1) comprised solely of people who are serious about entrepreneurship and (2) who are in the process of making the decision to become involved in creating a new business. Krueger, Reilly and Carsrud (2000) find that studies comprising samples of upper-division college students can uncover job-related preferences at a time when respondents are struggling with important career decisions. Therefore, it is acceptable and appropriate to investigate entrepreneurial intent utilizing a sample of upper-class college students. (Brice and Nelson, 2008), it is important to note that the population of interest in their study consists of individuals who perceive that they will become entrepreneurs and not necessarily only those who will actually become entrepreneurs. This difference is significant because while actions has been dem onstrated to be predicted by intentions. Therefore, the focus of this research remains at the entrepreneurial intentions level of analysis. The sample chosen consists of postgraduate and undergraduate business degree program students who were nearing graduation. When students contemplate graduation, they may also develop immediate career plans and long-range goals. The respondents are those from the business disciplines because, based on their discipline interest, they have already decided to pursue business-related careers. For that reason, a homogeneous sampling of university college students was included in this study. This study sample consisted of 200 students from University Colleges in Malaysia who participated utilizing a structured questionnaire data collection methodology. Subjects consisted of final (3rd) year business undergraduates and final year Master of Business Administration (MBA) students in the concentrations of management. They were appropriate primarily because their academic concentration implied that they had serious interest in pursuing a business career. Based on literatures to establish the major impressions and domains associated with start up intentions, the researcher has gathered his own survey instrument with a series of 29 employment -self employment related motivational items that could be feasibly responded by students. The 7 main themes covered by the survey questions include firm and owner characteristics; interest to start-up; motivation to switch job if employed; career preferred timing and industry; medium for seeking employment: desire and prospect of rewards and opportunity; criteria of choosing employers. Many of the items overlapped conceptually, but one of the aims of the pilot study was to trim the study items after determining which preeminent represented the constructs. The researcher contacted students directly via targeted groups of respondents list originating from the Faculty of their academic major program. Responses were gathered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = â€Å"extremely undesirable† to 5 = â€Å"extremely desirable.† and total scale score was obtained by averaging the nine questions. Any items with a negative valence were reverse coded so that higher scores were indicative of favorable entrepreneurial -related motivations. Table 1, shows the hypotheses to be tested in this study. 4. Analysis and Results Students primary motivations to start-up were probed once all the related information from the respondents was entirely obtained. In order to establish instrument reliability, Cronbachs coefficient alpha was computed. The reliability coefficient was 0.71 which indicates that the instrument was reliable in its measurement of determinants for start ups. Information pertaining to each respondents age, gender, and expected salary was obtained to use as control variables in the analysis. Each of these control variables was recorded as non-continuous, categorical predictors. Then, data reduction technique is used to unfold the information embedded in the survey data. Hypothesis 1: Intention for independent business start-ups is higher than joining established firms After elimination of subjects with survey questionnaires were only partially completed, the final sample totalled 196 students. As shown in Table 2, this sample was equally represented between the genders, consisting of 107 (54.6%) males and 89 (45.4%) females. Subjects were primarily graduating undergraduate business students (65.8%) and graduating postgraduate students (34.2%). In fact, there were 129 bachelor degree students who aged below 25 years than MBA students who aged 26 and above. The majority of subjects were expecting salary between RM5001- RM15000 (56.2%) which is not in accordance or earnable with employment even in established firms. Students responses for exploring into entrepreneurial sector were gathered on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = â€Å"Very Keen† to 5 = â€Å"Not interested at all.† Since the mean, median and mode values are very close to each other, it shows the data is symmetrical. The mean for the 196 students is 2.08 with a standard deviation of 1.088. The Trimmed mean value of 2.01 is similar to the mean above. Hence, shows there are no outliers in the data set. In this survey, since the sample size is 196, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test is used. The p-value of the test is less than 0.001. Hence, the data is not distributed normal. Of the 196 students, 77 (39.3%) very enthusiastic towards start-ups, 52 (26.5%) eager to start-up, 46 (23.5%) open to any opportunity, and 16 (8.2%) to consider start-up option. Out of total, 5 (2.6%) prefer employment. Since the correlation value is within 0.5 to 0.8, start-up intention among degree students is said to correlate â€Å"adequately† with at least one other variables in the construct. In this survey, the KMO value is 0.819, which is considered good. Bartletts test of sphericity is used to analyse whether the correlation matrix is an identity matrix. Identity matrix can be ruled out if the p-value of the test is less than 0.05 (Karuthan and Krishna, 2009). In this model, since the p-value is less than 0.001, the researcher proceeds with factor analysis. Since the researcher wanted to study the underlying construct among the six variables: Curiosity, Interest, Consideration, Preparation, Setting Up and Start-up Timing. This is a single underlying concept; therefore, it is called the â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure†. Since the â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† varies from person to person, it is a variable too. However, it cannot be measured by physical means. Hence, it is called a latent variable or just factor. The model for â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† is given in Figure 4. In Figure 4, one can visualize six simultaneous regression functions: Curiosity, Interest, Consideration, Preparation, Setting Up and Start-up Timing as the dependents and â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† as the independent. Curiosity = L1 Ãâ€" â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† + e1 Interest = L2 Ãâ€" â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† + e2 Consideration = L3 Ãâ€" â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† + e3 Preparation = L4 Ãâ€" â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† + e4 Setting Up = L5 Ãâ€" â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† + e5, Start-up Timing = L6 Ãâ€" â€Å"Start-up Intent Structure† + e6 where Lis are called the factor loadings and eis are the error terms. Table 4.1, since there are 6 variables in this analysis, 6 components (or factors) are listed in the first column. The respective eigen values and percent of variance explained are provided in the next two columns. For Factor 1, the eigen value is 3.109 and the variance is 51.811% of the total variance. For factor 3, 4,5 and 6 the eigen value is less than the default value of 1. In the same table, under â€Å"Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings†, only two factors are listed, corresponding to the factors for which the eigen values is more than 1. Based on the cumulative % column, these factors explain 68.792% of the total variance in the 6 original variables. According to Karuthan and Krishna, (2009) established that, in social sciences, at least 50% of the total variance in the variables in analysis must be explained by the factor of factors. In this survey, a single factor extracted explains more than 50% of the total variance in the original variables. Hypothesis 2: Motivations to switch job if employed in established firms associated with independent business start-ups One way Analysis of Variance is used to test if there is a difference in means between motivation variables. Based on Kruskal Wallis Test (Table 5) for the mean ranks, obviously, the degreed students are looking for a more challenging career in terms of expanded scope of work, more responsibilities and change in career path rank much higher compared to the students who looking to join a more established and stable organisations. On the other hand, 82.20% students feel that they need to escape from unfavourable office working environment such as not happy with peers, bosses, office politics and etc. Table 3.1, supports students interest, whereby 97.4 cumulative percent and mean rank shown probability of considering the new business start-up. Table 6, the p-value for the Levenes test for equality of variance is 0.000, which is less than 0.05. Thus, equality of variances is not assumed. Table 7 depicts that the F-value is 3.933 and the degrees of freedoms are 7 and 188. A small F statistic implies that the difference between group means is small and, hence, it could be concluded that there is no difference between the group means. The p-value of the test is 0.000, which is less than 0.05 and the eta-squared value of 0.128, which is less than 0.15, hence, at least one pair of means differ significantly. Therefore there is a need to identify the pair that differs significantly. In this case nonparametric test is performed. Based on Kruskal Wallis Test, the p-value of this test is 0.000, which is less than 0.05. Thus, at least one reason differs in terms of motivation towards self-employment rather employment. From the mean of all motivation constructs, it could be argued that most students are keen to start their own business (mean rank 109.37) and the main motive for start-up rather than considering employment is looking for more challenging career (mean rank = 110.89), followed by working environment reasons (mean rank = 82.20) and the need for financial security (mean rank = 68.96). The researcher identified two types of potential entrepreneurs depending upon their purposes at the time of commencing the business: firstly self-regulating who placed high priority on not having to work for others, and secondly, â€Å"company-men who builds the organization. This research obtains interesting findings and makes important tri-party contributions for students as future entrepreneurs, for policy makers in large established companies and for the decision-makers or curriculum designers of universities. As the results have shown, the motivation that encourages students to start up a new business, their curiosity with the idea of the new business or the hard work they are willing to put in preparation stage of the new business, along with their start-up timing, are key in the start up of the new businesses. Observing this principle, the new businesses are formed not only by those graduates who can do it, however, by the graduates who to do it coupling with those who have the â€Å"acquired eagerness† to do that. However, policy makers in established companies need to ensure that their employees working in a conducive office working environment with focusing more on employee relationship management. That probably will prevent employees to switch job looking for favourable working environment which free of office politics. Within this framework, educators are playing a very important role. Recently, Malaysian universities and governmental bodies have made efforts which include courses on new venture creation, however, it is not sufficient since the subject is not practiced or implemented from the lowest levels of schooling. 4. Acknowledgements A special thanks is due to the Dean of Business and Accountancy Faculty without whose openness and candor this research would have been impossible.

Life Goes On in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart :: Things Fall Apart essays

Things Fall Apart and Life Goes On Achebe often centers on the conflicts of man within himself and with his culture. Things Fall Apart is no exception. Achebe’s story is about a strong man, Okonkwo, whose life is dominated by fear and anger. The fear of the main character, Okonkwo, is generated first by fear of failure and then by a fear of the unknown. The unknown in this story is the oncoming of the English into Africa. A religion is brought to the villages, and new ways of thinking arise. Overall, the African village Okonkwo knew and grew up in slowly begins to disappear. Okonkwo is not only afraid for himself but for his entire village. He is afraid that his culture will vanish and be forgotten by the younger generations. Achebe is able to show the reader his intentions at the very beginning of the book by including a quote from W.B. Yeats’ poem "The Second Coming": Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. Achebe lets the reader know from the beginning that Nigeria's rich cultural heritage is falling apart and that there will be no happy ending. The life of Okonkwo symbolizes the life and richness of the tribe and village. As the story progresses Okonkwo’s life begins to go downhill and so does that of the village. The story ends with the death of Okonkwo and the death of an entire civilization. The colonials have taken over the village; the children no longer believe in the old ways. Things fall apart and no one wants to put them back together. Life goes on with the invasion of the English, but never will it be the same. Achebe was born and raised in a large village in Nigeria. He was also educated in Nigeria. After a short career in radio, Achebe began to lecture abroad and settled for a while as an English professor at the University of Massachusetts.

Dramatic devices in “Romeo and Juliet” Essay

In this essay I will explain and show how Shakespeare makes the audience feel increasingly sympathetic towards Juliet in Act 3, Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet. This play is one of the most well known love stories in history. Shakespeare’s uses of dramatic devices cleverly create twists and tension throughout the entire play. Towards this climax Shakespeare uses the following events that build up to the scene. These are traditional/historical aspects of marriage and family loyalty; cross purposes (Romeos exit) dramatic irony and use of language. Before this scene there are several things that make us feel sympathetic. Juliet is 13 and is in the midst of all the action. She is helpless and Is unable to cope with it. This puts her under a lot of pressure. This makes us feel more sympathy as she has no comfort from her mother or farther Her relationship with her mother is very formal, she does this by addressing her mother â€Å"mistress† or lady. This shows her relationship with her mother is unlike a normal relationship, but more like a respectful relationships, this makes us feel sympathetic towards her as she cannot explain or tell her things. Juliet’s relationship with her nurse is more like a mother daughter relationship. Another reason to feel sympathetic towards Juliet is that her cousin Tybalt has been killed by her husband Romeo. This is a blow to Juliet as she slept with Romeo. I feel that this is a big factor to the build up towards act 3 scene 5. The traditional and historical aspects of this marriage and family loyalty also play a large role in the build up towards the climax. Juliet must abide by her parents rules in order to say in the house. This brings us onto the marriage, normally in this era in time, rich families arrange there children’s marriage so they can have more land and wealth. Juliet breaks this rule and marries Romeo. This makes us feel sympathetic as she has to hide the fact she has feelings towards Romeo. Just before this scene Romeo leaves for Verona; this makes us feel even more sympathetic towards her as she has lost her husband and has no idea of the day of his return. Shakespeare makes us feel sympathetic in this scene by making Juliet use ambiguous language like â€Å"Madam, I am not well.† This has two meanings – she’s either physically ill or love-sick (she’s missing Romeo). This makes us sympathetic towards her as being ill is generally not a pleasant thing to experience. Shakespeare makes us feel increasingly sympathetic in this scene as Lady Capulet says â€Å"Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?† This shows us Juliet is misunderstood by her family – this plays a part in making us feel sorry for her along with the fact that she has just lost her cousin brutally. In Act 3 Scene 5, we feel sorry for Juliet as she says â€Å"†¦Till I behold him -dead- is my poor heart.† The word ‘poor’ makes the readers obliged to feel sorry for her as it makes us feel she is suffering. This phrase is ambiguous – it can mean she will never be satisfied until her holds the killer of her cousin dead, or will never be satisfied because her ‘poor’ heart is dead. We feel sympathetic as she is being continually misunderstood – she does not want to hold the killer of her cousin dead, but her poor heart is dead because she misses Romeo. When Lady Capulet breaks the news of Juliet’s marriage to Paris, and Juliet rejects this, her mother passes her onto her father – like a burden or a ‘baggage’. We feel sympathy as she is not receiving love from her parents like we’d expect. We feel that she is neglected, unwanted and unloved. When Capulet is fuming over Juliet’s refusal to marry the ‘young and noble’ Paris, he calls her a tallow face and other words meaning pale and tells her that if she does not go to church on Thursday morning to marry Paris, he will drag her to church, similar to how a criminal would be dragged through the streets for doing a crime. He also calls her a ‘green-sickness’, a ‘tallow-face’ and ‘baggage’. This makes us very sympathetic towards her as we don’t expect a father to drag his own daughter through the streets like a prisoner, and to call her spiteful names. Near to the end, the Nurse changes her mind and advises Juliet to marry Paris; â€Å"I think it best you married†¦O, he’s a lovely gentleman!† Juliet feels betrayed and feels like the Nurse is a traitor. This action from the Nurse makes Juliet feel very alone. We sympathise with her as we feel sorry for her being all alone, we want to do something but we are powerless. Overall I feel that this scene gives most impact and makes us make  sympathetic towards Juliet’s most in the entire play due to its twists, it is also the epicenter of the play as it gives most effects. The scene was shocking enough with Juliet being attacked by her father but when her nurse turned on her, this was the turning point in the entire play.

Five Characters in a Comic Scene Essay

Analyzing works of arts does not depend solely on the formalistic approach—the style, the aesthetics, or the form. Most of the time, to give a better analysis, one resorts to the use of context and culture. Here, the work is seen through the eyes of the culture from which the work emerged. Thus, in visual art, the use of cultural narratives is considered as important as the formalist way of critiquing any visual material. â€Å"The Judgement of Paris† by Marcantonio Raimondi and the â€Å"Five Characters in a Comic Scene† by Leonardo da Vinci would be now subjected under analysis through the use of cultural narratives. These cultural narratives are the stories in each culture that suggest possible interpretations for paintings. Being ignorant with these narratives may provide the wrong or altered meanings the visual material wants to convey. It is significant that one holds a background on the culture and context of the artist, including the time frame and the visual symbols in the material. â€Å"The Judgement of Paris† and â€Å"Five Characters in a Comic Scene† both depict the same, certain culture—the Greek. While Raimondi’s work was clearly showing a scene from the rich and vast Greek mythology, Da Vinci was portraying his own interpretations regarding comic characters that were part of early Greek theatre. From this point, an analysis could already be drawn regarding the works. It should be noted that the two works are telling about the Greeks, its tradition and culture particularly. Thus, it could be concluded that the artists are aware of how rich their culture was. In fact, the materials are portraying the two of the leading and influential contribution of the Greeks in the world: their mythology and their theatre. â€Å"The Judgement of Paris† shows the high regards of the Greeks for their gods. The work also suggests that Greeks believe in the close interactions of gods with humans to so as to resolve a conflict or to further complicate it. Most of all, the work shows that Greek gods—Hera, Athena, Aphrodite—can perform offerings to a human. This may be opposite to other culture’s religion since gods never steps down from his position to ask a favour from a human. On the other hand, the â€Å"Five Characters in a Comic Scene† suggests a perception on Greek comical characters. The actors in a comedy were using masks to hide and to make their faces funny. However, with the work of Da Vinci, it could be concluded that the painter was trying to interpret Greek comical characters different from the way they look when wearing masks. The use of Da Vinci;s distorted faces of the five characters tell that Greek comedy is not as beautiful as it is perceived. The two works of art certainly show their similarities by sharing under the same culture. However, it should be noted that the two also have their differences. While â€Å"The Judgement of Paris† lies behind a cultural narrative that seems to be a celebratory of the Greek mythology and early religion, the â€Å"Five Characters I a Comic Scene† seems to be connected with a cultural narrative that criticizes the Greek comedy per se. Using cultural narratives of the Greeks, it was able to analyze â€Å"The Judgement of Paris† and â€Å"Five Characters in a Comical Scene†. By having a background in the Greek culture, it was possible to give the two materials a more focused interpretation. Clearly, the analysis shows that cultural narratives are important to get a more in-depth look and meanings from any work of art. References Greek and Roman Comedy. Retrieved on 9 June 2008. http://www. theatrehistory. com/ancient/comedy001. html Paris (mythology) – Paris’ childhood, The Judgment of Paris, Paris and the Trojan War, Paris in the arts. Retrieved on 9 June 2008. http://encyclopedia. stateuniversity. com/pages/16736/Paris-mythology. html