A key issue that was faced by the New Testament Church Essay Example for Free

A key issue that was faced by the New Testament Church Essay Examine a key issue that was faced by the New Testament Church (Prostitution). Could these arguments used in the first century be used by the Church of today for this problem? Prostitution is the performance of sexual acts solely for the purpose of material gain. Persons prostitute themselves when they grant favours to others in exchange for money, gifts or other payments and in so doing; use their bodies as commodities. In legal terms, the word prostitute refers only to those who engage overtly in such sexual-economic transactions, usually for a specific sum of money. Prostitutes may be of either sex, but throughout history, the majority have been women, reflecting both the traditional socio-economic dependence of women and the tendency to exploit female sexuality. Although prostitution has often been characterised as the worlds oldest profession, the concept of women as property, which prevailed in most centuries until the end of the nineteenth century, meant that the profits of the profession most often ended up in the hands of the men who controlled it. Men have traditionally been characterised as procurers and customers, but during the latter half of the twentieth century, they are increasingly being identified as prostitutes themselves, who generally serve male customers and sometimes impersonate women. The Torah (Law) had little to say on the subject of secular prostitution. It prohibited parents from dedicating their children as sacred prostitutes, but there is nothing to tell us whether its authors would have objected equally to the ideas of a master making his slave-woman a secular prostitute or even a father doing so with his daughter. There are two references to secular prostitution in the Old Testament, which offer any details as to how it was regarded. In both cases, an unmarried women is understood to have chosen this course of action on her own and thereby brought disgrace on her father. In one passage, a priests daughter who plays the harlot is condemned to be burned for having profaned her father (Leviticus 21:9). One may think that she is part of her fathers household, either as not yet married or as a divorced or widowed woman. Her activity threatens the state of purity vital to the household, since its food comes largely from the altar of the temple. In Deuteronomy (22:13-21) a man charges that his wife was not found to be a virgin on her wedding night. If this were true, she would be stoned for having played the harlot in her fathers house. In other words, she has engaged in sexual intercourse when she ought to have been guarding her virginity carefully in order to be a suitable bride. In the process, she has exposed her father to shame of having misrepresented her state in negotiating her marriage. It is not clear from the passage that she actually receives payment for her services; the point seems to be, rather, that she has deprived her father and her prospective husband of their rights in her. What was wrong with prostitution, from the perspective of ancient Israel, was not so much the giving or receiving of payment for sexual intercourse as it was the removal of sexual intercourse from the framework of property and hierarchy which normally contained it and ensured that it was placed at the service of the family. Such an interpretation is made explicit in a more extensive critique of prostitution found in Proverbs. After warning the reader against the wiles of the loose woman, the author contrasts the positive ideal of possessing a wife with a negative prospect of wasting ones resources on a courtesan (Proverbs 5:15-23). Having said that, one cannot treat wisdom literature as if it were the same genre as legislation. It is clear that Proverbs agrees with the Torah in understanding prostitution, as violation to Gods will, not merely as something to be avoided for prudential reasons. Still, the justification offered for the prohibition is intrusive as to the ethical framework in which the prohibition itself belonged. Prostitution was wrong because it stood outside the normal patriarchal system in which the male head of the household owned one or more women as sexual partners. As such, it threatened the interests of the family. The man might feel that he had received full value for his expense, but the family gained nothing at all from his patronising of the prostitute. His action, therefore was a betrayal of his responsibilities, since he existed not to gratify his own desires but to maintain and enhance the fortunes of his fathers house. What the Torah and Proverbs agree upon then is the condemnation of those who place personal gratification ahead of family duty. The Torah condemns the unmarried woman who prefers sexual pleasure above her obligations as a good daughter of the household who must preserve her marriageability, which is, indeed the familys investment in her. Proverbs condemns the man who spends family resources on private pleasure. He should marry a woman and be content with the sexual pleasure he receives from her. Proverbs was concerned to make the prostitute sound as unscrupulous and unattractive as possible. The Torah was speaking to the woman who was trying to behave as an unattached individual in pursuit of pleasure while still remaining under the protection of her father. According to the Torah, prostitution, though a slightly less serious crime than adultery, was wrong insofar as it represented the triumph of individual gratification over against the principle of subordination to the family. The matter of prostitution receives very little attention from the Gospel writers, but it appears in a significant pronouncement of Jesus. The tax collectors and the prostitutes, he said, were entering the Kingdom of God ahead of respectable religious leaders (chief priests and elders) because they believed the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt 21:23-32). Since John preached repentance (Matt 3:2) one may suspect that prostitutes ceased to be such when they came to believe the message. It proves difficult, however, to be certain. The tax collectors presumably did not cease to be tax collectors (In Luke 19:1-10, the tax collector Zacchaeus, upon his conversion, gave half of his property to the poor and made amends to those he has defrauded). A prostitute would have found it singularly difficult to emerge from her low place in the community. We know little about them in Jewish times. In the contemporary Gentile world, however, most of them were slaves, who could not legally abandon their status. Even free prostitutes, if poor, would have had only the most limited of options, since they would not have been acceptable as wives. Our own presuppositions, then, may perhaps dictate whether we think of these women as giving up prostitution or not. Luke 7:36-50 sees Jesus anointed by a public sinner. While she is not labelled as a prostitute, it is one conclusion that could be possibly said about her. Jesus accepts her intentions, contrasts them favourably with those of her host, the Pharisee, and finally says, Her sins, many as they are, are forgiven because she has loved much (7:47). This does not tell us what Jesus preferred prostitutes to do, but it does suggest that he did not make grace conditional on prostitutes escaping her place in society. The most significant thing is that Jesus held them up to the religious leadership as a model of repentance for them to follow, thus implying that the respectable are not unlike the prostitutes in respect to sin. Since Jesus held them up as a religious example, we may guess that although he took prostitution to be ethically wrong, he followed the example of Proverbs in appointing blame to the man who visited the prostitute more than to the prostitute herself. Paul has little to say about sexual ethics in his main doctrinal statement, the Epistle to the Romans, except the forceful identification of sexual immorality with humanities alienation from God (Romans 1:24-27). However, in his letters to the other churches he is forced to address the topic because of the behaviour of certain individuals in those churches, particularly at Corinth. The Christians at Corinth produced highly divergent interpretations of what the Gospel demanded in the way of sexual ethics, ranging from libertinism to a complete rejection of both marriage and sexual intercourse. It is probable that the libertine party at Corinth had adopted slogans such as All things are permitted and Food is for the belly and the belly for food (implying that sexual intercourse is as uncomplicated an expression of natural desire as eating is). Paul argues that the body of a Christian belongs to Christ. Therefore, all sexual expression, then, must take Christs ownership into account. Sex with a prostitute might seem to establish no relationship at all beyond the brief one required for the sanctification of desire. Paul claims that every sexual act between man and woman established a union of flesh, like that of marriage. In other words, the prostitute and the man, who has used her, actually belong to each other for the duration of their sexual intercourse, though not beyond. In Pauls own terminology, the relationship thus established is one body; but in the terminology of Genesis, it is a relationship of one flesh. Paul insisted that the man who had intercourse with the prostitute was not unchanged by that act. However, it was destructive of ones spirit; the relation to Christ and to God: Every sin that a person commits is outside the body, but the man who uses harlots is sinning against his own body. (1 Corinthians 18-20) It is evident that where Proverbs discourages a man from using prostitutes because he belonged to his family, Paul discouraged it because he belonged to God. The body, the person as a whole, is the spirits temple, into which other forms of worship must not be introduced. One might well ask, then, whether the implication of this line of reasoning is not, finally, to forbid sexual intercourse altogether.1 From whichever interpretation or opinion one adopts, as a Christian, or more to the point, as human beings, it should be understood that the use of prostitutes or the actual act of prostitution is both morally and ethically wrong. It is a sin against God, in that it undervalues the gift of love, through intercourse, given to us by God, and moreover, it shows a lack of respect for the body and minds of others. BIBLIOGRAPHY Cave, S The Christian Way, Nisbet and Company Limited, 1963 Countryman, L.W Dirt, Greed and Sex, Fortress Press, 1988 Hays, R.B The Moral Vision of the New Testament, Harper Collins Publishers, 1996 Manson, T.W Ethics and the Gospel, SCM Press Limited, 1960 1 Countryman, L Dirt, Greed and Sex p205

Developing Autonomy in Learning

Developing Autonomy in Learning Thinking of me as an educator or instructor, and entering in teaching profession is one of my dreams and goals of life. This time a graduate study is giving me the opportunity to explore my professional development in the field of teaching and education. Before entering to the first class of practicum, naturally I was feeling the burden of responsibilities in terms of thinking more critically about my objectives, actions and ethical ways of performing my duties within the context of my work as a preceptee. Interestingly, just before the beginning of the class I was asked by one of my facilitators that what will you do after MScN and getting training of an educator? My answer was â€Å"you are the inspiration for me and will walk on your steps†. The next comment that I received was â€Å"you may walk on my steps but what change will you make†? These comments squeezed my thoughts and motivated me to think of a change I may make and expect in the field of education through getting experience from the education practicum. Reflective practice is an integral part of teaching and learning. It helps in being honest to our selves, become aware of our surroundings and understands our own feelings. In this paper I am going to reflect on a wonderful experience of evaluating undergraduate students during double jump exam as a faculty, strategies to facilitate students’ anxiety during exam, and reflect on the purpose of double jump exam. It was challenging to assess students in limited time according to evaluation criteria that should be understood by faculty prior to assess. Since, I have to evaluate students as a faculty but, at that time I was having difficulty in getting into my role because I was realizing and feeling students’ anxiety within myself. I had to assess students and simultaneously to document their assessment findings at the same time. This was the most demanding work for me being honest and non-judgmental during evaluation. Students’ assessment and evaluation require inte nse preparation of self-management, control over your own beliefs and judgments, expectations and commitments towards students that articulate with the outcomes to be achieved. I encountered one student during the exam. He looked confident and well-prepared when he entered at history taking and health assessment station. I explained him the exam criteria and timings to complete the history taking and system assessment in 20 mins (10 mins for each) under the supervision of course faculty. When he started taking history from simulated patient, his physical appearance and way of asking questions from the patient depicted some physical and psychological symptoms of anxiety. He was feeling nervous, speaking very fast, shaking, going blank during history taking and health assessment. We did not interfere during his attempt thinking that he might be recalling therefore, he should not be distracted. After few minutes, the student verbalized that â€Å"mam sorry I am lost, I cannot concentrate, and I am feeling that I have forgotten everything†. This was the peak time where I didn’t have the authority to respond or intervene in this situation being pre ceptee. Moreover, due to time limitation of the double jump exam, the course faculty could not discuss the strategies to solve student situation with me. However, she counseled that student very positively, made him comfortable and gave 5 mins to list down the sequence of nervous system which he had to perform on the patient. The student made the sequence but even though he was unable to perform further and had withdrawn. Interestingly, the student performed very well in the next part which was identifying 3 medical diagnoses along with rationale and interpreting X-ray and ECG rhythm. This scenario was challenging in terms of facilitating student’s anxiety, justifying role and responsibilities as a faculty, and exhibiting non-judgmental attitude with other students. Faculty plays a pivotal role in addressing students’ stress during exam. Responding to students in stress or anxiety is often confusing and overwhelming. Some level of anxiety is productive in performing better in academia but non-productive stress or anxiety leads to failure (Burns, 2004). In this particular situation, there could be many reasons for having test anxiety and poor performance. The reasons could be lack of exam preparation, studying late night before exam, worrying about past performance, lack of confidence, fear of performing assessment on simulated patients, fear of faculty presence, and so forth (Birjandi Alemi, 2010). What I reflect throughout this exam is if I would have been in that situation as an invigilator, I would have allowed student to sit down and relax for 5 mins, and invigilate another student during that interval to save time; provided to use cue cards of health assessment to review since it was allowed to use it 3 times during the exam and there was no penalty or marks deduction. However, the student was not given chance to use cue cards which was questionable. The physical appearance of that student and his intellectual ability was revealing me that he has done his preparation but he was blank due to performance exam anxiety. Because, he performed outstanding job in making differential diagnosis, integrating lab values, and ECG and X-ray interpretation. If he would not have done his preparation, he would have flunked from the entire exam process. Course coordinator’s opinion could have been taken to facilitate student’s performance. Lastly, he could have given second chance to perform later as an exceptional case but it won’t be justified with other students who were prepared and performed on time. What is the purpose of double jump exam is very ambiguous to me. If it is to assess students’ interviewing skills, health assessment, and drawing clinical concept map than this is a part of their routine clinical practice that can be evaluated while caring for patients in the hospital setting. In contrast, the purpose of it is to evaluate critical thinking to identify patients’ clinical parameters and health issues. Therefore, they should have trained in hospital placement where they can analyze cardiac rhythms on monitor, identify ventilator parameters, monitor invasive lines according to patients’ pathological conditions, develop plan of care and treatment on real patients which is an actual experiential learning hence, is a goal to engage students in continuous learning and assessment process. The purpose of good academic assessment is to engage students in autonomous learning and to determine how to fuse theory and practice (Taylor, 1998). There will be no ex tra efforts required in terms of administration and arrangement of human and material resources to plan double jump test which is one of the lengthy and stressful assessment strategies for students. Moreover, it will also prevent from the duplication of assessment which is already a part of clinical learning goals and outcomes. Performing on simulated patients often doesn’t provide actual patients’ symptoms and medical problems to identify and intervene. Students usually get preoccupied in identifying and verbalizing normal findings so they prepare themselves accordingly. However, the purpose is to allow them to think critically and recognize patients’ actual medical problems. Therefore, in my perspective, this learning can be facilitated during clinical. Adult learners are responsible for their own learning. They are motivated when they are given autonomy of learning, ongoing facilitation and feedback from faculty. They require explicit instructions and appropriate responses from the faculty when they are flooded with stress and anxiety. Overall, this was a meaningful journey for me to experience the exam system from student’s and faculty’s perspectives.

Tni Or Training Need Indentifaction Commerce Essay

Tni Or Training Need Indentifaction Commerce Essay This is basically identified by the supervisor / manager as per the performance of the individual or the future plan of growth which has been charted.. But many organistaions who have a complete Performance Management System in place, fix the TNI upon mutual agreement with the concerned employee and supervisopr/manager in accordance with the goals determined and agreement upon for the next PMS cycle. Sometimes TNI is also fixed upon to improve an individuals performance/skill. There are so many ways for conducting a Training Needs Analysis, depending on the situation. Is it to lead in to a design of a specific purpose improvement initiative? Is it for managers to identify training and development needs of their individual staff during the performance appraisal cycle? Is it to devise a calendar of training courses? How best to conduct the analysis will depend on your answer to this question. In any case, determining training needs starts with a gap analysis the gap between what skills your employees have and what they need to move the business forward. We should use one or more of the following data sources: Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is an essential first step in management development. If we wish to achieve the greatest improvement in performance and best value from your investment in training, development, practical experience or networking, we should first undertake a comprehensive training needs analysis. This will form the basis for designing a cost effective management or talent development programme. Training needs analyses can incorporate a 360 ° feedback survey, or an analysis of current corporate needs. For senior individuals an intensive interview programme, including work shadowing can be justified. Design a TNA:- Before starting on a training needs analysis, it is desirable to carry out an audit of the current situation, desired changes in job or responsibility, and probable technological and organisational developments. This will provide the information needed to determine what is required of the individual, team or organisation. Then we can determine performance standards in terms of skills, contacts and practical experience. Simple questionnaires help us identify where individuals stand on a range of competences in management, corporate goverance and director behaviour, and corporate culture. Both the process of answering the questions, and the feedback will contribute to self awareness, especially if the results include contributions from line manager, peers and direct reports. The training need is the difference between the current performance and the required performance. 360 ° feedback surveys :- A 360 ° feedback survey helps the organisation obtain quality information about performance and relationships by posing a set of standard questions to an individuals line manager, peers and direct reports. This all around (360 °) approach identifies any variation of behaviour in different roles and minimises personal bias. Brefi group recommends that a 360 ° survey should precede any developmental coaching programme. When reviewing an individual it is often best to ask open questions such as: Keep doing:  What are the things which  name currently does which help you and which you hope (s)he will continue to do? Do more of:  What are the things you would like  name to start doing or do more of? Do less of:  What are the things which  name does which get in the way and which you would like to be done less often? Development needs:  What are the areas upon which you feel  name should really concentrate in order to improve the managerial performance of the organisation? You may wish to highlight aspects of how (s)he manages or specific objectives or accountabilities which you feel need attention. Personal strengths:  What do you see as the key strengths which  name brings to his/her job? This information can then be consolidated by an independent consultant and fed back in a relatively unattributed manner. However, for a larger or organisation-wide survey it is better to get numeric information that can be analysed and presented by computer. Brefi Group has developed two on-line TNA analysis programs for this purpose. BuddyCoach is a low cost on-line service for individuals the basic service is free. Using standard questions based on competencies in personal effectiveness, managing communications, managing people, effective directorship and corporate culture an individual can obtain an analysis of personal strengths and development needs. For a small charge up to ten others line manager, peers and direct reports for instance can be invited to comment too. The graphical results contrast the results from the different categories of feedback and also compare them with the norm for our international database. For each competence result there are suggestions of how to improve. CorporateFeedback is a powerful tool for organisations to identify individual and corporate training needs. It is a fully customisable on-line 360 ° feedback program which draws on a reservoir of independently benchmarked competencies for managers and directors. The software is hosted on our servers but can be fully integrated into the website or intranet within a template of your design. CorporateFeedback offers a choice of job role, that can either be specified by the client or draw on our standard list. Within each job role there is a choice of modules, such as managing people or managing finance. Again, these can be specified by the client or draw on our existing selection. Each module comprises a number of competencies. Brefi Group has evolved a large selection of competencies, many based on international standards. Clients can draw on these and also include specific competencies relevant to their own organisation. Each competence is represented by four statements which are included randomly in the questionnaires with options to agree or disagree. The results are presented graphically, with options for department heads and HR departments to view consolidated results and for learning recommendations to be included within each category. Personal interviews Personal interviews by a trained interviewer who is independent of the organisation is a means of obtaining high quality information about an individual or members of a team. Not only can the interviewer collect standard information, but he/she can ask penetrating questions to identify the reasons for the feedback. The information can be fed back to the subject in a non-attributable manner, but with much more information, including not only actual quotes but theappropriate voice tone and emphasis of the original quote. If the interviewer is also commissioned to coach the individual or team, this quality information will ensure that real issues are properly dealt with. Work shadowing Work shadowing involves a coach spending time with an individual while he or she is carrying out their normal work. The coach sits in on meetings and observes the individuals behaviour in different circumstances. Feedback can then be immediate, or compiled into a formal report. The instant feedback is a valuable part of the coaching process. Conventional training is required to cover essential work-related skills, techniques and knowledge. Importantly however, the most effective way to develop people is quite different from conventional skills training, which lets face it many employees regard quite negatively. Theyll do it of course, but they wont enjoy it much because its about work, not about themselves as people. The most effective way to develop people is instead to  enable learning and personal development, with all that this implies. So, after covering the basic work-related skills training,the focus should be on   enabling learning and development for people as individuals   which extends the range of development way outside traditional work skills and knowledge, and creates far more exciting, liberating, motivational opportunities for people and for employers. Rightly organisations are facing great pressure to change these days to facilitate and encourage whole-person development and fulfilment beyond traditional training. As with this website as a whole, this training guide is oriented chiefly around whats good for people, rather than chiefly whats profitable for organizations. The reason for this is that in terms of learning, training and development, whats good for people is good for the organizations in which they work. Whats good for peoples development is good for organizational performance, quality, customer satisfaction, effective management and control, and therefore profits too. This is central to a fairly balanced  Psychological Contract  in employment organizations. Profit is an  outcome  of managing and developing people well. People and their development enable profit. Enable people and you enable profit. Organizations which approach training and development from this standpoint inevitably foster people who perform well and progress, and, importantly, stay around for long enough to become great at what they do, and to help others become so. Training is a very commonly used word, but  learning  is in many ways a better way to think of the subject, because learning belongs to the learner, whereas training traditionally belongs to the trainer or the organization. Training should be about  whole person development   not just transferring skills, the traditional interpretation of training at work. Whatever your role and responsibility, you might not immediately be able to put great new emphasis on whole person development. Being realistic, corporate attitudes and expectations about what training is and does cannot be changed overnight, and most organisations still see training as being limited to work skills, classrooms and powerpoint presentations. However, when you start to imagine and think and talk about progressive attitudes to developing people beyond traditional skills training for example: enabling learning facilitating meaningful personal development helping people to identify and achieve their own personal potential then you will surely begin to help the organisation (and CEO) to see and accept these newer ideas about what types of learning and development really work best and produces class-leading organizations. Training is also available far beyond and outside the classroom.  More importantly, training or learning, to look at it from the trainees view is anything offering learning and developmental experience.  Training and learning development includes aspects such as: ethics and morality; attitude and behaviour; leadership and determination, as well as skills and knowledge. Development isnt restricted to training its anything that helps a person to grow, in ability, skills, confidence, tolerance, commitment, initiative, inter-personal skills, understanding, self-control, motivation and more. If you consider the attributes of really effective people, be they leaders, managers, operators, technicians; any role at all,  the important qualities which make good performers special are likely to be attitudinal. Skills and knowledge, and the processes available to people, are no great advantage.  What makes people effective and valuable to any organization is their attitude. Attitude includes qualities that require different training and learning methods. Attitude stems from a persons mind-set, belief system, emotional maturity, self-confidence, and experience. These are the greatest training and development challenges faced, and there are better ways of achieving this sort of change and development than putting people in a classroom, or indeed by delivering most sorts of conventional business or skills training, which people see as a chore. This is why training and learning must extend far beyond conventional classroom training courses. Be creative, innovative, and open-minded, and you will discover learning in virtually every new experience, whether for yourself, your team, or your organization. If you want to make a difference, think about what really helps people to change. All supervisors and managers should enable and provide training and development for their people training develops people, it improves performance, raises morale; training and developing people increases the health and effectiveness of the organization, and the productivity of the business. The leaders ethics and behaviour set the standard for their peoples, which determines how productively they use their skills and knowledge. Training is nothing without the motivation to apply it effectively. A strong capability to plan and manage skills training, the acquisition of knowledge, and the development of motivation and attitude, largely determines how well people perform in their jobs. Training and also  enabling learning and personal development   is essential for the organisation. It helps improve quality, customer satisfaction, productivity, morale, management succession, business development and profitability. Use these tools and processes to ensure that essential work-related skills, techniques, and knowledge are trained, but remember after this to concentrate most of your training efforts and resources on  enabling and facilitating meaningful learning and personal development for people. There is no reason to stop at work-related training. Go further to help people grow and develop as people. Induction Training is especially important for new starters. Good induction training ensures new starters are retained, and then settled in quickly and happily to a productive role. Induction training is more than skills training. Its about the basics that seasoned employees all take for granted: what the shifts are; where the notice-board is; whats the routine for holidays, sickness; wheres the canteen; whats the dress code; where the toilets are. New employees also need to understand the organisations mission, goals and philosophy; personnel practices, health and safety rules, and of course the job theyre required to do, with clear methods, timescales and expectations. Managers must ensure induction training is properly planned an induction training plan must be issued to each new employee, so they and everyone else involved can see whats happening and that everything is included. These induction training principles are necessarily focused on the essential skills and knowledge for a new starter to settle in and to begin to do their job.. An organisation needs to assess its peoples skills training needs by a variety of methods and then structure the way that the training and development is to be delivered, and managers and supervisors play a key role in helping this process. Peoples personal strengths and capabilities   and aims and desires and special talents (current and dormant)   also need to be assessed, so as to understand, and help the person understand, that the opportunities for their development and achievement in the organisation are not limited by the job role, or the skill-set that the organisation inevitably defines for the person. As early as possible, let people know that their job role does not define their potential as a person within or outside the organisation, and, subject to organisational policy, look to develop each person in a meaningful relevant way that they will enjoy and seek, as an individual, beyond the job role, and beyond work requirements. If possible top-up this sort of development through the provision of mentoring and facilitative coaching (drawing out not putting in), which is very effective in producing excellent people. Mentoring and proper coaching should be used alongside formal structured training anyway, but this type of support can also greatly assist whole-person development, especially where the mentor or coach is seen as a role-model for the persons own particular aspirations. Its important that as a manager you understand yourself well before you coach, or train or mentor others: Are your own your own skills adequate? Do you need help or training in any important areas necessary to train, coach, mentor others? What is your own style? How do you you communicate? How do you approach tasks? What are your motives? These all affect the way you see and perform see the training, coaching or mentoring role, and the way that you see and relate to the person that your are coaching, or training, or mentoring. Your aim is to help the other person learn and develop not to create another version of yourself. When you understand yourself, you understand how you will be perceived, how best to communicate, and how best to help others grow and learn and develop. And its vital you understand the other persons style and personality too how they prefer to learn do they like to read and absorb a lot of detail, do they prefer to be shown, to experience themselves by trial and error? Knowing the other persons preferred learning style helps you deliver the training in the most relevant and helpful way. It helps you design activities and tasks that the other person will be more be more comfortable doing, which ensures a better result, quicker.   Many organizations face the challenge of developing greater confidence, initiative, solutions-finding, and problem-solving capabilities among their people. Organisations need staff at all levels to be more self-sufficient, resourceful, creative and autonomous. This behaviour enables staff can operate at higher strategic level, which makes their organizations more productive and competitive. Peoples efforts produce bigger results. Its what all organizations strive to achieve. However, while conventional skills training gives people new techniques and methods, it wont develop their maturity, belief, or courage, which is so essential for the development of managerial and strategic capabilities. Again, focus on developing  the person, not the skills. Try to see things from the persons (your peoples) point of view. Provide learning and experiences that theyd like for their own personal interest, development and fulfilment. Performance and capability are ultimately dependent on peoples attitude and emotional maturity. Help them to achieve what they want on a personal level, and this provides a platform for trust, emotional contracting with the organisation, and subsequent skills/process/knowledge development relevant to managing higher responsibilities, roles and teams. 2.Examining training in large municipalities: linking individual and organizational training needs. By Willow Jacobson Ellen V. Rubin Sally Coleman Selden    |   Ã‚  Public Personnel Management     Winter, 2002 Both practitioners and academics in the private, not-for-profit, and public sectors are increasingly focusing attention on organizational and  human resource  management  performance. An important component or predictor of government performance is  its  training  infrastructure. It helps organizations recruit and retain workers, as well as ensure that workers have the requisite skills and opportunities to perform in their current and future positions. Training is a direct means of developing individuals, and subsequently organizational capacity. This capacity, in turn, is linked to overall organizational performance. This article utilizes data collected as part of a national study of local, state, and national governmentthe Government Performance Project. Specifically, it focuses on training in the largest municipalities in the United States. First, this article briefly reviews the existing research on training, demonstrating the need for a holistic examination of training in the public sector. Second, using data from the Government Performance Project, it describes the nature of training in 33 of the 35 largest cities in the United States. Finally, drawing upon what was learned through survey questions and personal interviews with city officials, this article presents a training model that integrates employees, the organization, and the environmental context in which employees and the organization operate. A recurring discussion in the training literature relates to the categorization of trainingmanagement training, technical training, and skills of an aging workforceand the inclination on the part of scholars is to limit their research to a particular type of training. As responsibility for the delivery of public sector goods and services is passed down to local governments, understanding the opportunities and mechanisms for developing employees becomes increasingly more important. With this delegation of responsibility come expectations that local government employees will deliver an increasing range of services. The need to provide additional services corresponds to a need to train employees for the delivery of extended services. Furthermore, in an increasingly competitive job market, it is essential that governments explore training as both an opportunity to retain employees and as a means to attract and develop new employees. This article is designed to fill the gap of knowledge about training in local governments by examining and discussing training for all employees and managers. In addition, this article will look at the relationship between different measures related to training and the environment. Finally, based upon data collected and analyzed, we develop a framework that can be used to guide government planning and training analysis. The human  resource  management  survey instrument contained a series of multi-part, open-ended questions designed to yield information about a given citys training system. The survey instrument was designed and pretested in four states, four local governments, and four federal agencies in 1997. Based on this pilot study, the instrument was revised and streamlined to focus as directly as possible on the evaluation criteria for human resource management. After completing a survey of 50 states in 1998, the survey was revised. Training need identification:- Some cities track employees training records centrally, while others assign this responsibility to individual agencies in which employees work. Specifically, in 76.0 percent of cities, the central personnel department keeps records of individual employee training, and in 66.6 percent, individual departments keep records. Records kept by the central office were computerized more frequently (82.6 percent) than those kept at the department level (50.0 percent). Computerized records allow managers and policy makers easier access for planning and analysis. Having a training catalog on the Web can make it easier for employees to stay up-to-date with course offerings. Honolulu and Jacksonville are two cities that provide online training catalogs. Finally, cities may offer incentives to encourage training. Other incentives for obtaining training are the rewards employees receive for completion. The GPP identified five possible rewards for training: class certification, college credit, recognition by supervisor(s), meal (ceremony), and skill pay. Rewards for training can motivate employees to not only seek, but complete training. Despite their potential positive impact, the survey results show that less than a third of cities offer rewards for completing training  explored a series of bivariate relationships between training-related measures and environmental factors including unionization, workforce planning, and workforce age. Unionization and workforce planning are significantly associated with diversity of training opportunities and training capacity. Monetary encouragement is significantly associated with average workforce age; however, the nature of this relationship is negative.   While the data is useful in providing information about the array of courses offered and a broad sense of the training environment structure, it offers limited insights about the quality of course offerings or the extent to which training meets the strategic needs of the government. As a result, this article develops a framework that structures our understanding of training from both the individual employee perspective and the organizational perspective. The model clarifies how the organizations training structure represents two distinct components and how these components may be prioritized. Strategic Systems Training Model: An Integrated Approach The Strategic Systems Training Model (SSTM) is based on the premise presented by Abraham Maslows A Theory of Human Motivation (1943) in which he describes a hierarchy of needs: when a foundational need is met, a more complex need emerges that an individual strives to fulfill. It is the emerging tension that motivates employees. Maslows model is based on the assumption that all individuals have needs that underlie their motivational structure, and as a lower level need is fulfilled, that need no longer drives behavior. However, a new higher order need becomes the source for motivation. (22) Component 1: The Individual Employee Using Maslows model as a starting point, he argues that humans have individual motivational structures. We take a similar approach and argue that individuals have individual training structures. In Maslows model, individuals are motivated at the most basic level by physiological needs that include their basic survival needs. In the individuals training structure, the most basic level of need is training on minimal occupational skills needed for basic employment survival. Depending on the individual, this may be basic literacy training or basic computer training. As shown in Figure 1, as an individual moves up the hierarchy, his or her motivation becomes more refined and specific. Similarly, as public sector employees progress through the training hierarchy of needs, the training requested becomes more advanced and specialized. n Maslows model, individuals still need to fulfill lower-level needs as they progress up the hierarchy. The training model begins to deviate from Maslows model at this point. Basic training does not need to be continually re-taught as more advanced training is undertaken, but the basic skills gained through previous training do need to be maintained. An individuals training structure is the  blueprint  for the training the individual needs to build his or her capacity, based upon the foundation of skills and training the person has already received. Component 2: The Organization An organization, like an individual, has its own training structure based on its needs and the skills of its workforce. (23) The training structure for an organization is made up of its employees, who bring their own training structures. Employees fill the layers within an organization; the organization needs to be aware of an employees current level of need and train him or her accordingly. The organization must also consider how the different needs and skills of its employees fit within the overall needs and mission of the organization. An organization that works to train all employees at the most basic level can then shift resources to other areas of training the organization needs to prosper. Furthermore, an organization must reconcile the obligation of meeting the training needs of its individual employees with its responsibility to develop an organizational training structure that suits its overall needs. An organization with a strategic focus advances and develops through its acquisition of new human capital and the development and training of its current human capital. The diversity of employees training needs means that an organization has to carefully plan its training structure to train employees at the appropriate level according to both individual and programmatic needs, which requires a more holistic understanding of how employees fit into the largerorganizational  structure  and how that employee contributes to the accomplishment of the organizations mission. Matching employees to training levels actually results in the separation of the organizational training structure into two training sub-structures or components: one that focuses on training managers and the other that focuses on general training. These two components are then treated as separate but interactive pieces of the organizations training structure. They can be prioritized and developed differently. The priority that one component may receive over the other is often due to limited resources, training philosophy, or other contextual factors. In an ideal system, both compone nts receive attention. In reality, one part is often prioritized over another due to budget constraints and other limited resources. This prioritization often relates to greater philosophical and contextual factors (see Figure 2). For example, cities that believe in succession planning, or filling management positions with people that have worked their way up through government, are more likely to focus their attention on the bottom triangle, expecting employees who complete those  training  courses to later progress into management positions. Thus, they want to advance the individual within that individuals training structure because they will take those skills to their next positions. This type of city is likely to prioritize the general training component. Cities that place a priority on the manager training structure might feel that trained managers transfer information to employees, so general training is not as important. This notion implies that managers act as trainers for employees, and as a result, fewer formal courses may be offered to general employees. This could lead to a less-developed training program. The transfer of training through informal networks does not allow for formal record keeping of an employees progress, thus making it difficult for the organization to accurately plan organizational training that meets individuals needs. Another explanation for the focus on the manager component could be justified by cities that are undertaking massive change; the priority may be to familiarize managers with changes so they can help transition the organization. Research has demonstrated the significance of the environment on organizational structure and behavior These examples demonstrate this significance by presenting factors that are outside the organizations training structure, yet have a serious impact on how the training system operates. The influence of these contextual factors on the training system are included as important explanatory factors in this model. This model serves two purposes in the planning process. First, it allows planning for individual training needs, and second, it allows planning at the organizational level. This second purpose is multidimensional, including the individuals that make up the organization, the capacity they bring to the organization, and how this interacts with meeting the future goals of the organization Conclusion:- This article presented a picture of training in 33 city governments, as well as key relationships that help us to understand training capacity, both overall and in relation to some of its key components. Cities offer a range of courses to general employees, ranging from the most basic to more advanced skills. Interestingly, fewer cities offer basic training than a more specialized set of training courses Finally, this article provides a model that helps to conceptualize individual training structures an

Standardized Testing Essay examples -- Standardized Testing Essays

Standardized Testing Every year thousands upon thousands of children, ages seven and upwards sit down to take their scheduled standardized tests. This generation has been classified as the most tested in history. 'Its progress through childhood and adolescence' has been 'punctuated by targets, key stages, attainment levels, and qualifications' ('Stalin in School' 8). Each year the government devises a new standard and then finds a way to test how each student measures up to this standard. They have come to the conclusion that the easiest way to chart the success of school reform is to follow the results of standardized testing. But rating education strictly by the numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex as learning, and teaching kids how to memorize facts and remember dates is an altogether different achievement from teaching them how to make sense out of new ideas and experiences. This system of testing currently used is based on academic standards. These academic standards are clearly written expectations of what every child should know and be able to do at specific grade levels. They usually only test the core school subjects such as math, science, language arts, and social studies. For example, 'in Wisconsin, the standards were written for English/Language Arts, Math, Social Studies and Science at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels' ('Standards and Assessments Q&A'). These standards are usually written by educators, and parents serving on special committees and sometimes by commercial test makers. However, as you will see these standards do not cover true learning. True learning involves teaching the students to think logically and form their own conclusions based on facts and inferences, not memorization and regurgitation of facts. These facts would be useless to the students if they were not able to use logic to connect these facts and make educated decisions. Nevertheless, the core school subjects do not include this. According to Brady, ?School subjects are just convenient organizers of information. As all effective teachers know, the real challenge isn't to stuff kids' heads with secondhand information, but to teach them to think, to draw inferences, generate hypotheses, formulate generalizations, explore systemic relationships, make defensible value judgments, and so on.? Education is not about how well a student can me... ...terns, evaluate situations, and make inferences and logical decisions based on facts and observations. And furthermore rating education and a student?s progress strictly through numbers is the wrong way to measure a process as complex and intricate as learning. Works Cited Brady, Marion. 'Not-yet-answered questions about standardized testing.' Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service 28 Jan. 2003: K. Clarke, Kevin. 'Why students are feeling so testy.' U.S. Catholic July 2000: 27. Gallagher, Tom. 'The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools.' The Progressive Aug. 2001: 44. 'How Standardized Testing Damages Education.' FairTest: The National Center for Fair and Open Testing. Moon, Tonya, Catherine Brighton, Carolyn Callahan. ?State standardized testing programs: friend or foe of gifted education? (On Gifted Students in School).' Roeper Review Wntr 2003: 49. Morse, Jodie. 'To Test and Test Not.' Time 6 Oct. 2000. 27 Mar.2003.   Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   'Stalin in School.' New Statesman 17 June 2002: 8. 'Standards and Assessments Q&A.' Advocates for Education of Whitefish Bay.2002. 27 Mar.2003. < http://www.fairtest.org/arn/wislet.html>.

Placing the Blame in Macbeth Essay -- Macbeth essays

Placing the Blame in Macbeth    The blame for the tragedy of Macbeth must be apportioned between the three witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself.    The three witches play a very important role in affecting the actions of Macbeth with their ability to steer him in the direction they desire. They not only use their supernatural powers but also prey on his greed and ambition.    All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! All hail Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter!    These predictions are effective in attracting Macbeth's attention because they feed off his desire for what they promise. At this point in the play he is the newly appointed thane of Glamis. Immediately after the predictions, news arrives that he is to be thane of Cawdor. Macbeth cannot help but wonder whether the third prediction will come true or not. Banquo says that the forces of darkness use the truth to win us to harm but Macbeth's ambition makes him unwilling to believe this.    There is an ambiguity in Macbeth - do the witches represent inevitable fate, and is there in this instance the triumph of the forces of darkness, or does Macbeth have free will? If the responsibility for his actions rests with him and him alone, it may be argued that it is his weakness and his ambition that matter. His weakness lies in allowing himself to be bullied and shamed by Lady Macbeth into the murder of his king and guest.    Macbeth Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may become a man, who dares do more is none. Lady Macbeth What beast was't, then That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it then you were a man; And, t... ...f the above, Macbeth is ambiguous about whether we have free will or are controlled entirely by fate. In the play, even though we see Macbeth changing his mind about whether to kill Duncan, he eventually does as the witches foretold; in addition all their other pronouncements came true. This veers more or less towards the idea of fate. If fate is unchangeable and the witches are acting only as messengers, the blame for the tragedy can not be attributed to the witches, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. However, the witches also say about the sailor they are tormenting    Though his bark cannot be lost Yet it shall be tempest tossed    This implies that the witches have only limited powers and can only direct people within certain limits. If this is the case, then we must see that Macbeth's ambition and moral cowardice are responsible for his tragedy.

Racism in Philosophy of Hume and Kant Essay

During the Age of the Enlightenment in European history there was high emphasis on the ideals of reason and individualism. Scientists and philosophers pushed reason as an ultimate guideline to reforming society and challenging its old traditions and faith. This was the philosophers’ attempts to further advancing our knowledge through scientific method. Things like skepticism and intellectual interchange were highly promoted during this period. The true way to gain rational thought was through the process of using logic to make tests and conclusions out of clear evidence rather than superstitious ideas. There are two important enlightenment thinkers, David Hume and Immanuel Kant who despite their high praise of reason and logic, share clearly racist views in their philosophies. Could these two enlightened thinkers actually be capable of contradicting their entire philosophy or could it just be pure ignorance? We are going to discuss what sort of racist views Hume and Kant share and how they possibly created the idea of racial differences. First we must discuss what the idea of reason truly is and what it has to do with human thought. Reason is ultimately what separates us human beings from animals. Animals physically cannot express reason. Reason is the mental capacity to be able to make sense of something. It is how we are able to apply logic to help create facts. Understanding of academics like math, science, and philosophy are attributes only humans possess. The ability to understand and appreciate art and beauty are examples of reason that animals have never shown. Animals may show desire for certain things, but that is not the same as appreciating the beauty of it. David Hume believes that all human beings share similar moral feelings. He does however believe that animals can feel sympathy which is one of the essential foundations of morality. Hume also believes that morality is entirely independent of religion and that morality is found deep in true human nature itself. He states that the belief in God is irrelevant to morality. This is similar to Immanuel Kant’s belief in human autonomy. He believes that human beings have their own free will and can think independently without being governed. Humans can be moral and free without the need of God’s divine support. Hume and Kant believe we have a right to faith but also in the possibility that it limits knowledge to make room for faith. They believe we can have faith in ourselves and be governed by reason rather than our animal impulses. The racism of Hume and Kant are most definitely reflected in their philosophic views. Hume believes in the idea of causation, which is the understanding between two events (one being the cause, the other being the effect) that the second event is always the consequence of the first event. Hume whole-heartedly believes that Europe is the model of all humanity and culture, that blacks are an inferior race. He considers their supposed inferiority to whites to be natural. He states that he has never witnessed any black manufacturers, artists, or scientists and that they are simply a barbaric breed of man. Hume falls into a fatal error of his own causality by saying that there is a causal relation between a person’s skin color and their intelligence. He is identifying that simply the color of one’s skin makes a constant difference between two races of men. This is horribly contradictory and morally wrong. Kant, despite all of his beliefs in that all humans can understand morality and reason, he singles out blacks as totally inferior in these very human attributes. Kant has actually dismissed a person’s statement and position as stupid without a moment of analyzing the content because the person was black. This is extremely contradictory to the sorts of logic and reason a true philosopher should have when regarding any human being whether white or black. The two philosophers show a huge lack in open-mindedness when it comes to anyone non-white. The supposed racial differences that Hume and Kant seem to believe there are have no real proof or logic behind them. This is truly ignorant of both Hume and Kant and it’s surprising that two important philosophers in history could actually believe in ideas that are so close-minded and completely illogical. There is simply no morality or rational thinking behind these false judgments. Kant stating that he has never seen black artists or scientists just sounds like he hasn’t looked beyond his backyard window. Although Kant does indeed believe that all humans are born free and that level of intelligence does not determine who deserves to be a slave to another. Despite this positive belief, he still believes blacks are inferior. As intelligent as their ideas of sharing knowledge for the advancing of mankind sound at first, it is truly sad that they are only speaking for one single race rather than ‘all’ human beings equally. Their racism does indeed cast much doubt on their Enlightenment understanding on what a person was. There should not be such a disregard for the possibility of equal opportunity among all human beings. Peoples’ idea of race is purely subjective and there really are no significant differences. The only true racial differences are geographical. Skin color has nothing to do with one’s mental capacity and ability. Works Cited Denis, Lara. â€Å"Kant and Hume on Morality. † Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University, 26 Mar 2008. Web. 7 Mar 2014. . Maduka, Enyimba. â€Å"Racism and Philosophy. † Racism, Philosophy, and African Thought . izuchukwu, 20 Apr 2005. Web. 10 Mar 2014. .

Appearance of Pre-Hispanic Filipinos Essay

The natives of the Philippine islands already wore different types of clothing and ornaments before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. The men usually wore short-sleeved, collarless jackets that reached just below the waste. The jackets were also symbols of their status in the community. The chief usually wore red, for example. The bahag was worn for the lower part. It is a strip of cloth wrapped around the waist which passes between the things, leaving the thighs and legs exposed. A head gear or a putong is a piece of cloth wrapped around the head. This is also important like the color of the jacket. A red putong meant that the wearer has already gone to war and killed an enemy. An embroidered putong meant that the wearer has killed at least seven enemies. Adornments such as necklaces, armlets or kalombiga, anklets, earrings and rings were also worn. These were usually made of gold and other precious stones. Women also wore sleeved jackets called baro and skirts called saya or patadyong. Women fancied wearing ornaments as well such as gem-studded bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and rings. Tattoos Tattoos played an important part in the appearance of pre-Hispanic Filipinos both for the men and women. Tattoos were considered to be the equivalent of medals, one had to work for and earn it. The more tattoos a person had, the more impressive was his or her war record. The Visayas was known to be the Islas del Pintados or Islands of the Painted People because it was the there that the early Spanish colonizers observed very tattooed people and Spanish writers referred to them as the pintados, meaning â€Å"painted†.